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My Bronco's other half.

43K views 383 replies 16 participants last post by  Doosenberry 
#1 ·
Figured I'd make a thread on my truck and show what little I've done to it. I have a thread on FTE, but I spend waaaay more time here now and I let that thread all but die years ago, so why not.

It was going to be a much bigger project until I picked up my Bronco 3 years ago. It's pretty much been put on hold ever since, though I do drive it most days. I basically got it into good enough condition to drive and have been driving it without continuing to fix/upgrade it while the Bronco has been getting the special treatment.

I still have plans for it in general, but it's gonna be a while before they get enacted. Sometimes I regret getting the Bronco, because I now have two half completed projects instead of one that's done. At least they are both drivable and I can enjoy them for what they currently are and someday I'll have two completed projects!

I don't have any pics of it from when I first got it or of all the little things I fixed on it, but this pic was taken maybe a year later which is before I altered the exterior and it looks the same as when I bought it. It's a 1977 F100 Custom 2wd short bed. The truck right behind it is my old 1975 F150 Custom that had a broken engine and the maroon bumpside next to that was my old neighbors. I wish I still lived there, because, as you can see, I had a lot of off street parking.





I'll most likely be jumping all over the place timeline-wise with all the pics. On the day I took that last pic I was swapping wheels out. I had bought a used set of very cheap, very heavy (steel apparently) 20" rims for $160. I went to a local shop that specializes in used tires and basically bought some nearly done 245/45r20 tires for like another $100 to finish off my cheap experiment to see if I liked 20's.





I drove it like that for a little while until I saved up enough money for a 3/4 drop kit from DJM which consisted of 3" drop "Dream Beams" and a set of 4" drop shackles and hangers for the stock leaf springs. I was a little leery of c-notching the frame, so I opted not to do a flip on the rear. Here are a few pics of the hardware on the truck.









Because of the drop on the beams, they add what is essentially a spacer to lower the tie rods. The tie rods go through the radius arms.





And since we're in the front end, I replaced the radius arm bushings and put on all new tie rods and shocks. I also replaced the steering gear to help tighten everything up.







It's hard to get a good idea of how much it dropped with the pics I have of it. I haven't really taken a whole lot since I've had it, but this one next to my Bronco when I got the Bronco gives a decent idea of where it sits now.







And, as I'm not one to throw things out too quickly, I kept the old beams, shackles, and hangers. I still have them laying on my porch juuust in case I ever decide I don't want it lowered with the Dream Beams anymore. You'll also notice the big mirrors that were on the truck are sitting in the bed as well. In hindsight, looking at this pic right now, I should have kept the mirror heads as they were in pretty good condition despite being ugly mirrors overall. They would make good backups for my Bronco, but that was a good few years before I got my Bronco, so that was clearly not on my mind. There's also a 3g alternator off a Taurus that was meant for the truck and a black box holding the old halogen headlights.





Speaking of headlights, I added the fabled headlight relay kit. There's also a little black box for my LED headlights, though I don't recall what it was for. It was just part of the wiring that came with them.





Here's a comparison of the headlights I put on. The perspective of the camera makes the LEDs look significantly smaller than the old halogens, but they're not that small. There is a slight difference in diameter between the two, but it's like an 1/8th inch or something like that. They wouldn't have fit with the factory trim rings that hold them in place otherwise.









And, yes, those are halos. They're even green halos to "match" my green truck or at least that was the idea at the time. In hindsight I should have gotten amber halos and tapped them into my turn signals. I still may do that with some new headlights as these particular headlights really aren't that much of an improvement over the old halogens. It's only a matter of time!





 
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Discussion starter · #2 ·
When I bought it, it had a busted windshield. I seem to have a thing for buying vehicles with broken windshields as I've done that three times. Getting this windshield replaced was a bit of a debacle. I loooove the wide, stainless trim around the windshield. Ford did away with that in 78 I believe and went with a thin molding, which you'll notice on a lot of our 78/79 Broncos.







The reason the windshield replacement was a debacle was due to most shops not wanting to mess with the stainless trim as it literally fits within the center of the windshield gasket, makes the install take a lot longer, and I'm told that it's prone to leaking. Huge hassle aside (I'll never go to Safelite again, lol), the windshield looks great and 6 years later does not leak.

If you look in the pic, you can see some lines on the stainless trim where it used to be sitting when it was originally put together and corroded a bit over the years and then after the windshield install it's now sitting a little further apart with some fresher stainless showing, which is not an issue, it doesn't affect anything at all, just an observation.

After the windshield replacement, I needed a new rearview mirror as the truck didn't have one when I bought it. I went to the wrecking yard and bought a period correct mirror to put on it, but when I was ordering up a gazillion replacement parts for this thing via LMC, I splurged and bought a 60's style "day/night" chrome rearview mirror. It's most likely, as I haven't bothered to verify, a Mustang reproduction mirror or at least similar in style. I still have the mirror I got at the wrecking yard and some day, hah, I'll actually install it on my Bronco as it doesn't have a rear view mirror either.










I also put some new pedal pads on along with chrome trim rings. You'll see the "pristine", lol, floorboards as well. That was one of the PO's selling points on the truck. It's true though, this thing has very minimal rust and what you'll see on the exterior is stuff that could be wet sanded off if I felt inclined to do that.





One of the first issues I had was my gauge cluster disintegrating. I had a couple of lights in the cluster that seemed dim or had gone out, so I reached from under the dash to grab them and check the bulbs as I've gained the ability to do so from past experience. lol. They wouldn't screw it very well, so later on I just took the front of the dash apart and popped the whole cluster out and that's when it literally crumbled in my hands. After the shock wore off, I simply removed the speedo from the cluster, plugged it into the cable, and propped it in the dash where it would normally sit and used it like that until I figured out what to do. lol. It worked.

The rear section of the gauge cluster on the earlier dentsides are apparently prone to doing that, though not all suffer from it. My '75 F150 didn't have that issue and my Bronco doesn't either, though it clearly has at least had the speedo swapped out. I have a '77 F150 that I bought a year or so ago and it's had its gauge cluster swapped out with one from an Econoline, so maybe that one fell to pieces on the PO.

The next issue I had was the shifter collar breaking. Again, this is a fairly common thing that happens on these dentsides, though this is the only one I've experienced it happening on. My '75 F150 had some marks around the base of the shifter that looked like maybe it had been repaired with brazing or something like that, so it may have had that happen before I ever owned it.

So, the shift collar is basically a large circle that goes around the column housing with a smaller circle that goes around the actual column shaft and holds the upper shaft bearing. Those two "circles" are connected with a small portion of material right at the base of the shift lever. This is where they fail. I was at the dog park, with my dogs of course, and when I went to leave I shifted into reverse and the shifter just spun a full circle when I let go. Uh oh. I had to manually shift the transmission by putting on the e-brake, rolling under the truck and shifting the transmission, then release the e-brake and drive. I did that to get home and then I parked it until I replaced the collar.

Here's some pics of the broken collar. You can see the large, outer circle with the shift lever attached to it. The smaller, inner circle is hanging at the bottom of the pic and has the turn signal switch wiring running through it. You'll also notice my speedo propped up in the dash. Man that was an interesting series of failures all around the same time. To replace the collar you have to remove the turn signal switch and all the wiring going to the dash, so that's what I was doing in these pics.










You'll notice on my turn signal switch that the cancelation tabs are snapped off. They weren't snapped off when I got the truck and everything worked perfectly, but one day when I was driving I put the signal on when the wheel was turned just right and that apparently crunched one. I could feel it when it happened and I was super sad about it. lol. "Nooooooo, the only dentside I've owned with a working turn signal cancelation!" Eventually the other one died and fell off like the second hound in "Where the Red Fern Grows" due to its sadness about the whole thing.

The only way to replace the cancelation tabs on this thing is to replace the whole turn signal switch, so I bought a new one via Dennis Carpenter, but at the time I really didn't want to dig back into the column to fish all the wiring through the column and de-pin and re-pin the connecters... again. You can see that whole deal hanging under the dash in one of the pics. My new switch is still sitting in its bag in a box somewhere in my back room. I've just gotten so used to manually canceling it myself that it's second nature. I just stick a finger out when the wheel is on it's last turn back to center and it clicks the turn signal lever off.


 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Here's some more shots of the interior.


This was after I fixed the gauge cluster and shift collar. The black and chrome wiper knob is from my '75 F150. The knob on this truck was missing so I used that. It does not match the solid chrome headlight knob, which occasionally has me staring at it. I have since found a matching chrome knob for the wiper switch, but I have yet to install it. Seems to be a common thing with me and fixing these old vehicles.





You can see the sweet Kraco stereo here. It turns on and works, but it's a bit smashed up and I doubt it will play a tape... if I had a tape to put into it. I never installed a new stereo into it as I wanted to go with a factory look, so I stayed on the look out for a factory Ford stereo and recently found one. Well, it's an FM radio, I'm not 100% on it being "stereo", so I'll have to investigate further before putting it in! You'll also see the sweet, limited edition, cigarette lighter delete package. lol. I have no idea how many came with that, but I think it's neat. Probably not many considering how much of the population smoked in the 70's.





I put in a new, clear dome light via LMC. It wasn't a perfect fit, but as you can see, it did mount and it does work. It sits a little off the sheet metal, so if I ever take it off again (without breaking the cover) I'll probably shave a bit of the material off the back so it sits flush the way it should. It's super bright though and I dig it. I also swapped in the headliner from my '75 F150 as it was essentially in perfect condition and the one in this truck was rough. You can also see holes in the sheet metal just above the rear window. There was a gun rack in this baby when I bought it.





It was missing half of the seat belts when I got it. It still is, actually! It looks like someone cut the shoulder belts off the buckles. The covers for the shoulder belt reels are missing as well as the reels themselves. I lucked out not too long ago and was able to find a set of covers in the wrecking yard that were the exact same jade green as my truck, which is nearly impossible to find I've found. I just need some belts to swap in and I'll be good there. For now, the lower portion of the seat belts function as lap belts.







It was missing the weather stripping for the doors when I got it. I went to the wrecking yard and grabbed some weather stripping from a 90's Ford truck that is pressed onto the pinch weld rather than gluing. It works well, but I don't like the way it looks. It leaves all of the spot welds on the sheet metal exposed and it bothers me for some reason. I still need to get a new set of weather stripping to replace it and when I do I'll button up the rest of the interior.




The biggest reason I haven't done that, and the reason the weather stripping in this pic wasn't cut to size and permanently installed is that there is a small leak in the seam on the bottom of the firewall and if I put in carpet it'll soak it if it rains. Like I said in my initial post, this was going to be a much bigger project when I started, but I just stopped all progress at some point. Once the seam is resealed then it'll get carpet, weather stripping, the sill plates will go back on, yadda yadda yadda.

The seat needs to be rebuilt. I kinda like the black woven vinyl and the dark green vinyl, but I'm not sure if I'll try to mimic that whenever it gets redone. The black stuff is very brittle and has since disitegrated and no longer looks like it does in this pic. It's exposed foam now and the foam is just as brittle as the vinyl was. This thing got very sunbaked and it dried out everything in the interior and made it brittle. Even the gauge needles faded heavily from it. Some of them look better now, but that's because I swapped in gauges from another cluster when I was troubleshooting some things.







It has a 302/C4 combo. Has working a/c, though it has no charge and probably needs to be rebuilt before it ever gets filled. It came with manual brakes, but I swapped in the power brake setup from my '75 F150, which consisted of swapping the master cylinder, brake booster, brake booster mounting bracket, and pedal assembly. It's a very very easy swap. I eventually had to put in a new brake booster as the old one in my '75 was on its last leg and was wheezing. You can see the new one in this pic. The lines for the a/c used to hang right where the brake booster sits, so that's why they rest a bit on it. Otherwise they went in a nice smooth radius to the firewall.







Replaced the notorious rag joint. You can also see those spring thingamajiggers on the inner fender. I think those have something to do with the trailer brakes, but I have no idea. I removed the trailer brake controller from inside the cab and removed the brake lines it had going to the master when I did the power brake swap, but I left those springs on the inner fender since I didn't want to trace them and I figured I'd leave them alone as things were working as is.





I had the vacuum advance canister on my distributor fail. When it was hooked up to vacuum it would kill the engine. With it unhooked it ran fine, but obviously didn't get the added advance from the canister. Not much later I also had the wiring for the magnetic picked fail on me. That was an interesting thing to diagnose. I eventually found a wire under the distributor cap that had fatigued enough to break right where it was soldered on, but not obviously so. I was getting a whole lot of cranking with no firing!

The cost of a new distributor versus replacing the magnetic pickup and the vacuum advance canister was negligible, so I just opted for a new one from the local parts store. It's been working great since, though I have no idea what the timing curve on it is. lol. It's not something I'm worried about on this 120 hp turd.

When I was diagnosing the distributor issues I ended up killing the old started. You can see how this string of parts failure was getting really exhausting. I installed a new starter and I replaced the old battery cables as the ones that were on there were small and actually got so hot from cranking the engine multiple times that the insulation melted. So, to avoid issues down the road, I went way overkill and put some 2/0 battery cables on it. I had them made locally at Napa. They only had black cable in stock in that size, so that sufficed. Also put a shiny new solenoid on it. I know they have a reputation for being crappy Chinese parts, but this one has been good for 6 years.





I had all of the brakes replaced. Pads, rotors, brake lines, drums, shoes, wheel cylinders, hardware, the works. I think the rear drums were the original ones. You could see faded jade green paint on them that matched the truck. Who knows for sure, but I thought it was neat. If you scroll back and look at the pic showing my speedo, you can see the odometer and it's at 11443. I wouldn't be surprised it that was the first time it rolled over. It runs pretty good all things considered and I can't really tell if it's been opened up before.

I bought this truck from a guy here in Idaho who lives about 45 miles from me. He bought it in Bend, Oregon and trailered it home. He told me that he bought it to use the short bed on one of his trucks, but that once he got it home and looked it all over that he thought it was in too good of shape overall to part out. I can only take him at his word, but most things point to that being the truth.

As far as the truck itself, I still think he took some things off of it for himself to keep before he sold it to me. It has a 78/79 front bumper and I know he had a preference for the 73-77 style trucks, specifically the 77's and he and his teenage son both had one. It has mounting holes for a relatively uncommon in-the-bed factory spare tire holder, it has no spare under the bed. It has a CB style antenna on it, the one with the spring portion at the base of it, so it may have had a CB in it. Who knows.

When I went through the glove box it had all sorts of paper work to support his claim of where he got it. There were a bunch of transfer station receipts from Oregon. I think there was registration for it from Bend, but I can't remember. It had the original owners manual in the glove box and inside the front cover of the manual it has the original owners information. The key he gave me for the truck had a keychain for a sewing shop in Bend. Just stuff I thought was neat. I find it interesting to know the history of a vehicle, especially the more intimate details like that and less about the build sheet. And of course, the DSO on the warranty plate is very telling as it's for Portland, Oregon. There you have it, case closed. It's a west coast truck.
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
When I got the truck it was missing the driver side door panel and the passenger side was half there. It took me a very long time to come across some green door panels in the wrecking yard. They came off a green 78/79 Supercab. When I initially saw the truck and took a peek in the cab there were no door panels, but when I looked in the bed I realized someone had removed the door panels and set them in the bed. I guess I lucked out.

These are the XLT panels with the padded inserts. They seem to match the green vinyl that's on my bench seat. I haven't installed them yet, but I may need to get different window cranks. Ford made window cranks that are slightly longer for the XLT trucks, because of the added thickness of the padded panels.





I decided I didn't like the 20's that I put on the truck. I liked the proportions of wheel to tire, but these particular 20's were heavy and made for a very uncomfortable ride. If I ever come across a great deal on some aluminum 20's, especially ones that I like (wasn't a big fan of the design of the ones I had), I'll probably give it another shot. I also needed new tires and I wasn't willing to commit to buying a much more expensive set of tires since tires for 20's cost more when I didn't like the ride of those steel 20's.

I had bought some used wheels and tires for my Bronco to try out 35's. I ended up going with new wheels and new 35's once I figured 35's would fit how I wanted them if I got the right offset. So, to make good use of the used rims, I bought some new tires for my truck and used those rims. At 17" they were a good compromise on wheel to tire ratio which gave me a cushier ride with more sidewall. That and they were much lighter as they were aluminum. I did, however, remove the terrible Plastidip job the PO did on the rims. That took quite a while to remove.









 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
What I had originally intended on doing with the truck was swapping in the 425hp 460/C6 combo from my old '75 F150. Unfortunately, before I found a short bed dentside like I wanted, I blew the 460 up. Don't run 85 octane in your 91 octane engine and then rev the piss out of it.

After I got this F100 I decided I still wanted to put a 460 into it, so I planned on making a new one while reusing what I could from the old one. Unfortunately for this F100, that 460 ended up going into my Bronco. Oopsie. I did say that my Bronco was getting the special treatment and this one not so much anymore.
















But, this truck will eventually get a 460 thrown into it. It just won't be a 460 reborn from the ashes of the old one I had. I found a "D0VE" 460 in the wrecking yard that had been swapped into a dentside Supercab truck. I was going to just keep the small chambered heads it had, but it looked pretty good internally after removing the intake and head, so I brought the rest home with me. Due to how much it cost me to have the other 460 made, among other things I bought for the Bronco, this 460 was put on hold.

I actually did start tearing into it today, however, so it's in short block form at the moment. I'll probably get it completely torn down tomorrow. I do regret not tearing it down when I first got it though. It would have been more properly stored as I've had to keep it sitting outside covered only by a harbor freight moving blanket. There's a bit of rust in a couple of the cylinder bores under the head I didn't remove before covering it up for last winter. I could have coated each individual part with grease or oil and bagged them which would have been great, even if they sat outside.














I got it home, got it on my stand, and checked under the pan to see how things looked. After that I put the pan on, turned the engine back over, and covered it up until now.

 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
Here's how it looked today when I uncovered it. Notice no rust in the exposed cylinders.








Didn't get so lucky on the other bank when I finally pulled the head. Probably going to have to bore it, but I'll let the machine shop give me the verdict. It's very light colored and seems fresh.





The early 460's had stud mounted rockers instead of pedestal mounted.





I removed the perches and motor mounts.





I removed the water pump. The timing cover has the typical rot on it where it gets a hole worn through. This one isn't as bad as the last one I opened up. Other than a little rust, the inside of the water pump looked fine and it didn't wobble when I spun it around.









Had to rent a puller for the harmonic balancer. Got the balancer off and removed the timing cover. That's where I left it today.





I had previously picked up a Performer RPM intake off the FB marketplace. It was up in Boise (couple hours from me), but it was only $100, so it was worth the drive to me. I stripped all the fittings off of it and then I soaked it in some simple green today and scrubbed it with a dollar store toilet brush. Cheap and easy.



 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Well, I got it all stripped down today.


Here's the factory "straight up" timing chain. If the timing set is "straight up", the dots on the sprockets will be right on a tooth. The later retarded timing sets will have the dots, well at least one of them, right between two of the teeth. That's one way of telling them apart. It's a bit hard to see with the shadows, but I have the dots pointing at each other.







The cam didn't want to come out very easily. I often have more ingenuity than I do tools, so in this case I used the fuel pump eccentric and its bolt as a mini slide hammer and I was able to get it to come out doing that.





Removed all of the rods and pistons. It took a lot longer than I anticipated, but that was mostly due to the first piston I attempted to remove being the ones with the rusty bore. Once I got a couple out it was a lot easier and I went through them fairly quickly.





A close up on a rod journal.





I forgot to take some pics of the rod bearings, but here are the main caps. Scoring and pitting. They appeared to be original bearings all throughout the engine as they had "Ford" stamped into them. I also didn't see any overbore numbers on the piston faces and the sides of the pistons actually had a C9VE casting number on them.





I discovered some not so good news. Three of the pistons had busted compression rings. There didn't appear to be any damage within the cylinder bores or the heads, so I'm not sure how long it ran like that. I wonder what an engine sounds like running with busted rings. lol





Getting my parts ready to go to the machine shop to see if they are any good. Some of them went for a dirt nap, like that cam.





I guess lowering your truck can come in handy sometimes.





Everything is ready to go.





So, I dropped everything off at the machine shop and while I was there I talked things over with the owner. I just wanted to get the bare minimum done to things in order to put it back together, so if there was anything that I could get by with or reuse, I wanted to do that. At least that was the idea goin' in.

The owner grabbed a couple of mics and checked the crank. He said it looked like it would just need a polish and it appeared to be in spec for the standard size bearings.

The bores on the block were around 5-6 thousands tapered, so he said that was kind of on the limit of things and that if it was him he'd overbore it if he was concerned with longevity. You can always just toss things back together and run it until it doesn't anymore though.

The pistons were within spec, but at least one was cracked in a couple of spots if you looked from the underside, which honestly didn't surprise me. I didn't bother to check, but I bet is was one of the ones that had a busted compression ring. So, gonna need some new pistons. And if you're gonna get new pistons, might as well bore it out.

I won't know for certain the condition of everything until things get cleaned and checked, but that was the starting point. I'm gonna think some things over and then get back to him on where I want to go.

Those factory pistons are a shallower dish than the later 460's, so this indeed was a 10:1 engine. I had him do a rough calculation on them to confirm that. Makes me wonder if the PO was getting some detonation, which would explain the damage.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
While I was there I also picked up the oil pan I need in order to put the 460 into this truck. They try not to throw out any good parts they come across, so in their fairly large storage room they have a couple of the walls lined with oil pans hanging from hooks.

The one that came with this 460 is made for cars and it has the drain plug on rear corner of the sump which would be right on top of my front crossmember. This one is essentially the same pan, but with the drain plug coming out of the rear of the sump, which of course dumps oil on the steering linkage like it already does with my 302, but at least I'll be able to drain it! I'll just need to wire wheel it and paint it.







Old pan for comparison. Kinda hard to see the drain plug, but it's on the right rear of the sump looking down at it.





And I know this pic looks like garbage and doesn't show much, but this is from the day I was pulling the engine out of the wrecking yard. I took the pic after I pulled the engine, so you can't see the plug. The PO of course had a car pan while the engine was in a truck and instead of putting a truck pan on it, they cut a square hole big enough in the crossmember so that they could fit a socket in to remove the drain plug.

 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Thanks! I just consider myself lucky that I'm into trucks that I'm still able to find parts for in the wrecking yards where I live. There are other Ford trucks I'm into, but they're so far out of reach for me when it comes to affording them or the parts. 53-56 F100's come to mind.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
I've been putting in some OT at work, so I missed a call from the machine shop while I was sleeping during the day today. The owner texted me and would like to know what I want to do with the 460. After getting an initial ballpark figure from him I told him I had a couple things to think over and that I'd get back to him on it. That was like a week ago. I guess it's time to make a decision. lol.

His ballpark figure was $2,000-2,500 for a basic rebuild. That depends on what all needs to be machined and what "extras" I'd like to do, such as adding hardened seats to the heads. I've been thinking about going a completely different route with it, so that's why I told him I needed to think about a couple things. I contacted "The Mad Porter" from 460ford.com last week and if you know who he is then you have an idea of what I'm considering. That's all I'll say. lol.
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
I’m envious of you man. This truck is so nasty. Would definitely love to have one as a street rod one day. Following for sure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks!

I'm just glad I found one like I wanted and got it before prices started getting out of hand. Any time I feel like mine is a turd (which it kinda is) I just browse the sold listings on ebay to help reinforce my thoughts about it being a diamond in the rough. lol.
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
Discussion starter · #18 ·
Ok, well, I spoke with my local machine shop this morning. I swear I always have mixed feelings about that place. Like, they do good work, but the owner is like my kids when I tell them not to do something. lol. I told him I'd think some things over and come back to him to make a final decision on what I wanted to do. He said he wouldn't touch anything until I got back to him. They touched some things...

I've decided to go a different route than just the standard rebuild. Figured that I'd put the money he quoted me on a standard rebuild towards a 521 stroker. I intended on putting one in this truck down the road, but I decided it would essentially be a "waste" to spend money on an engine that's not part of the endgame, so to speak.

I got a quote on a whole lotta parts from Scotty (The Mad Porter) at Parkland Auto Machine, in Tacoma. I'm actually still going back and forth with him via email, which sucks, as I communicate when I'm awake and then he responds when I'm asleep. Night shift be damned.

I essentially did the same thing when I was at the machine shop this morning to see what my local guy could do for parts. Speaking with him about a Ford stroker really opened my eyes on why it's a good idea to go to someone familiar with the engine you're building. I was basically informing him on some brands that he didn't know made parts for a 460, like AFR. The dude is great with bowties, I've seen what he's built and watched them run on the dyno, but I know for sure I'm in the best hands going through Scotty for parts and 460 knowledge.











Please, God, I hope someone here, other than myself, has a sense of humor. lmao...
 
Discussion starter · #21 ·
I understand how you feel. and I felt mostly the same until I met LEB, before I was talking to 2 companies doing mostly stock stuff, and when I came with some "specifics" I read about, they would'nt even give a comment, which mostly give more questionmarks to me.

but great you are sorted, and 521cui - Moses! thats 8,53 liters of displacement, I only go with 472, but we have totally different approach. You have a great plan Daniel!!!! jealous on some level!

Guess I need to sort my transmission someday, not sure that I too happy with the C6, maybe a 4 gear box would be better. however more electroni-ish....
I don't know if I have it all sorted out, but I know my general direction, that's for sure. Hopefully I get it right.

I like the C6, well, at least the one I have that will be going into this truck. It's been a pretty stout transmission. The only thing I don't like about it is the same thing I don't like about my 4-speed. No Overdrive.

I'm sure not all C6's are created equal. I know this one was rebuilt before I bought it from the PO, but I have no idea what all he had put into it. It shifts very firmly, but it doesn't bark the tires, which I like. I used to push it as hard as I could and it never slipped going into the next gear.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
Been a busy couple of weeks with the holiday and whatnot. Should be making a parts order today for the engine if everything goes according to my loose plan. I'll be sure to list everything that goes into the engine for posterity.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
Well, got my initial parts order made. It was literally made a few minutes before I had to rush off to work, because of... reasons, lol, but it was made. There will be more to get, but the big stuff is paid for and the time frame for delivery on a lot of the parts will be... long.

I was told the rotating assembly would probably be like a month out and that would be the set of parts with the longest time line on delivery, everything else would arrive sooner, which is what it is. Can't really do too much to the short block without that.

I need to talk to Scotty some more about a few things and I'll get some specific part numbers. Here's some of the items ordered, minus the part numbers and what not.

Externally balanced Scat 521 rotating assembly - Comes with damper/Heavy duty flexplate. Crank. H-beam rods. Dished pistons. Rings/Bearings. Kit is specific to AFR heads as they require special pistons.

AFR 280cc Bullitt heads. Scotty's going to set them up for me for a flat tappet cam as I won't be using a roller cam and AFR sends them out with springs for a roller cam.

Custom ground cam/lifters with specs recommended by Scotty. Duration @ .050 is In-219 Ex-233 111 lsa.

Comp Cams Ultra Pro Magnum XD roller rockers.

Billet timing set with thrust bearing.

New Duraspark distributor that will be custom curved by Scotty. Should make things easy with install as it'll be plug and play with my factory ignition box.

The plan is to keep it carbed at this point, though I would consider something like the Holley Sniper I have on my Bronco. I have an 850 cfm Demon, so.. why not use that if I can make it work.

The build he suggested is one that he's already done before, so this isn't a one-off build. It's honestly a good thing as he has had dyno proven results and customer reviews as he's made several of this particular build. This is a "Tow package" build as I intend to use my little short bed truck as my tow vehicle for my Bronco or at least that's my current idea (hah). I honestly doubt I'll tow it much, but maybe having a fun tow vehicle will make me want to take it more places just so I can drive it. I would go with a more aggressive, high rpm build, but something tells me having my power peak at 5k or less is gonna be... interesting.

His build did 570hp @ 4900 rpm 653 tq @ 4000 rpm with it hitting 500hp at 4000 rpm. That's on regular pump gas, not premium. Here is a link to his build on his FB page.


 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
Had a few unexpected parts show up today. I won't turn away parts when they arrive, but I'll be sitting on these for a while for sure! Timing set, roller rockers, and pushrods.

The timing set and pushrods are Engine Pro brand. The Engine Pro brand is supplied to machine shops or is supposed to be anyway.



Billet steel double roller timing set with Torrington thrust bearing. 9 keyways on the crank sprocket, mama mia!














3/8" .083 wall pushrods. 9.150" and 8.800" lengths. I believe they are made of 4130 chrome moly and carbon nitride treated, but I may be just pulling that out of my rear.












Comp cams ultra pro magnum xd 1.73 ratio roller rockers. I left them in the plastic, so I won't have them rolling around loosely until build time comes, but they look just like the black rockers in the pic on the box.





 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
In the not so distant future I'm going to be looking at picking up some new tools to build this thing. If anyone has a suggestion on a particular tool or a particular model/brand they think is a good value, let me know.

I'm giving myself a loose budget of about $500 to spend on tools. It would cost me a bit more than that to have the engine built, so I figure this way I at least get some tools out of the deal this time and some experience under my belt.

I'll rent what I can or items that I know I won't use often and can actually rent. I'll need to pick up a 1/2" drive torque wrench, dial indicator, calipers, etc., things along those lines.
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
The custom cam/lifters arrived today. I nearly forgot I had ordered all of this stuff. Had my dog barking this morning and later found it sitting at my door. Now I know how a lady feels getting an unexpected bouquet of flowers.
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
The box contained the camshaft, a set of 16 lifters, a tube of Driven assembly grease, a very detailed cam card, and a couple stickers for Scotty's shop.

The camshaft was specced by Scotty and comes via Delta Camshaft which is based in Tacoma, Washington and they grind the cam there. Camshaft | Engine Cam | Camshaft Repair





 
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