Needing to vent

cee21 · Post by **cee21** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:01 pm

Well didn't expect it to fall in place (would have been nice) but just get tired of finding one thing and fixing it and finding another. Oh yeah, tried the hooker full length headers and guess what, interfers with the front driveshaft and they said they where for 4wd for this converstion. Luckily I got them off of ebay. Also I wasn't putting to much hope that they would work, it just would have been nice. Plus I have some L&L headers that need some work (they beat in one of the pipes to clear the fram), got them and the mounts for $60. So if anybody wants the hookers for their 2wd shot me a price, they were used but in excellent shape. And plowboy34, the 11th won't work, that is our anniversery. Also the same day my Papa's destroyer was sung in 1944 off the Phillipians.

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:08 pm

Nothing falls into place that's for sure. When doing a conversion the motor goes in and out so many times I lost count.

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:27 pm

My gosh I feel lucky with my swap. It's had it's issues, but for the most part, everything just fit together. I think the engine dropped in once, got pulled, and was dropped in again to be bolted up...thanks to the L&L mounts that just happened to work for me. If I pulled the V8 out more times than that, I can't remember it...but it certainly didn't count up to more than 4 pulls. And when it came to cranking it, I had 1 foul-up...I wired the spark plugs to the distributor in the reverse order. After fixing that, the engine fired up. I was absolutely amazed since my wiring harness looked like a spider-web on acid at one point.

I guess I just followed so tight in the footsteps of other successful swaps, that I avoided most of the major side-swipes. But I had plenty of small-pidley things that gave me grief:

Bad/broken body ground wire causing HEGOs not to register correctly at the EEC (it took having an EEC datalogging TwEECer RT to figure this one out)
Leaking oil hose fittings on remote oil filter adapter (silicone sealant fixed this one)
Blown exhaust gaskets multiple times due to header bolts working loose (high temp silicone sealant on the threads fixed this one too)
Oversized driveshaft scrubbing the underside of the truck which required some clearance banging to fix
Engine mount bolts that kept coming loose (and again, silicone sealant on the threads fixed this one)
Failed copper EGR pipe that forced me to revert to a 1996 Explorer elbow (all-n-all I got lucky finding one of these since they are rather rare)
Corrosion in the spade connectors going to the MSD unit causing the engine to intermittently die going down the road

I'm sure there are a few more things I'm missing, but my point is these things will happen. And the issues you are going through may be the worst of it, but once the engine's in, it won't be the end of it. It's just the nature of the beast, but I enjoy a good, beatable challenge...and every one of these issues is beatable.

So enjoy...

cee21 · Post by **cee21** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:55 pm

I test fitted the upper intake also and the throttle body went right to the air box and a/c. What should I do? Get a egr simulator and take the egr off, this gives me 2.5" clearance which is what I need. Not worried with emissions, no inspections. Can someone send me a pic of what they did on here or to eagles204@bellsouth.net I probably should ask this in the tech forum but oh well.

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:43 am

Depending on how much room you have, you could experiment with mounting your upper on backwards so the TB points towards the driver side. Depending on your year model, there's usually a lot more room on that side. BTW, that's the side many of the non-HO motors were setup to use like the Crown Vic. if that will work for you, that might not be a bad option to explore.

87sc302 · Post by **87sc302** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:11 pm

I must have been lucky I only had my engine in and out twice. I used home made motor mounts.

I did get good putting in and taking out transmissions.

Started with C4, used to get truck up and running ( about 9 months) but with 3.73 rear could not use as daily driver.

AOD went in and out about 4 times due to valve body mods and learning pressure setting ( about 2 years).

Currently using T5 ( 2 years).

Sure there have been many obstacles and each has been a challenge but what fun to drive and build something different.

I would have never completed my truck without the support of this site.
Thanks Malcolm.

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:18 am

And just as I detail out all the little things I've gone through, I'm on the next one now. Truck just won't start. It's like the EEC has gone stupid and isn't firing the injectors. I'll start a new thread detailing out all the crap I've tried and learned so far. Maybe someone has seen this before.