Morgan's 1969 Bronco

[1969miller]

Been doing as much as I can during my lunch breaks and sometimes staying late.

Tons of time into one dumb piece of steel but progress is progress. 3/16 with some speed holes to lighten it up. Time to start on the driver side..

 

[1969miller]

Got one frame plate fully welded in. Started mocking up the track bar bracket on the axle. Neat bracket from TMR customs, it was close enough to what i envisioned building, so was easier to go with the pre-fab bracket.

Started sleeving the frame for the steering box, it'd go faster if i could drill a straight hole where i wanted it to go. Out come the carbide bits..

Story time.. Galt PD posted about a police chase involving a stolen truck on their FB page. I commented on the post in a smartass fashion that if the owners of the truck wanted to sell it to contact me and I would buy the wrecked GMC. Never expected it to actually happen. Paid the tow fees and picked it up the next morning. Also, turns out i went to high school with the trucks owner! he was bummed his work truck got stolen, but was ok with the sale and hearing the motor would go in something cool.

If you haven't caught on.. The bronco will now be getting a chevy motor. Sorry purists, not sorry! More power, cheaper and easier to fit than a coyote. @Yeller I've read your posts about what intakes clear with a body lift, the belt drive etc, its all straight forward. My main question is can you post photos of the angle iron layed into your frame towers? I get it but a visual would help me lay this out with the C10 mounts you've talked about. Also what are the most economical S10 swap headers to run?

I plan on running the truck intake and belt drive since it will fit with my plans and its free. Stock tune ECU and a painless harness. Looking for bellhousing/clutch solutions to mate this engine to my TR4050 if anyone has any feedback..

 

[hunter1]

Got one frame plate fully welded in. Started mocking up the track bar bracket on the axle. Neat bracket from TMR customs, it was close enough to what i envisioned building, so was easier to go with the pre-fab bracket.

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Started sleeving the frame for the steering box, it'd go faster if i could drill a straight hole where i wanted it to go. Out come the carbide bits..

View attachment 928446

Story time.. Galt PD posted about a police chase involving a stolen truck on their FB page. I commented on the post in a smartass fashion that if the owners of the truck wanted to sell it to contact me and I would buy the wrecked GMC. Never expected it to actually happen. Paid the tow fees and picked it up the next morning. Also, turns out i went to high school with the trucks owner! he was bummed his work truck got stolen, but was ok with the sale and hearing the motor would go in something cool.
View attachment 928447

If you haven't caught on.. The bronco will now be getting a chevy motor. Sorry purists, not sorry! More power, cheaper and easier to fit than a coyote. @Yeller I've read your posts about what intakes clear with a body lift, the belt drive etc, its all straight forward. My main question is can you post photos of the angle iron layed into your frame towers? I get it but a visual would help me lay this out with the C10 mounts you've talked about. Also what are the most economical S10 swap headers to run?

I plan on running the truck intake and belt drive since it will fit with my plans and its free. Stock tune ECU and a painless harness. Looking for bellhousing/clutch solutions to mate this engine to my TR4050 if anyone has any feedback..

View attachment 928448

Nice work!

 

[Yeller]

I caught on

I do not have pics, I managed to loose them somewhere along the way. When you get the c10 mounts in hand it will make sense. I’m happy to help any way I can. As for headers, all I’ve used have been Sanderson S10 swap headers. If your running inner fenders you have to bend the passenger side in about 3/4”, it’s easy just pull it with your hand. As an option that is rock dependable and flows well enough to support a 6500rpm 6.0 are trail blazer manifolds, last I checked they were $150ish a pair and bolt up, just have to trim the ears off the trans that you wonder why are there anyway, all of my personal swaps use those manifolds.

Connecting your trans is a piece of cake. You need a flywheel from a 1999 or 2000 c2500 with a 5 speed. Use the pilot bearing for the same application. Run your choice of 12” clutch and set up a hydraulic slave, internal or external. Use any SBC bell housing that will bolt up to your trans. Verify the input length (Ford and GM are not the same) I researched this for a long time how to mate an old school manual to an LS without the crazy expensive “conversion” flywheel. I believe this is all they are doing. GM did not change the NV4500 to bolt to a 6.0, they made a flywheel that works. They didn’t change the clutch either.

If you were closer we’d be negotiating on the trans out of that donor.

 

[Yeller]

With your stated uses your going to want to change the oil pan as well. This unit from speedway works well, you may need or want a remote filter version, it gets tight under there lol.

 

[1969miller]

Been ordering parts left and right, took my sweet time getting the 6.0 removed from the GMC, and have been spending my time bugging steve with wiring questions.. Here's the "update" so far..

Driver side is plated and sleeved for the steering box.

Bellhousing from Quickdraw Brand for the TR4050, uses stock silverado clutch and flywheel, a mopar clutch pivot and a Jeep external slave cylinder.

starting to open up the harness..

Don't need this anymore!

Ran into a header issue last night, passenger side seems to clear but the driver side hits the motor mount. No idea on how they will clear the frame yet. These are chinese S10 swap headers, do i just give the driver side a little love with a BFH?

Also picked up some 99-04 SD axles, sadly the front is a D50, i am considering making a front 9in housing with the outers..

And last for the bronco update, shiny stuff!

And the reason ive been slacking on updates.. Ended up with a boat. Nothing more expensive than a cheap boat.. But we've had a ton of good days on it so far. Need to take it out one more time before i winterize it. It's a classic 84 mastercraft stars and stripes. It feels like working on a bronco because its got a 351W in it! This is the day i picked it up, everything is much cleaner now but no pics.. Figured a little SBF action would make folks happy after seeing all this LS based stuff.

 

[DirtDonk]

Can you start by grinding off a little bit of the corner of that mount? Is that too structural, or can enough of it be removed?

 

[1969miller]

Can you start by grinding off a little bit of the corner of that mount? Is that too structural, or can enough of it be removed?

I probably can, but still want some space between the 2 so it doesnt melt the motor mount. If you look at the header flange in that photo, you can see how much further it has to come down to actually bolt to the head.

 

[1969miller]

Update time.

Got the Engine wiring harness done and loomed up, no pics yet. Ended up tearing down and resealing the entire engine because why not. Had the heads decked and a valve job done. First motor I've painted, came out nicely!

started notching the frame towers for the C10 motor mounts.

dropped the engine in to check clearances on everything. crank pulley is super close, going to notch out the front crossmember. The oil pan is super nice and gives plenty of room for the track bar. I might shave off a corner of the pan to give total clearance for the front axle, but it might clear as is, I'll know more when i start cycling suspension. I am loving how much clearance This has given me, and after a little more crossmember cutting and plating, i think I will be well on my way to mounting coilovers and getting this thing on its own weight.

front driveshaft to oil filter clearance worries me a little bit, didn't really want to do a filter relocation but might have to. Time will tell.

And last but not least for this update, I pulled the trigger on an Atlas! Tried hard for about 6 months to only sell stuff out of my parts barn and not buy more, hard for a marketplace addict like me, but it paid off and i fed an envelope my spare cash until i could afford one. It is a 2 speed geared to 4.3 and I opted for 1350 Yokes.

 

[1969]

That is a good picture of your motor mounts. I think that is the way @Yeller does them?

 

[1969miller]

That is correct! He has been a great resource for this build.

 

[Yeller]

Looking good Morgan!

Yep that motor mount hack is my solution.... wish I had figured it out on the first swap and not the second.

If drive shaft/oil filter clearance is an issue, use a filter for a 4x4 chevy truck, it will be nearly 2" shorter. I really doubt it will be an issue. If I still had any of the short filters on the shelf I would share the number, I use the AC filter that is on that pan on my swaps, but mine are both passenger drop. on TX SS's truck I was able to just use the shorter filter.

 

[1969]

Also I’m not sure of a part number or anything but you might see if there is a shorter oil filter you could use in place of the relocation kit. Might let you just squeak by.

(You beat me to a response @Yeller by a few seconds)