Bronco has to go to the shop for the transmission cooler, going to have a custom mounting point and mount fabbed up for it. So I need to get the driver seat back in... but I don't want to have to take it out again so I tried to bang out the front. It didn't work. It was 105 degrees today and after 5 hours I was definitely getting the dizzy, so I had to quit early and the driver seat will go in temporarily so I can take it to the shop.

Pulled the headliner off so I could get the roof done. These visors are a pain in the ass to pull off when you have no idea how they come out.

The visors notch into this hole and twist to more or less lock them in place along with the three screws on this joint and one at the other end of the visor.

You can see the bit that notches into the roof and the spring assembly that goes into the big hole.

The headliner is held up by the center console, a plastic trim clip, one over the driver window and one over the passenger window, the visors, the dome light, and the trim covering the seam between the hard top and the actual roof.

I cleaned the roof and applied the CLD tiles.

Used 3m 90 high strength spray cement on this Hydrophobic Melamine Foam (HMF) as the second layer of sound deadening for the roof. It's a little thicker than I thought and the headliner is form fitted to the roof for the most part, so I went with the middle area over both front seat's heads, since it'll be more bendy in the middle.

Putting the headliner back up by yourself is kind of tough. Getting it aligned with the HMF bulging it was interesting too, but it all worked out in the end. I also got some CLD and HMF behind both A pillar trims and got those reassembled. I also got CLD on the rear quarter panels. Lastly, I started fitting and trimming down the Mass-Loaded Vinyl (MLV) which will be the second layer of sound deadening for the floor.

I had to quit after trimming up this first piece. Lots of placing, removing, cutting, repeat, and it was ridiculously hot and humid.

 

Engine is together! Time to start gathering plumbing...

And a before and after for comparison:

 

The shop has started welding up the titanium charge pipes. These welds look so good... thanks Kenny!

 

Holy cow my data is a mess. I have the data some place, but life has been a bit psychotic lately. I will get that sorted and post the updates on the trip I took @milan65 !

@lhaskins123 I'm loving it actually. I feel bad for the neighbors, given I live in a neighborhood of townhouses, that the engine and exhaust is so loud they probably all hate me.
I have had a few small issues. The electric fans were configured to come on when the engine got hot, but not when the AC was on. During this last summer too much pressure built up as the refrigerant got too hot and blew a hose. Easy fix, and refill, and configured the fans to turn on when the AC is on or when the engine gets hot enough. I've also developed a small oil leak, I haven't looked into that just yet. The noise isn't too bad from inside since I did the sound deadening. Without it, though, I think it would be pretty intolerable. If you don't do a huge exhaust pipe like I did, it is probably tolerable as most of it I think is exhaust drone. The turbo is pretty dang loud, but I like listening to it haha. Vibration also isn't bad except when it's really cold, even if I had the block heater on. Once it warms up it completely smooths out. Before that, you don't get a lot of seat vibration but the dash (if anything is loose in it, like loose change in the ash tray) does vibrate enough to make noise sometimes (rarely, only when really cold). E4OD is doing just fine, and I'm not really all that gentle with it. I would have to stress that I had it rebuilt with the 4r100 steel internals, though, so that it could withstand the punishment. It's definitely putting down a ton of torque. Not winning any races though haha. The Bronco also handles just like it did before the swap. She squats a little in the front, but not terribly at all. I'm glad I kept the sway bar up front. I cruise comfortably at 75mph without the engine sounding like it's overrevving and working really hard.

 

Holy cow my data is a mess. I have the data some place, but life has been a bit psychotic lately. I will get that sorted and post the updates on the trip I took @milan65 !

@lhaskins123 I'm loving it actually. I feel bad for the neighbors, given I live in a neighborhood of townhouses, that the engine and exhaust is so loud they probably all hate me.
I have had a few small issues. The electric fans were configured to come on when the engine got hot, but not when the AC was on. During this last summer too much pressure built up as the refrigerant got too hot and blew a hose. Easy fix, and refill, and configured the fans to turn on when the AC is on or when the engine gets hot enough. I've also developed a small oil leak, I haven't looked into that just yet. The noise isn't too bad from inside since I did the sound deadening. Without it, though, I think it would be pretty intolerable. If you don't do a huge exhaust pipe like I did, it is probably tolerable as most of it I think is exhaust drone. The turbo is pretty dang loud, but I like listening to it haha. Vibration also isn't bad except when it's really cold, even if I had the block heater on. Once it warms up it completely smooths out. Before that, you don't get a lot of seat vibration but the dash (if anything is loose in it, like loose change in the ash tray) does vibrate enough to make noise sometimes (rarely, only when really cold). E4OD is doing just fine, and I'm not really all that gentle with it. I would have to stress that I had it rebuilt with the 4r100 steel internals, though, so that it could withstand the punishment. It's definitely putting down a ton of torque. Not winning any races though haha. The Bronco also handles just like it did before the swap. She squats a little in the front, but not terribly at all. I'm glad I kept the sway bar up front. I cruise comfortably at 75mph without the engine sounding like it's overrevving and working really hard.

I appreciate the reply. I am incredibly torn ... either doing a similar build as you did with a 4bt and rebuild on my E4OD or going with a R2.8 and a 6R80 trans. my goal is 200hp 400lbs. very possible with either option just looking for reliability for some high milage road trips / overlanding i have planned in late 2023.

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Awesome build!

 

The Bronco is finally ready for road testing. We will start that on Monday. Outside of that the only thing left is an AC hose that we are waiting to arrive on Monday, and a couple of decals for the windows. Now we can get to tuning the engine with the AFC live tuner, get the idle adjusted properly, and program the transmission.

The sway bar drop brackets are gussetted and the sway bar is bolted up.

Intake is welded up and fits perfectly. Looks like it touches the radiator but it doesn't. Intake is additionally mounted to the top of the AC bracket from DCS. The bracket was drilled and tapped and the intake bolted to it. Also I said before it's titanium, but it isn't. It's aluminum.

Aluminum upper and lower lines were welded up for the cooling as well with a fill neck and a drain plug respectively.

 

Huzzah! We are here! The time has finally arrived that the swap is (mostly) complete! There are a few odds and ends missing that will get worked out over the next few weeks, but the Bronco is in my possession and is being driven daily as of two days ago! Here she is as she sits yesterday:

Here is a shot of the finished exhaust. The 4" tip is much bigger than I thought it'd be...

And the (mostly) complete engine bay!

@milan65 I hope it was worth the wait and the ride was good haha. Thanks for yours and everyone else's help! Of course the build isn't done by a long shot, but this is how she'll sit for the most part while my pocketbook pulls itself together.

The things that are missing:

• The transmission isn't cooling quickly enough. It slowly heats up over an hour or two of driving and I haven't pushed it passed 200 degrees. So an American Volt 11" cooler is on the way and will be installed when it gets here next week.
• It appears the rear main seal is slowly leaking. It's a brand new seal... so not sure why that would be the case.
• The tachometer still doesn't work. Given that the timing wheel (remachined as some of the points were off, gouging the sensor), the sensor (tested with a known good), the bracket (machined to be more secure and not move), and the wires (tested for current) have all been tested and looked at closely, I'm wondering if it's the gauge itself. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You'll know when you turn it on because it'll either stay at 0 or just magically work when started. I found something about conductive glue leaking onto the circuit board, and to pick it off, so I'll try looking for that soon.
• 1-2 shift is really hard. But the controller is programmable so I'll see if I can soften it up that way. If not, at 500 miles I'm getting all the fluids changed and when the transmission fluid gets changed, I'll ask them to soften up the 1-2 shift.
• It definitely feels underpowered, but I've been playing with the AFC live tuner and am waking it up a little. Also taking it to a tuning shop in a couple weeks to see if they can help out. I'd like to see ~22lbs of boost and was initially getting 5, now up to 10.
• The idle appears to still be around 400, and when manually holding the throttle at 600+ all vibrations go away. Otherwise, it's still vibrating pretty hard. I'll adjust that soon.
• When pumping diesel into it, the diesel fuel immediately back-fills out of the neck and splatters everywhere. Seems like something is probably not venting correctly. But I have no idea what. I had to let an actual trickle of fuel into the neck to get anything into it, and only got a half tank in 15 minutes. That's pretty hard to do with modern gas pumps haha...

The [Good] Surprises

• The AC blows way colder and works a lot better at low RPMs (Chrysler AC unit).
• The power steering is so good, I can steer with a literal single finger on top of the wheel (Dodge PS unit).
• The braking feels a lot better, presumably because better vacuum pump. I don't have to push nearly as hard to get the same kind of braking.
• Bumps are significantly less jarring, presumably because heavier front end (~250+ lbs heavier engine).
• When at a higher idle, there's almost no vibration.
• Cornering feels the same or better. Glad I retained the sway bar with extended mounts.

Near Future Things:
This stuff I already have in my garage and will give me something to do.

• I'll be adding two US Flag decals to the hard top windows.
• I'll be installing the reupholstered 40/20/40 seats and seat belts soon.
• I'll be putting in a new black vinyl flooring after sound deadening.
• I'll test for MPG before and after tuning, and before and after sound deadening.
• Speaking of, I'll also be installing sound deadening as the new seats and flooring go in. I'll get decibel measurements (just with my phone) before and after deadening, and I still have my readings from my stock engine too, for comparison. It's all stuff I got from Sound Deadener Showdown right before he unexpectedly shut down his business.
• I'll be trying to fix my stupid-slow rear window with new regulators, tracks, felt... pretty much everything except the motor. The only motor I can find is at BroncoGraveyard, and it said something about redrilling and I don't feel like doing that.
• I'll be installing a double-din stereo kit from OBS Interiors. That'll take some work, the shop has made the necessary brackets for me and I'm still looking for a good stereo. I'm thinking of an octacore android head unit with a 9" or 10.1" screen so I can support good gps, hands-free stuff, and an aftermarket TPMS setup.

 

When pumping diesel into it, the diesel fuel immediately back-fills out of the neck and splatters everywhere. Seems like something is probably not venting correctly. But I have no idea what. I had to let an actual trickle of fuel into the neck to get anything into it, and only got a half tank in 15 minutes. That's pretty hard to do with modern gas pumps haha..

Find a diesel truck in the junkyard.The steel filler neck that bolts into the fender behind the door is different; the diesel trucks have an external vent built into them that leads back to the top of the tank. it helps them to fill faster. Swap that into your bronco, that should fix your problem.

 

After a metric F***load of finagling and forcing, I was able to get the seats to bolt up without drilling or bending. It looks really good to me. The terracotta vinyl on the black flooring with the medium mocha interior isn't as contrasting as I thought it might end up being, which I like. Added benefit: the new seats cover up most of the bad parts of the floor. Also, they sit a bit higher than the captain chairs, which I love. They feel more comfortable to me.

I still have more heatgun treatments to do on the floor, more trimming to do, and some more trim to sound-deaden and install, but it's drivable and probably 80% done now. I haven't done the door panels at all as I'm waiting for more materials to do it, but damn is it quiet!

Additionally, I took a preliminary sound measurement. Here's a sneak peak at some of my data:

Pre Sound Deadening (Gas Engine) in Decibels (dB) - 77°F, wind < 5mph

Engine Off	Idle	30 MPH	50 MPH	70 MPH
47	58	70	74	79
41.1	56.6	69.7	73.4	77.5
43.5	58	70.2	73.5	79.4

Pre Sound Deadening (Diesel Engine) in Decibels (dB) - 80°F, wind < 5mph

Engine Off	Idle	30 MPH	50 MPH	70 MPH
39	81	85	87	88
35	85	84	86	87
32	83	84	85	87

Post sound-deadening with a diesel engine today (I didn't get temp or wind, just a quick reading out of curiosity), I had 28dB with the engine off. It seems small, but 10dB I understand to be the difference between a whisper and a yell, so this is pretty significant to me. Additionally, I haven't done the door panels and some of the trim still needs sound-deadened and reinstalled, so I have many places for sound leaks. It's made a MASSIVE difference in my opinion, especially since I've eliminated all squeaks and rattles except in the door panels.

 

The gauges are completed as much as they can be and are operable as far as can be tested. They even dim when the headlights are turned on. Can't start the engine yet, but we're closer! Also that choice in paint for the pod was really close, I like it. I wouldn't notice the difference if I wasn't looking for it.

• The shop found and is attempting to use a setup from TCI Automotive to solve the Throttle Position Sensor problem we've been having. It'll essentially be a cable with a TPS mount which will likely attach to the firewall between the throttle and the fuel pump. Hopefully that will solve my auto-trans throttle woes.
• The fuel sock from a 6.0 is being used and will be cut to length for the fuel tank, then the tank can be mounted and lines run.
• The hood latch support beam is too short now that I have the deeper core support. This will attempt to be extended or hood pins will be used. I'm hoping the extension will work and I'm also going to see if I can't source the longer beam.
• The engine harness has been routed and mounted back up in the engine bay, looks super clean. I'll get a pic in the near future.
• Transmission cooling lines have been hooked up to the auxiliary cooling ports on the aluminum radiator.
• Getting the transmission controller and the overdrive on/off switch on the shift lever to be properly wired seems to be an issue. Still working that out with the controller manufacturer.
• Crash sensors are mounted back up to the core support as well. The core support didn't have the mount points threaded so some rivnuts resolved that.

 

All right, up to this point we are at about 112.2 labor hours on this project. We are getting closer, fuel and oil filters are in and the TPS/Throttle linkage solution is being installed. We are thinking a first start next week.

 

Started putting down MLV and CCF on the passenger side quarter and wheel well.

Replacing the 6 rear seat bolts with grade 8 stainless.

Drilled through the sound deadening to place the bolts. Also put up more HMF. Half of them won't thread and I'm not sure why.

Foam on the rear speakers disintegrated, so I replaced it with CCF. Drilled through the deadening so I can secure the speaker in it's place as well.

Passenger side is complete. Time for new flooring and putting the trim back on.

Passenger side wheel well vinyl placed. Might need to heatgun it to get it to lay out flat.

 

TLDR; So it turns out if you want to put ARP studs on an 8 valve or 12 valve cummins, you have to machine the rocker pedestals. Their instructions they include with the studs give the proper dimensions and whatnot. Well, ain't nobody got time for that, so I got some from Power Driven Diesel.

When I called ARP, I talked to two different technicians. The first one informed me the reason to machine the pedestal is to provide clearance for the valve cover as there are protrusions on the inside of the valve cover that will contact the oversized ARP nut and not allow for a proper seal. This can subsequently cause oil to leak all over the backside of the engine and over the transmission, he told me. He said to grind down the protrusions and I'll be good to go, no needing to machine.

After getting off of the phone, I got to thinking... why would it be out of the back? I have four separate valve covers, not a single one, and they should all leak if that were true. So I figured he was talking about a common rail 4bt, which I don't have. I call them back, got someone else, and after relaying what the last tech told me, some hold time while he talked to another tech, and lots of repeating what he said to make sure I wasn't stupid, he told me I must machine the pedestals as there isn't enough stud for the nut to secure onto if you don't, and that machining has nothing to do with the valve cover. Insert dramatic sigh here.

So I do some research online. I can find precious little, but the little I do find tells me that these two answers are based on two different versions of studs ARP has produced, henceforth known as the "old style" and "new style". The short of it is the old style allows for just grinding down the inside of the valve cover and the newer ones require machining the pedestals due to shorter studs. Here are some resources I used to deduce that: [link][link][link]

To hell with this. Let's call someone who actually has done the install and can tell me. I call PDD, relay the situation, and ask them. Oh yeah, they do this install all the time. You do need to machine the pedestals because there isn't enough stud to seat the nut onto. However, you don't need to drill and tap the block deeper to receive the head studs, as the ARP install documentation says. They never have and have been just fine. What you do have to do is make sure the existing taps are very clean, vacuumed out, no fluid or debris in them before installing the studs. If you don't, they told me, you have a much higher risk of cracking the block. Good to know! Well, if you send PDD cores, they will send you used pedestals, or you can order new ones. I went the new route. So now I'm only waiting on that. Got my Dodge A/C manifold in, just needs to be crimped to the ford lines. Then it's just fluids, filters, and I have all the parts I need (I hope).

 

Thanks for those recommendations! Briefly looking around - upgraded driveshafts are really expensive haha.. I'll have to run the numbers. Thanks for the recommendations on the crank breather kit, I think I'll do one of those kits soon after everything is done. I definitely don't want the spots in the driveway, and I'm glad you mentioned it. After everything is installed and running, I'll add one. I was looking at suppliers for the batteries you suggested and all sellers seem to be on the west coast. I hadn't planned to go the optima route, but I think I may have to find a different brand of battery on the east coast.

It looks like they are well along with putting the engine back together now, and for now I'm just going to go with the dangling hose method for the crank breather haha. Doesn't look bad, it's a bit more exciting now that I'm seeing it coming together.

 

All right, time for a long overdue update! I apologize for the wait, but not too much has happened (completely understandably) because of the holidays.

Whelp, I'm a bit more relaxed now that I've finally finished college, we're passed the holidays, and I've got a little downtime, so hopefully lower stress now @curtwow haha.

@milan65 the mounts I got are from Diesel Conversion Specialists and they've been running these mounts in their F150's and Broncos since they developed them a few years ago. Hopefully they are good enough. They were so damn heavy haha and I have some pictures of how the engine sits in the truck with those mounts now with this update.

Finally got the oil line and fitting in for the vacuum pump (that feeds oil from the block to the pump), and after about 4 weeks of waiting, the fuel line clamp. Both of those are installed.

I returned the 3 gauge pod for a 4 gauge as the shop and I figure I should probably also have an oil pressure gauge. They didn't have a tan 4 gauge pod so I'm going to paint that up with SEM's Medium Prairie Tan as someone [here] mentioned that should be a very close match to the Medium Mocha interior of my Bronco, and some vinyl and plastic adhesion promoter. Also got the 4 gauge power harness and oil pressure gauge to match.

The engine and transmission are in the Bronco now and everything fit together great! Although it's a pretty tight fit between the engine and crossmember, and the AC and alternator to the passenger side.

Had a small issue with the tach sensor. This plate is for the tachometer sensor and it has 4 'bumps' for the sensor to detect as the wheel spins. The sensor is directly above this wheel at the top. Some grinding was necessary to get that sensor bracket to fit, but it worked out in the end. This is the recommended mounting location according to DCS.

Overall, the adapter kit from DCS made installing the engine, fitting the transmission to the engine in its original mounting location, and installing the Mean Green 6.0 starter a breeze! Also added the Mag Hytec E4OD/4R100 pan to increase the amount of fluid and cooling potential for the transmission. Using the Mag Hytec pan has the added benefit of adding a transmission temperature sensor directing to the pan rather than the pressure test port on the transmission.

Everything fit well, even with the rear/bottom dump exhaust manifold... except the outlet for the turbo is 3 inches and there isn't 3 inches of space between the transmission and firewall. Rather than beat and modify the firewall, we're going to try a center dump manifold.

We tried flipping the existing manifold but the high mount AC bracket and the mounting bracket for lifting the engine are in the way. I'll likely have to do a top mount with the center dump manifold like this, rather than a bottom mount.

Next is to try and plumb everything. Ran into the next issue, but this one was anticipated. Here is a view of the 7.3l diesel radiator trying to fit in a Bronco core support. As you can see... it doesn't fit. The diesel F250 and F350 core supports are the same, and are deeper than the F150 and Bronco core support, which are also the same.

Here is a view of the 7.3l F250/F350 core support. This shows the added depth to the bottom of the core support to fit the extra radiator space.

Here is the size difference between the V8 gas radiator and the 7.3l diesel radiator. I got the Mishimoto OEM aluminum replacement to hopefully make the Bronco longer lasting, better cooling, and a bit more future proof.

Because the new core support is so much deeper, I think I'm going to have an issue with this sway bar being in the way. Will likely have to add an inch or two spacer for the sway bar mounts. I'm open to suggestions on this. I imagine the TTB F250's also had the same sway bar setup, but I have no idea if the TTB F250's even came with a diesel engine. I imagine they might have done a solid axle for the diesel versions? I'm not sure.

I also decided to go with a stand-alone electric fan with an independent controller, rather than a mechanical one. I'm still shopping but it looks like I'm going with a 14in Hayden fan and controller. It takes up less space, and is less likely to wear out as quickly as a mechanical fan I think. Also the mechanical stuff got thrown out by accident, so that kind of helped that decision along haha. The center dump manifold will be ordered in the next day hopefully. It's also worth mentioning that the banks intercooler is HUGE. It's almost as big as the Bronco radiator, but not quite as thick. The plus is it really is pretty much bolt on. Cutting the F350 core support will not be required, and the intercooler plumbing will wrap around the 7.3l radiator just fine without touching anything. Also, after playing around with the idea with the shop, I think the intercooler and downpipe plumbing is going to be titanium which should be fun and interesting. It dissipates heat really quickly and is much lighter than stainless.

 

All right, time for a long overdue update! I apologize for the wait, but not too much has happened (completely understandably) because of the holidays.

Whelp, I'm a bit more relaxed now that I've finally finished college, we're passed the holidays, and I've got a little downtime, so hopefully lower stress now @curtwow haha.

@milan65 the mounts I got are from Diesel Conversion Specialists and they've been running these mounts in their F150's and Broncos since they developed them a few years ago. Hopefully they are good enough. They were so damn heavy haha and I have some pictures of how the engine

Any progress since this update?

 

Once your conversion is done and your BKO is up and running - I'll submit you for FOTM. It will be pretty interesting reading. Your expectations (how quickly and cheaply this can be done). All the drama with shop. All the online searches you did, gathering parts, costs etc... Your detailed write up incl. cost is useful for other to see what's involved. Comparing your conversion with the pathetic efforts of some folks posting in FOTM - you should easily win. Given you posted with the same writing style and tons of pictures. It would be small retribution for all the headaches you are going through right now. Milan

 

Here's another small update:

The FF Dynamics custom fan setup bolted right up no problem (glad for that).

Leaves plenty of space between the engine and fans.

Fan relay and controller mounted on the passenger fender well behind the battery.

Fans are mounted with clips that push through the radiator fins and are secured on the opposite side of the radiator.

Power steering lines are plumbed in and completed. Auxiliary port is capped as shown at the top of the photo.

 

I have a loose idea of how many man hours. I requested an itemized invoice to get an exact count, so I'll let you know once I get that. I've been paying installments as we go. As far as a projection, I didn't have any projected expectations because I had no experience or idea what a project like this took, unfortunately.

The titanium charge pipes are done. Still thinking on how to do the intake. I think maybe just a filter attached directly to the turbo. Gotta find one that'll fit though.

The fuel shutoff solenoid is wired up with an 80 amp relay. The relay is mounted on the passenger side shown below. The continuous 12v run signal is coming off the previous MAF wire.

The new TPS setup is in. Just gotta figure out how to bolt it up for my configuration.

Also, the fuel sock for a 6.0 powerstroke came in and only required welding up some 5/8" line. The sock is on, sending unit and pickup lines in and wired, and the tank installed. Getting exciting, hoping we might get a first start out of it next week.

 

I will as soon as I get all the receipts and everything together. I'm gathering all the stuff I didn't write details about over the last several months and trying to make it make sense haha.

So I found out something through lots of testing over the last few days... it was around 450, it looks like my tach is reading correctly when it works, but that was happening because my AC was apparently massively leeching power from the engine. I played with the idle and warmed the engine up over the weekend for 2 days, and got it in a good place. AC consistently robs ~300-350rpm from the engine currently. Stick it in drive and step on the pedal and lose another ~100. Idle is good now though I think, ~750 cold and ~850-900 warm (no ac, trans in park).

I took more measurements over the weekend and there is a night and day difference in noise between the gas and diesel engine. I think a lot of it comes from the mufflerless exhaust, and massive tip, to be honest. I'll post those numbers up soon, soon as I've finished sound deadening and can put them all up together. On the plus side, the diesel consistently makes roughly the same amount of noise, regardless of idling up through 70mph.

I'm using the whole shabang, Constrained Layer Damper, Mass Loaded Vinyl paired with Closed Cell Foam, and Hydrophobic Melamine Foam. I've got some Butyl rope for weird tight vibration sources too. I may even try putting down a padded layer on top of all that in the bed under the new flooring. I don't know if that'll help sound, but it'll make it a little softer back there haha.

I tried to fix the tach issue with something I found on FSB, something about glue used on the circuit board becoming hard and conductive, and to scrape it off. So I did that, but it didn't help. I have discovered that the tach will either work and give a reading, or it will give zero reading. Nothing in between. No bouncing or anything. I have to have the truck on, but not started, for ~5 seconds before starting, or the tach won't work. Super weird.. dunno what to make of it. Here's a pic of the glue, it's the dull brownish substance on this board. I scraped it off and no difference in how the tach behaves.

Pretty spacious once you get the back seat out.

 

I've been doing work for most of the last 7 days, 8-12 hours each day, to get this stuff done before I go back to work tomorrow. Way more work than I anticipated. That was more exercise than I've had in probably 2 years! Anyway, here's what we have:

I started applying the new vinyl flooring I purchased from Bronco Graveyard (been sitting in the garage for over a year). The old beige carpeting was trashed. I kept the tailgate carpet, though, to match the trim around the sides and because the new flooring kit didn't come with a tailgate piece. Be aware of that if you buy from JBG. The gaps for the wheel wells in the bottom flooring are much bigger than the wheel wells. Hopefully the excess for the wheel wells will fill the gaps without looking too bad. Still gotta cut out the center where the rear seat locks in, and drill holes for the seat and seatbelt mounts. I used the heat gun to get the wrinkles out and, believe it or not, this looks way better than when I initially put it in. It's going to need a lot more massaging to get it flat before I start drilling and reinstalling things.

Started laying CCF and MLV in the cabin area.

Needed heavy boxes to keep the MLV down on the bit that attached the cargo area to the cabin area while the vinyl cement set.

Used industrial velcro to keep the MLV tight to the dropoff from the cargo area and help keep the flooring from coming up for whatever reason.

Much easier to drill holes and cut holes through the CCF and vinyl one layer at a time, rather than both at the same time. Also contouring around bends sucks.

More CCF down for the rest of the floor in the cabin.

Putting MLV on this one elevated place under the center console took forever. Lots of cutting, cementing, and force and pressure to keep the MLV down while it set.

These instructions are bull. I did this and it still doesn't form correctly. Heat gun was the only way for me and even that doesn't work completely, maybe 80% if you have something heavy you can put on the vinyl to make it stay in a shape you want while it cools.

Finally finished the transmission hump. Lot's of velcro used here to keep the contours over the odd shapes.

I had excess CCF, so I put it over the top of the sound deadening vinyl, and under the flooring vinyl to add some softness to the cargo area and prevent any rubbing or rattling noises between the vinyl layers.

Starting to reinstall some trim. I had to install and uninstall several times to perfect where to trim the flooring so everything would fit okay. One specific example is the HMF white foam got in the way of the rear cup holders in these cargo side panels. I had to cut away a section to allow these to close. Even then, just the MLV and CCF made it a little tough to close them. The backs of these cargo side panels have padding. I had to cut away the section behind the pocket and use high-strength spray cement to hold the rest of the padding in place. Leaving the padding on the back of the pocket caused the panel to bulge a lot, that's why I had to remove it.

Padding removed from behind the pocket on the side panel.

Also reinstalled the mounts for the rear seat amongst this disaster of tools and things.

Padding came with the cabin flooring, so I positioned and trimmed it as necessary and used the 3m Hi-Strength 90 spray cement.

The front flooring required a massive amount of trimming, refuses to let me get the creases and things out, and has contours built-in in the wrong places, particularly in the center console area. Because of this, the front floor looks like shit.

Preview of my struggles getting the F250 reupholstered 40/20/40 seats and seatbelts in. I gave up for the night to finish it in the morning.

Lastly, I also tightened up the strikers on both doors to see if that would help my water-pooling-on-the-floorboard issue, and it did! The last rain (a couple of days ago) and I had zero water on the floor. Huzzah!

 

That's pretty incredible @milan65, damn!

Well, I've updated the original post on page 1 with updated information on figures and everything, updated language to be past-tense, added information that wasn't there in the plan and parts sections, and added the running video... andyeah. I think it's in it's final form and won't be updated again.

Cost estimates of this build:
Labor: $22,006.42
Parts: $28,575.45
Total: $50,581.87

I included stuff outside of just the engine swap like interior things, dual battery kit, sound deadening, etc that happened all at once while the swap was happening. So really this isn't the cost of a swap. The numbers are in the original post so you all can pick and choose to find out what the swap itself might cost in parts. Most of the labor was swap specific though. This total also doesn't include random miscellaneous costs such as shop supplies or my supplies, coolant, paper towels, oil, refrigerant, etc. Small stuff I never tracked.

Learning has occurred, and it was awesome getting to do all this stuff to it. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. No regrets.

Here are some estimated stats:

Average Economy: ~22mpg
Guesstimate HP: ~200hp
Guesstimate TQ: ~500lbft
Smiles per mile: Yes

She's a very comfortable daily 😁 Got everything I was shooting for with this build.

 

Are you sure you have 4BT engine? There's no glow plug in 4BT. The only electrical wiring on that engine is the fuel solenoid. I have 4BT P7100 from 1998 in my BKO and there is no glow plug. Did they even make 4BTs in 2004? Maybe it was recon in 2004. Anyway, post your progress/pictures. Let me know if you have any question, I'm almost done with my swap. Thank you @LVSteve for showing me this tread. Milan

 

I'm on year four of my build I've driven it for two years now but just take it easy mine spent nearly 12 full months at shop getting swapped. I enjoy the research part as it appears you do. I wasn't smart enough to post here while doing my search on the engine so some stuff I or my builder had to figure out along the way (like the vacuum pump). If I can offer any advice don't get stressed, enjoy every aspect, and it will all come together.
Not to say that you shouldn't keep an eye on what's going on there was another 4bt swap that was absolutely disastrous I cant' remember his name but it did not end well. I was fortunate enough to have a builder/ machine shop who had done several 6bt's into older vehicles whom I've known most of my life to do mine. There were a couple of things I had to address after he was done but for the most part I got exactly what I expected.
It is almost comical to me how similar your motivations were to mine. I had this Bronco with a tired engine and was pricing out new pickups, one day I got to thinking about daily driving the bronco and before you knew it I had purchased a 4bt on ebay. I'm in the car business and the amount of depreciation people take on vehicles is mind boggling. Classics just don't seem to be affected. Even on pickup trucks most people loose between 7 and 10,000 per year. I'm not stating I expect to get every dime back out I put in however it will/ should be much closer then even a couple of years depreciation for a new vehicle and I get more enjoyment out of it than any of the other 25 or so cars I've owned.

 

I have added all of the links and part numbers for things in the Parts List in the OP that I could find. The Parts List won't get updated except to add new parts if I need more.

Update:

Not every day I get to see the Bronco this barren, especially underneath. A lot cleaner than I expected as far as rust goes. There isn't much except on the frame horns on the front, the tow package and hitch, the cross members holding the gas tank, and the rear leaf spring hangers.

Fuel tank cross members and hitch assembly are all rusty, but some stabbing around it showed it's surface. A wire wheel and POR15 will fix that up since it's all apart anyway. Likely get the rear leaf spring hangers too while at it, and put a little hole in the bottom of the hangers to allow drainage.

ARP head studs documentation. Pretty confused because instructions say to mill the pedestals, but they look like they are flat already? Or maybe a step needs to be milled into it? Definitely not just bolt on like I was told.. I'll call ARP and find out.

 

Wow... I can't believe it's been a month since the last update. Sorry about that. This last bit is going very slowly. All of the gauges and the pod for them are in and the exhaust is almost all there, just missing the last bend and the tip, but otherwise not much progress has been made. I spent quite a lot of time researching the throttle issue and just can't come up with a good bolt-on solution that isn't going to cost me 1k+. I asked the shop to fab up something and work their magic on it. Things have been going slowly at the shop, I think because of a large influx of other vehicles and some incidents such as not being able to pull cars into the bay due to an immobile truck blocking the bay door. I was very hopeful to be done by mid Feb, but I guess beginning of March? Still need charge piping and intake lines, fuel lines, coolant lines, and AC lines plumbed, and the transmission controller, AFC live tuner, electric fans, and power steering pump reservoir to be installed. Now that I'm typing this out and realizing what is left, I'm moderately concerned about the last month and am getting a lot more anxious about getting it finished.

 

Haha I sure hope that doesn't happen, but I'm expecting something to since so many thing have changed and were touched. That sucks about dying in the middle of the road though.

The last month and a half hasn't yielded much work, but after asking a few questions, plumbing supplies got ordered, so hopefully not far away now...

The AFC Live tuning unit has been mounted in the cab and lines installed to the AFC unit on the ppump.

This is where the screw to adjust the wastegate psi is, easy to reach.

The power steering pump has been mounted as close to "over" the power steering pump as possible.

The intercooler has been mounted up in what looks like it's final resting place. I think the back of the grill and maybe the subframe that holds the grill and headlights will need to be heavily trimmed to allow this to fit.

 

Thanks gents! I appreciate that! Once everything is settled, I'll be going through to double check all my numbers on costs and updating that table, cleaning up the OP, and that will be that I hope haha until the next thing I do right after I get it back. Sound deadening and replacing the front seats with a 40/20/40 setup I had reupholstered.