Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Significant Progress!

Well, I added a water pump, thermostat, carburetor, distributer, sparkplugs, and sparkplug wires onto the engine.  


A fully refurbished frame! And let me tell you, this thing is big. Measuring 13 feet long by 4 feet wide, this is nothing for the faint of heart.  


 A brand new Ford 9inch rear end and a Dana 44 for the front will do just fine.  4.56 gears and brand new disk brakes help, too!

Rear leaf springs.  This Bronco will have 5.5in lift, as well as dual shocks in the front and rear.  Despite required custom drilling of the frame, these dual shocks and the extended long arm kit will definitely pay off!
              This is the bell housing with a 4 speed transmission and Dana 20 Transfer Case.
 Next, I stripped the whole engine down to the bare block.  Fortunately, I found a machine shop in a nearby town that specialized in custom engine builds.  We met with the man who ran the place, and we worked out a deal. I would go to his machine shop every saturday morning for a few hours and act as his apprentice.  He taught me how to build this engine, told me tips and tricks, recommendations on oil, etc.   Now, the real fun began.


                                         The machined and cleaned block.  Looks much better, doesn't it?
Here, I am lubing one of the pistons.  A 347 stroker kit was added to this baby. 

Pistons, Crank and Camshaft all installed.


                                         Edelbrock aluminum cylinder heads were also added.
                                               Those blue Scorpion rockers look good!
       Oil Pan, Edelbrock Intake Manifold, timing cover, and new "Bronco" Valve Covers all installed!
The Engine - A 1972 302...

From the beginning, this engine didn't look too good.  Covered in rust, parts broken, and just wait until the cylinder heads were off....
              That's right.  Rusted and filled with fluid.  This first part of this journey didn't start well.

Hello There

Hello, I am Doc.  This is my journey through the depths of building an early Ford Bronco.  My progress will be monitored through continuous updates on this blog.  First of all - the Idea.  The idea for building a car, specifically a  Bronco, came from my father.  I have been a car-nut forever and would like to be in the car industry at some point in the future. My father has also always loved cars, and has always wanted to build one.  Therefore, for Christmas in 2010, I was given a Ford 302 from a 1972 Torino to start my journey in car-building.  Now, this engine was in rough shape, and it this whole idea didn't start out exactly as we thought...