1984 Bronco build thread

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, it might be easiest to jack it up and place the ramps under it that way.  And that should be very safe.

And that breather ought to work nicely.

As for the bluetooth receiver, I like that mounting location.  Should work out very nicely.  

[StraightSix]

Hi Guys!
I got the radio wiring finished up last night and reinstalled the dash including my new radio delete bezel. Thanks again Corey! My original AM pattern bezel had been "worked on" by someone with a dremel tool to fit an FM radio and it always looked like junk.

running the passenger side speaker wire was easy. I used the originals to pull wire through the door grommet into the dash for the front and I snaked a piece of thing steel braided wire from the top side of the dash down to the floorboard and used that to pull the rear speaker wire from the floorboard to the dash. there is a channel under the passenger side door sill. the driver side ended up being more difficult because there is so much more going on over there and there are clips everywhere in the harness. all in all, I could probably do it again in about 1.5 hours, so not too bad.

Ill hold to my promise about not clouding this thread with engine build stuff but here is a shot of the head with the valve seats cut. pressed in exh seats, oversized valves, hand ported and hand polished chambers and thread in valve studs to accommodate the non stock valves and rockers. I think the engine is coming soon. Im running out of other projects, so thats a good thing for sure!

[StraightSix]

Hi Guys!
The engine is getting close. we need to verify the cam timing, install the front cover and oil pan, and then the block is coming home. Ill dress the block (accessory drive, water pump, etc)on an engine stand, then its time to fly the engine in. Think ford blue, black trim, and raw aluminum. Im pretty excited.

do we have any battery buffs in the house? my cheap wally world battery that came in the bronco is completely dead and wont take a charge. rather than diddle with this one or play the revolving door game with warranty batteries, I want to just go buy a "good" battery. That is pretty much where my know how ends. I understand cold cranking amps, and that there are rules of thumb (1.5-2x engine cubic inches) for sizing the CCA of a battery to an engine. Id like something that will work well for starting the engine, be durable/ reliable/ last a long time, and I also have a winch which I use a fair amount. I did some reading and learned that the deep discharging of a battery caused by winch use is really no good for a normal car battery. perhaps in the future I can work out a dual battery setup and incorporate a battery purely for winching /accessory power purposes. For now, I just want a good "normal" battery that might stand up a little better to the horrible abuse of the winch. I dont often operate the vehicle for prolonged periods of time at bizarre angles, so I assume I dont need an Absorbent Glass Matt battery, but I dont really know.

Oh,
I almost forgot. Bill Ambler (who can be found over at fordsix) worked my ds2 distributor over. He spent about 20 minutes talking to me about my engine, the vehicle, transmission, induction, carb, etc. door to door, my distributor was gone for less than a week! It came back with a custom mechanical advance curve, a modified and preset vacuum advance, plenty of new parts and a lot of clearly custom work. I couldn't recommend his services more highly, I really think I got my moneys worth. Thanks Bill!

[Pete Whitstone]

StraightSix wrote

 I dont often operate the vehicle for prolonged periods of time at bizarre angles, so I assume I dont need an Absorbent Glass Matt battery, but I dont really know.

AGM's aren't just good for high angle stuff, they are absolutely ideal for vehicles that don't get get operated that often. I have one on my bike and it can sit for months and still fire right up. Lead acid batteries kind of lack in that department, in my experience.

[Gary Lewis]

I have dual Odyssey Extreme batteries in Big Blue.  I like them, but they aren't perfect as they don't fit normal battery hold-downs.

The aux battery, shown below, is a 34-PC1500.  It is an AGM and they say "up to 400 cycles at 80% depth of discharge".  I use it for the winch and the inverter, and I feed both batteries with a 3G alternator.

[StraightSix]

Thanks Guys. Im leaning towards a "yellow top" deep cycle optima.


allegedly, Im going to be bringing the engine home today. we will see. Ill dress the block on the engine stand this week and fly the block in Saturday if all goes according to plan. pushrods wont come in until mid next week, so it probably wont run for another 10 days minimum.  

[Gary Lewis]

I've heard good things about the Optima batteries.  

And when you get the engine home show us some pics!

[StraightSix]

Hi Guys! Big news - The engine is in my garage.

I managed to get the thermostat, water pump, alternator, fuel pump, intake/exhaust studs, water and oil senders and a few other odds and ends installed. Ill need to open up the holes on my engine mounts slightly. The only big issue Ive come across is that my valve cover is a long ways from sitting flush. I suppose I can try to find a different type of lock nut that wont cause interference problems, or start the "make my valve cover fit" dance.

anyways, I need to figure out the valve cover issue. I need to check my cam timing. Im hoping my degree wheel will arrive tomorrow. I made a dummy lifter and the piston stop today, and I have a line on a dial indicator/mag base I can borrow. Assuming the cam times out correctly and nothing really obtuse happens I think Im in line to fly the engine and the rest of the drive train in over the weekend. Of course there will still be loose ends o tie up but hopefully nothing that cant be sorted out in the engine bay.








Sorry, I know some of this is a little out of context here as much of the engine work has been documented over at FordSix.

hopefully the recurring nightmare Ive been having about the engine rolling out of the truck and onto the highway on my drive home from the shop will go away now. It feels really good to have everything back at my house and somewhat under my thumb again. major variables still in the air - cam timing, valve cover fitment, custom pushrods are being made for shipment tomorrow or the day after.

Thanks!  

[Gary Lewis]

It looks really good!  Well done!  

[Sac79]

Really good indeed!

Do you have an extension on the oil pressure sender?

[mat in tn]

That looks to be a tee for a mechanical second gauge

[StraightSix]

Matt hit the nail on the head. That is a tee fitting and a bunch of hardware for a mechanical oil pressure gage. I wish I would have added one a long time ago, its fairly simple.

Well, I got a lot of good stuff done today. I think I have a solution for my rocker arm adjustment nuts/valve cover clearance issue. My harmonic balancer tdc mark is spot on. I picked up new replacement hardware for some fasteners that went awol at the machine shop.

Unfortunately, I also found a considerable road block. My cam timing is about 5 degrees advanced from target. Ill be pulling the balancer, timing cover, oil pan and cam tomorrow. Ill remove the 4 degree advance timing key from the cam and replace it with a factory style straight up timing key and that will put me within my measurements precision of the target cam timing. New oil pan and timing cover gaskets will be required.

Pulling and installing the balancer should be easy, Ive done that a bunch. Ive never pulled a 300 crank gear or cam gear. Ill probably put the aluminum cam gear in the oven before reinstalling it but I suspect that wont get it all the way.

There is still a fair chance the engine will go in this weekend as basically everything else is complete, but I certainly cant rush this job. We will see, Ill keep you all tuned in

[Gary Lewis]

Glad you found the cam timing issue before installing the engine.  So much easier to resolve it not.  

[StraightSix]

Agreed, this would have been a much bigger issue if I hadnt found it before putting the block in the truck. $150 in parts (some of which I may he able to return) and about a day and this can be resolved.

[StraightSix]

Ok guys- today is the day. The block, transmission and maybe the transfer case are getting installed to the truck. My buddy is going to arrive at 830 to help out.

I re-timed my my cam and resolved that issue. It was a bit nerve wracking but honestly wasn't very difficult. On disassembly to get the cam out, I noticed that no rtv was used on the junction of the pan, block and timing cover. I decided to drop the pan and see if any rtv was used at the junction of the rear main cap and the block. Nope! So I redid the oil pan gasket. It only took about an hour on the stand, would have been a day long + ordeal under the truck.

Things to remember for engine/transmission install- the adapter plate, threadlocker on the flywheel bolts, clean flywheel-clutch mating surface, new throwout and pilot bearings. And thats all Ive got I guess.

I dont know if we will get this completely wrapped up today but we plan to be at it again tomorrow. Ill keep you guys posted.

[Gary Lewis]

Good luck!!!  Hope everything goes really well.

And glad you caught the things you did.  Lack of RTV in those places would surely have caused a leak.  

[StraightSix]

Hi Guys!
The engine, transmission and transfer case went in without major trouble.





since these photos were taken Ive also installed the intake and exhaust manifolds and I have the collector pipe hooked up. I still need to get the carb, choke, throttle, PS pump and accessory drive, the radiator, and a bunch of other stuff installed. my pushrods are supposed to arrive tomorrow or the day after, and as long as everything keeps going well I assume Ill probably run the cam in the day after the pushrods show up.

the only real problem Ive run into getting the driveline installed is that the nuts/bolts for the upper leg of my transmission crossmember on the driver side are badly frozen. you know, the ones that a wrench will barely slip onto between the frame and the body, and the nut is next to fuel and brake lines? Ive been spraying with PB blaster and hoping they will loosen up. They probably need about 1/4" of travel to be seated, I can slip a finger between the nut and the frame. it occurred to me that I may should try to get the nuts off instead of tightening them, I have a tap and die for that thread pitch. the bolts are captive, but tapping the nuts may alleviate some trouble in the future. if it wasnt next to a wiring harness and fuel/brake lines Id consider putting some heat on it too.

My slave cylinder seems to be toast, the clutch pedal produces no movement in the slave cylinder and it dripped two drops of brake fluid on me while I was tryign to figure out the issue. I should have a new one in hand by the end of the day, but Ill have to bleed it in which Ive never done before. Ive watched a few YouTube videos. I guess we will see how that goes.

Ill keep you all posted!  

[Gary Lewis]

Looking good!  That's a lot of good progress.  

On the crossmember bolts & nuts, I'd take the nuts off before you get things jammed and figure out what is going on.  I think those are prevailing-torque nuts, meaning that they are deformed so they keep some tension on and won't loosen.  If you run a tap through them that feature will probably be removed, so you might need Loctite or lock washers.

[mat in tn]

the pictures are looking good. I see that you are using the efi exhaust manifolds. what intake are you going to use?

[StraightSix]

Thanks Gary! And good point - Ill find some thread locker for those.

Matt - It is an Offenhauser C series. I think an Offy dp is supposed to  be the better low end torque manifold but I wanted to run a 2bbl instead of a 4 for simplicity and the C series makes it somewhat easy to use a 2 barrel.