Help identifying engine for year and power

[jfl1960]

I picked up this engine/transmission combo (ford 5.0L unknown year and origin plus an AOD non electronic also unknown year and origin) from a fellow racer who was moving and needed to get his stuff cleared out so I traded him a set of tires valued at around $350.00, pretty good deal IMO, I have had the engine for about 4 months it's engine is in my garage and believer me when I say I cannot get under it to see the engine codes clearly, my garage has become a dumping zone for everything in the last 4 months while I was doing renovations and repairs to the house.
This motor has the double sump oil pan but cannot say it is original as the previous owner had it in his ranger and may have swapped the pan, I was told the motor was from a 80's Crown Vic or LTD and was rebuilt about 5 years ago, ran for 1 season then sat for 4 years, I have not had it running yet but am confident it will be fine, have checked compression and all 8 are good, oiled cylinders with castrol sae30 and turn motor over every chance I get. It has been fitted with roller tip rockers, I removed valve cover just because I was curious, again not sure if they are original or were installed during the rebuild.
I just want to see if I can verify the origin of this engine. Anyway I did manage to get some photos for the area above the starter, and do see some numbers stamped there but cannot make sense of them, I can only see a 4 digit number, expected to see an eight digit number like this xxxx-xxxx, the 4 digit number looks to me to be E8?? along with a 20 and a big ass "S", the E8 would indicate a 1988 block if I am not mistaken, this number seem to be incomplete am I looking at the wrong numbers, is there another area I should be viewing?? These are right above the starter in the side of the block (you can see the starter opening and flywheel in the pic), any help would be appreciated.

Here are some pics in hopes someone can shed some light on this motor.

here are some pics of the entire motor and intake top if that helps narrow things down:

 

[06RangerXLT]

the vin of the vehicle i believe should be stamped in the engine somewhere. but looks like a standard 302 EFI no way of knowing if anything was done to the motor, so power could be anywhere. as for year, 1988 sounds about right. its probably a mustang 5.0 motor.

 

[06RangerXLT]

ok unless the intake was reversed for the ranger application, it didnt come out of a mustang, as the intake for them comes from the passenger side.

 

[jfl1960]

thanks for the reply there 06RangerXLT, good to hear from a fellow canuck and ranger owner. Any idea where to find the vin on the block?

 

[06RangerXLT]

under side ledge of right rear cylinder bank, or behind the intake manifold on top of the block

 

[jfl1960]

OK found the partial vin just behind the intake on the flat of the block looks like 6X157 here is a pic any help decoding this number would be appreciated.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

ok unless the intake was reversed for the ranger application, it didnt come out of a mustang, as the intake for them comes from the passenger side.

The Mustang also had an HO intake, that said HO on it.

Look just like my '87 302 out of a CV. Power might be anywhere, but I would think if something had been done to it they would change the intake. Stock, mine was rated at 150hp and 270lb-ft. There should be an emssions label on the valve cover... it might have fallen off though.

If it has an S on the corner of the head it has the E6 heads, the only Mustang to have them was the '86 GT and they severly limit performance potential. They have flattop pistons that will interfer with valves on just about any other head, and the heavily shrouded valves won't benefit from much more than a stock HO cam... which will bump them up to the '86 GT's 200hp. May be a roller, if it is it is as good as anything for a rebuilder. If it is anything too wild it probably wouldn't have the E6 heads anymore.

I don't really know what mine was out of for sure, and I don't really care. I know by looking up stuff up it is the same as a 1987 crown vic.

I want to put an HO cam in mine (I kinda question how great the stock CV cam is for carburation, I have a ping that will not go away) but it runs pretty good. With the stock longblock it scoots the little Ranger along quite well. The front engine accessory drive is kinda long, I would recommend finding something shorter, like out of an Explorer or 94-95 Mustang.

 

[jfl1960]

I think we have a winner, the intake was never changed because he intended to go with Carb in the ranger, but the motor was rebuilt and run in the Car first for 1 summer, retained the stock EFI and intake with a CAI setup until the swap was to be made (didn't happen just pulled motor from car and left it sit until I got it), I will have to move some crap and get a better look at the block code, was hoping to get someone to decode the partial vin. Thanks for the response and pics, I do believe it is from a crown vic, just have to determine which year for sure, been told the 86 block doesn't have the same alloy content as the 87 and later blocks (they apparently have more iron content and are a bit more stout), have two other blocks here one is 93 from an F series truck (F250 I think, I pulled motor myself and just cannot remember if it was an F250 or F150 don't think it really matters) and the other is 87 from another Crown Vic, both in pieces. Will drop this one in and rebuild one of the others if I need to. Going to check heads and post back what I have found, if anyone can give me details on how to decode partial vins I would appreciate it, thanks.

I have a set of E7 head from the 93 truck block so if mine are the E6 I can always change them out.

That V8 looks great in your ranger, nice job.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I have a set of E7 head from the 93 truck block so if mine are the E6 I can always change them out.

That V8 looks great in your ranger, nice job.

The crappy part about the E6's is unless you have valve reliefs in the pistons (or change the pistons) the E7's will not work. The valves sit closer to the piston with the E7's and will hit.

Thanks for the compliment.

Apoun closer investigation, that appears to be a E6?E by the starter hole. Hard to tell for sure by that what year it is, they only changed that when they changed the part. My engine decodes as a E7TE (E = 1980's, 7 means 87, T = truck, E = engine part) Mine was not out of a truck...

 

[jfl1960]

I just crawled under the motor and the number is either E6SE or E8SE I cannot tell for sure. The heads do have the S stamped into them so it's looking like it's a 86 block and heads.

I have a code sheet for decoding these number and from the sheet I get :

E= 1980-1989
6 or 8 is exact year either 1986 or 1988
S= sheet tells me Thunderbird but my truck block has S in same position and I know it's a truck block as I pulled it myself. ??????????
E=engine

I guess the final thing is to get someone to confirm this from the partial vin of 6X157.

 

[Mac]

Got to remember that some of the digits in a casting number just indicate what that block was designed for, not what car or truck it was put in. Most of the early 289/302 blocks have the third casting number showing either a "A" (Full size) or an "O" for a Fairlane. The "T" started showing up in 69-70 but still went into a Mustang.
Dave of the Nord

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Got to remember that some of the digits in a casting number just indicate what that block was designed for, not what car or truck it was put in. Most of the early 289/302 blocks have the third casting number showing either a "A" (Full size) or an "O" for a Fairlane. The "T" started showing up in 69-70 but still went into a Mustang.
Dave of the Nord

And they only changed the year when they changed something on the part. How long were they throwing out E7TE heads? It was well into the 90's.

In your less than ideal first picture, it looks more like a 6 than a 3 to me... but it is right on the line where it could go either way. '83 wouldn't be fuel injected like this one though... but that could be changed.

Since it has E6 heads I bet it is a fairly close to stock '86.

 

[jfl1960]

Yeah I knew that for heads and other parts the year wasn't changed unless there was a redesign of the part and the mold had to be changed however for blocks I thought they updated the year to reflect the production year, if I am mistaken then let me know.

Pic quality is kinda low taken with a cel phone but was all I had at the time.

So to recap, looks like I have a 1986 fairly stock motor from a crown vic with the E6 heads. I am confident this motor was overhauled as the previous owner says so, I'll clean it up and drop it in to get the truck mobile. One of the other blocks I have will get the full meal deal.

Wonder how this stock motor would react to a 150 shot of giggle gas???

 

[jfl1960]

Got to remember that some of the digits in a casting number just indicate what that block was designed for, not what car or truck it was put in. Most of the early 289/302 blocks have the third casting number showing either a "A" (Full size) or an "O" for a Fairlane. The "T" started showing up in 69-70 but still went into a Mustang.
Dave of the Nord

Thanks for that info Mac should have realized that on my own cause they only show 12 categories for "Car Line" which is third digit and I know ford has a ton more than listed, lots of crossover not listed.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Wonder how this stock motor would react to a 150 shot of giggle gas???

If I had to guess...