Well as I said in my intro thread I would be moving that conversation down here. But first a little history about my B3000 which is what I call my *** ford. It has the ford 3.0L V6, Which on the Ranger Station web site I found out it is also called the Vulcan. It is designed to last 300k plus. all metric and no carb version ever made. As I did with the Mazda I am going to do with My bronc, I will comb this web site and soak up all the Tech savy I can and My bronc will shine out for all my work.
My madza I got it back in '99 with 140k on it. It was good and strong, but found out the tranny ain't what it should be. I have pulled loads that would make some trucks cringe, but it kept pulling. At 447k I burnt an exhaust valve, and here is where all the years of study and ideas take shape. I had my S10 to drive, which I don't like too cause that is what my grandsons call Papa's hotrod. That is my cruising vehicle and It is fixing to find a new home cause I am in need of a retirement ride like a Lincoln town car or a cadiliac deville, not much on mopars. American muscle is my car love, no like the rice burners.
Anyway, I pulled the mazda down to the block and had to find another set of heads. It took 3weeks, one of which was shear cleaning. This motor had never been opened before, all original and can you imagine the crud I had to clean and scrape. I cost me about 1k to do the top end, and would have cost another 1k to do the bottom if I would have had it. So just did the top and I got pics that I will share later in my albums. I am just giving an idea of what I am going to do to the bronco from the experience from the mazda. Been doing this for close to 40 yrs and it took this long to get to do it for myself and enjoy what I am doing.
After I got it down and cleaned the block I checked for the ridge in cylinders and there was none, 447k miles and no ridge, this surprised me cause I had never saw that before. Then I noticed the cylinders were lined with steel alloy sleeves, cool. So I went to work on the rest. Got a set of heads, throttle body, pushrods, rocker arms, and a few other items off a 96 ranger. Took a set of injectors out of a 92 Lincoln. Went home and went to work. The heads went to machine shop to be checked and surfaced, and the intake, heads and plenum all got cleaned and I polished the ports. Now that is a job if you do it by hand as I did. After all that was ready, I went to work on the lifters, and these are roller lifters. I put them in berrymans b12 cleaner and let them soak for 3days. then painstakingly took each one apart and cleaned them. Brought a couple home for junkyard to practice with. after That I rebuilt the injectors. You can get the kits from ebay for about $20 or so. Soaked them in berrymans for a couple of days and got them ready. opened up the airbox and modified it to a coldair intake, already modified the exhaust. and got it all together. But I upgraded the ignition to iriudium plugs, 8mm wires, msd streetfire coil, and topped it of with a crane fireball six ignition control box.
And it purrs like a kitten at idle and roars like tiger when you hit the gas. And this is my work truck. The injectors that I took out were 13-14lb and the ones from the Lincoln were 18.5lbs. So this will give an idea what I plan for the bronco. I wish it was warm weather but it ain't so I am doing the little things I can till I can stay out in the garage for longer periods.
So far I got new shoes on the bronco (tires), have been collecting the parts and fluids for the bronc and been busy on ebay looking for accessories to make her look good. I just finished repairing the instrument bezel cause the tabs for the window switch were busted and the three holding pins at the top were broke off and the light switch had to replaced, In which I am still waiting on the new rear window switch I bought on ebay. Almost ran out of epoxy, and that was a trick to do. I know this thread is long but here as I complete a project and if I find something that isn't posted on how to fix I will post it with pictures. The fixes I will describe in the tech section so I can keep this thread as a journal. I am open to any and all suggestions and ideas no matter how crazy they sound. Thanks for being here and thanks for all the input and tech notes you guys have posted.
Ken