More visual <strike>aids</strike> evidence of my insanity...


NSFW picture of the completely naked Mustang harness.


Kinda tough to see in the pic, but I found some wires with torn insulation unraveling.


Probably not a big deal...they're just the ground wires (pin 60) from the EEC power relay. I'm thinking this is why I got the harness so cheap.


The underdash connector, I'll get a matching male pigtail to make it as plug-and-play as possible.


So after a couple of hours of dissecting and unwrapping the Mustang harness I've finally got a feel for the magnitude of that into which I've gotten myself. I'm almost worried because it looks too easy. The underhood connections are pretty much just pigtails for Hot Start and Hot Run then oil gauge/water temp gauge, and one to the A/C pressure switch.

I'm going to get a 12 pin block and fab up a harness for the O2 sensors, neutral safety, and VSS. I'm hoping I can Frankenrig a VSS to work in a NP208 transfer case anyway.

Then all that's left is the underdash pigtail. I reckon I'm gonna do a 3G alternator upgrade while everything's out of the truck too, so the real fun of cutting, splicing, and soldering wires won't start until I can get everything cleaned out of the engine bay and test fit the harness.

 

Mission creep may now officially be declared - since it will be so much easier to do it once with the engine out of the F250 rather than later with it in, I'm going to swap in the EFI along with the new 351. Might as well spare myself the agony of crossing the same bridge twice.

So far as I can tell there's no easy solution to the EGR with long tubes headers and a 5.8 truck manifold, so I'll use the Performer upper on a Typhoon 5.8 lower. A break even deal once I sell the 351w Stealth 4v manifold and Eddy 5.0 lower. Then the 5.0 truck manifold and mass air set-up on the 302 going into the Bronco. I'll break even there again once I sell the Performer 289 manifold on the 302 now. So at least the madness is self perpetuating.

Unless I get those titanium muffler bearings I heard about. They're supposed to be super quiet...

There's no way that 5.8 lower was feeding the heads anyway, I swear the runners are twice the size of the port on the manifold. Having more low end grunt from the 302 wouldn't be a tragedy either. The 351 should pull up close to 6,000 rpm, the 302 to about 5,000. That's rationalization enough, right?

 

Man, we got three inches of global warming in Dallas this morning and it rained all day yesterday. No work outside, but at least got a little done in the garage.

Nice weather last weekend so I finally got started on the swap. Pulled the engine out of the pickup and got everything ready to start routing/splicing wires. I've probably got at least two weekends worth of work to do with the engine out and hood on top of the engine.

Got a coat of Ford dark blue paint on the Typhoon lower and the new timing cover. The Performer upper is powder coated and I can't decide whether or not to paint it too. Installed, marked, removed, then ported the lower to match the heads a little better too. They were mismatched pretty bad out of the box. Maybe not for stock heads, but for aftermarket heads anyway. Other than that the 351 is ready to go. Except for the brackets.

So, took the brackets off the old 302, they need cleaning and paint but fit. Since I had nothing better to do I kept going and ended up taking the 302 down to the block. It's a highly desirable D9OE block topped with the much coveted D8OE heads and balanced at 50oz with the non-HO firing order. Quite a mishmash. Good news is it has flat top pistons. Bad news is it needs a rebore. I was so hoping it would be easy and come in on budget. I'll probably just end up swapping it for a short block at the local hi-volume engine machine shop.

But for now it's all about the 351. If we can only get enough decent weather I can get the show on the road.

 

Sure there is but you didn't ask. And what heads are going on this motor now?

 

FRPP X303 heads, fwiw. The 5.8 truck intake is a moot point since there's no way it could keep up with this engine anyway.

 

Agreed.. an intake with internal EGR is tidier anyway if you have to use it.

 

Well, I don't have to use the EGR - the truck has outlived its requirement to pass a tailpipe test - but since it doesn't hurt anything and the EEC's working it I figured I might as well.

Beautiful day yesterday, so I got some stuff done. There are about half a dozen projects going on concurrent to the engine/EFI swap so it may be a month before I'm ready to drop the new 351 into the truck. And of course the swap is a half a dozen individual projects (wiring, fuel tanks/pumps/plumbing, clean/prep engine bay, etc.) in and of itself.

Since I've got to root around under the dash anyway I've decided to repaint the floor, liberally apply sound deadening/insulation, and replace the carpet. New car smell to go with the two hundred additional ponies under the hood.

The a/c leaked out all the refrigerant, so new hoses, evap, condensor, drier, orifice, etc. are ready to install. The stud/bolt on the evaporator plenum box spun, but by the grace of god and some vice grips on the small untreaded engine bay end of it the nut is off. Easy pickins with the engine out.

Beyond that, and working on the "might as well since the engine's out anyway" theory, I've got a 3G alternator swap, new brake booster and m/c plus full system bleed, new p/s pump and possibly hoses (maybe a saginaw conversion...), and whatever else seems appropriate as I'm going along.

How often do you take the hood off, right? And how much of a PITA is it to remove the cowl with the hood on? Total whipping, right? Perfect opportunity to clean out the cowl area, repaint it, and tune up the wipers. LMC sells a new wiper motor for a ********-reascenting $249! Is new $180 better than reman?



Nice coat of Rustoleum rusty metal primer in the cowl area, semi-gloss black to follow today.


Fun stuff you find in an old truck - two .410 shells and a 30/30 round


I found the ammo here, in that slot @1 o'clock to the drain hole


A big, odd-looking bird hanging in my live oak. I guarantee you he could peck your eyes out with that huge, pointy bill.

More fun on another beautiful day today...

 

Engine ****.

 

A little more ****.

 

Man, I can't believe it's been over a month since the last update. I'm dragging this project out way too long.

So, I've got the harness about 60% done. I swear I spent a week just staring at it, trying to picture how it would fit and where everything would go. I've been splicing and soldering and repinning for a couple of weekends - moving way slow and being overly cautious. I sure as hell don't want to have to tear it apart again. Got an 8 pin Deutsch connector for the oil/water/ignition/start/tach and coil connections, which is very tidy. Four pin Deutsch for the VSS, NSS, and fuel pump connections. Built an O2 sensor harness.

I can't decide whether to keep the EGR or not. I probably will, but the truck is past tailpipe testing. What's a few more wires when you're soldering what seem like a thousand?

I was hoping to use the fuse box from a 94 f150 as a relay box but even Ford doesn't sell the right crimp-on connectors. So I'm now waiting on some crimp-on solder/seal connectors to wire up the relays. The FFI website showed a diagram with four relays - the main EEC and fuel pump relays, a coil/TFI relay, and a MAF/O2 relay - and that's the way I'm going. Plus the A/C WOT relay.

If those freakin connectors will get here I should have the harness wiring finished this weekend. Then on to the fuel system...

 

You can barely see the 8-pin Deutsch connector between the EEC harness and the truck's old wiring down there. The coil will end up somewhere.



Since there was already a hole there (don't ask...), it seemed like a logical enough place for the injector harnesses, TFI connector, and connections to the to truck's ignition, etc.



From the inside - the EEC will go on the passenger side kick panel, the relay wiring through the same opening as the factory A/C wiring, the rest at the tranny hump.

No freaking connectors yet, so probably not much wiring this weekend. I get spoiled using Summit, what with the parts arriving in 72 hours and all. I won't be ordering from Sherco again.

 

More progress...



Relocated BAP sensor and EVR valve.



Thar she sits.



Relays mounted to a piece of 1/2" aluminum trim channel.

 

i know this is an old thread but is theer any more progress? would like to do an efi swap in my truck

 

Been on hold since mid-May, my driveway gets full sun in summer and it's been too dadgum hot here in Dallas since then. I'll be wading back into things once the high temps drop below 80...