Hey all,

New here so let me begin by introducing myself. I'm a freshman in college for auto restoration in McPherson,KS. I own a 95 f150 4x4 thats been my baby for the last 2 years and i absolutely love these trucks. As much time and money as ive put into her i could be driving a much newer truck but i intend to keep this truck till the day i die. Bought her bone stock and have been modifying as money allows. Did the paint and body work myself as well as a 4" suspension lift and alot of minor mechanical repairs along the way.

Now, the current issue i'm having with the truck is she's underpowered and tired. The stock 5.0 has been ran pretty hard and combined with the lousy 3.08 gears, it doesnt get anywhere in a hurry.

My plan was originally to build and upgrade the 5.0 but after doing some research and with the input of my mechanic friends, i'm leaning towards a 5.8 swap.

Here are my questions.
-Am i going to need to swap computers in order to get the most out of the 5.8?

-What kind of wiring harness modifications will be neccesary?

-I have an AOD tranny currently. I am aware it will need upgraded to handle the added power, but is this trans even compatible with the 5.8 setup? or should i go ahead and swap to an E4OD?

-My plans are to completely rebuild the 5.8 and add a more aggressive cam along with longtube headers and possibly larger injectors. Advice on cams or what to do on a budget to get the most out of this engine?

-Lastly, gears? i plan on bumping up to 35s eventually, so would 4:10s be my best bet?

Thanks, Matt.

Also heres a picture of her! if it works anyway.

 

Welcome. I hope I can answer some questions for you.

1. If your truck is a MAF setup, you can use the 5.0 computer on the 5.8 as it will adapt to the larger engine on it's own. There are limitations however. If you get aggressive enough with upgrades to need new injectors or the heads flow too well you will need a tuner for the EEC. It can only compensate so much.

2. If it is already MAF, none. If it isn't, the only option I can mention now is an ENTIRE engine bay harness swap to a MAF harness as the only company that sold the conversion overlay harness just got shut down.

3. The AOD should be ok behind the 351, but it may require a new flex plate. I am not 100% on transmissions. I do know that if you throw some upgrades at the 351, a rebuild to beef the trans up is a great idea.

4. Intake, heads, cam and exhaust are usually the recommendations made. And for a real gain, all need to be done. Wait for a member Conanski to get on and post as he knows a lot about getting god power out of these engines. For the cam, it depends on the block you get. Blocks before 94 are flat tappet cams. In 94 they went to roller cams I believe. Roller and flat tappet cams are different. You can convert a flat tappet 351 to a roller I believe. Again, wait and see if Conanski post's up here.

5. If your going to 35's, 4.56 gears are the way to go. 4.10's are for 33's.

Your image doesn't show up either. In order for it to work you need to upload the image to an image hosting site like Photobucket or Supermotors. Once they are uploaded there, copy the image URL over and it should show up.

 

More than likely your 95 has a 4R70W trans , you want to use a 94 + roller cam 351 , you could just add 1.7 roller rockers and GT 40 heads , long tube headers , 456 gears with 35s , if its mass air just use the 5.0 computer...

 

Thanks for all the info guys! Yes it is a MAF and I do plan on getting a 94+ 351 so that's great news to hear the swap is that easy. I had heard multiple different things so wanted to clarify. As far as the trans goes, it might be the 4r70w, all I know is when I flushed it and put a new gasket and filter on it I used the AOD parts. As far as mods, would gt40 heads and intake be a good choice? I'm aiming for around 300 hp to the wheels if that helps any. And the current exhaust I'm running is true duals 2.25" no cats to flowmaster super 44s. With the longtubes would this give good enough flow or should I go with a larger diameter? Also with 35s and 4:56s will the truck still be practical at highway speeds? I don't plan on long distance trips but I often take the truck on short road trips (hour or so) when going fishing and hunting. Thanks again for the help guys. And ill have to set up a photobucket. I did upload an album to my profile so check it out!

 

To get 300 hp to the wheels your going to need a good intake , a lot of cam , some good heads , something like AFR or trick flow , upgrade fuel system , bigger fuel pump , 30# injectors and a good tuner or custom chip , or a super charger , if you build the motor i would go 2 1/2 on the exhaust , i think 4.56 would be fine with 35s , JMO , conanski may be able to run a desktop dyno for you to give you an idea of what you need and where your going to make your power at , i think you have a 4R70W , I'm thinking the pan on the AOD is the same as the 4R70W , witch is a much better trans ....

 

GT40 heads and intake or similar and a little more cam like the 35-349-8 will make 300hp at the crank give or take with very streetable torque output. This motor will feel a lot more powerful than the 5.0 you currently have and I would never suggest you not do the swap but the First thing your truck needs is gears.. especially if it's already sitting on 33" rubber. Get this done and also make sure you get the speedo recalibrated so you're not driving faster than normal, and you should actually see an improvement in fuel milage across the board.

 

300 at the crank would be fine by me, i think now im putting out less than 200. I'm hoping to keep it around 1500 in the motor, assuming i do the build myself.I know the rebuild kit itself is only around $300 from summit, and i have access to machinery to bore the cylinders and do head work. Ive already been quoted at 1100 to have the tranny rebuilt and upgraded. Am i going to need to worry about having the block decked before swapping heads or should it be ok? And yeah i know it needs gears badly, 3:08s running 33s is killing it. Where is a good place to get gears for both front and rear axles? it has the dana 44 twin i-beam up front and i am not certain on the rear but i think its the ford 8.8? also how difficult is recalibrating the speedo? it is already off pretty bad. At 70 on the speedo i am actually doing around 82 according to gps reading. This isnt a huge concern to me but it would certainly be nice to have it read correctly. Thanks for all the info guys!

 

Also one more quick question. Am i going to have to remove the 5.0 motor mounts and swap them with 5.8 mounts?

 

Anybody??

 

....I think the mounts are the same as far as i know , but if they are worn nows the time to replace them ...

 

As far as getting gears goes look up east coast gear supply. They have pretty good prices on new stuff and also sell used and rebuilt. I'm pretty sure you can order a carrier with gears and everything installed so you can speed up the process of changing everything over

 

So I am doing the same swap right now as well. looks like the accessory brackets will fit on the 351 from a 302 as they bolt to the head and have an extra hole that allows it to key properly to the water pump.

I am also getting a EGR delete plug off ebay so I can plug it properly. the 351 intake does not have the same port on the intake for the EGR.

The only issue I am still running into is the Knock sensor. 351w don't have a knock sensor and the 302 MAF harness does. I am still trying to figure out if I just unplug it or if I should just put the sensor into it and secure it to the rest of the harness so it is still intact. If anyone knows how to do this part please let me know (not to hijack a thread).

 

sorry yes. you can keep your mounts, timing cover, valve covers, fuel rails (just have to lengthen the cross over tube) water pump if you want to ... but i replaced mine. even the oil pressure sending unit is the same ... and egr ... but who needs that.

still have no idea on the knock sensor

 

Motor mounts seem fine from what i can tell. I dont have any rust on the truck other than surface rust on the frame and everything appears to be tight. i'll just have to see how the situation looks when i get everything stripped. BigBlueBomb, thanks for the input. Since you're already in the process might i ask if you ran into any issues along the way? Fairly straightforward? I have some experience rebuilding motors and have put in a motor before but never with a fuel injected setup. Just wondering if its going to be as simple as pulling the old motor, swapping accesories onto the new one when it is finished, and hooking everything back up. Aside from the few modifications you mentioned.

 

This swap is super easy to do when it comes to swaps. the difference in deck height is very negligible in these huge engine bays. assuming you have the long block built (that's your own can of worms to decide on) its easy going from there. The harness is super simple and a lot of the stcok 302 parts work on these 351w. they may not make the greatest power in the world, but they will work to get the swap done and you can upgrade as time goes on.

the first thing to do is pull the old timing cover off of your 302, clean it up, install a new drive shaft seal, and use some black RTV to stick it to the new block. i opted to buy a lot of new bolts for my project and just took the old ones with lowes for length and size reference. do yourself a favor and draw the water pump and timing cover on a piece of cardboard and put the bolts through where they go. many are different lengths and you will never remember where they go.

Next you need to install your water pump which if your doing a motor swap/build i am assuming you know how to do this part.

install the balancer on the front of the engine. remember you need to buy a new one that is the 28oz counterbalance as apposed to the 302's 50 oz. DO NOT REUSE THE 302 ON THE 351. it may fit but is not right. i heated mine up a little with a torch to expand the metal and help it go on. i then also put a little grease around the seal ... not a step everyone takes but it helps keep crap out.

the wiring harness will be your biggest hurdle, but its very simple. half of the crap on there is lines for the damn EGR equipment. if you buy the 25$ egr delete off ebay and bolt a plate to the side of the intake (use a gasket to seal it) then you can get ride of half that crap.

starting from the front right side of the engine on the side of the timing cover you have an oil pressure sending unit. the 302 has the same one but just buy a new one from your parts store. they are like 7$ and not worth getting it out. moving up you have the water temp sending unit, this is in the intake. then you have all of your wires for your fuel injectors. there is a knock senor on the back but like I said before I have NO idea what to do about that yet. take it out of the block and keep it in case you need to just plug it in later. there is no way to make it work with the 351 properly.

a ton of the vacuum lines in this harness are for the EGR things. the 2 main ones that are not run to the valve on the driver side fuel rail and the other runs to the heater box. however in order to remove the EGR system you will also need to plug the holes in the back of the heads. You can purchase the plugs online as the front of the heads have the same ones that have been plugged and that your acc bracket will bolt into (front and back of heads are same as you can put them on any side of the engine). just remember to use a little dab of black rtf to the threads to make a good seal.

Valve covers can be re used but new chrome ones from auto zone are $30 which is what i am doing. you will need new headers or if you want to get it done on the cheap get some manifolds from the junk yard. 302 ones will not work. make sure if you do get manifolds to make sure they have a bung for the O2 sensor or get one put in. the MAF computer mainly uses the air coming into the engine and the amount of Oxygen in the exhaust to calculate how much fuel it should be using. that's why it can handle the extra 49 cubes ... its stupid simple.

also remember you need a new flex plate. again the 302 has a 50oz one and you need a 28oz. also remember that you need at the very least a new distributor gear, or a completely new distributor. you want the gear to mate to the cam gear and a used one will not be worn in the right way to mate correctly.

when taking everything apart just remember to label everything with tape and mark a number on it. take plenty of pictures and take your time.


you can skip first min of the video as its just back story on the truck. this was my first video of my build.