74 EB Sandrunner under development

[sstlaure]

Finished up the pocket for the starter solenoid and put the motor back in for awhile. I put the whole front end back together to check clearances to the radiator around the new x-member.

Time to buy some front accessory stuff for this engine to fill in the space.

 

[Broncoman]

Do you have enough room to remove the starter?

 

[sstlaure]

Yeah, I have to feed the solenoid up into the pocket then rotate the starter a little to line up the mounting holes, that's why I pocketed out so much above the solenoid. It actually goes in pretty easy.

 

[sprdv1]

Exactly....I've figured out that I have still over $10K left of stuff to buy to finish the truck the right way, so I have to spread that cost over time.

That's the worst part... The $$$$$ %)

 

[sstlaure]

That's the main limiting factor for sure. I find time to work on it by depriving myself of sleep. Not as easy to do that with money.

 

[sstlaure]

Summary of progress so far

As the progress of this thing is spread out over 19 pages....thought I'd do a quick summary

Purchased in non-drivable condition from Utah September 2002. In the 6 years since then I have done the following:

First 3 pics are where I started.....

• Replaced front fenders with WCB prerunner fenders (still dreaming of WCB body sides to match)
• 3 different sets of springs, now in are 61" Deaver 1645F53 race springs on custom mounts/shackles (3" wide pack - 2" longer than stock shackles)
• 3 different front suspension set-ups - now 2.5" King bypass & coilovers
• 14" longer radius arms & custom frame mounts
• Added King hyd bumps to all 4 corners
• 15 gal Aluminum gas tank, braided lines
• Custom bumpers
• Custom cage
• Custom tubular core/fender supports w/ 1/4 turn Dzus fasteners
• New dash w/autometer gauges
• Custom rear swaybars
• 99 Cobra motor (to be supercharged)

I'm sure I've missed something......

 

[sstlaure]

Just placed the order for the matching WCB prerunner bodysides....I can't wait to get those things glassed in.

 

[Silverhorse]

Sweet!!!!!!!

 

[sstlaure]

I finished up the light bar for my Lightforce lights this weekend, but my wife has the camera. Once she gets back in town I'll post up some pics.

 

[Bitch'nBronco]

What supercharger are you going with Kenne Bell? Whipple? How much PSI?

 

[sstlaure]

I'm doing an Eaton swap from an 03 Cobra. Not sure on the psi yet, but I'm shooting for ~500 rwhp.

 

[phred]

that should be an easy number to reach. My buddys 96 stang has the kenne bell sc and it dynoed this past weekend and was making 472hp at the rear wheels.

 

[sstlaure]

It's a little harder given the parasitic losses from a 4wd drivetrain, but the plan is to have a powerful and reliable powerplant.

Nothing like 500 hp from a 281 cubic inch engine. (smaller than any V8 ever offered in the Bronco)

 

[68ford]

only the displacement is smaller i just saw the body sides on their site, im curious to see how they look and how hard mounting them will be.

side note, have you measured you front axle turning through its cycle? meaning measuring its relation to the frame and being perpendicular to the frame from full bump to droop? i measured mine at full droop and noticed it starts turning to the left due the panhard bar pulling the axle to the drivers side. im thinking a full width axle and a panhard bar as long as possible will stop this by minimizing the side to side movement. if not maybe raduis arms that are parallel with e frame rails?

 

[sstlaure]

You can see in the pics that my truck is currently white and yellow...The yellow was from the PO and I think it's some kind of build-up primer. It wasn't done correctly and is all cracked. I've been working on getting all of that sanded off so that I have a good clean surface to bond the new sides to. What a pain.

The axle definitely moves a fair bit side to side, and I'm sure it also causes some pull, but I'm not too worried about that in the sand. I've got it basically centered and square at ride height, so movement of the suspension on the street shouldn't pose any worries.

With the location of the bypass shock lower mounts on the front of the radius arms, I'm limited as to how far I can push the trac-bar over to the pass side of the truck. I'll probably end up lengthening it a bit, but only a couple of inches if anything.

My radius arms sit fairly level to the frame at ride height and end up pointing upward at full compressed. I'll be rotating the knuckles to get the caster dialed in.

 

[sstlaure]

Lightbar pics

So I needed a lightbar for my Lightforce lights, and needed it to be able to rotate down so I could get the truck in the garage (7 ft door) Here's what I came up with.

Bar has a pivot down the centerline, then locks in both up and down positions via spring loaded t-pins (like those used on fixtures/machines.)

When pounding it off-road, I'll simply tighten the pivot pin down so that it doesn't move at all. On the road I can leave the pivot a little loose so that it freely rotates & is locked via the pins on both sides.

I sank the t-pins into the bracket so that they didn't stick way out. Used Stainless hardware for the pivot bolt. Now I just need a couple more lights to fill it out.

 

[brewchief]

Looks good Scott, with rear fenders on the way are going to push up your timetable and paint it this winter/spring?

Brewchief;D

 

[sstlaure]

Yeah right....with the 51 degrees outside now and snow in the forecast, I think I'm past the window of opportunity to even get these bonded onto the body.

It is possible that I will be painting it next year (body and chassis), although I say that every year.%)

I just costed out the paint and supplies for this sucker and I'm looking at somewhere between $3-4K just in materials. Yikes...Come on tax refund.

 

[sstlaure]

Well I finally have the bodysides in my possession. Only problem is that I can't hang them on the body (my fault)

By keeping the rear bumper tight to the body and curving the ends around the sides of the body for protection, it prevents me from placing the bodysides on the truck.

Either I have to completely unbolt the cage/body, lift the body and insert bodysides, or lop off the ends of my rear bumper temporarily. (Or change them so they don't wrap around quite as far.)

It's too cold outside to do anything with it right now, so they'll be sitting until we have at least a minor thaw in the weather.

 

[brewchief]

How will the bumper ends look if you lift the body and slide the panels in? Will they follow the new shape of the body side or will it look goofy? I guess what I'm wondering is how close to the bumper does the panel start it's flare out? You know if you screw around lifting the body and the bumper dosen't look right you'll be redoing it anyway, might as well make it easy on yourself and just lop off the end of the bumper and redo it.


Brewchief;D