Bronco 2 project for my son

[North Idaho 5.oh]

Found this 1989 bronco 2 right down the street from my house. Drove past it every day for 2 years or so and finally asked the guy if he would sell it. Has been sitting for a couple years and needs some love.
Not in bad shape at all, doors have a little more rust than I would like. Going to replace the doors for sure. Has the boat anchor 2.9 liter and an even worse A4LD. Got big plans for it since it’s a father son project.
Getting a late model (2000 ranger) 4.0, late model (2006 ranger) 5 speed, 1354 manual shift transfer case, D35 front with the dual piston brake set up, 8.8 with disc brakes in the back, and in due time I’ll be doing a small lift and tires.
Got it for a song and dance !

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Looks like mine!

 

[North Idaho 5.oh]

Hell ya man she looks good!

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Its been sitting for the last 3 years. Hopefully tomorrow I'm picking up another diesel for it that is a runner. Need to get the thing done. Are you going to put a SOHC 4.0 in it? Thats going to be quite the project.

 

[North Idaho 5.oh]

God no, I’m going with the push rod 4.0… the last year of that engine was 2000.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Woo hoo...BUILD THREAD time! Keep us posted, I'm interested for obvious reasons myself...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

The 2.9 and A4LD get a lot of hate, and I know I rag on them a bit, but if you keep both of them cool and do a shift kit with some valve body mods plus adjust the bands to the transmission, they really are not terrible.

That said, a 4.0 OHV is kinda nice especially with a manual.

Early 4.0 motors had no EGR, ran the lower fuel pressure and were the easiest to swap. The later ones have EGR, higher fuel pressure (no return) and would require a lot of work to swap. I used I think it was a 91 Ranger for the donor harness for my choptop. It’s been on a few 4.0 motors now since I can’t seem to keep a junkyard motor in the choptop for some reason. My 92 Ranger blew up the 4.0 a couple years back and all I had was a 2000 motor. Had to swap the exhaust manifolds, upper intake, fuel rail and injectors to make it work. Might have had to do something with the accessory drive too, for some reason I think I had to change to a different belt or routing or something but I was able to make it work.

The wiring harness from a 2000 would require a lot of work to make work because the computer is in the cowl on those instead of the passenger kick panel in the cab of the 89. Plus the 2000 harness will have the big square plug over top the motor which doesn’t match anything on the 89.

Fuel system is different too, the 89 uses a return line and lower pressure while the 2000 uses a returnless system with high pressure. It would be a revamp of the entire fuel system including the pump, which they don’t make a pump/sender assembly for the B2 fuel tank that does the higher pressure. Of course, you have to do something with fuel lines anyway because the fittings on even the older 4.0 (90-97) fuel rails that run the lower pressure with a return are different fittings than on the 2.9 rail, so you’ll have to at minimum build adapters or new lines.

 

[Awesom-O]

Nice project and build ideas. I’ll be watching closely as I would love to to all those drivetrain upgrades to my 87 Ranger.
In the meanwhile I bought this B2 on the weekend. Has t been run in a while and the fuel is bad. Will need to drain the tank and start from there. Low mileage though with 134K Kms, AC and power windows and locks. Interior is clean and in great shape. Daily it for a while and see how she goes.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Woo hoo @Awesom-O, looks like we got another build thread coming...FYI replacing my entire fuel system was both necessary and a complete joy...! @Uncle Gump posted some great information about that, me...not so much!

 

[scotts90ranger]

The '06 manual you have lined up from the sounds of it won't have the shift linkage bosses for the manual transfer case in the tail housing, just so you know... tail housing is an easy swap though.

 

[North Idaho 5.oh]

The '06 manual you have lined up from the sounds of it won't have the shift linkage bosses for the manual transfer case in the tail housing, just so you know... tail housing is an easy swap though.

Yeah I thought about that too but luckily I do have a few of the housings with the bosses in them so it won’t be a horrible swap at all

 

[North Idaho 5.oh]

Update on the B2…. I was told when I bought it that the engine was done for. I put some fresh gas in it and poured some marvel mystery oil down the spark plug holes, barred it over a few dozen times and VOILA the damn thing fired right up! My son was smiling from ear to ear! He is going to be driving it up and down our 2 mile dirt road till we get everything ready to swap. Gives him time to get the feel for it.

 

[North Idaho 5.oh]

The 2.9 and A4LD get a lot of hate, and I know I rag on them a bit, but if you keep both of them cool and do a shift kit with some valve body mods plus adjust the bands to the transmission, they really are not terrible.

That said, a 4.0 OHV is kinda nice especially with a manual.

Early 4.0 motors had no EGR, ran the lower fuel pressure and were the easiest to swap. The later ones have EGR, higher fuel pressure (no return) and would require a lot of work to swap. I used I think it was a 91 Ranger for the donor harness for my choptop. It’s been on a few 4.0 motors now since I can’t seem to keep a junkyard motor in the choptop for some reason. My 92 Ranger blew up the 4.0 a couple years back and all I had was a 2000 motor. Had to swap the exhaust manifolds, upper intake, fuel rail and injectors to make it work. Might have had to do something with the accessory drive too, for some reason I think I had to change to a different belt or routing or something but I was able to make it work.

The wiring harness from a 2000 would require a lot of work to make work because the computer is in the cowl on those instead of the passenger kick panel in the cab of the 89. Plus the 2000 harness will have the big square plug over top the motor which doesn’t match anything on the 89.

Fuel system is different too, the 89 uses a return line and lower pressure while the 2000 uses a returnless system with high pressure. It would be a revamp of the entire fuel system including the pump, which they don’t make a pump/sender assembly for the B2 fuel tank that does the higher pressure. Of course, you have to do something with fuel lines anyway because the fittings on even the older 4.0 (90-97) fuel rails that run the lower pressure with a return are different fittings than on the 2.9 rail, so you’ll have to at minimum build adapters or new lines.

The swap isn’t too horrible and I have done it. I swapped my old 1990 ranger ex cab that used to have the 2.9 and put the 4.0 in…. Wasn’t bad as bad as one would think.
I basically just stripped it all the way down to block and heads (did the head gaskets too) and dressed it as it was a 1991 ranger since I happened to have all the parts conveniently in my personal junk yard. My step dad which is a moderator over at the serious explorations forum has a 302 under the hood of his 87 bronco 2 so I’ll have plenty of help with the fuel system

 

[North Idaho 5.oh]

Ve

Nice project and build ideas. I’ll be watching closely as I would love to to all those drivetrain upgrades to my 87 Ranger.
In the meanwhile I bought this B2 on the weekend. Has t been run in a while and the fuel is bad. Will need to drain the tank and start from there. Low mileage though with 134K Kms, AC and power windows and locks. Interior is clean and in great shape. Daily it for a while and see how she goes.

Very nice bronco! They are getting kind of hard to find these days. Got mine running today with minimal effort !

 

[DandysRanger]

Very cool. I did a CJ5 project with my 16 yr. old son. The B2 won't be the most expensive car in the HS parking lot but will be the coolest because he worked on it himself.