Ford Forums & Technical Discussions banner

Project Bucking Bronco 2

58K views 20 replies 2 participants last post by  RangerSVT 
#1 ·
So on with another customer's build, an 88 bronco 2 2WD 2.9L auto that has just about been restored to original has now decided the 2.9l needs to be replaced with a 5.0. This was a father/son project, but he was sent to Rhode Island for being a bad boy in the army (actually is over there for training), so he contacted me to finish the swap for him, and delivered the B2 and parts to me from Chicago, IL. The B2 came to me as a running/driving vehicle. The donor was a low mileage 2000 explorer, converted to 97 specs to work with the fuel system and to avoid pats. One with todays progress...
I started with removing the 2.9, I won't go into too much detail in the removal. I did protect the hood by using 5/8" heater hose slit down the middle and placed over the edge of the hood to protect the paint while unbolting. Paint's in pretty good shape, so I'm trying to protect it as much as possible...



Wouldn't you know, it started raining. But it wasn't a constant rain, it'd rain for about 3 minutes, then stop, 20 minutes later, it'd start raining again for a few minutes, then stop again, did this for about 2 hours, then finally stopped for the rest of the day. So, I grabbed a tarp to cover the engine bay...



So I run into my first issue, the fuel lines. On the B2, supply line uses a 3/8" male fitting, the return uses a 3/8" female fitting. The 5.0 uses a 1/2" male supply fitting the return uses a 3/8" male fitting. After going through all the parts, I found the correct fittings, so I just gotta attach the correct fittings on the fuel lines. Battery died on my phone, so no pics of the correct fittings today...



After finally getting the fuel lines disconnected, the engine harness removed, and the engine and trans prepped for removal, I was ready to remove the drivetrain. Before I did, I measured the height from the front fender to the ground, to see how much the front will drop. The owner installed airbags inside the coils up front, and airbag assists out back, so if it drops too much, I can compensate by adding air to the front bags...



Engine lift in place...



And the drivetrain's out....



Hey Dave! Someone stole your motor!



Onto some of the parts list. The owner bought a set of L&L mounts, which I will NOT be using on anything but a buggy or bouncer, they are solid mounts and are overpriced for what they are. I wasn't impressed with the fabwork either...





Here is the 90* block adapter, transdapt part # 1413...



Transdapt's dual filter relocation kit, part # 1227...



New set of Autolite double platinum plugs...



New set of 4 bosch oxygen sensors. Only 2 will be used, the rears will be deleted in the tune, so the other two will be lost in my shop/collection, Dave just doesn't know it yet, lol



New wires...



Not pictured, but new air filter, new belt, and a few other new parts are used. A 4.0 OHV power steering pressure line will be used, more info on that later. Since this vehicle will be in the colder climates, a block heater was opted for use. It's a 120 volt, 600 watt heater...



Here is the location its going, passenger side, middle freeze plug...



And here it is installed. Its straight forward, uses an O ring to seal against the block, and has a butterfly nut on the backside to hold it in the block...



Time to install the plugs, they come pregapped at .048...



The explorer ignition system on the 5.0 needs the gap between .052-.056, so the gap was set at .054....



Prior to installing the plugs, a healthy dose of antisieze is used to prevent the plugs from rusting to the head....



And here is where the battery died in my phone. Got the plugs installed. Took a look at the oil filter block adapter, and the block, and realized the original explorer female adapter was still installed. I will have to grab one from the junkyard before I can install the 90* adapter. I will also need a throttle cable, and I'm gonna grab a trans shifter cable while I'm at it. The stock trans shifter arm comes down almost in the middle of the trans tunnel, so in its current state I doubt it will work or even clear with the larger 4R70W installed. I'll work on that later. I bolted the trans to the motor, torque converter bolts installed, and started to install the starter. Didn't have the correct bolts for the starter, so I'll have to get a pair of those as well. I'll be grabbing new bolts for the motor mounts as well, as the originals are pretty rusted. Thats about all the progress today. Tomorrow will be a junkyard day. Stay tuned...

SVT
 
See less See more
20
#2 ·
Its staying 2wd, although if it was me, I'd convert it. All bronco2's already have the 4wd crossmember, so its just a matter of bolting in the ttb...

SVT
 
#3 ·
I took another look in the parts bins and come to find out there's a throttle cable in the collection that I overlooked. So that was one less part I needed to get. So after a trip to the junkyard, I came back with a trans shifter cable and the block adapter.
Here is the male block adapter next to the original female adapter. The female adapter is used in oil cooler and filter adapters, which won't work with the 1413 adapter...



I also stopped and picked up some grade 8 motor mount bolts...



And the trans shifter cable...



Here the male adapter is installed in the block, along with the motor mount, which will be drilled for the correct placement once installed...



Here is the 1413 installed...



The passenger side mount will need some trimming as its contacting the block heater....



Here's the factory trans shifter cable installed on the trans. Gotta figure out a way to make it work with the stock shifter. I had an idea, but with the stock shifter lever hanging down so far, I might need to take a different approach...



Unfortunately, this is all the progress for today. Spent more time than I wanted in town getting parts. I did forget to get the new starter bolts as the only one in the collection has a damaged head. Gotta do some hunting in my collection of parts, I might have one or two laying around...

SVT
 
#6 ·
Today's progress:
Here you can see just how far the stock shifter linkage sticks down...



Got the passenger motor mount notched for the block heater..



The starter bolts was a hunt for a needle in a hay stack. The starter bolts are specific to the 4R70W, they are not the same as other starter bolts, nor are they the same as the bellhousing bolts. I finally found 2 bolts that were the correct thread, but they're a tad too long. They most likely will be temporary as it's not to my liking, but it holds the starter in for the time being...





I got the rubber mount's locating pin removed....





Found something else that I didn't like that I'll be replacing, the ground cable. The insulation is cracked pretty bad. So while a replacement is needed, I'll be upgrading the wire size as well. This does a couple things, it helps with faster starts, helps both the starter and battery have a longer life, and helps with dimming lights from electrical current draws...



Next up, fuel lines. I removed the incorrect fittings and installed the correct male fittings....



Modding the heater box is next. This is what it looked like before I started...



Here's what it looks like after I modded it using the heat gun method....





And the motor and trans is in! Well, kinda...



And this is where the remainder of my day was spent, engine placement. I moved the engine around at least a dozen times, probably more. Still need to fab the motor mounts more. On the passenger side, the exhaust is going to be tricky. For the exhaust, it needs to go to the driver side more, but the bellhousing to firewall clearance needs to go to the passenger side. Belhousing to firewall clearance would help if it could to lower, but the exhaust needs it to be raised...



I could roll the lip on the firewall to move the motor to the driver side more, but in order to do that there's a boss on the trans near the bellhousing to engine mounting surface that will need to be clearanced as it's almost touching the firewall now...



I had to remove the heater hose hard lines as it was contacting the top of the AC box at the firewall, it would be easier and simpler to run straight rubber line from the block to the heater core. I ended up having to remove the ac box to mod it even more, I tried to get around cutting the box, but with where I need to clearance it more, there's no way it will stay intact...





This is about where the motor is in its final spot, or so I thought. Here's the clearance with the new radiator...





Here's the clearance with the old radiator...



As you can see, there's only about 1.25" of clearance with the new rad, 2.625" with old rad. Looks like I may have to make some more mods to get the engine back even more. The good news is the shifter linkage is not far off from actually being able to work. With a little modifying, it'll work without a shifter cable. It'll have a linkage similar to a tcase shifter, more on that later...

SVT
 
#7 ·
Another update. A lot was done, although the overall project doesn't look like it. Motor was back out at 7am...



Kinda hard to see, but it was 34* this morning...



Here's the trans boss that needs to be removed...



Here it is removed....





Here is the body lip on the firewall folded over...





Since I won't be using the shifter cable, I removed the shifter cable bracket on the trans...



With the motor sitting as far back as it can, I was able to keep the stock location for the trans crossmember. Here is the stock B2 mount next to the offset mount that the explorer uses. I had to use the offset mount...



Onto working the heater/AC box. The bottom part of the box has about a 110* bend to it, and with what I need clearanced, the heating method wasn't gonna cut it. Most do sheet metal or fiberglass. Problem with fiberglass is getting it to stick to plastic, even roughing up the plastic, its still hard to stay attached after years of vibrations. The sheet metal method, to me, just looks hacked, so what else is there?





Why, cardboard and ducktape of course! No, I'm not using cardboard as a permanent fix, I'm making a template and using this...



I'm using the same material that the box was originally made out of, plastic. It's the same thickness, I just transfered the template to the material. Notice I used the original 90* bend the plastic had molded, this allowed me two less joints to attach...



Here you can see the exact cutout of the template...



The other half of the template and cutout...





Here's the two cutouts arranged next to each other as they will be attached...



Here's the finished cover. It looks like RTV, but its not. I welded the plastic together, all seams, both sides, this is the strongest setup besides molding a new part from one piece of plastic, which I would have prefered to do, and would have, but I just didn't have the time to make the mold...







Here's the insulation back on the the box. I added some aluminum tape to both help the insulation as well as provide more insulation...



The engine back in the engine bay with the box installed...



The driver side valve cover to firewall. If there's a 1/4" there, thats a lot. It's tight, can't move the engine back any further without firewall mods....



Driver side mount...



Passenger side mount....



Fuel rails next, the return line was the right length, but the supply line was too long...



Here's the shortened supply line and hooked up....



Onto the next issue, the upper intake. I think this truck is not wanting this motor as its been fighting me since the 2.9 came out. With the upper intake against the firewall....



It just wasn't far enough. .



My options are bring the motor forward about 3/4", which I already need more than what I have, or lift the trans up higher. I lifted the trans up 1.5" higher off the trans mount, and that left me about 1/8" clearance between the intake and the firewall. I need to fab a riser to go between the trans mount and the trans. I switched to getting the FEAD installed, which is where I called it a day...



I've got about 1.75" clearance between the new rad and the water pump snout. Due to clearance issues, the taurus fan will not work in this truck. I used dual 10" fans on
SVT with success, but I only had 2/3's of the surface area covered, I had plans with going with quad 8" fans, this would give me the coverage I would be comfortable with, and give me the needed airflow for extreme conditions. This is probably the route I'm going to suggest. I had thought about running a couple of squirel boxes in front of the core support, but finding them in 12 volts would be fun and expensive. I've got a full day of work still to go with half a day needed in the junkyard to collect more parts. Junkyard parts list:
Starter bolts
Driveshaft from 2wd 2nd gen V8 explorer (there's about 8 V8 ex's at my junkyard!)
AC manifold/lines
Parts store list:
Battery cables for power and ground
Swap out AC accumulator and possibly AC condenser (for a 94 model)

SVT
 
#8 ·
So Dave, I think I found a solution to the upper intake problem, let me know what you think...







No, not really. This setup is going on the V8 jeep TJ I'm doing. Went to the junkyard and autoparts store this morning, spent way more time than I needed or wanted to, but I got all the parts I needed, or so I thought. From the junkyard, I got a driveshaft from a 97 2wd V8 explorer, trans cooling lines, AC manifold hose with a fairly new accumulator, 2 starter bolts and a vacuum 90...



From the autoparts store I got battery cable and cable lugs...



Had to back track to Lowes to get some fittings for the heater hose. Here is the heater hose fittings installed...



AC compressor installed...



New O rings for the AC manifold/hoses...



AC manifold/hoses installed with the accumulator from a 97 explorer. The AC system was still charged when I pulled the hose, and the accumulator looks barely 6 months old, so I grabbed it too. It bolted right up to the older Bronco 2's evaporator core, plus allowed for off the shelf reusable parts should they need to be replaced in the future...



I didn't grab the high pressure switch's plug from the donor, and I should have. The plugs don't match, and I had planned to just swap the switches out, but the threads are different. So I'm gonna have to get a plug and swap the plugs out on the harness...



While I was at it, I pulled the orifice tube out and replaced it, and good thing, the old one is almost completely clogged....





Tried to install the belt, found the tensioner to be completely locked up, I had a 3 foot prybar between the pullies trying to break it free, no go, it wasn't giving. A new one will need to be bought...



Got the power steering pressure line installed...



And the return line....



The AC liquid line from the accumulator to the condensor will need to be replaced, the outer sheething is split, and the hardline is rusted pretty bad...



The old and new condenser has some differences. The old one is a dual row, the new a single row....



...and the tubes are lower on the new one vs the old one, so much that it won't mount in the core support without cutting the core support...



I got the upper intake mounted, vacuum lines ran, and the coil packs mounted. The TPS and IAC plugs won't reach the sensors on the throttle body, so I may have to extend them. There's a bracket that holds the DPFE and EGR solenoid sensors thats missing. They'll be deleted in the tune, so I could remove them, and the plugs for those sensors won't be seen as they'll be hidden behind the intake by the firewall, so I don't know what I'm going to do there just yet. Not pictured, but the starter bolts were swapped out as well. Should have this thing ready to start tomorrow, we'll see....

SVT
 
#10 ·
Updates. Hit the parts store this morning, only came back with a tensioner. The AC liquid line (between the accumulator and condenser) is a 3 day order. I did some parts comparing while I was there. The AC liquid line is the same from the 88 bronco2 as the 94 ranger. There will be only one custom piece to the AC system, and thats the hose that goes from the compressor to the condenser. I've got to get that modded. Don't feel like I did much today, but I'm getting down to the wiring and time consuming things. Since I couldn't get the liquid line, I cut, crimped, and soldered the old liquid line shut to seal the system...



Here is the tensioner installed with the belt installed...



Started on the battery cables. I'll be using these clamps, which I use on all my projects I work on, they are military style battery clamps, much better than anything found in the store....



Crimping heavy gauge wires just straight sucks. It corrodes after time and could get loose. This is how I make my battery cables. I first start with the lug, then measure and strip the insulation off the cable (which is premium 2 gauge)...



Use a little of this...



Put some heat and do a little of this...



And push the cable in and you get this...



A little tape...



followed by a length of heat shrink tubing, and the end result...



Do this a couple times, and you have the highest quality cable you can buy, or can you?



Here's the positive battery side. One goes to the starter, the other to the starter solenoid...



The starter solenoid. The amp wire had some exposed wire at the terminal, so I removed the small insulator at the lug, taped and heat shrunk the end...



Here's the starter to battery wire, including the starter solenoid wire...



Sealing up the end on the starter side. I threw my thumb in there to give you an idea just how big this cable is...



The completed cable...



Some pics wouldn't upload. On the wiring, I attached the diagnostic port wiring to the ecu harness at the ecu plug, since this was the easiest spot to attach and it is the only part of the harness thats inside the cab. Pulled some of the wires apart, soldered and heat shrunk the wires for the diagnostic port, then taped it back up. I got the ecu harness plug through the firewall. I cut off the original firewall grommet, had to enlarge the hole for the much larger OBD2 harness...



Here's the harness and ecu installed in the kick panel...





I mounted the diagnostic port as close to the original location as I could. I couldn't put it in the same location as late model vehicles cause of the way the lower panel removes for access to the fuse panel...



I also found in my collection the correct AC high pressure switch plug, which I have installed, but was getting too late (dark) to get it wired up. Not pictured (yet) is the alternator charge harness. The plug, luckily, is the same style and fits the new alternator, so I just removed the old output charge plug from the original alternator harness, and plugged it up. I took an old explorer alternator harness I had apart, and used the twin fuselink charge wire that goes from the alternator stud to the battery, in this project's case, the fender mounted solenoid. I also got the spacer installed between the transmission mount and transmission. I didn't take the time to fab a mount like I wanted to, I decided my time was better spent in other areas. I installed the heater hoses, but I need to get a 90* fitting to complete the install. I took a couple washers with a round spacer in the middle to give me the 1.5" lift I needed for the intake to clear the firewall. Hope to have this done tomorrow so I can get it loaded on the trailer and get it back to Dave. I know he's waiting to get it back...

SVT
 
#12 ·
Today's updates won't look like much, but I've been at it all day, again. I started with the trans cooling lines. I cut them in two pieces so they could be installed without getting bent all up. So I started by flaring the hard lines...



Stage 1 of the double flare process....



And the final stage completed....



Here's the two halves installed...



Then I got the AC low pressure switch wired. On the older system, the high side has a type of blow off valve to release high pressures. These blow off valves are made onto the high pressure hose manifold mounted to the compressor. The new style compressor has two pressure switches, a low and a high, due to enviornmental reasons, refrigerant can't be vented to the atmosphere, so the high pressure switch shuts the compressor off so pressure can't keep building to unsafe levels. I'll have to wire in a high pressure switch. I'll do that tomorrow when the line gets modified. Here's the switch wired...



Got the plug wires installed...



Now onto the boring, time consuming stuff, the wiring. I started with the 42 pin vehicle side plug, the pigtail, that wires into the B2...



Dave, prepare yourself for the next images, as they may be harmful to your eyes. I pulled it apart and deleted a total of 15 circuits that were not needed. Nothing looks worse on a decent wiring job than a bunch of wires that are cut off and not hooked up...



The retaining pin clips removed...



The pigtail harness is from a 98+, the engine harness is from a 97. There were some differences. One of which pin 26 is for the oil pressure sensor, which on the 98 pigtail is blanked out...



Here it is drilled and the wire installed...



And here's the circuits that was removed, which is almost half of the wires from the pigtail...



The pigtail finished, wrapping it up...



Now for the dissappointing news. The original engine/ecu harness also contains the main power as well as several circuits for the interior cab, so I had to dissect the harness completely and remove the circuits one by one...



These are the plugs in the engine/ecu harness that attach to the driver side fenderwell, which fead the interior with power and various other circuits. I had to trace each and every circuit by hand as the manuals I used had conflicting info. Even after verifying the circuit from the same pin location at the ecu and the corresponding sensor, it was still a different color code. Combine that with 26 year old wiring, and the insulation is slightly discolored, making ID'ing even more of a time consuming task...



Here is the remaining harness that will be used. Can you guess how long this took?



This is the same harness, but on the passenger side, where the fuel pump and EEC relay are located. The WOT relay is in a different harness, which stayed in the vehicle...



Here is where I stopped. I've got every circuit finally ID'd and ready to attach the pigtail to the harness. There are a few things that I would have done differently, but to do it, I'd have to pull the new engine harness out to do some rewiring, something that I just don't have time for, and would take me about 2 more days to do....



I've decided to use dual 10" E fans to kool this setup. I used this same setup on SVT and it has kept it kool, within 5 degrees of the thermostat. Sitting in traffic it would get a little warm, around 205-210, but otherwise was good. If this doesn't work, I'll have him get four smaller fans to cover more surface area...

SVT
 
#13 ·
The project continues. Started where I left off with the wiring....



Doing as much soldering as I do, you gotta keep solder on hand. This is my 3rd tube of solder on this project. I'm down to 2 tubes, I need to get some more...



Here is the completed harness taped up...



I put a couple of pieces of chinese loom on the long straight pieces. This loom is braided nylon, so its rub resistant, it tightens when its pulled...





Here is the harness with the 2 pieces installed...



So something that hadn't crossed my mind when building the motor mounts was the height of the motor...



So, after doing some more measuring, I decided to lower the passenger side another inch. This would give me more clearance for the exhaust (but the top framerail may still need to be clearanced to fit the pipe in), and give me the clearance to close the hood. So now, I've got to fab the motor mount. Here's the motor sitting where it needs to be....



And with the hood finally on, checking for clearance...



So with that (almost) out of the way, I have the upper radiator hose installed, but it presents another problem...





So we have a couple options. I can fab a new upper rad hose that uses 2 couplings, one at the radiator, and another at the thermostat, and tube in the middle, relocate the battery, or get a CAI that routes air behind the battery. Cause of the MAF, using the original air intake tube won't work.
Got the harness installed, checked the wiring, and verified the CEL circuit was connected properly as I had to guess which wire it was. The wire I thought was the CEL circuit, was the correct circuit, so after pulling the harness back out to make the final circuit connection, I installed the harness in the engine bay for the last time. Only thing left wiring wise is the TPS sensor plug needs to be extended about 6" (I have another plug that I'll be using so I only have one solder joint in that circuit, rather than 2, and the overdrive switch. The rest of the wiring is completed. I need to pull the instrument cluster out to adjust the tach to read the V8 signal, but thats it on the electrical. Tomorrow we are expecting rain. Going to work as long as I can in the morning, then once it starts raining, I'll head to town for parts...

SVT
 
#15 ·
Updates...
Since I couldn't use the heater hose hardlines, I had to come up with a way to run the heater hoses a different way. Due to the FEAD bracket, access to the water pump heater hose outlet would be challenging without a premade hose. I ended up using the premade hose that connects the water pump outlet to the hardline. From there, a 90* fitting was used to connect to standard heater hose. Notice how tight things are in this area...



Here the hoses are connected...



Tucked away nice and neat. It had to be for the AC hose, upper radiator hose, and air intake tube, which all fits in this area...



Got the two vacuum plugs installed, one in the front, one in the back, which you can't see...



Next was the TPS plug, got it extended and plugged up...



Next, the airbox. I had a thought of using spectre polished tube, since you can get it in assorted bends and straights to basically route it where you need it. While that would have worked, and would have been pricey, I decided to try for the stock look. So I started looking at what I had to work with, and I came up with something. I'll be using the stock box, the explorer elbow. I modified the box cover to accept the MAF housing, which I unbolted from the explorer box cover. I started by cutting off the round tube the intake tube attaches to...





I then mocked up the MAF in place, marked and drilled the mounting holes, ran a few pieces of insulation tape to seal the cover to the MAF housing, and bolted the MAF to the cover...



Inside the cover...



Next obstacle, the low pressure switch is in the way...



I pulled the switch, and installed the cover. By pure luck I was able to reinstall the switch, though it is touching the cover, but its not pushing against it. You can actually remove and install the cover without removing the switch, but you have to push down on the cover to install and remove it...



The cover, intake tube and MAF installed. Don't you just love a stock look?



Next up, the remote oil filter housing. These are the bolts on the right that they come with (5/16). I upgraded the bolts to the ones on the left (3/8), the housing is already drilled large enough to accept these...



I was very limited on where I could mount the housing, the hoses are only 30" in length, and its a little bulky. The only place that really was protected was right behind the bumper, so I made a bracket that ran right behind the bumper that mounted between the framerails...





Here it is mounted. I would have installed the filters, but Dave picked up the wrong filters (FL820S), the housing accepts FL1A style filters, so I'm gonna swap them out when I pick up the AC line tomorrow...



Next up, the kooling fans. After test fitting them in the truck, I pulled the radiator to get them mounted. I had these fans in SVT. The 3rd gen ranger and 1st and 2nd gen ranger/B2 core supports are slightly different. I was able to mount them flush with the top and bottom of the radiator in my ranger, but on this radiator, they hang over just a bit. I didn't care for this, but didn't really have a choice, so they were mounted hanging over the top and bottom equally...



I also reused the connector from the old fan setup, allowing quick removal if necessary...



I was able to install the radiator with the fans mounted to the radiator. Here is the clearance with the fans installed...





Next up the lower radiator hose. The stock lower hose fits the radiator, but the water pump end is slightly larger on the 5.0. So I decided to stretch the hose to fit the water pump. Here I'm stretching/molding the hose to fit it by using an exhaust pipe expander, I opened it up, then sat it in the sun for a couple hours. Didn't really get hot enough, so I used my heat gun and put some heat to it. I'm letting it sit overnight so it will hold the new size. My original plan was to cut it short, and use a reducer to connect the pipe to the water pump. Decided to use this method. The hose is in great shape, looked fairly new, so replacement will be a few years down the road. I may fab up a replacement setup so Dave won't have to mess with this later. Dave, PM me about this...



Next was hooking up the trans kooling lines. The upper connection was too tight and contacting the power steering pump bracket, so I installed a 90* fitting at the radiator to get more clearance, the lower fit without issues...



The trans end, however, was different. The line had a couple kinks in it that I didn't initially see when I got them from the junkyard, so I cut out the bad spot, which was near the end of the line at the trans, and flared and installed a union to join the line back together. This ensures a trouble free repair that can withstand the line pressure...





Flaring one of the lines...



Replacement piece installed...



Moving onto the upper radiator hose. Using the stock explorer upper, I trimmed off pieces off both ends...



Then installed the hose...



Almost. I also had to take a piece out the middle. I'll get a coupling to join the two halves back together. The loom thats installed protects the hose from rubbing the air intake tube, and since it's no longer in the same spot, it'll be used to cover the coupling, for cosmetic appearance...



And here is the engine bay as it sits. Only thing thats left is the overdrive switch, the driveshaft needs to be shortened and installed, the lower radiator hose installed, and the AC line installed. Once I install the correct oil filters and fill all the fluids, this will be ready for a first start...

SVT
 
#16 ·
Updates. So first thing the lower radiator hose trick worked, here it is installed...



Unfortunately, my phone died, so no more pics today. Ended up having to run to town to get the rest of the parts. Got the oil filters (trip to 2 stores, one store only had one, but had 11 showing in inventory), got the upper radiator hose coupling, and got the AC line picked up. Got back to the house, installed the AC line, upper radiator hose and both oil filters installed, in the dark. Only thing left is the driveshaft, the overdrive switch, which i started to do when i left for town, and one thing i overlooked, the trans shifter linkage. I've got a plan for that, it should only take about 20 minutes or so. Startup tomorrow! I wrote a tune for this thing between last night and this morning, going to finish that up and test tomorrow...

SVT
 
#17 ·
What a rough day. Spent way too long on the driveshaft, but got it done. Got the shift linkage worked out, used a combinationvof the original linkage, worked out good. Looked everything over, filled the engine, trans and power steering fluids. Hooked up power, went to start, nothing. Everything had power, just wouldn't crank. Did some tracing, come to find out I had the wrong NSS wire in the explorer harness, took me a while to find it though. Then had some showers Intermittently. Got it all back together, turned the key, and it cranks. Took a couple a minute, but she finally fired up. I dont think its liking the dual fuel pump setup, that or the check valve isn't working. So i filled the radiator with water, and discovered a leak. Its the thermostat housing. Pulled it off, found old gasket material. Cleaned it off, put it back on, filled it up, and again, leaking at the thermostat housing. Noticed a crack, not sure if it was there and caused the 1st leakvor jot. Pulled it off, installed a good housing i had, also drilled a 1/8" hole in the top of the thermostat to help with air pockets from forming, got everything back together, topped off the rad, and everything's good. So i drained the rad and filled with coolant. Took a little over 2 gallons. Took it for a drive, drove smooth, shifts good and firm, doesn't slip. Got back to the house, looked everything over, then loaded it up. Took all day to get to this point, and i was supposed to be on the road by noon. I'll be leaving at 4am and plan to be at Dave's by noon.
Found out my phone dont like cold weather, it froze, literally, can't turn it on, so unfortunately no pics or vids of it running...

SVT
 
#18 ·
What a rough day. Spent way too long on the driveshaft, but got it done. Got the shift linkage worked out, used a combinationvof the original linkage, worked out good. Looked everything over, filled the engine, trans and power steering fluids. Hooked up power, went to start, nothing. Everything had power, just wouldn't crank. Did some tracing, come to find out I had the wrong NSS wire in the explorer harness, took me a while to find it though. Then had some showers Intermittently. Got it all back together, turned the key, and it cranks. Took a couple a minute, but she finally fired up. I dont think its liking the dual fuel pump setup, that or the check valve isn't working. So i filled the radiator with water, and discovered a leak. Its the thermostat housing. Pulled it off, found old gasket material. Cleaned it off, put it back on, filled it up, and again, leaking at the thermostat housing. Noticed a crack, not sure if it was there and caused the 1st leakvor jot. Pulled it off, installed a good housing i had, also drilled a 1/8" hole in the top of the thermostat to help with air pockets from forming, got everything back together, topped off the rad, and everything's good. So i drained the rad and filled with coolant. Took a little over 2 gallons. Took it for a drive, drove smooth, shifts good and firm, doesn't slip. Got back to the house, looked everything over, then loaded it up. Took all day to get to this point, and i was supposed to be on the road by noon. I'll be leaving at 4am and plan to be at Dave's by noon.
Found out my phone dont like cold weather, it froze, literally, can't turn it on, so unfortunately no pics or vids of it running...

SVT
 
#19 ·
So I've been up for 22 hours yesterday, 15 of which was behind the wheel. The truck is now back in Dave's hands. I barely got parked next to the house, and both Dave and Isaac, Dave's son, were standing out on the front door step grinning from ear to ear. I swear they were like two 8 year old kids on Christmas Day! I think they're still smiling this morning. Went over the truck with both of them, couple minor issues turned up that arose while in transit (noticed the oil pan gasket started seeping, OBD2 port's power is ignition instead of constant power), but Dave said those weren't a problem, he'd take care of them. Overall, another project complete. I think i jinxed myself though, as there just might be another project i might be doing for Dave, but thats another story. Got a pic from the gf's phone of the B2 on the trailer at Dave's house, I'll try to get it posted today, still jet lagged from the trip...

SVT
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top