Wouldnt wiring the v8 be at least a little harder?? of course it will. You know just as well as i do that droping in the 4.0 and wiring that up will be easier then droping in the v8. The 1989-90 bronco IIs reqiure NO wiring at all, its all plug and play, the 86-88 bronco II cant be that much different... and if it is, i bet its simpler then the v8. And as far as i know droping in the v8 isnt easy is any aspect, nor bugect friendly in anyway. When i looked into that it seemed as though there were about 1,000 dollors needed to be invested in for conversion items. Also the explorer has all that stuff already in it( like the 4.0 engine and better axles), which is true...but simply put i dont want an explorer, if i did trust me i would have bought one. They bronco II has been my favorate truck sence i was a kid and when i found one i could afford, with not many problems i bought it. Also when i sed fast, i did mean it..how ever when i do do this swap (if i do it) im am most likley going to be down in nevada or arizona where there plenty of flat deserts to speed all you want without turns. I am not stupid enough to speed around winding roads with a bronco II

 

Even wiring in a 89-90 BII isn't "plug and play". The best you will get is some minor changes IF you get your engine from a 91-92 donor and even then you'll find out the fun details like where they decieded to route accessory wiring. Don't kid yourself, wiring in a 4.0 into an 88 and earlier BII will be a total pain in the ***. Nothing matches up. Ford changed wiring on almost a yearly basis. The basic idea is the same for the most part but any swap you do will make you a wiring expert by the end. Lastly wiring a 5.0 wouldn't be any different unless you were trying to adapt an EEC-V system. They both use the same parts it's just that one had two more cylinders. I'm not trying to rain on your parade here or anything but I'm just afraid that you fell for the same hopes I did once. I too thought that there was an easy swap but the deeper you dig into it you'll find that it's not as it looks on the surface. After all, isn't learning this stuff the very reason we research our dreams? Good Luck.

 

'91-'94 5-speed explorers are RARE (do they even exist?). An '89-'94 Ranger with a 3.0 or 4.0 is a better swap choice, if at all. Sacrificing excess weight for investing the time and money into rebuilding the stock 2.9 for a "better bang for the buck" seems absurd IMHO. Do you really want an already top-heavy SUV to also be front-heavy enough to send it end-over-end? Drivetrain and engine swaps are only a good thing if you take the time to build the suspension to handle it *shrug*

 

Ok so any swap will reqiure alot of wring work. It somthing i am willing to do, like i have sed before i can deal with it. The reason i wont do the v8 swap isnt just the wiring that will be harder, although it is one of the downfalls of doing it. It also that they are so many mods that need to be made also in addition to putting the v8 in. The reason i am doing the 4.0 swap only becuase everything will bolt up (almost everything) not the case with the v8, if it was just as hard as the v8 swap then id just do that insted. I would expect wiring problem with both swaps but im doing the 4.0 becuase it has less problems not related to wiring. Even if it came to it would make my own harness. Despite the work it would take. Also If i get a donor vehicle, why not take the suspendtion from it and put that in?, why not if its all there. Also wouldnt it possible to take the ECU harness from the 4.0 and use that? As fa as i know the ECU harness only controls motor functions and nothing else, so would taking the ecu and harness and just putting that into the bronco II work, then everything would match up to the motor. I guessing if this holds true there will hardly be any modding to be done other then finding the mainpower lead to the ecu from the ignition. and stuff like that. Im going to see how that all works tpday be looking over all the wring on my bronco II and see hows its done, after all i could ( and most likley) be wrong

 

also i found 2 1992 explorers that were 5 speed on autotrader. com i guess there not as rare as i though they were

 

Ok i looked at the wiring diagram in the hyanes manual i have, and it seems i would have better luck just doing it with out even looking at the book at all, I sorta got lost where the book showed me that the starter circut runs through the map sensor, ECT and ECU. I just rewired the starting circut in my bronco by bypassing the clutch interlock switch sence it seemed to be non existent anyway. I think ill go to clintons manaul before i do this.

 

The title of this thread is "my ideas" so you should of course be proud of any route you go. Personalization is exactly that so I hope you haven't confused my prodding for thought with a lack of respect for your rig. Now I have been curious, what is your total dream BII then? You mentioned a supercharger too, can you find one for the 4.0? I know there were factory 3.8 supercharged motors but I have no idea on what they bolt to and how bad mounting would be.

 

they do make the supercharger for the 4.0, yet its very expensive. Im going to see if its even worth it to do this swap, most likley not. It is worth looking into though. I didnt mistake your comments for insults, and i do understand what your saying 100%. Im not saying i want to do this swap and plan to use it as my daily driver, i am most likley getting another car way before this bronco becomes un-drivable and i was figuring if i didnt sell it why not do this swap for somthing to do. It all depends on what job i get. and what kind of time i hav on my hands when i start thinking more about this. Also, if you get the sence that i think my bronco is the best vehicle ever, your right (first car, you might know where im coming from)

 

I remember the feeling. Mine was an 87 Ranger.

 

I'm still wondering why people want to put "500 HP" under a BII. If you have a decent rebuildable core, you can put the time and money into rebuilding the stock 2.9... and get 200~250HP or so out of it... which is plenty, if you build the drivetrain right. IMHO, you really don't need to build a front-heavy, top-heavy -fast- rig. The original design wasn't meant to be driven much faster than 60mph -safely-... I guess when you've seen as many BII's and Jeeps get rolled over (mostly out of stupidity)... it doesn't make sense to want a overpowered death trap *shrug*.

 

lol, i think i see where your confused here. The stock 2.9 has 140 hp, and 170 lbs of torque. Even the 4.0 has nowhere near the range of 500 hp, even with a supercharger, and other heavy mods. And the bronco II after putting the more powerful motor will be faster, of course, That dosent mean thats why we do it. No, its to make the bronco II more off road able. Theres a limited tire size the stock motor,transmission,clutch, and definatly the axles. When you get the donor truck (4.0 ranger,explorer,etc) You not only get the better motor, giving you more torque. You get the better axles and everything. If your replacing both axles,and the trans, why not the motor?? It wouldnt make sence. It wont be any more unstable sence your using the donor trucks suspendtion anyway.
*shrug* ( i just felt like doing that, sence everyone else dose lol)

 

Never Mind!

 

The 2.9 is only a 120hp engine and speed is one of the reasons I'm modding my BII. It's gonna be one fun sleeper that will catch a few wanna-be ricers by suprise. There's nothing wrong with going fast in a BII, just gotta understand it wasn't really made to corner.

 

i dont think its only 120 hp...ive heard from more then one site that listed stats on the bronco II that from the factory, its 140. I dont see why here would be only a 5 hp increase from the 2.8 carborated engine. Sence that was only 115. It is .1 liter and and entirely better induction system, im sure there was more gains.

 

I think my point was... when it comes down to it, keep it light and build up what you got. (Re-)building a stock 2.9 and opening up the inlet(s) and outlet(s) some will give you enough power and torque... through the right drivetrain... to get you where you want to play. Hell, if a 2.5L iron duke Jeep motor can do the trails in Moab and on the Rubicon... and it's only 4 cylinders...

*shrug*