Questions and Answers

Carb To EFI?

Q. I have an old 1970 Ford Bronco with a tired, carbureted 302 (A/T). My buddy has a totaled 1989 F150 XLT Lariat fuel injected 302 (A/T) with only 1000 miles on a new engine. I can get the engine, harness, transmission and what ever else I need. My question is: can I swap my old Bronco over to the new fuel injection? What will I need? O2 sensor, wiring harness, high pressure fuel pump and lines. I guess I could just put another carburetor on it but, my Bronco is in perfect condition (except for the old engine) and I will probably never sell it. I can do the actual engine swap myself but I'm unsure about the electronics.

Thank You for your Time!
Billy

A. Wow Bill!! That's quite an ambitious project. We're talking major work here. I'm not saying it can't be done, but plan on about a couple of months to do it.

The engine swap itself is no big deal, it's the wiring that is going to be the hard part. If you keep both vehicles side by side so you can refer to them as you transfer parts, you should be okay. Fortunately the EFI harness is a separate harness and you should be able to swap it over pretty easily. You will need to swap gas tanks as well, for the in-tank fuel pump mounting brackets. There is also a fuel pump re-set switch under the passenger seat that will have to be swapped over.

And, like you said, you need to mount the O2 sensor, replace all the fuel lines. Then you need to disassemble both vehicles almost to the frames to remove/install the wiring.

There's relay boxes and fuses that need to be moved as well. You will have a problem mating the new EFI harness to the rest of the car, the connectors will be different. Power and ground wires will have to be matched up as well.

With the amount of work involved to do the swap, any gain yo would get would be negated by the work and expense to do the job. I think you would be better off using the engine and switching over the motor mounts, brackets and manifolds and put a new carb on. The other way I think you would be opening a big can of worms.