Originally Posted By: DemoFly
Well dang. There is an exploder that is literally perfect except for the 4.0L.
Why aren't there more complaints about the motor when it's placed in a ranger and not an explorer.
I have a couple ideas on why this may be the case...
1. The Explorer has always been produced in much greater numbers than the Ranger, and the bulk of Explorers built between 1997 and 2010 had the SOHC 4.0. Rangers were produced in fewer numbers, and the bulk of Rangers were either I4 or 3.0L V6 models.
2. Explorers are more likely to be treated as disposable by their owners, and suffer from poor maintenance. People will keep even a very beat up Ranger running.
I work in auto parts and worked in the repair field, so I see what people buy and put into these vehicles. Rangers are more likely to be maintained, and are more likely to be fixed using higher grade parts.
For example, someone might buy an Explorer because "I HAVE to have an SUV no matter how broke I am." They get an already beat and neglected Explorer, continue running it into the ground, then something major breaks and "OMG, Ford sucks!!!" Never mind the fact it got conventional oil changes every 10K miles if it was lucky, was running on decade old original coolant topped off with Dexclone, and the gas pedal was used like an on/off switch. I saw Explorers like this all the time when I worked in a shop. It wasn't unusual for the t-stat housing to be hemorrhaging coolant, the sway bar links and/or ball joints to be totally shot, CEL on, etc. and the owner just didn't care as long as it kept moving under its own power. "All it needs is an oil change."
Even though a lot of Rangers get run hard in fleets, get worked hard and put up wet, and are more likely to be towing or hauling, they generally get better care. Last week I got an order for some premium grade pads and rotors for a 1990 Ranger. I was excited to see the truck because I figured it must be a nice one for them to be buying nice brake parts for it. When I get to the shop to drop off the parts, I find a smashed up, beat to heck Ranger that looked like something from Pull-A-Part. This truck had already been to [censored] and back a few times, and they were still willing to drop some relatively major money on brakes for it. They could have gotten economy grade parts at less than half the cost, but the intention was for this to be a long term brake job.
One of the contracted couriers for my company, who use their personal vehicles to run parts, has an early 1990s square body Ranger. This truck probably does hundreds of miles in a single work day. Obviously, it has been kept up. The oldest vehicles in the company owned fleet are all Rangers too.
I see more 20+ year old Rangers than I can keep track of daily. Even though Explorers from the same period are mechanically the same, I don't see as many as I do Rangers. People just keep the Rangers going and take better care of them mechanically, even if they look like [censored] cosmetically.
I would not pass up a nice Explorer just because it has the SOHC. Some people do keep them up and take care of them, and I have seen them with major miles on them. For whatever reason, most of the really high mileage SOHCs I have seen are in first gen Sport Tracs. I have seen three within the last 6 months with over 350K miles on them.
