I get the feeling this is a fairly simple swap but i want to be sure. OK lets say i can get ahold of a carbed 5.0 from somewhere and i want to drop it into my Cougar. Now am i gonna run into any major hassles given my Cougar is also carbed? The one area i could see issues is with the transmission unless i can get away with just swapping torque converters or something simple like that.
Uhh, you sure your 3.8 is carbed? I'm pretty sure the 3.8's all had throttle body injection. Looks like a carb.
Yea its carbed has a two barrel on it. The car is an 85. Ok was doin some reading on the cool cats site and from what i read the car should have had a CFI engine but i went and double checked it before i made this post and It looked like a two barrel carb. Now from what i remember of the two throttle body injection cars i have owned and driven the fuel injectors should be floating above the barrels of the TB right? Since there are no injectors im pretty sure its a carb. If i get a chance i will take a pic of the engine later today.
Hm, guess somebody musta ditched the CFI at some point then.
From the looks of the set up and given the cars milage it looks to be factory original. The vaccum diagram on the rad support supports the fact that its factory carbed.
Simple swap should take less than a day even if it still had the CFI. Only problems are minor, Throttle linkage and TV cable linkage and Fuel pump will need to be changed if its is still in fact CFI. Exhaust will probably need cut and rewelded to match up to manifolds, or at least mine did.
well as said the vac diagram on the rad support mentioned a carb instead of a throttle body and the carb does appear simular to the carb that was in my mustang II so im not sure...lets just say that it came from the factory as a carbed car since it appears that is the case what am i dealing with then?
Pull it out, Drop one in connect fuel, ignition, throttle and TV cables then fire it up... Simple swap. If it has FI the only difference is add a fuel pump and pull out the computer go to your nearest peir and TOSS. Exhasut either way will prolly have to be modified.
So pretty much a plug and play operation. all the connections are the same between the two engines? also do i need to change mounts or torque converter?
Wonder if that cougar is from mexico?
I was assuming you had a tranny to. I'm not sure but i dont think the 3.8 tranny will work with the 5.0 but im not really sure. Eric could prolly enlighten us on that, If its a carb engine there isnt many electrical connections that will have to be made. I wold suggest an MSD Ignition box and dist for ease though.
If it was made for sale outside the U.S. (Canada, Mexico,etc) it was built with the carb.
Well the cougar is a canadian car so that explains the carb. Well the trans is the one thing im concerned about. Not likin the idea of having to change the column to install a floor shifter for a V8 trans.
To the best of my knowledge the transmission is probably the AOD tranny and is the same one behind the V8, just not as strong as the one for the V8(so i'm told) but can be rebuilt to handle a V8 but it just needs to built to the V8 specs.
Thats good to know, And not all the V-8 trans were floor shifter, Mine is a column or was rather.
Well it isnt the AOD. its the 3 speed C5. Not sure what that really effects but im hoping not much...if it turns out that it may be a deal breaker i might just see what i can get out of the 3.8 for HP.
Didnt know they released them with a C5. learn something new everyday.
If it bolts to a 3.8 it will bolt to a 5.0. That C5 from what I know is a weaker C4. It will work but for how long is the question? Hell don't floor it all the time and it will last you untill you can afford a better tranny.
Also fixing up the 3.8? You could do that but I would stray away.
About the only way i would want to change the column is if i were to do a 5 Speed swap like cougar SE. Been debating that for a bit now actually instead of doing the V8. Do the T5 then later on drop in a V8. But then again if a C4 would drop right into place and use the same shifter as the C5 that would be a bonus as well mind you i could probably find a shift kit as well as a upgrade kit for the C5 to handle a V8.