Many of y'all from FSJ Enthusiasts and Texas Full Size Jeeps Facebook page already know.. but for those who want to read and follow, here ya go. My apologies, the first post is gonna be longggg.
Background..
January 31, 2016, my (great) Uncle and I drove down to Beasley, Texas (we live in Waco) and I bought a mostly rust free 82 J10 with 93k, 360/727/np219. Was told "it runs, just rough and it has a bit of rust." Well, it wouldn't start, but it tried. Good enough for me.. $1200 and I loaded it up. Truck came with 2 extra hoods, Cherokee bucket seats (original bench seat was close to 100%), extra Waggy doors, new carpet, NOS tonneau cover, extra tailgate, extra grille shell.. just tons of stuff. Long story short, I sold more parts out of the truck than I paid for the vehicle.
Pulled the truck into the shop, cleaned it out, put in new plugs and wires and got it to fire with some gas in the carb. There was so much slap in the timing chain I thought we were gonna destroy the timing cover. Decided to pull and rebuild.
My Uncle and I have built a lot of 73-79 Ford trucks since I moved to Texas in October 2015. He is a Ford Fanatic in the purist of forms. I am a JeepFreek, always have been and always will be. I'm 26 now and have owned 8 myself, including my 2000 Grand Cherokee v8 4x4 daily driver. We got to talking one night and I decided we would try something new. I did some research and could not find anything on anybody putting an FE engine in a Jeep truck. That's all I needed to know. The build plans started to take shape
The Beginning of the Build..
Tore the J10 down to bare frame. Sold engine, trans, tcase and everything I wasn't gonna use. Sold more from the truck than I paid for it.
My initial intention was to use the stock running gear, totally rebuilt with deeper gears than the factory 2.73. I am a big fan of the HD 4-spd NP435 with the granny 6.72 first gear and NP205 transfer case. That was the easiest decision to make. In the search for a 435/205, I came across a 79 Bronco with 435/205, HP44 and D60 rear, 8x6.5. Decided that buying the Bronco for $1300 was the way to go. Sold the Bronco 400 engine and stock J10 axles, as well as bellhousing and some miscellaneous stuff for just about what I paid for the Bronco. Now I had my J10, 3/4 ton axles and drivetrain for next to nothing. After some discussion and measuring, I decided to use the Bronco radius arm, coil spring and dual front shock design and rear Ford 2 inch lift, 3 inch wide leaf springs for my suspension. I don't intend to really rock crawl or do anything that rough, but I will definitely be on moderate trails with the J10.
Found a good, complete 390FE in Magnolia, Tx, for $250. Surprisingly enough, it is a standard bore block with D0VE heads! Better flow and some of the better factory, non-CJ/SCJ heads. Had the heart for the project.
So, there's the basis for the build. 4.10 gears, posi-track 60 rear and locked HP44. 390FE/NP435/NP205. 78/79 Bronco radius arm and leaf spring suspension.
Going to try to make posts of the things I've done individually to prepare the body and drivetrain.
I cannot upload photos, they are all too large. So here is a link to my J10 Album in Google Photos. I will update the pictures as I go. You can comment on this album:
Will update as I go. I'm on the FB groups "Jared DeBlois" if you wanna chat.
Thanks y'all!
Background..
January 31, 2016, my (great) Uncle and I drove down to Beasley, Texas (we live in Waco) and I bought a mostly rust free 82 J10 with 93k, 360/727/np219. Was told "it runs, just rough and it has a bit of rust." Well, it wouldn't start, but it tried. Good enough for me.. $1200 and I loaded it up. Truck came with 2 extra hoods, Cherokee bucket seats (original bench seat was close to 100%), extra Waggy doors, new carpet, NOS tonneau cover, extra tailgate, extra grille shell.. just tons of stuff. Long story short, I sold more parts out of the truck than I paid for the vehicle.
Pulled the truck into the shop, cleaned it out, put in new plugs and wires and got it to fire with some gas in the carb. There was so much slap in the timing chain I thought we were gonna destroy the timing cover. Decided to pull and rebuild.
My Uncle and I have built a lot of 73-79 Ford trucks since I moved to Texas in October 2015. He is a Ford Fanatic in the purist of forms. I am a JeepFreek, always have been and always will be. I'm 26 now and have owned 8 myself, including my 2000 Grand Cherokee v8 4x4 daily driver. We got to talking one night and I decided we would try something new. I did some research and could not find anything on anybody putting an FE engine in a Jeep truck. That's all I needed to know. The build plans started to take shape
The Beginning of the Build..
Tore the J10 down to bare frame. Sold engine, trans, tcase and everything I wasn't gonna use. Sold more from the truck than I paid for it.
My initial intention was to use the stock running gear, totally rebuilt with deeper gears than the factory 2.73. I am a big fan of the HD 4-spd NP435 with the granny 6.72 first gear and NP205 transfer case. That was the easiest decision to make. In the search for a 435/205, I came across a 79 Bronco with 435/205, HP44 and D60 rear, 8x6.5. Decided that buying the Bronco for $1300 was the way to go. Sold the Bronco 400 engine and stock J10 axles, as well as bellhousing and some miscellaneous stuff for just about what I paid for the Bronco. Now I had my J10, 3/4 ton axles and drivetrain for next to nothing. After some discussion and measuring, I decided to use the Bronco radius arm, coil spring and dual front shock design and rear Ford 2 inch lift, 3 inch wide leaf springs for my suspension. I don't intend to really rock crawl or do anything that rough, but I will definitely be on moderate trails with the J10.
Found a good, complete 390FE in Magnolia, Tx, for $250. Surprisingly enough, it is a standard bore block with D0VE heads! Better flow and some of the better factory, non-CJ/SCJ heads. Had the heart for the project.
So, there's the basis for the build. 4.10 gears, posi-track 60 rear and locked HP44. 390FE/NP435/NP205. 78/79 Bronco radius arm and leaf spring suspension.
Going to try to make posts of the things I've done individually to prepare the body and drivetrain.
I cannot upload photos, they are all too large. So here is a link to my J10 Album in Google Photos. I will update the pictures as I go. You can comment on this album:
Will update as I go. I'm on the FB groups "Jared DeBlois" if you wanna chat.
Thanks y'all!
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