Thank you!! I def love the Xploder and have many more plans for it and things I want and need ot do! Hopefully time allows, haha. I do plan to clean up a few rust spots and am thinking of maybe doing something from dipyourcar.com to keep everything protected and looking good! I have a good amount of clear coat peel on the fenders and what not. Plus.. lots of other projects planned for it.. maybe a small couple inch lift so it can serve as my bad weather vehicle even better! :D

Awesome! I need to tinker on my Explorer some more.. it's mostly just been sitting lately, lol.

Thank you! I've had the car parked for a few months now.. I need to circle back to it and do some work on it. I do love the 2nd gens as well... they are reasonably sized without being a huge awkward tank which is nice! Your sounds awesome! Coyote would be pretty insane. I think some people also did various LS swaps with them as well, lol.

Heck ya! $500, can't really beat that price!

Thank you!

I just paid 700 for mine 135,000 miles and minimal rust

@@zCorrxption ​ @manny willison that's an amazing deal especially in this insane current used car market! I'd love to grab another one.. my kids are beginning to drive now, ugh! Lol

@@zCorrxption lucky

I got one. Just about all new parts on it. 164k and going strong

Nice find! Sounds like a great ride! And thank you! I hope to add a lot more Xploder content soon! :D

Good luck! I still have a ton to do... More that gets done more I need to do seems like, lol.

Awesome! Def check out my Explorer playlist.. I have a decent number of videos on some stuff I've done with the truck over the years. I've owned it over 10 years now. Sadly right now it's down as I work on the source of some engine noise :-/ Hopefully I figure out something and don't need to pull the motor, lol. Once I get it figured out hopefully put out some more videos! And thank you! :)

Thank you! I hadn't looked into Sport Trac clusters.. I'll def have to go check it out. Sadly the Xploder is currently down.. having some noise from the front of the engine maybe timing chain or something. Haven't had time to delve into it and didn't want to drive it until I could investigate further :-/

Haha, yeah man.. I initially ran HIDs in the stock housing and they just performed kind of bad and the ballasts took a crap on me. Switched the HID setup completely and went with aftermarket housing and then retrofitted the 2 together :D I actually did a video kind of going over it all, check it out! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pJqbi6qn3d6soac.html

I have a few shorts on cruising.. nothing wild but here ya go: kzfaq.infotKYHnCr_t5k kzfaq.infoZX5FwcPvu7E kzfaq.infoO0HycwttY6Q :D

:-/ I need to get cracking back on mine so I can drive it again, lol.

I really like the look of the Mountaineers! No rust is nice! I wish mine was completely rust free! Are they both 5.0's as well? I guess check them out and perhaps check compression of the better of the 2 and check it out in depth and go with the best one :D Mine is down right now... Motor making some noise that I need to investigate. If I get some free time I'll try and delve back into it.

Right on! :D

Lol ya

I thought about it but the carpet was so damn nasty I just wanted to be rid of it... lol.

Nice!

Lol, nice!!

Some fresh new shocks/struts can help.. make sure it's not dropped down and riding on the bump shocks in the front.. if the torsion bars are shot you can replace them to help a bit.. if the leafs in the back are shot you can replace those as well.. all combined can help it ride smoother. Make sure no bushing are blown out or shot as well, replace whatever is worn out.

Wow... 400k?? Talk about a warrior, lol... very cool! :) I know mine ate my front control arm bushings when I put new ones on and the car sat a couple years and the boots disintegrated from just sitting for so long (while I worked on other things). My wheels are 16s with 255/70R16 tires. I will probably add a small amount of lift with some larger tires eventually :D

Thank you! I actually paid someone to install my torque monster headers, lol. That's the only thing I paid anyone to do on the car for me but I only had a couple old jack stands at the time and needed my car back in a reasonable time (was my only car back then) and knew I'd have to fumble with it for a week or more to finish everything up. If the bolts are snapped off... are you able to maybe use a bolt extractor on them? Or maybe just get a drill bit slightly smaller than the bolt and drill the bolt out? I'm not sure what options there are now for headers.. Not sure if Bob still even sells the torque monsters, you could try to email him from his website at www.torquemonsterheaders.com/. I know OBX sold some knock offs for a while but I don't think I've seen even those lately and have seen a lot of complaints about quality and fitment of those. Ford racing also had some shorty headers they sold a while back but probably not these days. I had a set when I bought my Explorer many many years ago and they were left in the trunk. I sold them and what I made from selling them helped offset the price of the Torque monsters a little bit lol. If you cannot find any headers at all (check used as well), may need to just pick up the OEM manifold :-/ They are cheap at least, lol, www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=334130 and www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=334131

@@D3RPZILLA Thanks friend for your insights into this type of project. When I removed the rusted out cat pipes that come off the exhaust manifolds, the studs broke off almost flush with the manifolds. It is so tight up in there, I could not get a drill bit started to attempt a drill out. I was thinking to take the front wheels off and the inner fender wells and then use an oxy-acetylene torch and burn through the broken studs and then just through bolt them. When i look at those rusty exhaust manifold bolts i get a panic attack because i know they will snap off too lol. I believe the only way to get those off would be through the fender/tire well. I am going to try to torch them out and see how it goes; if i destroy them, well that means headers. take care-

Yes.. They were pretty gnarly looking and I never used them so I pulled them off. I've heard of the roof rack leaking.. I may pull my entire rack off and seal the holes but we'll see. Good luck on yours!

@@D3RPZILLA so I was able to fix it… took off the rails, then replaced the screws with new ones and used a regular washer and a rubber washer on each screw hole, and that seems to have stopped the leak

Nice! I'm still undecided on what route I want to go with my Xploder... Have a long list of things I need to do and a small list of things I kind of want to do :D

What motor does your explorer have? Is it also a v8? Where are you guys located?

What do you mean redo them? Like.. reupholster them? Or replace a seat? I kept the original fabric on mine and when I took the seats out to replace my carpet I used a carpet cleaner extractor and cleaned the seats super good and then stuffed in some extra foam to fill I'm the collapsed side bolstering of drivers seat.

O wow!! NICE! 79k miles is awesome!! What trim and motor?

❤️

Nothing super fancy as of yet... My initial goal was to just replace worn out stuff and installing new components in place. I installed KYB shocks & all new MOOG front suspension/steering parts (control arms, tie rods, etc), new bump stops as mine were toast, and some new poly bushings in a few places. I may in the semi-near future, as my other million projects and money allows add the fairly common setup of the Summit racing 3" body lift, pro comp add-a-leaf kit, and the wrp-153 warrior leaf spring shackles. This would give me a few inches of extra height and I could toss on some little bigger tires.

I think the v6 is pretty reliable other than timing chain guides I want to say? But I've heard a lot of horror stories from the v6 matched transmission :-/ I can't say much though my Xploder is down right now for making some engine noise, lol... Now for time to diagnose.

@@D3RPZILLA Yeah my explorer previous owners had a transmission replaced but the engine has been good.

Yes, sure work fine. Just be sure the install bracket is correct and the wiring harnesses and such. I cover the radio a little more in this video, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z95jeMljusiUZZs.html, though mostly focusing on the backup camera portion. But overall the differences between 98 and 00 is minimal.

Lol, yep

Yes I do.. I have a full video on the setup :) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z95jeMljusiUZZs.html

Thank you! :)

Oooo, nice!! That's some low miles!! How bad is it??

Heya! I actually deleted the EGR system completely... I kind of regret it now with tuning these days restricting our tuning options when you remove emissions systems :-/

Thank you!

Yes

To be honest... I don't recall, lol. It's from a good 10 years or so ago but I want to say it was a piece of plastic molded into place and then drilled for the gauges.

Heya! What is in your 98 explorer currently?

That's right.. it's full time always on AWD. No option to change mode.

Great truck! I've had it for something like 10 years now. Easy and fun to tinker on. The v8 is a decent amount of power and torque and the transmission with the v8 is the 4w70 which is supposedly super stout and much stronger than the transmission that comes with the 4.0. I like the size of these SUVs as it seems most modern SUVs just get bigger and bigger!

@@D3RPZILLA the 5r55's were known for breaking if you overheated them by pushing them too hard, they'd puke out fluid, then slip themselves until they Nagasaki'd The 4.0 sohc made good power factory, but it really lacked the longevity of the 5.0, it is a stellar engine until the timing chains have their fun Though ford had mostly gotten rid of it by 2002-2003, and a lot of the old ones were brought in under service bulletin

@@jonslife3533 Good to know! Yeah... all I remember from the 4.0 Explorer's was the nightmare stories of the related transmission so I avoided it like the plague, lol :D Plus, I mean... 5.0 is the 5.0, never can go wrong with that!

@@D3RPZILLA @wngZL1a several years of mustang's V8's included had them as well, it's recommended you miss no maintenance and go full on into shift kits and upgraded valve bodies when rebuilding one They are alright till you dog them or the timing chain guides decide they do not vibe with this universe and explode

@@jonslife3533 lol, nice :D I thought they all ran the 4w70s. I need to drain and replace filter and fill my 4w70 sometime soon... need to find time, have fluid and filter and gasket on hand but dreading dropping the pan with no drain plug and making a damn mess in the process, haha.

I got them a while back.. they are torque monster headers from torquemonsterheaders.com/

@@D3RPZILLA awesome thanks 👍🏻

@@briant5008 no problem!

Dumb question, how many catalytic converters did you have on your truck? Looks like I have 4, 2 on the down pipe after manifolds then 2 more under passenger seat.🤔

Heya! I made a video with links on the backup camera, take a look at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z95jeMljusiUZZs.html

I would like to do a small lift on mine... Fairly popular setup seems to be the Warrior WAR-153 lift shakles, Summit SUM-7888300 3" body lift, & Explorer Pro Comp Add-a-leaf EXP-13120. Seems a somewhat common and decent setup (I'm leaning this way myself) that won't break the bank. If you want to get more wild I did see some kits to add coil overs and other fancier things but you at that stage have to get into welding and possibly custom fab stuff/etc.

Thank you! It def feels much more powerful and can move quite well. Unsure of actual numbers currently.. but 50 is probably doable, easily if you drop in a better cam I'd think.

True! Tho a lot of the stuff from the older 5.0 Mustang stuff can be made to work with them. I run an electric water pump for the 95 Mustang on it, as an example :D

I think it does, a little, nothing drastic by any means. The throttle body spacer though I've heard doesn't do anything in comparison. A lot of people in the forums swear by the intake spacer though... I believe I've seen some before and after dynos with it and they show a solid improvement.

MPG is pretty bad, haha. I'm still running 39lb Cobra injectors and a Walbro GSS352 255L fuel pump from when I had it turbocharged years ago so it eats gas pretty quick, LOL. Def need to redo my tune again sometime soon if I can.

If FedEx ever gives me the rest of my QuickJack car lift system I plan to get cracking back on the Xploder soon, finally :)

@@D3RPZILLA hahaha you got FedEx issues too? I had a laptop sit in a warehouse 20 mins from my house for a week because they are so backlogged

@@chedda5587 Lol, not surprised! Yeah.. they lost a 120lb box for one side of the frame of the QuickJack car lift I bought, lol. Delivered me a friggin dog bed instead for some reason, haha. I put a video up on the issue, haha. HOPING I get my replacement part Saturday but knowing FedEx who knows.

I'm not sure where to find one these days... I got mine something like 10 years ago :-/ It's actually the metal tube from the MAC cold air intake, a Ford Lightning MAF tube, and an air filter from AMSOIL I believe :D

@@D3RPZILLA alright cool you the only guy on here that actually as clean and clear videos on these trucks not easy to find.

Haha, yeah.. seems to be less and less good 2nd gen Explorer content these days and the old content is usually super low resolution and hard to see what the heck people are working on! I've learned a ton from the guys over on the explorerforum.com forums so I have been trying to add videos on some of the stuff I work on in a higher quality to help update some content from what I've done and learned over the years :D Currently my Explorer is somewhat taken apart in my driveway as I replace the crank seal and harmonic balancer which has been a ton of fun in the 100+ degree heat.

Yeah, my plan for the future is def to pick up an older car to work on... sucks prices on a nice older 60s or so car are wild, lol.

Thank you! And yes, good eye :D

@@D3RPZILLA does it cool down the oil ?

@@HobieKatt For stock or near stock setups the breather really serves no purpose and I don't recommend it as it allows in unmetered air which can cause issues with your air/fuel ratios unless you are tuned to account for it. Mine is kind of left over from when I had the car turbocharged and it helped with venting crankcase pressures. When I get an updated tune for my current setup in hopefully the near future I'll most likely replace it with a regular oil cap :D

@@D3RPZILLA thats good to know , i just started little under a year ago with my 98 mercury mountaineer , looking for good air flow to cool down the engine , i was looking around on others channels but all found was your filter on the oil stem , there truly isint anything on the web for 98 engines restorations so ill take any help i can get

@@HobieKatt What with the engine is over heating or needs cooled down? The oil? Coolant? For my coolant I run an electric fan conversion that I did which seems to keep the truck running nice and cool.

I had an old lid I bought years ago that came with extra foam and the leather cover. The plastic shell underneath broke in a number of spots so I went onto Amazon and bought a new lid and then removed the foam and leather top from the broken lid and attached it over the new lid and stapled everything into place with a strong fabric style stapler, this one amzn.to/3EmVJPS. But really, without the console lid with the extra foam and what not I bought years ago one could just buy some foam, cut it to size, and some leather or whatever material they like, cut it and attach to the lid fairly easily :-)

Heya! Unsure on power numbers as I never got it dynoed. I have it tuned with an SCT3 tuning device (tunes through the obd2 port) and was remote tuned by a guy named Henson but he's since closed shop sadly. I will be getting a new tuner tool as mine is old and the screen seems to have gone out on me, lol. There are a few tuners who tune these I'll need to see who I'll go with and will post info on what I find 🙏

@@D3RPZILLA is there a noticeable difference over stock? This is basically a stock engine as of now freshly converted. MagnaFlow cats would be the only big change right now.

And dual flow master, straight pipe, no H or X pipe.

@@anthonygiles6010 I think it gets up a good bit better than stock. It's been a long time since I've driven a purely stock Explorer though so hard to say exactly how much. It sounds awesome which is nice as I run Torque Monster headers with dual exhaust (dual in/dual out muffler) and no cats.

@@D3RPZILLA what tuner do you use. I want mine done. Just don't know where to start. Or who does older stuff.

Heya! Most of the suspension stuff (shocks, control arms, tie rods, bushings, etc) I got from Rockauto. I got the red brake calipers also from Rockauto. The Torque Monster Headers are from torquemonsterheaders.com/ (not sure if he still makes them or not). The MAX Elite rotors & ceramic pads I got from either their website (us.maxbrakes.com) or Amazon. The Meziere electric water pump was from something like Summit or Jegs I think... needs to be model WP374 (for 95 Mustangs). The exhaust was done at some exhaust shop using a Full Boar muffler that I got from online somewhere but can't recall where. The electric fans are from older Ford Contour that I modified to fit into the truck. The PWM fan controller is from delta current control (www.dccontrol.com/). If you are bored I have a super long 11+ year spanning forum thread on the Explorer and everything I struggled with, installed, worked on, etc, with the truck at www.explorerforum.com/forums/threads/2000-awd-xploder-from-turbo-back-to-na.319010/. If there any specific parts you are looking at/for?

It's actually part of an old MAC cold air intake (the metal tubing), an AMSOIL cone filter, and a 90mm lightning MAF tube... Lol. I still do need to make some kind of box for it to kind of isolate the air filter from the engine bay heat but that's on my giant to do list somewhere still :D Unsure if the old MAC intake kits are floating around anywhere, but could probably be easier just having a decently sized pipe bent to work and picking up some silicone couplers and clamps :)

@@D3RPZILLA would a maf sensor from a 5.0 mustang work for my explorer if I try and figure out getting and intake into it.

@@brotherkeeper2800 if it fits then it should but you would definitely need a tune with any maf change.. be it location in the intake and type.

I got them from torquemonsterheaders.com/, unsure if they still are making them or not though.

Sure thing, let me know :D

305 v8.. sadly they didn't drop big blocks in the 80s El Caminos lol.

That's a shame I was hoping you would say 454 also I think it's funny that you have a project El Camino and a Ford explorer I do as well have both that are projects LOL

@@darrinbunston5932 haha, hell yeah! 454 would be amazing... Sadly the 80s El Caminos the SS package is mostly crap 😢 I do plan an eventual LS swap most likely though.

Definitely tempting.. hard juggling so many projects as everything costs money and wife complains if I get to wild on to many things at once haha. Kind of want to toss on a slight lift and make it more useful for a bad weather type ride especially when we get some extra water on the roads down here 😎

Lol, yep :D Lost in translation it seems, haha! :)

Haha r ight on. Love my 5.0 Xploder! It's been a trooper for a long time though my transmission did recently shit the bed on me. I rebuilt the transmission valve body a few weeks ago and have it back up and running thankfully! That's what I get for letting the transmission fluid go past it's prime!!

lol :D

This isn't a fix type of video, lol.. plus the video chapters can jump anyone to whatever part of the video they like and skip the boring parts 👍

Heya! Sorry... old parts are long gone :-/ Also, you may want to remove address from comment as it is public for any and all to see.