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I had an old tired 302 rebuilt and am ready to finish the swap into my '52 F1. Does anyone have some suggested dimensions for the final resting place of the motor with an AOD transmission, Mustang II front end as far as where to weld the motor mounts? Also, I've been looking at a number of ignition kits but not sure what is over the top for racing (rev limiters etc) and what is necessary for a daily driver. I bought a universal wiring kit from painless performance so should have a good start there. I've done some searching on here but not finding anything definitive on either account. Here's a couple of photos of the motor, I think it turned out great. Any direction here would be appreciated. Thank you.
The way I always do it is get a Plastic formed 302 block or EMPTY 302 junk block with a rear sump installed install block huger headers and EMPTY transmission casing bolt up and lift it in and set it and mark engine mounts and trans mount-- I always use the Ford HEI distributor with correct gear--Good Luck
I have '90 EFI 5.0L in my '50 F!. No room for mechanical fan, so electric, with stock fan shroud in place.
I know I offset engine 1 3/4" to pass side to match 2001 Explorer rear.
I can give you some measurements for mounts if you need them, had to "mod/fab" my own mounts , especially on driver side to clear steering linkage to MII rack/pinion.
I bought these motor mounts so hopefully I can do something to make them work. I have the same explorer rear end so a photo of how the engine compartment ended up would be awesome. Any key measurements like distance from firewall etc would much appreciated.
Thanks,
Grant
You can ask 10 guys for their measurements and get 10 different answers. My advice is for you to set your engine/trans combo in the compartment and find the best fit, then weld your mounts in accordingly. Everyone's build is unique, even if just by a little bit. It might be the tilt, the offset, the oil pan, filter location, or any one of a hundred little things that could trip you up. Even a 'general location' won't do you much good, you know where it needs to go. Be sure you have your radiator, fan, steering gear/shaft and exhaust you plan to use on hand so you only have to do it once. There is no 'one-size-fits-all' for custom engine swaps. The good news is it should fit pretty easy. My 2c. Good luck.
Here's a pretty good article about installing a 302 in an F1. Good pics showing the builders mounts and his steering setup with the Mustang II front. I'm right at this same spot as soon as I get the motor out of my donor.
I have '90 EFI 5.0L in my '50 F!. No room for mechanical fan, so electric, with stock fan shroud in place.
I know I offset engine 1 3/4" to pass side to match 2001 Explorer rear.
I can give you some measurements for mounts if you need them, had to "mod/fab" my own mounts , especially on driver side to clear steering linkage to MII rack/pinion.
Man i thought i was going nuts mounting it with only a 3/4" offset.
On topic, I think the answer is really just to mate the motor and trans, put it on the hoist and shove it around until everything's happy. I ended up with the golden zone being with the rear of the heads about half an inch in front of the firewall, and with the transmission about a milimeter above the stock crossmember. Sits a little high but the M5R2 is thick as all hell apparently, and wasn't letting me go any lower, and the structural rib on the bell housing kept it from going any farther back.
Its a hair far forward and high than would be ideal. But the transmission dictated where it was going and i kinda want a stock F3 with a more modern driveline in it so frankly it turned out alright, despite the gasser vibe the it's got going on.
Hey Gruhter,
Welcome aboard. Hmmm... I agree with Wayne you really just need to mock it up & see
how it fits for you... We have a 1950 F1 with a 351W/AOD & a Mustang II front end...
fairly similar to your truck. A few thoughts:
o Mount your engine over toward the passenger side by an inch or two. You need room on the driver's
side to get your steering through to the rack.
o AOD - we had to tunnel our cab a bit to get the AOD to fit under there.
I know some folks didn't have to do it but to Wayne's point … in our truck we had to
build a bigger hump in the floor pan to make it work.
o Electric Fan - It's a tight fit up front. You will not have room for a mechanical fan.
We really had to work it to get a nice size electric fan in there. We finally ended up with a
Mark VIII 4000 CFM electric fan from a V8 Tbird. You need a big fan in Texas to keep it cool enough.
o Starter - You will want to use a small mini-starter to get around the headers.
o Waterpump - If I had it to do over I'd go with a Shorty Waterpump set
up - just nice to have the extra few inches up in front of the radiator.
o Mustang II Rack Linkage - It's a challenge. We used a 30 inch Ididit column with
some really creative Borgerson joints to get to the rack. You'll have to play with it.
o Radiator - There are 2 slots for mounting your radiator. Mount your radiator in the
farthest forward position.
Good luck up there in Ft. Worth. If you want to see our truck
some time it's in Waco at my son's house most of the time… just down IH35 from you in Ft. Worth.
We had a lot of help setting our truck up... it will fit … but it does take some work.
Just noticed the responses on here and appreciate the information. You were exactly correct....just fit it up in there and see where it lands. I just put it as close to the firewall as reasonably possible and a little shim between the oil pan and MII crossmember. I think it worked great. I think the summit hugger headers I bought aren't going to work because of conflicts with the starter (even bought a mini starter) so may try purchasing some more with the option of taking them back before i paint this set. Any suggestions on headers you know worked?
Steering linkage is going to get interesting like you mentioned but have 3 ball joints and a support bracket so i've got some flexibility.
Ben, next time I know i'm going to Waco I may look you guys up. Thanks all for the info. Heres a couple shots of it installed.
Hey Gruhter,
That looks nice. Have you mocked up the radiator & fan up front?
That might have been our tightest spot. How far did you go over toward the
passenger side with your engine?
Keep up the momentum you are doing great. I bet you we had our's mocked up
& installed 4 different times. If you got it on the first try … you are the man.
Ben in Austin
1950 F1 (351W./AOD)
I'll take a look back at my stuff to see what headers we used, I'm pretty sure they were from Speedway.
Thanks, I got them from Summit. They took some creative trimming to get the angle right with the boxed frame but not too bad. I hope I don't have too much of a conflict with the bottom support and the steering linkage but so far so good. Here's a link.
Thanks Ben,
I centered the engine and transmission....was that not the correct thing to do? first time doing this obviously ha. I mocked up the radiator before I installed the pulleys and It had plenty of room but will need to check it out again now.
Thanks,
Grant
I use Sanderson headers exclusively for my SBF builds. Here is the last 56 F100 project I did showing the header fitment. Collector drops nicely out of the way of the starter and gives plenty of clearance for motor mounts.
Here are a few points i leaned when mounting mine. Go to passenger side 1-3/4 inches. use shorty headers . In 1967 they made a starter that is smaller for mustang with headers buy a new one of these unless you go with small aftermarket. remove the forward curved braces for using stock oil filters. Check your angles for driveshaft before bolting or welding up permanently. .
