The cars remain locked at the scrap yard if that is how they are towed in. it stays that way incase the owner claims the car. I'm not always there when they scrap the car. If I know ahead that I need a part I can ask ahead of time. All the explorers I see don't have v8 badges.
Put a brick through the window and pop the hood? Sounds a hell of a lot easier than carrying a sawzall through the yard. Gonna have to break something to open the hood anyhow.
like already said, they all said V8 on the front fender......plus im assuming your after GT-40P heads... just so you know those came out mid year in 97, so not all of them had them
another heads up, I dont know about your area, but all the 5.0 explorers i have seen here are CFC cars and you cant pull the heads/intake from them. The top of the engine will be sprayed pink if this is the case.