Bronco 5.8 and 5 speed swap
 

Alright guys here's what's up. I have a 89 bronco 5.0 automatic and just hit 400000km in the fall, I'd hate to say it but she's had a long life and is getting tired. Currently the truck isn't running and was burning quite a bit of oil when I last had it on the road, honestly I don't care to get it running I got my 800$ I paid for it back with all the fun I had in it. It's time to build her better than she ever has been but, of course I'm on a pretty thin budget.

as of now the plan is to throw a 5.8 out of a 96 f150 (automatic truck) and a 5 speed from a 89 f250 (5.0 truck). Again I'm on a budget so for now the plan is to just re-seal it and address anything else that will need doing to get the engine and transmission working in my truck by July.

with all the stuff I'm going to be doing a few questions have popped up the big one being the efi related stuff. The 5.8 being maf I'll obviously need to change out the computer and the engine harness, right? To my understanding if the 5.8 was speed density it would be an easier swap and has the same engine harness as my 5.0, would I be better off finding a bit older of a donor for the engine? Although I'd really like to stick with a roller block. Another thing is the fuel pump and o2 sensors. Don't the newer "Aero" style trucks use a single fuel pump inside the tank as well as two o2 sensors? I'm not too sure if either of these will affect me just thought I'd ask before I find out the hard way. I have heard talk about a maf conversion kit, if I'm swapping this engine with the harness would this be necessary? What is this "kit" supposed to do?

I'm new to this site so just bear with me. Any input is much appreciated positive or negative, links and advice will help lots as well. This definitely isn't all of my questions but I'll post this for now just to start things off.

More will come along with information that will expand on your concerns. The fireing order on an 89 5.0 and 96 5.8 are different so your 5.0 harness will not work. Take everything from the 96 under the hood that connects to that engine.


You will need the exhuast from the 96 anyway so the 2 O2 sensors shouldnt be a problem, they will also hook into the wire harness from the 96. As for the fuel pump, I recall my 95 F-150 have a fuel pump on the frame rail and I thought just the sending unit in the tank but I could be wrong, others will let you know for certain.


The MAF conversion kit from my memory was something Ford Racing Parts had many years ago that was a complete engine wire harness for conversion to MAF from Speed Density. Not sure if such a kit still exists. But again, if you get everything from the 96 from the computer to wire harness to everything on that engine you shouldnt have a problem.


I am sure you have looked into the requirements of swapping from an automatic to a manual, it owuld be best to have a donor truck so you can take everything you need. Driveshafts, Transfer Case, Crossmember, Transmission, shifters, clutch pedals with brackets in the truck.


Good luck to you and Welcome to FTE!!

Is there any major things I'll have to look out for? I am going from speed density to a maf system, from what I understand if I have all the correct wiring it should be a plug and play kind of thing. The other big thing I was wondering about was the rear drive shaft. I'd assume that since its a manual its shorter, meaning a longer drive shaft. This doesn't bother me much as there should be enough travel left in the yoke, but say a few months from now I wanted to put a lift on it will I run into problems? Worst comes to worst I'll have to put a drive shaft on it I guess. Thanks for the help, feeling pretty confident going into this one!

For your swap to MAF having the correct wire harness is a must. You won't get by any other way. I would not count on your driveshafts as being able to swap over. The length difference might be more than the slip yoke will travel and even if it did you are now limiting yourself to even less travel from your driveshaft in the event it might require it. Your best bet would be to have the donor truck your getting the 5.8 from so you can swap all of these components out as you need them. Otherwise you're going to run into items that won't carry over and cause yourself a headache in down time. Browse through the forum here as there are multiple topics that go over this swap and many just like it that go into very good detail. Plenty of people have ditched the AOD and gone to stick shift. You're adding to it by going from a 5.0 to 5.8, but all of this has been done and is very doable. Just have patience and ask all the question you need, just do FTE members a favor and search this forum first as most likely 100 people before have seeked answers to many of questions you might have. Good luck and keep us updated on your progress

I haven't figured out how to search on the actual site I have just been using Google. I'm starting the tear down on the bronco this weekend, I'll have more questions as they come and if I remember I'll take some photos for others who who are interested in this swap.

Just because you are using a 5.8L from a MAF truck (OBD-II...BTW) you do not have to swap in the MAF setup. You can stay Speed Density, but you will have to source a 5.8L Speed Density computer (PCM).

For the most part there is nothing specific about the engine that makes it MAF vs Speed Density. It's the engine control portion of the computer that does that with the related additional wires.

On the other hand there are very specific engine differences for OBD-I (Speed Density or MAF) versus OBD-II.

The EGR setup on the OBD-II engine is very different from the OBD-I system. Specifically the EGR feedback signal is flow based (DPFE) versus positional (EVP) for the OBD-I setup.

The OBD-II engine also has a mis-fire sensor located on the front cover and a tone wheel on the back of the balancer.

So if you want to stay Speed Density (OBD-I) you need to source an EGR setup from a OBD-I 5.8L engine. Install a 5.8L engine/manual transmission OBD-I computer (PCM) and you are golden.


If you really want to go MAF, then your project scope just got a lot bigger due to the donor having OBD-II powertrain control if you try to use that for your swap.

As stated above the fact that this motor is coming from a '96 complicates things, but it is still doable. My suggestion would be to not try and convert it to MAF at this time, get the motor in and running correctly and do the conversion later. To get the motor running you don't need any wiring.. use what is currently on the 5.0 motor, but you will need a 5.8+manual trans OBD1 PCM.. '95 or older. As mentioned the EGR system on the '96 won't work with the older system but you could just disable it for the time being, the valve and sensor will transfer form the 5.0 but the tube won't so sandwich a piece of sheet metal between the valve and intake to keep fresh air out and hook up the sensor and vacuum line normally. The valve will go through the motions and keep the computer happy for the most part, you might still get a code but it won't prevent the motor from running well.

been thinking about it and I think a carb setup is probably what I'll go with for now, just because I already have an intake and what not. However I tore into this engine I picked up and found some interesting stuff. First off it was pulled out of a 96 f150 and was apparently rebuilt. as of now I know at the bare minimum the timing chain was replaced and it was resealed, but as soon as I pulled the intake I figured out it wasn't a roller block like I was expecting. I looked into the casting numbers and found out the block not sure about the heads yet was made in 79 for a "generic car" I'm assuming it's from a Ltd or some other full-sized car, bummer. Ran the numbers off of the intake and that comes out to be from a 1990, so I'm guessing they pieced this truck together. That's not where is ends, I pulled the pan off and you guessed it carnage. 2 large pieces of metal with cross hatches on one side it doesn't look like piston material and as far as I can see all of the skirts are intact, but for the life of me I can't find anything broken off. I believe it's part of the block because one side has the same blue colour the Ford used on their engines for the longest time, but again I'm not sure. also found in the pan was what looks to be a sleeve of some sort not too sure where this came from either. I also found a 5/8 deep socket in an intake port after I pulled the intake at first I thought it was mine and shrugged it off but then I realized that I don't have any grey Canada sockets. I also found out that whoever had this engine opened up loves permatex. So I guess I'll have to tear into this more than I wanted to just to see if this block is even still useable. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...92fc1b31b5.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...f7b52d6cf5.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...94a6389a50.jpg
I'll get some better pictures asap. I was going to make a separate post for this but seeing as I will probably post more on my progress I figured I'd post here first.