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79 Bronco engine swap

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Old Oct 30, 2012 | 03:38 PM
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blueoval65's Avatar
blueoval65
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Mountain Pass
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From: East Tennessee
79 Bronco engine swap

I've bout been talked into the 460 install on the 79 Bronco. I'm going to look at a complete 460 out of 75 Continental on Thursday. What is the parts list I'm looking at to do the install before I buy this thing? The old 351M is already out. I'm wondering what I'll need to find(motor mounts, exhaust, etc...).

Thanks for your help.
 
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Old Nov 22, 2012 | 09:35 PM
  #2  
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bradyracing
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From: Webb, MS
I see it's been almost a month and nobody has posted so I'll give you what I know. I've done a half dozen of these swaps so far and have the stuff to do two more in my shop if I wasn't doing the diesel thing right now. I did all of them in my teens and early twenties so it's been about sixteen years since I did the last one.
If you have an auto trans and a complete donor car, its pretty easy. To do it on the cheap, get the 460 Lincoln engine AND the torque convertor from the car. Or buy a new convertor that fits that car. Get a pair of 360/390 motor mounts, oblong the two holes on the motor mounts with a chainsaw file or whatever works for you and they bolt on to the 460 block diagonally You will notice that the stud on the 360 mount is not centered so you want that stud toward the back of the 460. If you flip the 360 mount upside down it puts the stud toward the front you want it toward the back. Now you notice the top corner of the 360 mounts are in the way of the exhaust manifolds. You need to put them on a band saw and cut off about an inch or so from the top corner of the 360 mount so it clears the manifold. Cut one mount at a time so you cut the right corner off. Remember the stud needs to be toward the back of the 460 block. If you set your bandsaw up to cut a 45 degrees and you cut one and than the other the same way, one will work and the other won't because you cut the wrong corner off. If you hold them up to the 460 block you will see what I'm talking about.
So with the 351M removed, pull the 351m convertor out of the trans and put the 460 convertor into the front of the trans. and put the 460 in the truck. The studs on the 360 mount will drop into the frame perches in the truck and the trans will bolt to the back of the block and the convertor will bolt to the 460 flexplate.
I don't know what the 75 is using for a distributor, all of my swaps were 70 Merc 429s and 72 460s and I just used the electronic distributor out of the 351M to wire it up and fire it up.
You can do about anything with the exhaust pipes. I've ran stock car manifolds and headers both. You could cut the stock y-pipe out of the donor car, you know it bolts to the stock manifolds, and figure out what needs to be done to make something work with a saw and a mig.
I guess the last thing is the stock front sump oil pan/pump/pickup tube. I never worried about it much. I ran front sump for awhile in a otherwise stock 78 Bronco and the front diff would bash the pan every once in awhile but it never put a hole in it. Soon thereafter, all mine had six inch suspension lifts and the front sump pans where never an issue again. If you cave in a front sump 460 pan with the diff of a Bronco with a six inch lift, it's because you just wrecked and you probably have some more important issues to address first.
That's about the cheapest way to do it. I've drove my Broncos all over the country from MS to NV to MT to MI and back with that setup and I had an alternator failure once in KS.
Or you could buy everything from L&L in one box for a couple grand, what ever works for you.
 
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