Re: Pandering to Judge Phil on this one...
We opened up the "fresh" rebuilt engine and found a smaller than expected volume of mouse nest/turds/sunflower seed hulls. Everything else looked well executed...valves opened and closed and the 30-over pistons moved up and down. Engine dumped about the amount of assembly oil/lube you would expect and nothing more.
In a weird stroke of irony, the Explorer I had to dispose of with great difficulty not long ago could have donated wheels, front brakes AND a rear axle with disc brakes to the project. Yeah, now hate my nosy neighbors even more.
So we are cruising the interwebs for a 1995-2001 V8 (future potential engine donor) Explorer/Mountaineer with a 3.55 axle for $500 or under...surprisingly not hard to find. This may come as shock, but many of them have transfer case issues or fared poorly in the snow through the Chicago winter (crunch!). 16" wheels preferred.