Swapping with a 95+?

[1991]

My Explorer earned it's nickname, an Exploder, about three months ago and had an engine fire.

Most of the stuff under the hood is salvageable minus the radiator, water pump, heads, valve covers, spark plugs wires, and random vacuum hosing here and there.

The engine is most likely toast and since I would be taking it out to either rebuild it or replace it, what would you guys suggest to be my best move?

1) Rebuild engine.
2) Trash engine and tranny, get new setup.

The tranny is a rebuilt A4LD with shift improvement kit. The rebuilt is about a year old and haven't had any problems with it.

I want more power and I know the A4LD won't last past 300HP. I don't mind if I loose the 4wd functionality but would like if at all possible to keep it. If not, oh well.

Someone suggested doing the 97 V8 w/ AOD-E. What are you thoughts and such?

 

[Jason_25]

I personally would just buy a 96-99 V8 Explorer and call it a day. It will cost you ALOT of money to do a clean V8 swap in an early model. Just not worth it unless you're into offroad IMO.

 

[1991]

A lot of people have told me to just go to a newer year Explorer. I have a problem with that monitarily.

I figured from junkyards and Shmucks I could rebuild an engine and tranny for around $2000 and use the remaining $9000+ for more mods. That additional $9k or so would be going towards other modifications that are going to be a bit pricy.

Engine modifications are going to be about $5000 itself, and estimated body and interior work is going to be around 7-13k for materials, parts, and labor, and engine.

My goal is for a drag and show setup. I'm not really into offroading at all. I am more into performance and style, and would love to figure out how to achieve both using my Explorer.

I'm not into Hondas either because I want to do something different and has a lesser chance of getting stolen.