so, my daily driver 91 F150 has been out of the running with a blown head gasket, and while i dont mind driving my Lincoln, i needed a little pick up ( pun intended) so i got out my summer driver 1995 F150. Regular cab, shortbox, lowered 5/7, on 17 inch steelies. its my little fun truck.



I call him Silver Truck, if the license plate didnt show it already.

Anyways, I've had silver for like 12 years, he only gets driven in the summer months, and has been cruising around with a 300/ M5OD combo. not bad, but i've always had ideas for bigger. Anyways, i pulled the truck out for a cruise last night, the clutch slave cylinder failed on me (internal) and i have decided it's time to pull the six and tranny out.

What im looking to do is swap in a mild 460 using a factory computer and harness, and use an aftermarket 5 or 6 speed transmission behind it. When i say mild build, im talking mostly stock rebuilt bottom end, maybe a little head work, and basically a little cam and headers. nothing too crazy. the transmission will probably end up being a Richmond 5 speed or maybe a Tremec, let me sort that stuff out. basically, what im askingtonight is what do i need to find for a parts truck, and what all do i need to swap, and what will be able to stay?

my hope is to get a 94 or 95 F250/f350 with a 460/5speed. will a 92/93 work, or do i need to stay with the 94/95? would a E series van with a 460/5 speed work as well? can i find an automatic truck, and then locate a different ECM from a 460/5 speed truck?

as far as the swap itself goes, i was planning on transplanting the engine mounts, the underhood harness, the entire drive belt setup, radiator and AC components, and the ECM. will i be able to retain the dash harness from my 95, or does that need to be swapped as well? also, from what i understand the F250's in these years did not have airbags, my 95 has had airbag issues since i got it, so i would like to possibly delete out that setup at this time as well.

So, please, anybody, everybody, shed your light onto me of any info you have. i want to get a suitable parts truck lined up so i can begin the swap and send the engine out for machine work.

 

I converted my '91 F150 from 300 Six power to 460 from a 1990 F250. You will need to change the motor mount perches, obviously, and use the underhood harness from the 460 as the 460 uses a remote mount EEC module. The biggest drawback that I ran into was the F150 crossmember was not chamfered for the 460s oil cooler. I had to employ a remote-mount oil filter to remedy this. If I had known ahead of time, I could have modified the crossmember to allow direct fitting of the oil filter (I took out the oil cooler).

 

thasnks for the imput. i will test fit and check clearances on the corssmember. any other peiple want to holler, shed some light on the subject?

 

Why '94 - '95 but not '96 - '97? If you're concerned about the change to OBD2, that only happened on the F-150s and the California heavier trucks. Most '96 - '97 F-250s and F-350s are still OBD1.

 

i was trying to keep the wiring as similar to the factory 95 wiring, which, as i understood, was 94-95. if 96-97 is a direct swap, then yeah, i would consider it, but im not sure, thats why im asking.

 

You can run no oil cooler for what you want, save some hassle there. 460 is a literal direct swap when going from speed density small block.

Also, for F sake, make compression ~10.5:1....crisp throttle response and gobs of tq over the spongy factory compression. 93 required, but it's a toy, plus you'll have the best mpg 460 bragging rights.

The 8.8 won't like it much, but we all know it's a stout lil guy....could hold up just fine.

 

the best pump gas around here is 89... theres a 91 pump like 20 miles from here. so im gonna go closer to like a 9.5 to 1 compression.

the Lightning 8.8, with its extra supports and 4.10 gearing, will survive the abuse that i feed it. if it wont, i have a 9 inch out of an 81 F150, and a way to convert the speedo to GPS signal.

I'm still waiting for someone to give me some compatible years for the swap tho.

 

Any year works, and it's safe to assume you won't find an obd2 package. If you get the computer from the exact truck you get the engine donor, it's all plug and play. If not, things you need to be sure of are the ignition module and possibly the egr sensor - the older ones have the evps, newer models have an egr flow sensor. I say possibly because I'm not positive that the 460 made the switch to the egr flow sensor....

Later 460s (94-97?) have better heads

 

The wiring for 460 trucks was all the same up until the '97 Model Year. The only exception are the extremely rare 96-97 California OBD-2 460 trucks. But like I said, those are very rare.

I wouldn't bother trying to hard to find a donor truck with a 5 speed. The ZF5 is garbage for what you're trying to do (the Tremec like you mentioned would be much better)
The computer is not a big deal, and the automatic computer will be more or less okay with a manual transmission, albeit with a check engine light on. You can always swap in a manual computer later.

 

so, from what im hearing, the 94-up trucks had the better heads, and a 94-97 truck would work for a donor,. i would not need to swap the dash harness, only the underhood harness and the computer.

the added bonus to finding a 5 speed truck would be that i would have a spare tranny for my 91 F250, 460/5 speed. but yeah, if an auto truck fell into my lap, im sure i could source the computer from a local yard.

 

You don't even need to swap underhood harness unless for some reason your connectors won't reach certain sensors.

 

i currently have a 300 in there, so im guessing it's going to be pretty different.

 

92-97 harness
87-97 engine
83-97 engine perches

No need to worry about the heads since you will be porting them

 

Oh, sorry, I thought you had a 302 for some reason. Yep, need harness.

 

anybody have a clue if the E series van will work? i have a lead on an E350 cube van, 95, 460/5 speed that was rolled over.