96 7.3 into 78 Ford

C'roy78stroker · Sep 28, 2011

Hey Guys, my name is Cory. Im getting two powerstroke engines and ZF 5 speeds this friday, with plans of swapping one into my 78 Ford. One engine I was told is a 96 and the other is a 97. I have a early BW 1356 T-case already with the t-case mounted speedometer and necessary speedometer gear to make my speedometer work. My question is about the engine wiring harness (which i dont have just yet). I am wondering if there is a way that i can put in analog sending units for my stock gauges to work and be able to have the ECM "ignore" certain sensors and the engine still work properly. I am already aware of having to use the electronic throttle pedal and position sensor, and needing the IDM and ECU etc. I know i will need wiring diagrams of the factory harness and use or remove some wires, but i would really like some info on the details of making this thing come together. Thanks for your time and any info at all will be appreciated :ford:

C'roy78stroker · Sep 29, 2011

Bump.

Even a suggestion or idea that someone may have to get me steered in the right directions would be a tremendous help. Just trying to figure some of this stuff out so i can take it into account when i begin the engine / electrical install. Thanks again.

JLDickmon · Sep 29, 2011

not really..
do you have a donor TRUCK available you could glarm the wiring harness out of?

Otherwise, you'd be better off with an IDI motor and hope the iron doesn't crack..

JoeDaddy · Sep 29, 2011

This is a dream of mine to someday put a psd in my 78. Ive been absorbing info for 3 years now, from what can tell a donor is a must. Transfer every ele sensor and control unit from truck to truck. Use the psd rear or other 87 and newer rear. Use the psd harness for the psd dash (which you'll need to fab into old cluster position) and controls and use the old harness for truck functions. Splice keyed ignition to starter, mount pedal and presto!

C'roy78stroker · Sep 29, 2011

JLDickmon said:
not really..
do you have a donor TRUCK available you could glarm the wiring harness out of?

Otherwise, you'd be better off with an IDI motor and hope the iron doesn't crack..

I do not have a donor at this moment. My thoughts were to figure the motor mounts and engine position in the engine bay currently. I realize that i will need the donor for things like the fuse panel/relays that are mounted under the hood normally as well as the glow plug solenoid and so on. Im not a stranger to electrical troubleshooting and routing, and feel like i have a good grasp on things in order to do this swap. I wonder if there would possibly be a way to use aftermarket tach, speedo, water temp etc gauges with the factory OBS harness once i acquired one. I talked to Ben at Unlimited Diesel about 4 years ago when i was only dreaming of doing this, and he said that the biggest pain was to wire in the OBS dash into his 84... I guess one of my bigger goals right now would be to not have to swap that whole OBS cluster into my 78 dash :shrug:

Stroken7.3 · Sep 30, 2011

I was going to do the same thing, all I was going to do was fab up an aluminum dash panel and use aftermarket gauges instead of the old factory gauges. I think a donor truck is a must also, I considered just adapting the old 78 body to a newer chassis too.

JoeDaddy · Sep 30, 2011

Stroken7.3 said:
I was going to do the same thing, all I was going to do was fab up an aluminum dash panel and use aftermarket gauges instead of the old factory gauges. I think a donor truck is a must also, I considered just adapting the old 78 body to a newer chassis too.

I was thinking the obs cluster might fit behind the old cluster grill.
I think ill measure both tonight and see.

Hotrodtractor · Sep 30, 2011

You can use all aftermarket gauges - I know you can pull an auxiliary tach signal off of one one the wires in the harness - but once your beyond that its all new wiring and sensors to make the aftermarket gauges work.

Its a bit snug in there for sure - here is an old pic using a '79 4x4 chassis - I am now swapping it over to an '05 chassis.

Arisley · Sep 30, 2011

Yep, I would hunt around and find a totaled out OBS with a straight frame and swap the '78 body onto it.

C'roy78stroker · Oct 13, 2011

Each of the engines came with solid flywheels, engine harnesses, rebuilt chargers and other goodies. I pulled one of the injectors from the higher mileage engine and tore it apart. The solenoid check out ok and the poppet had no signs of any damage. I was curious if anyone could tell me a sure way of knowing wether or not i can expect to replace the plungers and barrells by looking at them when i take the nozzle holder seperate from the body. I know to check for vertical scoring, just didnt know if there was anything else that i could look at so i dont have a surprise when i send them out to be built

C'roy78stroker · Oct 16, 2011

Bump

I took the nozzle holder loose from the body. Plunger looked like it had a little bluing discoloration on the fuel side. Aside from that, i did not see any scoring of any kind. Any info would be appreciated. thanks again :ford:

Cory