Proformz Pre-Runner Explorer Project Build!! | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Proformz Pre-Runner Explorer Project Build!!

Myself and a friend have been planning a pre-runner project for a good while now, and after spending the last few desert seasons with mostly stock 4x4’s, we finally got it started! I’ve seen some great how-to’s and excellent product reviews that have been invaluable on the forums here helping to get us started on our build, so I thought it would be cool to document and throw up some pics of the progress of the project, and hopefully it will be useful to others in the future!

Some basic goals: We’re looking for about 325-350HP from the 302, 14-18 inches of wheel travel in the front, 12-14 in the rear (for now anyways). We have a countless list of other details to round everything out, but for now it’s all about getting the big stuff knocked out.

A couple months back, we found a good base vehicle with the characteristics we were looking for. The goal was to find a decent running, original, and corrosion free truck. I know that’s rare, but that’s why it pays to shop around until you find what you’re looking for! We ended up making a pretty good deal on our project, we found a ’96 XLT V8 2WD for about $1,300 bucks. It had 228K on the odometer, but was running great and was extremely clean and complete. It was definitely well cared for, and the drive train had never been rebuilt.

The main steps will be to rebuild the drive-train, modify the body for the suspension, install the suspension, then we will be doing some various mods like roll cage, full vinyl wrap, custom stereo install, HID lighting etc..

The first step was to pull out that tired 302 for a fresh rebuild and give it some love in the HP department. It was really cool to see that the cylinders all still had a nice crosshatch and the compression was still good at a quarter of a million miles! We removed the front body panels, and sprayed the inner wheel wells, engine bay, and fender supports with bed liner material to protect from all the debris and rocks that will be thrown up in there soon.

I’ll be posting updates as the project rolls along, your comments and questions are welcome, and helpful advice is well appreciated! Below are some pictures of our project truck as it arrived, pulling the engine, and applying the bed liner material before and after pics…

Ex_arrives.jpg


Engine_Bay_Before.jpg


Engine_Bay_1st_Removed.jpg


Inner_Fender_Before.jpg


Inner_Fender_After_Paint.jpg
 



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Would love to go with a fabbed spindle, would that be used with the standard BTF kit? or would the kit need to be fabbed/modded too?

The kit im running from BTF is his big dog kit i guess you could say. 1.5" lower uniballs, 1" vertical upper. Hiem steering, etc etc. Its on par with any other kit out there and is far cheaper.

Base kit is uniball upper and ball joint lower and uses a fabtech or other aftermarket spindle. Includes upper and lower arms, steering extenders, brake lines, and limit straps. it runs $1800.

Big dog kits is the full fabbed spindle with huge 1.5" uniball and 1" upper. Includes upper and lower arms, full hiemed steering, d35 hubs, snouts, rotors, calipers, brake lines and limit straps. It runs for $3500
 



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cool build!
 






They are stock GT-40 heads (non "P"). Aluminum would be nice mainly for the weight savings, but the overall cost of the project calls for some give and take, and the stock heads on these motors can actually perform really well with some decent air flow so we opted to spend the money elsewhere.

We want the interior to remain somewhat stock. There will be a roll cage fabbed, racing seats, the floor rhino lined, rear shock mount cage, spare mounts, racks etc... so "stock" is a pretty relative term. The audio system is going to be done mainly for promotional demonstration on some products we manufacture (custom 6 1/2 component set conversion pods for the doors are in development) and some custom gauge panels. The wrap is for pretty much the same purpose.

Were these the heads that came on the Explorer because I thought only the Cobra came with GT40 heads and that the Explorer had GT40P? The biggest difference between the two is that the GT40P feature a revised spark plug angle which extends the plug into the combustion chamber, putting the flame front close to the center of the chamber. The GT40P also have a smaller combustion chamber at 59cc.
 






Were these the heads that came on the Explorer because I thought only the Cobra came with GT40 heads and that the Explorer had GT40P? The biggest difference between the two is that the GT40P feature a revised spark plug angle which extends the plug into the combustion chamber, putting the flame front close to the center of the chamber. The GT40P also have a smaller combustion chamber at 59cc.

The gt40 heads were on the 96, and around half of the 97's, then they switched to the "p" head.
 












Big dog kits is the full fabbed spindle with huge 1.5" uniball and 1" upper. Includes upper and lower arms, full hiemed steering, d35 hubs, snouts, rotors, calipers, brake lines and limit straps. It runs for $3500


That kit is the way to go, I'd much rather spend a bit more and not break as often..With this kit running 35's you had to cut the front clip of the body off right? If I went with 33's do you think that's still gonna be necessary? BTW, what are you doing in the rear to clear those 35's?
 


















YEP.. I have the GT40 heads on my 97...
 






definitely subscribing to this. thinking about ditching the 4wd and go 2wd prerunner-ish and throw a selectable locker ion the rear
 












I'm curious on your build as well. I trying to get my merc going for next season. Our trucks would be about the same.
 






Subscribin!
 


















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