Soul Eater 5.0L Swap log

[Justin_]

Those spark plugs look pretty rough! How many miles were on this donor? Lots of deposits, something we should not see in a smooth running 5.0

Well that's 1/2 the reason im posting photos . I don't have a ton of experience and im not always right.

Fun story about the milage. The guy I bought it from said it is at 130k and they swapped the gauges because some of them broke. The dash says 230k, but the odometer stopped working. So I really have no idea.

 

[410Fortune]

well those are autolite plugs, not the factory units, and they look like they have some miles on them, so...........
That engine looks more like a 230K mile unit then a 130K mile unit, but I am sure you figured that out already!

The intake bolts snapping off is also a good indication its over the 130 mark

from what I can see everything else appears to be bone stock. These 5.0 are tough sons a *****es
Would love to see under the lower intake manifold and inside the oil pan
You can get a good look at your engine with those two things removed.
Whatever you do please do not re install those exhaust manifolds! The old 96-97 style welded manifolds suck so badly its pathetic.
Dorman makes a decent set of cast manifolds for around $100 that are actually pretty good.

 

[Justin_]

Back in town now. Got a bit done on the truck this evening.

First off, here is a stack of photos from the rockers, valley, crank, and pan. Overall I don't think it looks too bad, but let me know what you see.

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Before I left out of town I got the truck out of my parents driveway and took it to recycling. Had to drain the fluids, but about all that was left was gas. Found that if you just take the fuel pump connector and attach the 2 thickest wires to a battery you can use the pump to drain it all out quit easily.

I had a friend of a friend convince me to get the bolts out myself. One of the lower intake bolts came out super well and clean, but when I was drilling out the next one I broke a cobalt drill bit off in the bolt. So that was fun to deal with. Got to the point where I will need a repair kit on that, but there is plenty of metal left for that. So that's good.

Next up. The replacement bushing for the transmission showed up. This time instead of trying to install it with a block of wood and a hammer I took it to a friends place and used a press. Put the bushing on the center support, put a solid chunk of metal on top, then pressed it into place. Worked super well! Hope to get the transmission back together by the end of this weekend.

Pressed it down slowly by hand instead of using the pneumatic high pressure part and it just slid right in.

 

[Justin_]

Bit of progress made. I have the lower intake, valve covers, oil pan, and thermostat housing, injectors and rail with new rings, new pressure regulator back on. I've been working on getting all the rubber hoses sourced and replaced, and i've started to get the wiring harness back on.

Im finding that most of the hoses are easy to replace, but it seems the lower coolant hose is hard to find if you don't have the oil cooler (and I don't). I might pull an oil cooler out of a junkyard car, would be nice to have anyway. Otherwise I guess i'll just use the old hose. Nothing wrong with it, I just want to get new parts on.

I did find that there are some issues with the wiring harness. No cuts or nicks, but the insulation on the wires is pulled back a bit on a few connectors. Ill need to go over all the connectors at some point.

Im a touch held up on the transmission right now. Everything that goes inside is put together and ready to go, but the planet gear assembly that I ordered ended up being for the wrong transmission. I have a new one on order and it should be here soon.

One final note. I couldn't find the oil filter adapter o-ring anywhere, so I took a drive over to the dealership, and while they did not have any, they were able to give me the part number, 87147-S91, and while it is not made any longer, it is still fairly available as it was apparently used in a LOT of diesel engines. So I was able to grab it off ebay for about $8. A lot for an o-ring, but I know its the right one.

 

[CDW6212R]

Good progress there, it is slow and tedious sometimes.

The lower hose should be available in local stores, the long one is more common than the two shorts ones for the oil cooler.

For the wiring, be sure no bare wires are contacting any metal or each other. I'd use some Ultra Black RTV for repairing that pictured connector and wires, RTV will hold very well in the harsh environment. If the wires are unharmed and just need protection, the RTV will work well for that.

 

[Justin_]

Well the weather is a bit cold, but ive finally got the last part of the transmission. I want to get some work done on that today.

Planning ahead for reasembally, I need new nuts for the torque converter. Thought it might come with some, but I don't believe it did. Seems like it uses 3/4-24 flange nuts. Beyond getting grade 8 nuts, is there anything special about them? Don't see any reason to get sepal torque converter nuts unless there is actually something special about them.

In other news, im moving! Woo. Ive been working on the engine at my folks place so I don't need to move any of that, but if I don't get this wrapped soon I won't have much time to work on it. Im not moving far, so come spring I will still be ready to get it swapped over, no problems there.

 

[CDW6212R]

Try to use the Ford torque converter nuts, or buy new ones. Those are the best, stronger and they have built in locking ridges in the large flat surface of them.

 

[Justin_]

--Ment to post this Thursday, forgot to hit submit. Woops---

So I did git a fair bit done today. I stopped by Home Depot and got a propane heater

That did a surprisingly good job at keeping me warm.


I got a lot done on the transmission after that. Only have one photo of the test fit outside of the case.

After that I got all of that into the case and have it closed up. I also got just about everything other than the valve body in. Should be able to finish it off this weekend.

 

[Justin_]

Well its been a minute, but things are moving, albeit a bit slow. Tried to swap the fuel pressure reg on my existing SOHC and ended up with a broken fuel rail I had to take care of.

Engine is about done. All I need to do is pull it off the stand and replace the rear main seal. Then drop it on a skid and take it to storage for the winter.

Transmission internals are closed up, valve body still needs cleaned up. It's a /bit/ tight, so i'm probably going to pop it back open and double check everything before I call it done. Make sure all the bearings are in the right way, etc. It's hard to turn by hand, but if I drop the TC on I can spin it easy and its smoothe. It's probably just from the fluid and assembly lube, but don't want to need to pull it apart once it's in the truck.

Hopefully I can wrap the trans this weekend, but it's anybody's guess.

From there i'll probably just pack it in for the winter. Don't have an inside space to strip the truck down with and it's already trying to snow up here.

 

[Justin_]

I got up to the local self service junkyard today. Got the ABS controller and g-sensor I left on the frame I junked.

Ended up paying $100 for them so not that cheap. I did also get the JBL sub box(plus sub+amp), cargo cover, message center, and some bits for other vehicles for $50 together, so not bad overall.

I didn't think enugh to grab the washer fluid tank or oil pan to go with the message center. There was also an '00 limited with the heated memory position leather seats in decent shape. So I might try and head back up some time to grab some more stuff. There is also the automatic HVAC in the same truck, but from what I remember those require a full dash swap more or less, so ill hold off on that for now.

I did learn that the guy is retiring and has a team to come up in about a week to crush everything in the yard newer than 1972 so I don't have much time left overall. That being said, he is sticking with his old policy's. I needed a handle for the liftgate on a '07-'14 suburban and he would only sell me the whole door. I get that normally, but if its just going to be scrapped wouldn't it be better to sell me the handle for $10-$20 then get $0.10 for it as scrap?

 

[CDW6212R]

The memory seat is special for the seat track motors only(also requires the module under the seat and its wiring, plus the door panel switch and special wires going to the seat and GEM), the rest is the seat is the same for other models. You can add the memory seat function to a passenger seat for example in the late 90's Explorers(the seat motors will swap left and right).

I have discovered that the memory seat was possible for the Mark VII's, because the Continental did have them, the seat tracks swap, and the switch location is built into my door panels. So I have the parts to make the conversion, but it's more involved with a Mark VII. The Explorer can be done with minor work.

You have to remove the door panel, the seat and wiring access to the left kick panel and along the edge. Finding the right trigger wire that goes to the GEM, which is a neutral safety switch wire, is difficult. But the rest is fairly straight forward, you will have to cut a hole in the door panel for the switch too.