My Build Thread - Clifford

[JC]

Looks fantastic Chad! Should've hollered if you needed a hand. Now to freshen up that engine and tranny, and you'll be all set!

 

[bigmuddy]

Looks good in person too sorry man I didn't think about till I was down the road and headed to the movies that I should have helped put the soft top back on. My bad!

Looks good with the top too.

Powdercoat is for posers ;-)

Ben

 

[kbldawg]

Cage looks great-exhaust still looks like crap.%) Bet it still sounds that way too.;D
I'm guessing the powdercoat was more than you wanted to spend.

LOL, yeah, thanks buddy...i think. ?:? hehe

The exhaust has made it's way to the bottom of my list, it's obnoxious as all get out, but...it works...kinda.

Yeah, I've got a really tight budget with OCBR coming up, I wish I could have gone Powder with it though, it would have been really nice.

 

[kbldawg]

Looks fantastic Chad! Should've hollered if you needed a hand. Now to freshen up that engine and tranny, and you'll be all set!

Thanks JC! Now that you mention it, yeah...I should have called, huh? ;D

Most everything I did, was just pidly tedious type work with the primer, sanding, and paint. To be honest, as hot as it has been here lately, I didn't even want to be out there. Although, we could have used your help tacking that thing together, I had tube falling on top of me everytime I turned around. %)

 

[kbldawg]

Looks good in person too sorry man I didn't think about till I was down the road and headed to the movies that I should have helped put the soft top back on. My bad!

Looks good with the top too.

Powdercoat is for posers ;-)

Ben

LOL, I had Piper out there helping me with the soft top, but she's got the patience of a starving coyote, so that didn't go too good.

Is it too late to recant my previous powder coat statement? I'm already poser enough, I don't need that kind of heat.

 

[kbldawg]

Engine Swap

I've decided to swap out my 302 with a 97 Explorer 5.0 engine w/ GT40 "P" heads. I'm going to stick with the carb for now and since the engine I'm putting in doesn't have the front serpentine setup, I'm going to be swapping over my accessories and stick with v-belts for now. Later on down the road I'll save up and get the EFI parts needed to really get that motor running good.

I've been gathering up parts and one of the first things to figure out was exhaust manifolds. In Tito's awesome explorer engine thread, he used the stock bronco manifolds. With a little grinding to clearance for spark plug boots, they are reported to work fine. So, that's the route I'm going.

I got a set from NYLES and started cleaning them up, grinding down some extra meat,and casting marks.

BroncoJAK hooked me up with a little sand blasting and they were looking pretty dang good.

I've been told the paint won't last long, so...I'll have to come back to this thread and remember what they looked like. ;D

EDIT: To date the paint is holding up. They still look really good, I'm shocked!!! 11/24/09

Regardless, being that I'm on a tight budget I used some rattle can paint from AdvanceAuto. It's called VHT. Very High Temperature paint and it's made especially for exhaust manifolds/headers. Supposedly, it's good up to 2000*F, we'll see. I followed the directions exactly and smoked the house up pretty good trying to cure them in the oven. Oh well...I only got a couple dirty looks from the Mrs. I'm just glad it wasn't 17* today, things may have turned out a lot worse.

You can kind of get the idea of how much "meat" I had to take out of the manifolds to clearance for the plug wire boot.

Hopefully with some quality plug wires and those boot protectors, I won't be burning up any plug wires.

The driver's side is real close, but I'm able to get a spark plug socket in there, so atleast I won't have to drop the manifolds to change plugs. That's a plus!!

Passenger side looks really good as is.

 

[kbldawg]

I found a Holley "red" low volume fuel pump from a cb.com member. For $50, I had to bite on the deal.

thanks, gravy!

 

[kbldawg]

I thought that finding a Harmonic Damper for my application was going to be tough, but...another member here, DEEPWOODS, hooked me up with this...

Accepts 3 or 4 bolt crank pulleys.
Removable weights (28 or 50oz).
Spacers available for pulley alignment.
3 Sets of timing marks for small block fords.

 

[bigmuddy]

Way to go kbldawg! Keep moving on buying the parts and that new engine will be in, in no time!

Ben

 

[Mark]

Those manifolds look great! I hope the paint holds up.
When my long tube headers go south, I'm going back to manifolds.

 

[Skiddy]

looking good

 

[Tito]

Looks great bud. Thats awesome you can actually get a socket in there. I dont think I trimmed mine that much but maybe I will if I take them back off. If you can get a socket in there I am sure you wont have an issue with heat. Like you found, the driver side is the only issue. Be sure to report back on the paint, I havent messed with mine (paint) yet. You should really like the motor, lots of good stock parts in it!

 

[kbldawg]

Thanks guys!

I'll be sure and give an update on the paint job.


I wanted to trim a little more fat of those manifolds, but...I was afraid to keep going. The areas that need to be trimmed the most is right in the corner of the tubes. I don't have a set of calipers, but...it felt like about 3/16 - 1/4" of thickness left.

I could almost get the explorer steel collers (not sure what they're called) back in the spark plug holes, but not quite. If you could get the collers on the driver's side, I wouldn't ever worry about over heating the plug wires.


I don't know if I'm more excited to have double the HP, or a clean garage floor again! My old 302 leaks like a sponge.

I just wish I had a ZF to bolt to the back of that motor. Come on Ben, you know you wanna upgrade to a A1 Abrahams tank tranny!!

 

[Tito]

Thanks guys!

I'll be sure and give an update on the paint job.


I wanted to trim a little more fat of those manifolds, but...I was afraid to keep going. The areas that need to be trimmed the most is right in the corner of the tubes. I don't have a set of calipers, but...it felt like about 3/16 - 1/4" of thickness left.

I could almost get the explorer steel collers (not sure what they're called) back in the spark plug holes, but not quite. If you could get the collers on the driver's side, I wouldn't ever worry about over heating the plug wires.


I don't know if I'm more excited to have double the HP, or a clean garage floor again! My old 302 leaks like a sponge.

I just wish I had a ZF to bolt to the back of that motor. Come on Ben, you know you wanna upgrade to a A1 Abrahams tank tranny!!

HAha, It is nice to have that ZF there...and the doubler ;D :-*
I dont even know how you would get calipers on there to check thickness, its just grind and pray ;D

I kept those metal sleeves just in case I could get them in later. It was nice that mine came with the kevlar jackets as well in the plug wires. I have 3 leaks on mine right now, my ps reservoir (need to get a little jb weld on the extra port I added to the astrovan can), the zf drain plug, must have had an O-ring on it, get some drips here and there, and my front axle at one of the plug welds, leaked since I put it together. Need to clean it up and throw a little weld in there too.

 

[kbldawg]

I tell ya what, this snow ball effect is killin' my bank account. Oh well, it's just money, right?


I found a deal on a complete NP435 setup (tranny, intermeidate housing (tom's style), spud shaft, bell housing) all for $350. So, I get it home and the first thing I do is open the cover and, it's not pretty. Carnage!

You can't keep a good kbldawg down, so...off to the local junkyard (a whole seperate story itself). $150 later and I come out of there with a really nice '83 model with the funky curved shifter.

By the way, props to the guy I bought the first tranny from. He sent me $100 back and is a stand up guy!

So, Ben and I tear them both down and put all the good parts in the 83 case.

Got it all cleaned up ready for paint...

I used the POR15 engine paint, Aluminum Color...

now it's time to start on the engine....

I'm thinking about using the same color on the engine block and heads.

I've got some left over matching red paint from the grill repairs and thought about using it on the valve covers. Will regular automotive paint hold up to the heat? I'm not sure about which color to use on the intake, silver or red?

Suggestions?

 

[bax]

I see you were able to use the output shaft from the first 435. See, there were some good parts.

 

[kbldawg]

Yeah, the only bad parts were the three gears, so I've got some parts left over. I don't know if they are worth anything or not.

The 2wd case and cover I know are fine and could be used. Most of the gears are okay and I'm sure the shafts are fine.

 

[Heus33]

That looks really nice - can't keep a good kbl down!

Stay with the silver theme - looks really slick.

 

[bigmuddy]

Looks pretty, I just hope it shifts right after we get it all installed

Ben

 

[kbldawg]

Looks pretty, I just hope it shifts right after we get it all installed

Ben

I'm thinking we may have to bend that shifter around some, but...other than that it should shift pretty smooth.