Will a 5.0L from an '89 F-150 make a good swap?

My buddy has a 5.0L EFI motor with the 4-speed auto tranny out of an '89 F-150. He was going to use it in his Toyota 4runner project rig, but he changes ideas like I change underwear.%) So yesterday he made a deal for a Chevy 305 powertrain and guess what.........yup, he's selling the Ford stuff. I can get it all for $300......engine, tranny , EFI intake, computer & wiring.

He tells me that the EFI for these engines is not multi-port so I'm probably going to need to have it custom wired. I'm really green on the whole EFI thing.........can someone here explain to me what he might be talking about. Surely there's a wiring kit that can make this work without too many headaches.?:?

unfortunately the truck 5.0 doesn't make a great swap. the intake manifold is about 14 inches taller than a mustang or car 5.0 so even with a large body lift you still will have to put a huge scoop on your hood. Also the 89 motor is speed density which means you cannot do very many modifications to the motor and finding a harness is not the easiest. I have built them from the old harness but it is much better to just find an explorer or mustang and get the motor from it $300-$500 is a fair price to pay for a motor and computer and harness.

It isn't a bad swap but you need to keep a few things in mind. To begin with the truck EFI is banked speed density injection (2 wires for the injectors instead of 8) instead of SEFI (sequential). It should still be multiport though. It's possible to use the truck harness and ECM but most swap to the Mustang stuff instead. (Left stock there is no reason to change it) Second is that the intake is about 5" taller than the car intakes which amounts to about 1 1/2" higher than the hood if you have a 3" body lift. (The 5.8 truck intake is 3" above with a 3" body lift) This means either a custom hood scoop or the ProFlo hood might fit (We measured it out last week and it is about 2" higher than stock at the intake), or changing to a car intake (Which barely fits under a stock hood with no body lift). The last option is pretty easy since the car intakes are easy to locate in wrecking yards for the 5.0.

When considering the price you pay I would eliminate the intake, ecm, and wiring harness from it and figure on buying them from a car setup instead.

Thanks for the replies guys.

So what you're both saying is that I'm better off finding an EFI system from a car because:
1) The intake is lower and I'll have less clearance issues at the hood.
2) There are more wiring harness options available to make the swap easier.

So I should be looking for intakes out of Mustangs, Crown Vics, what else?? You mention Explorers.......I wasn't aware that they came with V8s.

As for the drivetrain, the 302 in my Bronco runs well, but It's always good to have a spare. Other than fueling, are there any other major differences between the '74 302 in my rig and the 5.0L out of an '89 F-150?

Also, for the money I think it's worth the purchase just for the auto 4-speed transmission. Any reason why this won't work? This transmission is the 4x4 version........are there adapters available to mate the Dana 20 to it? If not, I'm told there are many adapter options out there to mate this transmission to other transfercases???

RgdL said:

Thanks for the replies guys.

So what you're both saying is that I'm better off finding an EFI system from a car because:
1) The intake is lower and I'll have less clearance issues at the hood.
2) There are more wiring harness options available to make the swap easier.

So I should be looking for intakes out of Mustangs, Crown Vics, what else?? You mention Explorers.......I wasn't aware that they came with V8s.

As for the drivetrain, the 302 in my Bronco runs well, but It's always good to have a spare. Other than fueling, are there any other major differences between the '74 302 in my rig and the 5.0L out of an '89 F-150?

Also, for the money I think it's worth the purchase just for the auto 4-speed transmission. Any reason why this won't work? This transmission is the 4x4 version........are there adapters available to mate the Dana 20 to it? If not, I'm told there are many adapter options out there to mate this transmission to other transfercases???

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I'm not saying that. Rather I am saying this option will still work fine but may need a bit more work than a car style setup would. You can still use any of the other wiring options but it requires getting the harness and ecm from those vehicles to do so. Explorers, 96 up until 2001 or 2002 had the optional 5.0 in them. This is probably the top choice for the motor itself but has many of the same issues to work through. I.E. The ECM and wiring need to be swapped to the Mustang stuff along with the distributor. The only difference in making it work and the F150 motor is that you change the distributor on the Explorer motor and the intake on the F150 motor (Unless you decide to keep the truck intake) FWIW, If you can work aroung the tall intake it actually is a good option since the truck intakes were designed for better torque. (That's what I run on my 5.8 which came out of a 96 F350) Ont he 4 speed I'm not sure on the options to bolt to the Dana 20. It would bolt right up to the NP 205 though which is a virtually bulletproof transfer case. (It's the only direct bolt up of a stock case I know of that fits between the frame rails) Or for lower gearing you could do a 203/205 doubler setup which requires an adapter (for between the 203 and 205), drivelines, crossmembers, and shift linkage to be built. (Some of this will be needed anyway to swap transfer cases even without the doubler)

As far as differences between your 302 and the newer 5.0 the major difference is the engine balance. the newer 5.0's are 50 oz imbalance instead of 28 oz. This means the flexplate or flywheel needs to be changed to work. (If you use the newer tranny and flywheel this isn't an issue) Other than this the newer motor is EFI and has the Serpentine belt system. It also has one clutch retaining bung (or something along those lines) missing on the block. The EB and Mustang vendors both sell a bracket to correct this though for $10 or so. Otherwise it is pretty much a direct replacement.

Thanks for the great info Saddleup. I can work around the height of the intake if it will make the swap easier.

Thanks again dfor your help.

RgdL said:

Thanks for the great info Saddleup. I can work around the height of the intake if it will make the swap easier.

Thanks again dfor your help.

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If you keep the truck intake and don't go into the motor to change anything then the truck ECM and harness will work out okay. The only issue we've had is that the truck ecm uses a single O2 sensor instead of 2. That means you need a crossover pipe with a 2 into 1 exhaust and a single sensor in it. Just keep in mind that if you dive into the motor to change the cam or anything later you will probably end up replacing the harness and ecm with a MAF type instead. That also means going in and adding O2 sensors again. (I have heard of people running the Mustang MAF system with 1 sensor but I don't know the details)