two years and counting

[kahuna bill]

and yeah Philo, that main hoop is pretty damn stong for having 5,000 pounds of truck rolling over onto it. I'm just stoked that the windshield didn't come any further forward that what it did. i'm a lucky guy.

[bajascott]

awsome write up and pictorial!! looks great so far good job!

[kahuna bill]

thanks scott. i'm pretty stoked with it, but i just wish stuff would stop breaking so i could "finish" my initial plans. oh well. we break stuff, we fix stuff.

[kahuna bill]

been doing more work on the bronco for the past few months.
fabbed up a new front bumper and skid plate, doing the final touch ups on the updated front end, and started the roll cage.
i know it looks ugly but that's only skin deep.

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new fiberwerx hood and junk yard front end

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B-pillar hoop for the roll cage

[kahuna bill]

i mounted the b-pillar to the frame by sandwhiching the sheet metal of the body between two sheets of 1/4" stock and than welding that to a tube welded to an autofab polyurathane bushing and mounted to the fwd leaf spring bracket.
i'll be replacing the rivits with grade 8 hardware when i'm complete with the cage.

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trying to get these things form fitted was a real P.I.A. they're not perfect but i was able to keep my leg room.

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[kahuna bill]

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I dunno know how john would feel about me welding on his radius arm brackets but they seemed to be the best place for the bracing.

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[kahuna bill]

had to seperate the a and b pillars to get the cage out to weld. i'm not done with the cage, and i'm trying to figure out how i'm going to weld in the rest of the bracing.

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the cage didn't get totaly complete casue i had a college get together at psimo, Sand N' Smash 2010!

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Got a lil air too

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[kahuna bill]

rig does pretty well at the trails too! not everyday you see a go-fast bronco running the trails at big bear.

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[ChaseTruck754]

Looks good. 1 thought though - if you don't have a tube running between the 2 radius arms mounts I'd add one.

[SteveG]

Looks good. 1 thought though - if you don't have a tube running between the 2 radius arms mounts I'd add one.

That's what I was thinking. The C6 models have the transmission cross-member between the pivot brackets which is nice. Even if the cage didn't terminate there it would be a good thing to add as the frame rails will rotate on a big hit.

Looks like you had fun on the dunes!

[kahuna bill]

damn, forgot to add that photo. sorry guys. but thanks for the advice anyhow, and sharp eyes.


this is the cross memeber... had to bend it to fit over/under (depending on perspective) the tranny pan. it's 1/8" to far forward as the shift linkage hits it and won't down shift from Drive. But i think i can get away with just grinding a lil off the shift linkage it self cause it will shift when i put a load on the engine. yay or nae?

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[SteveG]

I'd forgotten that John includes parts to build a cross member with the bushing radius arms.

It's hard to say without seeing it, but I'm guessing it'll still contact when the truck flexes. These things move a ton off-road. Maybe new engine and transmission mounts would raise it a bit? Maybe some new Autofab mounts are in order.

[kahuna bill]

that's a good point... never thought about what would happen if it flexed into contact. might find my self shifting from first into second at the wrong time
I've got new OEM engine mounts. but when i was looking john tried selling me some of his. I thought the price was too high at the time, and i never asked what made them better? sounds like they raise the engine? doesn't that hurt your center of gravity and increase roll?
i'm not fond of roll, had a bad expierence.

[SteveG]

They don't necessarily raise the engine or transmission. I was thinking that maybe your mounts are collapsed and maybe new mounts would raise the transmission back to stock height gaining you a bit of clearance. Even a quarter inch would be a big help. It is a gamble, though.

If you don't want to splurge for the big mounts with brackets and all, you can use the EB-302 direct replacements. That's what I used on my truck.

What about notching the cross member?

[kahuna bill]

yeah, i thought about notching it too. but i'm not sure how much strength i'm going to loose if i do?
i used 1 3/4" x .095 round tube. Im thinking i should just re-do the brace and use a thicker wall tubing and make it DOM then tie it into a skid plate. i've got 6 weeks to figure it out... i should flip flop on the subject about 20 times when i get around to it

[SteveG]

i should flip flop on the subject about 20 times when i get around to it

That's what I usually do.

[kahuna bill]

it's been a while since i've updated pics on the ride... sry. these past couple of days i've been pulling apart and cleaning the intake manifold. had tons of carbon build up from the roll over alomst two years ago. never thought much of it until my idle started to stick closed, and idle rpwould be 1300 at stop lights. anyways, first set of pictures are of nastyness inside the throttle body, upper intake manifold, and lower intake. than the clean up photos.

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[kahuna bill]

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when i took the lower intake manifold off, i found a couple of the bolts were only finger tight. i used locktight when re-assembling
i also checked the inside of the intake runs with a flash light and mirror. they all looked really good compared to the rest of the intake assembly. a shop towel and light carb cleaner got rid of the light residue

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took the throttle body apart and cleaned with carb cleaner. i also cleaned out the by pass valve. than i re lubed with a lil dab of wd40 at the springs and shaft. no more sticking!

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lower intake manifold all cleaned a perty

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[kahuna bill]

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i kinda wish the rest of the truck and engine looked as new and shinny as the intake assembly does... oh well, it's whats inside that matters.

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almost done. just gotta add distributor and filter. thanks for all the guys who gave me info for the timing. it's nice to have a base number to aim for.

[SteveG]

Impressive! Nice job on the clean-up. Now that the intake is super clean, you might consider having the injectors flushed.