New to the Bull Nose

[Bisquik1959]

Hello everyone. I am new to the board and found it via Facebook. I have an 83 F100 that I plan on swapping a 96 Explorer engine and tranny into and will keep as my daily driver. I also have an 86 Bronco 2 rock crawler. I did the 2.9 to 4.0 swap years ago. I am familiar with curring down the harnesses but sure the 96 OBD2 will be a bit more challenging or time consuming. I'm sure I wi have plenty of questions.

[Gary Lewis]

Hello! Glad you joined!

Where's home? I ask because we have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we could add you if we had a town or zip.

As for the '96 OBD-II, Bill/85lebaront2 has already done that, and I'm in the process of doing it for both Big Blue and Dad's truck. So we do have some experience and can help.

Now, back to your projects thread....

[grumpin]

Hello! Glad you joined!

Where's home? I ask because we have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we could add you if we had a town or zip.

As for the '96 OBD-II, Bill/85lebaront2 has already done that, and I'm in the process of doing it for both Big Blue and Dad's truck. So we do have some experience and can help.

Now, back to your projects thread....

Welcome!

[Bisquik1959]

Welcome!

Thanks for the welcome! I am glad I am not the only one that has done this swap. Makes me a bit more comfortable!

I am in Pinon Hills, CA. Out in the SoCal desert.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks for the welcome! I am glad I am not the only one that has done this swap. Makes me a bit more comfortable!

I am in Pinon Hills, CA. Out in the SoCal desert.

You are now on the map!

As for the swap, Bill has done the complete swap where I'm only part way into it. Basically I have installed the later engine and fuel system, although at the moment I'm running a carb as I didn't want to try to break a brand new engine in with an unknown EFI system. (And, it got the truck back on the road after over a year in "transformation", which sure seemed like an eternity.)

I've also done part of the wiring interfacing between the Bullnose and later systems, and think I've mapped out the rest of what needs to be done. And that brings up one of the issues you'll face - where to put the ECU. On the later trucks, and probably the Explorer, it sits outboard of the emergency brake pedal. But that requires some modifications on a Bullnose, like moving the pedal and cutting the firewall. So I'm thinking about placing it under the driver's seat.

And Bill and I are using Binary Editor to modify the tables in the ECU. But in your case where you are using a complete system from the Explorer maybe that won't be necessary.

[Bisquik1959]

You are now on the map!

As for the swap, Bill has done the complete swap where I'm only part way into it. Basically I have installed the later engine and fuel system, although at the moment I'm running a carb as I didn't want to try to break a brand new engine in with an unknown EFI system. (And, it got the truck back on the road after over a year in "transformation", which sure seemed like an eternity.)

I've also done part of the wiring interfacing between the Bullnose and later systems, and think I've mapped out the rest of what needs to be done. And that brings up one of the issues you'll face - where to put the ECU. On the later trucks, and probably the Explorer, it sits outboard of the emergency brake pedal. But that requires some modifications on a Bullnose, like moving the pedal and cutting the firewall. So I'm thinking about placing it under the driver's seat.

And Bill and I are using Binary Editor to modify the tables in the ECU. But in your case where you are using a complete system from the Explorer maybe that won't be necessary.

Looks like I will have to find Bills thread!

[Bisquik1959]

Looks like I will have to find Bills thread!

Also planning on getting the rear contour bumper after getting her running right. I really dislike the home made diamond tread styles.

[Gary Lewis]

Looks like I will have to find Bills thread!

I'm not sure he has the whole thing on here. He, and I, might have been on FTE at the time.

But, for searching, go to the search function on the right where it says "Search Forum". Then type in anything and it should pop up the option for an Advanced Search. I searched for MAF and SEFI with the author of 85lebaront2 and got these results. (Never tried to post a link to search results, but that works pretty well.) Note that I've clicked "Sort by date" for those results.

But Bill should be along in a bit and may be able to provide links to his build.

 

[Bisquik1959]

I'm not sure he has the whole thing on here. He, and I, might have been on FTE at the time.

But, for searching, go to the search function on the right where it says "Search Forum". Then type in anything and it should pop up the option for an Advanced Search. I searched for MAF and SEFI with the author of 85lebaront2 and got these results. (Never tried to post a link to search results, but that works pretty well.) Note that I've clicked "Sort by date" for those results.

But Bill should be along in a bit and may be able to provide links to his build.

Thanks for the tips Gary. I will be doing alot of reading before I make the swap. Right now I have a homemade breather taking care of the oil puking and plan on driving it this way until the Explorer is ready to be harvested or it explodes... whatever comes first. It currently has a 6 misfire. I have plugs, wires and coil packs in the mail. Compression was good and the injector was firing per my stethoscope.

As for the harness, I have done an 86 Bronco II to 91 Explorer swap before. I plan on doing it similar. I will take the 96 harness and trim out everything I dont need like lights, ABS, cruise etc and make it an engine/tranny harness. No need to rewire headlights or any other stuff. Then have just the few wires from the dash and stuff connected up as needed. But again... plenty of reading. There is also another Gary. Gary the EFI guy that does alot of 96 OBD2 to old Bronco swaps. He also does stripped harnesses for those.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks for the tips Gary. I will be doing alot of reading before I make the swap. Right now I have a homemade breather taking care of the oil puking and plan on driving it this way until the Explorer is ready to be harvested or it explodes... whatever comes first. It currently has a 6 misfire. I have plugs, wires and coil packs in the mail. Compression was good and the injector was firing per my stethoscope.

As for the harness, I have done an 86 Bronco II to 91 Explorer swap before. I plan on doing it similar. I will take the 96 harness and trim out everything I dont need like lights, ABS, cruise etc and make it an engine/tranny harness. No need to rewire headlights or any other stuff. Then have just the few wires from the dash and stuff connected up as needed. But again... plenty of reading. There is also another Gary. Gary the EFI guy that does alot of 96 OBD2 to old Bronco swaps. He also does stripped harnesses for those.

I agree there's no reason to change out the Bullnose wiring that is working. Just interface the EFI system to it. Like the fuel pump connection, which the EEC wants to control and know that it worked. And it would help for the EEC to know when the brakes are on so connect Brake On/Off (BOO) to the Bullnose brake circuit.

But in my case, and I suspect yours because of the Explorer's serpentine system, there was the swap to the 3G alternator. That required some changes to the wiring on the passenger's side to accommodate a megafuse, take out the ammeter's shunt, install a relay for the volt meter, etc. And that was made easier by using a mid-90's F-Series PDB with megafuse.

However, the later model battery tray got awfully close to the starter relay, so why not use a relay in the PDB to bring in the PMGR starter? And, put the headlight relays in there? Oh, and why not use the remaining relay to power the blower motor?

Then there's the driver's side PDB that came with the '96 wiring harness for the EEC-V system. I'm going to do like you said you'll do and strip out everything that isn't needed, like I did for the other PDB. That will slim down the wire bundles dramatically since the lights, HVAC, and many other things are currently in there.

In the immortal words of Paul Simon, "Say, ain't we walking down the same street together. On the very same day?”