By the time we'd had The Juice (our '93 Bronco) for a few weeks, it had become apparent to us that something would have to be done about the engine. The original 351 Windsor V-8 leaked both coolant and oil. It constantly ran hot and a regular clicking noise had us guessing that there was a problem in one of the cylinder heads. We'd been excited to start making suspension and body mods to the Bronco, but common sense dictated that we get the thing running right first-it wouldn't be very cool to have long travel suspension and fancy fiberglass but still get stuck out in the middle of the desert with a blown engine. We thought it was time for an engine rebuild.
Then, we stumbled across ATK Engines. Turns out they're the largest private label crate engine remanufacturer in North America, supplying engines to many of the large auto-parts chains across the nation. Better yet, they stock direct-replacement engines for over 60,000 vehicle applications, so we had no problems getting our hands on one that would pass California emissions standards. ATK is the only remanufacturer in the nation that holds a TS16949 certification, which means they're rated as an OEM-quality engine supplier. Each engine they sell comes with a 3-year unlimited-mileage warranty on parts and labor. ATK doesn't sell engines directly to the public, so we ordered ours from Gearhead Engines, an online powertrain retailer that sells ATK.. We were really surprised and grateful when the engine showed up in less than a week (the story was due soon).
When we were ready to tackle the engine swap, we headed to the venerable Off Road Evolution shop in Fullerton, California. It was time to get rid of the old and bolt in the new...er, remanufactured....
To us, the stock replacement ATK engine looked beautiful (it represented a running truck!). But we've already started thinking of more parts to bolt on. Edelbrock is headquartered in Torrance, California, a short drive from Off Road Evolution, so we paid the fine folks there a visit and picked up some shorty headers along with some cool vintage-style valve covers. Now armed with everything we needed, we started dressing the ATK engine in preparation for the install.
The next few hours were spent attaching transplant accessories from the old engine to the ATK one. This included hooking up the fuel lines, flywheel, spark plugs, distributor cap, oil pan, and several emissions-related parts. The large and unsightly intake plenum was bolted on the very top of the intake manifold, and when all was attached, we hoisted the engine in order to drop it back in the Bronco.
It's worth noting that all of the items from the original engine were carefully cleaned before we bolted them on the new one. Dirty residue left over from years of use was visible on the old parts, and there was no way we were going to let this stuff get in the ATK engine (in fact, it would void the warranty).
It took some twisting and turning to get the engine back under the hood, and it was definitely a two-person job (a third helper would have been welcome). When we did have the engine sitting squarely on the mounts and the flywheel as bolted to the transmission, we started re-attaching all of the engine accessories to the vehicle. Some of these accessories were easy to plug back in, but some (especially the emissions-related equipment) were a little more tricky. Luckily, we had taken some photos of the original engine before we yanked it out, so we studied those in order to make sure everything got hooked up as it was before. We set the timing and fired up the engine. To our satisfaction, it purred like a kitten.
 This was a common ritual before...  This was a common ritual before the engine swap. On a recent drive from Moab to Los Angeles, we stopped sixteen times to refill the engine oil and coolant. As you might imagine, this kind of drudgery is aggravating, although it is entirely possible that we might have made the stops anyways to buy Editor Jones even more snacks. |  They call it a crate engine...  They call it a crate engine for a reason! Our remanufactured ATK direct-replacement 351 cubic inch V-8 showed up neatly packed and devoid of any shipping-related damage. It also served as a lunch table as we pulled the old V-8 out of the Bronco. |  We stopped by a local NAPA...  We stopped by a local NAPA store and picked up the following before we started the swap: spark plugs and wires, a distributor cap, a serpentine belt, an oil filter, oil, sealant, a water pump, new hoses, and a thermostat. We also purchased a new oil pump screen and some engine mounts. The total bill was just over $300. |