’86 BRONCO II Build

[JTothII]

’86 BRONCO II

After trying to save up the money to embark on my quest to rebuild my Bronco II it has occurred to me that it just aint gonna happen. The financial requirements of the wife, the kids and life in general have forced me to put this project on the back burner for 14 years. There is however a silver lining in this dark cloud, I’ve had a long time to develop a plan and revamp it (several times) due to the development of new products and reading other builds by the great folks on this forum. I’ve also been fortunate enough to acquire some of the hard parts necessary to complete this build thanks to wearing out my ’94 explorer. Even though it has 200,000+ miles on it the motor ran like a top and the drive train worked flawlessly including the A4LD transmission. I know what you purists are thinking (junk that automatic). No thanks, this will be my DD and I get tired of shifting. I’m also fortunate to have the 8.8 limited slip out of my 97 explorer that my teen age daughter killed while saving the life of a poor little deer.

Thank God for seat belts and yes there was a passenger. Both girls walked away with minor cuts and bruises. All joking aside the picture is a testament to the safety of these vehicles. I also tend to keep my vehicles for a long time unless something drastic happens (read as wrecked beyond fixable ie: 97 explorer) so the goal here is to build a reliable vehicle that will perform in all weather and road conditions and be able to get me up and down the beach on the annual retreat to the Outer Banks or tow the pop up somewhere for some much needed R&R, along with other mild off roading adventures.

All that being said here we go……
The truck…..1996 Bronco II XL

The donor….1994 Explorer

THE PLAN:

Body off, frame prep and paint.
Prep and paint engine compartment
Complete engine compartment component swap
wire harness swap
New brake lines
New fuel lines engineered for the 4.0 conversion

Suspension:
James Duffs 5.5 inch lift
Rear traction bars
Dual rear shock kit

Axels:
Dana 35 front
8.8 limited slip rear

Still undecided on which gear set will be best for my specific use

4.0 liter swap:
Complete rebuild using Sven Pruett’s book as a guide
New “95tm” heads ported, polished and modified for new springs and valve stem seals
Valves
Compcam 988 springs
Seals
New OEM rocker arms
Pushrods
Compcams 410 cam
Headers
Low restriction exhaust

Hopeful results: bumping the compression and making the motor breath better. I will also be using an electric fan and chip. Goal here is to get as close to 200 hp as I can and keep the reliability.


Transmission:
I’ll be rebuilding the transmission using a very informative build thread from another forum as a guide. This along with cooler should result in a very durable transmission even for an A4ld.

The above mention modifications should net me a mechanically sound platform. I will then tackle both interior and exterior as time and money allow.

 

[94xlt4.0]

good to hear that nobody was seriously hurt in the crash, take lots of pics as you go. it sounds like this is gonna be a good one to watch. good luck

 

[clvanhorn]

same here, can't wait to see another good build on here!

 

[4.0B2]

nice i like your plans..

btw-- i'm using an a4ld that came in my donor ex in my bronco. its never let me down.. even when my cooler was stopped up and i over heated it in the mud.. it still works perfect. i'm ashamed i did it, but the trans never stopped working!

for gears... if you're doing 33's. i say 4.56's. that's what i'm doing.. some will say 4.10's will work great. but theres a thread around here(maybe in my build thread...) where me and legoms are talking about it, and decided that in my cause 4.56's are the way to go. the 4.0 likes some RPMs.. and honestly 4.56's are cheaper to buy new than 4.10's.... and used 4.10's for a d35 are a PAIN to find.. trust me. been there....


i love the idea of a fully reliable DD 4.0 bronco 2... w/ off road duty also. reminds me of my purpose of building mine! lol. there's lots of b2 talk in my 70 pages of build thread... and a lot of BS'ing to... that's how we roll! any questions you have for me, just ask.. i'll help anyway i can. i don't remember to much of my 4.0 swap b/c i was only 16 at the time. but yeah. GET THIS BUILD GOING!!! with LOTS of pics

 

[trail B2]

I had terrible luck with the A4LD and will never trust one again.If other people have good luck with them more power to them. I bring this up to say I really like the way they 4 wheel crawling slow.

 

[JTothII]

I am using photobucket for my pictures can anyone tell me how to get them to show.....not just the link?....do I have to re-size them?

 

[JTothII]

Here are some more pics of the deconstruction.

4.0 out:

Engine bay gutted:

Block:

200,000 miles and still has the cross hatching....not bad.

A4LD:

soon to be torn apart

Pile of STUFF:

all to be cleaned for transplant to new home

 

[adsm08]

I am using photobucket for my pictures can anyone tell me how to get them to show.....not just the link?....do I have to re-size them?

I think you are grabbing the wrong link. You need the embed code, the one with the

tags, should be the last option if you just scroll over them on photobucket.

 

[adsm08]

Here are some more pics of the deconstruction.

4.0 out:

Engine bay gutted:

Block:

200,000 miles and still has the cross hatching....not bad.

A4LD:

soon to be torn apart

Pile of STUFF:

all to be cleaned for transplant to new home

Like so.

 

[JTothII]

Thanks adsm08....1 hurdle jumped over all ready

 

[adsm08]

Now to fix the Ford.

 

[2813josh]

Sounds like you got a good build plan, wanna see more. Good luck with it!

 

[Bennybooster]

I would swap in a c-4

 

[JTothII]

Update: been hard at work tearing down the explorer. have everything out now. going to use the explorer dash so I have the engine, headlight and fuel pump harnesses. working on stripping the bronco II down to nothing. motor ready for rebuild and paint trans is next.