I have had 4 Bronco's over the years, from 460's 351s, 302's and lifted 6"-9" & from stock tires to 38's. So I've run them all sorts of ways & as a young 16 yr old I wanted lifted with big tires, which did make them look cool, but the ride sucked & the fuel mileage dropped off a cliff so now that I'm 50, I just cruise & keep them stock now a days with 31x10.50's.

As for performance, that isn't a word that fits well with broncos because of the mass. It's like racing an elephant & expecting it to be fast. It will make more noise, and use more gas, but it'll still be a big slow Bronco at the end of the day because it's heavy, & using old technology transmissions, not a fancy new 8 speed or 10 speed like new trucks have.

That doesn't mean we dint love our Broncos, cuz we do, they are awesome, but they are not speed demons!

Exhaust wise, I've done lots of Bronco exhausts & the best sound is going from the y pipe back with a 3" single exhaust, cat & whatever muffler you like, & have it exiting in the factory location, so you arent getting exhaust fumes back in the cabin with the rear window down.

 

Thank's for the reply, I have no plans to make this a racing vehicle per say, I just want this to be comfortable to drive hence the mods and maybe take it around the farm, go on some fishing trips, take a roadtrip here and there, and drive it around town with comfort. I love this truck and the only time I'd do the lift would be for that brake system since I'm not typically a fan of lifted trucks. Thank you for your insight and thoughts, I greatly appreciate it.
Performance would be more referring to off-road performance

I'll definitely be looking into those exhaust mods.

 

Yeah no problem, there are lots of exhaust mod threads on here, that seems to be the most recommended one I see here, so I went with that & it does sound good.

There are built motor guys & lift guys, so whatever you want there are plenty to give you thier take on it. I'm a stock guy, I've got fast sports cars & new trucks, but I like my stock 1986 Bronco with its 16mpg & cold a/c more than most of them.

 

Yeah no problem, there are lots of exhaust mod threads on here, that seems to be the most recommended one I see here, so I went with that & it does sound good.

There are built motor guys & lift guys, so whatever you want there are plenty to give you thier take on it. I'm a stock guy, I've got fast sports cars & new trucks, but I like my stock 1986 Bronco with its 16mpg & cold a/c more than most of them.

I'm all with you on that one brother, my entire engine & interior is completely stock and I plan to keep it that way with a few mods with power steering, AC, Smog pump delete, etc. But that's really it!

 

Upgrading the wheel size and adding a lift just for bigger brakes seems counterintuitive to me. You are adding rotating mass just to stop better. Best bet would be to just swap to a hydroboost brake setup and run the stock brakes on the axles.

 

I’ll definitely look into that

 

the power steering pump is not hard and the brackets are easy to find in the junk yard. the hoses are the pain point.

brakes - why do you want to upgrade them? if you aren't doing anything out of the ordinary, the factory brakes should be sufficient. there are also brake parts from other vehicles you could swap if you wanted. that may be easier, cheaper, and less restrictive on wheels if you were to look into those.

for the rear drums, that's a very low return on investment.

suspension "swap"...i dunno, you're either going to lift it or you aren't. there's not much else to it. however, if they're the original springs, you'd probably be well served to at least replace them with OEM equivalent. but, on the topic, you may be surprised at how big of a difference a rebuild of the suspension and steering components would make. none of it's particularly tough. minimal specialty tools required. buy quality parts, though. don't be cheap.

i pieced together a 2.5" lift kit that uses aftermarket drop brackets, but OEM equivalent springs. 15" wheels. 33" tires.
i have a magnaflow muffler on my bronco and i think it sounds pretty good.

i've created many threads on what i've done. feel free to read my thread and ask any questions that come up! my main build thread is in my signature.

 

Thanks man, I’m honestly just looking for safety right now and being able to stop at highway speeds. As for suspension upgrades are there any particular brands you recommend? Do you think I should replace the axles, leaf springs, etc.

 

Delete the smog pump asap. The hydro boost is where it’s at as far as brakes did one on a Jeep I had years ago, leave th drums just keep them adjusted. I just put new e-brake cables on and re adjusted mine and it’s amazing how much better they are. I’m going to start using my e brake more in hopes the self adjusters take up the slack, not counting on it.

 

Oh yeah, to @dash_cam point i put new Moog stock hieght coil springs on my 86 with bilstien shocks all around, it raised up the front end up about 1.75" because of all the springs sag my 35 year old front coils had, which fixed the camber/caster issues & made it sit nice and level afterwards & I'm happy with the look of 31x10.50s on the factory 15" alcoa wheel.

While I like the look of a lift & bigger tires, they don't do much for capability, and the trade off/ downsides of lift & big tires is decreased power & lost mpg aren't something I want any more.

 

Sounds about right, that’s the biggest reason I’m opposed to a lift. The look is cool but the trade off isn’t fruitful. What a killer truck by the way! I’ve always had a place in my heart for the bullnose broncos. Thanks for your insight!

 

I honestly wouldn’t touch the suspension other than new bushings and what not. If you start wheeling new gears and lockers would be better money spent.

 

I was looking at warn lockers to replace the original since I saw that the originals could be cheaply made and fall apart over time, no personal experience with this though.

 

Wide ratio gears in the trans make a pretty nice upgrade.

 

Oooh I’ve been thinking about that is that what your running?

 

Anybody have experience with doing an electric fan swap with a Ford Taurus 4500 CFM fan?

I was looking into it but not sure if anybody had any issues and/or improvements. I’m looking through the forum about it currently.

 

Volvo relay and a BMW temp sensor 180/195 degrees

 

The leaf springs got a little bit of rust on the passenger side, big deal or not a big deal?

 

Do it

 

One of the first upgrades I did on my '89 Bronco was to do the Saginaw power steering + hydroboost braking upgrade. I found the pumps and brackets at my local junkyard that I pulled from '92 to '96 E series vans. I took the brackets and pumps. Cleaned up the brackets and rebuilt the pumps. I also built my own high pressure lines rather than using ones shown in the pics. Extra brackets and pumps went to friends looking to do the upgrades.

Original bracket and pump on top. Saginaw bracket and pump below.

These are the brackets and pumps I pulled from junkyard from E series vans.

Brakes, wheel bearings, steering linkage and Warn hubs were my priority when I started on my Bronco. And adding relays for the headlights and relays for the tailgate window motor.

 

I installed a power steering pump. Awesome. I also changed out my steering box which is needed because I have quite a few miles on my vehicle. It is so quiet. It’s great easy to install we had.

 

Mine had full length headers when i bought it, so was custom made from the headers back by a mom & pop exhaust shop, not a purchased kit. I told them what I wanted and gave them a sketch of it & they made it just like I asked for $750. Here was the doodle I provided them.

As far as straight pipes or cherry bombs... the guy I had bought this Bronco from was in this 30s by birth certificate, but the inner 16 year old we all have made most of his decisions for him, so the system on it was headers, with about a foot of pipe, straight into 40 series flowmasters, with a turndown before the axles.

Loud does not even come close to explaining how rediculious sounding this truck was. It was just obnoxious. Then because of his geniusness, no O2 sensors, removed the egr, no cats, it stunk to high heaven, and was embarrassing to drive. It droned at any speed. I hated it, but he loved it's noisy-ness.

My point is, we all have a different idea of what good sounds like to us, and what I have, sounds great to me, and I added the o2 sensor back in & got egr functional again, and with these changes, it ran so much better, it is really civilized now & picked up midrange power, and gained about 2mpg overall.

 

Yeah obnoxious is not my goal, but that’s. Super cool story. My neighbor has a 93 bronco and I believe he has just all stock exhaust plus a flow master 40 and just that sounds pretty obnoxious. I can’t imagine what a no cat no her setup would sound like. I’m going for a more civilized tone for sure, but still keeping some sort of raspiness. Just not enough to keep the neighbors up at night.

 

Always a good idea to consider a TFI module relocation, don't realize it's helpful until it overheats and you have to sit on the side of the road.
I also did the Hooker Aero Chamber muffler, sounds pretty throaty and doesn't drone at highway speeds with stock pipe size. I updated to 3 inch pipe and it was louder.

 

im a big fan of ap mufflers. Similar to magnaflow but alot less. They sound great. I have them on my 72 buick rn. Ill put a setup on the bronco when I get to it. Summit has good prices on them.