Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

It'll be mine within the week.  All it needs is a good polish.

(http://members.tccoa.com/johnnycougar/Explorer/exp1.jpg)

(http://members.tccoa.com/johnnycougar/Explorer/exp2.jpg)

(http://members.tccoa.com/johnnycougar/Explorer/exp3.jpg)

ahh a gas guzzeling exploder lol

^ditto^

How many people do you usually travel with?

Usually I travel solo, but I frequently take trips to CT with lots of stuff with me.  I have a Thule travel top for the Cougar.  Now, I won't need it any more.

(http://members.tccoa.com/johnnycougar/offroad/ELMNATRcargotop2small.jpg)

Oh, and the truck has been in my family.  I know the mileage, and it is about equivilant, or better (local at least) than my Cougar.  Now I can rip apart the Cougar to fix it right, rather then have to slap it back together at the end of the day everytime I want to do something to it.

Nice!
5.0, moonroof, chrome "Ranger Splash" wheels. Very nice Explorer.

Who's Escape back there? I own one too. Do you check out Escape-Central?

what year explorer does it have the 5.0 motor

nice cars, both the explorer and cougar..

Nice Buy :D

The Escape is my sister's.

Welcome to the club, John...you'll love it. ;)

Boy, we really are a different breed here, aren't we? Not only do we idolize long-obsolete vehicles (that in all truthfulness, were never particularly impressive when new aside from the styling, thanks to Ford's decision to neuter them with the o-po 5.0), but now in theera of $3 gas we're heading to the big trucks and SUV's when everyone else is going smaller :hick: I, myself plan oin replacing my Dakota with a fullsize 1/2 ton...

I wonder if it has anything to do with us being opportunists, buying up good vehicles for cheap because the marketplace has lost its flavour for them? I know around here (where gas is $4.37/gal) the lots can't give full size trucks and SUV's away. A five year old Explorer can easily be found for less than ten grand, compared to two years ago when a five year old Explorer would have been in the mid-high teens (remember, too, that these vehicles cost considerably more when new in the Canadian market).

Nice ride, John. Is it me, though, or do Explorers seem to suffer from "sag-arse" even worse than fox Cougars? Every one I see seems to be dragging its butt. My father's was like that as well.

I just put 48 landscaping bricks, six 40-lb bags of topsoil, a full load of groceries, and me (and my moms) in the Mountaineer and it sank down in back but never dragged...I was pretty impressed. The 5.0 AWD suspension seems to be a bit beefier than that on the V6 Explorers. Then again, mine has the towing package which may explain a few things.

And yes Carm, once I scorned these ed SUV's. But now I look at it like this: 5.0 HO, GT-40P heads, AWD, 4R70W trans, 8.8" rear, 3.73 gears, and 4-wheels discs with ABS. Sheeeit, what's not to love?! ;)

Eric, got any plans for dual exhaust or any other mods on that beast?  Maybe some oxidized paint will lead you to copy the paint scheme from the 'vert?

How about yours, John, just keeping it stock or are you gonna give in the to the 5.0 modding bug?

Aww, hell, we had you beat. When we were rebuilding the cottage (lost in a fire in May '03) we had eighteen 24X24 patio stones (at about 80lbs each) and ten concrete "feet" for 6X6 posts (at about 50 pounds each) in the back of my father's Exploder. Plus my father at 300 pounds and me at 250. I told dad he was crazy. The guy at the home depot told dad he was crazy. And yes, it was sagging, badly. I think he did permanent damage to it, as it always sagged more after that trip.

Then again, this was also the same man that attempted to to a 24-foot travel trailer behind that 4.0 OHV Explorer. With no trailer towing package. In fact, it didn't even have a tranny cooler, except the stock one in the radiator. That 40 mile trip cost him $3500, for a new A4LD. After that, he bought a huge cooler, but never installed it. The $3500 bill made him leery of towing with that truck again, and he traded the 'sploder on a Ram 1500 4X4. The cooler now resides in my T-Bird (but will be coming out when I do the 5-speed swap next year).

It was that Exploder that soured me on those vehicles in general. I didn't like the way it drove, the way it looked, or the way it tipped over when dad lost it on a bit of ice and the AWD system was too slow to react (it was a sharp turn going up a hill at relatively low speed - the rear tires broke loose, the rear kicked out, and the front didn't engage in time to save it. The truck hit the soft shoulder and over it went, into the ditch on its side). Granted, a V8 model would drive better, and anything would look better than the plain white dad's one was, and I belive the V8 model's AWD system is more sophisticated than the one in his base V6 model, which was really nothing more than an automatic 4WD setup...

I am thinking Flowmaster when the ler goes, but probably not duals. Unless the ler shop wants to tackle it, in which case I would let them experiment to their hearts' content. ;) Paint is in great shape and I like the two-tone blues, so it's staying stock.

I knew that what I was hauling (just around 1000 lbs.) was going to push some limits, so I would really hesitate in putting more in the back than I did. The back was pretty low with the load in but oddly enough, the truck never bottomed out and I never felt that the extra weight in the rear made the ride suffer at all. It always gave me the sense that I was still in control.

And from what I understand, the 4.0/AWD combo is not balanced well. The 5.0/AWD setup is much more precise and balanced. My mechanic had given me a lot of info before I went looking, and he flat-out told me to aim only for the 5.0 AWD system. He said the Ford dealership where he works almost never sees them come in for repair. It's safe, reliable and definltey one of the best AWD efforts that Ford ever made. Now I did also learn that you MUST replace all 4 tires at the same time. This keeps them all at the same height, which is paramout for the AWD system to function correctly. If any one tire is noticeably taller or shorter than the others, it can throw off the system enough to where emergency maneuvers might get hairy. Very sensitive system, but also very good when working properly.

I'm not sure yet.  I need to rebuild some of the suspension of the Cougar, then I'll see where I sit with funds.  I wasn't thinking of doing much to it, aside from a J-mod and mabye a chip, and I saw this really nice stainless brush guard on Ebay the other day...