found some guy on craigslist with a 95 mustang 5.0 complete just has front end damage so he's selling for cheap. i wanted to do a 5 lug swap so i can pull all the parts off this but i was wondering if i can swap that motor into my 86 tbird or is it a different beast?
No difference between it, and an '86 5.0, save for cam, intakes, and heads.
IOW: yeah, it'll fit, but you'll need the proper eec, V8 engine harness, mounts, and some other easy to get doodads...if your car is already a 5.0, the only work is swapping the engines and adding a mass air wire, or getting a DA1 eec and going to speed density.
my car has a stock 3.8 right now so was looking to upgrade to a 5.0
so since mine is a 3.8 will the swap still work?
Eric has a section about that on his site, give it a read. You'll have to do a little more work, but it's been done here many times over.
http://www.coolcats.net/modifying/ho_transplant.html
thanks that link had tons of good info but the car is a no go already gone :/ but that link really helped alot :)