5.0 swap ?? and general disussion and advice

I understand completely. I also came from the world of carbs. I'm 34 years old, and was right at that crossover stage. My late teens and early 20's were spent playing around with a 67 mustang I had, my 302 maverick, a 74 318 dart, a 64 dart, and several other cars. I'm def no stranger to old school. I however was fortunate enough to obtain my first 5.0 efi car in my late 20's, and the tech just grew on me.

There is a ton of apprehension about efi cars for people who've never really gotten to know one intimately. While I can't speak for newer mustangs 96+ (i've never owned one)...I swear, and reiterate that a 5.0 efi car will outlast any carb'd car in realiability and less-parts-to go wrong.

The only sensors on the car are limited. You've got the act sensor which measure essentially the air in the intake. If it goes bad, it's not going to leave you stranded, and you won't even know it if it is bad. YOu've got the coolant sensor for the computer. If it goes bad, worse that happens is you get stuck in closed loop, and it runs a little rich...again, no huge deal, no being stranded. A quick test with the volt meter on ohms setting will tell you in 4 seconds if that sensor is bad. You've got a throttle position sensor. again, it won't leave you stranded...the car may run funny. That's easy to check too. A volt meter across the two wires, set .90-100, and you're done. Nothing complicated about that.

that's about it for sensors folks. Couple of other small ones for smog, but they're no big deal. All you've got left is a basic computer, and the module on the side of the distributor.

act, ect, map, and tps sensors essentially almost NEVER go bad. they'll last 25 years easy, and hundreds of thousands of miles. Troubleshooting is literally a volt meter away, and a quick ohm test. on many of them

anyhow, just chatting with you folks. From my vast experience in both worlds, I could never stop tuning my carb'd cars, ALL Of them. with the 5.0 efi cars, LITERALLY, all I would do is change oil and spark plugs, for 100,000 miles straight (that's STARTING with 100,000 miles on the odo already). no stumbles, no misfires, no bs, no constant tuning..year after year after year. With all my carb'd cars, I was constantly tweaking on some aspect of the car, just to try and keep in running about the same as the week before. Was it diffficult, no...but I get tired of the finickyness of the older cars.

on the flip side, my maverick build is going to be carb'd (for now, efi for later)...I look forward to playing with carb's again after a 15 year break. Ironically, I find myself knowing how to tune and troubleshoot an efi computer car now more than a carb'd car. Guess i've got to start brushing up.

thanks for listening to me yap.

 

EFI is always the way to go if you have the desire to do so. I couldn't agree with Jeremy more. In 250,000 miles, the only thing that has ever left my dad's '95 Mustang GT on the side of the road was the pickup (hall effect switch?) in the distributor went bad, and an alternator went out. Last I checked the same things happen on carbed Duraspark cars. The wiring is honestly not that bad, even using factory stuff. Of course you will need to get an electric fuel pump and run high pressure fuel lines, but aside from that, getting the car running is basically as easy as getting a constant 12V power source, a switched 12V power source, tach signal, and a good ground. I have a 3.0 V6 out of a 2001 Ranger, I can literally start that thing up just sitting on the ground using an old Aerostar harness and distributor and an old fuel pump from a '87 Crown Vic! People make it out to be more difficult then it really is. The hardest part is making the wiring look nice and getting rid of the wiring you don't need.

Now, when you get into the newer stuff with PATS, that's when it starts getting complicated. But with a 5.0, you can get an engine harness out of an old Fox Mustang, pretty simple stuff.