95 Mustang 5..0 for my 91 Ranger...

[Ranger Tony]

I picked up a 95 Mustang 5.0 motor. Is there any reason I shouldn't use this motor ( old school, carb and intake manifold), not committed on which trans yet (manual or auto)?? everything I've read so far suggests an Explorer or older F-150 5.0. Any experienced comments would sure be appreciated....either here or tonyduprey@msn.com Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[franklin2]

A 5.0 is a 5.0 when you get down to the basic engine and running a intake and carb on it. Just do some research on what oil pan fits best, the mustang had the double sump, the f150's had the rear sump. Not sure what the Explorer came with.

Engine mount holes are the same in the block. Since you are running a carb, you need to decide what fuel system you will use. Either switch the front of the engine around to use a mechanical pump, or get a aftermarket low pressure electric pump. Any ranger with fuel injection will have a pump with too much pressure.

You need to decide what ignition system you are going to run. The distributor on the 5.0 EFI uses a TFI system and requires a computer system. Since you are converting to a carb, you will need a old duraspark distributor/Ford system, or you can use a aftermarket HEI hybrid distributor, or there are many others like MSD and mallory. You could even round up a old points distributor and put in a petronix module on it.

Get power and fuel to it, it should take right off.

On the transmission, since you are 2wd, I would look for a 2wd trans that originally came behind the 302 in whatever application. Be warned any automatic overdrive besides the AOD will need stand alone computer to run it.

 

[Ranger Tony]

Thank you very much for your comments. I've built number of small block Chevy packages over the past 40 years; but, this is the first Ford I have ever worked on and I am trying to gather as much information as I can before I pull the 6 cyl out of this really nice Ranger. You have been helpful, thanks again.

 

[bobbywalter]

The early trucks have a two pump system.

The in tank pump can be used with a carb...though it's still a good idea to put a regulator on it and leave the intertia switch in the system.

 

[19Walt93]

If you use a Duraspark distributor you'll need to put a steel gear on it, the only roller cam engines with Duraspark were the 85 Mustangs. I converted my Ranger to Durapsark from the Pertronix distributor I originally used because it had an 8 second delay before the centrifugal advance would come in. I used the Ford Performance fox body 351 oil pan an it worked fine. Early 80's Crown Vic cruisers used the same pan.

 

[Ranger Tony]

Thanks for the insight...That helps a lot