Project OUTRANGEROUS 4.6L Install / Phase 2

[bobbywalter]

yes they have their own tranny to use...except the first year blocks have a windsor pattern


they are not cost effective to make power with. if you want a power adder they have an edge though.


best power for dollar is an ls powertrain swap. simple as that.

 

[gwaii]

those sidepipes look like the exact same ones i got for the gt.

i noticed when doing a 4.6 swap into a first gen a few years back that starter clearance was an issue...your's is the first i've seen to address this.
for the steering i'd look into seeing if the bottom end of the column could be moved outward a bit.might need to open out the firewall hole a bit.

 

[Tominator]

More power less money. The 4.6l are sexy motors and I know that just changing the upper and lower intakes from the pre98 stang motors to 99+ was good for 35-40hp depending. at 225hp stock 40 HP is a good gain. They are great powerhouse just REALLY big.

LOL...............................

 

[RJAAAAAA]

It's moving along, started fab on headers to side pipes, things are tight might use flex here. Should start pcm wiring this week.
This 2004 engine make 251hp plus the trans. from a police car has been tweeked to shift a little higher rpm and a little harder. Should be more than enough for the Ranger. The 5.0 it definitely easier to install and more mods. are available but I didn't want to go back that far in years. This engine will do me great and be my little street sleeper. Should turn a few heads and suprise a few drivers.
I was really lucky with this engine since it was a factory remanufactured engine in 2/2010.
Salvage yard didn't know that with I bought it.
If you can pick up a newer 4.6 say 2003 and up for $240 that's a deal, I gave $800 for engine and trans. gave them an extra $100 to be able to come in and pick up whatever extras I might need as I go. They have been more than fair with me so far, if you need some parts in South central Pa. try Franks Auto parts in Gettysburg,Pa.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

More power less money. The 4.6l are sexy motors and I know that just changing the upper and lower intakes from the pre98 stang motors to 99+ was good for 35-40hp depending. at 225hp stock 40 HP is a good gain. They are great powerhouse just REALLY big.

They make more power than a pushrod 5.0, and respond very well to modifications especially boost... if you have a big enough hole to stuff them.

I am not really that well versed with Mustang stuff, but changing intakes between non-PI and PI heads in trucks will screw stuff up. There is one model year of intake out there that will work, I want to say it is '99, the changeover year.

If they fit better in my style of truck I would a 2v 5.4 in a heartbeat. The old pushrod 302 virtually bolted in though and has more than enough power to get into trouble.

Damn, do they hook to a 4wd tranny? If so then I know where I can get a ton of them for $240 all day.

Yes, they came in many F-150's. They don't fit worth a darn in an earlier truck though. They look pretty snug in later trucks too...

 

[Teddyzee]

A 302 HO or Explorer type 5.0 definitely feels like it has more power, due to the low end torque.
The 4.6 engine likes to rev, with no quite as much bottom end. Very smooth engine.

I drive one of each every day, 5.0 in my Ranger, 4.6 in my Mustang.

The cool head/intake swap is with the early (up to '98 in Mustang) 4.6. Starting in '99, they had "PI" heads (Performance Improved). Bolting the later heads/intake/cams to the early shortblock can improve horsepower by 40 or 50 numbers. This is not only due to better breathing, but due to a significant compression increase when the new heads bolt to the old block.
A PI swap results in more power than a stock PI engine.

Trucks and full size cars got the "new" heads in 2000/2001 area. There's a noticeable visual difference.

 

[RJAAAAAA]

Side pipes are on !!!

All right, finished the install of the side pipes and I think they look great. Can't wait to find out what they sound like. Everything was tight, hard to make those tight bends. Had to isolate the pipes from the engine so I used a short piece of flex pipe.

Nice package of sidepipes, I welded small pieces of light angle iron 1 1/2" x1 1/2" under the door sill and adapted their hangers to fit. Worked out easy. I love this MIG welder.

Bought a kool badge off ebay, I think it was off a Mustang police car. It's going to look good on the tailgate.

A little heads up of what's ahead, to passer byers.
VROOOOOOOOOM !!!!

 

[RJAAAAAA]

Engine wiring harness WOW!!

Haven't had to much time to work on the truck, my wife had lung surgery and she's home now healing up. She's on the mend but the truck might have to wait.
Did manage to get some time to start the engine harness wiring, it's a little intimidating at first but once I began it all started to fall into place.

Most of the original engine harness will not be used, the cv engine has 3 connectors that go to all the engine connections.

The original 3.0 harness is missing a lot of pins due to the simplicty of the engine and manual trans so I will be rewiring everything to the new pcm connector. I did manage to get both male and female connectors from the donor car. This makes the wiring alot easier. It looks like a rats nest here but it will all clean up nice.Managed to get 40 wires connected today.

Here is my wiring schedule I made up to make the switch and get everything right. This schedule was made comparing the 2001 wiring to the 2004 wiring.

It's supposed to be nice here tomorrow so maybe I can get most of this wiring done.
Started looking for rad. hoses. I guess I'll have to just go into the auto parts stores and look at the different shape hoses to find something to fit. The 4.0 rad cleaned uo nice and the 2004 trans cooler fit great. It looks like I'll be able to graft the 2004 elect. fan into the rad. shroud from the 4.0. It all looks good sitting in place.

 

[johnboy89]

Looking at all of those wires, brings back some memories........

focus,focus,focus, then double and triple check..........

 

[RJAAAAAA]

Looking at all of those wires, brings back some memories........

focus,focus,focus, then double and triple check..........

Thanks for the encouragement, I'm checking myself as I go and I've already found wires in the wrong place. I'm going to give it a double check again before I start dressing things up. I got most of the change over complete this weekend. Funny but in all these swap threads, you never here anyone talk about the wiring. Hmmmmm! I wonder why ??????????
It's all good though, this is fun to me. The joy of the project is in the build. These guys that have all these fancy cars and truck and never lifted a wrench are missing all the fun.
Is that your engine in the pic? DOHC are a whole lot harder then the SOHC. I've looked around the net and seems like the DOHC get alot of attention. This 4.6 is a big engine both DOHC & SOHC. When did you do your swap? Did you have wiring problems?

 

[johnboy89]

That's my engine in the pic, if you search my name there is a build thread out there for it.

I only had a few issues with the wiring suprisingly, had a heck of time with the headers though.........

Good luck with your project looks good so far.......

Mine is a blast to drive............

 

[dangerranger83]

Why does it havde to be so complex under the hood for just a simple concept. The engine just isnt simple anymore.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Why does it havde to be so complex under the hood for just a simple concept. The engine just isnt simple anymore.

If you want milage, power and emissions friendly things get... complicated.

A VW is simple and gets great milage... 50hp.

Boss 429 is simple and has power... 5-10mpg.

10spd bike is simple and has decent emissions... no power and short range.

 

[RJAAAAAA]

That's my engine in the pic, if you search my name there is a build thread out there for it.

I only had a few issues with the wiring suprisingly, had a heck of time with the headers though.........

Good luck with your project looks good so far.......

Mine is a blast to drive............

Looked up your build thread and it was great. The DOHC sure takes up more real estate then the SOHC. I'm almost done the wiring, check, check and double check, just need to tidy it up. What did you do with your fuel system. I have the 4.6 pump but it's a single line set up. The pcm looks at all the fuel line stuff, is that a problem down the road?
It's good to be able to talk with someone who has been through it already and has worked out some of the bugs.

Thanks
Ron

 

[RJAAAAAA]

Cooling Fan

Rain yesterday but had some time in the garage to fool around with the fan. I got a 4 core aluminum radiator out of a 1999 Mountaineer that fits in the original bracket.
I kept the original elect. fan from the CV but it's too big with the shroud.

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This is the shroud from the original 3.0

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If you place the 3.0 shroud over the 4.6 you can see they almost fit together.

So I decided to cut away the shroud on the 4.6.

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There is a small gap around the fan that I used an 1.5" piece of poly tubing as a spacer and bolted the two together.

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This looks like it should work fine but on test fit I don't quite have enough room between the harmonic balancer and the shroud. Does'nt look to difficult to move the rad. back 1.5" there is plenty of room behind it.
Back to the drawing board, we'll see what happens.