My 2000 5.4l Eddie Bauer 4x4

[ExplorerTom]

Finished my wrench fest.

What an epic adventure that was.

The Dorman intake swap itself was actually pretty easy. The intake was cracked near the coolant crossover tube which was causing my coolant leak. Apparently a fairly common place to crack.




While the intake was off, I pulled the valve covers off. The captive fasteners are a nice touch. I pressure washed the covers and installed new gaskets with some RTV to help hold them in place.

The new intake went on nice and easy. The intake comes with coarse threaded screws to replace most of the fasteners that go into it. Nice in a way because it takes fewer turns to get it tight. Make sure to put the PVC o-ring on the elbow before you install it!

Here's where the fun started.

I also changed the oil. Getting the oil filter off was a serious PITA. It's a good thing I have one of those wrenches that fits over the end of the filter. I put the new filter on and filled the crankcase with fresh oil. When I started the motor, oil was gushing onto the floor.

Crap.

My first thought was since I changed the valve covers, maybe I didn't get it seated all the way and there was a leak. But that was a LOT of oil. I took a look at the old filter and noticed that the gasket wasn't on it. Uh oh. Took the new filter off and sure enough, there was the old gasket.

Oil is everywhere. All over the engine bay and all over the floor.

And in the few seconds the motor was running, it was running like crap.

Fill it up with oil and fire it up again. No leaks. At least that's progress. Still running like crap. Threw a code for #7 misfire. Pulled the coil, swapped the boot and spring. Still misfired. Swap coils with #5. Still misfiring on #7.

Wait a minute. During the valve cover swap, I took apart the main wiring harness connector and didn't tighten the bolt that holds it together. Tightened it up and it definitely drew it together some more. Fired it up and still running crappy. But no more #7 misfire!

I could hear sucking coming from around the DPFE/EGR/EGV. Got a code for excessive EGR flow. Started researching that. Thought it was weird to have any one of them fail at this time. Just because of all this work. I wasnt happy with the vacuum line routing to the FPR- it went right across the EGR pipe. I didn't remember how it was routed before. Went back out and that vacuum line was melted and in 2 pieces.

Crap. Guess I'm going to the junkyard to get a new vacuum line.

While driving there, I had an idea. I wasn't happy with the routing and it melted because I had the EGR and FPR swapped.

Got a "new" EGR vacuum line from a '98 Expedition. I don't think its the same but it works.

Got home, installed the new vacuum line and swapped the other line over to the FPR. Wouldn't you know it, the lines seemed to fit better. Fired up the motor and it ran fine.

Success!

 

[ExplorerTom]

Driving impressions after the intake swap:

While I did not get a side-by-side comparison pic of the OEM intake and the Doorman, they are definitely different. The Doorman is significantly less bulky. The intake runners seem shorter and don't have what appears to be a resonance chamber underneath. I figured this would translate into more torque or something.

So far it drives like normal.

While watching the Scangauge, I seem to be down a little on the MPGs. But it could be because I reset the ECU/PCM. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[ExplorerTom]

So I missed this one. When my Expedition was parked in the garage for over a week, I installed the Rancho RS5000 shocks. They defintely help to control the ride.




Installation is certainly made easier with an impact gun. And a bunch of extensions.

Also painted the rear rotors black. Since the "hat" of the rear rotors is large they show more through the wheels. And they were looking pretty rusty.



Also rotated the tires front to back.

 

[ExplorerTom]

So this is a picture of my coolant flush. The first bottle is clear. The next bottles are all from the initial drain. And then they progress along as I flushed. Still wasn't happy with how clean the water was but I was out of containers.

 

[ExplorerTom]

I've noticed that all 1st gen hitches are all rusty and look gross. Mine was no different. I spent some time on it with a wire brush attachment on my drill to remove and bunch of the rust.




I masked it off quick with some newspaper and hit it with some rattle can bedliner. Not a very good pic, but you get the idea:

 

[z168]

good job on the tow hitch. Been thinking of getting it powdercoated. Once-and-done type of deal. but I should at least repaint mine but Im lazy to pull it down. Right now I get by by wiping it with tire dressing after a wash

 

[reece146]

I need to drop mine and clean it up. After the bigger tires it's really just hanging there and being ugly.

 

[ExplorerTom]

When the lighting is better, I'll get a better picture.

I probably have 30-45 minutes invested. Most of that was with the wire brush cleaning up the rust.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Fixed my rear wiper motor with the help of THIS thread.

When I pounded the shaft out of the housing, I could tell it was stuck. And once free of the worm gear, it still wouldn't rotate.

Here's what it looked like inside the housing:


The end of the shaft had significant corrosion on it. Some brake cleaner and a paper towel got it smooth again:


Overall a very easy project.

I just painted the rear wiper arm black and I threw away the old wiper so I can't actually test it. But I could see the shaft rotating, so I know it'll work.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Dropped the gas tank today to change the fuel pump to fix my gas gauge not working.

Tank came down pretty easy. I did it all by myself. I did have to cut one rubber fuel line because I couldn't get it to release. Got a piece of 3/8" diameter about a foot long to replace it.


My reason for this project was because my fuel gauge didn't work. I know there's tricks to supply resistance to see it it's a gauge problem but my ScanGauge was also reading 0% so I figured it was a problem with the sendor in the tank.

And sure enough. When I pulled the old pump out, it was missing the float on the sendor arm.


The piece of foam that floats in the gas wallowed out the hole through it to the point where it could float off the shaft. Found it floating in the tank by itself.


But I'm waiting for a new fuel tank pressure sensor to come before I can reinstall the tank. I snapped off the brittle plastic connector while trying to transfer it to the new pump.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Finished up the install today. Getting the new pressure sensor in was much harder than I thought. You need to push it straight down, then turn it. And to push it down, you need to compress a small crush washer.

Getting the tank back up into position by myself was fun. Some 2x4s helped with that.

Started it up and it seems to run just fine. And my gas gauge works!

 

[ExplorerTom]

Well after I fixed my gas gauge, I drove to work. Then I tried to go to lunch and it wouldn't start. Long story short, the starter relay crapped out.

Replaced that tonight and all is well again.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Added a USB charger to the dash. This one has a 3 amp charger as well to handle ipad charging duties. Those cigarette lighter adapters I've found to be hit or miss- especially in bumpy conditions.




I added a switch because that bright blue light is on anytime there's power applied.

 

[reece146]

Nice touch with the switch.

 

[Mediamonkey11]

My nitpicking mind likes how you followed the existing curved line with the outer edge of the charging port. Well done.


Interesting though, I'd have likely just colored over the light with a sharpie hahaha

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ExplorerTom]

Yeah I was trying to match the 4wd switch with the location.

And really, there's a rubber cover that goes over the USB holes that covers the light that would work just fine. I got the switch when I thought I was going to tap into the dash power point that is always hot- but getting to those wires was more disassembly than I was looking for. I tapped into the dash power point on my Explorer for this install so it's roughly the same.

Here's my Explorer:


One of these days I'll upgrade the audio in both of these trucks to the 21st century.

 

[reece146]

I hear you about the head unit. The mach is pretty decent in my truck, it works and has surprising features for 2001 but I'm still going to swap it out for a 2DIN Android unit. I've got a bunch of projects lined up for when the truck gets taken off the road for the winter.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Put the side trim back on. Went from this:

To this:


It might be back too far by just a hair, but it's pretty close. I used some 3M moulding and trim tape. I used a heat gun to soften up the old tape to remove it completely.

I also washed and waxed the roof and hood. I don't know if the roof has ever been waxed.

Then I changed out my alternator. The battery light came on again. This I didn't remove the radiator hose. Pretty simple job like that. Got a new one from O'Reilly's- not a rebuilt. Voltage output is higher than I've ever seen it. If for whatever reason this doesn't fix it, I think I'll do the belt tensioner.

Then I followed this video:
http://youtu.be/UEJbKLZ7RmM
To get my headlights uncloudy.

Here's the before:



And the after will have to wait until tomorrow for the clear coat to fully cure and clear up. But initial results are looking good.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Picture of the hail damage to the hood. In normal light it's fairly tough to see, but parked like this it shows pretty well.

 

[reece146]

That's not damage, that's patina.