My new (to me) 71 Bronco | Build Thread

[71 CA Bronco]

Before you put to much work into that windshield area. Best to take a close look inside and under the cowl. If the windshield looks like that the cowl may be toast as well. You might be able to put your camera inside the corner seam of the upper cowl to see what is going on in there. Rust never sleeps.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

Another one of the projects was getting the heat working, a lot of the pieces for that were missing when I bought it. Started with doing some rust repair where the air intake duct sits. Also addressed some of the issues with the inner fender while I had it apart. I made some patch panels for the areas I was most concerned about right now.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

Before you put to much work into that windshield area. Best to take a close look inside and under the cowl. If the windshield looks like that the cowl may be toast as well. You might be able to put your camera inside the corner seam of the upper cowl to see what is going on in there. Rust never sleeps.

I have rust issues in a lot of places, I'm not sure what my long term plan with this one is yet. I have a 79 Bronco that I'm doing a full frame off restoration on right now. Once that one is done I'll see if I want to do the same with this one or just build another EB from scratch since it seems a lot easier than fixing all the rust issues on an old body. I really hate doing rust repairs. The goal right now its to address the biggest issues I have and keep this one in good enough condition to keep cruising around in but not going for any sort of show quality. Most of my effort is going into mechanical parts and reliability & as little as possible into body repairs at this time.

 

[71 CA Bronco]

Oh my. I'm having flash backs to my Bronco build. I think you are going about it the right way. I did a full frame off on my bronco but sure do miss my old one. Never worried about scratching it up going off road or throwing the dogs inside. I just kept it up mechanically and it was a boat load of fun. Enjoy the ride.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

Oh my. I'm having flash backs to my Bronco build. I think you are going about it the right way. I did a full frame off on my bronco but sure do miss my old one. Never worried about scratching it up going off road or throwing the dogs inside. I just kept it up mechanically and it was a boat load of fun. Enjoy the ride.

Thanks, that exactly what this one is at the moment and will likely stay that way. Its fun and I don't have to worry about keeping it clean, the frame off builds get treated a lot differently

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

HVAC system had a bunch of missing pieces and everything that was left was in pretty bad shape. I cleaned up and saved everything I could and bought everything else. New heater core, ducts, seals, controls & HD blower upgrade. The box I had to fix the flaps and get them moving freely then just cleaned it up and painted it.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

Electrical has been a nightmare since day one in this thing. The first time I turned on the headlights smoked poured out from behind the dash. I was going to just fix / replace sections of the harness as I got to them but then I decided to order a painless harness and dakota digital cluster. I still need to finish the engine bay wiring but the rest is done.

 

[LUBr LuvR]

This Bronco is so lucky you rescued it! Nice work bringing it back to form and function. Enjoying following along on the progress.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

This Bronco is so lucky you rescued it! Nice work bringing it back to form and function. Enjoying following along on the progress.

Thanks! It's coming along hope to have it all wrapped up this coming weekend.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

I got the engine dropped in 2 weeks ago, but have been busy since. I still need to finish the wiring and accessories but its getting pretty close.

I'll need to make a bracket to hold the new dipstick tube unless someone knows of one on the market somewhere. I got the oil pan kit from Toms but haven't seen any bracket ro secure the top of the dipstick. Also does anyone know of an oil cap that stays on the neck better? This one doesn't seem to like to stay sitting down flat fir long.

 

[gr8scott]

Also does anyone know of an oil cap that stays on the neck better?

That oil fill neck takes a breather, like this

Chrome Valve Cover Shielded Breather, Push On Crank Case Vent

Check out the deal on Chrome Valve Cover Shielded Breather, Push On Crank Case Vent at WILD HORSES 4X4

www.wildhorses4x4.com

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

That oil fill neck takes a breather, like this

http://[URL]https://www.wildhorses4...ver-shielded-breather-push-on-crank-case-vent

[/URL]

Thanks!

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

The engine is complete, everything went well other than some timing issues. The major issue was a bad distributor with way too much shaft play. I was able to make 1 good distributor out of the 2 had around. I still have some timing issues, the timing curve needs work. I decided to give the Ace's fuel injection & timing kit a try, that hasn't shipped yet so no update on that.

The Toms oil pan and dipstick kit left me with a leak. I thought I wasn't getting the dipstick tight enough because of the tight wrench fit and needing to modify a line wrench to get in there. Once the wrench was opened up enough it didn't grab the fitting very well anymore. So I pipe doped it and tightened it with locking needle nose plyers which got it more than tight enough, but I still had a leak. The leak was actually from the screws holding the dipstick bung on the pan, they were never tightened. I never checked them, the pan came assembled I assumed they would have been torqued during assembly. So if you buy that setup make sure you check the screws before assembling everything.

I ordered the compass and outside temp module with the Dakota Digital dash. I needed a place to mount it that needed to be inside and the module has to face up and forward in the vehicle which didn't leave a ton of places for it in a bronco. I made a bracket to put it on the kick panel behind the dash. Which I'm not sure was a good place for it I haven't been able to get it to read accurately after multiple calibrations so I will need to try a new spot. Also been having Bluetooth issues with the RTX dash, it doesn't seem to like my android phone, but works well with an iPad. But then it "forgot" its name and wouldn't let anything connect anymore. Dakota Digital support has been helpful and I think the name thing is resolved at this point but it does suck that my phone won't connect properly.

I decided to install the newer style washer / coolant combo tank so I made a bracket for that as well.

 

[Thumper63]

I got the engine dropped in 2 weeks ago, but have been busy since. I still need to finish the wiring and accessories but its getting pretty close.

I'll need to make a bracket to hold the new dipstick tube unless someone knows of one on the market somewhere. I got the oil pan kit from Toms but haven't seen any bracket ro secure the top of the dipstick. Also does anyone know of an oil cap that stays on the neck better? This one doesn't seem to like to stay sitting down flat fir long.

Mike, my Lokar dipstick came with a bracket.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

Its been awhile since I've updated this thread. I have / had some oil consumption issues, still not completely resolved. I need to pull the valve cover with the PCV valve and make a new baffle for it. If you're interested in that there is another thread about it HERE.

I went ahead and ordered and Aces Killshot EFI kit. I've had that installed for awhile now, its running pretty well but I do need to fix a header leak and mess with tuning.

Also hit a deer a few weeks ago. Damage was relatively minimal, all the damage was in body parts that I planned to replace anyway. I got a new bumper from someone on here and threw that on. The body panels got pushed and hammered back into place to be "good enough" until I get into body work.

And a quick shot from cruising after the new bumper.

 

[DirtDonk]

I was going to look up some of those threads about oil consumption through the PCV system and add some thoughts. But since you brought yours up, I’ll just add some here!
It may have been covered before, but I can’t go back through at the moment. What oil pan do you have?
How many quarts of oil are you running?
Is this a stroker engine? And if so, was it done by machining the existing crank, or is it a special crank with larger throws?

If a non-stock pan, which one is it exactly?
No matter what, are you going by the number of quarts, or by the check marks on the dipstick?

Maybe none of this pertains to any of these oil consumption discussions, but I’m wondering if overfilling the oil is causing aeration and more oil vapors to be tossed up into the system where it’s captured by the PCV valve.
Excessive oil in the air would seem just like blow-by to a vacuum source.

Just thought I would bring it up for discussion.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

I was going to look up some of those threads about oil consumption through the PCV system and add some thoughts. But since you brought yours up, I’ll just add some here!
It may have been covered before, but I can’t go back through at the moment. What oil pan do you have?
How many quarts of oil are you running?
Is this a stroker engine? And if so, was it done by machining the existing crank, or is it a special crank with larger throws?

If a non-stock pan, which one is it exactly?
No matter what, are you going by the number of quarts, or by the check marks on the dipstick?

Maybe none of this pertains to any of these oil consumption discussions, but I’m wondering if overfilling the oil is causing aeration and more oil vapors to be tossed up into the system where it’s captured by the PCV valve.
Excessive oil in the air would seem just like blow-by to a vacuum source.

Just thought I would bring it up for discussion.

I have the oil pan kit from Tom's
https://tomsoffroad.com/parts/66-77-ford-bronco-289-302-v8-oil-pan-with-gasket

Not a stroker, it's a bone stock replacement. I'm watching both the quarts in and the level on the dipstick. I'm certain that it has not been overfilled, the first time that I lost oil I'm confident that there was only 5qts in there. If overfilling was an issue I would think the consumption would stop once oil got closer to the correct level. Mine will keep dropping until I loose oil pressure.

I haven't pulled the valve covers yet to mess with the baffles but I am certain that it is being pulled through the PCV. I added a catch can that I empty every time I drive it and it always has a good amount of oil in it. I did change the PCV valve to a different brand and that seemed to cut the consumption on half.

 

[DirtDonk]

Well, that’s one down. It was worth a shot.
A 5 quart pan with 5 quarts in it sounds good.
Not sure why a different brand PCV would change the amount of oil suckage though. If they’re both for the same application, they should both have the same pill number rating inside, and should flow the same.
But that’s an interesting thing to note for sure!

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

Well, that’s one down. It was worth a shot.
A 5 quart pan with 5 quarts in it sounds good.
Not sure why a different brand PCV would change the amount of oil suckage though. If they’re both for the same application, they should both have the same pill number rating inside, and should flow the same.
But that’s an interesting thing to note for sure!

Yeah, I wasn't even going to bother changing it but they're so cheap I figured why not. The first one was a super cheap ~$1 clearance one from Rockauto, the better one was a super expensive ~$4 one from Advanced

 

[DirtDonk]

Haha! Yeah, sometimes you just gotta pay a premium to get the good stuff.