...Sorry, are we talking about "prior" or "subsequent"? Because the post says the former but all the code is aimed at doing the latter.
fxpepper wrote:I tried using regular words (just as a test) and that works so I am guessing it might have something to do with the tags...
The tags have no significance in either explode or end, so if the code works without them, but fails with them, then the problem lies elsewhere (e.g., are you sure it's [font=monospace]<!--more-->[/font] and not [font=monospace]<!-- more -->[/font]?)