Pugly

The Good, The Bad, & the Pugly

1994 Purple Explorer XLT 4wd

I decided to have a registry for my "Other" rig so I can post things done and have a reference for it.

Pretty much stock drive train.

4.0 OHV-A4ld-1354e.
D35 front 4:56 Yukon gears, Aussie Locker.
2nd gen disc 8.8 rear 4:56 gears, Spartan Locker.

Front C-Clip eliminator Mod.

Slight lift with 2" Skyjacker coils & rear F-150 hybrid leaf packs.

3" PA body lift
Helpful thread with pics for the front body mounts
Pics of front body lift mounts

Swapped to manual hubs.
Double U-joint XJ steering shaft.

33" x 12.5" x 15" Cooper Discoverer ATX3, mounted on 15"x10" AR Outlaw1 alum wheels - full size matching spare.

Shocks:
Front Rancho 9000xl
Rear Rancho 9000xl
Duff Stabilizer shock.

Sway bar quick disconnects front & rear.
Custom tube sliders w/kickouts

22" LED light bar.
18w amber fog Led pods.
55w rock lights--2 front--1 rear over diff.
8 LED pods for rocker lights.

Full brush guard.
2.5" Fender Flares.

TTB Diff guard & Skid plate.

Custom roof rack with 48" Extreme Hi-Lift jack.

Flipped Tow hitch & front hooks for tow points.

Cobra19 CB & rear hatch mounted firestick antenna.
Rear view HD camera.
JVC DVD/CD/MP3 Head unit with 7" HD Monitor.
Sony 6.5" front speakers.
Rockford Fosgate 5.25" component rear speakers.
8" JL Audio sub in 2001 enclosure with 500w amp mounted on enclosure.

Custom made center console with CB/Rear view color monitor/2-12v outlets/ in-out temp display. D cell Maglite mounted on cargo panel. Truck bed liner on cargo floor.
Custom Cargo storage box with topside spare tire mount.

'99 Eddie Bauer Front Leather buckets.
'94 Limited Rear leather split bench.

 

[gmanpaint]

Rodger that. Will do.

 

[gmanpaint]

No more gauge needles synchronized dancing!

Replaced both battery cables today. Ended up ordering a negative cable off Amazon, as nobody had one anywhere near me, or didn't even carry them. Napa found 1, and I mean 1 cable only, in MN, with a week wait. Said meh to that. Took less than 2 days from the Amazonian tribe to arrive.

Cleaned up all the old acc wires I had running to the battery, with new wires and connectors. Shrink wrapped, and Friction tape on all. Found one broken ground strap to the hood. Clip busted off. I just replaced it with a wire connector and used a fender bolt to ground it.

Hardest part of the entire deal, was getting the damn hot wire back on the starter. Why the heck did Ford make that damn thing so hard to work on? lol I lost a nut for it somewhere on the rig. It didn't fall to the ground, and I searched for what seemed like an hour. Just replaced with another. I'm sure if it fell in a pinch point, I will find it then.

Oil filter says 2/14/19 on it, but haven't even put 3k on it since. Oil is still clean, but I have been adding about 8 oz/mo in it. lol Underside shows it too.

Pulled a couple plugs as well. They looked great. No sense replacing them now. Just put the new ones back on the shelf, for another day.

While I had the wheels off, I reached in and was able to tighten the back valve cover bolts a little. I think it's leaking from them. I replaced them with the blue felpro's when I did the intake gasket. I guess they didn't seat so well, even after snugging them down again.

With the battery out, I discovered that the lower front of the filter box is busted. There is a triangle hole in it. I can let it go until I source a new one for it, since the filter will catch stuffs. Only thing I can think of is the tire hit under it when off roading in the past.

Thanks for taking Labor day, so literal Pugly! lol

 

[CDW6212R]

Good work, great progress.

I got a lot of yard work done at my dad's, car washing and trimming a bunch of trees and bushes. I went through three shirts, socks and underwear, me tired, off to bed soon.

 

[gmanpaint]

Storms rolled thru here with a vengeance a couple days ago. I spent a day cleaning tree debris as well.

Left arm took a beating this weekend. Scratched, cut, couple of punctures, and some poison oak or ivy on it.

Good times.

 

[gmanpaint]

Well, Pugly isn't sure what to make of her new parts it seems.

Idle was 1000 rpms, and 750ish in gear. Wants to push thru the brakes at a stop.

Got her home, and checked all the vac lines, and discovered a small hard vac line had broken off at the rubber boot. Have no idea how I could have broken this one while wrenching on her cables, as it is at the fire wall for that horizontal tank by the hvac box. I repaired it, and fired her back up.

Idle went down to about 800 rpms. She always ran at 650 smoothly, so I don't know whats up.

I believe this EEC has a long term memory in the ECM, so being off the battery all day shouldn't have drained all memory. I didn't ground the positive to reset it either. I will see what happens after 50-100 miles with it. Hoping it is just learning again.

I have been battling what I thought was a false reading on the DPFE replacement, and have had the EGR code for it for months now. It comes and goes as it pleases, and every time I check the codes, it's just that same one. Well, after fixing that vac line, it won't trigger that code now. ?? Maybe that line has been broken for all this time, and was causing the EGR code?? Wouldn't explain the rpm changes tho. I don't know what to think now. Weird stuff Maynard.

Just praying it isn't a tell tale sign that she wants to retire for good. I did retire her about 11 years ago, and she has just been on part time duty ever since. lol

 

[CDW6212R]

If the IAC hasn't been cleaned in a ling while, do that for any idle issues first. Otherwise the vacuum lines and EGR are the right things to check on. How tight is the PCV in the rubber grommet, do you know? Those shrink over decades, and make the PCV loose fitting. It's a $4 or so grommet from Rock Auto I think.

 

[gmanpaint]

It's been a couple years since I cleaned the IAC out. Might need to do it again just for the heck of it.

Vac lines are always the first thing I check for when the idle jumps/stalls all of a sudden.

PCV is tight in the grommet. I replaced it not too long ago, and I checked it when I was looking things over the other day.

I'm going to see if having the battery off for hours drained the memory completely, and it is still learning. Going to give it 50-100 miles or so before I do anything else to it. If no changes, then I will start inspecting parts with more scrutiny.

Always something with these rigs!

Edit:
50 miles on it, and still high idle. Surges to 1200 rpms when taken out of gear, and into park, then drops to a hair under 1000. Will start playing detective under the hood and see what I can find.

 

[KurtECV]

It's been a couple years since I cleaned the IAC out. Might need to do it again just for the heck of it.

Vac lines are always the first thing I check for when the idle jumps/stalls all of a sudden.

PCV is tight in the grommet. I replaced it not too long ago, and I checked it when I was looking things over the other day.

I'm going to see if having the battery off for hours drained the memory completely, and it is still learning. Going to give it 50-100 miles or so before I do anything else to it. If no changes, then I will start inspecting parts with more scrutiny.

Always something with these rigs!

Edit:
50 miles on it, and still high idle. Surges to 1200 rpms when taken out of gear, and into park, then drops to a hair under 1000. Will start playing detective under the hood and see what I can find.

Get yourself some MAP gas and a section of hose, and start fogging all your lines, intake mating surfaces and see if you can find a leak anywhere. Brake clean will get you a general location, and then the map gas will pinpoint the failure

 

[gmanpaint]

Anybody know the procedure to test the oil pressure Gauge?

Needle started flickering, then dropped to the N in Normal.

Trying to figure out if it is a ground issue to the gauge itself, or something more severe, like a clogged pickup, or failing pump.

I know there is a low oil light that uses the sensor in the oil pan/block, and the sensor on the pump itself for the Gauge. I replaced that sensor (leaked) a few years back, and wondering if it just went bad.

The pump sensor is just a single wire, so not sure how it activates the dash gauge. Relay?

 

[CDW6212R]

The older models had a very large sensor, those were for variable pressure. The newer ones in the mid 90's became the small sensor, which only triggers above a minimal pressure, such as 7psi or similar. So these are dummy gauges, showing either some pressure, or none.

 

[gmanpaint]

Yeah, and there is the diode mod to make it an actual pressure gauge.

I understand the pressure activation on it, being on or off. I was more curious of how to test it for 5v with one wire from the sensor to it.

Aren't the cluster pods connected to the circuit board, and a ribbon harness?

The oil leak from the valve covers and valley has soaked the block on the dr side. Enough that if it sits for a few days, the oil burns off the engine and is now smoking as it burns off. Lol

I bought the gasket kit, and need to get this fixed soon. Sigh....

I'm going to inspect that pump sensor tomorrow and see if the oil is covering it and shorting it out maybe. I dunno man, just frustrating is all. Changing the ground and positive cables recently helped the gauges, but now this issue.

Might he time to rename her... nickle and dime.

 

[KurtECV]

The oil pressure gauge (not the sensor) shares a ground (G202) with the temp gauge, when the oil pressure drops, check to see if the temp gauge is doing the same thing, if it is suspect the ground.

the oil pressure switch closes with normal oil pressure, causing a gauge reading of NORMAL. With low oil pressure, switch opens and causes a LOW gauge reading. So it is just an open/closed switch.

There is a 20 ohm resistor within the IPC circuit to the oil pressure switch.

It appears that Circuit 11 T/Y supplies voltage to almost all of the IPC.

 

[gmanpaint]

Temp gauge is working.

The volt gauge needle sticks sometimes, and a simple tap on the panel unsticks it.

Oil pressure needle is all the way to the left with Key on, Engine off.

Oil pressure needle is on low side, with Engine running.

It has always ran in the middle, but now it's reading on the low side. Oil change with new filter is was less than 3000 miles ago, with Motorcraft filter. I'm going to go ahead and change it again in case the filter is clogged up.

Might also go get another switch and see what happens. If I can remember where I bought it, might be able to return for another free of charge. Maybe. Lol

 

[KurtECV]

something quick and easy to check is the resistance through the circuit. From the back of the IPC to the presssure switch.

Should be less than 2 ohms end to end.

 

[gmanpaint]

Pugly is the 94 Don.

 

[CDW6212R]

Okay, my face palm, sorry. The 94 has the good(big) sensor then, or not? I had a 93 but never had to work on the engine to learn that. I still have that 93 engine, what do you need from it?

 

[gmanpaint]

I think it's the big one, but not sure. It has what I can only describe as a thumb wheel on the end of it. I was able to spin that too, is that normal? I don't recall being able to do that when I installed it, but it's been a few years.

The oil leak is bad. Everything was covered in it. Went thru a bunch of rags wiping off what I could. If I can find my can of contact cleaner, I'm gonna spray the end of the wire connector and the sensor. Thinking maybe oil got into it. Can't hurt. What a mess.

As far as parts for that engine... let me tear the top off it first for the new gaskets. Never know what I might break!! Lol

 

[Brian1]

The oil pressure sensor plastic cap (smooth part) will spin around freely with your fingers. The metal base ("scalloped" part) is for pliers to grip onto to remove/unscrew it and should not just free spin without unthreading the sending unit itself from the hex extension out of the block.

I dislike valve cover leaks! Always messy and smelly. Sounds like you might need a pair of my valve cover reinforcement rings

 

[gmanpaint]

Ok, so that's normal for it to spin. Thanks Brian.

I will have a better idea of what is causing the leak as I dissect it. I did the top end gaskets about 5 years ago, and thinking it's the valley's leaking, but could be the covers too.

At 271k miles, it's still runs great with lots of power, and the oil stays clean for 5k miles or so. That tells me the internals haven't built up any sludge yet. It might be worth to invest in those fancy gadgets you made if I can get another 100k out of this little engine, that keeps on keeping on.

 

[KurtECV]

Shameless plug for @Brian1

Might be a good idea Gman.

You can also do a voltage drop test across that circuit while you are testing the resistance in it. Set your meter to Ohms and check the resistance, one lead on one end, and the other lead on the other end of the circuit. record the reading. It should be less than 2 Ohms.

then (with the leads still connected) turn the meter to voltage, and record the reading. Should be less than 100mv if i remember correctly. Need more coffee to get the gears turning in my head.