Hey everyone,
I went to town on the '93 F150. Some may recall that we bought it about a month ago- 5.8 with an E4OD trans, Flare Side. It was originally a 5.0 and the "new" engine appears to be from an '88 truck, based on the date code of one of the throttlebody's coolant lines. Aside from a few giveaways, the swap appears factory and it runs without setting the CEL. Truck had a very high idle when we got it, I unplugged the IAC before the trip home and the idle came down to about 800 rpm. It also idled poorly, rather shakey. Anyway, we did the plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Used NGK V-power copper plugs and their cool blue wires. I really dig the wires, they come labeled as to which one goes where. The new plugs and all that jazz cleared the poor idle quality up. Went to check timing and that's where things got weird. Unlike the 5.0's I'm used to, I cannot for the life of me identify any timing marks on the harmonic balancer. All this thing has is one big notch in it. A notch which didn't show up while I was setting the timing, or trying to. From my tinkering I suspect the timing was severely retarded. Advancing it got my idle pretty nice & low, but once the spout connector goes back in, it still idles high, just not as high. I'd like to know where my timing is, rather than just keep advancing it. How do the 5.8's do it and are there supposed to be marks on the balancer? The videos I've seen online show marks on the balancer, but I've got nothing even after running some scotch brite all over it. I also need to connect my scan tool to it to see what's going on. I suspect that while someone swapped the engine in OK, they did NOT swap the ECM. Apparently a 5.8 will run off a 5.0 computer... Seems getting the ECM out of these is a PITA, looks like the steering column has to drop.
I think I found the sole source of our exhaust leak- one of the exhaust manifold bolts on cylinder 8 is missing. Yikes. Anyone want to take bets as to whether or not a new bolt will just thread right in there and solve the issue??
I went to town on the '93 F150. Some may recall that we bought it about a month ago- 5.8 with an E4OD trans, Flare Side. It was originally a 5.0 and the "new" engine appears to be from an '88 truck, based on the date code of one of the throttlebody's coolant lines. Aside from a few giveaways, the swap appears factory and it runs without setting the CEL. Truck had a very high idle when we got it, I unplugged the IAC before the trip home and the idle came down to about 800 rpm. It also idled poorly, rather shakey. Anyway, we did the plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Used NGK V-power copper plugs and their cool blue wires. I really dig the wires, they come labeled as to which one goes where. The new plugs and all that jazz cleared the poor idle quality up. Went to check timing and that's where things got weird. Unlike the 5.0's I'm used to, I cannot for the life of me identify any timing marks on the harmonic balancer. All this thing has is one big notch in it. A notch which didn't show up while I was setting the timing, or trying to. From my tinkering I suspect the timing was severely retarded. Advancing it got my idle pretty nice & low, but once the spout connector goes back in, it still idles high, just not as high. I'd like to know where my timing is, rather than just keep advancing it. How do the 5.8's do it and are there supposed to be marks on the balancer? The videos I've seen online show marks on the balancer, but I've got nothing even after running some scotch brite all over it. I also need to connect my scan tool to it to see what's going on. I suspect that while someone swapped the engine in OK, they did NOT swap the ECM. Apparently a 5.8 will run off a 5.0 computer... Seems getting the ECM out of these is a PITA, looks like the steering column has to drop.
I think I found the sole source of our exhaust leak- one of the exhaust manifold bolts on cylinder 8 is missing. Yikes. Anyone want to take bets as to whether or not a new bolt will just thread right in there and solve the issue??
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