PILE oh shit bronco 86

[Austen2019]

Hey guys new to this build thread deal so bear with me.
Little about me I have built a purpose built Toyota pickup 22re race truck and raced the more and snore events. Got a couple first place finishes in class 2000 and won a championship. Fast foward to a couple years ago. I ended up parting the Toyota out and only had a long travel kit left to sell. A guy hit me up and asked if I wanted to trade a bronco for the kit and I took the offer. Brings us to currently I now have an 86 bronco.

I got the bronco with a brand new c6 trans with a Rancho 4in lift kit 351w motor no rust except on tailgate and drove on the trailer.

This thread will start from a year ago.

 

[Austen2019]

I finally pulled it into the garage and started with the motor. I love simplicity and carbs. I registered it in Arizona so I can remove all smog from it. Put intake on it rebuilt the heads, put a 650 double pumper holly on it. Cleaned everything up with all new seals and arp hardware.

 

[Austen2019]

Next was the suspension and brakes it all worked but I was getting it ready for a Mojave trail trip for my brother in laws bachelor party and didn’t want a failure so I went through everything on this bronco. Checked both diffs out new brakes and rotors on rebuilt the hubs and installed manual locking hubs.

 

[dwphoto]

right on dude thanks of posting up. These Broncos can rip in the desert as I'm sure you already know.

 

[Austen2019]

right on dude thanks of posting up. These Broncos can rip in the desert as I'm sure you already know.

I do not still haven’t offloaded it or been in a bronco yet lol

 

[Austen2019]

After the exterior was good I needed to do the interior. This truck sat with the back window down for a long time and was nasty inside. Removed the dash completely had to fix a lot of wiring replace entire ignition system and duck tape the ac heat system because all the flaps were broken. I made it only able to defrost with heat.

 

[Austen2019]

Was able to get it going for a desert trip 2 weeks before the Bach party to test it out.

 

[Brett_408]

WTF happen to that jeep

 

[Austen2019]

WTF happen to that jeep

He tried to climb a hill with 4 dudes in the jeep and snapped the axel. Strapped the tire so the axel wouldn’t slide out and got it back to camp.

 

[Austen2019]

At the desert I had the brake bias warning light wire catch fire. Luckily my battery switch was right next to me and was able to cut power and it went out. Wasn’t able to get it to run right or rev up or idle smooth. My pops is a carb wizard and did some tuning but still couldn’t get it to run right so figured out it wasn’t running on all 8.

Did lots of trouble shooting and figured out the new plug wires were bad some how, just my luck. Was leaving for Mojave trail in 4 days. I live in apple valley and work in San Bernardino. Drove it to work for two days before trip to make sure everything was good. The day before leaving the motor started running really bad with major blow by. Ended up hitching a co dog seat still had a good time.

 

[the bodj]

Sucks about the gremlins, but the sandy section in that last picture is a fun area!

 

[Austen2019]

Sucks about the gremlins, but the sandy section in that last picture is a fun area!

Super fun section. Have done the Mojave trail twice now as co dog. I can’t wait to do it with my own vehicle

 

[Austen2019]

After the Mojave trail the bronco sat for about 6 months untouched. I worked on it every day late into the nights for about 2 months for that trip so was pretty over it once it didn’t make it. Spent the summer using the boat with wife and kid.

 

[Austen2019]

So I have been working on the bronco a ton lately last post was it had blow by. So I finally removed the motor took the block to arringdales in apple valley had all the machine work done to it and he wanted to balance the motor. Well I’m broke and was already a lot of money into the motor a second time I had bought nice new pistons cam lifters all new bearings seals so that the motor was brand new. It was going to cost about 400 for the balance and bit the bullet and sent him my stuff the balancer flexplate and he called me instantly saying my flexplate (I don’t install) was for a internally balanced race motor and my motor was 250grams out of balance (6 to 8 grams is normal). So now I know why the motor was so rough and got blow by cause it rattled its self to death. Bought a stock flexplate and she is now at 3grams purring like a kitten.

 

[Austen2019]

So now that the bronco was apart I decided to change a lot of things since I did not have a dead line. The dash was completely falling apart seats sucked gauges didn’t work ac heater were trashed and didn’t work the wiring was a disaster. I got rid of the dash the entire heater ac system and gutted all the wiring except the stock lights. Sold the bench seat bought some buckets and made a make shift dash until I cage it. It’s ugly but works great!

 

[Austen2019]

During this time I had bought an equal length beam kit for almost nothing made by a reputable fabricator. I ended up finishing it and was finally able to take it on a trip and it did amazing crawled up some stuff I was shocked by but I did almost roll it 3 times on really stupid stuff that shouldn’t of happend. After that trip I knew I didn’t want stock width I wanted wider to try to get stability out of this pile. Posted them for sale and a guy hit me up and we traded beams for his 4.5 over set. Bought some rear deavers and some raptor take off tuned by shq.

 

[Austen2019]

After getting it running and driving it with the fresh motor it was still so slow and wouldn’t even power brake in dirt. It had a Holly 650 double pumper on it that was tuned perfectly but just was too much for the stock heads. So I bought a Holly sniper 2 with fuel pump and boy did that wake the motor up. Blown away at how much better it was performing and how much more power I got.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

Hell yeah. Bronco looks fun dude and you're doing a deep dive!

 

[Austen2019]

Hell yeah. Bronco looks fun dude and you're doing a deep dive!

Ya doing more than I thought but I’m doing great on budget I’m probaly only at about 5g total into the bronco