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351 is in!

WickedWindsor

Well-Known Member
Joined
March 8, 2005
Messages
245
Reaction score
6
City, State
Ontario, Canada
Year, Model & Trim Level
351 powered, 1991 XLT 4x4
351 with Edelbrock style intake, '89 mustang wiring and computer, MAC 351 mustang conversion headers, 1988 Lincoln Mark 7 AOD trans.

I've been working at this for a year with planning and gathering parts.

Finally after 4 full working days on the truck, the engine is in.

Please, throw your questions my way and I'll do what I can to share my experience.

I have pictures of my "Wicked Windsor". How do I post pictures on this site?

The research I have done on this swap have paid off enormously so far as I've had NO surprises to date. I had the engine in place in 11 hours (Including the process od disconnecting and removing 4.0).

The first day was 4 hours of disconnecting wire connectors, driveshafts and all else that needed to be disconnected to remove life support.

Removing the engine took 2 hours. I attempted to remove the 4.0 with tranny AND transfer case attached. I needed another inch of space (With a 2" body lift currently). I had to remove the transfer case in the engine bay while the whole thing was tilted on the lift at 45 degrees. Engine and tranny came out easily together.

The 351 was mated to the AOD before going in. I hate trying to benchpress 200 lbs from underneath! With some manipulation, It went in. Removing the harmonic balancer before hand would have made it go in easier.

The bonus for me of putting the two in as one unit allowed me to immediatley locate engine mount location by bolting in the tranny first. All I did to locate the engine was move it side to side until I was happy. I even had the headers on during this install.

The rad is almost ready to bolt back in. I'm waiting for my fan to come so I can plumb my rad, fill the fluids and fire this beast up.

I should have noise some time next week.
 



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You gotta join to post pics, or have your own site to host them. I want pics of this.
 






I'll post the pictures this weekend on my cardomain site for now.
 






Dont talk about things like that and not post pics :(
 






*****in!
I am so happy driving my BII with the 5 liter t just makes me want to cry when I hear about others that are going to be there soon...
 






damnit i need something over 5 liters now
 






would a 4.6 be ok?

i could hook you up with that :D
 






Ford_Racing_Guy said:
would a 4.6 be ok?

i could hook you up with that :D

modular 4.6? what trannies bolt up to that?

that would be a sick swap haha. wiring would probably be hell but whatever that thing is pretty nasty.
 






I personally want to see some one swap the 6.8L V-10 found in the superduties into an explorer. Now that would be the end all of all engine swaps :D
 






Pics on Cardomain

Page 5 of my cardomain site has some crappy shots of the 5.8 squished in.
I'll have more pics soon that will show a little more detail.

I had planned on taking pictures of every little detail like chief32 & 410fortune but I was so excited and focused that I basically forgot. This was a "nuts and bolts swap" with little if any prettying up of anything.

My goal was to see what mods were absolutely necessary in getting this thing in with very little time. Not that I was rushed, I have and will have plenty time to work on this. I couldn't find many people who'd done this swap so I took it upon myself to see what would be involved. It's all in the planning. It took me 4 full working days to get it in and bolted down with tranny and transfer case in but a year of gathering info and parts first.
I also had my wiring harness pre-fabbed at Christmas using Ford schematics for the EX and Haynes manual for the mustang harness. I made it so it would plug right into the Ex's harness with NO mods to it.

Today I finished installing the rad. I topped up all fluids after attaching the tranny lines and even connected the battery.
I went as far as turning the key to check for fuel pump relay trigger and fuel leaks. Fuel pump works fine but I have a leak at two injectors. I'll have to replace the O-rings and recheck before going any further.

All I have left is the rad fan which should be here and installed by Wednesday.
I'm really itching to hear some noise now.
 






Nice Build! I went ahead and added some of the pictures to the thread. See more on his site: click here


800548_39_full.jpg


800548_30_full.jpg


800548_31_full.jpg



-Drew
 






what are you using for a rad. rumor has it that the stock one won't even support a 302.

will you be converting it back to 4x4?

how did you handle the heater box on the firewall? did you have to notch it?
 






I installed the transfer case AOD adapter from Advance Adapters. It IS still 4x4 .
I did have to modify the heater box. I'm using a non AC unit from a Ranger that bolts right in. With a fairly mild notch, I'm clearing the valve cover, AOD dipstick & tranny kickdown cable. I used silicone for this after I cut out the plastic piece and turned that piece over upside down.

Yes the rad is stock. Guys over at the Ranger Station who have done this swap have used the stock 4.0 rad and have had success with this setup. I remember a couple of them lived in the southern states (One in Texas). It gets hot here in the summer but if it works there, I shouldn't have to worry.
I'm also using a Flex-a-lite S-blade 16" 2500CFM fan as a pusher for stop-and-go cooling reassurance.
 






It Lives!!!!!

Yesterday I fired the iron ***** up.
Yes, I woke up the neighborhood. I have yet to hook up the exhaust so it was as if a monster truck was driving down our street.

I first had to change the injector O-rings because on the fuel pump pressure check I did on Sunday I revealed some leakage that doesn't mix with hot intakes. I had tried to reuse the original O-rings....Shouldn't skimp on the cheap but important insurance.

When I first turned the key, all I heard was the starter relay click. I checked the starter wire and I had left it yet to be tightened. So after tightening it, I jumped the starter relay and VRRRRROOOOOMMM!
It took next to no effort.

Next is fabrication of exhaust, connect O2 sensors, and see if I need to iron out any yet to be seen bugs.

At least I proved my wiring harness to be a success. It was so nice to have it just plug into both the vehicle and engine with no mods to the stock units. No hacking done here folks!
 












i just finsihed my 5.8 explorer. let me tell you yours is absolutly going to haul. i have 3.50 gears with 35s on a slightly built carb'd 351 and it rips pretty good. what headers are those, i couldnt find any to fit. also congrats on the install
 






WickedWindsor said:
At least I proved my wiring harness to be a success. It was so nice to have it just plug into both the vehicle and engine with no mods to the stock units. No hacking done here folks!

what do you mean? Like you bought some kind of conversion harness? You said you didnt have to hack anything up like you didnt have to sodder in any wiring?
 






I think he said he pre wired the harness to be plug and play for the swap.
 






he said he said for really?

haha im kidding i get it
 



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OH what a feeling it is. :)
Dont worry there will be bugs to work out........

Looks really nice! wanna race?
 






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