Where to find aftermarket parts?

[KillNThrill24]

Hi all, I'm new to the Explorer community. I'm buying an 02 XLT 4.6 next weekend that needs new chain guides, simple fix.

I come from the Mustang community, I have an 00 GT that I'm getting ready to put my turbo kit from my Cobra on, and an 01 Cobra which I melted a piston on, which in turn destroyed the cylinder wall and I think the block and head are trashed, so it's going to be Coyote swapped. I'm very very familiar with the 4.6 engine.

This is our second Exploder, our other is an 05 which is my moms, with 213k on the clock. Mine has 138k.

It needs some tlc that's for sure. Could use some new rockers welded in, and a new quarter panel. Typical rust in typical areas on these things. We looked at a number of them over the years. I'm picking mine up for $1k so as long as it wasn't completely rotted, I was okay with it.

My question is, where do you buy aftermarket parts? For instance, in the mustang community we have American Muscle and Late Model Restoration for our generic parts, and Modular Head Shop and Cushman Motorsports for our custom stuff. What does the explorer community have? I'm sure I can retrofit a lot of my mustang stuff onto it lol. But where do we buy from? And for things like body panels, where do I get those?

Thanks, and when I pick it up I'll try to get some decent shots of it. It's that dark dark green with tan leather interior. I'm happy so far lol

 

[Number4]

Most hit the wrecking yards for body parts. Plenty of Explorers to be picked.

 

[Sitcoms]

as number said, wrecker yards are plentiful as far as stock explorer parts go. For aftermarket we have generic truck aftermarket sites + obviously ebay & amazon.

 

[KillNThrill24]

Thanks for the reply's guys. I was looking into the scrap yards and such, might not be a bad idea to pick up an entire quarter to have on hand.

So you said you have the generic sites, but what are they lol?

And Sorry for the late response. Finally got it all back together a few days ago. Upon taking it all apart I found out that all 4 guides were toast. Yep. All freakin 4 lol. The passenger side upper was completely broken off and just riding the chain. The passenger bottom was worn all the way through and was beginning to split. Driver top had the mount for the upper bolt broken. And the driver bottom was also worn down pretty bad. The tensioners were toast. Instead of the inner cylinder being flat, they were both worn down at a severe angle lol. Trigger wheel was toast. Chains were worn real bad on the outside. It was a bad bad sight.

I had found some metal, dust, for lack of better words, throughout the oil. Well between the tensioners being worn down and 3 ribs on the inside of the cover worn down, that explained that. I had a case of Mobil 1 synth 5w30 and a motorcraft filter for the 4.6 sitting in my shop left over from my cobra so I tossed the filter on and used that oil. I'll change it in 1000mi or so to try and cleanse the system the best I can from all the shavings. At that point I'll go back to the 5w20, most likely motorcraft brand.

As for replacing parts, I finally found the Cloyes guides at Orielly's. I initially started off at the local stealership, but they tried to tell me one of them was discontinued and that the other 3 they wouldn't get in for a week.... I was mind blown that as many 4.6's are out there, that they would discontinue ONE guide? Lol... So I went to advanced. They had SA Gear. But I saw Made in Taiwan on the box and returned them. The Cloyes unfortunately is too, but they at least had the tensioner guides, that Advanced didn't have. For reference, if anyone who is reading this is doing guides and chains, you can order it all from modularheadshop.com. I would have, but I was trying to get parts on the fly. They have OEM stuff. Great place.

Fortunately, I had all the timing components from my cobra sitting at my shop. The guides didn't fit, which is why I had to buy them, but the chains, tensioners and trigger wheel were the same. So I used those.

Got it all running and took it out. Scared the crap out of me. My old daily (excluding my mustang) was a 93 ZJ with a 5.2, lifted 3" on 33's lol. It wasn't a smooth ride AT ALL. The mustang is so effing loud that there is nothing smooth or quiet about it. Then theres this thing. Smooth. Quiet... I get nervous in quiet vehicles!

I'll be buying new tires eventually, mine are toast. I would like to get Duratracs, I had them on my ZJ and we had a set on my old mans 7.3, and they're just incredible. I heard you can squeeze a 265/75 16 so I think I might do that! Down the road I'd like to get a tuner on it, get an intake, and make an exhaust (I work at Corsa) for it. We'll see what happens! I come from a Jeep and own mustangs.. I can't not modify it...