Stryctny9e's 1993 XLT | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Stryctny9e's 1993 XLT

Hey guys, thoght I would make a registry for my explorer. I bought my EX for $1800 about a year ago with 132,000 miles on it. Strong motor, she ran smooth, and a bunch of little issues. That is when I was searching to resolve them and found this site. It all started with the drivers side door sag, which was quickly taken care of thanks to DeRocha's how to thread. Then there was some missing interior parts like a few light covers, rear vanity cover and a broken arm rest. I dragged my girlfriend with me to the junkyard in the rain (her first time to a junk yard) and ended up finding everything I needed. I also changed most fluids, oil, transmission/filter, radiator, lubed suspension. Didn't plan on doing much with the explorer until I found all the cool things I could do on this site. I also got tired of my truck looking like the other million explorer roaming around my town.

I like to hunt and go out shooting on a regular basis so I got a chance to fool around with the 4wd quickly. I found that the 4x4 high worked but the 4x4 low range was inoperable. SO it was back to the forum to do some searching and that led me to pull off the electric shift motor and clean it. As I suspected the plastic stopper was broken, replaced it and the low range worked right off the bat.

I quickly found that my Exploder lacked ground clearence(whoops thread-learning the hard way) and want to do a lift and some bigger tires. The day after that incident I recived my warrior shackles in the mail and installed them. I also installed new wheel bearings, painted I beam and brake calibers, and rear drums, also painted the spindles. I also just got done painting Bpillars and the rear pillars. They were all faded and I wanted them to match my truck since it is a two tone.Also painted wiper arms and plan on doing door/hatch handle soon.

The body and paint were in good condition there was only a dent in the passenger side fender and minimal rust. Mainly the rust is on the roof in the rain channles. There is a new dent in the hatch, a friend of mine bought a boat and asked me to tow it for him, I said yes. The guy he bought it from loaded it on my hitch, I did not check it myself thinking he is a boat owner and fully capable of doing it right, wrong. Three blocks down the road I was rear ended by a boat. I was pissed at the time and he offered to by me a new hatch but I don't want a missmatched truch and have yet to find the same color scheme at the junkyard. I got over it and about a month later some Jacko decides he don't want taco bell any more and backs out of the drive thru. Meanwhile I am backing out of my parking spot. I am honking my horn and apperently he was def because his toyota tacoma backed into the drivers side of my rear wheel well resulting in a softball size dent. I held back my temper and said a few kind words to him and went on my way before the scene escalated.

My plans for the future are a new/used motor after my wheelin incident(think I have rod knock)but she is still running. A coil spacer/add-a-leaf lift. New rims and tires. Probably some cragar's and 32's x 11.50. Possible body lift for even bigger tires but onle after I do some re-gearing. New lights, my light quality sucks and would like to upgrade for a newer look.Oh yea I am going to rhino line the roof of the EX to get rid of that rust and add a uniquie look. Manual hubs, and a flow master exhaust that will happen sooner than later, because I have a fist size hole in the muffler, caused from when I had to pull the truck out of the mud hole. I will also be doing ball joints/ u-joints, tie-rod ends and bushings when I do the lift.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to do all the how to write ups and posted all the good advise and knowlege to the site. I will be doing my part soon.

What you have all been waiting for THE PICS
 

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More pictures. Sorry about the last one there is a bad glare. tell me what you think about the painted pillars. thanks
 

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I'm liking the two-tone paint. Great looking rig!
 






I like it!! Can't believe I haven't seen ya driving around. Those apartments look familiar...
 






All the apertments look the same in Beaverton. Hahaha that is what I thought when I firs mover here. Everything looks the same and would constantly get lost.
 






nice x
 






LOL well if you see me driving around, flag me down....my X is pretty hard to miss, and the only local one i've seen with a ExplorerForum sticker on it!!
 






I know that my rig has rod knock, but I just dont want to belive it. I did several test including, oil pressure 60 psi @ 2000RPM, that was ok. I pulled off the starter and checked the flexplate, it was fine. I took the belt off to make sure it was not any of the acessories, all good. Checked fan and intake, all good. And last thing I checked today was the pushrods. Went the extra mile to check valves,rockers and pushrods. Nope all good. So I guess it has to be rod knock. Looks like I am going to stop F-ing around with this engine and get a new/used one. Hopefully I can find one soon and hopefully I dont throw a rod by then.
 






Well I just found a used motor 76,000 miles for 450 bucks. I called every place in portland danm near and this is the best deal. I was gonna buy a rebuilt motor but it was just a little out of my budget. The guy says it runs great and that he personally drove it into the shop. Man am I stoked!!! Everyone in my area wanted like 500-700 bucks for used motors with 130k-185k on them. I feel like I got a deal. Cant wait till next week to get dirty and swap it in. It has a EGR valve on it and mine does not, but I should be able to swap the intake manifolds right? Well anyways I will update the progress next week and be sure to take plenty of pictures during the swap. By saving the money not buying a rebuilt motor I can follow through with my plans for a lift and new set of rims and tires. Also does anyone in the portland area have a cherry picker I can rent from them or point me in the right direction on where I can rent one? thanks
 






Got my engine swap done and ran into some problems along the way, but got all the kinks worked out and will post pick as soon as I have the time. Feel so much better now and I am saving money for my lift. But first I have to buy a new exhaust.
 






Here some before and after pics of the engine swap. OHV 4.0 76,000 miles, Lots of busted nuckles, stripped out a exhaust manifold bolt and lots of cursing. Some pics of the motor teardown. The donor motor had a EGR manifold on it so I took everything off my old motor just in case I would have to use it later. These pics are of the old motor no upper intake and no wiring harness. Look at all the sh*t built up on the motor. I had to do somthing about that.
 

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A pic of the old motor being pulled out of the truck. And the engine bay crossmember before and after I cleaned it. There was so much crap buitl up on that engine and engine bay. I did a pretty good clean job, but it defidently could have been better. Now I have to pressure wash my friends driveway due to all the grease and junk that stained it. Not a bad trade for his help and letting me use his house for the swap.
 

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Anothe pic of the engine bay after I cleaned it and I also cleaned the trans also. You can definetly tell the difference. A pic of the engine bay after I painted the crossmember. A pic of the new motor in without all the acessories and a pic of the finished product. I ran into a few problems here and there but nothing a little inginuity could not solve. And yes I know my throttle body cover is missing a bolt.I lost it somewhere while doing the swap and it bugs the crap out of me because I put all the bolts in the same can of solevent.
 

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Last but not least I wanted to show a pic of my muffler. It has a little hole and I will be replacing it next time I get paid. I developed the hole while pulling my truck out of the mudhole, which led to my rodknock, and led to the engine swap. All in all I get alot of satisfaction working on my own vehical, a little blood and sweat and thinking never hurt anybody. I am glad I was triumphant on my first FORD motor swap and I learned alot about these motors. I will be doing a trans swap on a friends ranger soon, so I will get to learn about FORD trannys in the near future.

Tell me what you guys think?
 

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Hey if you ever need some extra hands you should PM me I would love to learn to do all this and I can guess you can use some help sometimes haha.
 






Local wheelers are always welcome. Even if your not local and want to swing by and give a hand or learn some new stuff send me a PM and we will get it done. Also if any local wheelers need a hand working on thier Sploders let me know im always down for getting dirty, cursing and some busted knuckles. Oh yea and for learning new sh*t and meeting local wheelers. Just hit me up and ill sroll through and help ya get the job done.
 






Today I ordered a new cat back exhaust!!! I decided to go with the dynomax cat back preformance kit. I found that deal with the $75 mail in rebate. I sure do hope it sounds good, I wanted the flowmaster cat back but am tight on money. As you could see from my previous post I was in meed of a new muffler. If anyone has ran a dynomax set up let me know how you like it.

I also ordered my coil spring seats and a pro comp add a leaf to give me a little lift and give me some room to throw some meats under her. I am gonna have to look like a fool for a few weeks riding on small tires with a lift, but I will be searching for some 32's I can afford. I will probably have to do a craigslist deal or somthing, but if someone has some used tires they want to get rid of let me know. THANKS
 






Dynomax cat back exhaust

I got my new dynomax exhaust in the mail today and decided to install it and let me tell you I was a little dissapointed by the sound. I expected it to be a deeper/ lower tone , but it was actually quieter than the old one that was on there and I belive it was stock by the condition and look of age. I am happy though consider ing it was only $50 after the mail in rebate, which Jegs forgot to include a invoice, I will get that all settled out tommarow. I definetly cant complain about the price and if I want a deeper sound I can upgrade later. I will update everyone on the sound output of the exhaust tommarow. I didnt get to drive very far in my ex with the new exhaust because some jacko decided to steal a car and get caught at my apartment complex. There was like 20 cop cars and had the place on lockdown. Palmer7 came over and we went to town playin with the EX.
I also painted the mirrors and door handles. I did a half fast job but they look better than they did before and I was not looking for a prestine job any ways, just a little touch up to get rid of that faded black almost gray color.

That is a half thumbs up, Not quite the Flowmaster that I wanted, but better than the old one.

When removing a old crappy non reusable exhaust a saw zall is a must.

Sorry about the blurry pics I have a **** camera that I use when working on cars, if it gets broke I wont be pissed.
 

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Before & After painted mirrors

Some more pics of the exhaust and painted mirrors and door handles. I will get a better pic of the exhaust tommarow on my other camera, not that we dont know what they look like or anything. I am going to paint the roof rack tommarow and hopefully I will get the coil spacers in soon so I can put on the Pro-comp Add-A-Leafs I got in today also.

OH YEA kinda funny right after I put the first coat of paint on the drivers side mirror I went to the other side to pain and when I got back to the drivers side I saw a nice fresh pile of steaming bird **** on the mirror right where I just painted. NICE I waited till it dried a little and wiped it off and threw on a second coat.
 

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