New guy with some 4.6 questions

[Moosinatrix]

ok so i got a 91 ranger from my cousin a while back with a blown tranny. Put a new tranny and the engine blew (h neglected to tell me that when h dropped the tranny he was so pissed he tried to blow the motor by floorboarding the gas pedal). the ngine started spitting oil out of the dipstick.

anyways yesterday my friend wrecked my 94 lincoln town car (hit a tree).

i was pondering dropping the engine out of my lincoln into the ranger.
its a ford 4.6 SOHC

i have rad a few random discussion i found on google and people are saying you have to modify the steering column AND get after market headers for clearance.

has anyone done this conversion before???
does anyone know where i can get parts for th swap???

Im gonna use the auto tranny, ecu, and harness from the lincoln til i can get a mustang 5 spd, axle, ecu, and harness.

any ideas or tips???

are the motor mounts different???

 

[stmitch]

The 4.6 is a very wide motor. It requires a good bit of customizing, and relocating just to get it to fit in the newer rangers, which I believe are wider than the older squarebody trucks. The 4.6 swap has been done a few times, but I haven't seen it in anything pre-'98 yet. On the ones I've seen, the motor mounts, and steering have to be custom, the brake booster needs to be moved, and the firewall usually has to be modified as well to clear the trans. Exhaust is hit or miss. You may be able to use factory manifolds, but I've seen guys need custom headers too. I suspect you'd have to do even more than that to shoehorn it into your narrow engine bay.
It would be a sweet swap for sure, but be ready to move, modify, or discard just about EVERYTHING in the engine bay.

 

[Moosinatrix]

sounds pretty costly, was hoping i could find a cheap alternative to having to get a new vehicle.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The 4.6 is a little wider than a 460 but not quite as long. It isn't supposed to be too bad in a '98+ truck, but I think it would probably be all sorts of ugly in a 83-97 truck.

The one shown is a DOHC, but you should get the general idea...

IMO if you just want a driver get a engine like you already have and switcheroo. If you have time and money to get a little creative go with a 302, which fit fairly nice. Not an excessive amount of room though, which as you can tell with the picture you WILL need a lot of to go with a 4.6.

 

[stmitch]

sounds pretty costly, was hoping i could find a cheap alternative to having to get a new vehicle.

A replacement engine would likely be a couple hundred dollars and some work to switch out. Probably much cheaper than getting an entire new vehicle.