Eaton Swap is easy!

tvanlant

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So I finished up my eaton swap the other night and just wanted to share some info with other who are contemplating the swap.

My overall opinion of the swap is that it was pretty easy. Very little modification, mostly all bolt-on stuff. I say this because when I was thinking about the swap, there were a lot of people saying that it isn't worth it due to the difficulty of the swap and locating the parts. In addition, most people claim the swap costs $3k-$4k. I was able to do it much cheaper, including some aftermarket upgrades. I also did the swap completely by myself (no friends :( )

The wiring was pretty simple also. Just some easy cut & splices.

I was able to make a deal with a guy going turbo on his 04. This helped immensly. We traded intake manifolds, timing covers & pullies, alternators, power steering pumps & reservoirs, brackets & lines, balancers, crossover tubes & all coolant hoses & thermostat housings, throttle & cruise cables, waterpumps, bolts, alternator pigtails, tensioners, oil coolers, belts, IAC valves, etc.

I gave him an additional $320 and he sent me his lower pulley cage & pulley, alt. brackets, afco heat exchanger & brackets, billet idlers, pulley bridge, idler bracket, tensioner, i/c pump & bracket, all lines, pigtail, & i/c adapter, .

Here is what I ended up spending on the swap:

Supercharger, plenum, TB, bypass $200
03 Tank & Pumps $350
front dress items listed above $320
39lb injectors $70
Stock MAF & air intake tube $90
IAT2 Sensor $40
IAT2 pigtail $32
Boost gauge $77
Cluster gauge bezel $83
Damper bolt $7
Gaskets $40
Spark plugs $16
Wideband $already had from previous vehicle

Total $1325

That doesn't include the shipping for the parts I swapped for free. However, I could have also gotten by cheaper by using the stock h/e that I got for free with the blower. And by using stock idlers.

I have yet to get it tuned. I think I'm going to give Stiegemeier a call. I have a Diablo tuner, so hopefully they can use that.

Here's a quick show of the swap.

Before I started



Dropped the tank to replace with the 03 tank/pumps. Easy, direct swap. I'm so glad I went this way.



While I had the tank down, I figured I would move the battery to the back. A fairly simple procedure, however very time consuming because I wanted it to look very nice.



All the stock stuff pulled off the motor. This took no time at all.



04 Cover installed



Knock sensor bosses cut off. This makes much less of a mess if you use a cutoff wheel and a carbide porting tool instead of grinding them off.



Lower intake, blower & intercooler bolted down.



Power steering pump, balancer, and accessory belt installed.



Lower pulley cage, alt. brackets, and alternator installed.



Pulley bridge, p/s reservior, coolant crossover, i/c adapter, etc.



Blower belt installed.



Afco h/e installed with stock brackets. This required some careful measurements to drill/file the slots in the right place. I've got some good info with pics for this if it would be helpful to anyone.



The front bumper back on. Two notches were cut in the bottom of the bumper for the h/e brackets to clear.



Engine bay all finished!



Boost and wideband installed. I had an LC-1 and XD-16 from a previous car that I used. Autometer cluster pod is kinda cheesy. Doesn't fit very well, especially around the defrost button and headlight switch. Makes the switch hard to turn on and off. Oh well, I don't like the pillar pods, so this works.



After my first test drive. Popped the hood and triple-checked everything. No problems! Pulls a good 20" of vacuum at idle.




I have a TON of pictures of pretty much every step of the process. If anyone needs information & pics on anything, let me know & I'd be glad to help you out.

I haven't set up an appointment yet, but I'm hoping to get it dyno tuned in early April. I will post up results when I do!

Oh, and thanks for all who helped me by answering my questions, especially 99riocobra!
 
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2K1 SVT

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Nice work! I plan on doing this swap next year, so it’s good to hear that it’s fairly easy.
 

Richter888

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I have been gathering the parts to do the eaton swap. Unfortunately though, I have spent around $2500 for all the parts(many parts are aftermarket, like the fore fuel hat(return style), and a 03 cobra tank I just picked up. If you exclude the teksid block and 03 aviator heads I'm picking up, pretty decent deal.

Anyways I would love to hear every little step you took. If you could either post more pics or send them to my email. [email protected] I hope that a couple guys locally will be able to help me out, but if they cant, then all info is helpful. Nice job by the way!
 

quikcobra

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+1 It is very easy.... The hardest part is grinding the knock sensors which is still easy... But it doesnt mean easy isnt fun... Nice work man....
 

carrew

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Getting my parts together the past couple weeks. I bought the eaton, lower intake, intercooler, fuel rail and harness from a guy for $800

Bought a stock plenum and TB, with JLT CAI, hardlines for H/E, Coolant tank for H/E, for $250

Traded my 01 cobra MMR spacer for a Reichard racing eaton spacer

Bought the stock maf, H/E, and injectors for $250 shipped

Bought the metco maruader pulley system for $350

Purchase the aftermarket kit that flips the altenator 180 degrees on a mount and a bracket that mounts the 03 cobra tensioner. for $450

Going to have about $2K in it and probably make $500-$600 on take off parts.
 

DSGWhippedSnake

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Nice man, great that you took pics of all the steps incase any of us need it. I wish I didn't ditch my swap, but owell...on to a kenne bell
 

99riocobra

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Glad to hear it all came together!! You're exactly right though, if you do your homework on what's all needed it's not bad at all! Glad I could help out :beer:

Yeah for tuning I actually had my eaton'd 99 tuned at Stiegemeier's and was very pleased with the tune. They only used SCT though just so you know.
 

Taz

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Excellent job and great documentation!

Also, kudos for ignoring the naysayers and moving forward with your vision.

:beer:
 

DuffManRHA

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That is really awesome man, congrats!!

I have the same Autometer gauge bezel and I feel ya on the gap on the defroster button (gap is to the right, and down) and the 'tension', for lack of a better word, on the headlight switch. But I'm not a fan of A-pillar gauges either, EXCEPT the Speed of Sound ones, and I like the "aftermarket but still what could have been done at the factory"-look.

Here is a link to the speed of sound, I'll be using this or the clock pod to mount my oil temp and diff temp gauges next.

Gallery of installs : http://www.speedofsoundllc.com/SN_95%20ProductGallery.html

Product listing for pillar mount and center console gauge/switch panel (respectively)
Speed of Sound 1994-2004 Ford Mustang gauge pillars

Speed of Sound 2005+ Ford Mustang Cup Holder Switch Panels
 
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V6&V8SHO

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Custom eaton swap brackets make this job even easier. On top of that moves the 01 Cobra alternator and keeps it on the accessory belt drive rather than blower. For the blower drive it is Blower pulley, idler, tensioner, and lower pulley.

Pic of my car.

IMAG0362.jpg
 

vacobra1

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Custom eaton swap brackets make this job even easier. On top of that moves the 01 Cobra alternator and keeps it on the accessory belt drive rather than blower. For the blower drive it is Blower pulley, idler, tensioner, and lower pulley.

Pic of my car.

where do you get the brackets?
 

V6&V8SHO

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I will snap a few shots of the alternator mounting. It is contained in another bracket.

To buy the brackets (pictured Below) contach Terry @ [email protected]

to-be-filed-391.jpg


Also to note these brackets for for the 99-01 timing cover. So you save more time there as well.

The idler provision on bracket allows you to slide it for more blower pulley belt wrap depending on what you need and locks into place.

I will take some close up shots of the alternator mounting later today.

My car is 484hp and 497tq w no issues. The brackets are beefy.
 
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V6&V8SHO

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Close up of the blower bracket on my car. Notice a little provision had to be made for proper clearance of the 03-04 Coolant crossover tube. Not a big deal really.

IMAG0363.jpg
 

V6&V8SHO

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v6&v8sho if you don't mind me asking how much did you pay and did you still swap the oil cooler?

No swapping needed. For anymore technical questions on this method PM 01bluesnake as he was the one that did the work for me.

Brackets were 625 plus ship.
 

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