3500 enough for a good v8 swap?

[bilzy7]

well i found a nice 45k miles v8 from an awd explorer. i was searching for what it cost people to do, and most people i see are good enough to swap engine themselves, i, am not. i would need a shop. i just wish i was more knowledgeable about this. should i just rape the axles and all other parts from an explorer v8? i was reading and didnt see anything mentioned about changing axles except they changed gears. i almost bought a 5.4 f150 but said screw it and i wanna make this thing better since im at 205k miles.

 

[Psychopete]

3,500 might cover your shop labor costs...

It's not cheap to have a shop do it, I think your best bet would be to buy one already swapped.

 

[fordmike1]

I would look around for someone that builds cars at home and ask them if they could help you with the swap. I am sure that you could find someone and they should be able to do it alot cheaper then a shop. You might see if any members are close to you and see if they could help you. I know if you were close to me I would gladly help you out for cheap as I just love to do things like that.

 

[bilzy7]

Ya.. I just read someone said if u had all necessary tools and knew what you were doing it'd only take 7 hrs.. That seemed kind of short. That's why I didn't think a shop would be that bad

 

[35Remmy]

I work for cold beer and good tunes, heheheh.

 

[bilzy7]

Ohh that helps... I'll buy u 800 bucks in beer if u put my engine in lol

 

[Boggin]

Hey putting it in is the easy part. Getting it running properly is the trick lol

 

[RangerSVT]

Its super easy, if you have a small garage, you can do it, I've even seen a member rent a storage unit and did a swap in that! It's not hard, and you can rent the tools needed like the engine lift and fuel line disconnect tools from your local autoparts store...Or if you prefer, I'd be happy to do the swap for you. I did the explorer V8 swap with ease. For a tour of how easy it is, check out my build thread, the whole swap is shown on the first post
SVT

 

[The Weasel]

I did it in a garage. A lot of times we would push it in on the weekend and then roll it back out in the driveway during the week. We did this without doing any welding or even having to jack it up. Can defiantly be done in a garage.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Ya.. I just read someone said if u had all necessary tools and knew what you were doing it'd only take 7 hrs.. That seemed kind of short. That's why I didn't think a shop would be that bad

7 hrs drive in-drive out ain't happening, especially if it is your first swap.

By the time I got the engine cleaned up, sealed and gasketed, old engine pulled, wiring sorted/cleaned, engine bay cleaned, and new engine sitting in there and I am WAY over that... and it is just a engine and tranny sitting in the truck.

I bet I have more than 7 hrs in just tagging and pulling the old powertrain out.

And a normal shop won't like doing it, they want generic flat rate repairs.

 

[bobbywalter]

how quickly it can be done depends on the exact desires and actual preparation.



i can swap out a setup like this situation stupid easy and fairly quickly at home with my familiar equipment. this is provided that all of the parts preparations have been dealt with correctly.

put me somewhere else and its gonna be much much slower a process, just because i have to find the tools i need and actually use different tools....it can really take me much longer depending on the actual goals.


a simple dragrace type only installation at a shop would be 1500 or so with proper pre-planning and exact goals firmly outlined.

a full driver with cruise control, full legal emissions compliance with new cats etc could go EASILY 3000 on the CHEAP SIDE at 70 bux an hour. and thats provided the shop is familiar with the engine and control systems at hand. i would put that 2800-5000 easy for a full install shopping around...plus dynotuning.


best bet is to find some car guys local like svt or many others here including myself to help ya out.

theres got to be someone close.

otherwise you will have to put all your stuff in your bed and drive over here for a week.

 

[bobbywalter]

7 hrs drive in-drive out ain't happening.

By the time I got the engine cleaned up, sealed and gasketed, old engine pulled, wiring sorted/cleaned, engine bay cleaned, and new engine sitting in there and I am WAY over that... and it is just a engine and tranny sitting in the truck.

I bet I have more than 7 hrs in just tagging and pulling the old powertrain out.

yeah, all but the physical removal install process is part of the preplanning.

doing the physical swap in a day on the older truck with a eec4 or carb is very doable for those well experienced, as we dont need to mark shit on basic installations. you just know what everything is and what it does


many times i spend a few days prepping the candidate while it is still being driven daily. here a saturday , there a 1/2 day....just simple stuff that wont take the rig out of service. making the core support removable at one point is my preference, (but i do that much different then some i see).....i do this as its easy to clean up stuff and fix all the fasteners etc that bust or whatever and do test layout and get tighter measurements to work with the planned parts. everything is freshly removed and antisiezed and minimal surprises when the time comes to do the swap.


this happens months ahead of time on quite a few i have worked with when time is not an issue. unfortunatley.. these days time is almost always an issue for me....

being in the shop this time of year when its 5 deg out is expensive, and i would rather do other stuff so that is a factor i did not use to have....me getting older and lazier..

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I also had to pull all of the feedback carb wiring, so I wanted to mark everything before I broke out the side cutters and snipped something important. I didn't want any surpises down the road and I didn't know how long it would be between the engine going out and the other going in. I even had the ignition system in place and operating before then.

I had that done months before the actual swap, but I got away with it because the truck was pretty much parked then. The masking tape wouldn't stay so well if I drove it much.

I do suppose if the driveshafts were ready to go and the exhaust shop was waiting a day would have been doable in a day aside from the exhaust if everything went perfect... but nothing goes perfect for me.

 

[bobbywalter]

flex gets ya to the exaust shop when that time comes..


that can take a whole day in itself. or sit there for a week or two.


happens

 

[Teddyzee]

Ya.. I just read someone said if u had all necessary tools and knew what you were doing it'd only take 7 hrs.. That seemed kind of short. That's why I didn't think a shop would be that bad

Looking back at my original build thread, I pulled it in the garage March 10, 2009 and drove it June 14. It was the first week of July by the time it had exhaust, tach re-pinned, wheels back on, and clean again.

Takes some serious time unless it just a heap. Not that mine is anything but a heap...

http://www.rangerpowersports.com/forum/f402/teddyzee-5-0-swap-begins-245931.html

Version two:
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/forum/f402/teddyzee-5-0-version-2-0-a-259656.html

Version three in progress...