About to dive into my 4.6L quad cam 93 Ex build

OK, just got back and I own it! The car is actually in amazing condition so it'll be kind of a shame to cut it up but it's for the best Here's a couple pics of the donor. By the way I have the title for the car and it's only listing 76k for milage on it and the odometer correspondes with the milage (81k) So I dont forsee any major issues in the near future with it. I may do head gaskets while it's out just to be on the safe side because I dont think it would be an option once installed if there were an issue.

My understanding is that the 4.6L modular engines are MUCH wider than the 302 pushrods. If thats the case I hope you're up for a lot of fabrication work!

I don't know too much about the transplant but I would love to see this engine in your truck. However I did find this on a same/similar engine

Got a 4.6l quad cam 32 valve ford engine that came out off a 1996 Lincoln Continental (those cars are front wheel drive). The engine ran great when I pulled it out of the car, and it had approx. 95,000 miles. I know that the block doesn't bolt up to a stock mustang tranny, but it would be very easy to bolt up to just about any rear wheel drive trany with an after market bell housing.

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source:
http://sarasota.craigslist.org/pts/1600172677.html

Heath said:

My understanding is that the 4.6L modular engines are MUCH wider and the 302 pushrods. If thats the case I hope you're up for a lot of fabrication work!

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The 4.6L Quad cam is 30" wide and just under 30" tall vs the 5.0L push rod thats 18 3/4" wide and 20 3/4" tall. It's been done before in Rangers but I dont think I've ever seen it done to an Explorer? I've delt with a lot of the clearance issues before with a 5.8L Explorer sport conversion. But that one was 4x4 and had a 3" body lift in it too. I'm not affraid of having to rework my firewall and transmission tunnel to accomidate the swap. I'm more worried about locating a manual transmission and warness ECU ect.. in my budget.

thespoon: I didn't know the continental ever ran the quad cam in it? (learn something new everyday) every one I've ever seen has been a single over head cam or a 5.0L. But either way the bell housing should be the same pattern regardless of the dual vs quad cam modular engine. I wonder if the issue is that it was used in a FWD configuration vs RWD from the factory?

OK, I physically picked up the car this morning and it's now sitting on my car trailer behind my Ex (yea I use it as a tow rig too) After looking at how everything mounts in I'm thinking I may try and find a way to utilize the entire Mark VIII front subframe, suspension, steering, ect. I'm not even sure if thats a possibility yet though so everything could take a turn in a different dirrection. But I'm looking into sectioning in the front frame section from the lincoln and cut weld fabricate, graft it into the Ex Frame so the motor would sit waaay low in the bay and need to drop out through the bottom like in the Mark. From looking at both I think thats where the majority of the clearance issues are with the Ex. If I can figure it all out. which I really dont think will be as hard as it sounds? I think if I cut litterally everything off the Ex from the firewall forward and fab up new front frame rails I can make this a nice clean bolt in swap. Not to mention ditch the TTB front suspension which is a blessing in itself. The Mark VIII I picked up still has a good air ride system in it and on top of that the previos owner had just up graded a lot of suspension components with performance pieces

Sounds like big work! Sounds interesting though!

From the web, that Lincoln engine is good for 280 hp and 285 lb·ft torque in it's stock configuration! Your 1993 4.0 is good for 160 hp and 220 lb-ft - your biggest problem after the conversion will be keeping tread on the rear tires!!!

I believe all rear-drive Lincolns from that era had the 4R70 4-speed auto. When Lincoln went from the 5.0 to the 4.6 engines, they kept the old tranny (and bellhousing shape) for a few years. So here's guessing that your 5-speed manual box will bolt right up, but you're going to have to get a flywheel from a F-150 (or similar) with a 4.6 stick-shift - and a new high-performance clutch!

Glen4X4 said:

Sounds like big work! Sounds interesting though!

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Well I figure I've done all aspects of this particular swap before just never on the same vehicle. I've done plenty of off road builds and when doing those you dont think twice about cutting and tossing factory pieces, frame sections ect, you just cut things off that are in the way and fab new stronger pieces that work better for your set up. So why couldn't the same method be used in this case? I have a complete 100% working order donor car that I can scavenge EVERYTHING from. As far as the wiring and pluming ect.. Nothing scares me anymore after motor swapping too many VW's! I've yet to find another vehicle to this day as confusing to rewire not to mention having anywhere near the amount of wiring to be used. And I'm in the process of finishing up an OBD2 swap into an earlier Dodge Ram I just did a complete frame off restoration on (my Tow rig). And as far as clearance goes in these I've stuffed a 351w into my old sport and figured it all out to make it fit. I dont think this will be much worse. I dont think? lol I've got my fingers crossed that it works out the way I'm planning it, if not It'll end up being a big mess!!!

if your staying 2wd might as well keep the lincoln trans, its very similar to the one in the v8 explorer and should fit well.

n2epv said:

From the web, that Lincoln engine is good for 280 hp and 285 lb·ft torque in it's stock configuration! Your 1993 4.0 is good for 160 hp and 220 lb-ft - your biggest problem after the conversion will be keeping tread on the rear tires!!!

I believe all rear-drive Lincolns from that era had the 4R70 4-speed auto. When Lincoln went from the 5.0 to the 4.6 engines, they kept the old tranny (and bellhousing shape). So here's guessing that your 5-speed manual box will bolt right up, but you're going to have to get a flywheel from a 90's vintage F-150 with a 4.6 stick-shift - and a new high-performance clutch!

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Yes 93-95 Lincolns ran 280hp -285tq, 96-98 Lincolns were 290hp-295tq due to improved exhaust flow and the cobra's were 305hp and I'm unsure of the tq the only improvement to the cobra over the Mark VIII was the intake manifold which I'll be running on mine anyways for clearance reasons. The lincoln TB is at the rear of the engine, the cobras are on the front or side depending on which aftermarket set up is used. After deleting 95% of the emmisions and swapping to the cobra intake I'm guestimating it'll be putting out close to 325 +or-. So your saying my stock trans will work??? or did I read that wrong. Either way I'm ditching the stock. The trans was my #1 reason for wanting a swap in the first place, I dont like the way it shifts or the feel of it at all. It's fine for normal conditions but I've had issues when either shifting fast through the gears or towing a heavy load. My trans was Brand new when I bought my truck (less than 1,500 miles on it) and it feels the same as every other 4.0L stick I've ever owned. But I think I've got the trans question down now. I'm pretty sure I can use any T-5 or newer 5 speed manual along with the correct bell housing. Then I'll just have to figure out which flywheel/clutch needs to be used once I buy a tranny.

EMG7895 said:

if your staying 2wd might as well keep the lincoln trans, its very similar to the one in the v8 explorer and should fit well.

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If I were running auto I would def keep the Lincoln trans! It's claimed to be one of the best passenger car auto trans ever built. I've read this on several different sites talking about the car. You gotta figure it's backing a stock 300hp motor so it cant be too shabby

Yes, I would guess that your stock tranny will bolt up to the Lincoln 4.6, but not a newer 4.6 that came with the 5-speed auto, as that bellhousing is different. That's just from reading on the web, not an expert opinion.

Plus I had another thought - gearing. I never drove a 4.0 stick, but my friends 4.0 ranger with an auto has lots of low-end grunt. The 4.6 in my Ex (granted it's a 2-valve engine) has no power below 2000 RPM but absolutely loves revving to 5000. Just wondering if 1st gear will be low enough with the 4.6 and a trailer on the back without changing the diff to a higher ratio.

I wont be towing with it much I have a full size Dodge ram 4x4 with a 360 V-8 in it for that. I just like having the option of a hidden hitch, It's there if I need it and no one will ever know unless I'm using it. I have several different gear sets to pick from, I run the 8.8" in my mud truck too so I've played with many different ratio's in them. The big Ex is running a custom built locked 8.8" with 4.88 gears and chromolly shafts. For the 2wd I have 3 different sets 3.08's, 3.27's (in it now) and 3.55's which will probably be the set I run for now. The truck is being set up as a fun...make that very fun, daily driver. But it will see the drag strip on a very regular basis. I only live 7 miles from New England Dragway and my storage bay is less than a 1/4 mile from the track

Twisted1 said:

thespoon: I didn't know the continental ever ran the quad cam in it? (learn something new everyday) every one I've ever seen has been a single over head cam or a 5.0L. But either way the bell housing should be the same pattern regardless of the dual vs quad cam modular engine. I wonder if the issue is that it was used in a FWD configuration vs RWD from the factory?

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Just FYI: FWD conti quad cam uses the same bell housing as the Taurus. It uses the AX4N Trans. Does not bolt up the the RWD 4R70W.

Heath said:

My understanding is that the 4.6L modular engines are MUCH wider than the 302 pushrods. If thats the case I hope you're up for a lot of fabrication work!

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dimensionally speaking.. the 4.6 4V is the same size as a 460.

Same height, same WIDTH..but the 4.6 is 3 inches shorter front to rear than the 7 liter ford 460

Looking at how tight the 5.0 is in Tiff'sPloder a 4.6 DOHC is gonna be ALOT of work..but very very sweet when complete.

the only bummer about this swap is the EEC 4 nature, it's gonna be a bear to "Tune", unless you get the moates Quarterhorse that will give you some "datalogging capability".

When I tuned my 95 Mark 8, it took a LOOOOOONG time.

Tuning an eec 4 without datalogging is like "paint by numbers" in a closet with the lights turned off.
You start out wanting to paint a castle, and wind up with a cactus when you turn the lights back on.

Twisted1 said:

Yes 93-95 Lincolns ran 280hp -285tq, 96-98 Lincolns were 290hp-295tq due to improved exhaust flow

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this is actually a farce... the HP difference isn't due to the crappy "duals" on the LSC, the actual 10HP difference comes from the difference in the base fuel table.

The non LSC's command a 10.6:1 AF ratio at WOT
The LSC command a 11.3 AF at WOT
wala.. 10HP.

that cheesy exhaust definately doesnt add 10HP...

Twisted1 said:

If I were running auto I would def keep the Lincoln trans! It's claimed to be one of the best passenger car auto trans ever built. I've read this on several different sites talking about the car. You gotta figure it's backing a stock 300hp motor so it cant be too shabby

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the 93-97 4R70W isn't as good as it "could be".

If I were going to keep the auto in a mark 8 or for this swap.

I'd pick up a 98+ 4R70W, they are much much more durable than the previous years namely due to the changes they made in internal lubrication and the OneWay Clutch upgrade that happened in 1998.

With that said, I got 360,000 miles out of my 1995 mark 8 trans and about 3000 dragstrip passes before the one way clutch "packed up"..

But.. this was with a really good tune on the car, the stock tuning will KILL one of these trans before they get to about 200K..usually.

Twisted1 said:

I'm unsure of the tq the only improvement to the cobra over the Mark VIII was the intake manifold which I'll be running on mine anyways for clearance reasons.

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If you use the 96-98 Cobra intake.. MAKE SURE you keep the IMRC plates intact.
If you dont.. the truck will be a PIG out of the hole and wont make CRAP for power until around 3K.

If you delete the IMRCs your gonna wanna run a 3500 stall in the truck otherwise it "wont get out of it's own way".

I'd keep the IMRC's for damned sure, unlike what most "mustang guys" are doing or gonna tell you.

Twisted1 said:

I've yet to find another vehicle to this day as confusing to rewire not to mention having anywhere near the amount of wiring to be used. !

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well..."now you have"...lol
most cars on average have about 30 miles of wire in them
The Mark 8 has NINETY SIX MILES of wire.

There are the equivilant of three different complete car wiring harnesses in there.

The mark 8 WILL be MUCH more wiring intense than a VW.