My 2000 5.4l Eddie Bauer 4x4

Toward the right I believe there is stuff behind that might limit space, but it's pretty wide open.

Thanks, Gents.

You can pop that panel off without any tools.

The shifter and turn signal are in the way, but you can twist and turn it to get it off.

Ok, so here's the total from our CO to FL road trip:
9 days
11 states
Temps from 12 to 85 degrees
Drove in a snow storm, rain storms, cross winds, tail winds, head winds and no wind
24 hours straight on the way down, got a hotel on the way back
Saw a few deer along side the road but only a single deer in the middle of the road (early morning in Alabama)
Used about a qt of oil
Heater hose popped off heater core and spilled about 3 gallons of coolant and caused about an hour stop at a gas station to fix it.

Overall, a good trip.


The 10 bedroom "across the street from the beach" house we rented for the week:


No other pics since it was pretty much just hammer down time. Gas up, pee breaks, food and go.

Did a little painting project today. The window trim was a faded black/grey and I wanted to make it look more black. I'm a fan of having as few of colors possible on the exterior of my vehicles. I typically like 2. For now I've got black and gold- the black/grey was adding another color. I don't want it "murdered out", just closer to 2 colors.

Before:


During (this is the biggest masking job I've ever tackled):


After:


I just used Dupicolor trim and bumper paint. I still need to do the driver side.

I haven't seen it in the sunlight yet, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.

Added a middle seat inverter today. I've had this small little inverter for years. I have no idea if it's a modified sine wave or true sine wave inverter- for the price I remember paying, probably a modified sine wave. Anyway, it's good for charging various things: DVD players, cell phones, laptops.....

I've always thought that the middle seat radio controls were the dumbest idea ever, so that was my real estate.

Before:


Look at the cavernous space behind there!


Here's all the electronics needed for the back seat passengers to annoy the driver:


And the back of the faceplate of the audio controls.


I then painted the faceplate black to cover the white stencils for audio control and cut out the needed openings for the inverter faceplate. I thought about making my own faceplate, but I think it turned out well enough this way. I then opened up the inverter, cut the wires and soldered in extensions with connectors and wire labels:


All installed:


I haven't been able to test it wired to the battery as I'm waiting on a Blue Sea fuse box to run it through first. But before I cut off the cig lighter plug, it was charging a laptop and iPad just fine.

For anyone that's ever driven in icing conditions, you know that regular fluid usually doesn't help and the HVAC defroster sometimes can't keep up. Colorado typically doesn't have those conditions, but I bought this over a year ago when I was driving about 150 miles a day and never installed it on that vehicle.

So anyway, I decided to install the AlphaTherm in my Expedition. I am continually amazed at how a full sized vehicle such as the Expedition really doesn't have any spare real estate under the hood. But I spotted a nice spot in front of the washer reservoir below the headlight.

Install is easy- finding the space really is the hardest part. A couple screws to secure it. Hook up the lines from the washer pump and the nozzles. Hook it up to the battery. Done.

The weather hasn't been such that I can test it, but it should work.

AlphaTherm Heated Wash AT-38OD

Added some LED bulbs to the interior. WOW! What a difference.

Need to do the running boards still. Also looking to add some additional LED lights to the cargo area.

ExplorerTom said:

Added some LED bulbs to the interior. WOW! What a difference.

Need to do the running boards still. Also looking to add some additional LED lights to the cargo area.

Click to expand...

And they won't burn or melt any of the plastic around the mounts like the bulbs do, to boot.

The running board LED swap is 100% worth it. It actually makes the running board lights useful.

I flushed the radiator and block last weekend. Assumed it has never been done in16 years and 190k miles.

This was the first radiator drain and rinse:


Then I pulled the left side block drain (the right side is behind the starter):


I got some chunks of stuff out of the block drain:


Then I added some Prestone radiator flush and distilled water and drove around- ran a few errands. When it cooled I drained and rinsed the radiator and block again:


Then I filled it with pure distilled water and got it up to temp for awhile and drained and rinsed the radiator and block (left 4 is from radiator, right 4 is from block):


Then I filled it with 50/50 coolant and distilled water with some Water Wetter.

I've had this Eezi-Awn rack on my Explorer since August or so. It's a nice rack. But I think I'm going to shift my offroading needs to my Expedition.

I had the rack laid out what I thought was perfectly- then I decided to check the tailgate clearance. Oops. It pushed the rack forward a little and is going to cause me to o a little customizing of the forward most attach point.

The rails are some extruded aluminum channel:


The rack attachments are only at the lateral channels. As you can see here, it's a little forward of the end of the rail:


But overall it's a great platform:

that looks pretty awesome!

The "great" Denver blizzard of 2016:



Other than not beng able to shift into R or P because of all the built up slush underneath the truck, it did fine.

If the tires are 32" and the snow is about to the hub..... 14-16" of snow. Super wet, heavy snow that splashes when you walk or drive through it. It was 70 degrees the day before.

that looks like a lot of fun to drive through

I sure remember that one Tom, I was out shoveling my driveway and sidewalk all day that stuff took so long to clear. Fun times for sure.

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I shoveled most of my driveway into a single long pile along my driveway. My kids then tunneled through it. It was big enough that I could go through it. By morning the tunnel had slumped significantly and closed itself off.

Now all the snow is gone (a week later) except there's still evidence of that pile.

More snow today and tomorrow though!

Well, I've now owned this thing for 1 year and 1 day. In that time I've driven it 17,230 miles. It's been to 14 different states. It's been "totaled" by hail. It's been slept in several times. It's been as high as 11,158 feet and as low as 40 feet below sea level. It's driven through blizzards and flooding rain. It's been towed home. It's towed others home.

It's been a good truck.

These are good trucks. I concur.


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Replaced all the ignition coils with Motorcraft.

I wasn't getting any misfire codes but I felt like the idle wasn't quite what it should be. And the coils were who knows how old.

The idle afterwards does seem better.

I do have a code for P0452 though. I'm thinking that gas tank pressure sensor I replaced last summer went out. It was an Airtex sensor. I've read that Airtex fuel pumps are crap, so it makes sense that their sensors are crap too. I should have bought a Motorcraft sensor. Or a vent hose is cracked.

Added some hail damage to it.