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COMPLETE explorer 5.0 swap/truck overhaul


dhirocz

New Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2014
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
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Vehicle Year
1996
Make / Model
Ford
Transmission
Automatic
Hi. New to the forum here. Been a gearhead for a long time. Decided to stop lurking.

I have a '96 XL 2WD 2.3L. Decided to do a 5.0 swap on it and getting a donor was the way to go. Way too many Expo parts I'd like to swap over not to get a donor vehicle. Found a nice 2000 2WD to use for the swap.

What I'd like to do is do a COMPLETE swap, meaning everything possible. I know I cant use it all...I already swapped in sport trac seats and a cluster...what I'm looking to do is basically tear it down and rebuild it a section at a time. This is my winter project and I can afford to spend some time on it. What I want is someone to look over my plan to see if I missed anything that might end up being a snag.

So the plan is:
1.replace the long bed with a short bed stepside bed (already have the bed). I'm aware this will require removing the tank, exhaust, shortening lines and shortening the frame. Frame will be reinforced with plate and bolted.
2. flip spring mounts and bolt up the 8.8 with sport trac leafs.
3. use the larger tank, replace filler tube, and upgrade the pump before reassembly.
4. replace brake lines (safety)
5. loosely bolt bed to frame for test fit.
6. remove front fenders and hood; remove engine, steering box and ALL wiring; clean frame, prepare for assembly. Paint front end panels while off of truck. Getting a fast ratio box to replace the stock steering box.
7. gut interior down to firewall. remove and paint doors.
8. paint cab while disassembled. replace weatherstripping and ditch solid glass rear window.
9. set 5.0 in place complete after cleaning it up, swapping to ported GT-40's and resealing the engine. This engine will get a new oil pump and be resealed, H.O. cam, new injectors and get a new damper while it's out. Also doing a bearing inspection while the pan is off and compression check before it's pulled. It'll also get long tube headers while I have frame access. I'm not a fan of the TM design of the tri-Y's and can modify headers to fit this way. Have a driveshaft built.
10. reassemble engine compartment.
11. reassemble interior using EXPLORER components, including the wiring. I know it wont all work. I'm doing this not just to keep PATS, but to have all the other bells and whistles a base XL doesn't have, like cruise and that nifty stock remote. I'm swapping the dash (color) anyway. Then I can also use the information center easily. Harness will be stripped of unnecessary wiring (rear windows for example) and modified as necessary.
12. final reassembly of truck and terminate exhaust.

For now the plan is to clean it up and run it as is. I'll run the engine mostly stock while I finish a fresh 306 on the stand.

In the end I am just looking for a nice short bed std cab truck that I can toy with. This should give me a good head start and something I can build on as time goes by. One thing to note, I would prefer to swap parts over to another frame entirely, and would, if I knew of a better frame to use that was backwards compatible. I'd prefer coils up front as opposed to my stocker but never found a definite answer if my parts would transfer over.

I'm expecting a lot of wires branching off the harness towards the back of the truck to have to be shortened or modified in some way. Useless wiring will get removed from the harness altogether.

I'm planning on swapping over a lot of parts, including
-front bumper
-complete dash and harness
-console with info center
-drivetrain
-power window/door lock guts
-front brakes (if they will work)

Then I'm scrapping the remains of the Explorer (unless someone wants a 2.3L explorer :p) and I'll get some SN95 Cobra wheels, tonneau cover, rhino line the bed and get a tool box that sits inside the bed and call it done for now. Also modifying the bed slightly for a small removable crane to pick up heavy objects (engine blocks mostly) Later in I'll put in something a little more pissed off and add some stall.

Lets hear it! I know it'll be a lot of work :icon_welder: but I can do it myself, including welding and paint, so why not?
 

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