Check out crownvic.net and look in the Box Body (5.0 Tech) section. There's a few guys that've done it. It's a fairly simple swap, with not much fabrication necessary at all needed to do it. You'll need pretty much all of the usual swap-over stuff that you would if you were doing an AOD-T5 swap on a Fox, but with a few extras here n' there, like a different brake booster ... plus cutting a hole in the center hump, obviously. Some guys just run a stock-sized shift handle, but you'd kinda have to hunch over to grab gears; others welded up an extended version of the stocker and made that work out, or somehow used a truck shifter handle.
The reduction in weight in going from AOD to T5 on a Panther-bodied car, plus the difference in gearing, makes the car feel twice as fast and 10x more fun to drive. It's a fairly involved process, though, so I wouldn't go trying to tackle it over the course of a weekend and expect to be driving the thing on Monday; everyone that's ever done it has wound up getting stuck on random things like needed bolts or brackets or whatever.
Oh, and driveshaft length is an issue in some cases, too. Some guys used custom-fabbed driveshafts, and others somehow managed to use a stock Panther-body shaft with a swapped yoke on the shaft or a longer rear tailshaft part (towards the diff). All the details are in the posted threads in their 5.0 Archives and Tech areas.
The reduction in weight in going from AOD to T5 on a Panther-bodied car, plus the difference in gearing, makes the car feel twice as fast and 10x more fun to drive. It's a fairly involved process, though, so I wouldn't go trying to tackle it over the course of a weekend and expect to be driving the thing on Monday; everyone that's ever done it has wound up getting stuck on random things like needed bolts or brackets or whatever.
Oh, and driveshaft length is an issue in some cases, too. Some guys used custom-fabbed driveshafts, and others somehow managed to use a stock Panther-body shaft with a swapped yoke on the shaft or a longer rear tailshaft part (towards the diff). All the details are in the posted threads in their 5.0 Archives and Tech areas.
That would be pretty sweet. I had a '96 and it was definately bogged down by the automatic. I never got around to putting a shift kit in it but I wish I had, car probably would have been a lot more fun. I remember seeing a '98-'04 body style car with a T56 on one of the CV websites a few years back... pretty sure they said it was a ton of fabrication.
I believe it was a 2001 Crown Vic that they did the swap in, along with a DOHC 4.6 from a Cobra. VERY expensive and involved swap ... but this was done for/by Bondurant Racing School, and they beat the crap out of those cars on a daily basis for a few years. I don't know if they're still running those cars down here, or if they finally ditched them.
Honestly, on second thought, you'd probably be money ahead to just get a better torque converter and a good shift kit, maybe a wide-ratio-built AOD if you've got the funds, than to go the T-5 conversion route. I mean, it's been done, so it's nothing at all impossible, but it's more of a uniqueness and fun factor thing than a MAJOR performance advantage ... although, again, you do lose a bit of weight from the swap.
Besides, you're going to have to throw a LOT of horsepower/torque at that AOD to really worry about breaking it, whereas a T-5 is going to be more prone to buckle under the strain ... especially when you're trying to haul 4,200+ of steel and iron off the line at WOT, y'know? And the lo-po 5.0 found in the old-school Panther cars is going to need a LOT of upgrading to justify transmission upgrades in either case - an H.O. swap, full exhaust, and some other body weight reduction would be a good starting point.
Honestly, on second thought, you'd probably be money ahead to just get a better torque converter and a good shift kit, maybe a wide-ratio-built AOD if you've got the funds, than to go the T-5 conversion route. I mean, it's been done, so it's nothing at all impossible, but it's more of a uniqueness and fun factor thing than a MAJOR performance advantage ... although, again, you do lose a bit of weight from the swap.
Besides, you're going to have to throw a LOT of horsepower/torque at that AOD to really worry about breaking it, whereas a T-5 is going to be more prone to buckle under the strain ... especially when you're trying to haul 4,200+ of steel and iron off the line at WOT, y'know? And the lo-po 5.0 found in the old-school Panther cars is going to need a LOT of upgrading to justify transmission upgrades in either case - an H.O. swap, full exhaust, and some other body weight reduction would be a good starting point.