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"1973 Ford Bronco 302 CID engine rebuild project" |
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I originally brought my Bronco back from the dead back
in 1991. At that time I rebuilt the motor, tranny, transfer case,
paint and body and interior, suspension and anything else it needed!
The Bronco has gone through many transitions from street and trail to a
capable rock crawler and dune runner! I love to go slow and fast.
Another great part of rockcrawling is that high speed exit from the trail
area!
The last few years I have noticed the power starting to taper off in the 302. I had originally bored it .030 over, Edelbrock performer package, and topped it with a Carter AFB. It has definitely served it's purpose. It was time for a rebuild. I was suffering major blow by, oil consumption and low power. Trying to find a good time to take the Bronco down was a very difficult decision. There is always fun wheeling going on in Arizona. I finally got sick of it and just pulled the motor. At this crossroad you start thinking 302? 351W? Fuel injection? etc? Finances were really tight, so I needed a plan to pull this off complete for under $2000. That has to be an all inclusive price. Not a penny more. I decided to rebuild the original 302 myself. |
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| My kids, Vince and my sister came over to help me pull the motor out of the Bronco. It went relatively quick. About 3 hours and a borrowed hoist from Rick. I was worried we would have to let all the air out of the tires to clear, but the hoist went high enough! No problemo! |
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Once we got the motor into the garage, we took the flywheel off then mounted it on Vince's awesome homemade engine stand! I don't know about you, but I really like 4 caster stands! |
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Another friend of mine, Dave, came over to give his advice on what was happening in the motor and rebuild options. We found 6 of the 8 cylinders had broken rings. Probably from high compression from the carbon build up. |
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Keith, Dave, Vince, Amber, Dana, Josh, Shelby, Jenna and myself all helped on the disassembly and the organization of the parts. Very important to keep track of the nuts and bolts, rods and caps, piston order, etc. I even went out and bought a numbered punch set to mark everything we could think of for ease of reassembly. |
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The hardest part was to settle on a machine shop that you can trust. I mean really trust! I have done alot of business with Don at Sunnyslope Automotive, but he's not the cheapest in town. So I talked to him in person and agreed on a plan. Everything was loaded into the Ford to take to the machine shop. |
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| on to Part II...... | |
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See all the pics!!! Broke into individual
sections Removal ... Disassembly ... Assembly ... Installation |
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