Tonto's Build Thread

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Update! And an exciting one it is!

After we got the TC in properly and out the transmission back up in this monster I started wiring ignition in hopes that it would fire up! I couldn't get any spark. Being new to wiring the duraspark (which is very straight forward and can make you feel rather stupid) I was second guessing everything I had done. I'm running a toggle for the coil and a push button for the starter. Pretty simple set up. After about an hour of tracing wires I had ran and reading threads and looking over diagrams, I got a wild hair and bought a new ICM. What do ya know!?!? SPARK! Hooked it all up and she cracked off as soon as her float bowls filled! Sounds much better than the old 2.9.... I'm ecstatic to say the least!

Need to order my shift linkage for the transmission, wire the choke up on the carb, run some exhaust and add some fluids! First fire only ran sit for about 10 seconds before a belt met the upper fuel line so still a little bit of double checking to do.

I'll keep you posted!

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I forgot to mention my new fancy heater box! A good friend of mine works as a plumber/HVAC and snagged the old box from me last week and showed up with this thing yesterday!

It only comes off the firewall 7/8" of an inch and works great. Looks pretty cool too. Made it out of scrap metal (like most of what this thing is built with ;-)

Pull a part wanted $60 for a small heater box (mine had A/C and was way too big) and I couldn't find a donor on CL. The better half is very cold blooded and won't enjoy herself without heat so this just made her day!

Think he could sell this as a kit? You tell me!



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So did you just cover the ac hole with sheetmetal?

Boat Drain Plug Worked Excellent.

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Well, a buddy of mine decided it was time we tackled the exhaust so that's what I did over the holiday weekend. The passenger downpipe was used from a late 90's Subaru outback and had the perfect clearance for the frame after a few modifications with the old BFH. The rest of the exhaust was built just using stuff off the shelf from the parts store. Here's some pics!

Ended up running a single 2.5" pipe all the way back because that 208 didn't leave ANY room on drivers side for dual exhaust. It sounds healthy!

Looks good! Glad you made it work! What did you do about the passenger side header? I remember it hit the firewall, did you use something else or did you cut it up?

Heh.... Yeah.... Cut down the collector about 1.5" and pounded the body in about. 5" and it cleared alright. It was a very tight fit but this whole rig is about budget building and a budget it has been! Roughly 3K into the whole thing including purchase price! Just took it for a jaunt up and down the road and it is definitely not going to be a good daily driver! That 351 though.... Pulls the left front corner up and has torque for days compared to the 2.9!!! Really digging the C6 as well since I've only owned 1 auto ever! Pretty stoked.

BronKitis said:

Heh.... Yeah.... Cut down the collector about 1.5" and pounded the body in about. 5" and it cleared alright. It was a very tight fit but this whole rig is about budget building and a budget it has been! Roughly 3K into the whole thing including purchase price! Just took it for a jaunt up and down the road and it is definitely not going to be a good daily driver! That 351 though.... Pulls the left front corner up and has torque for days compared to the 2.9!!! Really digging the C6 as well since I've only owned 1 auto ever! Pretty stoked.

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You pounded in the body 5"?!?!?! Do you have pics of that? Nothing wrong with budget!

How come it won't be a good daily driver? Glad to see you got it running! Your giving me motivation!

That was meant to be .5"!!! Like half an inch. My arm would have definitely fallen off after 3 lol.

Man, it's just got some bugs. Tends to wander a bit, the cab is super loud loud now and it's got body roll like a mother! Just a little sketchy to drive St higher speeds, ya know? Maybe I'll learn to love it.

Well, had a little time on my hands today and decided I needed a step for the trail to get under the hood of this beast and thought it'd be cool of it could double as a rack so I built this outta some scrap steel laying around (this whole rig is built out of scrap metal!) I saw one of these fancy racks at the swap meet last year and couldn't justify a $175 price tag. It's not fancy, but it works. Now I just need to cross my fingers the factory tire carrier does what I'm asking of it!

I love these steps,nice way yo incorperate that into a load carrier!

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Well, took it out for the first trip and truly got to put everything to the test! Since the 2.9 gave out after about 2 hours on the first trip since the axle swap, it was really a first for everything and I was very impressed with how well it worked as a whole! The suspension and ride quality was very comfy and really flexed more than I had anticipated. The shocks ended up being a good length, the high steer worked awesome and best of all no funny noises or anything!

I did have a few issues though; mainly with heat. Explorer Radiator in with a 2300 CFM pusher fan and heat cranked all the way it was hard to keep it from running at 210 which I did not like. Come to find out, the thermostat was stuck! But before I could fix that back at camp, my main pulley bolts came loose! One so loose that it actually came out, hit the radiator and caused a rupture and a lot of steam!

Thankfully it was Saturday night and we'd had 2 full days of wheeling already in before something went terribly wrong. If that bolt hadn't had came out and nicked the rad, I could have lost the whole pulley due to the fact that I can't see the bolts with the radiator in place! Heck, I didn't even know what happened until I pulled the rad and got a good look! So, that happened. All in all a really fun trip. Here are some pictures. Wished I had gotten more but wheel time is better than camera time!















That's myself and the better half!



Water got REALLY deep (up to the turn signals) and I forgot to kill the fan so the open air filter got a wee wet and the motor ended up dying. Luckily it ran long enough to get us out of that lake! I ended up grabbing a stock air intake to try and alleviate that issue in the future.



Now, my heating issue..... Back when the 2.9 was still pushing Tonto around, I decided to put some vents on the hood. I had a house vent for bird blocks that I cut in half, cut 2 squares out of the hood and mounted for heat evacuation. When I got home and installed new thermostat and radiator I fired it up and let it idle in the garage for 30 or so minutes with temps staying in the 165 range. I was stoked! Motor has never ran that cool! I though to myself "I'll never over hest again!". Wrong. I looked up and guess what? Damn hood was open... With confidence, I slammed the hood closed and let it continue to idle. Slowly I watched the temp rise... 180.... 190.... 200.... At 203 I shut it down and opened the hood. There was that heat I remember! Top of the core support was scorching when 15 minutes earlier I could have almost kept my beer cold on it. Reach down and touch the center of the radiator-Warm, but not hot.

I came to the conclusion that the large engine in the small bay with those short headers must just be like an oven when everything is closed. It was time to solve this dilemma.

Hood vents! Bigger. Better. Backwards. I was thinking about ditching the house vents for some cool hood scoop things anyway because they were allowing rain water to accumulate on the intake and valve covers and starting to make things not so pretty. So why not? I didn't want a "scoop" because slow speeds of wheeling would probably just move enough air in the engine compartment to keep the heat inside so the scoops would have to be mounted backwards. So to Autozone I went, found some scoops and got out the cutting wheel! Here is what I ended up with.







I would love to give you all the results but I sent my Holley Truck Avenger to holley... Being that it was a -1 (1st Gen) they are sending me a brand new model free of charge! Anyway, what do you all think? I'm pretty please with the turnout even though cutting giant holes in my hood was hard on my soul! I tried to leave the supports in place so the hood kept it's rigidity. Yes, I know they're not identical cuts and yes, I know the passenger side scoop is about 3/8's of an inch forward compared to the drivers side and yes, it will forever haunt me. But all in all I think it's going to work. I turned the fan on and you can feel air moving out of the vents. It was just enough CFM to make a receipt flap barely but these are some pretty big holes so that's a decent amount and should move the heat right out! If not, a 10" fan is getting mounted to the air intake lid and is going to be blowing up towards the hood vents!

I also meant to post a picture of the pulley and radiator! Whoops!

Did I mention too that the 351 coupled to an auto tranny is a freaking dream? Gobs and gobs of torque! No more stinky burning clutch. No more killing it on obstacles. 1200RPM is all I needed for anything all weekend. Literally just putt around without a care in the world! Almost too easy!

Here's those forgotten pictures.



They were all loose. This pulley had to come off when installing the motor and I must not have tightened them or used locktite when I reinstalled. Whoops!



This may not look like much but it sure spewed a lot of coolant in a hurry!

bronco looks awesome nice work