I have a 1990 F150 with a 302 and mazda 5spd transmission. Its a great truck, but with 240,00 miles the old 302 is starting to show its age. Instead of throwing another 302 in it though, i would like to upgrade to a 351, and keep it a standard. I know the mazda 5spds were problematic even with a 300 or 302 in front of them. So after doing some research i found out how difficult it could be finding a small block zf for a reasonable price. But what i did find is a 1990 f250 with a 351 and a 5 spd with 140,000 miles on it.

So heres my question,
What would be involved with swaping the engine/transmission combo from the 250 over into my 150? I would assume it should be fairly straightforward with little to no custom fab. What would need to be changed for the purpose of getting the EFI 351 to run. Would both trucks have the same t-case (manual shift on both), and would drivelines change lengths? I planned on going through the 351 and having it freshened up a bit, but (if it drove fine) should i bother checking out the zf? Lastly, would the zf shifter come up in a different spot than the m5od, and would my current clutch setup also switch over?

Thank you for any insight you could give me, it will be greatly appretiated.

 

^Cool post with lots of facts. :)

My facts:
2wd '90 F250 >8500# 5.8 ZF 188k miles "company truck" = "abused" ;)
4wd '91 Bronco 5.8 E4od 125k mile cream puff turned "Road Queen" :)
I didn't drive the Bronco, just towed it home and tore into it. LOL :)

I believe yours is going to be a direct swap for both the engine and the
transmission, plus whatever else you'll need will be on the parts truck.
No surprises at all. :)

{edit} Oh heck, you mentioned clutches... check out Rockauto.com

Put the tired 5.0 and M5R2 in the parts truck and sell it cheap and fast. :)

Swap the EEC/ECMs.

Most of the problems you'll read is where they're swapping 2wd drive
stuff or swapping from auto to manual.

On 4wd the speedometer cable is in the transfer case.
4wd driveshaft has its own slip joint and not inside like the 2wd M5R2.
E4od has a different crossmember + swapping in a pedal cluster.
Full size bronco dot com would be a good resource for you. ;)

---------------------------------------

Only thing I really needed was a rear driveshaft and so swapped some
driveshaft parts for it at the driveshaft shop, no cash needed.

I'm wondering what my driveshaft is really for since it was ready to go.
...thinking it's for a little Ranger or something with an 8.8". :) It'd been
sitting-too-long for the owner to come get it, his loss my gain.

Alvin in AZ

7/16" course thread, make one a 1/2" shorter than the other.


My absolute favorite picture of an E4od I'll ever see... ;)



ps-
ZF = ~150# + flywheel and pressure plate = ~230# = E4od
BW-1356E - ~73#

pps-
Ooo... just remembered sumthin...
The F250 prob'ly has 1+3/16" caps on its U-joints instead of
the 1+1/16" caps on the F150's U-joints, so don't mix 'em up! :/
The company "mechanic" did that to mine and I had to buy a
new yoke for the ZF...

If you read the specs on U-joints on the Dana-Spicer website
you'll see why they're easy-as-anything to confuse. :/

 

Should be a pretty straight forward swap, engine wiring harnesses should be the same but for the sake of reliability do not remove any of it from the F150, remove upper intake portions on both motors and disconnect all of it directly on the motor, make the engine swap and plug it all back in, and then connect the 5.8 EEC to the F150 harness.

 

It's 98% that the 5-speed behind the 351 is a ZF. Ford did not ever make a truck with the 351 and M5OD trans. So unless some PO has swapped at one time the trans or the motor, that truck has a ZF in it.