Alright Ford Techs, please help. I want some info on the 4.6 (windsor vs. romeo)

[shane96ranger]

I'm not extremely well versed in the modular motors yet, and was hoping for some guidance.

I'm looking at a 97 F-150 that has 200,000 miles on the truck itself. The guy says Ford replaced the motor and trans as a warranty item at 100,000 miles. The VIN shows it as a Windsor, and the new motor also says Windsor on the valve cover. It also says 4.6 Triton on the plenum cover, which I'd never heard of. Until now, I thought all of the 4.6's were made at the Romeo plant. It runs good, and seems to have every bit as much power as the 5.4's I've driven.

So now, my questioning. Are they the same? Is one better than the other? By the VIN, can I tell when/if the motor was indeed replaced? He says Ford also replaced the trans at the same time. Would this be true?

Thanks guys!!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Yes, there are two 4.6's, a Windsor and a Romeo. The Romeo is far more common. There are differences in construction that the average owner won't care about. I don't know if one is really better than the other.

If you could get somebody that works in a Ford garage to pull an Oasis report with the VIN it might have warrenty work on there, I think it might only go back to vehicles 10 years old and newer though...

 

[adsm08]

85 is correct. The differences between the Romeo and Windsor engines are not material. Neither one is better though.

Also, OASIS only goes back 10 years, so the only way to get that info would be to call Ford directly. It will bring back recall info on any vehicle, and may bring up warranty info if it exists. I'd be glad to check if you get me the VIN.

I can't believe that Ford did anything like replacing an engine or trans at 100K on a gasser though. Not under warranty anyway. I can't off the top of my head come up with any reason to replace both of them together, but it's not out of the question that it happened. Look for reman tags on the transmission case.


The 4.6 is a good engine. It isn't as powerful as the 5.4, but my dad had a 97 F-150 with the 4.6 and there wasn't anything we wanted to do with it that we couldn't. Unless it required 4x4. That stuff we had trouble doing. The 4x4 was always broken on that truck, stupid PVA.

 

[shane96ranger]

Thanks adsm, I PM'd you the VIN. I don't understand why they would both need to be replaced, nor do I understand why Ford would at 100,000 miles unless it was some type of a lawsuit.

He mentioned something about piston clank, or piston slap causing some damage now that I think about it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Thanks adsm, I PM'd you the VIN. I don't understand why they would both need to be replaced, nor do I understand why Ford would at 100,000 miles unless it was some type of a lawsuit.

He mentioned something about piston clank, or piston slap causing some damage now that I think about it.

Sometimes dealers do a warrenty deal, like the local dealer does a thing if you pay for every other oil change they will cover everything lubricated by oil for the lifetime of the vehicle.

 

[Beef52751]

maybe they bought an extended warranty through the dealer???

 

[shane96ranger]

Very good points 85 and Beef. He told me what dealer, so I think I will call them and poke around.

 

[adsm08]

Yeah, if you have the name of the dealership that did the work and the VIN they should be able to come up with a complete history of all the work ever done there and why it was done along with any existing parts warranties.

I'm skeptical about the possibility of an existing Ford ESP contract because the limits on those are generally 7 years from the original in-service date or 100,000 miles. It may be an in-house thing or some outside service contract that has nothing to do with Ford. One of the owners of my dealer group also owns a service contract company and so we (and by "we" I mean the morons up in sales) are always pushing those service contracts. It's not a terrible deal though. Most of the time Portfolio denies the claim, our head adviser calls Adam, and he overrides it and gets the claim paid anyway.