Scored an 80 Bronco dirt cheap + goodies!

[eXcali]

Well I was at my mother-in-law's house yesturday and I saw a full-size 1980 bronco down the street advertised for sale with a broken timing chain. I stopped and looked at it and figured I'd call on it.

I call the guy and look at the truck. He thinks its the timing chain but theres a pool of coolant on the block and green in the oil. I talk him down to $300. I tow it over to my mother-in-laws and tear into it this morning. The guy told me it got a new motor and tranny 30k miles ago and that he spent $3k on it 6 months ago. I find it to have a Holly 4 barrel carb, Edelbrock Performer intake, and mandral bent header pipes. I start taking it apart and find the coolant leak is from the intake manifold gasket. I tear it down further and discover it has performance cams and pistons.

Now the downside: The interior is trashed and I have to find a broken wire in the ignition system.

So I continue my streak of finding Diamonds in trash piles! Numbers I have looked up tell me this thing will push 300+ hp easy, maybe more as I couldn't find numbers for the added hp of pistons/cams and headers.

 

[arco777]

Cool find! Those Broncos are neat. Trashed interior? That is just an excuse to put racing seats in, pull the carpet and rhinoline the floor, stainless dash... remove the rear roof-thing and take it out on the dunes I would love to have that setup.

 

[eXcali]

$35 starter
$5 fuel filter
$12 intake gaskets

I replaced the wiring harness for the ignition with wire I had on hand, installed the starter, trimed the boots on the plugs (plugs weren't contacting elements). Timed it up perfect and now she is running strong. That engine has insane torque!

I thought about the racing seats, but I've got my eyes on the heated, leather electric seats out of a 06 Grand Cherokee. I'm pretty sure I'll have to put some custom work to mount it, but it's worth it cuz they will match the interior.

 

[SVO]

It must be a 400M, sound like a good find to me








Jeff - :navajo:

 

[eXcali]

It actually has a 351w crate motor in it with a holley 770 CFM Four Barrel Carburetor, edelbrock performer intake manifold, dynomax headers, unknown cams/piston manufacturer as previous owner didn't remember name that was installed, the number he had from original owner was disconnected. Next time I tear it down I'll try to get part #'s off of them.

As you can see the body needs some work, I've got a couple hours worth of bondo fun ahead of me. I reinforced the floorboards with sheet metal today and plan on coating the sheet metal this weekend when I have the seats out so I can pull up the entire carpet.

I'll get a picture of the engine compartment in next couple of days, just be forewarned, the wiring is a mess as it's my temp fix untill i get ahold of a good wiring harness.

 

[eXcali]

The rusting around the wheel wells went a lot further than I initially thought, so I spent about 6 hours with bondo and steel wool to get them back into shape. After 6 hours I decided to throw on a coat of primer and finish it up another day.



Tomorrow I'm going to mess around with the wires and try to straighten them out.

 

[eXcali]

Leather seats from a 01 Jeep added today... unfortunately you need a controller for the heat to work.......

Edit 10-28-09:
Got the seats installed, electric ran and temporary heat switches installed.

 

[Blue_93]

WOW! Thats a nice find. It's in pretty good shape for being a 29 year old truck.