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Sgt Ex

145K views 839 replies 92 participants last post by  arickvan 
#1 · (Edited)
If you don't like reading the background, go to the next post....:mr-t:

I wanted something that could fit 4 people in, have A/C, Automatic, and be an SUV. I wanted a Mallcrawler. So i set out searching.... Was going for an XJ or ZJ at first, then i did a little digging, and found out the Unibodies are not the greatest, so i scrapped that. I HATE blazers, so i didn't care if they are unibodies or not, I wasn't owning one of those. I didn't want a fullsize, I dunno know why. I also didn't want to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ on a JK... So then i seen an Explorer with a straight axle conversion done on it, and it hit me... Perfect. They are cheap, they have a full frame, they seat at least 4 people, and they are not too big (usually)

Then I found one that was in Oklahoma, close to Tulsa. Since i was driving through Tulsa on my way back from San Diego, I called the guy up. It was priced very nice, and the guy turned out to be one awesome Feller. The owner dropped the price a bit, took a video to show everything about the truck, and has answered every question i have had about it, so I said ok, I'd buy it. Then i sent the payment, he sent the BOS, and the deal was sealed. I was now the owner of a 1991 Ford Exploder

 
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#626 · (Edited)
we finished the house remodel last week, so after the party, Ex came back out to in front of the garage. The neighbors love it when i pull this out front... Sorry neighbors


You can also see I removed the driver door. The inner door structure had crushed against the latch and ended up having to destroy the latch to get the door off.

I wanted to replace the radiator, the hub, and the lockouts, then dive into trying to figuring out a power steering pump. I'll deal with the windshield stuff once I fix the other stuff.

So when I pulled the radiator, I was surprised to see that the plastic cap had not busted, but yet the fan had gone into the radiator. Also still have a lot of mud and crap caked to the radiator, so I'm sure that didn't help cooling...



So looks like motor mounts will also be added to the list of items to fix. This surprised me since the motor is also chained to the crossmember. I wish I could afford to just go to AutoFab's motor mounts, but I can't swing that right now.

I also got the power steering pump off, and took some pictures for how the hi pressure line enters the pump.


I'll change this out whenever I put in the rest of the setup to eliminate the sharp 90* turn at the pump and in the line. Jeff Howe mentioned these two 90's really affect the flow.
 
#627 ·
Oreilly Auto Parts is awesome. They are usually a little higher than Rock Auto or Partsgeek, but their customer service and warranty program makes up for the cost 10 fold.

My receipt was bleached for the lifetime warranty radiator, and you could barely see the numbers, but instead of turning me away, they honored it, printed me a new receipt so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore, and linked it to my new phone number. That's pretty awesome.

I also got the hub all put back together and worked on getting the A/C condensor out. The hub I removed was almost 4 MM bulged out than the new replacement one. The replacement was 84.02MM diameter, the old one was 87.84MM in diameter. That would explain why the lockouts were stripping out.

The E-Fans that Dan put in back in 08 are damaged, and only one is working. I am going to pull the fans out and replace them. They are just puller fans that mount between the trans cooler and the A/C condensor, but they really helped, so I will definitely be going back with some.

Also going to cap off the trans cooler lines that goes into the radiator. I currently have an external trans cooler, and other members of the RBV community have had a lot of luch with lowering engine and trans temps by running external trans cooler, and keeping the radiator cooling only the engine. Since I have all this crap out, might as well take care of this too.
 
#634 · (Edited)
Didn't spend a lot of time on the truck, but did get a little work done.

Biggest change is the retirement of the flag hood.





I also pulled the a/c condenser and the pusher fans. Both have seen better days.








The cooling fan bracket is really cool and already cut down to fit the truck, so the plan is to either find a set of aftermarket fans that fit the bracket (11" diameter) or pick up a benz setup off eBay and use just the fans. I dunno which one yet. I'm going to research the flow rates to see if any aftermarket solutions will provide the same cooling and go from there.

Brian1 hooked it the eff up on these motor mounts. The trans mount looks beef AF too. Hope to get these in next week. I've never installed motor mounts with the engine in the vehicle, so this should be fun.


Last thing is these weatherproof plugs. I put one in for the light bar and am going to try and find some for the front doors. A 20 pin weather tight plug though is likely not an option. I'll post up what I find.
 
#635 ·
Looks like I found an aftermarket fan set that will work with the mercedes bracket, for a whole lot cheaper than a replacement mercedes fan.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VWMJFHM/ref=twister_B01N029KQN?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Flow is 1750 CFM, I'm not sure if that is both fans, or 1750 per fan, and I am having trouble finding anything on the merc fan setup. Since I am still running the factory fan and clutch setup, I think 1750 would be sufficient for just a pusher fan. And at 35 bucks, its worth trying. The cheapest I found the Merc was 60+ for each fan assembly.
 
#637 ·
Thanks for the heads up buddy.
I've actually seen the Volvo fan write ups on one of the forums. I even have the relay setup and housing here off an 850 Volvo. The merc setup was already trimmed and fitted to the radiator support, that's why I'm staying with it. Especially now that I've found an aftermarket solution.
 
#638 ·
Since I haven't had the cash to finish the important stuff, I took this opportunity to work on all the little crap. Like the lack of being able to see behind me at night.



That's probably not going to be an issue anymore. I've had these sitting around a while and finally put them in.

Also working on rock lights I picked up a while ago too. I'll get a pic of them all lit up once I get everything wired up.
 
#639 ·
Got the new motor and transmission mounts in today. It's awesome how well Built these things are. Thanks again Brian for these. I didn't get a side by side of the old motor mounts next to the new ones, but I did of the transmission mount.



That factory mount is only a few months old and already really worn. I have good feelings about these new ones.


Still having electrical gremlins with the reverse lights. Found the passenger side pigtail to the tailight was cut and arcing out on the body. I've got all the truck wiring fixed, but only getting 2 volts to the lights. Not sure why, but I put the battery back on the charger and will test again tomorrow
 
#644 ·
Great thread! Getting a lot of ideas for when my 2nd gen goes under the knife. Keep up the awesome work!

Going back to your issue finding steel fittings to weld into your power steering resevoir, Stainless Steel could have been welded in just fine. The correct filler material for TIG or MIG would be 309L but 316L would also work in a low vibration situation.. just have to use a little more caution with heat application and ramp down time.
 
#645 ·
Thanks for the info on the stainless. I was just happy to find the one that didn't need the special filler. I have no idea how to tig, and I didn't want to buy a spool for the mig, but it is good info to know.

Good luck on the second gen. I follow a couple of guys in Northern Cali that have some bad ass ones. I hate the front clip of them, but love the inside. A couple of desert guys are putting flared Ranger Edge front clips on them and they look freaking awesome.
 
#647 · (Edited)
I've been working on this thing pretty much every afternoon for a couple of hours each day, cleaning up my old wiring, and getting the china fans installed.

Here are the fans. Overall they look to be decent quality, and each fan is supposed to 1,750 CFM, so hopefully they will be more than sufficient for keeping the truck cool.


I was excited to see how thin they are, compared to the old fans (but notice how just the motor protrudes past the mounting bracket?)


So i pulled both of the old fans out of the merc bracket and here is how it looks empty


The new fans are a little larger than the bracket, so I needed to trim them to fit as I wanted them to sit inside the bracket rather than mounted to the bracket



after I trimmed off the outer edges of the fans, I put them in the bracket like I wanted and used zip-ties to hold them in. I like this better than hardware because it allows for me to simply snip the zip ties and remove the fans, and I don't have to worry about hardware breaking the plastic surround.



I mounted the fan setup in the same location as it was previously, and thought all was good until I test fit the a/c condensor...


seems as though the 1/4" of the fan shrouds that peaks out past the bracket itself is just enough to push everything too far forward for the condensor and radiator to fit in their position.


so, that brings me to today. I'm going to chop out the center support for the radiator support, and replace it with some 1/4" or 3/8" solid rod. This would allow me to remove the fans from the bracket from the front, rather than having to pull the radiator and condenser to take them out. Overall it will be better suited for my plan, just sucks to have to work backwards to do it.
 
#648 ·
With the excitement of having the bumblebee back, i still made sure to keep plugging away at this. Here's what I got done:

First up was getting the center support out of way, I just replaced it with a bent up piece of 3/8" solid rod. You also can't see in this picture but I added 2 pieces of sheet metal to each side of the radiator support so the fan bracket had somewhere to mount.
Product Auto part Vehicle Car Automotive exterior



Then I added some tabs and an oil cooler off a super Dookey to act as my new power steering cooler, and to hold the trans cooler. Put the fans back on and made sure everything fit
Auto part Engine Vehicle Car

Vehicle Motor vehicle Auto part Automotive exterior Tire


It's close, but it fits!
Automotive exterior Vehicle Bumper Car Auto part

Vehicle


Still waiting on fund to finish up the steering, but at least I was able to get everything all mounted. Hopefully the winch doesn't impede too much with the fans on, but if so I could always switch back to the m8000 that's on the ranger now.
 
#649 · (Edited)
Love your expo man. Just now seeing this thread and I'd like to finish it soon but I've only read the last couple
Pages.

What pusher fan and bracket set up did you originally use that bolted in? I have a 5 speed 93 I built and the temps are starting to creep up on hard runs through the sand and steep hills. I rebuilt the top end not long ago so the most of the cooling parts are new.....thinking these fans will do the trick.


 
#650 ·
Thanks man.

As for the pusher fans, its the cooling fan setup for an old Mercedes. Here is the google search for the ones I used to have.

https://www.google.com/search?q=w12...0..0.0....0...1..64.psy-ab..0.0.0.Hoa_QJ3CO20

As you can see, they are more expensive than the cheepo chinese ones I'm running now, but I think they pull a good amount of air. I tried finding what they pull, and didn't have any luck. The bracket will bolt together, and the two of them will fit in front of the A/C condensor without hacking up the radiator support.
 
#652 ·
yea this thing is pretty bad ass. The guy that built it is extremely skilled in his craft. I take 0 credit for how capable this thing is, he gets all the praise. I'm just the lucky sum bitch that was able to buy it from him a longish time ago.


As for updates, I started cutting out the rusted rockers. Gonna bring the sliders up higher and do a mini-boatside. Also located a donor body that is already caged. Working with the owner to get that so I can scab the "hold my beer" fuck up and cage this sucker. Plan is to cut a and b pilars and a huge section of roof out of the donor, cut the cage out of the donor, then put the cage in this one, scab in the sheet metal sections, and then get a new windshield put in. Explorer Forum event is the end of October, so I gotta get busy.
 
#653 ·
I'm just now building one, it's gutted, we have the doors off, rear hatch, hood, have the front cut off right by the firewall (My nephew wants to build a tube front end).. the 4.0 and trans/tcase will be out this weekend or next if I don't have to work, we are debating on going with a SBF or a SBC, looking into a D44 to swap out for the junky TTB
 
#663 ·
Being down for a few days, I've been trying to piece together the parts to get Ex back together. As I mentioned before, the AC condenser was rusted pretty bad. A new one from Oreilly was 100 bucks and I didnt want to spend that on something I rarely use, but I also want it there if I want to use it. Amazon had a couple in their "warehouse deals" section so I picked one up from there. Now I can get the cooling fan blade and put the cooling system back together.

Also found a reservoir I want to try for the power steering. Just an aluminum universal mishimoto setup that measures just over 6". It isn't anything special, but has the two lines into I need and I think the reservoir will be enough volume to go lock to lock with the brakes held and not worry about starving the pump. Here's the reservoir Mishimoto MMRT-PSAWRD Wrinkle Red Aluminum Power Steering Reservoir Tank https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V5R32RK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4fGKzb8QH1PK4

Here is the pump I have decided to use. https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...7/2001/chevrolet/silverado-2500-hd?q=20832683

I seen that bray had some growling issues after his pretty grueling test, but the lifetime replacement makes this very appealing to me. I'll likely run an in-line filter near the cooler to complete the setup. After this Ex should be ready for the trail. Still no confirmation of the donor truck is mine, but fingers are crossed
 
#666 · (Edited)
Been tinkering with this thing a lot over the last few days. the amazon parts I ordered came in. The condenser was a little bent, but it didn't look to effect anything, so its installed. Radiator is in, but still need to add the 3/8 NPT block off plugs from where the factory trans cooler lines went in.

I got my reservoir in and as soon as I put it where I wanted it, I realized the flimsy ass bracket that came with it isn't going to work. I decided to make a cup for the bottom of the reservoir and then mount that to the bracket I build off the inner fender. Here's the cup


Here is the cup on the bottom of the reservoir with the flimsy ass bracket and the start of my mount to the truck


After i built this, I didn't like it, so I threw it away and now I'm back to square 1. I'll figure something else out. Likely use the 18 gauge to wrap around the reservoir and weld a couple nuts and bolt setups similar to how air bump stop cans work.


Most of the time has been messing with this power steering pump swap. I have been troubleshooting on it and think the best solution is to have a custom adapter bracket instead of using the PSC one. I love the design of it, but it is "kicked" too far and will cause interference issues with the early 4.0 bracket I'm using. Take a look at the pics below:

Here is the new pump (I went with a pump for a 2001 Chevy Express 2500 with a 6.0). This is a hydroboost pump with a can on the back very similar to the PSC, only difference is PSC uses an AN fitting on top, this is just a barb style fitting. It also already has the hydroboost line, so I will use that as the hydroboost return and run the factory return line (which will come from the cooler) into the reservoir return line.



Here are the two brackets bolted to the pumps aligned where the holes are the same

If you look closely at the new pump and PSC bracket, the barb is really far to the left. On the old Cardone pump, it doesn't have the reservoir, but the reservoir is much further to the right. This is very important for someone trying to keep the AC compressor.

So i decided to see how the two adapter brackets fit and differ in the accessory mount...

The cardone bracket sits here


The PSC sits here, and as you can see, requires more material to be removed. what you cant really see is the mounting holes for where the pump bolts to this bracket


so you're probably thinking... Why the hell doesn't he just use the old bracket off the cardone pump?? Because that bracket pushes the pump too far from the accessory mount, moving the pump shaft too far from the rest of the accessories for good pulley alignment.

The brackets themselves are different thicknesses. Cardone is 13MM, PSC is 9MM. Also the Cardone is further from the mounting surface of the pump. From the highest surface of the pump to the mounting surface of the bracket is 19MM. So basically I'm losing 10MM (0.40") of pump shaft that the pulley would be riding on, and as Bray and Mike from EF realized, you need to have the pump a little further out than flush with the end of shaft anyway. So that makes the Cardone bracket somewhat useless without the machined "tip" that Cardone added to the end of those pumps.

So I decided to chat with a local machine shop and they are going to make me a bracket out of aluminum that is flat like the PSC, but has the mounting holes in the Cardone orientation. This will make the install wait a couple more weeks, but worth it in the long run.


Also going to grab this on saturday...


 
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