JoshB 240Z

For the most part the 87-93 engine packages are all the same. There are some smaller differences that may or may not make a difference to you. California cars were equipped with Mass Air sensors in 1988 which is desirable in the Ford circles and the 5.0L's up to 1991 (I believe) have forged pistons. When I buy these engines I try to purchase the 88-90's for this reason. One thing I just learned is that the upper intake manifold on the 94-95 engines is 1.5" shorter than the manifold used on the 87-93 cars. This accounts for the 10hp decrease in 1994-95 cars but may give you a little more hood clearance if it is an issue. Josh

Don't be afraid of the EFI. The wiring is simple and straightforward and there are several sites on the internet that will give you a wire by wire explanation of how to install the efi. Ford's factory engine harness (installed on 87-93 Ford Mustangs) is self contained which allows you to pull it out and wire only a few wires into the existing body harness of the ZX without too much grafting between harnesses. You can hook up as few as 6 wires to get the engine running all of the way up to 13 wires to have the engine running plus AC neutral switch and various other functions that you may or may not need. Any wiring problems you run into could be answered by people on this board or on the internet. As a frame of reference, I had my Ford EFI installed, wired and functioning in under two hours. This was in a 240Z which was a little easier than a ZX but it shouldn't be that much more difficult. Also, after smogging several EFI 5.0L's I know that they are fairly clean engines and have a relatively simple smog system as opposed to the vacuum line systems employed on the carb'd models. Lastly, the computers in both applications are tied only to the engine so you will remove the Nissan ECU completely and install only the Ford ECU. No piggyback setup necessary. I am not trying to lead you one way or another, just wanted to clear up some of the myths around EFI wiring. It's very simple.

You can use the automatic ECU in either a T5 or auto equipped car but cannot go the other way, just as 74_5.0L_Z has said. The reason is that there is a 12V+ signal coming from the transmission that will damage the ECU. This signal isn't present with the manual tranmission. Just do a search on http://www.corral.net in their EEC section on the A9L and A9P ECU's and you should find the accurate reason for the difference. Josh

The store in Reno is impressive. One store clerk told me the store was close to 20,000 square feet although I'm not sure that it's quite that big. The operation in back is even more impressive. I once asked my local FedEx guy if he had Summit orders to deliver each day and he responded that he usually has an average of five per day. One thing to look out for when shopping at the store is sales tax. If the order is over $100 or so it usually cheaper to order online and have the product shipped to you as the shipping and handling charge from Summit is only $8.45. I know it sounds cheap but what you save in shipping you can spend on the next part. Josh

There goes another one of my secrets. If I order parts before 4pm on a weekday, Friday's included, I usually have my parts by the next afternoon. The only exception is if the parts come from Summit's Ohio wherehouse. They're hard to beat. Josh

Mark, Where is your clearance issue? Is it the area around the throttle body and TPS sensor where the hood line drops down? Josh

I do have the rod end but chose to place it on the slined side of the joint immediately before the U-joint. This made it a little easier to install the rod end where I had some clearance for it. Plus, if maintance or replacement is ever necessary I can seperate the two parts. I don't see this as being an issue, though. Josh

I got excited and forgot to post this link to the CA website regarding the impact fee. http://www.dmv.ca.gov/online/smoginq/lead.htm One of the best feelings was receiving the a checks for the numerous cars I had paid the impact fee for. Yes, they sent me individual checks for each claim. Josh

I have done this several times over the last ten years and it isn't that big of a deal. It used to be (late 80's-mid 90's) CA charged a $300 smog impact fee to all people bringing a car into the state that was not originally built specifically for CA. The $300 fee was in place to "level the palying field" where CA bought cars had an extra fee charged at purchase for extra smog equipment that was supposedly special to this state. The smog impact fee was overturned and the State of California had to refund the $300 to anyone who originally paid it and could prove it. This ended up being one of the more expensive mistakes in history, I believe. One of the reasons this fee was overturned was that it was built on an old idea in a modern world. I once brought a 1982 Ford Mustang in from Washington State and had to pay the $300 fee. This was to level my lower purchase price as this Mustang supposedly did not have the same emissions equipment on the engine. This turned out to be false as the auto manufactures had pretty much begun to build the cars with the same equipment to keep manufacturing costs down. The only difference on this car was a sticker affixed to the hood that stated the car was certified to meet all applicable FEDERAL laws rather than saying it was certified to meet all applicable FEDERAL and CALIFORNIA laws. Cars today still have this sticker and if you purchase a car outside of CA it states Federal and in the state it says Federal and California. Just two weeks ago I brought in a Mustang from Nevada and was only required to pass the normal smog check and pay the registration fees. The smog impact fee has been done away with and there really isn't any difference between bringing a car in from out of state or changing ownership within the state on a CA certified car. To answer bang's question, you will have to pass the CA test regardless of where the car was from. The technician will go off of the sticker as far as what is required and then they will do a sniffer test. I would be surprised to see much variance between a CA Paseo and a federal Paseo. Even my 82 Mustang had all of the CA emission stuff despite being designed and manufactured during the CA vs. Federal smog split. Today, many states and counties outside of CA have adopted CA's emissons requirments anyway. This has been my experience over the last ten years. Josh

I finished my steering rod last night and figured I would share the picture. The bend around the headers is still a tight fit but will work just fine. As for header clearance I have at least 1/4" all of the way around the collectors on both sides. Here's a picture of the engine in the car at this time. It was taken at a funny angle but it shows that the crank pulley sits behind the swap bar.

From the pictures it appears that my engine is set back just a little further behind buschj's. I will have to take a few pictures from the same angles to be sure. Also, the 94-95 intake manifold is 1.5 inches lower than the earlier manifold. I have this manifold and installed it to test for hood clearance. My clearance issues on top were resolved but this manifold is not compatible with the earlier valve covers as well as the EGR system. In the end I chose to go back to the earlier manifold because I believe it will be easier to deal with the one point of interference rather than the several underneath the later manifold. Again, this is only an issue when installing the later manifold on the 87-93 engine with stock components. I have given some thought to removing the engine and adjusting the mount and I may still do that but for right now I would like to get the car running again and get the other issues that are bound to come up resolved. I like the mount where it is due to where it places the oil pan with regards to the undercarriage of the car. The oil pan is not the lowest point underneath the car and I am comfortable with that. My car is low and I have a history of catching the bottom on low bumps in the road or parking lots. buschj-where does you gear shift lever come through in the transmission tunnel? Did you have to trim back sheet metal? Josh

Mark, I have almost three inches of clearance between the balancer and crossmemeber. As you can see from the picture below spacing is substantial. As for solving my clearance issue, I may machine 1/2" off of my intake manifold mounting surfaces to bring the manilfod down. That should give me just enough clearance. Josh

Mark, I think lowering the mounting points of Al's mount by 1" will give you the clearance you need. The balancer would still clear the rack at this point but the oil pan would be the next clearance issue. This wouldn't be a problem in my car as long as I pushed the engine towards the firewall a little more. Cutting the steering shaft is almost inevitable using Al's mount. The shaft wants to be placed right through the crossmember pretty much anywhere you can feasibly place it. I went ahead and had mine cut to add the U-joint. I installed the U-joint, had it welded and then pinned the joint to the shaft as well. I have been reassured that this modification is safe when done correctly (which I believe mine has) but I was nervous while thinking about adding the joint.

Kaizoku, I don't know if there is a height difference between the GT-40 vs. the stock intake but I assume the GT-40 is taller as I have been told by friends with the GT-40 manifold that it is slightly taller. With that being said I do have a hood clearance problem. The stock upper intake clears the hood by quite a bit but the TPS sensor and breather tube that is on the top of the throttle body are the problem. The hood is high in the center but the sloped line of the hood interferes. You may or may not have this same problem based on how far back you set the engine. My interference was under 1/2" and the upper manifold is about 1/8" forward of the hood latch. You may be able to set the engine back a little further using the GT-40 manifold...I don't know. Other than this the swap has been very easy. I get people driving by turning around and coming back to look at the car because they recognize the intake manifold when the hood is open. The car doesn't even run yet! Josh

Jon, My Z is currently sitting in the street. If that is what you mean by "on the road" then yes. Actually, I couldn't leave the fuel rails stock so I am in the process of machining some out of fuel rail stock. Once those are complete and I have the steering shaft finished it will be running. Josh

Another thing you can do is go to http://www.mustangexhaust.com and listen to the various setups. This site has the exhaust system particulars listed and you can download the sound to hear what it sounds like. I am having this delemna as well. My Ford swap should be running weekend with only the exhaust left to do. It seems that I will only be able to run the headers into a Y pipe and then through one muffler but I would love to fit a nice H or X pipe to mufflers under the car without moving the gas tank. Josh

I am about to drive my 5.0L swap with a Turbo Coupe T5. My transmission has a 4.03:1 first gear as opposed to the 3.35:1 or 2.95:1 WC T5's used in Mustangs. The other difference between a V8 and four cylinder T5 is the input shaft diameter. Four cylinder T5's have a diameter of .59" vs. the V8's diameter of .668". I made a steel sleeve to increase the diameter of my four cylinder transmission's input shaft. Now, before anyone asks why I would go through the hassle of installing a transmission with a first gear that will be useless I will explain. I had one in my garage. I also have a WC T5 that will be rebuilt once I have the swap finished...I don't want to undertake a tranny rebuild and V8 swap all in the same garage. I also plan to take the car to the drag strip with the four cylinder transmission to see what kind of times are possible. It should be interesting. Also, if you are interested in more info on the various T5's, ie. ratios, torque ratings and internal changes, do a search on the internet for T5 information and you will find charts that list the ratios and original vehicle that the transmission came in based on the 3 digit code on the build tag. Josh

I found with the 94-95 upper intake manifold that hood clearance was not a problem with Al's mount and the '68 Mustang motor mounts. The only issue I had with this setup was getting the last bolt on the intake manifold that will sit just under the hood latch. I had to install the manifold with this bolt before installing the engine. This is not a problem on the earlier manifold due to a shorter bolt length. I purchased my steering joint from Coleman Racing as recomended by another HybridZ member. http://www.colemanracing.com The earlier EFI is much easier. I had to wire in eight wires and I had the EFI working. The earlier harness is pretty much a stand alone. Lastly, I have been taking notes on the swap and will add them to the forum once the installation is done and running. I keep changing things everytime I work on the car. Josh

Dan- My engine sits at a 4 degree angle. It's easy to change and I may try adjusting it to see if the clearance issue resolves itself. John- The EGR system is different so I blocked it off initially to get the manifold on and the engine running. My plan was to circle back to the EGR once the car was running as I have been told that the ECU is tuned for some EGR and will knock if it is removed and all else left equal. I, too, enjoy the dual exhaust sound but couldn't figure out how to stuff the mufflers under the car without moving the gas tank. I went ahead and purchased the Flowmaster Y-pipe that mentioned and will use it for now. As far as the steering shaft I cut it and added a u-joint and support bearing to the system. I tried to figure out a way around it but determined that I was going to have header or motor mount clearance problems either way. The u joint allows me to use a fairly "stock" approach where I can use Al's crossmember, unmodified aftermarket street rod headers and standard late 60's Ford motor mounts. What type of system did you use to mount your engine? Thanks for the help. Josh

Dan, My clearance issue is with the breather that you mentioned and the two water passages on the top of the EGR plate. The EGR passages do not contact the hood but I would say they were in the 1/8" range just below. The breather does contact the hood just before the second latch. With only 1/8" of clearance between your breater and the hood you don't have any contact when the engine rocks? The height of my engine was already determined as I used the cross member sold by Alsil. It sounds as though our mounting locations side to side are equal and it's both my front to rear location and engine height that differ. The crank centerline is barely above the tops of the frame rails. I am also trying to determine if dual or dual to single exhaust is better. I currently have a 3" exhaust all of the way back that was left over from my turbo setup. Any suggestions or preferences? Thanks, Josh

I will post some of my progress. I have a 5.0L engine, transmission/transmission mount and driveshaft are also installed. The EFI has signal to the fuel injectors and coil. All I BELIEVE theat I have left to do is install an alternator, starter, radiator and exhaust. I have chosen to upgrade the alternator to the later style Ford alternator that has an output of 130A, later starter with solenoid on the starter and an aluminum radiator. The only real issue I have run into is that there is no clearance between the EGR plate and hood. I am still looking into my options here. I have an early (87-93) style upper intake manifold as well as a later (94-95) upper manifold to play with. Each manifold has it's pros and cons. I will let you know which I decide to use. I have two questions: 1) Has anyone else heard that the later style upper intake manifold gives up 10hp to the early style? 2) Will there be any harm in machining 1/2" off the lower intake to get better upper manifold to hood clearance? Josh

Will, Al's mount makes installation easy. One of the hardest parts of the swap is lining the engine up, side to side. This is already done for us by using this mount so all you are really responsiblle for is the front to back alignment and making sure the tail housing on the transmission is lined up. I believe this mount has the engine a little higher than some other installation which doesn't allow you to set the engine as far back as a few people have but it also doesn't leave the oil pan well below the rest of the car. You will also have to cut the steering shaft with this mount as the mount and the shaft interfere. I haven't decided which route I will take to stiffen the chassis. I currently have a roll bar installed. This setup came with the pieces to make it a full cage but I didn't like the front portion and removed it. Climbing into a 240 with door bars and Corbeau Forza seats can be a challenge. I am leaning towards subframe connectors similar to what you described. I chose to go with the Summit brand of block hugger headers. They were inexpensive and I wasn't sure if I was going to have to modify them to work. I originally tried to get Flow Tech's ceramic coated headers but they are currently back ordered out a few months and I didn't want to pay for ceramic coating, cut the headers up and then have them recoated. I am going with a stock engine for now, as well. My latest concern is the hood clearance in the throttle body area with this mount. It looks like it should fit but it is going to be close. I will let you know after this weekend. Josh

WHP-I purchased the motor mounts from my local auto parts store. They are standard Ford 302 motor mounts on 66-70 Ford vehicles. I've been told that the mounts were used in many more applications but can't confirm this. How will you be mounting the engine? Josh

Thank you. As a side note it took me half the day to figure out how to get the images into a post....and that was with help. I found installing the engine was easier than getting a few pictures into a post. Chalk it up to being dense where the internet is concerned. Thanks again. Josh

I couldn't get the pictures and bigger in the post. Is there a trick? Drax-It was sunny and warm. Typical California summer weekend. Makes doing swaps easy. Josh