84 Bronco II Durapsark Conversion Help

[franklin2]

Odd question, what is the difference between a Bosch distributor/rotor and not?

I ran into this when searching for a distributor for my 2.8 conversion. Apparently the old Mustang II's and pinto with the v6 had either a Ford built distributor or a Bosch built distributor. If you have a Ford dist of course you need the Ford cap and rotor. When I ordered my 2.8 distributor, I was not sure exactly what I was going to get, so I had to wait till I got it before I could figure out what cap and rotor I needed. When it came in it had Motorcraft numbers all over it, so I ordered The Ford adapter and the thin dist top and rotor so they all matched. I think the bosch had a one piece tall cap.

And I found the original TFI distributor was totally different, none of the rotor or cap parts would fit the 1979 distributor I bought.

Someone mentioned it in a previous post, I wonder if the original thread starter may have mixed and matched the wrong cap/rotor/distributor parts. These older 2.8 parts from the 70's are getting harder to buy. Every store I went to had to order this stuff and it was several days getting it.

 

[JC1968]

It is a different type of ignition. Biggest visual difference is the distributor cap.

Bosch looks like the one in the picture.

Thanks for the reply. Reason I ask is because I bought the distributor/rotor/cap combination from RockAuto for the 79 mustang. It has the cap like the one illustrated in your post. I tried to look for a difference between the distributor I bought and the other ones (listed in the actual duraspark II conversion how to) and couldn't find much. Thinking about what RobbieD had mentioned earlier, I went out and bought the rotor listed in the how to as well. It sits taller than the one that came in the combo. BAM!! I have ignition and I have start. I guess all I needed was a closer gap or touch between the distributor cap and rotor. Runs a bit choppy but hopefully when I set the timing it will be running better. Thanks for the help.

 

[ford4wd08]

Thanks for the reply. Reason I ask is because I bought the distributor/rotor/cap combination from RockAuto for the 79 mustang. It has the cap like the one illustrated in your post. I tried to look for a difference between the distributor I bought and the other ones (listed in the actual duraspark II conversion how to) and couldn't find much. Thinking about what RobbieD had mentioned earlier, I went out and bought the rotor listed in the how to as well. It sits taller than the one that came in the combo. BAM!! I have ignition and I have start. I guess all I needed was a closer gap or touch between the distributor cap and rotor. Runs a bit choppy but hopefully when I set the timing it will be running better. Thanks for the help.

No worries. I'm going to try and take pictures and post up my swap this weekend.

I can't find much on the '85 swap. I would like to add as much info to this site if I can.

 

[JC1968]

SHE RUNS AGAIN!!!!
I swapped out rotors and it got the job done. Timing needs to be adjusted but I ran out of daylight and don't have much of a bright spotlight to do it. Thank goodness the weekend is coming, hopefully I can get it done then.
I noticed that it is running a bit hot and heard a little sizzling when I finally turned it off. My thought is it's the oil/whatever else build up on the exhaust manifold. I'm pretty positive that my valve seals are crap so I plan on replacing those soon. Just wanted to get the thing running again before I did. Anyways, like I mentioned, it's seems to be heating up very quickly. Any ideas as to what should be inspected first would very helpful. Thanks!

franklin2, I got all of my parts off of RockAuto for the 79 mustang and they came in within a few days. Due to me ordering the wrong distributor (Bosch) I went out and bought the one listed in the how to from Orielly's and it was in in a couple of days. I plan on returning it unless someone tells me I should use that instead of the one I used. I took off the cap/rotor and replaced it with an adaptor, dis. cap and new rotor. Actually starts now.

 

[RobbieD]

Glad to hear that you got her running again. And thanks for posting what issue was- that helps others out down the road in searching the site when having similar problems.

Get your timing set, get it running as good as you can, and then see if it still seems to be running hot.

Good idea on the valve seals, and they're not that hard to replace. New valve seals and valve cover gaskets GREATLY cut down on how often I had to add oil to keep mine topped off.

 

[franklin2]

SHE RUNS AGAIN!!!!
I swapped out rotors and it got the job done. Timing needs to be adjusted but I ran out of daylight and don't have much of a bright spotlight to do it. Thank goodness the weekend is coming, hopefully I can get it done then.
I noticed that it is running a bit hot and heard a little sizzling when I finally turned it off. My thought is it's the oil/whatever else build up on the exhaust manifold. I'm pretty positive that my valve seals are crap so I plan on replacing those soon. Just wanted to get the thing running again before I did. Anyways, like I mentioned, it's seems to be heating up very quickly. Any ideas as to what should be inspected first would very helpful. Thanks!

franklin2, I got all of my parts off of RockAuto for the 79 mustang and they came in within a few days. Due to me ordering the wrong distributor (Bosch) I went out and bought the one listed in the how to from Orielly's and it was in in a couple of days. I plan on returning it unless someone tells me I should use that instead of the one I used. I took off the cap/rotor and replaced it with an adaptor, dis. cap and new rotor. Actually starts now.

Where did you buy your wrong distributor? I looked on rockauto and they do not have any, you have to send yours in to get rebuilt.

On the running hot thing, the 2.8 is a strange engine to me. I had to replace the waterpump and never messed with an engine with such a weird looking waterpump and with the thermostat in the lower hose and in the water pump at the same time. I did what I normally do when I fill an engine after draining it and when I got it going it overheated badly. My normal procedure it to leave a heater core hose off, and fill it till it runs out of there and then put that back on and fill it to the top and go. Not this engine.

I finally found the factory procedure, you are supposed to take the large upper radiator hose off the engine, and pour coolant directly down into the engine from there. Then put that back on and fill it the rest of the way. I thought I had ruined my engine but it survived and runs well,, though it doesn't have near the power the 2.9 has.

That is why I was asking about your distributor. I am looking for another duraspark 2.8 distributor, I haven't found anyone who has done it, but I want to try and retro fit one into the 2.9 I still have. If I could get the distributor in place, and then fabricate a intake manifold, I bet that little 2.9 would really run. The way it acted before when I had it on the road, I bet it would even take a 600cfm holley with no problem. But I could try the 2150 2bbl also. That engine ran well and didn't use a drop of oil.

 

[JC1968]

Looking at RockAuto again, I still see it there.
Ford->1979->Mustang->2.8l 171cid V6->Ignition-distributor.
It lists three: the combo I bought and two versions of the cardone one (one to buy outright and one you send in for rebuild). Try Oriellys, I bought the cardone 302691online for 75 bucks and it showed up at my local store in a couple of days. I just looked it up for the same vehicle and engine as in the rockauto site.
The heating issue, I need to get my timing right then I'll be doing some adjustments to carb. I might be running lean which could be a reason it's running hot. If it doesn't fix it I'll be looking in doing some cooling system work. Thanks for the procedure. Also saw a thread here for checking if I have a blown head gasket. Hopefully it's not that!!!
Good luck on the experiment. I hope it works out!!

 

[franklin2]

One more thing I forgot to mention; I hope you are no going by the factory temp gauge to determine it's running hot. When I first got mine going, I noticed the factory temp gauge needle rode at the top 3/4 of the scale. So it looked like it was running hot, but I knew better, because I had put a electric fan on it, and the sensor on it was set already from the other truck I had, and the electric fan was not running, even though the gauge read at the top. I also just kept driving it, it never boiled over or showed signs of overheating.

Later I did some research, and it showed the other truck I had where the factory gauge always read ok, had the same part number for the temp sensor that screwed into the engine. So I took that sensor out and swapped it in the 2.8. The gauge still reads at the upper 3/4 of the scale. It seems to be the nature of the beast on these older 2.8 equipped Broncos.

 

[JC1968]

Doing the timing adjustment and all of a sudden the radiator started blowing out antifreeze. Guess I have a blockage somewhere in the cooling system.

 

[franklin2]

Doing the timing adjustment and all of a sudden the radiator started blowing out antifreeze. Guess I have a blockage somewhere in the cooling system.

Have you had the coolant system open and drained the coolant for some reason? If you did, and did not prefill the engine through the upper radiator hose/water neck, you could have a large air pocket in the engine. Mine puked all over the place till I got it figured out and pre-filled the engine through that upper opening.

 

[JC1968]

Have you had the coolant system open and drained the coolant for some reason? If you did, and did not prefill the engine through the upper radiator hose/water neck, you could have a large air pocket in the engine. Mine puked all over the place till I got it figured out and pre-filled the engine through that upper opening.

I had drained the cooling system a while back and used it a little here and there without any issue. I didn't do it the way you listed but since nothing like this happened before I figure it's something else. I'm going to replace a few cooling system parts and hope for the best. I'll follow that procedure you posted earlier.
Another question, am I correct in thinking that since I have oil pressure (seen on the guage) oil is flowing? A guy from work told me that there had to be extra care removing the distributor so that the oil pump shaft doesn't fall through.

 

[franklin2]

If the gauge reads you are ok. I have never had a problem with these engines, but I have on 302's. The pump shaft on those has a little retainer that keeps it in the pump. But the pump shaft will get stuck inside the end of the dist so bad sometimes, that when you pull the dist it slides the retainer off the shaft and the whole shaft comes out. You carefully get the shaft back in the pump, but the next guy that comes along and pulls the dist, it might pull the pump shaft up a little bit and then falls inside the engine. I don't know if that scenario happens on these engines or not.

 

[JC1968]

That sounds like the scenario he was describing. I don't think I have that issue, just wanted to be sure. I'm going to replace some things in the cooling system then do a full flush. The truck runs now and pretty good I might add. So once I get the cooling system done I'm sure I'll have a pretty good running vehicle.

 

[JC1968]

Found this when removing my thermostat. Any ideas?

 

[franklin2]

Some sort of stopleak that was put in the engine years before? Hard water deposits are usually white, not yellow.