mjotrainbrain

31 inch tires should be causing hardly any rubbing, if any, especially ones that narrow. Do you have wheels with lots of offset or wheel spacers? KYB front struts with OME or AC coils, and Bilstein rear shocks with Land Rover coils are a popular combination, but not necessarily cheap.

I looked into it briefly, that sounds right. The kit will be useful for the job because it saves you some fabrication. Just make sure you install it better than the document describes, I'd totally recommend removing all the rust and welding in the part.

Good advice from Slart there. Take the opportunity to fix it all and fix it right. If it's solid otherwise it'll be money and time well spent. Do you happen to know how long it was in Ohio before it came to Tennessee?

They consider that not bad enough? I don't want to know what they consider bad then, imo that is absolutely a level of damage which should be repaired under the recall. Also pretty ridiculous that they didn't tell you they "performed" the recall previously.

Are you talking about that DEF stuff? It's pretty popular to delete that system on the 6.7, I'm sure it would be easier/cheaper to just do that (if a company has a solution for the 3.0 yet) and run a simple custom exhaust.

That does seem to be a poorly placed bracket. My theory is heat cycles from the cats/manifolds on the other side. Apparently this causes frame issues on old Explorers. I'm sure it's an unfortunate culmination of lots of things. I wonder if anybody from the southwest has had strut tower issues? I can't imagine just salt/snow is to blame, or else lots of other parts of the vehicle where it could collect should be showing rust.

That's really unfortunate! I'm surprised you're having this issue as far south as Tennessee!

All I can say is DON'T use camber bolts from Advance Auto. I had several fail on me (although that was probably due to the alignment shop grossly overtorquing them; never broke one that they'd never touched.....) As far as getting the camber exactly to zero, there are some tricks you can do for a DIY alignment but a proper alignment at a shop will be your best bet, just make sure the tech doing the job knows you've modified the vehicle to have adjustable camber and explain where the bolts for it are.

Finding taller gears for the front end is going to be difficult, they never really made many varieties OEM and all the aftermarket ones I know of (and those are very rare) are lower. Your best bet would probably be to source gears from overseas from an Pathy that was originally a diesel, it may not be as high as you'd like but it'll be at least better matched for the engine.

Broke away from Micah's thread since it's unrelated.

Broke comments about camber bolts off into their own thread.

Just replied. And agreed about the level of work. I'd never done more than suspension and brakes prior to this job and didn't find it difficult to do on my 4Runner, just a little time consuming because I went slow and careful.

When I left mine exposed I got an intake full of water rather easily. I'd suggest ditching it, plugging up the hole in the bottom of the airbox, and putting a new hole (covered with mesh) on the top of the airbox. Should be nice and safe from water intrusion that way without having to buy an expensive snorkel.

If it were me I'd change it. It's definitely more robust than a regular belt, but at the end of the day it's a 22 year old piece of rubber, I wouldn't trust it for much longer. You certainly wouldn't trust 22 year old tires!

Absolutely yes. The air box connects to the fender and on the other side has some tubes that go down a bit. I don't know how much of an issue it is with the stock bumper cover and wheel well liners intact, but if you get a custom bumper, you'll no longer have need for the front inner wheel well liners, and then the intake will be exposed and can easily take in water during a crossing - I know unfortunately. If you don't have the cash for a snorkel and want something better than stock you can eliminate the piping beneath the airbox and block off the hole in the bottom of the air box. Then cut a ~4" diameter hole in the top of the airbox and cover with some kind of mesh/expanded metal to keep large debris out. Now you'll have to be in water up to the hood to have an issue.

I like the fog lights btw, looks very utility, fitting for a Pathy ?

I can see the photo when I click the link, but it's not embedded in the post. Refer to this for more details:

Looks great! I remember when mine looked like that, you're looking good now! Now to follow in my footsteps by crashing into a tree and getting a sick tube bumper ??

Sounds like a good trip, if you go past Grand Rapids MI wave hi!

Sounds like fun! Check your messages.

Beauty combo! I've always been curious about your username, is there a Ferrari hiding in that garage?

So how's the "mild" build going for ya? Can't help but laugh a the thread title at this point, certainly has turned out to be quite the build after all!!

A lift spacer won't give you more clearance to the strut, wheel spacers will though. You won't need camber bolts to account for wheel spacers. However if you're also looking to lift (using lift spacers or lift springs), you will need camber bolts.

That looks like it took a ton of patience!