I own a 89' wagon. Body/interior are both in great shape. I drove the car until about 4 years ago, until the motor starting knocking, been sitting ever since. Does anyone have experience with a 5.0 H.O. mustang engine swap? Any motor mount issues, bolting up to the tranny, or anything else. Thanks
Mechanically it will drop right in. You will have to flip the upper intake around 180 degrees since it is pointed in the wrong direction on the Mustang for your car. The biggest difference between the HO and the lo-po are the heads (E7 (well '87+HO) versus E6 for lo-po), the cam, the intake, and the HO has the 351W firing order.
So how will the firing order affect the installation, and running/driving the car? Just seems that mustang engines are a dime a dozen, vs a compatible Mercury engine.
As long as it's '87 or newer, and it comes with the harness, induction pieces with MAF and the A9L computer, you will have to make a few changes (such as the intake), but once done, you'll have a fire-breathing grocery getter.
Long as the firing order matches the cam grind, that's a non-issue. The only other thing to deal with is the trans; if it's high miles, it may not handle the extra torque and heat generated by the HO engine. So if the engine comes with an AOD, I'd say pop the engine in, get the spare AOD rebuilt and ready to install if the wagon's AOD dies.
Thanks for the input guys. Trying to get all my ducks in a row for spring. I'm a vintage Yamaha bike person, this is all new to me. Doing the swap isn't an issue for me, just compatibility is what I'm concerned about. Will still keep researching.
The physical engine and trans is not any problem; just make sure you have the mounts from your old engine and trans, it'll drop right in. Use the bracketry and accessories from your car, not the Mustang's gear, unless you want to do extra work to incorporate it. Then the aforementioned harness, upper plenum and computer do have to be incorporated, but should not be hard, just time-consuming.
