Finally got my 5.4... getting ready to drop it into my 04 Mountaineer

[87350gta]

What about looking for a 5.4 fly by wire throttle body from a junkyard? It may be a little more money, but would save you a little time. Maybe one from an econoline or expedition? Should be the same, as long as it's a 2v engine and not a 3v. the 3v tb is different. You might even try and find a '04-'08 4.6L f150 tb.

 

[coletrain777]

OK... back at the swap (I have been doing a lot of side jobs for folks and money comes before fun). Anyway, I just want to document a few needed changes for everything to hook up like the stock 4.6 did before I forget them.

1. Need to make a 5.4 intake to 4.6 TB adapter (Done). This is due to my 4.6 being drive-by-wire and the 5.4 using a throttle cable. If the 5.4 were drive by wire I think that you could just use the 5.4 TB. The only thing I don't know is if the 1" tall adapter I made is going to cause the setup to hood when closed (although I don't think so). If someone wanted to measure how much clearance they have between the top of the TB and the hood when it is closed I would appreciate it (not sure how you would do it though .

As a side note, does anyone have wiring diagrams for the engine wiring harnesses? It would be helpful in making sure I have all connectors where they are supposed to be when I swap the 4.6 harness over to the 5.4 later today or tomorrow.

2. Swap Motor mounts from the 4.6 to the 5.4

3. Use the 4.6 exhaust manifolds (so that heat crossover tube is on the correct side)

4. Swap all coolant/related tubes and brackets from the 4.6 over to the 5.4 (so that there is no need to fab/splice tubes to hook everything up) I will take pics of these pieces later on so that you understand.

5. Use the 5.4 intake (due to head spacing)

6. 5.4 has one knock sensor, 4.6 has 2. (no big deal, I will explain after I have everything hooked up and running so that I make sure that my solution works).

7. There will be some minor exhaust fab work to hook up the stock exhaust due to the heads being slightly wider on the 5.4 (from what I understand it's pretty simple, I will post pics when I get mine done).

8. Swap the oil filter adapter from the 4.6 to the 5.4 (different design)

9. Possibly have to shim/space the flexplate to torque converter. The 5.4 is an 8 bolt crank, the 4.6 is a 6 bolt crank, and the flexplate is different. I have measured a few times and it looks like the distance is the same between the block and mounting holes on the flexplate (at least on my 04 4.6 and 02 5.4). If this is true than nothing needs to be done...! I will update when I joint the engine and trans together and measure...

I'm sure there will be a few other things, but it still looks like it's going to be relatively straightforward. When I am done I will submit lots of pics and if someone wants to work with me on a write-up I will be more than happy to help so that we FINALLY have a step by step on this swap.

 

[coletrain777]

Ok... Few more mods that I want to document so that I remember them when I do the write up.

* The fuel rail design is different on the 5.4 than the 4.6 (and the 5.4 rail is wider due to the wider intake). I want to use the 4.6 rail to ensure that everything is plug-and-play so what I did was cut the fuel line that joins the 2 rails in half (this lie runs behind the intake and connects the two metal fuel lines), I will use a 3 or 4 inch piece of efi fuel line (not normal fuel line for carbs... it won't hold the much higher pressure of efi) and join it to the two sections of stock line with barbed brass fitting and high strength hose clamps.

The other issue with using the 4.6 fuel rail is that the mounts that hold the rail in place are different on the 5.4 intake than they are on the 4.6 intake. I will have to fab up a simple mount on the rails tomorrow that connects them to the 5.4 intake.

I did a dry run with the wiring and everything connects just like it should (wiring was my biggest concern). I am sure that ultimately I will need/want a good tune, but I see no reason why it shouldn't run well as-is. I am hoping if I have some time this week that I will start it by next Sunday...

 

[coletrain777]

So, I figured I would post a few pics of the fuel rail modification needed to use the 4.6 rail on the 5.4 intake...SIMPLE!

As you can see in the pics all I had to do was cut the factory rubber line in half (joins the two metal fuel rails). I then used two barbed fitting (5/16) and about 6 inches of EFI fuel line (no regular fuel line, it won't hold the pressure), and clamped it all together.

The other issue is that now the mounts that secure the fuel rails to the intake won't work so I will fab something up... shouldn't be a big deal.

Also, remember to cap this port on the 5.4 intake (faces rearward toward the firewall).

 

[coletrain777]

Ok, here's my knock sensor solution... I hope it works

As I've said before, the difference between the 4.6 and 5.4 as far as knock sensors go is the the 4.6 has two knock sensors that are both wired into one plug connector. The 5.4 has one sensor wired into one connector. The dual knock sensors on the 4.6 are doing the exact same think and registering the exact same voltage as one another, so really the only reason there are two is so the computer can monitor both the left and right cylinder banks. The 5.4 knock sensor is centrally located in the middle of the intake valley so that it can pick up knock from both cylinder banks. So if both setups are essentially the same, but my 4.6 ECM is going to be looking for reference signal from two sensors, then really all I have to do is fool the ECM into thinking there are two sensors hooked up. So all I did was use the 5.4 knock sensor, cut of its connector and spliced on the 4.6 connector that has 4 ports, and the spliced/ran two wires from the original 5.4 KS pigtail into the two empty ports on the 4.6 connector. In theory this should work fine... We will see. By the way, I checked numerous pics online to ensure that I had the right color wires going to the right ports and I do.

Gotta pout the oil pan on, intake, bolt trans up, check TC to flexplate clearance, and drop it in.

 

[coletrain777]

It's all coming together now... Starting to see the end! Intake and components are on, getting ready to mate the engine and trans together and check clearance.

Here's the modification I had to make to the heat exchange crossover tube (correct name?). The tube was about 3 inches short with the increased height/width of the 5.4 and throttle body adapter, so i simply welded in a section of tubing cut from the original 5.4 crossover tube.

Sorry for the bad looking welds...when I started welding my gas was turned off

 

[coletrain777]

I have most all of my vacuum/hose connections figured out... I may possibly get the engine and trans dropped in today! If not today, within the next few days.

 

[coletrain777]

Well... I got the engine and trans bolted together, a few odd and ends taken care of, and just had a few things to do before dropping the assembly in the Mountaineer, and then...SNOWPACALYPSE 2013! Thursday we were supposed to get 2-4" of snow, then they changed it to 3-6"... at the end of the day we had 12" of the white stuff We live in the country and my drive is 3/10's of a mile uphill so I spent about 10 hours over two days blading the drive and shoveling snow. Needless to say the storm halted my progress, but I will be back at it shortly (if we don't get the 6-10" they are calling for Monday night)...

Anybody still keeping up with this thread? I will complete the project and help put together a guide for others to do the same... and the end is in sight!

 

[Flingueur]

Were still here!! Looking great can't wait to see her fully installed and running!

 

[01STrunner]

I'm sure a lot of guys are waiting to see this thing come to life.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Looking forward to it also.

 

[vipersinu2]

nice project, way more torqe out of he 5.4 nice nice!

 

[Redwoodwalker]

I'm def anxious to see it come together....

 

[94 explorer xlt]

 

[NudgE^SIKBRO]

Subscribing!!!

 

[xjsport95]

subscribe...

 

[DallasGT01]

the amount of trouble you have encountered on this is ridiculous..

 

[kevinspann]

Bump, how's this going?

 

[Mr Dubya]

Bump, how's this going?

Good call.

Bump²

 

[HiImBrian]

Good call.

Bump²

Yeah.

Bump³