Mustang EFI on 351W ??

[Ourobos]

Good info Bowsher

 

[roundhouse]

If you want to keep the remote TFI do a Google search for "351w remote tfi to mustang harness" and you will get lots of hits including from here.

I let the remote TFI get away with the van body

 

[mattt]

That's for a remote mount TFI. You need a distributor from a 1st gen lightning or the likes with the TFI mounted on the distributor like the Mustang piece.

I think any 88-93 5.8L stock dizzy will work with a gear swap (someone else can confirm). First gen Lightning dizzy too but it needs a gear change as well as they were not rollers. $90 bucks and swap the gear you have from the 96 dizzy.

Tim

Gen 1 Lightnings had a remote TFI module as well, so that is not the one to source. From what I've seen remote TFI started in 1992 in trucks. The 96 van engine should most likely have a roller cam in it, so as others said, you need a steel cam gear. If RichPorter offers distributors with TFI mounted and either cast or steel gear that is rad news. If not, you can start with a 91 and earlier F truck or Bronco 351w distributor and then change it over to a steel cam gear, which is what I did with my install. I will probably swap to a remote TFI at some point in the future to get the TFI module off the heat source(the engine).

This guy makes a conversion harness for remote mounting a TFI to a formerly engine mounted TFI. http://www.mccullyracingmotors.com/index_files/tfikits.htm

I've also seen it done with a pass thru(dummy TFI module to mount to the distributor body) as Broncobowsher mentioned, but I can't remember who offers the parts for that conversion option, unless you want to rig it up yourself.

 

[roundhouse]

ok, next question.

what did yall do with the front dress?

currently the 5.0 has the stock mustang minus the smog pump

hows the easiest way to ditch the smog pump on the 1996 351 dress?

 

[Timmy390]

ok, next question.

what did yall do with the front dress?

currently the 5.0 has the stock mustang minus the smog pump

hows the easiest way to ditch the smog pump on the 1996 351 dress?

WELL

I'm running the 96 Van front dress. It's way long so the only option is to not use it or run electric fans and mover the radiator as far forward as you can by flipping the mounts.

For the smog pump, I just took it off and got a shorter belt. Eliminated the idle pulley, added an A/C delete bracket and bingo. Think I used an 98 inch belt?

Tim

 

[roundhouse]

WELL

I'm running the 96 Van front dress. It's way long so the only option is to not use it or run electric fans and mover the radiator as far forward as you can by flipping the mounts.

For the smog pump, I just took it off and got a shorter belt. Eliminated the idle pulley, added an A/C delete bracket and bingo. Think I used an 98 inch belt?

Tim

is the mustang dress interchangable?

ive been running a flex fan and its a very tight fit, had to notch the corners of the blades to clear the A/C compressor.
and the flex fan is noisy


Ive heard the thunderbird front dress is shorter than a mustang?

and by flipping the mounts, you mean putting the rad in front of the core support?

 

[Timmy390]

The only dress I know about is the stock 74 front and the 96 van which I made work. From what I've read, the mustang front should bolt up. I say that because the Explorer front will bolt to a 351W.

As for flipping the mounts, the radiator says where it is. If you notice there is a large gap between the core and the upper part of the radiator where the radiator hold downs are (I called them mounts). In fact if you look the factory setup the radiator leaning in towards the engine at the top. By moving the upper hold down/mounts to the outside of the core, the radiator can then lay away from the engine and be straight up and down/vertical gaining a good inch or more.

I drilled out the spot welds holding the upper mounts to the core support and the notched the outer core and spaced the mounts away from the core to get max clearance. It's still tight as hell. I'm running the Derale electric fan WH sells and I with some trimming, made it work with the stock shroud.

Is the van setup the best option? Probably not. The Explorer front dress is optimal as it provides more room and moves a tone of air BUT I already had the van dress and to save cost, I made it work.

Tim

 

[mattt]

ok, next question.

what did yall do with the front dress?

currently the 5.0 has the stock mustang minus the smog pump

hows the easiest way to ditch the smog pump on the 1996 351 dress?

You have a few options on the front dress. First option is move your Mustang serp setup over to the 351, but you will have to source a different harmonic balancer or have your existing rebalanced to 28oz since that is what a 351 is. I would think most everything else will bolt up since the heads are the same between 302/5.0 & 351, same reason the Explorer serp bolts up to either.

Next option, Is your 351 from a truck or a van? If it's from a truck, there is a smog pump eliminator pulley that can be found on late year 96-97 F series trucks w/ 351. A picture of one I have is attached below.

I'm not super familiar with the van serp setup...is it the same depth or shallower than F series truck serp setups? I'm thinking the same or close because I've heard of truck people converting the ps pump side bracket to use on a truck.....reason listed in next sentence. One nice thing on the van serp is, it should have a Saginaw ps pump vs. the F series truck serp that had the sucky Ford pump.

I see Timmy did the work around to use his existing van serp, so it's do-able. I went with the Explorer 5.0 serp setup, well, for the obvious reasons as it's the most favored in Bronco circles. It's kind of a personal choice which one to go with, once that is decided then the questions on the workarounds begin. Good luck.

 

[brianstrange]

You don't need to buy a new distributor if you're handy with wiring. I'm running a remote TFI distributor (94-95 Bronco and Mustang 5.0) which has the same electronics as your 351 van distributor, with a 93 EEC IV. I made this diagram to help show how you go about it. You also will need a gray remote tfi for it to work.

 

[mattt]

Brianstrange...great info right there. Thanks for posting that. What did you use for harness in this conversion? When you did the conversion did you use the Mustang EEC IV harness that originally went to the distributor mounted TFI and then reroute it & patch in a part of a harness from a remote mounted TFI Truck/Bronco? Basically what I'm wondering is if you used mostly Mustang harness, mostly Truck/Bronco harness, or did you construct all new harness from wire roll stock?

Is pin 56 connected to both conn. 4 & 8 on the distributor? Nothing goes to pin 5 on distributor? Conn 2 & 6 bridge as well at the distributor plug?

Thanks again for posting this, it is something I've wanted to tackle for quite a while, but never jumped at any of the options I've seen yet. Factory is my preference and this looks pretty good.

 

[Timmy390]

Is pin 56 connected to both conn. 4 & 8 on the distributor? Nothing goes to pin 5 on distributor? Conn 2 & 6 bridge as well at the distributor plug?

Yes.....

I struggled with this as well as my connector only had pins in 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8.

The Distributor plug has pins in 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8,

If look at the wires in the distributor connector, 4 and 8 are fat green and 2 and 6 are black with yellowish strip. All the diagrams I've seen show 4 & 8 and 2 & 6 bridged on the distributor connector.

Tim

 

[brianstrange]

Brianstrange...great info right there. Thanks for posting that. What did you use for harness in this conversion? When you did the conversion did you use the Mustang EEC IV harness that originally went to the distributor mounted TFI and then reroute it & patch in a part of a harness from a remote mounted TFI Truck/Bronco? Basically what I'm wondering is if you used mostly Mustang harness, mostly Truck/Bronco harness, or did you construct all new harness from wire roll stock?

Is pin 56 connected to both conn. 4 & 8 on the distributor? Nothing goes to pin 5 on distributor? Conn 2 & 6 bridge as well at the distributor plug?

Thanks again for posting this, it is something I've wanted to tackle for quite a while, but never jumped at any of the options I've seen yet. Factory is my preference and this looks pretty good.

I used a Mustang harness, and stole the Distributor branch off the 96 Truck harness. I took it a little further, and put my BAP and TFI under the dash. Tim covered the rest on the pins.

Important note: The shielding no longer gets grounded next to the computer. With the truck Dist. the ground is to the dist body\engine block itself. Don't connect the ground at both sides.

 

[Timmy390]

Important note: The shielding no longer gets grounded next to the computer. With the truck Dist. the ground is to the dist body\engine block itself. Don't connect the ground at both sides.

Interesting....All the wiring diagrams I looked at for the black TFI module had the shielding on a separate ground.

What will it hurt to have the shielding grounded at say the frame and the Distributor being grounded at the engine? Both are grounded all the time with engine on or off.

Tim

 

[brianstrange]

Interesting....All the wiring diagrams I looked at for the black TFI module had the shielding on a separate ground.

What will it hurt to have the shielding grounded at say the frame and the Distributor being grounded at the engine? Both are grounded all the time with engine on or off.

Tim

It's EMI shielding, best to have one ground point