My Tow Pig Revival

[Junkyard Jack]

So, the story goes like this. My grandmother purchased this truck new in 1998 I believe. It is a 5.4L with the towing package, I assume I have the E4OD because the truck has a build date of 8/97. If my research is correct the 4R100 didn't start production until 1998. My grandmother lovingly used this truck for about 10 years give or take and then it got parked under a pole barn and was only ever brought out when we needed to tow something big enough to justify using the "big truck". Truck always hauled and towed like a dream, great truck for the job. One of the last things it was used for was to tow a camper my grandparents had and that was only a few times. Fast forward to 2021 and I am in the market for a truck I can use to haul the pups and kayaks to the lake with and occasionally pull a trailer and I'm looking all over for different trucks and this and that when I was walking around on the farm and was just looking at that old expedition and decided instead of buying a truck, why not just resurrect a truck that has always been in my family.

Put a new battery in it and the thing fired right up, that was a relief, nothing exciting happened yet. Moved it into the shop and let it warm up. At this point everything was good, all the fluids looked decent. Ran it down the road a ways and it shifted into all 4 gears, 4 low seems to be working normally at this time as well. With 190k on the clock I'm impressed at how well it moves.

Few weeks later I top the tires up with air and begin the two hour drive to my house. The thing starts misfiring bad underload which I was actually counting on as I had already ordered a set of plugs and coils for this thing. I was a mechanic for 10 years so I worked on a ton of these 5.4s and I figured I better start there before I even knew it would run. Changed the oil, replaced the coils and spark plugs and(*Knocks on wood*not trying to jinx myself) it just runs great. I put some decent but used 265/70R17s I got off of a 4runner at work on the truck and I now have a decent rig I believe. I also had to take the rear hatch apart to fix the cable so it would open again, It's about halfway working which is enough for me right now. lol

 

[Junkyard Jack]

What really helped to spur this project to "completion" was my father-in-law turning 60. He always told me how he'd do anything to go get his father's old tractor, always said he'd do anything to have it back and it meant so much to him. My wife and I wanted to make this happen and I felt like I had the means to do it. This old expedition and trailer have towed half a dozen different tractors on many occasions so I knew I could get it done especially with my dad's help since he farmed tobacco for 20 years and hauled equipment for my grandfather's Ford tractor dealership. Revived the expedition first and made a few test trips with it and I was confident in the truck, ran very strong. Also recharged the A/C and that got that working thank goodness, it'll freeze you out of that truck. Next thing for me to do was repack the bearings on this old trailer I had to drag out of the grass with the tractor, it was deep in the weeds. My grandparents are in their last years, so our old farm is very overgrown, or it was. I try to get down there as much as possible to visit and mow and bushhog, just generally beat back the ever-encroaching weeds. With fresh packed bearings and new trailer tires I figured I was all set, but I wanted to make an addition to the capability of the truck. I've known people who used these air springs and enjoyed them, and I can now say that I too think these are a good and fairly inexpensive upgrade that makes the truck feel even more confident when towing. Shoot a little air in them to level it out and besides the stopping distance it never even felt like I was pulling anything. Seriously impressed with this truck. Five hours with an empty trailer, loaded the tractor all the way to the front and then shot some air in the bags to level the truck out and then it made it all the way home pulling a loaded trailer. Old truck still working hard, I love it.






Ha I surprised my dad when I got this picture of him with the truck and trailer before we left SC

 

[Junkyard Jack]

I got the tractor delivered and that was for the most part a success except for the fact I did not put it in 4 low when I went to turn around in a field and buried this truck and trailer but a quick yank from my father in law's 2020 f150 and I was free in no time. Since all that I have towed a few smaller trailers helping my in-laws move and I purchased a used but great Matco 6s 72" tool box for my small shop area on the old farm. Mostly this truck is now used for when me and the wife go visit my grandparents because it allows the dogs to have more room as well as more room for all our stuff and keeps the miles off of our daily drivers.





I put this dumb intake on it because there is nothing I hate more than the factory ford air boxes lol! I hated trying to get those things to line up correctly and snap together it was like I needed 4 hands to do it.


The radio quit working, or maybe it was the factory amp that quit but I had to come up with some kind of a solution. BT radio was installed along with a little back up camera.

 

[rjrodney]

Sweet ride! Run the heat full blast for an hour and check for coolant under the intake. Much easier to fix now than in the dead of winter. If it’s leaking there, that’ll kill your new tuneup.

 

[along88]

That is awesome. Love that it gets to stay in the family. I plan on having my 1rst gen always.

 

[Junkyard Jack]

That's it as she sits now, my biggest issue is that I cannot just leave anything alone. Lurking on this forum is not helping either. MISTERgadget and his Thunder build has me wanting to install the 2010-2014 door strikers and I'm mostly interested in installing Hydro boost because I believe that more breaking force is never a bad thing as long as it doesn't blow a line out. I'd like to get a nice deep trans pan with the 5r110 filter (I think that's a thing I can do?) Other things I would like is possibly going to either a 33in or a 35in tire. Looking through the posts here I think I just need to commit and do a little lift and 35s with 4.10 gears and a Tru-trac. Maybe I'll be responsible and just leave it as is but knowing me I doubt that will be the case. These trucks have the 9.75 rear and the 8.8 front right? I had some vin decoders say it had a 9" rear but I'm 99% sure that's wrong. Probably the next "mod" I do will be to replace the blown to bits door speakers and I want to get an aftermarket amp and 8in sub to replace the factory one, if I have a spot for it why not make it work again? Other little ideas I have like somehow getting a second battery under the hood for just more reserve juice, other little things to make it a light "overlander" or just a truck me and the wife and the dogs can camp out of. Might use it to chase some waves up and down the OBX. From here I just want to make it reliable and try to head off any foreseeable issues.

 

[Junkyard Jack]

Sweet ride! Run the heat full blast for an hour and check for coolant under the intake. Much easier to fix now than in the dead of winter. If it’s leaking there, that’ll kill your new tuneup.

I'll definitely check on this because as you already alluded to, I don't want to be pulling the intake off when it's freezing cold. I am not a fan of the cold at all lol

 

[JVinOlathe]

"I put this dumb intake on it because there is nothing I hate more than the factory ford air boxes lol! I hated trying to get those things to line up correctly and snap together it was like I needed 4 hands to do it.
The factory setup is an actual CAI since it takes the air from ouside the engine bay; it is pretty well optimized for maximum performance. The CAI setup you have really does not add anything to you truck other than a louder sound; in fact it get the hotter air from the engine bay and the oil from the filter will eventually clog the MAF sensor. Once upon a time, I contacted the supplier that makes those CAIs and asked them to provide in writing any gains you get from installing the unit; they would not do it. If you search the various Expedition Forums, you will see this used to be a very popular topic and the consensus was that these type of CAIs don't do much of anything other than being noisier, which some people like, and making your wallet lighter.
This is the same case with tuners. The Expedition, particularly the first generation, is pretty well optimized and tuners dont do much of anything for it. If you ask any of the supliers to provide in writting any performance improvements, they will just not do it.
Car manufactures have incredible research facilities and the cars are pretty much optimized out of the door; if there is a way of getting more performance from the stock engine, they would have done it. All you can do is maybe get some custom shifting, on the newer 10 speed transmisions, to match your driving style, but on the older 4 sspeed transmission , there is not much that can be done.
Short of investing heavy money on performance modification, such as turbochargers and such, the truck is pretty much as good as it gets.
I am a big fan of keeping old working equipment in service. No sense in disposing of vehicles that have a lot of life left.

 

[Junkyard Jack]

Yeah I’m sure I’m not gaining anything but probably a headache down the road but I’ll just hose down the MAF and slap the factory air box back in it if I absolutely have to. Working on fleet 5.4 E-350s just made me absolutely detest those air boxes. If power was what I was really worried about I’d have stabbed a 6.0 LS with a 4l80 in the truck and gone turbo lol

 

[Junkyard Jack]

So I think the radio only supplied enough power to blow the poor dry rotted speakers in this truck. I installed these Kenwood speakers and for $80 shipped to the house I have no complaints. Now this has me fired up to fix the Sub in the back with a new amp and speaker. I have the RCA outputs from the radio just zip-tied under the dash.