1988 ('06) E350 Van Build

[Built By Fluffy]

And so it begins...

Front suspension removed!


Also removed the transmission and front section of the exhaust at the same time. I highly recommend that if you're doing one of these UJOINT kits, makes it way easier to get in there and weld on the shackle hangers. I suppose for the other kits out there that bolt on new radius arms for '05 and newer Super Duty axles you could leave the trans but the exhaust would still need to be modified.

Here it is with the axle in place!


Much taller in the front now! Rear axle being prepped for this upcoming weekend, should be a much simpler affair. The instructions were great and easy to follow but I'd recommend piecing together your own drill bit kit; the DeVault brand bits at HomeDespot didn't break on me, cut through the frame better, and were cheaper.

Sorry for the sparse pictures, finished this up at midnight so most of my pics are cr*p and tbh there are plenty of pictures and vids out there on these kits. I'll get more detailed for the manual transmission swap though, that'll take much more fabrication/detailed instruction if anyone wanted to duplicate.

 

[Sparksalot]

Coming along for sure.

 

[GLOCKer]

This is pretty cool! I wanted to 4x4 swap my old 1998 Explorer for overlanding, but bought a 4x4 2019 Ranger instead and sold the Explorer to a friend. I kind of regret that now!!!! (Or do I? I love my Ranger!)

 

[Built By Fluffy]

This is pretty cool! I wanted to 4x4 swap my old 1998 Explorer for overlanding, but bought a 4x4 2019 Ranger instead and sold the Explorer to a friend. I kind of regret that now!!!! (Or do I? I love my Ranger!)

I had a '97 Explorer with 4x4 and 4.0 v6 back in college. I was actively trying to kill the thing so I had an excuse to get a Jeep, but she just wouldn't give up. Would've made a decent overlander but I don't think you made a bad decision with the ranger, I've seen those trucks and they look nice

 

[GLOCKer]

I had a '97 Explorer with 4x4 and 4.0 v6 back in college. I was actively trying to kill the thing so I had an excuse to get a Jeep, but she just wouldn't give up. Would've made a decent overlander but I don't think you made a bad decision with the ranger, I've seen those trucks and they look nice

I LOVED my Explorer. I paid $50 for it, and it had 160,000 miles on its 5.0 V8. It was a mess, but I cleaned it up really nice (stripped the interior out of it, cleaned EVERYTHING, and reassembled it all. I had to rebuild everything in the driver's door because it was all broken. In fact, it was abandoned in our work parking lot by a coworker for 4 years because the driver door was all broken (interior door handle, exterior door handle, power lock actuator, door latch, and door striker all had to be repaired or replaced). I slapped a new battery in it and it cranked up and ran awesome.

After cleaning it up, I began wishing it was a 4x4. I slept in the back of it for some overnight BBQ competitions, and found it spacious enough and comfortable for me 6'2" frame. If it was a 4x4, I would have made it awesome!

 

[Built By Fluffy]

We're half way there! Ooh-oh, living on a prayer!


It's a good night to rock out to Bon Jovi and look at a Big A$$ Van. Now that the rear axle is in, she's very tall; I think I'll be making my wife n kids some steps...
More pics to come when it's light out, just finished getting the Sterling in tonight. Focusing on the manual trans and gas tanks next

 

[GLOCKer]

Nice stance! Can't wait to see daylight pics!

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Morning shots of Elenore

Rear Clearance

Pass side, roughly 20" of clearance to the rock sliders


She's a bit ridiculous to step into now, definitely making tome steps.

 

[GLOCKer]

She looks good! Any plans for the side glass? If that was mine, I'd still want to be able to see out, but I'd want some way to cut the light and keep others from seeing in easily. Have you seen that vinyl they do busses in with all of the little holes in it?

 

[Built By Fluffy]

She looks good! Any plans for the side glass? If that was mine, I'd still want to be able to see out, but I'd want some way to cut the light and keep others from seeing in easily. Have you seen that vinyl they do busses in with all of the little holes in it?

I'll be taking out the large rear drivers side window and replacing it with a metal blank, it'll allow me to insulate on that side and put some cabinetry/storage there on the inside. Plan is to find a work van at a junkyard and cut the side panel off, then spot-weld/epoxy into place. I found some weld-through seam epoxy that will keep it water tight.

The rest of the glass we're keeping but making insulated blinds for. The Awning covers all of the rear door and pass side glass anyway, plus with how tall it is now it's kinda hard to see into.

 

[Built By Fluffy]

We're gettin closer! Transmission is in and ready to have the crossmember fabricated!


Thanks to Ford using fairly similar components across their truck and van line, most of the parts have been easy to source. I think in the end the custom fabrication will be limited to the crossmember, clutch pedal, and the 4x4 shifter (which I'll explain later) and then the electrical/wiring/pcm magic I still need to figure out. Guys with Expeditions and auto trucks have been able to figure out how to keep the PCM happy so I figure I'll be alright. Shown below is what I started with:



It's important to get the right bolts, your auto flex plate bolts are too short to fit the thicker flywheel. Flywheel went right in place easy enough and torqued down it's bolts to 60 ft-lbs with just a tad bit of blue loctite. Clutch bolts torqued to 40 ft-lbs, be sure to do both in a star pattern to keep the pressure even across and double check each bolt.


From here I tried fitting the transmission in. It got late and I quit since it was getting late, I found out in the morning that the manual trans had one of those pilot studs stuck on it from it's previous engine (my engine still had both of its studs) and so that had to be removed prior to it fitting in.
Once that errant stud was removed the ZF-5 manual fit (with a bit of convincing) right into place. I had measured earlier to try and make sure the shifter tower would fit within the doghouse but apparently I was wrong. I had to cover the engine bay area with a garage blanket and trim about three inches off the back (as you can see in the top-most pictures)

From here I now have a couple of things to decide. I think, rather than using the ford transfercase shifter, I may fab up a connector to the auto-shifter for the t-case. Hopefully that'll allow me to keep the floorspace clear so I can keep the driver swivel chair (many 4x4 vans the shifter is in the way). The other thing I need to figure out is what to do with the auto transmission cooler, I'm thinking I can either re-route it as a steering pump cooler or if there are any PTO pumps I can re-attach it to the new transmission to keep the manual cool while towing:



Last thing I did today was cut the midship gas tank to fit with the van's new transfercase. Overall I'm happy with how the project is going, next few days I should have more to post on the gas tank mods and the crossmember fabrication!

 

[GLOCKer]

This is going to be so cool! Damn I'm wishing I held onto that Explorer and converted it!

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Small project tonight, just got the shifter made. Measured and made a little box to go over the transmission shift lever, then welded a 1/2" steel rod into position where I liked it and welded some threads on top from a spare bolt. It'll bolt into the same holes a stock shifter would
Closest it is to the dash

Here you can see where the bolts go, I tapped it for 3/8ths

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Crossmember finished today. I essentially just hacked up the original auto cross member and added two stingers low enough to hold and protect the t-case in the right position

This should be enough protection if I ever get the van high centered, it's certainty more than any other 4x4 van I've seen and probably a bit overkill (holdover from my rock-crawling days)


I was tempted to continue the two center cross-bars forward to attach to the engine cross member, for near bellypan protection, but I'm kinda glad I didn't. There's not enough space between the leaf springs and the new cross member for me to be too worried about the transmission, it'd block the transmission & engine oil drain plugs and probably make the exhaust rerouting harder. As it sits I can easily get to everything I'd need in order to service the transmission and t-case (and I really shouldn't really be doing anything in the van that'd require a bellypan...)

Last things on my to-do list: modify gas tanks (already cut down), modify exhaust, modify wiring, and order new drive shafts. We're gettin close!

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Gas tank done tonight (at least the welding is)


Used the Ujoint gas tank kit, jig to cut it and blank to fill in the cut portion. Should be roughly 3 gallons less? Took a long time to stich weld (carefully and solely) but I disagree with the instruction, while it may be nice to have a professional do this work an amateur such as myself can get the work done. But you NEED to do the proper prep work (degrease entire inside before cutting, degrease again, clean off ~2" of gas-tank paint on both sides, clean/degrease again, etc)

I'll be painting the exterior and I have some POR15 Gas tank sealant for the inside. Next will be the new pluming! Adding an aux gas tank where the rear underside tire carrier was, 18 gallons should make up for the lost 3 ;)

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Midship gastank is finally in. Will post pictures tomorrow, it's dark out and I'm bushed anyway

Should have the fueling, driveshafts and clutch assembly done this weekend. If so, first test drive!

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Ol'righty! Many bruises and curses later, the tanks are both in! Wanted a good factory look to keep the van looking clean so that took some time and coin. Procured a filler neck from a very helpful Australian company called Long Range Automotive, not sure what model fill neck they sent me but it fit the dimensions I gave em and off we went. Looks like a factory fill from up top but underneath we have two filler hoses, just angle the gas nozzle into one hole or the other to fill a specific tank:


Midship gastank trimmed and all rubber hoses replaced, in place there's plenty of room behind the Tcase (probably because the manual trans is much shorter than the auto)


The rear tank is just out of a 1990 Ford F-250 gasser, had to completely remake the pump assembly but now it's wired and plumbed in to fill the main tank (once we hook up a switch that is). Made an additional crossmember to hold it and the gas tank skid plates in place.

Overall it turned out nice, and unless you got up underneath my van to really investigate you wouldn't know that there was an additional 18 gallons of fuel

 

[Built By Fluffy]

SUCCESS!!! NOT REALLY!

She's finally moved. I do have a bunch of pictures to update on but I lost my camera for the longest time.
I had to redo part of the clutch assembly, finish all the brakes (bleeding / custom parking brake connection) fill all the fluids, random tidbits, and install driveshafts. I did order the rear driveshaft with the wrong flange for my t-case but that will be remedied with the correct spicer part coming Tuesday

That said, Big Ellie is running! Put 10 gallons of gas in her and she started up, problem is she will die immediately if you try to rev the engine...
So, to get her out of the center of my driveway (front driveshaft is in) I popped her in 4Low and idled her back and then forward. Shifts in all gears smoothly, no exhaust leaks, and moves/stops appropriately. She's also got one heck of a creeper gear, it's gloriously slow.

Now to just try and figure out the ecm issues...
I still need to splice into the ABS for a makeshift VSS but I'm doubting that's my issue. There's probably something about the whole auto trans missing that's making the engine unhappy

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Take 3: site keeps crashing...
Pictures as promised; Tcase shifter, parking brake hell, exhaust reroute, driveshaft(s), and I'm starting to fiberglass the doghouse:

Conveniently the deathspike Ford put in front of the driver was the exact diameter tubing I needed to make the t-case shifter


Next was the parking brake connection, took a long @$$ time and a bunch of those little connection things to get it right but eventually I got this design to work. It's basically a tensioner made from 3/16 steel rod, and 3/16 threaded rod and three nuts with one drilled out smooth:


Exhaust reroute wasn't bad, dirty though. Essentially I cut all the components off of the driver side and used pre-bent 2.5" tubing to get the right fitment, both cats and resonators are now on the same side. I used a bungy cord initially to connect the Tcase yoke to the axle yoke to simulate a driveshaft, I'm glad I did and now I have plenty of room


Doghouse being lengthened and eventually fiberglassed, I plan on bedlining the interior with gray so I'll hit this as well so it matched. Cardboard and foam to make the general shape, then several layers of fiberglass to finish it off:


Now that everything is physically in (save the rear driveshaft, will be rectified on Tuesday) and I've already tried the basics for troubleshooting stalling when hitting the gas pedal, I will focus on the Angry Pixies that dance around in the computer box and cause sparks and smoke when you anger them...

I've angered them...

As I figured the only error codes I'm getting are transmission related: P0743 - torque converter clutch circuit, and P0755 - Shift Solenoid B. Some of the Excursion, Expedition and F-series guys seem to have gotten away with a manual swap without a PCM flash but I don't think I'm that lucky.

 

[Built By Fluffy]

Doghouse is done!
This was a new experience for me, fiberglass... Very messy but I kinda got the hang of it and it turned out looking alright so I'm calling that a win.
Started out with just the general shaping (seen in the post above) then moved onto fiberglass and bondo


Sanded, plastic drywall screw anchors epoxied in place, and prepped for bedliner (hide my mistakes...)


And the final result!

I really like this spraycan Raptorliner stuff, very easy to put on, fast curing and it looks rather decent.