96 3.8 to 5.0 swap Help NEEDED

dannylester

New Member
Mar 14, 2012
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I have an 85 mustang that currently has a 91 5.0 302 mustang engine in it. And am currently looking at a 96 mustang that has a 3.8. I want to have the 91 pulled from the 85, and put into the 96. The 96 is auto, and the 91 is manual. How hard would this be to accomplish? I would like to also put the manual tranny into the 96. Can anyone just give me an idea as to how much money this would cost to be done by an autoshop? And is it even possible? What if i keep the stock auto tranny? would that bolt up to the 5.0?
Again, any help is appreciated.
Thanks guys!
Dan
 
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What kind of modifications would have to be done to the 96 in order for everything to work correctly? Also, which year mustang would be easiest/cheapest for my 91 motor to drop in? What year range?
 
The 91 motor will drop easiest into anything from 79-95. They all used the 5oh and their K-members are already setup to accept them. In 96 they started putting modular motors into Mustangs.
 
Thanks. Anyone elses input? Would like to know what needs to be done to put the 91 5.0 into a 96 3.8. Also, How much would it cost to be done? and as noobz347 posted, how much would it be to put the motor into a more compatible year?
thanks
 
Find a friend with a engine hoist, and go from there. I can't speak to how much it would cost since I've never paid anyone to swap an engine out...but I bet you'd save at least a grand doing it yourself-just in labor. Also, as mentioned you'd have to get a new k-member to fit the 5.0 into the '96, along with correct exhaust, trans crossmember parts, appropriate wiring would have to be carried over from the donor, and mated to the recipient vehicle, fuel system parts would have to be upgraded from V6 to 5.0 stuff, unless it would be either all stock or go carbed in which case the tank would have to be set up for a low pressure system.

If the '91 is a complete car, and you really want to do this, many of the parts should be able to carry over. I've never tried to use a Fox h-pipe or cat back in an SN95, but I'm pretty sure they're different, so you'd probably have to source one from a '94-95 5.0...same would go for the tranny x-member...the wiring would probably pose the biggest hurdle, but nothing that couldn't be done...just depends on how much effort you expend and how much you feel like spending.

I wish I could give you a good ballpark figure, but realistically, there are about 100 different ways you could go about it, and they all vary in cost. However, if I were to do this myself, and had to put a number down for an estimate I'd probably say about $1500. That would include expenditures for parts you know you have to have-as mentioned above and some of those would probably be used parts (k-member, trans x-member, exhaust, etc). But, the things you don't think about, like gaskets, plug wires, random sensors, clutch, etc will be found bad at the most inopportune time and slow your install.
 
I looked in to this pretty hard a few years back when the DD 96 v6 had enough of the bottle . I found it to be more cost efective to build the v6 and ended up with 237rwhp ang 263 rwt a fun little DD that gets 18 mpg and put 30000 miles on it so far . Now what it cost I have no idea I do all my own work and only pay for machine work good luck if you need more info on all this let me know