Another swap question from me. I posted earlier about a 351M swap into the same 1992 F-150 and received some great information, but now the guy w/ the 92 has already acquired a 5.0 H.O. engine for the same purpose due to not being able to get the low mileage 351M he was after.

Anyways, on to the questions.

1. Are the regular old 302 engine mounts going to bolt up properly to the 302 H.O?(As far as I know the truck has the same block minus the roller camshaft, so I'm assuming the motor mounts won't be an issue)

2. Will the trucks EFI/computer setup be compatible with the HO engine(it's going to be modified a bit before going in the truck = cam, headwork, larger MAF/throttle body and a couple of other things)? If not, can I simply swap the HO engine harness + computer over to the truck, or am I going to run into some wiring issues there(no biggie, just want to know what to expect so I can procure the wiring diagrams I need).

3. Will headers for the stock 302 motor bolt up to the HO motor(I believe the owner of the F-150 already has some dynomax longtubes that supposedly work w/ the stock motor)?

That's about all I can think of at the moment to ask about. Thanks in advance for any information!

 

header and motor mounts will work I dont know about the wiring harness .Just put a H.O motor in my 95 but used truck manifold onething I did find out there is a difference in the timing cover I had bought a water pump for the truck and it wouldnt stop leaking finally figured out the water passages were diffent shape in the truck compared to the car motor .other than that simple swap

 

Thanks for that info. I just finished browsing the 37 pages of the engine swap section of the forum scouting for relevant info(yeah, I know, I shoulda searched first ) and found a few things of interest. In one thread, someone said that the truck oil pan + oil pickup needs to be used(I sorta expected that going from a car to truck). Also, it seems that everyone is having wiring issues in getting there motors running right(I suppose most of those were on the stock 5.0 harness instead of swapping over). I'll likely end up just taking ALL the H.O's wiring and transplanting it into the truck, I dont' think it will be that bad doing so. I was also reading on how most are using truck intakes on their HO swaps.


Now for more questions that those other threads provoked.

4. Will a 1992 Ford F-150 have a kick down cable for the automatic transmission, or were they electronically controlled by this time?

5. Are there any issues besides throttle cable brackets/placement in using an aftermarket mustang intake(throttle body located on passenger side unlike the trucks stock drivers side throttle body, at least I think that's how the truck is stock)...like clearance(firewall, hood, etc?). Hopefully the truck has no kickdown cable so I can save myself some trouble and just fabricate a new throttle cable.


Sorry for all the questions, but I want to be well prepared for when I dive into this project(real soon).

 

1. All the mounts should be the same.

2. Depending on how big of a cam you are going to run and what headwork is going to be done, the stock truck computer likely won't be able to handle it without a custom chip. The larger MAF is irrelevant if you are going to try to run the stock truck computer - it's not a mass air computer. The mustang harness is much different than the truck harness, and will not just swap right over. What I would suggest is to use the truck harness, and just splice in the things you need from the mustang harness, and go ahead and swap to mass air while you are swapping everything. I'm guessing that the transmission is electronic (E4OD), so you will need a computer from an automatic mustang, '94 or '95 5.0. You will have to move a couple of pins on the 60 pin plug on the truck harness to match the mustang computer as well as wire in 8 injector wires, a second O2 sensor (or split the input from one sensor) and MAF sensor wires (and optionally a canister purge valve and WOT a/c cutout relay). See http://brembs.net/cars/maf_conversion/ for an idea of what is involved in wiring up the mustang computer.

3. Unless you are going to run GT40P heads, the headers should work fine.

4. The automatic is likely electronically controlled and will need a computer to control it. It would not have a kickdown cable if it is the E4OD transmission.

5. If you run a GT40 aftermarket intake manifold, I believe you can turn the upper plenum around so that the throttle body is on the drivers side of the engine, just like a Lightning. If you got a lightning throttle cable, it should bolt right up. Clearance shouldn't be a problem I wouldn't think....

 

Does the 92 302 truck have mass air on it currently. You will need it if you are swicth cams. The easiest option if you are going to put a modified HO motor in is to have a custom chip burned for the ECU and it will run fine. We put a stock HO motor in our 90 f150 and changed the intake and it ran like no other. I am not sure if a cam is necessary unless you are installing one for towing and more low end. Good Luck!

 

I'm not sure if the truck is mass air or not, I suppose it is being a 92, but I'm not certain. Either way, the 5.0 HO will run just like like it does in the Cougar(I believe it's got mass air and not speed density stock, if not, I'll do that conversion also). The stock 5.0 HO engine management(in a mustang at least, I figure the Cougar/T-Birds/etc. that were rated at different power levels have different spark advance and other tuning in the stock ECU's, but maybe I'm wrong) should be VERY capable of easily supporting what I'm doing to the truck. My brother owns a 92 GT w/ 347 stroker in it(should be in the 375-400whp area) and runs stock engine management(I'm sure it would benefit some from a custom tune though), runs great and will bury the speedo quickly if you care to do so.


EDIT: For those suggesting to swap/splice harnesses...would MY idea of swapping the entire engine harness + computer wiring/etc. from a Cougar/Mustang/whatever w/ a MAF be that big of a deal(so I can run it exactly how a mustang is run)?

 

The stock '92 truck is not mass air. The entire harness will most likely not work like you want it to either - the mustangs have the computer on the passenger side of the car, and the trucks have the computer in the drivers side fender. Not to mention the differences in interface connections between the engine harness and the chassis harness. Best bet would be splice in what you need, move some pins, and install the mustang computer that you want. If it is an automatic, the computer would have to come from a vehicle with an electronic automatic transmission, and it would have to be a mass air computer.

 

I have an 88 F150 that I put a 90 5.0 HO motor in. I used the truck intake oil pan and pick up with the truck computer (speed density) and wire harness. The truck runs great and gets better fuel mileage. I have a set of Mac equal length shorty headers with one cat and and dual tail pipes with no mufflers at all. The only thing I'm not happy about is the truck computer has a rev limiter set at 5500 RPM and in 1st and second gear it will rev to that pretty quick. I'm planing to get the computer reprogramed soon so all should be good.

 

Thanks for all the input guys! I really appreciate it.

So this is NOW my plan of action.

-Wire in stock Mustang computer(94-95 as suggested if the truck has the electronically controlled auto trans)/do MAF conversion on the truck.

-Use Mustang/etc. aftermarket intake and fabricate a custom throttle cable(and bracket if need be, some of my relatives are friends w/ a machnist and some welders/fabricators here so a bracket and whatnot won't be a problem, hopefully there will be clearance behind the intake manifold to run it sorta like the mustangs have it ran).

-Use original style truck oil pan + oil pump pickup.

Thanks again everyone! If I have time when I start working on this project here real soon, I'll try to do a decent write-up on everything involved with this and include pictures(I have a digital camera, so I take tons of pictures).

 

Cool deal. Definitely let us know how it goes.

 

I've got a 92 f150 that had a 302 in I put a 302 back in from a 88 f250 I left the 92 computer and harness everything plugged in but the distributer I used the distributer from the 92 and its not running right missing out on number 5 cyl. Any thoughts

 

Do a compression check first, and when you pull the plug out compare it to one of it's neighbors.. does it look wet or bone dry? Does it have color on the electrode like it should? This will tell you if the injector is firing or not.

 

We did a compression test on every cylinder, 125 - 130 psi. & the plug is wet also have really good spark. Checked the injector harness with a noid light and they are good.

 

Wet plug suggests that injector is stuck open, does the oil smell like gas? Test fuel pressure to confirm this, it should build about 40-45psi and hold after the engine is shut off, if it drops immediately then you know what the problem is.

 

We will check that. But, the funny thing is that we had to use the distributer off the old motor and it was missing 1,2, and 8 we switched the distributer with a 1994 distributer and now its 5. Cylinder 5 was firing before the distributer swap. Also truck had about 40 psi when the truck was off with key powered one. Would a computer have anything to do with it?