With winter in swing and my Cougar asleep I find myself searching daily for '78/'79 Broncos. I’ll be damned if that isn’t the best-looking truck I’ve ever seen. And being old Ford, and having a reputation for being built like tanks, I think it’s the way to go. Plenty of em out there in good driver shape for $2-3k
Ever had one? Which engine? Worked on it yourself? I’d really value your input. So far on another non-automotive forum I frequent, anybody that has experience with em has mostly great stuff to say, and the only major complaint people mention is the gas mileage. since I’ll only likely use it to get around town during the day (while my wife has the 4runner at school) I expect to put maybe 300 miles on it a year, give or take. So the hell with gas mileage. I want something I can work on myself, with readily available parts, that looks as awesome as the 2nd gen Bronco does, and laughs at snow.
Yes the Bronco’s were definitely a great truck and they shouldnt have stopped making them. Cant help you on the 2nd gen era, my first was a 91 and the last one was the last model year in 96.
Way cool trucks…mine was a well-worn '93, so the only work I did on it was change the alternator and the radiator. Everything else had too many computers!
I do agree that the 78 era broncos are the best looking
and if you can find one with a solid front axle conversion
make adding a lift easy
easy trucks to work on/but i am sure any east coast or mid west body would be shot to hell
at this point
there are plenty of good trucks here in the desert
and they really are kind of cheap for what you get
I have had about a 1/2 dozen
the later trucks with fuel injection make it nice for climbing steep hills and stuff
If you need help finding a donor or a whole truck pm me
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The 78 bronco and f150 are the best of the best. My brother inlaw had a f150 step side short box 4x4. It was amazing what he would do with that thing. The one thing that impressed me was all 4 wheels had power to them, so when a wheel would slip the other would still grab. Gas milage was actually pretty good. I would love to have one now. When people were not to be on the roads, he would go out with his tow strap and pull people out of ditches and such. Put some Wrangler muders on with it jacked up a bit and your good to go.
I forgot to say the the f159 4x4 had a 351M. I also had a first generation 1977 sport bronco, fantastic truck as well. Wish I still had it. Well it really wasn’t mine, It belonged to someone my mother knew that let me use it all the time. When they went to sell at the time, they offered it to me for $4500. Well that is all I had and was about to get married, so I didn’t get the truck:(
Hey Dr Art; the 1977-79 Broncos came with a solid front axle; usually a Dana 44; just like the '67-'76 first generation Broncos had (only wider, of course). 1980- whenever Broncos were discontinued had the “Twin-Tracion Beam” front axles like the F150’s of that same era.
Unfortunately, the '77-79 Broncs never had EFI, which got to the 150’s/Broncos in the mid-90’s. EFI can be done, just have install fuel rails and injector bungs on an Edelbrock or Weiand (I think) intake. Or, if you’re really lazy (like I would be) or you have the extra cash lying around (which I DON’T at present); Trick-Flow has finally released their aftermarket EFI intakes for 351C blocks. Add a couple aluminum “intake spacers” from (MPG? I think it’s MPG) and the throttle body, electronics and a tuner; and you’ve got 5.0 Mustang-style EFI. 'Bout $1500 -$2000; unless the dollar has become worth LESS THAN the Mexican peso, which could happen these days.
I always liked the 1st-Gen “little” Broncos; but if you want an extra-short-bed F150 with the capability to haul a travel-trailer and have legal (meaning seatbelts and all) seating for 5, the '77-79’s are the way to go! The 351M is pretty sluggish; but since the engine could probably use an overhaul someday, the easiest fix for that would crank,rods and slugs for a 400. Just be aware that pistons are NOT compatible between 351M’s and 400’s.
Information on that last stuff is available at http://web.archive.org/web/20071216153439/http://home.earthlink.net/~bubbaf250/parts/parts01.html which you can also get to from the “Cleveland’s Forever” Forum on Network 54.
Just a fact check, the first generation Bronco was made from 1966-1977. The second generation was only 78 & 79. EFI was available in the Bronco as early as 1986 with the 5 litre engine.
I’ve had a 73, 2 86’s, an 87, a 93 & a 95 Bronco. My two favorites were the 73 & the 95. Those two were totally different vehicles but they covered both extremes of the Bronco-the original, somewhat crude off-road machine and the totally civilized driver yet completely capable off-road machine. My 95 was two-tone green and white had a 4" lift with 35 X 12.50 X 15 tires. I got more compliments on that vehicle than any late model I’ve owned.
I kind of like the 400’s my self
mild cam 498 lift
new valve springs and flat top cast pistons
with intake and carb
entire rebuild cost under a grand
pulls like crazy , not a big hp motor but TONS of torque
this id the on in the 82 f-250
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The 351M and 400 had variants of the 351C-2V open chamber heads. I’d have to look it all up; but I believe there was a casting with even larger chamber pockets; and -MAYBE- even one with galleries for feeding air from the smog pump directly into the exhaust ports.
I’m stressing MAYBE because it’s been a while since I last “read up” on the 400; your best bet is to check out that page I linked in my previous post, the guy was pretty deep into it.
He references fullsizebronco.com quite a bit; you might also check there; as well as the 351C page on Network 54 351cleveland.net . Blizz (the MOD ) has been re-arranging things a little - in a GOOD way! There’s now a sub-group for SVO/Clevor builds; and the 400 stuff has been popping up regularly in the main (351C) forum. I haven’t been on there much recently; maybe cougarshaman can jump in and amplify or if necessary correct my comments so far.
Whoops, Jeff was typing while I was; and he already found one mistake I made! I stand corrected; I thought that the “original” Broncos lasted only through '76, and that the second generation lasted for three years. Thanks for the fix.
cougar2: Other than the oil sender up front, the engine that Dr. Art pictured should look a lot like a Cleveland -until you start taking measurements! The 400 block was itself a variant of the Cleveland block; with a taller deck, over an inch taller. It was a factory-produced “stroker” engine designed to push trucks and big, fat LTD’s around in place of the larger FE engines.
Dr.Art: Kinda “lost” here, did that '80-something F150 you pictured come with a 400? I thought that the “Twin-Traction Beam” two piece front axle got in the way, making anything taller than a Windsor block too big to fit under the hood of that generation F150/Bronco.
the 82 f-250 the 400 was the stock motor in mine
460’s and 390 motors fit no problem in these
that oil sender screws in to the back top side of the motor
do not know how it got there in the pic
I’d alway heard that the FE’s were discontinued in 1/2-ton trucks after '76 because they suddenly were “too tall and didn’t fit”; which I kept questioning because there-were weren’t any frame changes for '77. It wasn’t until I started “reading up” on the 400 that I found out it was produced because Ford decided it was too much effort to meet the late-70’s emissions requirements.
I also didn’t look at/“blow up” your pic and therefore wasn’t able to see (much less count) the number of lugnuts on the wheels - didn’t realize that I was looking at an F-TWO-fifty!
Sometime in the late 80’s, I stopped to look at an '85 F-250 4x4 with Oregon plates and a For Sale sign outside a “snowbird trailer park” on the east side of town. The hood wasn’t latched, so I got brave, and checked it out. Had to be a 302 or Windsor - definitely NOT an FE water pump and also definitely NOT a 335-series timing cover! Then the owner and one of his buddies came charging out accusing me of “messing with” his truck. Tried to tell him that I was looking it over before talking to the owner; but they were making loud noises about calling the police. Would have not been much trouble - this was in the county and a bunch of the deputies went to high school with me; one had even told me about seeing the truck out there! But the old guys raised so much h*ll and were so denigrating that I just got back in my old pickup and took my newly issued $5500 LOC from the Credit Union back home.
you are most likely correct
250’s even came with the 300 straight 6cyl
The 351M and 400 had variants of the 351C-2V open chamber heads. I’d have to look it all up; but I believe there was a casting with even larger chamber pockets; and -MAYBE- even one with galleries for feeding air from the smog pump directly into the exhaust ports.
yes at least the 400 heads i used has air injection ports in the top of the exhaust port
they become useless when you change to an aftermarket intake manifold
Ya, I didn’t think that oil sender belonged there. So in theory, the 351M and 400 are the same motor, just the 400 is stroked for more cubes. In regards to the heads though, they may look like 351C heads because of the canted valves but after that not at all the same, Am I correct in saying that?
…that I was partially wrong in my statement that converting a 351M into a 400 required “only” the 400’s crank rods and pistons. Turns out the rods were the same for both engines! The difference is in the design of the 351M piston, which is why you can’t use a 351M piston with the 400 crank or vice versa. For answers to WHY you can’t use 351M pistons with a 400 crank (it’s the 351M pistons’ compression height); check out THIS RELATED PAGE:
