It's a good truck considering it was free. I'm not to concerned if it was just me in the truck, but I got the wife, kid, and one on the way. And some places cells don't work.
I was told that the bolt pattern on all Ford V6 Engines were the same as far as bell housings went. I'm not really sure myself. I know that a 92 Thunderbird 302 is plug and play, the dash harness plugs into the TB's engine control computer.
Is it the same for the early 90s 4.0?
That's why I had the CB with the 102" steel whip on the spare tire carrier of the BII, lol.
But seriously, if the truck is in good condition and the motor is as well, I see no reason why not to take it on longer trips. I'm not talking about crossing the country with the family, but after owning the one BII I had, I have faith in those motors. The biggest thing is keeping them cool so you don't crack the heads. Other than that, they're stout motors (and really, some early 4.0L motors had the same head problem - just with the larger radiator they were less likely to crack a head). When I got the BII, it was a dog. Wouldn't hardly get out of it's own way. Soon as I got the parts gathered together and some time, I went through and did a full tune-up. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter, air filter, trans filter (it was an auto), oil change (substituted a cup of ATF for a cup of oil). The poor truck needed it badly, it obviously hadn't been done in half of forever. When I fired it up after the tune up, no lie, it coughed and sputtered on the shop floor (I made friends with the owner of the junkyard that I saved the truck from and got to use their shop). I thought for sure that I'd killed the poor thing. After about 5 minutes of terrible hacking and sputtering, it started to smooth out in running and a few minutes after that, it was the nicest running 2.9 I had ever heard, despite the high mileage. I drove the truck for about 3 years around college and back home before selling it to one of my professors for his kid.
IIRC, the bolt pattern is not all the same. 2.9 and 4.0 share the same bolt pattern, at least up until the SOHC motors (not sure if they're the same or not). I've heard that the early 3.0 will bolt up and I've heard it will not bolt up. Never had one so I cannot verify.
The clutch, flywheel and starter are all different from a 2.9 and 4.0, and the slave cyl has a different part number, IIRC. So to change to a 4.0L, that would all need changed too.
Even with the early 90's 4.0 motors, the harness is different. The computer plugs are the same style, but the engine harness is different for both since the 2.9 uses a distributor and the 4.0 uses coil packs. On the other end of the engine harness, the plugs for the dash are different. 88 was the last year for the first-gen styling and with the second gen style, not only was it a different front end style, but the dash and wiring harness saw changes. If it was an 89, the plugs for a 4.0 would be largely similar to the plugs on the truck, but being it is an 88, no such luck.
I went through this trying to put a 4.0 in my 88 BII. Resolving the wiring differences is difficult. Enough so that I never got it running in that truck and now the truck needs other attention. The biggest challenge is trying to find useful wiring diagrams to do the swap with, then you have around 20 or 30 wires to splice. My solution now is that the 4.0 is going in my 89 (where it will be a much easier swap) and the 2.9 in my 89 is going in my 88.
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