351 EFI Intake options

[casadejohnson]

I was just reading the 5.0 & 5.8 EFI swap thread but didn't want to hijack it. Here is my situation. I swapped in a 69 351 Windsor several years ago and now I'm going to convert it to EFI. I want to keep my current motor and convert it rather than buying a complete new motor because I have alot invested in it. I decided on EFI because I hate my edelbrock carb and because I need another bronco project. I have done alot of reading and have started to gather the parts. What I need is 5.8 intake manifold advice and photos if you have them. I know that the 5.8 truck intake is to tall and not really an option. I would like to go with a GT-40 Upper and 351 GT-40 lower but its a pretty expensive setup and I think Ford Racing stopped selling the 351 lower so I would have to track down a used one. The other option I see is an edelbrock intake typically used to swap a 351 into a mustang. Once again this is a bit expensive.

MY QUESTIONS ?'s AND REQUESTS

1) Are there intake options I'm missing? Any Less expensive options?

2) Do any of you have 351 EFI photos you can post so I can see how various intakes fit ? I now have Hydroboost so any photos with EFI and hydroboost would be helpful.

3)Has anyone used the typhoon intake sold on ebay? Its supposed to be an edelbrock knockoff.

4) Has anyone used / seen the spacers that allow you to bolt a 302 intake to a 351 windsor ? Are they any good ? where can you buy em?

5) Any words of wisdom or warnings from thoose who have done the 351 EFI conversion? Was the conversion worth the time and effort?


Any advice, photos or other assistance will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[SaddleUp]

1: You could buy the Edelbrock 5.8 lower and the 5.0 GT-40 upper.
2: Here is how the truck intake fits with a 3" body lift in case you are curious: http://www.classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60217
3: NA
4: I would avoid them like the plague
5: I did the entire motor and it was well worth the effort. The link above has a little information regarding my swap in it.

 

[casadejohnson]

OK quick update and another question. I was looking back in the archives and found out you can make the truck intake work. with 3" of body lift and a hood scoop. I have the body lift so it may be an option. Does anyone know if the truck intake produces good low end torque? How would it compare to the gt-40 or edelbrock options in the power department?

 

[SaddleUp]

OK quick update and another question. I was looking back in the archives and found out you can make the truck intake work. with 3" of body lift and a hood scoop. I have the body lift so it may be an option. Does anyone know if the truck intake produces good low end torque? How would it compare to the gt-40 or edelbrock options in the power department?

If you ask Ryan he will tell you the gt-40 intakes are better. I believe that is true for the upper rpm range but not the lower end torque range. If they did provide more low end torque then Ford would have used them on at least some of the big trucks. All I have seen to indicate anything in comparison are some quarter mile times which don't do anything for me. I do have a 97 Explorer which I also use for towing and I think the 5.8 has bit of an edge when it comes to low end grunt. That Explorer sure lights up at higher RPM's though.

 

[SnwMnkys]

Personally i wouldnt run the Truck setup because I dont believe it can be converted to Mass air, none of the writeups are written about the truck EFI, theyre all about the Mustang, and the fact that its so tall. Im going to be running the Edelbrock manifold on my 351W, i have most of the parts now, just need a few misc peices.

 

[casadejohnson]

saddle up-
I started to read your thread and it looks very helpful! Nice work by the way. If I understand correctly, you still are using the harness and computer from your 5.0 efi swap. Is that correct? Is it a mass air setup? Did this improve your millage? I can get a complete truck intake with injectors and fuel rail for about $50 at the local junk yard. I figure the injectors alone are worth that much. I was going to get most of the parts from a mustang and keep looking for a gt-40 intake but maybe I should pull everything from the truck in the junkyard.

Anyone else run a different 5.8 efi setup?

If I spring for the edelbrock or gt-40 intake will it fit under my stock hood with 3" of body lift?

 

[SaddleUp]

Personally i wouldnt run the Truck setup because I dont believe it can be converted to Mass air, none of the writeups are written about the truck EFI, theyre all about the Mustang, and the fact that its so tall. Im going to be running the Edelbrock manifold on my 351W, i have most of the parts now, just need a few misc peices.

MAF doesn't have anything to do with the intake beyond the MAF unit which needs to be placed between the intake and the air cleaner. I run the Mustang MAF system on mine and it works great.

 

[SnwMnkys]

MAF doesn't have anything to do with the intake beyond the MAF unit which needs to be placed between the intake and the air cleaner. I run the Mustang MAF system on mine and it works great.

I know, but is yours a single throttle body or a dual? If its a dual, then how did you split the pipes.

 

[SaddleUp]

saddle up-
I started to read your thread and it looks very helpful! Nice work by the way. If I understand correctly, you still are using the harness and computer from your 5.0 efi swap. Is that correct? Is it a mass air setup? Did this improve your millage? I can get a complete truck intake with injectors and fuel rail for about $50 at the local junk yard. I figure the injectors alone are worth that much. I was going to get most of the parts from a mustang and keep looking for a gt-40 intake but maybe I should pull everything from the truck in the junkyard.

Anyone else run a different 5.8 efi setup?

If I spring for the edelbrock or gt-40 intake will it fit under my stock hood with 3" of body lift?

Yes, same harness and ECM. It started as a 90 Speed Density system though which I later upgraded to the Mustang MAF system which was done a few weeks prior to the 5.8 swap. My mileage over the 5.0 did improve slightly and it runs considerably better than the 88 truck ECM my brother is running on the 5.8 in his 79 BB. We will be converting his to either the 90 Speed Density or we will use the spare Mustang ECM and MAF stuff I have here on it. Whichever is left over will probably go into the 70 EB I gave him that is in my garage.

It is my understanding that the Edelbrock and GT-40 intakes will fit with a body lift.

FWIW, I do plan to replace my intake (and heads) down the road but it will probably be with the Edlebrock 5.8 truck intake rather than the GT-40 stuff.

 

[SaddleUp]

I know, but is yours a single throttle body or a dual? If its a dual, then how did you split the pipes.

It is the dual throttle body. I used a Y adapter that I picked up from the wrecking yard at the same time as I picked up my engine. Not sure if it was from the same year of truck or not though. It was from around the same vintage though. If you check the pic above you can see the Y adapter about 3" to the right of the throttle body. The rubber tubing between the Y adapter and the MAF Unit I picked up from a local hose supply shop.

Note: The Y adapter also has a connection on it for the crankcase breather hose.

 

[bsaunder]

Here's two pics of my 351 SEFI in my engine compartment as my project has been progressing.
The intake is a an edelbrock rpm upper, 5.8 lower. The engine sits a little higher due to HD engine mounts too. I have a 2" body lift.

I believe you are missing two other options for intakes for consideration. I know Trickflow makes one for the 5.8 and I think Holley does too.

 

[broncobsession]

I think the Trick Flows are beautiful

 

[casadejohnson]

Bsaunder,

Thats a nice looking setup! Why did you go with the RPM upper? It seems like the advice I have gotten has been to stay away from the RPM upper due to the RPM range. Am I missing something or just getting bad advice? Also, what did you use for a harness and computer? Mustang parts?

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[bsaunder]

With the added displacement of the 351w the rpm upper actually better matches the engine than the standard upper as both were designed for a 302. The standard would work well for a low rpm engine, however I wanted mine to be able to pull up to ~5500rpm. When I did the calculations on the standard it looked like it would start choking out ~4000 rpm. The guy that made my custom cam for me said that the standard one would start dropping power ~3500 rpm or sooner from his experience on mustang engines.
For the harness and computer I'm using all '93 mustang parts. I upgraded the throttle body to a 70mm accufab, the MAF to a Pro-M 75mm, and injectors to 24lb though so I'm running a custom chip to make it all play nice together.

 

[wheelin66bronco]

Pics

Here are some pics of mine.
Feel free to stop by and look if you want. Don't know where you live exactly but PM my and stop by if you so feel motivated

I run the Motorsports lower, explorer upper (GT-40) and Exporer Serpentine.

http://photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

 

[wheelin66bronco]

Who burned your chip for you?

With the added displacement of the 351w the rpm upper actually better matches the engine than the standard upper as both were designed for a 302. The standard would work well for a low rpm engine, however I wanted mine to be able to pull up to ~5500rpm. When I did the calculations on the standard it looked like it would start choking out ~4000 rpm. The guy that made my custom cam for me said that the standard one would start dropping power ~3500 rpm or sooner from his experience on mustang engines.
For the harness and computer I'm using all '93 mustang parts. I upgraded the throttle body to a 70mm accufab, the MAF to a Pro-M 75mm, and injectors to 24lb though so I'm running a custom chip to make it all play nice together.

I am running 70mm TB, 70mm MAF, and 24 lb injectors and a comp custom grind cam, all this with the X3Z 93 Cobra computer and it's not enough bottom end for me. I am looking into either getting a chip for the X3Z or get an A9L and a chip but am looking for someone local to do it for me.

 

[jate]

A friend of mine here in SLC had trick flow EFI system on his 5.8 but pulled it and sold it on ebay. He said it did not run well at lower RPMs. He bought the edelbrock set up and loves it. He uses the MAF, 65 throttle body, I think he uses 24 lb injectors, it could be the size smaller than 24 lbs. I think his edelbrock is a performer series. I bought an Edelbrock performer upper/lower for my 5.8 off ebay for $420, but sold it when I came across a GT-40 upper/lower intakes. I haven't installed my engine yet, so I don't know how it will run.

Good luck.

 

[Ryan]

I swapped out a 5.0L for a 5.8L in my daily driver.
I drove it with the stock Truck intake for 3 years.
I swapped to an Edelbrock Performer intake a year ago.
I have the 1/4mile intake testing done.
I have the dyno from the Truck intake and will have the Edelbrock Performer intake dyno'd this spring!
This is my opinion:

I just don't like the Truck intake, it chokes the 5.8L so much.
The amount of extra work for the 5.8L with stock intake doesn't yield an equal performance increase. (lots of work, not much gain)
The 5.0L is so hard to beat, I don't think the stock EFI 5.8L has much over a stock Explorer 5.0L with GT40 intake and heads.
Sure it's a little better, but not worth the effort in my opinion.

Personally I'd spend the extra effort on getting putting Explorer parts on a 5.0L.
OR
Get the right intake for the 5.8L (GT-40 or Edelbrock Performer)

 

[casadejohnson]

wheelin66bronco,

I'm in Greeley so not very far away. I used to live in Fort Collins. I could not get the link to open but I did see your gallery and you have a photo there. I would like to see your setup. Where are you in Fort Collins?

 

[bsaunder]

If your in the Broomfield area on a weekend and want to gander at another EB, let me know.