[Judas]

Hey guys,

I know I speak blasphemy posting this here, but I get a lot of good advice from this board and would like to try before having to register on a Ford forum.

A friend of mine burned up the engine in his 88, 5.0 4x4 Bronco (EFI). He said it started running bad, pulled over, and popped the hood. It was glowing red on the manifolds.

I compression checked it yesterday and found a completely dead cylinder only halfway through. It still runs but I also hear a disturbing clatter coming from the motor as well; sounds like the valves or lifters. Another little treat was the badly leaking front seal covered the whole bottom of the engine/trans/crossmember in a thick, wet greasy sludge. Its an automatic btw.

Anyhow, because he is seriously down on his money, the decision is to pluck a motor from the local "u pick/u pull" junkyard and I will install it for an embarressingly low sum of money as a favor and lend a hand. Obviously, an 88 Pickup or Bronco would be ideal, but what other years would be OK? What about a car motor like a 5.0 Mustang? I figure a car motor would be tuned differently, but we might have to take what we find.

Any help you can provide is much appreciated.

-J

[YVEYANT]

A Mustang 5.0 would work fine. If you go 89 and up it will be mass air, not speed density. If you go that route pull the computer out of the donor car as well.

[bastard]

I asked my Ford buddy almost the exact same question when I got my 1971 F100 and he said I could use any 5.0 up to 1995 or so, whenever they stopped using the 5.0/302. But mine is carbureted, I'm not sure of the differences for fuel injection.
Before 1980 (around that time) they were balanced different. I'm not sure of the exact date, but if you get a pre-'80 engine you will need the flexplate that came with the earlier engine.

[Judas]

Well, I would think I'd need a newer engine for the emissions provisions and heads designed for the FI. Because of the nature of the damage, we would be shooting for a long block vs a crankcase. The Bronco has almost 200K miles on it, so I would figure the heads are shot.

I guess we could go carbureted though and remove the EFI fuel pump. I don't think MD (where it is registered) emissions inspects when the car is over 20 years, but I would have to check.

-J

[YVEYANT]

Keep the EFI you would never regret it.

[mechanic17]

Truck/van and car engines of that vintage interchange freely--just keep the intake from the truck (you can tie it up to the windshield and keep some stuff hooked up.)

Conversion van motors are often well-maintained, just a pain to take out (passenger door.) They do not have roller cams, however.

But man, I had such bad luck with Fords I sold the last one immediately after the last swap. . .

[Judas]

I'll add Vans to my list. This guy won't care if it is roller vs non-roller as long as his wheels are turning again. To give you an idea of the situation, this guy is about my age (35) and still living with Mom and Dad. Nice guy, but not what I call a success story. He does work, but its just low pay type jobs.

After some digging on the web, I've found that 87-93/94 truck motors are pretty much exact replacements. I'll keep an eye for those as a first choice.

-J