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new engine for a 1994 bronco

10K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  TravisITGuy 
#1 ·
Hello everyone and brand new to this site and am excited to learn from the experts here to save me from making some poor decisions! Just purchased a 94 bronco xlt to be used as my fishing car and towing a 22 foot boat, not too heavy around 3,000lbs- looking to put a brand new engine in so it can be as dependable as heck, dont want any issues if you know what I mean. Anyone suggest a quality engine at a good price please? Ford crate engine and what size? My 94 bronco has rthe 5.8 v8 in it and probably rather get a newere more powerful engine than rebuild this one thoughts? Thanks, Trev
 
#2 ·
How many miles does your Bronco have on it? Does it have any leaks or other issues?

You can get many many miles out of the 5.8 engine if you keep the oil changed and the maintenance up to snuff. For example my 96 5.8 has 355K miles on it and still starts and runs like a dream. It has just recently started leaking a bit of oil but nothing major.

I would just keep it serviced and make sure it has new oil and filters, and change anything else that would normally fail... water pump, thermostat, hoses, serpentine belt. And just drive it.
 
#3 ·
if you put any other engine in it, other than the 5.8 or the 5.0 it came with you'll run in to some hiccups along the way. a newer or more powerful engine, can mean many things to many people. newer as in 5.0 coyote engine or a newly built 5.8? all of this depends on your mechanical ability. can you swap a stocker for a stocker? or are you willing to try and stuff a 5.4 into your BKO and redo the wiring harness, speedometer and everything else? all depends on you.
 
#4 ·
Ok, so putting a new engine in will breath new life into your bronco for sure. You will want to stick with the 5.8 thats in it now, as it has the most power available. You can find a quality rebuilt engine from your FORD dealer for around $2800. Might be a bit less or more in your area. You can also get one from ATK thru Summit or Jegs. Jasper engine is also another good supplier.

This is only about half the expense though. Theres alot to it to ensure you will end up with a long lasting good performing engine. I would suggest going ahead and buying a new set of valve covers. You can clean up the old ones by blasting and painting them, but that will cost as much as a new set. Then you have to make sure the intake manifold is absolutely as clean as you can make it. Same goes for the throttle body. Replace all hoses on the engine including the vacuum lines. WHile its out, clean up your engine bay and paint it with POR15. Clean all your wiring harness's. Then you should rebuild your fuel injectors, clean your fuel rail, inspect your fuel pressure regulator and make sure it holds a vacuum. Then do the same with your EGR valve. Check the EGR valve position sensor and make sure it works. Then replace your IAC valve, TPS, Oil Pressure sender using motocraft parts. I would also look at getting a new set of intake upper and lower bolts from ARP. You can have any of the other bolts blasted clean and have the heads painted and the threaded portion oiled with motor oil. Use FELPRO blue rubber gaskets throughout. decide now if you want to run headers or not, if so, get a set of Stage 8 locking header bolts. You will never have issues with these. Also make sure to clean your timing cover till it looks like new and replace the seal in it. Next examine your harmonic balancer, you might want to replace it, or sleeve it since they almost always get a wear line where the seal contacts them. Then look at your distributor, a new motorcraft distributor is under $150, it might be worth it to get a new one. Then I would highly suggest you get a new Motorcraft water pump or Edelbrock, they are the best available. Then go with a new radiator and a new heater core. This will eliminate any carryover of old rusted material from the old engine over to the new one. Just make sure you flush your transmission lines before you hook them back up to the new radiator, and look into installing an aftermarket transmission cooler, might even want a remote filter setup as well.

So all this will put you out a bit over $5000 if you do most all the work yourself. This is how you DO IT RIGHT. skimp on any of this and you might have some regrets later on down the road, or maybe not so later on.....
 
#5 ·
Now thats the baseline. If you want more power, then you need to up your budget to double as a start. you will want to go with some AFR heads($1500) then a good EFI friendly cam ($350), bigger injectors ($250), then you will need a tweecer or a quarter horse tuner ($500+), you could spring for the Edelbrock intake ($750), a BBK throttle body ($300), and a custom exhaust with headers ($1200). If you really want to pour on the power you could get the whole engine from fordstrokers.com. Be prepared to unload 10-15k for a high quality DART block based motor that will rip your 8.8 rear end to shreds if you floor it. which brings me to another point, more power stresses everything else down the line, so any weakness in your transmission, drivelines, rear axle will all show up rather quickly. be prepared.......

Woody is the man when it comes to high performance ford engines. cant beat him. Just have to wait 6-8 months for the motor to ship, but its well worth the wait because its going to be perfect.




 
#9 ·
I replaced my 5.8 with one from Enginemax. Got a great deal and it's been running great. I also replaced just about everything else along the way. I agree with jowens, you don't want to put any dirty parts back on your new engine. Definitely replace the harmonic balancer and any other parts that may fail or need replacing soon while the engine is out. And I found a really good deal on rebuilt injectors that are flow matched on eBay. And don't forget things like your oil pan. You never know how much sludge you have when you buy a used truck.
 
#13 ·
I have a 88 with a 302 in it.Just installed the motor myself and is running great now.Bought a 302 long block
from PRO MAR engines for $1,600.Took my time and cleaned and painted the valve covers,oil pan and both intakes.
Replaced the hoses,water pump and most sensors.Bought a rebuilt set of injectors on line for around $100.00.
Just take your time..............not to hard just have patience.I buy most of the simple parts from Advance auto and use the 40% code on line to save money.I think the code is trt 40 or trt 41
 
#15 ·
cannot thank you enough for all of your input. I am not mechanically inclined and someone else will have to do the work. The engine has 155,000 miles on it and seems to run pretty fine for now. I just want to make sure this truck is dependable as possible and thats why was looking at a new engine- but there are many other parts that go with that like tranny etc.. etc... thanks for your help Trev
 
#16 ·
sounds like it would be best to leave it be and perhaps start a little savings jar for when the time comes. Exhaust upgrades wouldnt hurt.

is your bronco lifted at all by chance, what size tires are you running?
 
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