It's kind of like an engine swap. I've got an 89 EFI 302, with an electronic OD. I'm going to pull the efi crap, and run a 2BBL carb, and a C-4 tranny. Is the 89 block the same as my other one, a 79? Will the heads off the carbed motor drop on, and th intake fit? Will the cam and pushrods still work the same? Best I can figure, is that everything should be the same in that regard. Or am I wrong?

 

Heads off the carb motor will fit but unless you have ported the 79 heads the 89 heads are probably better. The intake will fit. The cam and pushrods depends on whether the 89 is a roller block or not.

I didn't know that Ford used an electronic OD in 89. Thought still using AOD.

 

(I should clarify a bit. I want to leave the block in place. I just want to pull the upper and lower pleniums and run the existing motor on a carb.)



If your right about the tranny, that would be sweet. So, your saying I could use the existing heads, and just switch over to a carbed intake? I didn't know the heads would be the same. Do you know if it's the same block as the older, mechanical fuel pump models. But with just a plug over the hole? I havn't crawled under it yet. (Too muddy) I was thinking of going with an inline electric pump. if I can't use a mechanical. What other problems am I going to run into? Thanks for the help. Jason.

 

Fuel pump mounts to the timing cover. You need to swap timing cover and water pump to run a mechanical fuel pump. You also need to change to a carbed distributor and ignition system.

I'll second ronclark's vote of leaving the 89 heads on the motor.

Only (noticeable) physical difference between 79 & 89 blocks is the 89 block will have a knock sensor above the tranny bellhousing.

 

It takes some wiring but you can use the existing low pressure fuel pumps in the fuel tanks with a pressure regulator. You have to make them run without the computer. Low pressure pumps put out 10 lb and you need to regulate down to 6 lbs. If you go with mechanical pump or inline electric, then you are going to probably need to pull the fuel tanks and replace the fuel pumps with a host to the bottom of the tank. I have had trouble in the past trying to pull fuel through the intank pumps.

You need to swap over to duraspark II ignition with distributer, coil, and module. All the wiring is present and the module will plug in but you need the harness that goes from the module to the distributer and coil. If you do this then you need to wire in a resister to cut the run voltage to the duraspark module down to 6 volts. The EFI trucks no longer have the resister wire going to the module. Search the forums, there is a thread about putting duraspark systems in former EFI trucks with diagrams where and what size resister to use.

If you stay with the AOD trans then you need to find a tv kickdown rod and linkage from an earlier carberated car or truck that had AOD or else buy a lokar tv cable and bracket (available from Summit).