Sorry dudes, I got a Ford...

smitty5150

Original poster
Member
Nov 18, 2011
1,069
My Tahoe was gonna blow and I needed something quick. I traded for a Honda and then for a 2000 Explorer 5.0 AWD. Yeah, it's a Ford. But it has some balls and isn't too bad looking. Right now it's on stock rear shackles with the front torsions turned down, might add 1" blocks. Upgraded to 16" sport wheels. Optioned out. Doing projectors this weekend. Be kind:frown:
Here was my Tahoe(nice from far, far from nice)

Honda(short lived, still modified)


Exploder

 

blazinlow89

Member
Jan 25, 2012
2,088
Not bad, I wanted one back in the day as having the 5.0 meant I could do a ton of stuff to it. I picked up the TB instead. Not going to hate cause you have another branded vehicle, besides its going to look sweet with a set of projectors. :thumbsup:

I would say the 5.0 is probably one of Ford's best engines, and the auto tranny in the exploders (sorry couldn't help myself) is not to bad either. Friend at work DD's one he paid $400 for, it is in rough shape body wise, but it runs and gets from a-b-a, most of the time.
 

Playsinsnow

Member
Nov 17, 2012
9,727
White trucks always look good in the snow!



:poke: What is that under the front driver wheel on the Honda? :confused:
 

dmanns67

Member
Apr 3, 2013
32,979
Ohio
Playsinsnow said:
White trucks always look good in the snow!

:poke: What is that under the front driver wheel on the Honda? :confused:

Looks like road kill :undecided:

I use to be a Ford hater too until I married my wife. 2003 F-150, 235,000 miles.

Look on the bright side, you have another set of headlights to do a projector retrofit on :thumbsup:
 

smitty5150

Original poster
Member
Nov 18, 2011
1,069
Ton of engine mods available and, from what I've read, the transmissions are bulletproof. I wanted an SS, but I didn't want a payment just yet. This was a cash deal and has tons of potential. I may end up giving this one to my wife and trading hers on an SS, but I'll have to see how hers acts over the next couple months before making that determination.
 

Envoy_04

Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
Looks pretty decent to me.

I'm a die-hard GM guy as most of my posts show, but I have to be honest and say that Dad had a Ford company truck that got assigned to him in 01, and was supposed to be on a 4 year cycle. They ended up doubling that and he got a new truck in late 08, and that Ford was still going strong. The replacement was an 09 Chevrolet that has had way more problems than the Ford ever had - the ONLY good thing about the truck is the engine.

Those Explorers didn't actually look too bad back then either - hope it works out to be a good and reliable vehicle for you. :thumbsup:
 

Juicy K

Member
Feb 14, 2012
433
Indianapolis, Indiana
As long as it does what you want it too. :thumbsup: I remember in the early 90's when the Explorer came out I was in love with them. I would still take one if it were done up like the Jurassic Park Explorers (Just not electric). Now that reminds me of the Ranger Splash, I wanted one of those too... Wow that was 20-21 years ago, I was only 8 years old. :rotfl:
 

Bartonmd

Member
Nov 20, 2011
545
blazinlow89 said:
. . . I would say the 5.0 is probably one of Ford's best engines, . . .

The 302 is not a really good engine. There's lots of stuff you can do to them because that's what was in the Mustang forever, and they're not horrible or anything in stock form, but they don't live long with high cylinder pressures, or under detonation (spark knock), because there's only 4 head bolts per jug, as opposed to the 5 bolts per jug on the SBC and many other engines. All of the Ford modular engines are better.

Mike
 

oh05ext

Member
Dec 7, 2011
166
the motor in that explorer has some potential from what ive read. in stock form the heads flow really well and respond to bolt ons rather from what I read on the forums while searching for mods to my dads 95 f150.
 

Envoy_04

Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
Bartonmd said:
The 302 is not a really good engine. There's lots of stuff you can do to them because that's what was in the Mustang forever, and they're not horrible or anything in stock form, but they don't live long with high cylinder pressures, or under detonation (spark knock), because there's only 4 head bolts per jug, as opposed to the 5 bolts per jug on the SBC and many other engines. All of the Ford modular engines are better.

Mike

Agreed, but he's still better off, IMO, with the 5.0 than with a spark plug shooting 5.4. :yes:
 

blazinlow89

Member
Jan 25, 2012
2,088
Juicy K said:
I would still take one if it were done up like the Jurassic Park Explorers (Just not electric).

Friends told me I should do that to the TB, while doing research I found the Jeeps done up and I love the concept. Explorer's look awesome too.

Bartonmd said:
The 302 is not a really good engine. There's lots of stuff you can do to them because that's what was in the Mustang forever, and they're not horrible or anything in stock form, but they don't live long with high cylinder pressures, or under detonation (spark knock), because there's only 4 head bolts per jug, as opposed to the 5 bolts per jug on the SBC and many other engines. All of the Ford modular engines are better.

Mike

Notice I said one of :wink:. While its not a 351, with some slight work they can make some good power. We made a ton of parts for the modular engines, and they were good for some really good numbers on a dyno and great numbers in 1/4 mile.

Just saying, I have seen 302's running after years of abuse and neglect, not saying they were like new but they ran.
 

HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
My uncle had Mountaineer with the 5.0 and it was ok. Only 215 HP so definitely needs help to come near even the 4.2, but the sound you can get is far better.
 

BoldAdventure

Member
Jun 28, 2012
1,634
It's hard to be the sound of the 5.0. Hell I can almost always tell when a Mustang rolls by. It's hard to say that with a SBC.
 

smitty5150

Original poster
Member
Nov 18, 2011
1,069
Def looking forward to some bolt ons, with the goal of putting 300hp to the wheels. Intake, exhaust, throttle body, shift kit, efans, tune, etc. Its a great runner, the awd does an excellent job of putting the available power down.
 

IllogicTC

Member
Dec 30, 2013
3,452
blazinlow89 said:
Notice I said one of :wink:. While its not a 351, with some slight work they can make some good power. We made a ton of parts for the modular engines, and they were good for some really good numbers on a dyno and great numbers in 1/4 mile.

Just saying, I have seen 302's running after years of abuse and neglect, not saying they were like new but they ran.

Former 351 owner, it lasted 4 years of a younger me driving but it had its problems. Oil was getting into the third cylinder back on the passenger side and fouling the plugs a lot, it also ate oil like mad too. From what I understand they usually have oil pressure problems as they get older, mine definitely did, even when freshly topped off, sitting at idle she'd dip down to almost 0 sometimes.
 

smitty5150

Original poster
Member
Nov 18, 2011
1,069
Couldn't get the alignment right for shit with the torsion keys turned down. Had no choice but to crank them and add shackles to the rear to get her level. Also got the awd working and didn't some basic maintenance.
y5yvu4y2.jpg
zy4ebure.jpg
 

Envoy_04

Member
Jul 1, 2013
749
smitty5150 said:
Couldn't get the alignment right for shit with the torsion keys turned down. Had no choice but to crank them and add shackles to the rear to get her level. Also got the awd working and didn't some basic maintenance.
y5yvu4y2.jpg
zy4ebure.jpg

Looks better that way! :thumbsup:
 

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