always wanted a bronco and i finally have one. i searched high and low for one not beat to **** with a 5spd. paid 3k for on e from texas with 99k miles on her. has no rot and a couple of surface rust spots. a few electrical problems (speedo just stopped working for no reason) im lookin to give it a bit more power. going to put a flowmaster 10 series muffler with custom fit sidepipes.
id like to hear thoughts on a few things.
1. cold air intake
2. tb spacer
3. venom 400 performance control module
4. 351 cleveland heads

 

Welcome and congrats.

Exhaust out the sides is ok I suppose but the routing gets contrived especially if you are trying to run duals with one pipe on the driver's side. You end up having to drop lower than most folks would be comfortable with to clear the things in the way. You also don't want to run near the driver's side frame rail because your fuel lines are in there and heat, well, its gasoline after all. There just isn't a lot of room to make it work and 2.5-3" single works just as well for the 302 or 351. One small but critical note... NEVER exit the exhaust out the back of a Bronco!

CAI... unless you are planning to insulate the OEM airbox and convert the front plumbing to the type used in trucks with the 4.9L (300) its a waste of time/money. Its been studied. Aftermarket CAI's pull more hot under-hood air than the OEM intake. The improvement comes from flow in front of the airbox and insulating the existing plumbing between it and the throttle body.

If you are going to buy a throttle body spacer, buy an extra quart of snake oil, some turn signal fluid and new muffler bearings while you are at it. They are about that useful. End of story.

Know nothing of the performance module about which you speak but you will get better performance from an actual 351 than any 302 in a Bronco (unless the Bronco is a 1966-77 unit). The 302 (289) was designed to rev high and yank things the size of Mustangs and Mavericks around at high speed. They rev their little heads off under the sheer mass/weight of a full-size 4WD and struggle to keep up with their higher displacement cousins in the performance arena when hauling around that much weight.

As to the heads, Conanski is your guy on this question... actually he is your guy on most performance mods to the mill in your Bronco.

If your speedometer has quit, does your cruise control still work? Since you don't have an automatic that won't be affected by it but its a sure-fire indication of a VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) issue. Pull fault Codes before assuming it is the culprit. The red link in my signature has much more info.

Best of luck with it. There will be other viewpoints. These are mine after 10 years here and many more with Ford trucks along with endless research.

 

Does it have a 300 I6? If so, keep it in there. Pretty good on gas if computer shows no codes.

 

nope i have a 302. i had a 300 in my old 150. great motor but i blew it at 247k. in my cherokee i cut a hole in the fenderwell and dropped the filter thru the hole to pull in colder air. im not looking to make a **** ton of power out of it but id like to get it a bit over 200 (current rating is 185) im only putting a single 2.5 out the passengers side in front of the rear tire. and why never out the back? alswo the check engine light isnt on only the abs light but thats a different story. the cruise,horn and reverse lights dont work. i managed to get my running lights working as they didnt work when i got it. the guy i bought it from told me the speedo and odometer worked when he got it and they suddenly stopped. i replaced the headlight swith hoping it was the problem but i ended up working on it the better part of a day with a damn test light. i reconfigured the harness and got the parking lights working so i can register it and drive it. it runs great but i think it has an exhaust leak at the manifold because it it has the warped man?

 

I exited my exhaust only on the passenger side, like grey said you got the gas lines on the other side. My only input when it comes to chips or computer mods w/e you want to call them (if thats what that is?), dont go cheap, spend a few hundred on one if your serious about it. Someone I know just put a 500$ control unit in is 2006 F250 and he said it drives like a brand new truck and on the highest performance mode hes gets just under an extra 50 more horsepower and 85ft/lbs of torque.

 

was the f250 a diesel? i havent found any chips or proms that give much more then 12-15hp for a gas engine with is very dissapointing

 

Well I know a lot of people say the CAI is a waste of money for these trucks, and to some extent yes they are. Greystreak is pretty much on point with everything so I'm not trying to argue with him, but I did get the K&N FIPK kit for my 96 bronco. I did notice some higher end HP and my mileage went from 12-13 to 13-14 and I track it after every fill up. I do about 80% highway driving though so that may come into effect there.

Insulating the stock intake though like Grey said would probably give you the same gains or better. I just like the tidiness look of the K&N kit and I don't know if I could do a good enough job insulating my stock intake and making it look good. But that would be a lot cheaper route since the F&N kit was about $250. I'm happy with mine though, and insulating what I have now may give me even better gains if I ever get around to doing it.

As for the throttle body space, don't get one it won't do anything except take you money.

I'm not sure about the other two, I've been thinking (dreaming) of getting performance heads for mine but that's a little too pricy for me right now and a little too much work. However, if you are planning on exhaust, you will notice the BIGGEST gain by getting rid of the stock Y-pipe and going with a Bassani or having a shop build you a custom one. The stock Y-piping on these trucks is awful. I would go and get some quality headers, especially if your manifold is warped, then get a y-pipe and high flow cat, then a muffler of your choice with 3" piping all the way back. This will probably give you the biggest HP gains out of anything short of tearing apart your engine and putting in performance heads/cam etc, and that starts to get a little pricy like I was saying.

Anyways I would probably do a good tune up also because you probably don't know when it was done last, unless they guy told you. Getting new motorcraft plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor would be good. Wouldn't hurt to get a new fuel filter also. And since you should only have one O2 sensor, you may want to check that and possibly replace it. They should last the lifetime of the vehicle, but after a while, they can start to get sluggish and could affect mileage and performance. They do run about $50 beach though. When I took off my exhaust, they were all stuck on so I had to get new ones and I have 3.. but I was planning on it anyways as maintenance.

 

idk if the manifold is warped as ive only had it for about 4 days lol. the guy just did a tune up and new tires ((235/75R15 yuck) door says oem is 265/75r15 so thats what its getting when these dunlaps wear out which will likely be in 6 months as dulap tires suck.)) it could be the bolts or it could be cracked. in any case i need to repair it to bring back some power and mpgs, oh and make it sound right the tick drives me nuts.