Today is the day I embark on a V8 swap....

[plance1]

I bought a 5.0 engine out of a guy's mustang. I'm also buying a 99 mountaineer later today. I'm going to keep reading before I start wrenching but I'm tired of hearing about this swap and being too timid to try it. I wouldn't mind some help. Anyone in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky or Dayton want to help, let me know. I can forsee hiring one of those mobile mechanics to come by and help out with things unless I get some volunteers. Regardless, I'm going to keep researching what I need to do but screw it I'm getting started.

 

[974X4BLACKSPORT]

What are your plans for a transmission? Is the Mountaineer 2 or 4WD?

 

[plance1]

I want to keep my 4x4

 

[Mbrooks420]

You won’t be able to keep your 4x4, or transmission. You will also need a ton of wiring and tons of other bits. This is likely to be a very long process without a donar truck.

What year is the motor?

 

[Mbrooks420]

Also........ if you are buying a truck.......just buy a V8.

 

[410Fortune]

You do not need any mobil mechanics, you can get all the information you will need right here on EF

If you go buy a 99 Explorer/Mountaineer V8 with AWD then you will have most of what you need right there to convert your 02 trac to the 5.0

BUT before you start, let me ask you a question
Do you have emissions where you live?

I have completed about 10 of these conversions over the years, from mild to wild. I am converting TWO sport tracs right now as a matter of fact.
You CAN do a 4x4 conversion
but you will not be using any of the 2002 sport trac parts
You will need to use the 99 5.0 drivetrain along with a F150 4x4 transfer case to retain 4x4. You can even keep your 4x4 dash switch if you want.

Why did you buy a mustang 5.0L engine? What year mustang? (The Mountaineer engine is likely a better 5.0L to use)........

 

[plance1]

your killin me dude... i stated in my original post im buying both an engine from a mustang and a 99 mountaineer.... but you have a point the more I read about all the things that are needed im getting way scared again.... i need to get some help (mechanic and psychological)

 

[plance1]

You do not need any mobil mechanics, you can get all the information you will need right here on EF

If you go buy a 99 Explorer/Mountaineer V8 with AWD then you will have most of what you need right there to convert your 02 trac to the 5.0

BUT before you start, let me ask you a question
Do you have emissions where you live?

I have completed about 10 of these conversions over the years, from mild to wild. I am converting TWO sport tracs right now as a matter of fact.
You CAN do a 4x4 conversion
but you will not be using any of the 2002 sport trac parts
You will need to use the 99 5.0 drivetrain along with a F150 4x4 transfer case to retain 4x4. You can even keep your 4x4 dash switch if you want.

Why did you buy a mustang 5.0L engine? What year mustang? (The Mountaineer engine is likely a better 5.0L to use)........

The mustang engine was cheap and in good running condition so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have it. The mountaineer is something I read about buying on this forum. I read over RangerSVT's post in the past hour or so and damn it this is way beyond me and it pisses me off. I reached out to him to see if he wants to do it and I will ask you the same question. My ideal situation would be to bring my vehicles to you and take off work for a couple days and help as much as possible and then leave and let someone take over and finish up all the details. I 'd like to learn but man I find this stuff hard to understand. Im chickening out but I'm still buying the engine and the mountaineer lol!!!

 

[410Fortune]

Listen a 2002 Sport trac is almost identical to a 99 Mountaineer
The Mountaineer came with a 5.0L V8 option The sport trac did not
To bolt a 5.0L drivetrain into your 02 Trac is a 98% bolt in conversion, that's right 98%
There are only a few minor wiring changes to make
You will need some exhaust work, and a rear driveshaft

The trick is to decide if you can pass emissions and do this swap legally (The last year of the 5.0 was 2001, your ST is a 2002, some states do not allow this)
And decide what transfer case you want to use.
I suggest the Borg Warner 4406e (electronic shift) for you since you like your 4x4 dash switch

Why am I killing you? I am one of the first people around here to do this conversion back in 2005, and I have done many many since then. If you need somebody to help you convert a 2002 Sport trac to 5.0 you have come to the right place. Like I said I am converting a 2001 Sport trac RIGHT NOW and I have another 2001 in the cue......

 

[vroomzoomboom]

click the link i have below for what you will need for your swap. like 410 said, give or take in a way, its a 98% bolt in. you will have some differences in wires and connectors. as for the mustang motor, not 100% it will work. 94-95 had the short dress on them, but i dont know if the balancer is the same.
if you can pull a motor out, and put another in, this swap is not that hard

 

[CDW6212R]

The Mustang 302's would have to have the Explorer external parts on it, even the timing cover, to work with the Explorer computer and wiring. The balance is still 50oz, but the balancer is nothing like the Explorer. It'll have to have the whole front dress, the two mounting accessory brackets and the rest. The Mustang 302's have the normal exhaust port(spark plug) locations, so the Explorer manifolds from 97 1/2 to 2001 won't work. That means you'll have to find the 97.5-01 Explorer 302 heads, the 302P heads.

Finding a donor 302 Explorer/Mountaineer from 99-01 is the far far better solution. There are tons of parts needed to make the swap happen, and they are all on those 99-01 302 models.

If your OH emissions laws don't let you swap to an older model engine, you should consider selling the 02 Sport Trac. With an 01 model, you can use a 2001 Explorer PCM, and any of the 99-01 parts(they are all the same and not identifiable by part number(year)).

 

[plance1]

Thanks for the input, here is what I bought, the truck is an explorer not the mountaineer I mentioned originally..

Here's a shot of the mustang engine:

 

[plance1]

I can unbolt things and bolt things back together so that part is not whats concerning. Its all the little details.

 

[plance1]

You won’t be able to keep your 4x4, or transmission. You will also need a ton of wiring and tons of other bits. This is likely to be a very long process without a donar truck.

What year is the motor?

Not sure why you would say I can't keep my 4x4. Thats not accurate. Yes, the tons of wiring and other bits is why.... as I mentioned in my original post, I am buying a 5.0 engine and a truck...

 

[plance1]

What are your plans for a transmission? Is the Mountaineer 2 or 4WD?

The truck is 4x4. My plan is to still have 4x4 however I gotta do it...

 

[plance1]

You do not need any mobil mechanics, you can get all the information you will need right here on EF

If you go buy a 99 Explorer/Mountaineer V8 with AWD then you will have most of what you need right there to convert your 02 trac to the 5.0

BUT before you start, let me ask you a question
Do you have emissions where you live?

I have completed about 10 of these conversions over the years, from mild to wild. I am converting TWO sport tracs right now as a matter of fact.
You CAN do a 4x4 conversion
but you will not be using any of the 2002 sport trac parts
You will need to use the 99 5.0 drivetrain along with a F150 4x4 transfer case to retain 4x4. You can even keep your 4x4 dash switch if you want.

Why did you buy a mustang 5.0L engine? What year mustang? (The Mountaineer engine is likely a better 5.0L to use)........

No, I'm in Northern Kentucky actually so no issues with emissions. I reached out to RangerSVT or is it (SVTRanger lol?) who has been extremely helpful and thoughtful with info. Let me know where you are located, hes about 4 hours away from me. I think he was telling me that I could use the donor AWD transfer case so I'm confused on this point and yes I want to keep the dash switch so it looks and functions as factory as possible. I'm also not sure what transmission to use but thats probably because I haven't researched this enough) If I do this I'm probably going to want to get a rebuilt trans (the one in the sport trac has over 250k) and maybe a rebuilt transfer case if either of mine don't fit. I found a link to this outfit on one of these forums:

Manual & Automatic Transmission, Transfer Cases Rebuilt Units and Parts

so I'm going to look them up.

I bought the mustang engine because it was local, I could hear it run, and it was relatively cheap. The engine is an 92. I've always heard the GT40 heads and intake were better than the stock mustang pieces which i one of the reasons I bought the explorer...but I'm hearing there is limited availability for headers if I use them in the swap...

So here is what I was going to do: take out my 4.0.

Plan A: Buy the correct motor mounts from Autozone or wherever. Put in the mustang engine (along with whatever trans and transfer case) and then swap over the bits and pieces from the explore and I'm referring to the wiring, radiator, etc and other small steps. CDW6212R makes me think its more involved than that with balancer, etc. But in my mind I was doing as much as possible before touching the donor, ie leaving it running and driving as long as possible..

Plan B: Do all of that mentioned above with the mustang engine but put the heads and intake from the explorer onto it.

Plan C: Do either of the above but freshen up the heads on either engine and install a new cam that sounds good (yes, I want it to sound cool) and is a little more powerful. Im hearing that this would cause the need for dyon tuning to get the ECM to work properly.

Plan D: Just set the mustang engine aside and use everything from the donor. You're all probably scratching your heads and wondering why I don't just do this. I guess I could but I think the mustang engine is stronger. I drove the exploder yesterday and I was pretty underwhelmed with the performance, its tired or something, not a lot of power, a lot less than I was expecting.

 

[shucker1]

Plan D: Just set the mustang engine aside and use everything from the donor. You're all probably scratching your heads and wondering why I don't just do this. I guess I could but I think the mustang engine is stronger. I drove the exploder yesterday and I was pretty underwhelmed with the performance, its tired or something, not a lot of power, a lot less than I was expecting.

Why not go this route and get the engine from the donor truck rebuilt while it is out since you have already talked about doing a cam and rebuilding heads.

Yes you would need to have it run across a dyno and tuned with any major engine modifications.

@CDW6212R brings up a lot of good points.

A lot of members on the forum have done this exact same swap so it's not impossible just very complex.

 

[CDW6212R]

You have the 98% of all parts you need to do the swap now, in that donor AWD 302 Explorer.

Make judgements on the condition of each of those engines. Not how the truck pulls, but the overall condition, the mileage etc, of the engines. Both can be used(the short block of the Mustang 302HO only), both have the identical compression, block, crank, rods. I'd use the Explorer 302 unless there is something significantly wrong with it.

When the engine mileage gets to 150k, it's time to replace the timing chain set. Do that if it's close, look over and replace any obvious leaking gaskets, like the oil pan, timing cover, valve covers, intake.

The HO 302 has the best steel valve cover gaskets, take those off and use them for sure. Toss all cork gaskets in the trash, even brand new ones, including the intake end pieces. They will leak sooner or later.

You have to use the Explorer heads, exhaust manifolds, the intakes, the front balancer, transmission, AWD transfer case(or do the BW4406 swap), the front dress(alternator, AC compressor, water pump, PS pump, brackets, tensioner(all of it)). The Mustang engine can only be useful for the core, the shortblock, or the cam which I would use. The HO cam is a little better than the truck roller cam. The Explorer cam is the same one used in the Lightning 351 engines, the same truck roller cam. Ford only made three roller cams for SBF's, the HO, truck , and Cobra cam(slight change(also had 1.7:1 rockers(bigger deal than the cam))).

You V6 Sport Trac has 4WD, the Explorer is AWD, and there is no switch for the AWD. So you won't need your radio bezel with the switch in it. The V6 transmission and 4WD TC will not work behind the V8. They will not bolt up, wrong bolt patterns. The only way to have the selectable 4WD(and that switch), is to install a BW4406 TOD, which is a bit more involved electrically. The manual shift BW4406 is similar but no electrics really, and lots of people have done that here.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Not sure why you would say I can't keep my 4x4. Thats not accurate. Yes, the tons of wiring and other bits is why.... as I mentioned in my original post, I am buying a 5.0 engine and a truck...

Yes, my statement is accurate. YOUR transfer case won’t bolt to the 4r70w transmission. You can’t keep your transmission, either obviously. If you want selectable 4wd, you’ll need to convert to an F series 4406.

 

[plance1]

Why not go this route and get the engine from the donor truck rebuilt while it is out since you have already talked about doing a cam and rebuilding heads.
.

Just concerned this would slow down any momentum I would have going at that point in time.