Ferdinand - '85 Bronco 351W XLT "Phoenix" rebuild project...

[Gary Lewis]

I felt the frustration earlier, and the joy last night. But that’s a good passage.

[FuzzFace2]

Way to go
Now you can go out and do smoky burn out with open headers no less

I just knew it was not hitting on all 8 but who would guess only 4!
Again nice job of not letting the truck win out!
Dave ----

[Gsmblue]

Congrats on getting it worked out!!!

[Ferdinand]

Hoping to hammer down tomorrow and get the majority of the front clip on and take it for a test drive!

I really need to find a good header-back aftermarket exhaust. Does anyone here have a favorite they have found?

I am hoping to come straight back from each header with a Flowmaster 40 (or similar) and dump out the sides behind the rear wheels.

[Ferdinand]

Thanks Gsmblue!

[Ferdinand]

Dave,

I don't think I put enough ponies under the hood this time around to smoke 35's, but I would if I could!! 😉

-yeah, I was telling a friend of mine yesterday, I have really learned a lot this go around. I would have NEVER guessed I could actually drive a vehicle with 4 cylinders out of sync!!

[Ford F834]

Wow. So glad you figured this out! I’ve been following in the background, but have not really had anything intelligent to add. What a sneaky little detail. Good that you found it, but sad for all the effort used to hunt it down. The only similar experience I can relate was with my 1966 pickup. I fought random stalling for the first couple of months after rebuilding it. Sometimes it would fire right back up, sometimes I had to call my dad to tow me. It took me to the frayed edges of my sanity before I found about a 1” square piece of plastic bag sucked into the gas tank pick up tube. I don’t even want to talk about all of the stuff I replaced, checked, adjusted and tested before finding that. I sometimes wonder if that was the reason the guy sold the truck. Just know that you are not alone with having a brand-new-everything kind of rebuild give you fits.

I am long-sighted enough that I don’t think I would grind anything off the intake or permanently mark it up. In the event that this engine was ever to be rebuilt in the future with a different cam... I would probably neatly print the cam data + firing order and have it laminated and stick it next to the emissions sticker for a handy reference.

[Gary Lewis]

I vote for Magnaflow mufflers. They have a deeper sound than Flowmasters. When I got Rusty it had a Flowmaster, which someone said sounded flatulent. And it was so loud that I didn’t realize how much noise the tires were making. But a Magnaflow dropped the noise dramatically and also dropped the tone to a nice rumble. And then I discovered how noisy the tires were. 😳

[FuzzFace2]

Ferdinand wrote

Dave,

I don't think I put enough ponies under the hood this time around to smoke 35's, but I would if I could!! 😉

-yeah, I was telling a friend of mine yesterday, I have really learned a lot this go around. I would have NEVER guessed I could actually drive a vehicle with 4 cylinders out of sync!!

Low range baby low range!

That is how you learn. If everything went as it should have what would you have learned?
When I was in school for computer repair we all had to build our own computers to then use for the rest of the class. About 80% would not boot up so we as a class had to find out why. Turned out bad RAM and once we had good RAM they all worked.
Point is if we did not have that happen we would have never known how to trouble shoot a pc not booting up.

I like good old turbo mufflers they have a nice deep sound to them. Even had 1 on a L6 with a header (6-3-2 with a Y pipe to 1) and that sounded good also.
You did good hope you are out test driving this truck.
Dave ----

[Ferdinand]

Gotta get things wrapped up for worship tomorrow but here's progress to date.





I didn’t realize the driver’s side fender was as bent as it is. I straightened some of it out but the bezel won’t go on. I am going to try and get it pushed out enough to at least get that bezel on.

I picked up a set of '86 fenders a few days ago, but they need a good bit of work, so the originals will have to be good enough for now.

Ferdinand's true maiden voyage went rather well today‼️ 😎

Will comment more tomorrow evening.

[Gary Lewis]

Yippee!!!  Sure glad it is coming together.  

[Ferdinand]

Been a little low on time and energy here last few days.
Trying to catch up a bit this evening.

Progress tonight:











*I was also able to get the driver's side fender pushed back out enough to let me get the DS headlight bezel back on 👍🏻

[Rembrant]

Gary Lewis wrote

I vote for Magnaflow mufflers. They have a deeper sound than Flowmasters. When I got Rusty it had a Flowmaster, which someone said sounded flatulent. And it was so loud that I didn’t realize how much noise the tires were making. But a Magnaflow dropped the noise dramatically and also dropped the tone to a nice rumble. And then I discovered how noisy the tires were. 😳

I really had my heart set on Flowmasters for the freshly built 302 in my '84. The way they sound with 2.5" duals on the Foxbody 5.0 cars is delicious to me...lol. However, there's a lot more to the sound on those cars than the mufflers.
Anyway, I tried a couple different Flowmasters, and they were just way too loud for me. There was too much drone in the cab.
I took the truck to a shop that installed full duals with an H-pipe before the mufflers, and I too ended up with Magnaflows. Like Gary, I'm very happy with them. Nice deep rumble.

I think the Flowmasters would have been OK, but I did only have them with dumps under the box, which would make them drone badly, and my truck being a bare bones stripper with no interior insulation doesn't help either. It really is like an empty tin can inside.

[Gary Lewis]

Excellent progress!  I'm jealous.  

[Ferdinand]

Rising from the ashes...



Put the PCV back to the carb, hooked up the vacuum line to the transmission, and reconnected the vacuum advance for the distributor. It was running like a dream, but now I am stuck on a faster idle but after I pinched off each new line I added today it didn't seem to make any difference... go figure.

Hoping for a front end alignment later this week and then I really need to figure out what to do about an exhaust. The local shop won't install unless I go back to y-pipe & cats, but since we are a non-smog county, I am going to try and find a way to circumvent that option...

Still not able to get my alternator charging. I had noticed I was missing a ground so I ran a isolated ground up to the grounded terminal of the starting solenoid, but I am not really sure that did anything even though I know it should have.

I have good heat, lights are nice and bright, and I happened to have a left over turn signal module from when I rebuilt that '82 F150 and that fixed my slow to non functioning turn signals. I TOLD MY WIFE IT PAYS TO HANG ON TO OLD PARTS! 😉

I am still missing the splash pan for the front end, but I will snag that from the Boneyard Bronc before I send her back.

Right now, I just need to get Ferdinand road worthy so I can get the title switched finally and get it plated!

I have the parts to replace the rear glass outer seal, passenger side window motor, and new speakers but I need to shake it down at this point for all the loose ends from the ground up. Anything not critical for driving  I am holding off on. I hope to install my horns tomorrow night and figure out why my under-hood light isn't working. That was one of the things that I loved about my '82 was that retractable under-hood light. The Bronco has the same one

I still need to shorten my heater core hoses but I did finally switch them around.


 

[grumpin]

Looking good!

A gruff old fart that used to own a muffler shop here would drop you off his rack and put it outside if you tried to talk about no cats.  

We're not smog here either but the "snot noses from Portland" would come down and try to catch him doing it. So he just pushed the vehicle outside and wouldn't work on it.

They have a reason to not want to. Best way to circumvent that would be to do it yourself, unfortunately.

Disclaimer: I am in no way advocating this!  

[Rembrant]

Ferdinand wrote

Hoping for a front end alignment later this week and then I really need to figure out what to do about an exhaust. The local shop won't install unless I go back to y-pipe & cats, but since we are a non-smog county, I am going to try and find a way to circumvent that option...

The shop that installed the full duals on my 84 didn't say a word about anything smog related. They don't test exhaust emissions here like they do in other areas, but most of the time if the vehicle was originally equipped with cats, then they must be replaced. However, there IS a cut-off date...and I'm not sure when it is. I had two different shops tell me two different dates. One shop said 1991, and the other said 1995...and something to do with OBDII, etc. In any case, with most vehicles from the 1980's era, I don't think anybody around here would squawk about installing true catless duals. I know with newer stuff...it is an absolute no no...none of the honest shops around here would remove cats, no way.

I always find it very interesting how widely some of the rules vary in the USA....by county or by state.

I guess it's the same up here in Canada, it's just that out here on the east coast, we don't see the smog rules like they have in the more populated areas in the middle of the country.

I guess they get us with the inspections from a different angle anyway. When we take a vehicle in for the provincial inspection (every 2 years), it can fail for a variety of reasons...crack in the windshield, or a small rust hole in the body or frame, etc. There can be blue smoke billowing out of the tail pipe, but since that is not a safety related issue, it's not even on the checklist;).

[Rembrant]

Ferdinand wrote

Lookin' good Ferdinand! That is exactly how I have them routed on my 302. Looks neat and tidy imho.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, it is really coming together!  Well done!

On the faster idle, that's 'cause you probably hooked the vacuum advance up to manifold vacuum.  If you hook it to ported vacuum your idle speed will be right back where it was.

I don't like manifold vacuum for the vacuum advance, and especially not for an automatic tranny.  The issue is that it makes the engine idle faster, so you adjust the idle stop down and get it running right in neutral.  But when you drop it in gear the vacuum drops because the RPM drops, and now you are idling too slow.  But if you use ported vacuum none of that happens.

I think your plan to get it roadworthy before working on the details is spot-on.  There were be an infinite number of little details, so peel the onion after getting it on the road.  And enjoy!!!!!  

[Ferdinand]

Gary, any chance you remember which Magnaflow muffler you went with?