Well I thought I'd start this thread to start keeping track and generating some discussion! It'll be a couple years in the making, for sure, but better to start now!

I'm going to swap a 3.5L Ecoboost into my 1980 F150, and I'd like to mate it to a manual trans. Ford makes the EB engine as a crate (M-6007-35T) but it's way too much $. I'll probably buy a donor truck for the engine.

Our trucks are about 4200 lbs give or take.. EB engine rated at 385 HP 420 lb/ft I believe. (new EB 4-door curb weight is about 6000lb, so the EB enging should be quite a sleeper in my 1980.. .especially with 4inch exhaust, new air intake, and, _________ (fill in the blank)

So far what I know:

- We can buy a 3.5L EB donor from copart.com for about $5000 probably

- I want to keep everything looking stock, but have the EB under the hood, with a manual trans....yikes.

- Right now, Ford Racing is building all their aftermarket EBs with an ECU from a company called Danzio Performance Engineering (Cali.) The ECU is called the F88 and costs about $10k to get going.. but, caveat is that it won't even link in with peoples gauge cluster. It literally just gets the engine started...

- However, Ford Racing is apparently coming out with a control pack including: PCM, wiring harness throttle pedal by 2014 (so lets say, summer 2014)...Will this allow the EB to tie into stock gauges etc?? I'm not sure....

- Apparently the only manual tranny that would mount to this is the 6 speed getrag MT82 from the mustangs...rated at 385 lb ft torque at 10,000 lbs....

Anyways I'm starting this up now. Realistically I won't even purchase the engine for another 6 months, or until it's otherwise feasible - but I want to get this thread going now so that I can post my thoughts, and gain some insight and feedback along the way -

Some cool links, I've found in my search:

- This guy is doing an awesome build (the only one I can find), but using the entire EB dash in his 66 due to computer issues 1966 F100 EcoBoost Engine Swap (EcoBoosted) - Page 32 - The Garage Journal Board

- FreakO Boost mods: The FReak-O-Boost | Full-Race.com

- Discussion on EB swap: 3.5L Ecoboost Retro-Fit - SVTPerformance

 

Subscribed...

I love hearing about stuff like this.

 

Pictures.

 

This is madness, and I like it.

 

haha, yes I will post lots of pictures, but I don't have any yet!

I don't even have the engine and don't plan on getting it for another 3-6 months - There is a lot to know and learn.

Besides the fella putting the EB in the '66, who is doing an amazing job btw, this is pretty uncharted territory. Unfortunately, he has been battling some health issues and hasn't updated his thread in some time.

Well, I've got this, which is what the ecoboost crate engine comes with -



So Ford Racing is selling this crate engine, but I haven't heard of anyone buying it. Not even sure what they'd do with it right now...The only people buying are probably the same guys that bought $20,000 lcd tv's back in 2001!

I'll have to figure out exactly what else is needed to get the thing running. I mean, if Ford is selling the crate and expect to have the 'control pack' for sale soon that's promising at least... the Ford Racing guy told me the control pack will retail "in the teens probably" so $13-1900... the crate engine I've seen online for $8700..$teeep. There are more and more EcoBoost's getting salvaged these days, so that's my best bet for the engine at least.

Buying a donor truck will be especially useful just to see how everything is set up in that truck, but I'll have to wait until that control pack is available to get this thing running in my truck. The guy putting the EB in his '66 bought a salvaged 2011 Ecoboost with 6030 miles...for $3500!

 

What I saw is that FRPP isn't selling the engines yet because of the lack of a control pack. They just intend to sell them and they have their prices set. Maybe I read it wrong.

 

Bringing this back from the dead. Anything happen with this??

 

I thought about doing the same thing in my truck 2 years back, but figured it would be too much hassle to get everything to work right.

I have seen a 5.4 Triton in a Bullnose for sale on eBay a few years ago. They were able to get it to fit (it had a stick too) so I would think an EcoBoost 3.5 will fit like butta. Just a matter of fabbing up crossmembers and all the supporting hardware needed.

 

I'm curious about the connecting a manual to an ecoboost. I'm bored of this automatic stuff.

 

At work we are going to be swaping in a coyote motor with all the bells and whistles into a 82 F150 long wheelbase work truck that the guy wants as a sleeper. I might not be with the business by time we get to putting that one back together as I will be moving out of Houston. But it can be done though, even for an Ecoboost engine.

 

Haven't had a chance to get to it, the last I checked - which was pretty recent - Ford won't have their control pack for the eco-boost ready until mid 2015... don't even know how reliable that timeline is...In the meantime, I got my truck running and took it on a maiden voyage across Canada.. I do very much want to complete this ecoboost project, and I will - but the timing has to be right. This is my daily driver right now, so I'm going to wait until the parts and everything are a little more accessible. That might be a year, maybe 18 months...

 

Glad to hear the project hasn't died off and is just in waiting.

 

Desert racing guys are running the ecoboost. There are setups available. I just don't know from whom or how much.

 

I am sure a COMPETENT tuner can set the factory dcm up for a manual.

Just buy a wrecked Eb F150

 

I am looking at putting the 3.5L EcoBoost in a '94 F-150... I'm running into the same issues you are... Price is high and knowledge base is low. It makes sense to pool our knowledge here :-)