Pulling my hair out. Need tech help on water pump/timing chain cover ASAP

[Trailrated92]

Ok, so my baby is a 95 Ext Cab with a 302. I bought it from another guy that gave up on it, with the 302 conversion already done. I brought it back to life and have been working on it here and there as I've had extra money for the last couple years. The seller told me it was a Mustang 302, however, several clues lead me to believe its actually a Mountaineer/Explorer 302. Such as, the ONLY "short" water pump that gives me the clearance I need and bolted right up comes back to 97 to 01 Explorer/Mountaineer 5.0. The pump with the really strange pulley with the center hole thats nearly 3 inches across and is ONLY available in junkyards now. However, we pulled the harmonic balancer tonight because it was off by 1/16th of an inch from perfectly parallel when measured with a tape and straightedge. According to an exhaustive tech article on Hotrod ( see link) the Explorer 5.0 Harmonic Balancer is a one piece unit with the crank pulley integrated into it. But what we pulled off my truck has a seperate crank pulley. Which now leads me back to thinking it MIGHT be a Mustang 302 after all.

At this point Im pulling my hair out and my buddy thats helping with the rebuild is also scratching his head.

Basically, all i need to know is WHICH year timing cover should I buy that will let me run all MUSTANG FEAD AND give me the "short shaft" water pump I need to clear my electric fan. Any help guys ?

Here's the Hot Rod Tech Article and Video

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[Snoranger]

The 94-95 Mustang 5.0 is a shorter FEAD than the 87-93... might want to try that.

 

[Trailrated92]

The 94-95 Mustang 5.0 is a shorter FEAD than the 87-93... might want to try that.

Did not realize that ! ! Thanks

 

[Snoranger]

The same one was used on the 91-93 Thunderbird.

I found this, I don’t know how accurate it is...

-the tbird's power steering pulley has no holes in, while the stang piece has 7 holes in it.
-stang - straight water pump snout, tbird - thread snout (water pump pulley threads on)
-stang - alternator has an internal fanned pulley, tbird has an external fanned pulley.

 

[Junglejoe]

Just curious as to why you don't use the explorer setup?

 

[adsm08]

Just curious as to why you don't use the explorer setup?

The 302 is the beaten redheaded stepchild of Ford engines. Unless you know exactly what you are doing kit bashing one and having it work is almost impossible.

 

[Junglejoe]

Just for the record... longest FEAD for ford..
Foxbody..
94-95 mustang id shorter than the foxbody
The 96-01 explorer being the shortest of them all

 

[Snoranger]

Just for the record... longest FEAD for ford..
Foxbody.. same distance as 87-96 truck/van.
94-95 mustang id shorter than the foxbody Same distance as the 91-93 T-bird/cougar.
The 96-01 explorer being the shortest of them all

Added a little more helpful info.

 

[Junglejoe]

Added a little more helpful info.

Yes.. I just figured most wouldn't look at the truck accessories in a ford ranger.
What I dint know was the T-Bird was the same as the sn-95 FEAD. Good to know