hi need some help with swapping 1988 5.0 ho engine into my 1994 f150.having biggest issue with the timing being diffrent.any ideas? thanks

 

Timing should be no different, are you using the '94 truck computer and engine harness? You want to use the truck distributor as well.

 

Been there done that. Seller swore up and down the '88-9 engine was an "HO". It wasn't, though it was a roller cam 5.0. To be a 1988 HO, it would have had to come from a Mustang or a Lincoln Mark 7 "LSC"(not a regular Mark 7), nothing else. In the '90's about all 5.0's were HO's. After a week of screwing with the truck I gave up and swapped cams and the '95 ran right as rain. It actually ran with the wrong cam but IIRC #7 cylinder was dead as a door nail, #3 was almost dead and two others were weak. The engine would idle if you held the throttle down some but would backfire. Screwing around with the plug wires like you can get away with on an older engine didn't work. Neither also did swapping around the injector harness. All off the top of my head and this adventure occured a couple of years ago, so I may not be dead on about all details, the truck wasn't mine.
Unlike "flat tappet" cams you can get away with swapping a roller cam without changing the lifters.
If you want to you can use a shop manual, pull the valve covers, rotate the engine by hand, and watch the valve action to really determine whether the cam is HO or not. What I finally did.
BTW, be sure to swap the oil sending unit over. 1988's work exactly opposite as '94-5's do. Even though they look the same. Weird. Oil pressure goes to max when you turn on the key then drops way down as the engine fires up.