Big Sky Euro

Customary Before pictures:

Bought it summer of 1996. My first vehicle, I’ve held onto for 13 years. It was multi-colored because the original owner rolled it and sold it. Next owner replaced damaged body panels, cracked Dana 30 front end. Put in a Dana 44 with front disc brakes and power steering.



First thing I did was buy some 35” tires for it. It didn’t take long to stuff them in the rear fenders and bust up the fiberglass flares. After that I removed the flares (along with the gallon of bondo used to mold them into the fenders)
Mud Bog pictures:

Sprint Car pushing:


Skip ahead to February of 2001. Painted it primer gray and towed it down to San Diego CA while I was stationed there in the Navy.


After that, I drove it 1200 miles to my next duty station in Everett, WA. It saw some decent wheeling there (when I was in port)


Brothers came out in Fall of 2002 and towed it home.

I've driven it occasionally since I moved back to Bozeman in 2004, but it's spent a lot of time parked. Use it mostly for competitions.


Took this right before I started tearing it down.

The Plan:
I’ve hot-rodded, wheeled, jumped, rolled, and just plain used-and-abused this bronco, and it’s stayed running strong. (hence, 1TUFPNY).

Now it’s time for some TLC!

(results may and will vary)
Image courtesy of RJM Injection Technologies

The goods:

1996 Edie Bauer Bronco 5.0L + wiring harness & ECU (50-60K miles)
This is what started this project. I had a co-worker who had a ’96 Bronco that was rolled. He ended moving out of state and didn’t want to take it with him.

I’ve had this motor for about 2 years, sitting in the corner. Time to put it to work!

2000 Ford Explorer 5.0L – 124K miles (parts motor)
The full-size bronco intake manifold is too tall to fit in an early bronco. So I needed a different intake setup.
I came across this engine, and figured I’d snag it for the GT40P heads too. It would be nice to use the distributor-less ignition system, but I don’t want to mess with getting an ECU and wiring harness.


GT40 tubular upper intake
These are no longer manufactured. Found on Cobra Mustangs and Ford Lightning Trucks. These are hard to find, and expensive when you find one.


High Capacity Fuel Tank with in-tank pump (23 gallons vs. stock 12)


New Fuel Lines with fuel line mounting clamps




EFI Throttle cable (allows the use of the stock throttle linkage)


Vehicle Speed Sensor           New Blank Dash


Pro-Comp Gauges
5" Speedo

2 5/8"


Ron Davis Aluminum Radiator (for 5.0 Conversion)


Wild Horses Fender Flares (extreme install)

Progress:

Bronco 5.0L teardown

Awesome Josh Rep the Blue Oval!

Update on this.

After I got my fenders and grill off, I realized the full extent of the damage I did to the front end when I rolled it on its side (10 years ago!). The driver's side inner fender (5) was pretty well crumpled, and the core support (1)was pushed back about 1/2" on the drivers side. You can see the crumpled outer fender in this picture and some of the damage (and rust) in this picture. I'll get some close up pictures of it all before I pull it off.
I went through and priced out what it would take to get a new steel front end (just inner stuff, no fenders or grille) and I quickly approached $1,000. So that was out of the question (trying to stick to a budget here!)


(image courtesy of LMC Truck)

So I stopped by Mike's Off Road last Friday and talked with Mike (I actually lived down the road from him for several years and bought this bronco from him). He has a few parts broncos sitting around, so he told me to come out and get what I needed. I took about 3 hours on Saturday pulling the front end off a '66. It's actually spot welded to the firewall in 4 different places, so I took a sawzall and cut it off. I'll just butt-weld to install it, to make it a little easier. After I got it out I asked him what he wanted for it, and he told me I could have it since I took the time to pull it out. He said he just doesn't have time to pull stuff like that, so it's not worth much to him. SCORE!! (I'll get some pictures of the new front end up too.)

I'm going to POR-15 the new front end to keep it from rusting in the future.

I have all my gauges (except my oil pressure which I have to exchange because I ordered the wrong one) so I started trying to figure out what kind of layout I want to do with my new dash.

Here's a couple pictures of the first layout that I'm thinking of. (the speedo's right edge is right on the dash's centerline.)


I have everything disconnected from the current motor, except the transmission, so next step will be to take off the old front end and pull the old motor.

Alright, I have the old front end pulled off. I also removed the old engine bay wiring harness.


You can see I also pulled out the windshield (practically busted it out).

Here's a few reasons why I decided to replace the front end :
(Driver's Side)



(Passenger side)


I'm scared to see what it is going to look like when I fold my windshield down to replace the dash .

This engine build is quickly turning into a bigger build. It's looking like I might even pull the body off to make the fuel line and fuel tank install easier. And since I'm going to have it off, I might as well paint the frame and drive train!

I think I have a good idea how I'm going to do the dash (thanks for the good idea Joe!). I'll post some pictures when I get it all laid out in CAD.

looks great! would like to do a crawler one day.

This last weekend I started tearing down the explorer motor.

Went from this:                 To this:


The lower intake is going to be completely dissassembled and cleaned up. I plan on getting both the lower intake and upper GT40 intake PCd.



Heads will be coming off next to get cleaned up and inspected.



I think this next weekend I'm going to do some work around the shop. Get things cleaned up and organized a little better. Maybe do a little painting (mainly the ceiling).

DynoJetta wrote:I think this next weekend I'm going to do some work around the shop. Get things cleaned up and organized a little better. Maybe do a little painting (mainly the ceiling).

Call me if you need help my man! I'll be back Saturday morning!