So at that point the old girl has me stymied. As much as I'd like to remove more of this wiring, the more I dive in, the more wiring I'm finding.

At the moment I'm a bit stressed about these solenoids. Having removed them and cut the wires, I have five wires that probably go back to the engine ECU that are currently in limbo. I don't know if they need to be terminated, connected, maybe a diode or resister put in place to fool the ECU into thinking all is well and not throw a hissy fit when I try to start it next.

At this point I changed tactics and went looking at the internet again for a solution to mounting the alternator again. A lot of options, some expensive and all in America. Not the best news for us Aussies.

So I grabbed the bog old bracket, had a good look and popped it in the bandsaw. A few minutes later I've smoothed it off and into the sandblaster it goes, half it's original size and weight but looking like it will do a better job the next time around.

 

It's late evening now and whilst the Wife makes the dinner, I sprayed the 'new' alternator bracket up with some nice hard two pack brake caliper paint. Let that dry off overnight and hopefully it goes well even though we are due for a 5c degree over night temp. 40f to you blokes.

I'll fit that and the alternator tomorrow and maybe by then one of you good fellows may be able to help with these solenoid wires.

Steering box is pretty sloppy so that comes out tomorrow also and off to the Doctor with that. Ford Australia used their own box for the early F Series and Bronco. It's different to yours and I think even the splines are different. I remember a mate back in 1983 ordering a lift kit from USA with a dropped Pitman arm to suit the lift, only to find that it didn't fit as the splines were different. Something I'm going to have to be wary of when it's time to lift mine.

Here's the pile of rubbish removed today, and the poor old girl sitting lonely in the cold workshop tonight.

 

Yo Uzz32soarer,
Will BBL,
For now;

By By Chris B in an 86
●

86 by xris
●

 

Thanks very much. The two last wiring diagrams are a bit small for me to read but maybe they are in my manuals. I have the two thick books on the F Series, but I havent found a lot on the EFI systems in there.

 

Very good looking bronco you got there! I do want to add to your comment, there is no way you will get 100 hp out of these engines by doing an EFI intake swap and removing the emissions. There are so many "pinch points" in these old 5.0's it really takes an entire rebuild from the ground up with a reprogrammed ECU to get those kinds of numbers, however you can "liven up" your old 5.0 with the basics like free flowing exhaust, upgrading the ignition, upgrading the injectors (4 hole bosch). You may get 10-15 HP out of all that.

When i bought my 86 last summer, the previous owner had already removed the pulley off of my air pump, so when i pulled the engine out I just removed all that junk, along with the thermactor hoses and the EGR tube (it was broken in half anyway). If they had been functioning properly i probably would have just kept them on there with my better understanding of how that system worked (when it works properly). I also upgraded my alternator while i was at it to a 3G model, and i got an aluminum universal "windsor ford" alternator bracket and with a little fitting i managed to make it work so i didnt have to have that big ugly dual purpose bracket you were dealing with.

Now if aesthetics really bug you, you could always ditch the factory EFI and replace it with one of these newer aftermarket systems like the Holley Sniper. You could then ditch all the old EFI wiring and emissions controls, relays, etc. I really considered this option, but since i was only doing a factory overhaul on the engine I kept it original, but if i ever do a proper "build" on my engine, i may opt for one of these newer systems.

Lastly, with an 86 model, you most likely have the "high swirl" heads on your engine, they we're unique to 1986 alone and while some people out there like them, most people don't. They have shrouded valves so they don't flow very well, but build better torque (on a stock engine). I was "lucky" in that i had an early built 86 that had the E5 heads on it still.

Best of luck to you

EDIT...oh yeah, that alternator bracket i got was about 40 dollars US....it wasn't specifically for a bronco, i just knew that this would be the only accessory on that side of the engine, so i took a chance and it ended up working out. The only issue that i have is that it is extremely close to the rear of my water pump pulley, like, i used a feeler gauge and sanded on the back of the pulley and on the face of the bracket until i got what i felt was a comfortable amount of room to allow for any deflection the pulley may have. I could have put a spacer behind the pulley and done the same thing, but that would have moved my belt out and it was tracking really good and i didnt want to risk messing that up.

 

Very good looking bronco you got there! I do want to add to your comment, there is no way you will get 100 hp out of these engines by doing an EFI intake swap and removing the emissions. There are so many "pinch points" in these old 5.0's it really takes an entire rebuild from the ground up with a reprogrammed ECU to get those kinds of numbers, however you can "liven up" your old 5.0 with the basics like free flowing exhaust, upgrading the ignition, upgrading the injectors (4 hole bosch). You may get 10-15 HP out of all that.

Thanks very much for the valued input. I welcome further input from other members also.

I totally agree, I suspected I had been given fudged numbers. Also I'm still learning as to why Ford adopted this seriously ugly EFI system. Then a few days ago someone said to me that it was all about the intake runners and making them longer to produce more torque.

So herein lies the dilemma. I've waited a long time for this old truck to enter the stables and I'd like to tastefully modify it to produce some decent driving HP. It doesn't have to be a tire frying monster, but I want it to have decent power to turn some 33's off road, especially at low rpm to have control in off road situations, but also to have the grunt to overtake a line of cars like a modern truck could do.

It has 120k miles on the dial, and it feels fine, not noisy at all, so first thing I'll pull it out and take a look. It has roller rockers and a set of Edelbrock alloy heads which I found over the weekend cleaning it up. So I'm hoping that I strip it down, hone the bores, polish the crank and fit rings and bearings, a light freshen up. Naturally if I find scored bores or a heavy lip, I'll have to go further. So that cleans up the bottom end and then lets look at options.

Drop the Edelbrock heads back onto it and find a suitable camshaft to do what I need to do, then fit a decent manifold with a bit of height like an Edelbrock torquer and a sniper. Introduce some decent cold air to the air filter and see how she goes.

Alternatively, look to the Weiand manifold and small blower kit that they developed for the Windsor, and pop a sniper on top of that. It's a dinosaur blower compared to modern tech though which is really a shame. A twin screw positive displacement blower with an offset snout design would be the total answer but nobody does one that I can find.

Other options.
I've seen a few Windsor manifolds set up for rails and injectors. I'm wondering if a modern short snout blower could be adapted to these manifolds and then manufacture some sort of offset belt drive for the blower, or even turn the blower and run a driveshaft to the rear to allow for a front mount throttle body which should fit over the top of the dizzy with no issues.

I don't want a centrifugal charger hanging of the side. They are rpm boost related and not what I want for crawling slowly up a rock face. Might as well have a turbo. On demand torque from a roots blower or large capacity engine seems best for me.

Also, I could spend a bit more and have my engine stroked. Apparently the extra grunt from this is pretty good although I haven't experienced a Ford stroker.

I'm willing to throw a bit of money at it as I've waited a long time for it but I also have to be sensible. Fuel here costs a lot more than in the USA, more than $5 USD gallon or $1.40 USD liter. And fuel stations are not around every corner. It's a big country and range is important. I also run the truck on propane and have 120 liters of propane under it, and 100 liters of fuel in a separate tank to give the range for traveling in the outback. So i have to consider efficiency also.

Pretty cheap to get HP, just throw in a 460 with a sniper, but that isn't really a very efficient option.

Welcome your feedback andd thoughts on the various options guys.

 

You dang aussies always wanting to be mad max and put blowers on top of everything….”I don’t want a tire shredding monster….but I wanna put a blower on it” lol I’m sorry I’m just poking at you a bit.

It’s interesting that it has edelbrock heads on it. I wonder if they slapped them on top of the original short block, and if it had the 86 short block with E6 heads I suppose it didn’t have valve clearance issues with the flat tops that came on those engines.

And IF that is the original short block in there and camshaft that would be a major bottleneck for your horsepower…

You need to dig on in there and see what you’ve got before you get too ahead of yourself. There are some really stout rigs out there using naturally aspirated 5.0 liters. You also have your transmission to think about if you beef up your engine too much, I’m assuming you have the AOD overdrive, but it can handle a decent amount of power when it’s in good shape.

As far as the looks of the original EFI…this thing was cutting edge stuff when it came out in 1985…nobody aside from high end exotics we’re running multi point fuel injection systems. And like it or not it proved to be a very reliable setup and with all the 5.0 timers out there hopping up their mustangs us truck and bronco guys get the benefit of borrowing some of their ideas.

Also understand that this EFI system is a speed density system and if you do any real big changes especially to the camshaft you will need to get your ECM reprogrammed (pimpXS, megasquirt) if you plan on using the original setup. This is why I went back factory for now, didn’t want to spend the 1000 bucks on the ECM.

Let us know what you find!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Oh yeah here’s a pic of the alternator bracket I used.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Great job on the alternator bracket. Very nice. Yep, a Mad Max Bronco would be a thing of beauty, especially wit that electric clutch on the blower that Max could flick on and off in the dash. Always wondered about that!

Looks like your AC compressor bracket is a huge monster plate like mine. Shame it cant go lower with the small PS pump up top where you can actually get to it to top up etc. Would be a cleaner look, like your alternator.

Given that my car is a one owner prior to me and I've spoken to the shop that did his mechanicals, I expect the heads were fitted to the stock bottom end, but I cant say if a camshaft was done, no records of that.

The car was manufactured in Oct 1986 so is there any way of knowing what block and piston configuration it has? Numbers on the block or castings anywhere?

 

Behind the intake on the top of the block the vin should be stamped and it should match yours if it’s the original one.

Also if you have a bore scope you can remove a plug and see if you have flat top pistons or if they have valve reliefs. If the engine is original and came with the crap e6 heads the pistons will be smooth on top…otherwise they’ll have 4 valve reliefs.

You can always grab a serpentine setup off an 87 up bronco or f150 and swap to a single belt…but be careful there are differences in the years so do your research.

…my uncle used to say about mad max, “I bet he eats up piston rings driving through the desert with an open breather…” and “I bet that thing runs like crap with the blower disengaged…the seals on them rotors have some BIG leaks in them…” lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I loved the Mad Max early movie. I could identify as I had a 1975 XB Falcon 351 coupe just like Max's car, minus the movie shit obviously. Great days those were.

And then I grew up, or so I though until I bought the Bronco recently.

Bronco's here in 86 didnt have a VIN, just an engine number and the chassis number of the car matched the engine number. The registration title confirms that engine number but I need to confirm off the actual engine I think.
Eng AL1TGR23050K if that helps to identify it.

I have a 74 DeTomaso Pantera in the shed, so I never really grew up, but I'm more and more surprised in the differences between the Windsor and thee Cleveland engines. The Clevo looks like such a huge lump compared.

So the number should be at the back of the inlet near the firewall and on top of the block. I'll check and see what I can see.

 

And she's a C6 three speed auto. Currently doing 2600 rpm at 100 km/ph which is pretty high for a long distance cruiser.

 

Interesting about the transmission, I wonder if that was an Australia thing, over here if it had the 5.0 EFI it came with AOD. The C6 is a bulletproof tranny but it sucks for cruising.

Let us know what kind of edelbrock heads those are…performers, performer rpm, e street? Maybe there is a way to identify what size valves and runners it has that way.

The Windsor is a great engine, so many different possibilities depending upon what you want to do with your bronco, how you plan on driving it, and lastly how much money you want to spend.

Lots of guys on here have their stroked out, 347 stroker is a popular choice around these parts. If you plan on just enjoying it, mostly road use with the occasional mud or off road use, you should be able to build a nice 300-350 horsepower engine reasonably, especially since you already have what appear to be some nice cylinder heads.

And you’re making me jealous with the Pantera…seriously cool cars and you just don’t see them everyday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Here's a picture that I took when I found the heads. I think that I could fit a later tranny as from my understanding they use a stand alone ECU controller but I would probably have to import one as 1986 was the last year of Bronco here. We did get some other F Trucks in the 90's but they would be scarce to locate at a wrecker in the hope that the tranny is still okay. If the extension to hold the transfer case is the same as on the C6, then I'm sure I could find a local AOD maybe out of another mid 90's Ford product running a V8.

I'm planning on running 33's as the street tyre so that will drop my 60mph RPM down a bit being taller.

 

The AOD doesn't need a controller, but the later E40D transmision does then there is the 4r70w that does as well thats a step newer than the E40D but i think its a totally different transmission. I don't think there is a lot of difference in the first two aside from electronic control. I also have no clue if the transfer case and all will swap over directly from a c6 to an AOD, but if you search C6 to AOD swap in the forum there are already a couple of threads out there on the subject. If you can, and that's the case perhaps you can find one in your area, they were used in a lot of the larger ford cars as well of that same era.

Looks like those cylinder heads should be pretty good, they have a 170cc runner and large valves and 60cc combustion chambers. With the right camshaft, ECU tune, and general upgrades (injectors, coil, free flowing exhaust) you should be able to get that up to 300 hp pretty easily, maybe more. You can also do some of the "free" horsepower tricks like port matching the intake runners to the cylinder heads.

IN lieu of a tune, some people opt to swap their speed density EFI over to MAF...which can be just as expensive as getting a tune done, but its more flexible if you make any additional changes down the road.

 

Your in the exact same boat as I was in 6 months ago. The only difference is your wiring is in good condition. My efi wiring was shot, everywhere. Bare wires, green death in all those solenoid plugs. It died on me one day about 5 drives into owning it, spent a long amount of time and paid an auto sparky to not fix it. I gave up put a carby on it. Two wires to fuel pump via relay. Two wires to coil. Done. She runs as soon as you hit the key, so much so the engine is running, while the starter motor is still spinning! Best decision I made, I tried to keep it period correct as mine like yours is a 86 in fantastic condition. Mine has 180,000 kms on it original. Anyway I’m very happy with the decision to rip off all that shitty efi, I believe it’s meant to be good from what some people have said but it looks like shit and it’s too old to be reliable. And not to mention our yanky brothers can just pop down a junk yard and grab another ecu or parts very easily.

And just quickly on the power and fuel economy topic, I’m personally sitting on the fence of putting a diesel in mine and going turbo Barra. I must say I’m sliding towards Barra, one for cool factor, fuel wouldn’t be too bad no where near a diesel economy mind you. And of course it would super cool, I know a lot of the USA brothers would kill to do the swap but just like the coyote is cheap for them. The Barra is so damn cheap and makes unreal torque and power and so readily available and reliable. It’s really hard to go past it. Just my two cents

 

Aaah so that’s what it’s running at, my tachometer isn’t working since I ripped all the ecu wiring out I’ll have to tap into circuit to get it working. Good to know tho!