WhiteBroncoII2WD
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2007
- Messages
- 331
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Delaware
- Vehicle Year
- 1989
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 2.9
- Transmission
- Automatic
I don't want to get into too much detail just yet for fear of seeming boring, but I would like to share a few items my wife and I did when we rebuilt our Bronco II's engine while focusing on the future of available energy. In my mind there are two fuel sources that will be utilized in the future, synthetic oil (petroleum developed through biological processes) and bio-butanol. Unfortunately, it seems as though American (our government representatives in particular) have a love for E85 and ethanol is far inferior to butanol as an alcohol fuel replacement or additive to gasoline.
Having this mindset I wanted to rebuild our engine in such a way that it could use the “worst” alternative to gasoline, E85. Ford did do something right with the 2.9 liter and many of their engines, they tin plated the pistons and so when we got replacement pistons I made sure that they were tin plated. Tin is a metal that will not react with ethanol contaminated with water. Another item was the aluminum upper and lower intake manifolds. To be honest I don’t think it would have ever been an issue of real concern after doing my research, but I still went ahead and anodized both.
None of these items really added too much to the cost of the rebuild. The most costly part of the process was taking the time and effort to track down manufacturing engineers to determine what parts are ethanol compatible. The Ford Motor Company was very little help. I believe butanol needs to be a topic of discussion along with synthetic gasoline.
Having this mindset I wanted to rebuild our engine in such a way that it could use the “worst” alternative to gasoline, E85. Ford did do something right with the 2.9 liter and many of their engines, they tin plated the pistons and so when we got replacement pistons I made sure that they were tin plated. Tin is a metal that will not react with ethanol contaminated with water. Another item was the aluminum upper and lower intake manifolds. To be honest I don’t think it would have ever been an issue of real concern after doing my research, but I still went ahead and anodized both.
None of these items really added too much to the cost of the rebuild. The most costly part of the process was taking the time and effort to track down manufacturing engineers to determine what parts are ethanol compatible. The Ford Motor Company was very little help. I believe butanol needs to be a topic of discussion along with synthetic gasoline.