I've got a breakdown of what I did on mine on my cardomain page for the 87. I went from a 2.3 to the 5.0 out of an 86 mustang gt. The donor cars are out there but not too many unless you already have one in line. Did most of my research by checking out the rest of the v8 trucks and the supply stores for conversion parts like jegs, james duff and advanced adapters which i went through for most of the drop in and go parts. As for the transmission, you want the one from the mustang or a if 4wd, an F150. Most of it is up to what you want the truck to do. I got a truck that hauls @$$ and drags a bigger trailer if need be, better to use an AOD tranny for the trailer pulling, saves on burning up the clutch. Hope it gives you a couple of ideas.