I am swapping a 302 from a '93 F150 in place of the 302 in my son's '95 F150. This should be plug-n-play, right?

 

As far as I can remember there shouldn't be any difference between the 93 & 95 motors.

 

OK, well, plug-n-play is out. The guy said it was a '93 but it is older, like '88 or '89 I would guess. It has the 4 round plugs to connect the engine harness to the computer, I think that stopped in '91, plus it has an AOD trans bolted to it. I bought it anyway because a) I need a motor and b) it was very cheap. I will need to take the top-motor stuff off mine (upper intake, engine harness, fuel rail, distributor) and swap it. I have 2 questions:

1) How can I tell exactly what year this motor is?
2) Since it is a non-roller, and I need the distributor off of my roller motor, can I just swap em? I think I read the distributor gear is different? Do I need to swap the distributor gear to use the '95 distributor?

 

Rule #1 when doing an engine swap is NEVER use any wiring that comes with the donor motor, remove the upper intake, disconnect it all and throw it away.
These are only a few minor differences in these engines related to the distributor and IAT sensor. The older motor has a flat tappet cam with a cast distributor drive gear and a TFI module on board while the '95 has a steel roller cam and matching distributor gear and uses a remote TFI. You will want to use the '95 distributor so swap the drive gears. The IAT sensor is located in the lower intake on the early motor while it is in the airbox on the '95, so you just need to leave the lower intake sensor disconnected when you put the motor in. Also make sure you use the '95 flexplate when you install the motor, but I don't see any reason you would have to change the fuel rail.

 

What is different about the flexplate?

The reason I need to swap the fuel rail is that the '89 (or whatever it is) connectors for the pressure and return lines face in different directions than the '95 and I don't think there is enough slack in the lines from the tank to accomodate that. The older motor had "intermediate" hard lines that went between the fuel rail and the fuel lines from the tank, whereas on the '95, the tank lines connect directlly to the fuel rail.

 

Don't know the answer to the rest but to find out the exact year of the engine you can check the casting numbers.

The casting number is behind the starter.

if it starts with an E it is a 80s engine
if it start with an F it is a 90s engine

the next number will be the exact year

after that will be if it is a truck engine or not by TE or something like that.


For example the engine I got for my 88 F150 has a casting number E7TE meaning it is a 87 truck engine.
Trav

 

Different offset. If you were to put an E4OD flexplate on an AOD it will destroy the transmission the first time the engine is fired.. pushes the TC back to far and grinds up the pump. I don't know that the same thing would happen going the other way but why take the chance.

Yes OK, in that case change the fuel rail, it'll make the swap more plug and play.

 

OK I see what you are getting at. I bought this engine as a set with an AOD trans bolted to it, so the flexplate should be good, but as you say, why take a chance?

 

Decoding Ford casting part numbers

 

Well Ford must have stopped doing this because I have 2 302s at my house now and neither has casting numbers like those shown here:

The Ford 289 and 302 Engine Block

The supposed date stamp under the distributor that is shown there is blank on my motors. There are some casting numbers up under the starter, but both motors say "FISE" and "4L2" which is not what I am supposed to be looking for I do not believe. I think this info maybe only applies to older motors?

 

Started it up last night and runs good and soooo much quieter than the old motor. I did have to change the firing order to the "old" 302 order. Still don't know what year motor it is but it's in pretty good shape, compression was 170-180 on all cylinders.

 

F1SE designates a '91 casting date and means your blocks will be roller ready even if they don't have a roller cam in them at the present time, engine assembly date stamps were discontinued way back so you won't find those on any late model engine.