Ford Escape Radiator Replacement

 343,120 miles, 1st radiator... 2002 Ford Escape V6. 

***Addition*** All those miles on the original engine, no internal work. Original oil pump and water pump. I've replaced the injectors once as maintenance, intake gaskets on that plastic intake twice. It's been rough on idle air control valves (common issue on the 2001-2004 models, tgey overheat). All cheap repairs I've done at home, myself. 1 transmission due to my abuse pulling that heavy high-top rc airplane trailer. I run this down through the woods, pull boats, beat the puddin out of it. The V6 still rocking and rolling. Computer chip change, CAT mods, 23-24 mpg around town, 28-30 highway (never did more than 20 mpg before mods). Burn the cheapest E-15 I can find. Sometimes ignor oil changes until 10k miles!  

Debbie and I almost rolled it over at a local pond when the left wheels fell in a ditch, rh wheels started lifting, steered hard left and it sat back down! 

We buried it at a cow pasture. Deb got out to push while I rocked it. Finally got traction, I put it on the floor, looked in the mirror and it was totally painting Debbie in cow poo... hahaha. 

Brandon and I drove this thing through pure hell, fishing crazy places...we were driving through a bunch of growth behind the Zebulon sewage treatment plant higher that the hood. It was crazy, we decided to stop. Got out to walk to a pond and there was a HUGE ditch we couldn't see just in front of us at least 10' deep, hahaha. 

Another place we went, we were waasyyyy down a ravine, had to get a running start to get back out. Never had to be towed out, anywhere. 

Boy, the memories we have with this thing... Babied, this truck has not been. :-)

Ford Escape Coil Packs

 I love my old 2002 Ford Escape. It's not too hard to work on most things, but coil pak time again :-( It seems you need these about every 75000 miles. No big deal, but they designed it so you have to pull the intake manifold to install the three coil packs on the back three cylinders of that 3.0 V6.

Ford Escape A/C Compressor

 My 20 y.o. Escape hit 300,000 miles and still going strong, so I gave it a little facelift. Installed a new AC compressor, repainted the front bumper cover, and installed a new pair of headlight assemblies.

Ford Escape Radio

 Awesome weekend. Finally had a weekend away from the shop. Had one of my grandsons (Desmond) spend Sat/Sat night/Sun with us, got some repairs and painting underway on the house, worked on Debbie's car, got the AC in my truck topped off, and finished the radio installation in my truck. Debbie gave me a JVC unit for my little Ford Escape for Christmas, it has taken me this long to get enough time to get it finished...but worth the effort! Love this thing, especially the Pandora Radio feature. 

I used one of those universal connector kits to mate the radio to the OEM wiring harness, and spliced/soldered/heat shrank that pile of wiring. My 2002 Ford OEM radio opening in the dash wasn't quite 'Double DIN' spec, so I had to open the dash up below the front trim panel, fabricate a set of "L" brackets for the radio, graft on the slide bracket from the OEM radio, and it was mechanically ready to fit. Next, I built a little resistive voltage divider to supply the OEM sub amp with a lower voltage for the trigger input. Wow...what a difference!! This radio blows the OEM rig away, awesome graphic EQ built-in, total control of the sub-amp, something I never had before. Pandora & I-Heart radio built-in, aux input, USB input, and hands free mobile phone operation. This was a killer upgrade from my 2002 OEM stuff.

Ford Escape Cats...

 The latest JoCo Inverted Drill Press improvised to drill out a hardened stud on the rear cat of a Ford Escape...

Ford Escape Headlights

 Sanded and polished the headlights in my Ford Escape. They were very yellow. Now I've gotta to clean the compound and such off of the rest of the truck. Clean up one mess and make another ... :-)