Swapped Engine questions

[Bronco_Willis]

Ok so I purchased an 87 Bronco that was originally built with the EFI 302...the guy I bought it off of blew the 302 and decided to swap to a Carb 351w. Well somewhere in the mix he shorted a wire so all of the gauges stopped working, except speedo of course. Anyway, I decided to run with all custom gauges since we are doing a custom dash as well. Building the truck mainly for the offroad fun. I plan on running all my own new wiring to the gauges and their destinations. Other than lights and obvious engine wiring, what other wires do I need to keep? Shall I keep the original harness or can I get rid of it to clean up? If anybody can point me to the correct thread or answer this for me, please do so. Your help is greatly appreciated!

OH and also, I put new spark plugs and wires on the engine and when I pulled the very last old plug there was oil on it. Now I know from experience this could mean blown piston ring or bad valve seals. Could this also be from the engine sitting?

 

[Krafty]

if you plan to just play with it then all you have to keep for wiring is the ignition, choke if its electric, heater fan if you want defrost, wipers and some lights if you intend on doing all your own guages.

pull the valve cover off and look at the seals for the valves of that cylinder with the oil on the plug. you may have to compress the spring and take it apart to get a good look at it.

I had a 429 from a 69 mercury it sat for 10 years. when I put it in my t-bird it smoked really bad. when I took the valve covers off, I only had two seals left in one piece. seals are cheap, it might be worth doing them all anyway. take the spark plug out, pack the cylinder with rope and turn the engine over slowly with a johnson bar and socket on the crankshaft nut until the rope stops the engine from turning, using a $20 valve spring compressor take the two clips out of the top of the valve shaft then remove the compressor and spring and the old seal and reassemble with the new seal. the rope keeps the valve from dropping. repeat that 15 more times and your done. if that doesn't work then forget about seeing any oil and drive on.

 

[Bronco_Willis]

I figured the only wiring i had to keep was accessory wires. I have an MSD ignition and running it to push start. After reading your post Krafty, I think I will run ALL brand new wiring in the truck for the parts I intend on keeping. Thank you for that.

Especially thanks for the info on the oiled plug. I will try that here in a bit and see what I can come up with!

 

[Justshootme84]

B. Willis, since you're rig is offroad-only and you don't have to worry about passing inspection, you can removesome of the EFI stuff, like sensors, their mounting brackets, etc. IF you're using aftermarket gauges (you almost need to since the stock gauges won't work), I would suggest a mechanical oil pressure gauge. You can tee it off of the stock oil pressure sender by the oil filter. An electric water temp gauge will have a sender that installs usually in the front of the intake where the stock sender is, right by the dizzy (distributor). Volt meter can be tapped into a 12v source about anywhere.

Thinking some more about the engine bay wiring for the lights, it may be worth replacing that section if its old, cracked, spliced or otherwise butchered up. If it's in good condition, I'd leave that portion in, since the plugs for the lights are hard to find sometimes. JSM84

 

[Bronco_Willis]

B. Willis, since you're rig is offroad-only and you don't have to worry about passing inspection, you can removesome of the EFI stuff, like sensors, their mounting brackets, etc. IF you're using aftermarket gauges (you almost need to since the stock gauges won't work), I would suggest a mechanical oil pressure gauge. You can tee it off of the stock oil pressure sender by the oil filter. An electric water temp gauge will have a sender that installs usually in the front of the intake where the stock sender is, right by the dizzy (distributor). Volt meter can be tapped into a 12v source about anywhere.
Thinking some more about the engine bay wiring for the lights, it may be worth replacing that section if its old, cracked, spliced or otherwise butchered up. If it's in good condition, I'd leave that portion in, since the plugs for the lights are hard to find sometimes. JSM84

I have electric everything, water pump, fan all that is electric. I do have the mechanical oil gauge already installed. As for the wiring harness in the engine bay, I planed on replacing all lighting wires because they are old and starting to deteriorate. The pig tails for the lights are still in working order so i was just going to splice into those.

 

[Justshootme84]

Are you running an aftermarket intake manifold with that carb? That in itself should clean up alot of the vacuum lines to the smog equipment.

 

[Bronco_Willis]

Are you running an aftermarket intake manifold with that carb? That in itself should clean up alot of the vacuum lines to the smog equipment.

Yeah Im not to worried about all that stuff. Right now my concern is just the wiring harness itself, engine and chassis. I want to eliminate as much wiring as possible and only keep what I need to have

 

[Bronco_Willis]

Ok so I talked to one of the guys at Jim Green's Performance. He said I dont need ANY of the original wire harness since I am doing custom gauges and replacing all the old lighting wire. He said I just need to make sure the charging system is wired and the ignition. Everything else is considered an accessory. Sound right?

 

[Justshootme84]

If you're still online, how about joining in the chat room? 8:45 pm CDT