3.8 swap

[justsumdude]

New guy here. Haven't seen any1 do the swap I'm curious about. I'm about to buy a 86 xcab 5spd 4cyl mazda pickup for cheap. Its set up as a lowrider and overall is pretty clean. The motor snapped the timing belt and the current owner fixed that but now won't start. So I'm thinkn about swapin in a S/C thunderbird 3.8. I figr if a 5.0 efi can be done this can't be that hard. Couple basics I'm curious about. Will the 5spd bolt up to it, wut to do about mtr mounts, and the wiring harness. I figr if I can sumhow find a 5spd pcm for that motor ill be ok. Dam, I just realized I'd hav to do sumthin bout the fuel system. Any thoughts?

 

[dangerranger83]

Safe to say the P/O didnt get the timing marks lined up on the camshaft gear and the crankshaft properly when they replaced the timing belt, I would look into that before doing anything.

 

[justsumdude]

Yea, when I get it home a compresion check will be the first thing I do. If that checks out good then ill tear it back apart and do it myself.

 

[justsumdude]

Well I did sum more searching and found sum info on puttin one in a ranger. Not sure how similar they are in 86 tho.