5.0 ignition swap

[Reedguy]

I have a 5.0 from a 96 Explorer in my Ranger and am considering changing it to an HEI distributor in place of the factory coil packs & crank trigger... my question, is the block and cam the same as the older 5.0's that came with a distributor ?

 

[RonD]

Welcome TRS

You can but...................the computer still needs the crank sensor and cam sensor, for the fuel injection, and the cam sensor will be gone which was used for sequential injection, it should still work, just not as well in Batch Fire mode

And CEL(check engine light) will be on all the time and there will be many codes for missing spark system and Cam sensor

But as far as I know the 5.0l(302) distributor and Cam synchronizer are interchangeable

 

[Reedguy]

Welcome TRS

You can but...................the computer still needs the crank sensor and cam sensor, for the fuel injection, and the cam sensor will be gone which was used for sequential injection, it should still work, just not as well in Batch Fire mode

And CEL(check engine light) will be on all the time and there will be many codes for missing spark system and Cam sensor

But as far as I know the 5.0l(302) distributor and Cam synchronizer are interchangeable

your response also answered something else I've been wondering about. I'm 67 and grew up with carb's and magneto's so since I'm not a big fan of or have the computer knowledge to tune ecu's etc I've thought about doing an intake and carb on it along with a few other things, I just wasn't sure if I'd need to get an older block to build. Thank you

 

[RonD]

Yes, you can swap intakes and go for carb and HEI setup, no problems, well........................the normal problems with carbs and distributors
You will need a fuel pressure regulator for the switch to a carb

 

[adsm08]

your response also answered something else I've been wondering about. I'm 67 and grew up with carb's and magneto's so since I'm not a big fan of or have the computer knowledge to tune ecu's etc I've thought about doing an intake and carb on it along with a few other things, I just wasn't sure if I'd need to get an older block to build. Thank you

You don't need to tune the ECU, it tunes itself.

To write an actual tune is a pretty specialized skill set that even most top techs don't have, and is of marginal value at best on a stock engine anyway.

 

[Reedguy]

Yes, you can swap intakes and go for carb and HEI setup, no problems, well........................the normal problems with carbs and distributors
You will need a fuel pressure regulator for the switch to a carb

Yep, I know there are drawbacks to carbs and such but they're what I grew up with and am familiar with.... this new stuff throwing codes is someone else's ball game I don't care to learn.... but to each his own right

 

[RonD]

Yes, but.......................I am 64, so grew up with carbs and points as well

The systems now can be a pain but a gasoline engine is still just a self powered air pump, so no matter what "they" add to the outside the diagnostics is still about the same

A vacuum gauge and a volt meter can pretty much determine whats wrong with any engine, in the past and future
The codes can be helpful but not reliable because they can not be translated to English very well
i.e. Lean does not mean engine is running Lean, it means computer's calculations were Lean so computer had to correct it, if more than 15% correction was needed then computer sets the Lean code

With a carb you would get pinging/knocking if it was Lean, and need to correct that right away or engine damage would occur, because its actually running Lean

All the computers do is to monitor and correct air/fuel mix and spark timing, the same as we had to manually, and if they can't do it they set a code to say, "have a look, somethings not right"

 

[adsm08]

The codes can be helpful but not reliable because they can not be translated to English very well

This is far too true. So many times in the last six months since I've been back in the game I have pulled up a code, done a test, come up with a result to replace something, and gone up to the desk and said "I have no idea what this code means, but this is how we fix it."