So I been looking around different forums and posting some questions but can't seem to find any wiring help. I have a 78 f50 with the 400 motor c6 tranny np205 transfer case. I have a 1989 f250 donor vehicle that I will be using for the 460 fuel injected motor. I am looking for some information on what wires I will be needing to splice into my harness. I am not really sure as to what wires are required for me to splice to my harness.

the motor is not in yet. I am still removing stuff to get it ready to pull out of donor. I have the entire harness out from the engine bay, down the frame to the rear. Any links or help from anyone familiar with the electrical wiring on this swap?

 

Good luck. Anything is doable with enough patience. Not much if any info on what you are wanting to do, and as of 4-5 yrs ago no one makes a stand alone EFI harness for that application either. With the exception of (maybe) the first year of 460 EFI, the EFI wiring is combined with the truck harness. Possible to break it out? Anything is possible. Wasn't worth it to me, I put EFI 460's into 2 79's. Used a carb adapter from Price Motorsports and kept it simple. I may at some point do an aftermarket EFI, prices keep slowly dropping (Holley Sniper now under $1K). There is also a guy that custom builds GM TBI systems for almost any application, custom harness included. Friend of mine is going to try that on a 78 Mopar 440, see how that goes. For stock HP levels, GM TBI is about as trouble free as it gets, with parts widely avail.

 

We pretty much used the entire engine harness from the EFI truck. That harness has headlights, turnsignals, etc, all integrated but we just used the old wiring for all that stuff. We installed the bulkhead connector in the firewall and did 99% of our splicing inside the cab/dash. Once you get into it, there are only a few wires that really need to be spliced to make it run. The bulkhead connector connector really made it nice because everything was in one place. One thing to watch is to make sure you connect all the ground wires that are randomly placed in the EFI harness. You never know what is connected to them!

Mounted ECM in firewall. Bulkhead connector was placed below and to the right of ECM. Can't seem to find a good pic of it.

 

Looks good I like how you mounted the computer... Yea I have the entire harness out and will be transferring it over to my 78. I will be removing head lights and signals and what ever is on there that isn't required from the harness but I am not so sure on what wires are required from the original big round connector from the 89 harness. You said there were only few wires that are used, do you know which ones or which wires you spliced into? You have some pins highlighted on the computer plug is there a particular reason for that?

Also, looks likeyou are using the original radiator for the 351m/400 motor for the 460 as well?

Thanks

 

Just my $.02. I would use as much of the 89 harness as possible. That would include lighting, horn an any accessories you can. The reason, a lot of the electrical was overloaded in our trucks. Add to this 40 something years of over current in the wiring and degradation, you would be better of using the "new" wiring for this. Also, if you look at some of the wiring mods, the 89 harness has that built in.

I would also suggest getting some wiring schematics, getting them printed off in a size you can actually see, and learning how to read them. This becomes useful in several different ways. 1, you can see what you want, or need to hook up. You will also have the knowledge to trouble shoot any problems you run into.

 

That is the stock 460 radiator as this pickup originally had a carb'd 460.

The pic of the highlighted pins is the bulkhead connector. This is a 1996 harness so it might be a little different from the 1989, I don't know. The highlighted ones were the only wires I connected to make it run. I think a few were gauges so they were not 100% necessary. There were others I connected up later to make the E4OD work, but to make it start and run, the splicing was very minimal.

Best advice is to get a good wiring diagram or EVTM for the 1989 truck. If the ecm is engine bay mounted like the 1996 truck is, the engine will have 99% of it's wiring still intact. Just have to provide key-on power to trigger the ECM relay, and 'start' power to starter solenoid..... and make sure your grounds are connected. Haha. That one had me stumped for a while until I found one ground wire not connected because the ring connector had been broken off.

You can see the red bulkhead connector on the firewall in this pic. I just hacked the in-cab half of the connector out of the '96 truck and left enopugh wire attached to splice to.

 

Thanks for the tips. Im still trying to track down some wiring schematics for the trucks. I see a lot of threads related to the pin out of the round connector at the firewall of the 89 but no one has posted and diagrams on it. Got my motor mounts for the swap now. Hope to pull motor out this weekend.

Does anyone know if the egr/cat is required for it to properly run? I know its required for smog but will the motor run with out any codes or affect the way it runs?

 

Hey JP3 can you list out what each highlighted pin provided?

 

An '89 should only have one O2 sensor located upstream of the catalyst. The cat is not required to run. You will, however, want at least 18 inches of exhaust pipe downstream of the sensor when you fire up the engine to prevent normal air from mixing with the exhaust and screwing with your mixture. The OBD 1 ECMs are not smart enough to monitor the cat or, as new engines do, base any part of the fuel mixture on the downstream O2 sensor. I make no promises, but I will see what I can find about connector pins if I remember.

 

man i like them heater hose connectors on the intake better then that factory stamped steel tube. at least that what my 351w efi has

 

I don't have that information with me right now, but it's basic stuff. Ignition, fuel pump feed, oil pressure, water temp, etc.

I'll try to dig it up this weekend.

 

Hey, I found a pic. The arrow'd stuff (except pin 13) is all that it needed to actually start and run. There were more I used later in order for the E4OD to function properly. I traced all these out on the wiring diagrams I had, but it would be wise to double check them.

 

What about VSS? Ideally, you'd want one which accepts a cable for your speedometer.

Does the 460 EEC have a Fuel Pump Monitor circuit?

The computer harness likely contains the wires for your stock Oil Pressure and Temperature gauges, but you might need to use your truck's original temp sender. The ignition wire should be in there too, but I forget if the TFI ignitions use a resistor for the coil when running.

I converted my '88 Mustang GT to Mass Air like eight years ago, and for that application it made more sense to just add the needed wires to the '88's harness, rather than swap in the '92 donor harness I had. The '92 harness wouldn't plug into the '88 car. I added terminal pins for the VSS and Fuel Pump Monitor, as well as for the Mass Air sensor.

I used a Haynes manual electrical diagram, and Probst's EEC IV Ford Fuel Injection book, in order to make my added connections. If you're using a Ford OEM ECU, then your goal should be to get it all set up and running, and free of error codes. And that entails finding out exactly what the computer needs to see, and making the proper connections.

 

JP3 Thanks for the info, what I have is a 97 5spd 460 hooked to a 77 c6 using the 5sp ECM.
Wiring harness\main fuse box is from a 97 460\E4OD. I want to use the 77 oil and temp sensors. I am only concerned on starting it and shuting it off via orig ECM. Looks like I need 1 and 66 to run?? add 11 ground for good measure.


A couple more questions if you have time:
1. what PS hose did you use?
2. what cooling fan?

Prob more as a dive into it,,,

 

Please get you a good wiring diagram for the '97 donor vehicle, and study for any differences between manual and automatic wiring.

Because I know for sure that the old fox Mustangs had different ECU wiring between the 5-speeds and automatics, and if you stick a 5-speed computer in an automatic car, or a car with a harness from an automatic, you can fry the computer! If I remember correctly, the difference is in the Neutral Switch circuit, and the automatic wiring sends 12V+ to the NS pin on the computer, while the 5-speed sends ground to that particular pin on the computer.
But I can also tell you that the fix is as simple as relocating one pin/wire on one of the O2 harness connectors - easy-peasy.

That might not be an issue on the '97 460, but there might be other seemingly insignificant differences waiting to jump out and bite you.