I've been reading extensively about the 302 EFI swap and I'm excited to finally get started on mine. I have the '98 5.0l Explorer and 4R70 still in the donor truck, so I can't quite get good dimensions. I just pulled the 250 I-6 out of the Mav yesterday. Now that I can see whats really going on in the Mav, I started thinking. (And yes, that's usually trouble!) In reading about these swaps it seems that the rear trans mount on the 4R70 won't line up with the factory trans cross member when the standard V-8 engine mounts are used. Has any one tried using something like this engine mount to move the 5.0l engine forward in the car and land it on the original I-6 mounting brackets? It would seem to solve some of the clearance issues with the size of the tranny that I've been reading about as well. Am I missing something with this concept. http://shop.broncograveyard.com/Extreme-Duty-Poly-Motor-Mounts302351W/productinfo/20504/ It's going to be another couple months before I start taking the explorer apart so I can drop the block in and get some measurements to see how close this would be. Was hoping someone had given it a shot and see if it had worked out or not.
You could move engine forward, but then you'd probably have to move the radiator out on to front bumper... Oil pan is already near sway bar and, water pump to radiator clearance is tight already... The short pump used by Exploder would help but I'd never consider using the accessory brackets, ones from '94-'95 Stang or '91-'93 T-Bird would be a better choice...
X2 = We've done this swap several times and it's much less problematic getting another Tranny Mount . Stick with the standard engine mounts .Believe me , you'll need the room up front if you ever consider installing another radiator with an electric fan . We've used the short pump and also trimmed off the tip of the snout to gain a little more room for clearances. On several of the cars we've done we have both a Pusher AND a Puller fan for the AC's. Cometized (Chip)
can't say for certain.. these guys would surely know more.. but I'm almost positive you'll be cutting the floor tunnel to get that bigger trans case squeezed in there too. 4R70 is almost the same size as a small-bell C6. It's an excellent trans design so I say chop it and make the swap. There's a reason why not many ever want to convert backwards from an OD trans. One of the best mod's you could do to just about any car.
AFAIK a 4R70W & AOD are virtually same size, more like a cast iron FMX than C6 in size... The bruiser E4OD is approx size of C6...
shoot.. thanks Tom.. that was the C6 comparison I was thinking of too. IIRC.. the bellhousing of the 4r70 is a tad bit thicker in the midsection than the aod.. maybe something with the profile of the bell design? Too lazy to hunt google for pic's right now. Have been at the trans shop looking at them a few times lately too. It's amazing how big they look next to my cars little C4. Wanted to just make do with my existing C4 for now and chop the tunnel when I convert to manual but I may just chop my tunnel however need be for the time being just to do this same swap too. Only run me another $600 or so over my comparably built C4(mainly due to the electronics/TCM controller) but I'm full up with mini-projects as it is and need to choose my battles wisely at this point so the engine actually gets finished. The transmission will be useless without it. lol
Great thoughts. I may pull the engine out with the water pump still on instead of dismantling it so I can drop it in and see what it looks like. Hadn't considered the clearance to the radiator. Nice part of this thinking is I don't have to spend any money yet, just take some time to see what it looks like. I guess the key question to even keep on this train wreck is how wide are the mounting points. If the 5.0l is too narrow or wide compared to the original 250, may not be worth the effort. Hard to measure the current 5.0 mounting width since its still buried under all the stuff in the engine bay of the X. The sway bar is another issue, didn't see that hanging there as I had to drop it out of the way to pull the engine off the AODE someone had crammed behind the six. They even used a piece of pipe as a trans cross member for the AODE. They cut the top off the pipe for the trans mount, then bolted through the frame and floor to mount it.
How did you shift a AODE??? They require a input for the internal shift solenoids, can't shift on it's own...
Did a check on it now that I got it out on the ground today, and its not the AODE, but looks more like a mechanical AOD. I must have just got typo happy when I posted earlier and added the E. Haven't really paid attention to it as its going away as soon as I can find someone who wants it. I'll do the research on it once I'm ready to post it and will get good info on it so I don't mislead someone.
I've had a stock AOD and a full race one w/trans brake in my Mav and loved both of them. sold the full race one to Collin and he's had it in his to school daily driver behind his 5.0 for about 3 years now.
Lee I have a 5.0 EFI/aod conversion in a 71 mav LOVE IT . I know 71 has a bigger trans tunnel than a 70 so before I would think of moving the engine forward ( you may be opening can of worms you can't close ) I would cut the tunnel from a Donner car or fab one from scratch. There are trans mounts on this form for AOD (71 gold Frank ). Just finish a 4r70 install in my son's 64 falcon not much room BUT it fit had to custom make the trans mount . Don't have it drive able yet need to finish the controller .
I'm not concerned about modifying the tunnel if this doesn't work out. (get to play with my new plasma cutter that was my x-mas present to myself ) Too early in the scheming to decide what way I'm going. It does seem that this has not been tried yet, I searched the forums as best I could and didn't see any references to something like this. Again the beauty of bouncing ideas off people is not try something that was tried and didn't work out, but if it has not been tried yet, why not head down that road for a little while. No doubt I'll wind up with something more conventional, but not done dreaming on this cold winter day yet. I have both vehicles head to head in my barn right now, so have been getting under both with the tape measure. Definitely something different with the sway bar would be needed. But if my measurements are close, it would drop in using pretty simple to fabricate frame side engine mounts. The early mustang frame mount may even place it in the almost the correct spot, but a frame bracket can be fabricated to take the motor mounts, so I can raise or lower the engine to where I want it. Still not giving up on seeing if the 250 mounts might line up if nothing more than out of curiosity and save some fabricating. I may start the disassembly on the 302 to get down to a bare block. That will give me a better look at the width dimensions and the angle of the engine mount. Since I'll probably be dropping a unisteer power rack into this, I can take off the steering assembly to give me room to dry fit the existing rear sump engine and tranny once I get them out of the truck.
If you move engine forward it's going to be noise heavier than it is now... Been customary to move engine rearward to give vehicle better balance...
