Expedition Squared build

[ExplorerTom]

I've been a long time lurker that only occasionally stepped out of the shadows. Up until recently I've been going through a bit of an identity crisis. I had (still have as of this post) my '97 Explorer that was more built for rock crawling than it was for extended blasts of pavement between those dirt trails, but yet I tried to make it my "Overlander". The fantastic suspension compliance didn't bode well with stuff loaded onto and into the Explorer.

My '97 SAS'd Explorer with too many mods to list:




I recently realized that after the SAS conversion, I was still running those same trails that I had been running pre-SAS. I had the capability to run some really nasty trails, but on the rare occasion that I did, I didn't enjoy them all that much. And on a narrow, off camber shelf road at the top of a deep canyon outside of Moab, I was really wishing my rig wasn't super top heavy with a compliant suspension. And not to mention that at the beginning of a trail, I need to disconnect the front sway bar to get the full range of steering and soften up the rear shocks in addition to airing down. It's quite the list of chores to accomplish when I'm supposed to be out having fun.

So enter my 2000 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 5.4l 4x4. Pictured here the day I brought it home in April 2015:


It was initially purchased to be my daily driver and family camping mobile. My Explorer couldn't fit the 4 of us, 2 dogs and even a night's worth of gear without absolutely overloading the roof. The Expedition soon proved itself worthy of comfortably hauling the family across the country to various destinations and handling the light trail work that I threw at it. The next couple of posts will detail the early maintenance work I did to it along with a few upgrades I added to get this thread up to date.

Although I said this in the first post of my Explorer build (linked below), this build will be kept fairly simple. I've learned a great deal from that build. I want to keep this rig to a point where if I had to drive it across country at a moment's notice I would- and without hesitation. While I'm not to the point in life where I'm sitting in the front yard yelling at the neighbor kids to stay off my lawn, I do value my comfort.

 

[justcuz]

You don't see many Expeditions built up. Not sure why, seems like a good platform. I like the fact that they have a pretty tall spindle assembly and should be able to get reasonable suspension travel out of one. Are the torsion bars interchangeable with a pickup truck? If so you could easily gain some increased height using heavier truck torsion bars, maybe light duty F250 extra cab long bed bars. Remember the ones with the seven lug wheels? Coil springs for the rear can be made by any competent spring shop.
Looking forward to what you have planned for the new build!

 

[ExplorerTom]

From my research, the 7700 GVW torsion bars from the pickup (not sure if F-150 or 250) are the desired torsion bar, BUT I've heard they are too long to be used on the Expedition.

Some did come with air suspension instead of torsion bars though. As these vehicles get older and the air suspension wears out, people would rather not repair the air suspension and get a coilover instead. I think Monroe makes it. I don't know much about that, but it would be interesting to explore that route and play with different coil springs and better shocks.

 

[ExplorerTom]

One of the very first things I did when I brought it home was to clean up the interior. It was gross.


I went over everything with a couple Magic Erasers. The water in the bowl I was using with the sponges was disgusting and had to be changed frequently. But it did a great job.


Next I turned my attention to the exterior. The paint was in OK shape but water didn't bead up on it at all so it was time for a good waxing. Here you can see an area that I waxed next to the regular paint:


And while I don't like chrome, I decided to make the chrome that I did have look good. I went from this:

To this:


I also made the "mistake" of washing the engine. I say "mistake" because if the coil boots aren't in really good shape, the spark plug wells fill with water and it runs pretty crappy. So I turned lemons into lemonade and changed the spark plugs and coil boots. The old plugs were definitely old. I also discovered I had a valve cover leak.


The new plugs are fully threaded while the old ones weren't. I was a little concerned that this would allow me to screw the plug into the cylinder head too far and the piston would smash it out of the way. I doubled checked the part numbers and was convinced that I was ok.


With new plugs, new coil boots and a replaced coil, the truck ran great.

The wheels that came on the Expedition just didn't sit well with me. I thought they were ugly. And they had years of brake dust caked into the corners of the wheels that wasn't going to come off. So I got new wheels. At the time, I hadn't seen many other trucks with these wheels. Now I see them everywhere it seems.


I'm not one to "murder out" their vehicle and the gold trim has actually grown on me. For whatever reason though, there were not very many choices for wheels for this truck in an 18" size. But I like these wheels. Just wish I didn't see them everywhere in traffic.

About this time my brakes were making horrible noises. When I bought it they told me they were at like a 1 out of 5. After about 3 weeks they were down to this.

I think they were closer to .1 out of 5 when I bought it.

I put on new Hawk LTS pads and new NAPA blank rotors. I'm happy with this combo. Good cold bite and high heat resistance on those tight mountain roads loaded up with gear. A little dusty, but the black wheels hide it pretty well.

 

[FLoffroad1]

Looking forward to the rest of this build Tom; I always enjoy your photos here and on EF.

 

[ExplorerTom]

The first test was a camping trip sometime in late May or early June. We went to an area north of Woodland Park, CO. Just found a dead end spur road out in the forest that I stumbled on while 4wheelng a few months earlier. The truck did great. Hauled 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs and 2 nights worth of stuff with ease (roof top box and hitch basket were used).


I was sorting out an issue with the AWD system and had the fuse pulled for this trip so it was in RWD only. Handled everything just fine- even the multiple stream crossings.

A week or 2 later we did another trip. This time off Weston Pass on the other side of the mountain from Leadville.


And then a week later we did 4 nights at Mount Rushmore KOA. Talk about the polar opposite from the previous 2 camp spots. While sitting in my chair at the KOA, I counted something like 17 visible campsites. And that was without turning around. But it was fun.


Until the last night. One of the previous nights, a small storm rolled through and dumped some rain, flashed some lightning and even dumped some pea sized hail. There may have even been some wind. But it passed quickly. On the last night, I had just brought up the radar imagine on my phone that revealed a purple blob right on top of the blue dot indicating our position when tent walls began to collapse. My wife had just gone to cuddle with the kids just prior to this. I somehow got out of my sleeping bag without unzipping it in record time. I was standing there, pushing one tent wall up just to have the other fall in. I figured I looked like that cartoon character trying to plug a leaking dam with his fingers and toes. I knew the tent had been compromised, I just didn't know how bad. At some point the hail started. And it wasn't the pea sized stuff from the other night. This stuff was producing those gut wrenching, metal bending noises as it pummeled the vehicles. I was doing the best I could to keep the collapsed tent walls off my family that was huddled on the air matress in the middle of the tent and I could feel water rushing under my feet. Luckily it was water going under the tent and not through it. But I realized I was getting wet on my head. I looked up and I could see outside- through the hole in the rain fly. Great.

But the storm passed fairly quickly. It kicked our ***, but it moved on. The tent was trashed and it was like 12:30 am and I remembered seeing another blob on the radar behind this one. I ran out to the truck and folded the back seats down. I grabbed a kid and shuttled them to the truck and went back for another, then the dogs.


My wife and I did our best to get a couple hours of sleep in the front seats. That other storm came through but it was more like the one the first night. At first light I took stock of the damage.





A banana that had been left out on the picnic table:


I threw the tent away in the dumpster at the campsite. I have a friend that had the same tent that was ruined from high wind, so I didn't feel like replacing any of this.

The truck took a little bit of a beating:


But I the way home we stopped at Carhenge. If you ever find yourself near Alliance, Nebraska I suggest you stop. It's weird.


It's supposedly built to replicate the real Stonehenge in England exactly.

 

[ExplorerTom]

It wasn't long after that we went camping again. This time just south of Leadville. We had to resort to 2 dome tents, but we got it done. After we broke camp, we drove to the top of the mountain, way above tree line, still in RWD.

 

[ukrboy]

Subscribed. We have a 2001 Expy 5.4 4x4 as our camping rig. They are very capable of road. And the amount of stuff it fits is incredible. Any trouble removing the spark plugs? I had to replace one coil in eighth cylinder and it was a nightmare.

Sent from my SM-T330NU using Tapatalk

 

[ExplorerTom]

The 2V Modular motors don't have the problem with the spark plugs breaking off like the 3V motors. I believe the 3V motor started in 2003 or 2004, but I'm not sure. The only problem I had was access. Those near the firewall, especially on the driver side, are very tight. You just need to properly tighten them so they vibrate loose and get spit out.

If your intake manifold ever cracks (common problem that I'll address in a future post), that would be a GREAT time to replace spark plugs. The access problem is solved. And getting the manifold out really isn't that complicated.

Check out youtube for a channel called FordTechMakuloco (LINK). He provides fantastic videos on hundreds of different Ford related tech issues. His video on spark plug replacement says to tighten it down and then to go a little more to get it so it's good and tight. He details everything very well. Plus he's Canadian, so he does it all in a super friendly way.

 

[justcuz]

Any other serious dents other than the hood? So the truck torsion bars must be longer than the SUV bars? I've heard about the rear air bag spring replacement. Monroe and Moog may make cargo coils to prevent sag when loaded. I don't think they put air suspension in front, all the ones I see around here with bad bags are tail draggers!
I used Hummer H2 springs in the back of my 2000 Suburban. Wonder if they would fit under the Expedition?

 

[gloriavoxdei]

I love the trip reports. I live in Florissant so I've been many of the places you have pics of. I actually hunt Ptarmigan on that same ridge south west of Leadville. I like the pics of the the explorer and am currently gathering parts for an SAS on my '95 S10 which is also getting a TBI 350 next week. Keep the pics and stories coming.

 

[Root Moose]

Any other serious dents other than the hood? So the truck torsion bars must be longer than the SUV bars? I've heard about the rear air bag spring replacement. Monroe and Moog may make cargo coils to prevent sag when loaded. I don't think they put air suspension in front, all the ones I see around here with bad bags are tail draggers!
I used Hummer H2 springs in the back of my 2000 Suburban. Wonder if they would fit under the Expedition?

The light duty F250 torsion bars are the same length as the bars in a 5.4 equipped Expedition. The 4.6 Expedition and 4.6 F150 uses shorter t-bars.

At least that is my recollection. IIRC it was discussed in more detail in Mad Texan's Screw thread.

 

[ExplorerTom]

About the only rust on this truck is on the upper and lower control arms for the rear axle.

It's a common problem that will get addressed soon. I've seen people replace theirs when the links are way more rusted through. But I'm figuring with any offroading I plan to do, I'd sure hate to have one fail on me on the trail.

I developed the famous cracked intake manifold that 1st gens suffer from. Coolant leaks down between the V of the motor. I park backwards in my driveway so the nose is downhill this allowed the coolant to drip onto the driveway.

The crack is at the top passage. The new Dorman part is inexpensive and fairly easy to replace.

While I was doing the intake, I also replaced all of the shocks with some Rancho RS5000s. Ride seemed to improve marginally.


At some point I filled up the gas tank and noticed the gauge still read empty. I knew I was charged for about 25 gallons but the gauge read empty. And it actually read more empty than I had ever seen. I researched and found that it could be a gauge problem, so I programmed an X-gauge on my ScanGauge to read fuel capacity. It also read zero. I figured it had to be the fuel level sending unit- which is on the fuel pump- which is in the fuel tank. Great. And the tank was full. And gas is heavy. Triple great. I drove it around for about 300 miles to burn that fuel. Dropping the tank wasn't too bad. I did it by myself in my garage. I only had to cut 1 line that I couldn't disconnect.


As soon as I removed the pump, I knew what the problem was. The foam float that moves the fuel level sending unit arm up and down came off.



So I put a big washer on the end. And yes, the float still floats even with the added weight of the washer.

 

[ExplorerTom]

The back cargo area is set up for a removable 3rd row seat. It's removed most of the time to allow for stuff to be carried- and the dogs. But the tracks for the seat are kind of a pain:

The tracks are recessed and I'm sure the dogs didn't appreciate them.

Using the box that my Eezi-Awn rack came in (originally installed on my Explorer), I made a template of the floor area:


I then transferred it to a piece of OSB:


Picked up matching carpet from the junkyard from an Expedition without the 3rd row seat option:

And scrubbed and power washed it.

And the final result:


It's easily removable when I do need to install the 3rd row.

The reason for the OSB is to add tie down points to it. Haven't done that yet.

 

[ExplorerTom]

I've personally never liked the cigarette lighter adapters to charge stuff: tablets/phones/GPS.... Someone showed me this and I jumped on it:


It's wired to an always hot circuit in case I wanted to charge something while the ignition wasn't on. But the blue LED glows anytime there's power applied. A simple rocker switch solves that problem.


Upgrading my audio to the 21st century is in the plan. Don't hate the cassette player.