Ultimately I know I need 4.56 gears, but other than that, would a typical mustang setup like a lentech, bauman, or transgo shift kit, and a higher stall torque converter be the right direction? What would you recommend for a mild off-road rig that will see light towing (2800lb-3500lb mustang on a 2500lb flatbed - I have 3 mustangs that I might tow on occasion of varying weights in that range). The truck has a 4" lift , 35" tires, and helper bags in the rear.

Are there any write-ups on installing mustang intake manifolds onto the trucks? Mine's an EFI 5.0, and I have the stock intake manifolds, egr spacer, egr, and throttle body from one of my 5.0 mustangs in the garage. I also have the stock shorty headers, a stock `87 mustang 5.0 HO speed density cam, a set of E7 heads, and 1.6 ford racing pedestal mount rockers. Would these be a direct bolt-on swap, or would I need for example the throttle cable from a mustang? Would the EGR still be functional? I have to keep it CA smog legal so it needs to have EGR.

My main concern with the head/cam/rocker change would be the pistons, does my `86 have valve reliefs that would let me run the E7's with 1.6 rockers, or would I need to stick with 1.5 rockers?

 

Definitely get a shift kit and gears ASAP before you do anything else, you're tranny is a gonner if you don't. The complete 5.0HO intake is a direct bolt-on and the EGR will stay functional because it's internally manifolded. You motor should have E5 heads not the famous E6's, and it should have dished pistons like all the other truck motors, so swapping the E7's on is no problem in either case. Stock stamped rocker arms are 1.6:1. Longtube headers are the only option worth your time on a truck IMO, the stock cats and Y-pipe are the big cork in the system and shorties give you ZERO gains if these parts aren't also upgraded. Your motor has a flat tappet cam in it so you'll need the complete spider assembly, lifters and pushrods to install the mustang roller cam. Don't forget to change the distributor gear as well.

 

what kind of shift kit works best in a lifted truck AOD application? Anything else I can easily upgrade on the trans while I have the pan dropped?

Is there a cheap bolt-on LT + catted midpipe setup I can get off the shelf? I'm not too keen on doing a header swap every 2 years for smog, but I might be able to get by on visual if I have cats.

Very cool about the intake being a direct swap, I'll get on that soon, is there anything I should worry about snagging me along the way? I assume I'll need to swap over the trucks sensors and vacuum lines, but what about the throttle cable and heatercore line routing? I haven't checked out the truck too much and this is my first one.

 

Yes there are a few issues to deal with when putting a car intake on. If you have an early HO intake the upper is reversable so you can get the TB on the drivers side which makes plumbing to the stock air filter location a bit easier. The cars also came with the AOD tranny so you need a cable and bracket from a car or you need to modify the truck bracket to fit on the TB spacer on the car intake and use the truck cable.

Heater core shoud be routed to the pump and the thermostat housing so it's not affected. There are a couple coolant lines for the TB spacer that have to be lengthened. You will also have to modify the wiring for the TPS and EGR, there should be lots of length in the harness so this just means you have to unwrap it some so it reaches the new location. You will also have to deal with vacuum lines, the trucks have a tree right in the upper intake while the cars use a tree on the firewall, works the same just positioned differently.

There are one or two header and Y-pipe kits available for these trucks, I think they all use shorties and for Cali use this is probably what you'll have to go with. I know of others that have licensed trucks in Cali with longtubes but I guess it depends if the guy you deal with is cool or an ***.