Here's a few photos to show off the build time.
Updated 2/16/09
again on 10/27/09, appears a sizeable chunk of the page has been torn from the book. Had to change the page around a bit.
The engine needed some major work done due to moisture intrusion.
Sleeves were worn and pitted on pistons 5 & 6, left no choice in going with the larger pistons.
Cringed when the head came off and found out why it didn't turn over.
Crankshaft was worn just slightly, but the machinists recommended service anyway.
Valley Auto Machine services in Mt Vernon Wa performed the clean and mag of the block, .030 bore as well as resizing the rods, installation of the piston rods, resizing the crankshaft .010 and installing the new cam bearings. The cam had no wear due to the roller cams for the HO version, apparently less wear and tear. All this ran up to $600 and was done in 4 days.
Awesome job on the machining.
Painted the block with duplicolor Ford red engine enamel, no problems yet. Didn't even think about painting the heads until the whole thing was together. Will have to wait till it's pulled back out.
Ordered the Sealed power kit from Summit ($300) for the .030 hyperutectic pistons and it came with all the rings, gaskets and seals as well.
Used a dremel tool with a ball mill to clean up the oil flow areas on top of the motor and the head ports and rocker areas before dropping off at the machinist. The valves were given a good cleaning and matching prior to reinstalation.
The addition of the March Pulleys ($300) removed some dead weight, since the a/c and air pump weren't even in use when I picked up the Mustang.
This really cleaned up the front end and had to route the belt from the drive shaft to the water pump otherwise the belt kept slipping off on the initial run with the diagram shown from March.
The pulleys had to be removed when going through the placement of the engine on the mounts, the core support wouldn't be so acommodating for this step. Atleast the core support didn't need any trimming, nor did the body where the bellhousing was attached.
During the initial drop in, the engine had to be turned 90 degrees to the right until about 6 inches into the engine compartment, then slowly rotated forward as it gets seated into place. The headers also had to be in place with limited room to move them once the engine was in the final position.
Positioning the engine was turning out to be a "that looks about right" type of positioning, as long as the tranny matched up after set on the engine mount blocks. Had to mark where the block would sit on the frame, took three drop ins before the engine finally rested in the mounts. The mount on the right side was welded in place with an oxy acetylene torch, the left side would be free to move to allow for getting the engine out at a later time. The mounting plates were purchased through Advanced Adapters as part of the conversion kit, the link below shows pricing for all items available for the conversion process.
http://advanceadapters.com/product/2861/2-Wheel-Drive-302-V8-Conversion-Basic-Package-For-Bronco-II-%26-Rangers-.html
The Headers were purchased through Advanced Adapters as a direct drop in for the Ranger. I chose the chromed version and soon found that the nice finish holds up for just a short while before the heat slowly removes it.
The 2 1/2" pipe, H pipe connection and the 4" round Magnaflows were purchased through Summit, went to Schucks for the additional high flow catalytic converters, tubing adapters, and new 02 sensors.
This was a first attempt at fabricating my own exhaust system. Once the weld puddle formed, just had to keep feeding the weld to prevent the inevitable blow hole from making it difficult.
The 02 sensor on the right side had to be mouted on the converter due to a lack of good mounting surfaces on the header. New mounting bungs need to be purchased when the converter gets changed out. The left side had a small section on the pipe extension. Used an old 02 sensor to hold the bungs in place while they were welded to keep it from getting deformed.
The oil filter adapter allowed for a better suited location, picked it up through Advanced as well but available through many suppliers. As shown, not much room left for the oil filter, the oil pressure sender was a different problem altogether. Ended up using the sender from the 2.3 L which makes the light on the dash flash in a constant cycle, just like a heartbeat. Decided to leave it alone after a while, kind of tells me, "it's alive".
The oil sender wiring was only a small part, for the most part, the rest of the wiring harness came off of the Mustang and completely integrated into where the 2.3l harness went. The only outside connectors were those of the alternator and fed into the trucks electrical charging system already in place. To complete the wiring conversion, I purchased a set of OEM schematics from the Ford dealership a while back before they stopped selling them. Had to look at the current resources for the mustang schematics and had to compare both side by side, marking where the changes had to be made. The fuel pump relay from the 2.3 harness did have to be integrated into the Mustang harness, threw me for a loop for a couple of hours till burying myself in the schematics eventually solved the missing puzzle piece.
The alternator is still stock and as expected, was showing twice the rpm's. Solved this by eventually opening the back up and finding the resistor that sets the tach. Using a test set, i fed a square wave frequency at around 4 volts peak to show 5,000 rpm's, and used a variable resistor to adjust the rpm's down to 2,500 to get half of what was needed for the V8.
The only other item needed from Advanced was the radiator since it was also a direct drop in and a 4 row core with an oil cooler insert for future use. It really saved the engine when the fan was disabled from a loose ground wire, the tape came loose from the connector. Was sitting in Seattle traffic for a while when the temp gauge was starting to get into dangerous territory. At first thought, the fan regulator relay went on the blink.
Used a 1250 cfm coolmax fan, after extensive searching through the Summit catalog and found this to be the thinnest fan to fit the application. It covers only 2/3's of the radiator but very effective on hot days. The sensor is mounted on the opposite side from the fan in the upper corner.
The common problem of the head covers and the heater box was given some thought and after trying to change the shape of the box, gave up since the throttle body would go through the forward portion of the box.
To remedy the spacing requirements, a box constructed from light guage aircraft aluminum was formed using patterns of cardboard. Definitely took care of the problem getting heat to the windshield but the air conditioning was useless and constantly leaked. Still have the parts and may eventually integrate it back into the engine compartment at a later time.
The Borg-Warner T5 was in bad shape when I picked up the Mustang. With 2nd gear synchro completely worn, it would grind every time it was shifted into 2nd. I only drove the Mustang for 50 miles using the 1st to 3rd method just to get an idea of the power output at the time.
A rebuild kit was purchased through Summit for $245 which included all major and minor bearings, 5 synchros and all remaining rings and seperators to complete a major overhaul. As shown below, 2nd gear was in need of replacement since the synchro was useless. Purchased the synchronizer and gear for $200 through Oak Harbor Auto Parts.
The tranny was pretty much brand new when the work was done. Not bad for around $450, compared to the $800 to $1100 as quoted from a couple of transmission shops in town just for the rebuild.
I used half of a mountain bike handle bar which solved the problem with position in the cab with the location of the seat. The floor was cut back an additional 2" to give the new clearance.
Used more of the aircraft aluminum to make a cover plate for the position forward to limit the exposure to the heat, water and oil.
Once the T5 was in place, the driveshaft needed a little trimming. About 1 7/8" was just about right, this was taken care of at the Driveline Specialists in Bellingham for $100. Included the resizing, rebalancing and fitting of new u joints.
The clutch presented a few issues and as time goes on have found a few solutions and failures. The first attempt to get the clutch to work was using the original master cylinder and a new external slave cylinder from an 84 ranger setup to no avail. Couldn't develop the pressure to ensure the clutch would even operate, and it leaked fluid from every hose joint. I decided to try the cable method that was used in the Mustang but was attached to the clutch paddle backwards since the left header was in the way of the opening normally used.
From this angle, looks like it's resting on the header, it is but the clutch line was wrapped in a strip of fiberglass insulating mat and a wire mesh enclosure. Worked great for over a year until the cable was showing signs of wear and getting difficult to operate.
The opposite end up at the clutch pedal went through several revisions as well. This bracket worked good for quite a bit longer that was thought possible until the support snapped when leaving work on a Friday afternoon. Had to include reinforcements which were proving to be strong enough to handle day to day use but eventually was changed out.
Haven't had the time to get new pics of the final version of this setup in use currently, but when I purchased the 2000 Explorer rear end, the parking brake cable kind of gave me some ideas. Super smooth glide action and high tensile strength and long enough to keep it off of the converter. Mounted it up in about an hour and has been extremely dependable. Need to get new parking brake cables for the rear anyways
The fuel system that was used with the 2.3l is sufficient enough to supply adequate pressure to keep the 5.0 powered up. It has the stock internal tank pump as well as a frame mounted pump. The fuel filter is located in the same location but had to take it off the bracket it was normally mounted to since the location of the left catalytic converter used more space than I wanted. Fabricated cover plates for the pump and filter using the screen mesh and insulated both using the fiberglass barrier matting with the aluminum covering. Changed out the fuel lines with braided steel covered housings and checks out great so far, just have to keep an eye out for any developing problems, even after almost 2 years in operation.
That is about it for the basics, will update if there is more to add. Ask if you have any questions if there is anything needing clarification.
