Budget REbuild (4.0/A4LD)

[out cast]

So the Explorer is turning 300,000 miles over soon and I decided a new engine would be my gift to Brittany (the explorer). A friend had gotten an explorer with a blown transmission that the guy tried to dissassemble and rebuild. He failed on that and gave up after dissassembly. So my friend got it and is planning on puttin a 351 into it so he needed to get rid of the current drivetrain... and I was the lucky one that received it.

It was delivered today so I decided I would tear it down and re ring the pistons, put new gaskets in it, and possibly a 410 cam if money allows.

The before...

Extra parts and transmission... (the transmission is in the boxes lol)

End of day one

Inside of the intake

ewwwww...

and the only casualty so far...

I was takin the passenger exhaust manifold off and the last bolt got tight and... POP! I broke the last top bolt...


Post up with any info on the rebuild that would be helpful, as well as experiences and other stuff... (not much of a word guy)

 

[martin]

Wen you remove parts, put the assosiated bolts etc. in a zip loc bag and tie it to the romoved part. makes re-assembly so much easier as it avoids the where the heck are the bolts for this sindrome. You probably knew that but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

 

[beejium]

might be able to drill that out, or possibly weld a nut to it and turn it out. worst comes to worst the machine shop will be able to get it, but that will cost a lil more. it don't look like there is enough meat to put a pair of vices grips on it. bolt extractor may help, but again it doesn't look like there is much there to grab. another idea is would be to hit the stud with a pneumatic chisel at an angle to the left and work it till it's out. it's kinda risky either way you go.... the more you cut into the stud the less you have to work with. an old friend told me years ago to use a 3/8 compost impact on manifold studs and start low and move up with the shortest socket possible. he said that even though it's not enough to yank it out, it will break some of the rust loose.
it's fixable don't give up!

 

[out cast]

all the bags are in their appropriate storage lock (dollar store brand) baggies. so far there isn't many bolts... valve cover bolts with keepers, ps pump bolts, exhaust manifold bolts, intake manifold nuts, etc...

i'm gonna rip the covulted(?) tubing off the harnesses and rewrap them and use blue tape on the ends since i'll be doin blue valve covers and block. the upper and lower intake will be polished much like multirangers project shelby ...

 

[out cast]

bad news today... My current engine in my truck started spewing oil outta the front seal and i lost oil psi. I'm thinkin i'll be swapping it sooner than i thought. Meaning less time for rebuild. How strong are the bottom ends on these 4.0's? i may end up just doing upper and lower intake and valve covers for now and see how long it'll last...


Split post, i left this up while i called and talked to the guy about the age of the engine in mileage terms. He said its just over 60k on a fresh rebuild. Should i just hurry up and do a quickie rebuild or just do top end?

 

[Big Jim M]

Yep! But first thing to do is to put some vacuum into the valve cover from a vac hose.. Oil spewing out is most likely a problem of blowby that hasn't been contained by the PVC system. So add more vac and the oil should stop spewing..
An engine with only 60K on the rebuild should be good to go like it is..
Big JIm

 

[out cast]

after more diggin into the engine my friend and I discovered that there is NO way this was rebuilt at 60k ago. we are gonna make time to tear down to the heads and get the heads hot bathed and machined up. its a fairly cheap build so it'll work for me.

tonight we tore the front accessories off, lower intake, oil pan, and motor mounts. the water pump was takin off yesterday so a friend could have it, he'll buy me a new one later. the clutch fan and fanblade will be the ones on my truck right now since they are new as of a month ago. i'm gonna regasket the heads, lower intake plenum, upper intake, valve covers, rear main, oil pan and everything else. i'll also be checkin the rings to see if they are in spec and possible doin them up as well... we'll see...

no pics tonight sorry.

 

[out cast]

Heads are off to the machinist for hot bath and flux now. I have questions though.

1) on the head gasket, the is a green buildup on the holes for what i'm guessing is the water ports, the small holes around the cylinders. Since this is my first engine i don't know if thats bad.

2) what am i looking for on the pistons, cylinders, block, etc.? The pistkns have some buildup but nothing major and no discolor.

3)what is a easys way to get the block clean? It is somewhat clean after 3 cans of degreaser but not clean enough for painting. The botto
End is good so i don't wanna tear it apart for a hot bath. Any other options?

Thanks in advance.

 

[madmodsranger]

1) on the head gasket, the is a green buildup on the holes for what i'm guessing is the water ports, the small holes around the cylinders. Since this is my first engine i don't know if thats bad.

I just pulled a head and have the exact same issue. I have one seized cylinder and the buildup seems the worst around that one. Also looking for answers on whether this is normal or not

 

[out cast]

so i've been told that its not a normal thing... its the antifreeze eating through. but it depends on whether its a normal hole or not. if its somewhat solid than it could be a "stop leak byproduct"

Parts that are wearing paint now...
heads
block
valve cover gaskets
motor mounts

Parts waiting for paint
intake
oil pan
bracketry

My wiring will be in fresh blue wire loom soon and then i will be starting the actual rebuild. Soon, after i find a decent exploded view of the transmission i will be putting it back together as well.

 

[out cast]

all new gaskets in and painted everything...

4 in the gut, 2 in the fridge

block painted

in progress

engine finished awaiting wiring

 

[Angie]

Looking good

 

[out cast]

maybe i should paint the intake blue, wouldn't that look familiar to you... lol no i'll keep it my way.