I just bought a 96 f150 auto trans w/ a bad 302 motor. Needing to do a swap and wondering while at it, how hard to go ahead and upgrade to a 351. Benefits and problems? Will my current computer work with a 351? What all do I need to do this?

 

I'm sure Conanski will chime in soon.

I believe you can easily do that since your truck is mass air. You will need the 5.8 upper and lower intake, but should be able to use your wiring harness.

What transmission do you have?

 

This is a pretty straight forward swap but there is an additional complication because your truck has OBD-2.. you need a complete 5.8 EFI motor from a '96 truck only. You would need a complete 5.8 motor anyway even if you had an earlier truck simply because very few parts transfer from the 5.0, but the OBD-2 system has some additional sensors that earlier motors didn't and that's why your engine choices are further limited.

 

Conanski, what about a New never run gen 1 Lightning , 351? thinking of getting one for my 96, when my 302 dies, also running a 4r7ow mass air odb-2?

 

The Lightning motor is sweet but you will need to add the crank sensor to it since that is one of the OBD-2 only pieces that it won't have. The sensor is two pieces a pickup mouned on the timing cover and a sensor ring that is attached to the the crank balancer. The 5.8 also doesn't have a knock sensor but simply omitting that doesn't seem to cause any issues.

 

Is there anything about automotives that you DON'T know, Paul?

 

Thats bud

 

When we think of Ford Truck Info we think the name Conanski

 

Thanks so much for the input. One more question, found a decent priced 302 out of a 95 bronco with bout 70k miles. Will this be a straight swap or are there any mods I'll need to make?

 

The '95 5.0 you can use very easily, it's identical to the '96 version except for the crank sensor.. which you can transfer over from the blown motor since these two share the same counter balance weight.

 

And that's located at the bottom of the timing cover correct? Down by the harmonic balancer? Also, thought about goin ahead and upgrading the cam if I go with the 302. If I do so, are there any other mods I need to make? Also found a cobra intake on craigslist, how much will this add and what other mods will I need to make. Sorry for all the questions. This is the first efi motor I've messed with.

 

You have some cam choices available to you since this is a mass air truck, but be aware pretty much any cam you use will push the powerband further up the tach so you'll want to regear the truck to compensate.. especially if you have plans for larger tires. The stock cam is actually pretty good if you would prefer to maintain the stock powerband(0-4500rpm) and adding 1.7 rockers will increase the area under the curve.

The Cobra intake is different than the 5.0 truck intake but I don't know if it's an improvement, the truck version actually has larger runners with more throttlebody so you may want to consider keeping it.

 

Sounds good, just tryin to get a lil more power. Are there any bolt-ons that will give me a lil more off the line. Headers, intake, etc.

 

So I made the swap to another 302. Was an exact swap. Got everything hooked up, new hot battery, fluids, air filter. Try to start and just get one click every time. Sounds like a ground or some connection right?

 

sounds like either bad ground or bad wires to the starter i had this problem on my starter and it was some bad wiring to the starter