1962 hard top 5.8 engine swap

[SGTCornewell]

At this point I have more parts available than I have time to work with! I have everything to finish assembling the engine, The transmission is complete, the harness has been inspected, the gear box has been rebuilt, the leaf springs were picked up yesterday along with the disc brakes. My big thing is TIME!

Freestyle wrestling season ended yesterday so 2 evenings a week have been freed up. That should help. some day I'll post pics.

[46stude]

Almost 2,000 miles in a month on my 302/C6 powered Thunderbird.

Anyone who claims the SBF can't push the weight of the 'Bird around is sorely mistaken. My near bone stock 302 w/ a Holley 2V & dual exhaust moves it along very well. The car gets off the line great, and runs down the road effortlessly.

[kzguns]

I would have never doubted it!!! You know even the new mustang is nearly 3800#+ so I would think the 302 would do fine. Add a 4v intake and carb and you'll really squeeze out some ponies.

[SGTCornewell]

Hopefully I'll be able to describe how mine runs this summer. Progress has been slow due to time constraints. The engine is almost together so my next big challenge is the computer and motor mounts.

[SGTCornewell]

Well the motor is finished, again. I put the motor in the car 3 times this month due to clearance problems. FYI a double hump oil pan won't work due to the drag link in the back..... I'm putting the motor in for hopefully the final time tomorrow.

[46stude]

Well, I bought a '60s Mustang K code 4V intake, & a new Edelbrock 600 cfm carb & swapped 'em on recently. The 'Bird is a little rocket now. Originally, I'd thought maybe some day I'd swap out the SBF for an FE. After the miles I've driven this car w/ the 302, I can tell you its staying put.

[thunderbird61]

Well, I bought a '60s Mustang K code 4V intake, & a new Edelbrock 600 cfm carb & swapped 'em on recently. The 'Bird is a little rocket now. Originally, I'd thought maybe some day I'd swap out the SBF for an FE. After the miles I've driven this car w/ the 302, I can tell you its staying put.

Cool, I'm putting a 302 EFI in my 61, what kind of motor mounts did you use?

/ronny

[46stude]

Motor mounts were home made by the previous owner. They are ugly little things, but they work. I plan to redo them eventually.

[SGTCornewell]

i used fox body mounts and made adapters with my arc welder. the oil pan MUST be a front sump! the exhaust hasn't been tackled yet. I'm in the process of putting the new leaf springs in so i can get my pinion angle, then i can do the trans mount and not have a horrible vibration. the biggest headaches i've had so far are the oil pan mistake, pain of converting to an alternator and finding a cheaper route on leaf springs than $500. also, plan on an electric fan. if you haven't noticed, the drivers side exhaust manifold is very special. ford engineers steered the car from behind the wheels. the gear box and drag link assembly take up a lot of room so the driver side exhaust manifold dumps between the 6 and 7 cylinders instead of behind the 8. if you have any questions let me know. i'll try to help as far as i can so you don't waste any more money or time than you have to.

have you decided on efi system yet? theres a lot to think about, it's not quite plug and play.

[thunderbird61]

Thank you SGTCornewell.

Do you have a picture of the mounts?

I have done all the required modifikations. I relocated the dispstick to the front, and then used an older type oilpan.

The engine I'm using came out of a 88 mustang. I have installed the explorer/gt40 lower and upper intake. The efi system is the standard
ford EFI MAF A9P computer(EEC).

The transmission is a 4R70W from a 99 explorer. This is also computer controlled via a separate computer/controller.

I have had the engine and trans in for testfitting, but that is as far as I have gotten.

[SGTCornewell]

it sounds like you know what you're doing if you have an a9p and a separate computer for your transmission. my plan was efi but this is my daily driver and im on a tight budget so im going carbed for a while. my computer will be an obd1 with an aod trans, gt40p heads and intake. i may have to make headers to fit the driver side. so far i've only heard of truck exhaust manifolds fitting and those are power eaters.

the brackets i made were "simple" triangles. the cradle sits at 15 degrees, the mounts sit at 45 degrees. so i made them as wide as possible with a total of 30 degrees of angle to keep things square. the biggest pain was drilling a 7/8 hole and grinding a nut to fit inside and weld in place to bolt them to the cradle. i welded the mounts to them (not my preferred choice but i didn't want to drill through the cradle to make access holes for the nuts) if you pm me your email address i'll take pics and email them to you. I haven't made my power steering line yet, but the original line is exactly right except for the high pressure fitting and the final bend. you'll have to get one made.

[thunderbird61]

Thanks, sent you a pm

I bought some shorty headers that I will have to "manipulate" a bit on the drivers side

The reason I chose the 4R70W trans over the AOD, is that it is much stronger in its stock form than the AOD.

Although a bit more complicated to set up, and in need of an external computer, I think it will be worth it.

I'm using a computer from usshift . com, to control the transmission.

/ronny

[SGTCornewell]

so, nothing has went as planned for my project. mainly, being busy at work. the leaf springs are in and I just made the trans mount today. has anyone else with 5.0 or 5.8 projects had any luck? my next big hurdle is the exhaust system.....

[thunderbird61]

Thanks for the pictures of the engine mounts, kind of resembles what I have done.

I was thinking of using the Extreme Duty Poly Motor Mounts from broncograveyard.com, like in this picture:


Maybee that will work if used with that adapter you have made... I guess some customisation needs to be done anyhow. I might just buy a set to see if it will work. What do you think?

/ronny

[SGTCornewell]

that will raise things up. i wanted to stay as low as possible since my final destination is EFI. also, things don't fit as easily as you'd expect. between the oil pan, radiator, exhaust system, and steering there are some challenges.

i tried to use a dual sump pan and it wouldnt fit at all. i ended up using a van oil pan. my mounts were from a fox body ford. the adapters were 30 degree adapters. the trans mount is 1/4 x 2 1/2 stock cut and welded to fit. the clearance to the radiator was too tight so i'm using an electric pusher fan set from a mercedes. the drivers side exhaust is a factory lincoln shorty header that's been cut and angled to fit.