Cali bronco II build

[benny92lx]

The story begins with myself wanting to wheel with the girlfriends parents, friends that ive met over the past few years and just wanting something to romp around the desert in. I started my quest to be some what different then the average jeep, big bodied bronco, and 4 runner/toy trucks. I used to have a quad, but im done with the go fast and possibly get hurt game. So I began looking for the perfect bII about 6-7 months ago. I stumbled across the perfect candidate. I was looking for something clean on the inside, relatively clean exterior and hopefully something with no drive train, this would keep the intitial cost down and allow me to build it up the way i wanted.... Big power, stout drive train and an overall reliable ride.

The candidate is a 1990 Bronco II, Owner pulled engine, transfer case, transmission and axles. He left the 7.5 rear and d28 front ibeam. Also left the radiator, condenser, a/c compressor and lines, trans cooler, full exhaust (cat y pipe) wiring harness, Skyjacker 6 inch lift, 3 inch body lift, full clean interior, 33 inch bfgs, 15 inch wheels, Stainless steel brake lines, 4 hella 500 lights, etc etc.

I picked her up last saturday and spent a measly 400 bucks on this body. One of the big perks of this bronco is that it was paid current on registration and is currently non-oped. so that keeps things insanely cheap.

Im hoping to throw a 5.0 in it, a c6/np205 setup and run the 7.5 and d28 for a little bit until i can get to phase 2

Phase 2: Dana 60 rear, dana 40 front, np203 doubler, and some 37's, fully caged

Anyways enjoy.

 

[benny92lx]

This is what im working with.

i need to get more pictures. This whole project came to play around a free 94 5.0 that i picked up..

and now for the Wiring harness and Ecu that i picked up for free (Its nice to be heavily invested in the mustang crowd)

So i think most of my current time is going to be invested in adapting the 91 engine bay harness to the 94 injector harness. Stay tuned!

 

[Tbars4]

..subscribing....:biggthump

 

[jrgaylor]

Here is those pictures

 

[jrgaylor]

And a couple more

 

[benny92lx]

hmm, that black box looks like the bees knee's. is it worth it to go that route apposed to the np203 doubler route?

 

[jrgaylor]

You would lose out on some gear reduction with a 203
Both setups are darn near built proof

 

[benny92lx]

yea, i like the idea of cheap and easy right now. maybe down the road ill get a big boy transfer case but for now i think the 205/203 would be good start.

So just picked up a new/old aod from an 89 bronco.

I traded some parts and he gave me this bad boy for free with tq converter.

 

[jrgaylor]

You going to rebuild the AOD?

 

[benny92lx]

I think im going to clean it up, use it as much up right now, get it mounted and see if it moves through all gears under its own power. if it does with no slippage, then ill use it the way it is, but im going to hope for the best and plan for the worst and go ahead and plan for a home rebuild on it.

 

[benny92lx]

So i finally got everything in one place minus the transmission and transfer case. I am just getting done with finals so hopefully ill be able to pull the front off the bronco and start mocking up the engine, transmission mounts and making the necessary modifications for clearance the whole v8 transplant. Anyways. its been cold and rainy the past week so i didnt get too much done on the project. also just purchased a dana 60 full floater for the project. i think thats going to sit for a while until i get a matching front d44. ive also schematic out my wiring harness and am about to cut out all the unnecessary links in this Frankenstein harness.. anyways, enjoy.

 

[benny92lx]

Made some headway on the swap yesterday. I ended up going to the local junkyards here in san diego in hopes of finding a ford np205. That didnt work out. So i ended up taking some wire clippers in and snagging about 8 pairs of female/male wiring harness ends just in case i needed them. I then discovered that the connectors I snagged fit perfectly with the stock 2.9 harness. then it got me thinking, they seem to be the same color and size as the one on the injector harness for the motor. Turns out they were the exact same connectors (minus pinning assignments.). It also turns out that i have a 93 Thunderbird engine as apposed to the 94/95 mustang motor i first thought i had. This is not a huge deal as they are pretty much identical minus a few odds and ends including headers, 02 locations and connectors for the injector harness.

So i got to pin re assigning. It also seems that the ecu harness for the 2.9 is exactly the same as the connect for a ford a9l v8 ecu. SCORE! this means that i no longer have to put in the factor mustang harness to work with the engine, so i can discard it. After comparing the pinout of an a9l to the Bronco 2 ecu pinout, i figured out which pins needed to be re assigned and a few wires that needed to be ran (including maf wiring, 6 injector wires and a few odds and ends) So this will make for a very clean, stock looking harness. AWESOME!

I also stumbled upon a free np208 to get me running. not what i wanted, but it works for now until i can muster up the funds/courage to pull the trigger on a 205. The best thing about it, is the bolting pattern and flange are the same for a 205/208 so im not really killing myself. The 208 was also retro fitted with 1350 ubolt flanges. these will be a nice addition to the 205 when the time comes.

Next weekend will bring some more wiring and junk yard finds. i need to grab a mustang dual sump pan before i start retro fitting the new engine into its new home. Stay tuned!

 

[benny92lx]

Update: So for christmas I did pretty decently, the girlfriends parents got me a pretty awesome little rope called a "Super Strap". I guess its a strap that doesnt ever need to have a strapping point. You can weave it and make it the size you need with a working load of 20,000 lb's pretty neat. Hes a big jeep guy so i think he thinks that im going to get stuck alot. Probably correct haha. He also got me a master craft tool bag that can be strapped down to the floor. We also went through is stash of parts and said pick out a set of wheels and tires.. I left a with 4 newish 5 on 5.5 ten hole 16 inch rims, two of which are wrapped brand new BFG Bajas 315/75 R16's (essentially a 35 inch tire). So this will help me out with my dana 60 swap and D44 fronts. My g/f and girlfriends uncle grabbed me 3 of these bad boys for christmas:

http://autofab.com/i-9903085-2-tube-bushing-assembly.html

This is a local fab shop here in san diego, major props of their products.

so we will be making our own trans mount and motormounts for the swap.

Now that my rims are picked, I have the option of running a wagoneer dana 44 front, with bronco hubs and knuckles, then grabbing a dana 60 rear and have the snout machined down and re drilled for 5 on 5.5. This will make part replacements cheaper and easier to source out.

We also sourced out a 208 transfer case with the 1350 yokes. Im not sure how long the 208 will last, but at least it will get me started on fabrication side of things until i can source out a 205 that i want.

I also found a bunch of odd's and ends in my "rainy day" stash from my mustang days, such as hard fuel lines for the side of the block, VSS sensor, full engine regasket kit, 02 sensors and plug ends, CB radio, breather, stuff of that nature. I also have a line on a cheap Silver Fox valve body for my aod. So we will see how that goes.

Now I am just waiting for my transmission to get sent back here from a buddy in arizona then the real stuff will begin to happen.

Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[benny92lx]

Out of curiosity, what is everyone using for radiators? I picked up a 4L 3 row radiator out of an explorer, and while it was out, i measured the core width to see what kind of fan combo i could come up with while i was at the "pick your part". I found an old school taurus electric fan that came close to pull, and a 3500 99' suburban and yanked the extra cooling pusher fan off of it. so i think between those two, i should be golden on air flow. we will see how much space i will be able to grab.

I wanted to see if anyone has a 5.0/B2 engine bay pictures, mostly for the space between the radiator and the serpentine belt.

I also picked up a remote mount TFI module from a 94 mustang, maf connector, Map senso and wiring, so i think that pretty much buttons up the loose ends as far as sensors/wiring goes. anyway, here are some pictures of what i came up with.

 

[jrgaylor]

My 85 has a duff radiator in it and it fits into the core support. it had a flex fan on it when I got it and it could get warm at times, I replaced it with a mechanical steel fan 15.25" and no more cooling problems.

My 89 with a 94 5.0 HO engine has a electric fan and a unknow radiator that is smaller than stock and gets warm if left at idle, and I have only driven it sideways down the street in front of my house a couple times.

I have been trying to upload photos but keep getting a error.

The explorer V8's had the shortest front dress setup of all the SBF stuff. should anyone want to go with the explorer setup you need everything including the timing chain and everything from there out.

 

[jrgaylor]

Pictures finally loaded

 

[benny92lx]

Thanks for the pictures! I think im going to cut and channel the core support to have the radiator recessed towards the grill a little more. I will find out a little more once i get the engine in and situated. Id like to keep the a/c but its looking more and more like it wont be an option.

 

[RockRanger]

Where are you in San Diego? Looks like east county. Are you planning to make the motor swap street legal or just use it off road?

 

[benny92lx]

The project is currently up in ramona at a friends house and shop. Id like to try and keep it legal, but worse case scenerio, i drag it out to arizona to another buddies place and register it there. also, if anyone has an pictures of the gap between the fire wall and the back of the engine, that would be great, since im making my own mounts, im going to see how far back i can shove this engine into the firewall. i figure with the 2 inch body lift, i should be able to push it further back than normal.

 

[benny92lx]

Well one of my scores this week was a full B&M Megashifter. The story was that the guy hit the knob so hard that it broke the casting nub for the handle. So he went out an bought another shifter. So he gave me this one, with cables and such. I need to get the AOD shifter stuff however.

I ended up drilling out the cast, Tapping it, then putting a heli-coil in it for added strength, then looked through my pile of parts and found an old Hurst shifter handle which is the same dang thing as the b & m one. Then I found 2 studs, one that would fit the heli-coil then one that would fit the shifter. I then drilled a hole in the stud that fit the shifter, and cut off any excess length, then welded the two together. I soon found out that i ran out of c02 in my welder. oh well, doesnt need to be pretty! Now i have a good as new ratchet shifter for free ninety nine!