I'm a diesel guy, and I've hardly got any expertise with gas engines. I hope ya'll can help me with a gas engine question with the OBS.

I'm working on a 2wd 1996 F150 with a 5.8l EFI and E4OD. The engine is bad, apparently blew the main bearings. I'm looking at buying a used running junkyard motor to swap in and get it back on the road.

I've got a line on a 5.8l from a 1994 E150. Its listed as MFI (I guess that means Mechanical Fuel Injection, ie carbeurated?) What would it take to swap this over? I guess I'd need to swap my throttle body over at least. Will it work at all? Any year-year differences I should be aware of?

I'm grateful for any help y'all might give me here. Thanks!

 

MFI == MultiPoint Fuel Injection.

Pull the engine out of the van, assuming that it's a runner, pull the intake manifold. Put the Intake Manifold and Exhaust Manifolds off of your F150 onto the running engine. Stuff it back in there, and hook everything back up. The long blocks on these motors are identical. I don't know exactly what intake or electronic differences there are between a '96 F150 and an 94 E150, but I *think* all of the 1996 F150's were OBD-II and Mass Air setups. I don't think the 94's were.

 

MFI= Mutlipoint EFI. All that means is the engine control system is Mass Airflow (MAF). Easy swap. You need need to swap the misfire detector sensor and balancer w/stator from the 1996 engine onto the donor engine. You also need to swap the EGR tube, valve and DPFE sensor (and silicone hoses) from the 1996 onto the 1994 donor. Truck exhaust manifolds most likely as well.

 

Actually no.. it just means it has an injector for each cylinder, this truck would have the OBD1 SD system on it.

+1 to all that but I'll add all engine wiring to the list. Your '96 1/2 ton is OBD2 while the '94 is OBD1 so the engine wiring is very different. The basic motor is identical however as is the upper/lower intake with the possible exception of the IAT sensor. This sensor may be in the lower intake on the '94 but I'm pretty certain it's in the airbox on your truck, if that is the case just ignore the one in the lower intake, so no need to exchange the intakes but you do have to remove the upper portion to change the wiring. I also think the exhaust manifolds are the same so likely no need to change those either.

 

Great, thanks for the input! The engine from the van is (allegedly) a runner according to the junkyard, so I will keep looking into it. Recommendations of how I should check it out before I buy it? I planned to at least spin the crank by hand. Junk man says he'll pull it when I pay for it, so I guess its still in the van.

 

They probably won't, but if you can get them to do it, have them fire it up before they pull it, so you can hear it run. They shouldn't honestly have any problem doing that if its a "runner" like they claim. Otherwise, there's not really that much you can check, other than just give the exterior of the engine the once over, has it had any major leaks, etc? If you've got one, pulling the plugs and getting a borescope down in there to see if the cylinder walls are all chewed up or not, isn't a terrible idea.

 

Well, I called the junkyard back this morning and they told me they would not let me inspect the engine before purchase. That's a hard pass for me! So I'm back to looking. What range of years on the 5.8l will interchange with mine, with simple modification like the manifolds?

 

Any '94+ 5.8 is the same basic motor as yours.

 

Technically any 351W long block will bolt right in. The thing you're giving up with a pre-94 Engine is it will be a flat tappet cam, instead of a roller cam. Otherwise, your intake and exhaust setup will bolt right on.

 

Good to know about the cam differences. We found a running engine out of a 96 F150 from a local yard! We are dropping it in today.

 

We got the old engine pulled without much fanfare. I did break a vacuum nipple on this thing. What is it?

 

I think that is the canister purge solenoid.

 

Vapor Management Valve (VMV). A 1996 F150/Bronco does not have a Canister Purge valve (CANP). It's a one year only item for this vintage truck 1996 (OBD-II). Yes it provides the same functionality but you cannot swap one for the other.

 

Unless that engine came from Cali, isn't that 5.0?

Just asking.

 

Looks 351W to me due to the oil cooler. Upper runners pretty skinny too.