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'89Bronco-Past til current

27K views 114 replies 22 participants last post by  Murph56789 
#1 · (Edited)
So I bought my bronco in late 2006 as my secondary vehicle that I wanted to build to be my offroad beater. Didn't have a lot to spend so I drove an hour south and spent $1250 on this clean bronco with 2 known previous owners, all records, and a rebuilt engine with less than 60,000 miles. The bad was the rusty undercarriage, fenders, and it would only start with a jump and run as long as I gave it gas. Stalled a few times on the way home and finally made it. The top had never been off but the first pic I have is after I pulled it off for the first time.


Not bad for the money and I alternated it as another daily driver. So I owned it for about 3 weeks and then me and my friends thought lets go test it offroad. That was interesting.. The bronco performed awesome til I stuck it in a hole and it wouldn't move. That was after I hit a hidden tree stump at about 15 mph. Seatbelt cut my neck and I later realized I had cracked and bent one of the ttb beams. There's a hole in the bottom of the beam that ripped open and spread about 1/4 inch. My buddy tried to turn his diesel blazer around to pull me out. He got stuck about 15 feet from my bronco. We called over our buddy with a newer power stroke and same result, sunk it. Nothing crazy deep but at this point we hadn't been many places. After many hours we used my highlift to pull out the blazer using it as a winch. Then he pulled out the powerstroke and finally my bronco. After it sat in a mud hole for so long it wouldn't start anymore and it was dark. We towed it 3 miles back to the street with the blazer while I steered it. Parked it and came back with a borrowed tow dolly. Finally towed it home after midnight. We started wheelin around noon that day. And then I had to start a new job the next morning. :banghead Here's what pics I have of that long day. Also pictured is my f150 that I sold in '07.









Not the best day for the bronco. When I got back from work the next day I tried to start the bronco. It still wouldn't start so I smacked the starter with a hammer and it fired right up. Never had an issue with that again but I later replaced it with a smaller, better starter. Wheeled the bronco a few more times and later I put on an 8 inch skyjacker lift and 36 inch iroks. Put a terrible junkyard bumper on the back and wheeled it a few times on a buddies property. Lots of different terrain there and they had a cool rocky creek we drove up and down. Here's a few pics from that place. I never grab pictures. This fast forwards us to about January of 2008.



And yes I had a red ttb.. It was bedliner. I forgot to mention. When we lifted the bronco we used stock bronco axles from a forest service '92 with 4:10 gears and manual hubs already. Got those cheap from a junkyard. Needed to replace that bent ttb beam. Anyways, here's more pics from that place.









After that comes my minor engine work. My bronco always leaked oil from both valve covers and the oil pan. So I tried to tighten them. Didn't slow any leaks and snapped a few valve cover bolts off in the heads. Actually made the leaks worse and the bronco became undrivable because it poured oil. So we pulled it into the backyard and worked on it over a few weeks when we had time. Pulled intake parts, valve covers, oil pan, timing cover, etc. Add some paint, a crane cam with lifters, new oil pump, new double timing chain, gaskets, and long tube headers. Probably forgot something, it was a long time ago.





More to come later. This is taking a lot longer than I thought. Want to use this as a place to show my current state and what is going on.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Ok, little delay. Drove to the west coast today to make a purchase. Back to the saga.. But after we finished all that engine stuff and enjoyed straight long tubes for a while, off to the exhaust shop it went.



Don't have a picture but I had true duals with flomaster knockoffs and some cheap cats. Sounded good, truck had more power, and it didn't leak any oil now. Then sometime in early 2008 I made some purchases that changed everything. Kingpin dana 60 I picked up in western MD for $500 in very good shape, and a 10.25 I got in PA for $175 out of a scrapped C350 that was very rusty.



Everything else involved in the axle swap is in my sas thread.
http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/29-solid-axle-swaps/124377-d60-sas-10-25-swap-finally-56k%3Ddeath.html
But basically cage arms, james duff shocks, older coil buckets, 8 inches of lift and some stuff. However I never got it to driving condition.. My buddy then made a nice 6 point roll cage that he welded straight to the frame.










Some of the various floor patches..





And some sweet custom bumpers my buddy made with free steel. Good luck denting these, even with a hammer. Also welded the bumpers straight to the frame.






Then it sat like this for way too long. But in the woods.

And life got in the way at that point. Later traded my beadlocks, tires, and cash for an LS1 powered car. Then I moved to Florida and left the bronco in the woods. In early 2014 I decided I wanted the bronco back. So I eventually sold my car and used the cash to have the bronco transported to Florida in non-running condition and bought some stuff for it. Did a F150 tank swap, Wilwood 4 piston calipers in the front, disc brakes in the rear, stainless brake and tranny lines, F350 master cylinder and booster, a new winch, finished my exhaust, dual battery system, 3G, starter, etc. And the 39.5 iroks mounted on recentered H1's. And by finish my exhaust I mean rip it all out and replace all with new and different. It was a lot of work. When it first arrived in Florida there were multiple mice nests, spiders, and all kinds of goodies inside.





I had it delivered in July and after all of my work had it running by thanksgiving. So after all of that it became this.

And then I spray bombed the whole thing black.
 
#3 · (Edited)
At that point I went to Ocala and broke a few things. When I came home eventually I got these relays in because my stock fuel pump relay was shot and it is no longer available for purchase anywhere.


Casey was crucial in explaining the wiring for me. :beer Electrical ain't my expertise. Then I did more stuff to the bronco like add a vacuum gauge and mechanical oil pressure gauge. Also built a home depot snorkel. The way I built it it doesn't always have to be on the truck. The entire outside snorkel piece removes together leaving only 2 small mounting points. So the intake terminates right at the hole in my fender. I'll have to get more pictures of the setup once I bolt it back into the truck. My engine bay is currently empty. And we tried to go to Ocala again. Made it most of the way there when the truck overheated and I lost all oil pressure. Once we let it cool I started it for a second and it had a very loud knock. So at that point it had to see another tow truck and we missed out on wheeling.. At least it hasn't seen as many tow trucks as my dodge.


So then after some looking around I decided to pull the engine and see what was going on. Discovered the engine was actually already bored .040 over. And the crankshaft bearings were beyond shot with metal flake throughout the engine. Also 2 cylinders looked like they were running rich or something. Very black and gummed up. And it appears my injectors were all very leaky.


p.s that throttle body was cleaned to perfection by me less than 200 miles before this picture..


















So that brings me up to almost current. Next is what I've been doing over the last few weeks and the plans for my empty engine bay.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Ok. So First I pulled some stuff out of the engine bay. And then I cut 2 pieces off of my crossmember.

Welded this piece of dom along the front where I cut and also welded the crossmember to the frame on both sides on top.


But the main reason I did all of this was to make clearance for my track bar. It always would contact the crossmember if I flexed it out. I've been meaning to do this cut for a long time but its impossible with an engine in the way. Now it has plenty of room.


After some paint I installed a new redhead box, tranny filter, and borgeson shaft.


Then the engine I was going to get fell through so I searched for something else. Thats what I bought yesterday.
 
#5 · (Edited)
So yesterday we drove out to the west coast and picked up a 302 out of a 93 mustang with a little over 80,000 miles. It's in good shape and the guy had all kinds of videos and pictures to prove it. Even a good compression test. Seems like he took very good care of it. Also included a few new parts. A flexible stainless dipstick, ford racing lifters, ford racing push rods, and ford racing timing chain. He also had brand new arp head bolts, some oil, injectors, and a rear main seal. New head gaskets to go with the stock heads too.




So now I get to continue my cleaning, painting, installing, etc. But I have a few questions. I've been reading about the differences in the cam and distributor gear in this motor vs. my bronco's 302. So I guess my distributor gear is cast and this motor had a steel one. So I should swap mine to a steel one? Anyone know where to get one besides a junkyard? Having some trouble locating it. And I was reading that the mustangs cam is more for the top end whereas the broncos cam has more low end torque. I think I'll just run this as is. Would it be worth it to swap in my crane cam and lifters front the other motor? And would they be ok to run considering the other stuff that happened there. Visually the cam and lifters look fine. At that point I guess I could use the distributor as is too.. :shrug Crane cam has less than 5000 miles on it.
 
#6 ·
Ok. I've still been reading. Sounds like I should go with the mustang cam. Has new lifters too. This thread confirmed some things I read other places too. http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6867 I'm not too worried about the low end, still have my 5:13s. But I'm still trying to figure out this distributor gear issue.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Only had a little time today so I pulled some stuff off of the 302. Can't use the stainless dipstick with my oil pan because it's too short. I'll have a few things to sell off at the end. Also they swapped the timing cover and water pump to a '94 style. Won't work for me so I'm using my timing cover. For some reason the mustang guys liked this one so once again more to sell.
 
#10 ·
Thanks. Yea, unfortunately not yet. Working as fast as I can but there's a lot of other stuff going on. Still gotta find the Saginaw bracket to complete my steering stuff though. Haven't had any luck at the local junkyards. Anyone know if there's any other brackets I can use, don't care about ac. I've been running a delete pulley for years anyway.
 
#13 ·
I've been looking at what they offer along with other places. Appears they all are older v-belt setups and not for the 302. I did notice the one wild horses has for a up to 93 mustang 302. My timing cover setup should be closer/the same as that I think. The 94 one I pulled off was different. Other than that I don't know how different the accessory setup is on a mustang. Would be interesting if I could setup without the ac delete pulley on there as I'm also eliminating the smog pump. Would be a very short belt.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Ok, more speculation. Found this random thread while reading. http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1126027-bolt-on-saginaw-bracket.html It appears the mustang ac does bolt up differently. I have no problem eliminating my ac delete pulley. It does pose some problems however. I've been saving this picture on my phone for months.

It appears that the ac delete pulley can't simply be eliminated because it would put the belt too close to the water pump, and the tensioner would be useless. I guess it could work by raising the ps pump and/or moving the tensioner maybe. Before I try such crazy things I think I'll try the junkyards one more time. If I can't find a bracket I guess I could mock everything up and break out the welder. We'll see..
 
#18 · (Edited)
Not a good day, my dodge is broken yet again. But I did some work. Got the heads installed with the arp bolts and new head gaskets. Four rounds of torquing in a circle pattern to a final 110 ft/lbs.


And then I cleaned up my lower intake manifold. Had this, the upper piece, valve covers, and oil pan hot tanked at a shop a few weeks ago. After that they all got wire brushing with a few sizes and wiped down.


Didn't want to install it yet because I need a gasket and I want to find a pipe plug of sorts for the egr's tube that screws into there so I can eliminate my egr. Need to bring it by the hardware store and see if I can find something that fits.

Then I dropped in the pushrods and started torquing to 25 ft/lbs. First one snapped off. Luckily the broken end screwed right out and I have spares on my stock heads. I wouldn't think it would snap at such a low torque but I found 17-25 ft/lbs on a few places searching online.



Decided to call it a day after that.
 
#19 ·
Mate thats fairly unnerving as 25lb is bugger all. You considered putting in new ones? Rest of the build looks great. I had pulley problem on my 460 as well. Over here though parts are hard to find so adapted a belt tensioner off another car to solve the problem.
 
#20 ·
I've certainly been thinking about it. It's not like the bolts are in bad condition at all however. Yea, I'd imagine parts are hard to find. I'm hoping the pulleys all line up easily but I was thinking I could move my tensioner or use a different one if I really had to. Easier than building a whole bracket for the Saginaw.
 
#21 ·
Looking good! Man, that engine is gonna look nice when it's all put together :popc1:

I'm worried about that cross-member and the trac bar with my current SAS project, what's your mounting to the frame look like? I got a pretty solid looking drop bracket hoping to avoid as much contact with that piece as possible but I'm worried that it might not be enough?
 
#22 · (Edited)
It really depends on a few factors. My track bar is very large so it takes up a lot of space. However, I could of changed my track bar mounts and kept it away from the crossmember. I have it here because it matches my steering and it rides well even up to 80 mph. How much lift are you running nextgen? This is my upper mount. A few pics from my sas thread.


 
#24 · (Edited)
Been too busy lately. Had a little time so I got the rocker arms all torqued down, to 20 ft/lbs this time. Valve covers on with new gaskets and same for the lower intake manifold. Started taping and bolting in other things for paint time. Since my smog pump is going I closed the holes on the heads too.


 
#25 · (Edited)
Had some time again so I bolted on the rest of the junk paint parts and taped everything off. Then I bombed it in paint and started cleaning and painting some of the smaller accessories. Also cleaned up the underside of the hood a little and painted it black finally.



I have new motor mounts from JBG, the upgraded ones. Anyone know which way their supposed to be oriented? One end is longer than the other. Don't have my stock motor mounts for reference either. I'll have to see if I can tell in an old picture.
 
#26 · (Edited)
So I got a few more small things bolted on and cleaned and painted more small parts. Installed my new jba headers using stage 8 locking fasteners. Don't want header bolts backing out on me again. Had to modify 2 of them a bit. Took a while.






And heres a pic of the setup I put onto my last motor not too long ago so I could add my mechanical oil pressure gauge.
 
#27 · (Edited)
So I cleaned and painted a few more parts. Also finally got a saginaw bracket. Got that installed along with a new fuel pressure regulator on my fuel rail.


The saginaw bracket is way closer to my oil pressure setup than the stock bracket. Just enough room though.


Using the injectors I got with the engine that were rebuilt. And decided to keep my a/c delete pulley for now.

May be a good spot for a york one day instead.. I just need to rent something I guess to get this pulley onto the saginaw. It's really a shame I'm painting all this stuff just so I can cover it in mud again. At least it looks nice for now.
 
#28 · (Edited)
So I went to oreillys this morning because I thought I remembered hearing that they had a thermostat housing for my truck with a threaded port already in it. I got a flex a lite waterproof fan controller setup from my buddy a few months back. I've been using it but with the probe they include that sticks into the radiator fins.

I wanted a better reading so I bought this from flex a lite to go along with my free controller.

I also have the fan controller wired to a 3 way switch in the cab. It lets me do auto, manual fan off, or manual fan on. Very convenient.
So Oreillys looked like they didn't have that thermostat housing. Then the guy brought one out that he said was for a chevy v8. Exactly like mine but it already has a threaded port and not all beat up like mine. :rockon Would also be a good spot to add a temp gauge if thats what you want.



With the probe screwed in it still has plenty of clearance from the thermostat itself. More new motorcraft goodness..

Also got my dirty 3g back on along with a new belt tensioner.

Next I decided to figure out the motor mounts.
On one side it simply bolted up but on the drivers side it wasn't going to fit. So I cut a shallow v into the bracket and its all good now.

Passenger side was easy.

And the drivers side..

Looks like something now. Still a few more small things before I can drop it in.
 
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