SteveG's 84-SOLD!

[SteveG]

Getting closer. It's not exactly what I planned in the beginning but it'll work just fine. Originally the two support tubes were going to be straight and overlap the shock tabs adding some strength. Then I remembered how big a pain in the ass it is to taper two tubes into each other and that I would have to do that 4 times... screw that. The deviation from the original plan changed that but I can add gusseting later. For now I'm trying to make it drivable for tomorrow.

Thanks to Mike at Central Coast Prerunners for the help with the support tubes.

[Nick]

No plate with dimple dies??? C'mon!

[philofab]

No plate with dimple dies??? C'mon!

Steve hates useless plating like that... the weak point on those is the shock tabs but they are still plenty strong. Eventually (A very long time from now) they might start cracking next to the weld.

[SteveG]

No plate with dimple dies??? C'mon!

I'm saving the dimple dies and louvers for the body!

the weak point on those is the shock tabs but they are still plenty strong. Eventually (A very long time from now) they might start cracking next to the weld.

Yeah, I hate the way they ended up. Had I known how the support tubes would end up, the tabs would have been completely different... oh well. I'll add some gussets later. I still need to add attachment points for a cross-bar.

[yikes]

You're putting me to shame Steve. Those came out nice. The P-M strikes again! Haha!

[Nick]

The B-M strikes again! Haha!

What!? I thought you were done with baja-butt.

[SteveG]

I haven't decided whether or not I want to go argue with the smog referee yet, so no promises as to this actually making it onto the truck....

The EFI shenanigans have begun. I admit that hanging an EFI harness on the inside of your garage door is a little trashy (my wife said it looked like I was building a bomb), but this takes up no real estate in the garage and allows me to work on the harness whenever I want without having to drag it out of totes and spending an hour reorienting myself with it. I also now have the option to walk away from it without major clean up... major bonus.

[yikes]

y (my wife said it looked like I was building a bomb)

Hahahahahaha!! I thought you had a striking resemblance to that unibomber dude.

[philofab]

What fun it must be to live in California.

[ChaseTruck754]

What fun it must be to live in California.

You have no clue! As I've told everybody many times - there is a reason I don't deal with the smog BS anymore and BAR referee's are a big part of that...


Steve - that is a cool idea for the wiring, and should serve your purpose really well.

Your pic reminded me of this from when I did the ranger. I REALLY don't miss wiring...

[SteveG]

Steve - that is a cool idea for the wiring, and should serve your purpose really well.

Your pic reminded me of this from when I did the ranger. I REALLY don't miss wiring...

There's a lot going on in that picture!

I'm cautiously optimistic. So far things are going well with this harness. Many moons ago I put an EFI 5.0L in a Ranger and it was a ginormous pain in the ass. It's going much smoother and faster now that I have slightly more patience and a lot more information. Info was not quite as easy to come across 12 plus years ago.

[SteveG]

The old girl took the family camping this weekend. This is the first time I've towed since installing the 4.10 gears. I think it's a great combo with the C6 and 33" tires. EFI will make it even better.

[SteveG]

I set up the projector so we could watch some desert videos while hanging out by the campfire....

[hobbyturnedobsession]

haha how can you beat it? campin bronco offroad racing on the side of the camper and a corona to top it off. Now I need to learn how to camp with you all!

[BajaF250]

What fun it must be to live in California.

You have no clue! As I've told everybody many times - there is a reason I don't deal with the smog BS anymore and BAR referee's are a big part of that...


Steve - that is a cool idea for the wiring, and should serve your purpose really well.

Your pic reminded me of this from when I did the ranger. I REALLY don't miss wiring...

I have pictures just like this! Good luck Steve! What are you using for your transplant donor? Are you going to stay with Speed Density or are you going to convert to Mass Airflow?

I actually had a very good and easy time with the BAR referee. It's too bad that they BAR ref up there is so tough (and most likely for no good reason).

[SteveG]

Speed Density and batch firing. It's the only way the 5.8L was offered with a C6 and in the end there's really no benefit for me to go to convert to mass air or sequential EFI. If down the road I end up making engine changes that the ECM can't compensate for, my Ford guru can program a chip accordingly.

Not having mass air also keeps me from having to plumb and wire for for it. Not to mention the fact that I don't have to buy one more (expensive) sensor that can fail.

[BajaF250]

I originally planned to conver to Mass Airflow once I got past the BAR ref and the truck was "on the grid." I have all the part, but now that I've been running the motor for some time now, I'm not sure why I'd want to... it really runs ok. Somewhere down the line I have an expectation to stroke the motor to a 393 or so and was going to convert then... but again, running speed density works quite well so if/when I stroke the motor, I may just burn the chip to compensate for the added displacement.

[SteveG]

More progress on the wiring front. The harness I'm using is out of a late 80's 5.0L Mustang which means a lot of the wire lengths are not correct for a 5.8L Bronco. I've just about done everything I can without installing the harness in the truck and finalizing lengths and sealing up the harness.

The big hurdle at this point is fuel delivery. I haven't decided how I want to plumb it and what kind of fuel pump I want to use. I'm debating between an in-tank pump and an accumulator (with an in-tank pump inside) under the hood.

[BajaF250]

The big hurdle at this point is fuel delivery. I haven't decided how I want to plumb it and what kind of fuel pump I want to use. I'm debating between an in-tank pump and an accumulator (with an in-tank pump inside) under the hood.

I decided to cannibalize all the fuel lines from a donor truck up at 67 (wrecking yard) and then lay it all out in the truck. I used all the original Ford fittings and it made it much easier when connecting to the fuel tank (in tank pump, stock) and the fuel manifold (again, stock). The reason I went that way is was to maintain as close to a stock configuration as possible. If, in case, I every needed parts, especially in BC, I could have some reasonable confidence I could get them. It made for an easy installation and it runs great!

[SteveG]

I decided to cannibalize all the fuel lines from a donor truck up at 67 (wrecking yard) and then lay it all out in the truck. I used all the original Ford fittings and it made it much easier when connecting to the fuel tank (in tank pump, stock) and the fuel manifold (again, stock). The reason I went that way is was to maintain as close to a stock configuration as possible. If, in case, I every needed parts, especially in BC, I could have some reasonable confidence I could get them. It made for an easy installation and it runs great!

Whatever I choose, it will definitely use stock parts. While the accumulator would be a custom piece, the pump housed inside would be a stock Bronco/F150 pump which I could find anywhere. I'm all about stock parts....

The really cool part about the accumulator is it would take less than 5 minutes to have the pump out in the event of a failure. It also makes any sort of testing super easy since most of the fuel delivery system is under the hood.