I have a 90 bronco with a 302 6" lift and 35's recently done. Unfortunately its only a 302 its still my daily driver for now. I want to do some work without spending a ton of money. Basically bolt on for now. I have a 429 C6 and NP205 & 4:56's waiting to put in. Any suggestions for the mean time? I dont want the big block quite yet. not until I get another vehicle. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

 

Headers and exhaust, intake improvements (would not recommend FIPK). This is where I would start. Get air and fuel moving through her more efficiently. Even though you aren't looking at a spending a lot of money doing this, I'd seriously look into at least getting those gears swapped ASAP. Especially if you have stock 3.55's still. Pushes the 302 WAY out of her power band. My 92 struggles to maintain highway speeds in a good head wind and I've only got 33's.

 

I agree with Grey, you should just replace the gears for starters that will at least get you back in proper driving characteristics for the motor. Then at that point you can decide on how much more money you want to spend before swapping in the bigger motor.

You do know that the np205 is a divorced case, and that means you will have to fab up some new tcase mounts. The 429/c6 combo will run like a rapped ape.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the info. I already have headers and exhaust and K&N on the truck. As far as the 429, c6 and tcase go that is a little far off right now because it is still my daily driver. As far asa the gears go i want to wait until i get lockers to put in at the same time. doeas the mass air conversion do anything for it? or is it even worth the money? What about a chip or cam?

 

As far as the mass air conversion goes, I wouldn't do it unless you are going to change the cam. But if you are going to change the cam, you should go with the mass air because without it you will really mess with the speed density computer and have some serious running problems.

When I did the motor in my '89 Bronco, I started with the mass air conversion and changed the heads to the Trick Flow Twisted Wedge and put a decent roller cam in (had to convert the truck block to roller) and came up with all kinds of power.

The stock heads Ford used in our trucks don't flow well at all so any change there would be worth it. The FMS GT40P heads will flow a lot better (bigger valves) and they have a 60cc chamber (vs. 65cc in a stock head) so they'll boost the compression ratio a bit.

I don't know how much money you were thinking of spending, but the GT40P heads are $538 a pair (Summit), the mass air conversion is $750 for auto trans, $675 for a stick, and a good cam can be had for around $100. With that you'll make a lot more power.

BTW, with all the mods I did with my engine I gained about 100HP and saw no real change in my gas mileage, 10-14 MPG depending on what I'm doing (I run 33s with 4.10 gears)

 

Since you already have the 4.56 gears, and your planning on putting in lockers, that would be good starting point. Not too much of a concern on the computer system when doing the gear ratio change. Only the speedo needs to be recalibrated.

As far as the mas air flow conversion is concerned. This is some things I'm dealing with on my rig, because I have done alot of the mods that creates havoc with the speed density computer controlled system. Mass airflow system is more foregiving when it comes to these mods. Two things that I've done that the computer is having a problem with right now is a larger cam and boreing out the cylinders to 0.30 over. BTW either one of these two mods by them selves would create havoc with speed density. Also, putting on headers would also create a little havoc. These are some of the things that have been discussing with Ken Payne about. In the computer tuning section I had posted a thread regarding the possibility of new compter. A chip will help greatly with the speed density computer system when these mods are put in. But, it is also recomended to convert to the mass air flow system when doing these mods, which is one of my next projects along with getting a chip. I've done just about every mod, but headers and chip and maybe massair flow conversion(coming soon when money is available) and new high flow cats.

Hope this helps