Congrats! You've really earned it.

Sweet! Cant wait to hear how the test drive goes!

awesome

I bet he is out driving it around as we speak !

AWESOME !

one thing I really believe in is getting all the air out of the cooling system..........

I usually get the nose of the Bronco pointed up so that the top of the radiator is the highest point in the system.

Take the radiator cap off, start cold, let it run long enough so the thermostat can cycle a couple of times, and top radiator off whenever it gets low.

Then watch the overflow reservoir to make sure it is full enough that it doesn't suck air when cooled down.

Congrats brother. Way to stick with it. Definitely worth your time and getting to learn how everything works.

Ta Da!

Looks great! I'm jealous!

Sweet! Where's that like button?

Really nice work. Looks clean, neat, and organized.

So a bit of bad news... It appears I have a slight coolant leak somewhere along the lower intake manifold.

I used good sealer and did not use the cork ends to seal it. The leaks are at the rear of the intake and it's so slight, it's kind of hard to see.

So is my only option to tear it down and re-seal the intake?

2 steps forward, 3 steps back...

You could try to re-torque the bolts, it's a long shot, especially since the leak has started and it's almost as much work as pulling it off and redoing the gaskets.

The cork ends are only for oil from the valvetrain area, the leak is likely at the head / intake connection.

Did you put them in dry or did you use a bit of rtv?

If you do end up pulling everything off dry fit the intake without the gasket and see if the mating surfaces line up real nice or if there are any nicks on any of the surfaces.

I used a light bead of RTV on the block side. Not the intake side.

I had good luck with copper spray on both sides of the gasket & Right Stuff on the ends.

http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-80697-Sp ... B000HBNUDQ

This ^ is what we did on Bubba Smurf last time we popped the intake. I'm a fan of those products.

My buddy Levi came over and I think we chased it to a bad plug job on one of the useless holes on top of the intake. For some reason, this intake came with a few extra holes the same size as the hole for the temp gauge sending unit. I replaced the plug bolt with a finer thread and lock washer that pulled tight. Dried everything off, took it for a spin- and it seems to be holding.

I may have lucked out on this one after all! Thanks for the suggestions Chad and Kirk. I'll keep that in mind for my next one.

You really should pull those plugs and put a fitting in there. Then tie them together with a t. The t it into the heater hose. It will really help the cooling of the 351 and the rear of the heads. Otherwise the water just deadheads back there with nowhere to go.

So I took advantage of the warmer weather today and continued to take apart the engine. I guess I should state that I ran into a problem a few weeks ago. Started to hear an abnormal noise, pulled over to check it out, the engine stalled and wouldn't start up again. EFI Guy came by to help take a gander and we pulled the cam synchronizer to find some grinded out teeth. I pulled the timing cover to find that I had not put the bolt in place to keep the camshaft in place. Because I was eliminating the fuel pump eccentric, I did not know it still needed the bolt -- rookie move on my first engine build. Now I know.

Today I finished pulling everything down to the cam. All of the rods seem straight so that is good. About half of the lifters seem to have a little bit of grinding around the edges that mate to the cam. This sounds about right since the cam was walking.

I'm thinking new lifters, synchronizer, timing gears and chain, and probably camshaft.

I'm also going to need to clean out the engine as best as I can without pulling it. Probably run some brake cleaner through it and then oil to drain out any shavings left behind.

Man, you have had the worst engine luck of all time.

Spent a couple hours in the garage trying to clean up gasket material and flush what I could of the engine oil. I also was able to run a magnet around the front part of the oil pan. First 5-6 magnet runs have me some metal shards as well as a broken bolt head (thrust plate bolt head). Went through a can of brake cleaner spraying through the lifter holes and directly into the front of the oil pan. I followed that up with about 5 quarts of oil.

I think the good news is that after flushing the mixture through the engine and draining, the only "particles" that were really evident was a few pieces of the rubber gasket material. Ran the magnet a few more times and was not picking much up.

Also- somehow, the cam had pushed forward so hard, that both thrust plate bolts had broken off just about flush with the block. I thought this was going to present one of my bigger challenges as it was installed with red loctite. (btw- Loctite had the best SB commercial yesterday). Saturday, Justin came by to give me an extra set of able hands to weld a nut to each bolt. Both of them came out incredibly easy and I feel that might be the turning point of my Bronco luck-- I can only hope!! I couldn't tell you the last time I problem was solved so easily and quickly. Took maybe 5 minutes for both bolts.

So I am now waiting on new parts to arrive. I think I have a legitimate shot at getting it put back together by the end of February if I put my attention to it. I also decided to clean and paint the timing cover this time around.

One question- is there a "right" way to install the timing cover now that the oil pan is already installed?

Dude, knock on something. I've got a rabbits foot you can borrow.

I really think you want to remove the pan and cleanout or replace the pump pickup. Be a good idea to inspect the pump gears too. Then get a 1 piece pan gasket.

I'm with Viper

Better safe than sorry

I would agree oil pan off for cleaning and inspection. I'm not sure if it's just the picture but the cam bearing might need attention hard to tell from the pics

Kind of looks like the cam bearing has debris embedded in it in the pictures.


I'm cheap and lazy, so I'd run it after cleaning it real well without dropping the pan. However, my luck is also like 1000 times better than yours.

Did some work today!! Cam installed, timing gear and chain installed (with bolt this time!), timing cover and water pump installed, balancer installed, rockers and pushrods installed, oil pan removed/cleaned/re-installed.

Tomorrow I plan to get the lower intake installed and start bolting everything back on. I bought rebuilt injectors, new synchronizer and iron gear to work with my camshaft gears. I just need to get my hands on a hydraulic press for about 10 minutes to swap out the synchro gears and there is an outside chance I will have this thing back together by Monday night. These 70 degree days sure are motivating!

Ill be in the garage all day Monday, come on over!

I have a tool for changing out the gears without a press. But, it's at the shop and can't get it until tomorrow. If you don't get a chance to swing by Justins then let me know, I can grab it tomorrow.

It's looking happy again! After priming the fuel lines, it fired right up and sounds smooth. Let's just hope it stays that way!

Now where's that "like" button?