Lil Stampie and I hit a tow company auction this morning just to check things out. Chris and Carol said they'd go in on anything if I thought it was a good deal.
Got this 2002 Explorer for $425 plus fees and keys taking it to $552.50. Still need to title it and tow it. It wasn't listed as no start but battery was dragging. Might get lucky. Clean other than a broken side window.
Who's the cool dude drinking nati lights with a baby in the car?
I'm interested in the final tally on the repairs and profit made, on an hourly basis.
I dabble in flipping cars, and lay people always think there is huge money in it, but that is rarely the case.
In reply to Enyar:
Yea I noticed that.
In reply to onemanarmy:
I'll keep track for you. On our last one we figured profit at slightly north of $50 an hour but it was just about a perfect flip.
Whew... when I first saw "flipping an Exploder", buying and selling was not the first thought that came to mind. 
Got title done and paid the yard to tow to Chris's house.
Explorer plus fees/key $552.50
Title plus sales tax $110.00
Towing $65
Total $727.50
Stampie 4 hours
Illegal child labor 4 hours
It's only child labor if you pay them. Otherwise its called "chores". 
My son has an 02 Exploder, and we went through it pretty thoroughly last fall when we got it. I might have a few tips if you run into issues.
Ian F wrote: Whew... when I first saw "flipping an Exploder", buying and selling was not the first thought that came to mind.
Nah, looks like it has Goodyears, not Firestones. He's good. 
Stampie wrote: It wasn't listed as no start but battery was dragging. Might get lucky.
Quoted because of a mistype there. It was listed as no start. We didn't get lucky as a charged battery didn't help. This weekend was half off sale at the local you pick junkyard so we hit it this morning. Grabbed a coil pack, hood struts, and a rear quarter window.
If anyone runs into needing a rear quarter window on these look for an early model. We first hit a 2005 and it was glued in hard. Chris noticed that there were holes in the body for bolts. My thought was well maybe the early ones were bolt in so we found a 2002. Sure enough bolt in with silicone on the gasket. Much easier to remove in one piece. Same Explorer donated it's fold and tumble rear seats for a friend's Jeep Wrangler.
Coil pack didn't fix it but we can return that for yard credit. Guess we'll have to actually troubleshoot instead of shotgun parts at it.
Explorer plus fees/key $552.50
Title plus sales tax $110.00
Towing $65
Hood struts and glass $20
Total $747.50
Stampie 6 hours
Chris 2 hours
Illegal child labor 4 hours
In reply to Tom_Spangler:
Thanks we might hit you up if the no start kicks our shiny.
Ian F wrote: Whew... when I first saw "flipping an Exploder", buying and selling was not the first thought that came to mind.
Glad to see I wasn't the only one to think that thought !!
Enyar wrote: Who's the cool dude drinking nati lights with a baby in the car?
Yea, I do it with Guinness in a coffee cup so it at least looks legit.
Does it crank? If so am I correct in assuming that starting fluid doesn't help?
Do you hear fuel pump kick on?
We have fuel pressure at the rail and spark on at least one cylinder. Last night over a whiskey or several I thought of the Ranger I had last year. Wouldn't start but when I pulled a plug it looked like E36 M3. New plugs and wires and good as new. Once I get off work I'm going to just swap in new plugs. Seems like they're not on the PM list anymore.
So here's the old plugs vs. new. I don't think I've ever seen a gap that large. Unfortunately still no start.
We did get the rear quarter window in though.
OT...what size Tshirt does Asa wear? Had a little something made up for his bday
Don't worry...2002 related.
He grows fast but lately I've been getting him 8-10 or youth medium. Thanks but don't be trying to bribe my kid now.
In reply to Stampie:
Well I have to do something since you can't be bribed to lay down on our drag race bet
Ok it's kicking our shiny. We've verified spark at the plugs, noid lights at one injector, and 60lbs of fuel pressure on the rail. Starting fluid doesn't do anything and you can feel the pulses at the intake and exhaust. Called it a night and tomorrow if we have time we'll do a compression test.
Updated cost and labor:
Explorer plus fees/key $552.50
Title plus sales tax $110
Towing $65
Hood struts and glass $20
Spark plugs $15
Total $762.50
Stampie 9 hours
Chris 5 hours
Illegal child labor 7 hours
Sounds like timing then.
Is that a possibility on this engine?
Plug wires on correct?
Bad ground?
My fear is timing cassette as they call them. Apparently there's a central shaft that runs the driver's side timing chain on the front and the passenger side on the rear. What berking Ford engineer decided that pulling the engine was a requirement to replace a timing chain. Anyway hopefully we'll know tomorrow with the compression test.
I think you can at least work on the crank -> intermediate shaft chain, and maybe the chain to the left cam with the engine in the car.
If you have to do anything more interesting than that, you have to pull the engine.
Any pertinent ECM codes?
We have a P0303 code. Misfire #3 cylinder. I wish that's the only problem. Lil Stampie and I will do a compression test in the morning. The left bank is pretty easy to test but won't take too long to test them all.
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