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

I picked up a 2wd 93 Ex 5 spd for some small change I had in my pocket a while back. Its quick being a 5spd 2 door 2wd but I want it to be fast! I've been searching craigslist for the past couple of months looking for a mustang donor car to drop a 5.0L in but around here people think their rotted out shi* box mustangs are still worth $2,500+ and for a grand you can find one needing torque boxs but no motor or trans, which is really no help either. So Last night a deal came up while perusing CL on a complete running driving 95 Lincoln Mark VIII with 80k on it. The guy hit a deer and smashed up the nose a bit so he listed it as a parts car. I'm on my way over to meet him now with the agreed apon $300 for a COMPLETE transplant 4.6L Quad cam, the same motor the cobra runs with a different intake. Haha, what am I getting myself into? I still need to find a 5 spd transmission and most likely the correct engine harness to run the 5 speed. Any one know off hand if a standard 4.6L 5 spd will work with the quad cam? I'd assume it would which would make my searching a bit easier. I'd rather run the 5 spd over the 6spd cobra trans anyways

 

[XLRVIII]

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

none of those three gears will be "much fun".

IMHO even 373's are a waste of time with the 4V4.6/4R70w... trust me.. I wasted the money, and gear lube on just a swap and was severely dissapointed in the outcome.

Especially if you are running 327's right now, your setting your self up for the BIG D(issapointment)

410's would be the highest with 430's being OPTIMUM
especially if this is a "fun truck, that will see dragstrip duty"

DO NOT FEAR THE GEAR
GO BIG.. or stay on the porch

 

[Twisted1]

I AM NOT running an auto so much of your advice on that is irrelivent to this particular build. With the motor trans set up I think the 3.55's will do just fine. Like I said my 4x4 runs 4.88's with 36" tall tires on it now and it's screaming to do 65 mph. Also I'm not running the Mark wiring or ECU, I'm looking for one out of a cobra right now or I'll buy a custom harness for it. This truck will have next to nothing for emissions control so anyway I look at it, it needs some "custom tuning"

 

[XLRVIII]

I AM NOT running an auto so much of your advice on that is irrelivent to this particular build.

My bad, lemme unsubscribe..sorry

 

[Twisted1]

My bad, lemme unsubscribe..sorry

I wasn't trying to be a jerk, just letting you know that I was running a stick, I'm very opposed to an auto in a performance car. Personal preference but nothing personal

 

[jah81592]

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.

Or...he could bring it to me and I could use my Sneec to datalog and tune via SCT. I am not a Moates fan.

 

[Twisted1]

I'm 100% lost when it comes to tuning the ECU. I have every intention of completing the conversion then trailering it to a tuning shop or to someone on the side to assist with the running. That is the only part I wont be able to acomplish myself and I know that going into the project. I still am unsure which engine management system I'll be using or if the Mark VIII system is adaptable to a standard transmission and minimal emmisions. I'm only running what is necesary for running and performance as far as emmisions goes. No Sniffer in NH!! I had a small set back on the project, we had a major storm here and I've been without power for just about a week now and I'll be going in for knee surgery soon so I dont know how much I'll be able to get done prior. unfortunately it's my clutch knee so I wont be driving the Ex at all for a few

 

[wood1]

Sounds like a very interesting swap to say the least.

Good luck with the knee...

 

[blk mk8]

i am trying to convince my buddy Dom to put a 03 cobra motor in his 01. it would be nice to see a explorer with 32v in it.

 

[Twisted1]

update

So I finally had some free time to trailer the car from my house to my shop and dug into things a bit tonight. Really didn't get a whole lot accomplished aside from doing a couple hole shots in the lincoln minus most of the restrictive exhaust and burning a few hundred miles off the rears So now that I've had some fun and completely convinced myself the auto trans is not for me, I'll be pulling the motor, trans and hopefully most if not all the wiring and ECU tomorrow. And then the madness can begin :biggthump: I'll try and keep this thread updated as much as possible but you'll all have to bear with me on my time frame for this. I have 3 other builds mid process currently also so I wont be on this one 24/7. My frame off on my Ram is almost finished, once that's done I'll start tearing out the guts of my Ex

 

[Heath]

This will be interesting to follow. If you can take and post pics as you go alont too please... It would be great to see how you get that engine to fit in there...

 

[Twisted1]

Mark VIII Guru's...?

Do any of you know how adaptable the harness, ECU ect is from this car? I havent researched it too much yet myself. I know manual trans conversions have been done in Mark's before as well as cobra intakes and I highly doubt the entire harness or engine management system was replaced to do this. Any input from someone more knowledgeable with the Lincoln? Thanks

 

[Twisted1]

This will be interesting to follow. If you can take and post pics as you go alont too please... It would be great to see how you get that engine to fit in there...

Pics will not be an issue, I always take waaay too many pics of builds. I have a portfolio of nearly every build I've ever done weather it be through my shop or on the side with 100's of pics depicting everything. I just need to become a bit more computer literate and figure out how to store them online instead of just on my myspace page

 

[Twisted1]

No Mark VIII input?

where are you lincoln guys when I have a Lincoln specific question? I'm stumped on the Engine management. From some local "know it all's" I'm told the lincoln is a very simple system like the explorer. meaning the engine management and harness is for the most part a seperate harness from the other operating systems of the car, ex...lights, air ride, trans ect. If so the wiring is going to be a much simpler task than I had first thought. ANY KNOWLEDGABLE ADVISE IS WELCOME ON THIS PLEASE. We've had nothing but torrential rains, high winds and flooding here for the better part of this month so I've only managed to get the nose of the lincoln stripped off and listed on CL This weather is killing me right now! my knee surgery has been pushed back so I have a bit of time to get some things going before I'm down and out if this rain ever lets up!

 

[Twisted1]

The Ex is down

Well I might be ripping the guts out of my Ex sooner than expected. Popped the tranny in it this afternoon so I guess I have no excuses why I cant start pulling things apart at this point. I jumped out into traffic earlier and hit second gear pretty good then let off and let the engine slow me down and heard some interesting non meshing gear sounds. Now I have a hard time getting it to go into any gear from a stop without shutting the engine first, and then I still have the grinding issue between all shifts. So it's parked awaiting a transplant now

 

[blk mk8]

the computer is tuneble there is not a problem getting things changed around for it. my 95 mark had long tubes, converter, gears, tranny and intake on stock ecm with sct chip. i have had 4 marks 3 of which i still have but only one complete running. my daily driver is a 98 mark 8 with a 03 cobra motor and blower.

 

[Twisted1]

the computer is tuneble there is not a problem getting things changed around for it. my 95 mark had long tubes, converter, gears, tranny and intake on stock ecm with sct chip. i have had 4 marks 3 of which i still have but only one complete running. my daily driver is a 98 mark 8 with a 03 cobra motor and blower.

Finally some knowledgeable input! lol thank you very much. That just simplified things a lot for my swap. Now I need to locate a 5spd tranny for it and things should be able to get under way. Again from a local it was suggested that I stick with a T-5 trans rather than the T-45 or T-56. I want a 5spd not a 6 so that rules out the 56 anyways but are there any other opinions on which would be the better match up? again Lincoln guru's may be helpful here based on your experiance. thanks

 

[blk mk8]

you can use any of the mustang 4.6 tranny's i think a t-45 or a pick up truck 5spd would work great for you. there should be enough 4.6 f150 5spd at junk yards that you would not have to spend to much time trying to find one. they are already hydrolic clutch so you can use there slave and clutch setup with a correct 6 bolt flywheel from a truck or GT mustang. get a pedal from a 5spd explorer and make the line. i think that setup should work ok, although i don't have the length and shifter locations in front of me so it would be hard to say for sure.

 

[Twisted1]

My Ex is already a 5spd so the pedal isn't a concern. Do you know off the top of your head if the 5 spd F-150 is a syncro trans? I know previous years they wern't and Even in the Explorer you need to shift slower than you would in a mustang to avoid missing a gear or damaging the trans. I'm just not familiar with the newer F-150's or the trans set up

 

[blk mk8]

you should be fine with them, if you are worried about shifting it fast then your going to need a built t-45 with nice shift forks and crazy parts. i mean both should shift just fine stock for what you are doing. the stock old 4.0 tranny are pretty crappy for shifting but you are not shifting at 8k so you should be ok. i never had a problem shifting fast or at redline in my buddies old 4.6 F150 it was a 99. in the end it is really up to you, i figure for what you are doing the easiest route would be the truck tranny but the t-45 is a great tranny as well and will work. there are newer 4.6 mustang tranny that will work but i think after the t45 they came with different speedo stuff that wont work in your truck, but if you dont care about it then just find a clutch setup and tranny that works for your price.

 

[Twisted1]

The Ex is dead

Unfortunately this project is hitting the back burner for a while. I Sold off all my other project cars and delivered the last of my toys on tuesday planning on getting deep into this project over this weekend but now I find myself looking for another Ex to start with. A slight over look when moving a vehicle on my car trailer around the lot ended up in a major situation involving my Ex. At some point the saftey chains had been removed from the rear of the trailer and I stupidly did not check things as I should have before moving it with the Ex. I moved the trailer a total of 20 feet forward when the truck on the trailer made it's way inside my Ex. It rolled off the front of the trailer at the same time it made contact with my hatch/roof severely damaging things to the point that I would be better off to cut my losses and scrap this particular Ex The roofline was pushed almost 2" to the passengers side, the right side of the roof was pushed up about 3" stretching the rear quarter panel and the entire side is about 3" shorter than the drivers side now. As if that wasn't bad enough the impact along with all the weight of the truck landing on the hitch at the same time mangled the frame itself pretty heavily. All these things combined add up to more than the truck would cost to replace even doing all the repairs myself. Ironically all this happened 20 minutes after purchasing Explorer #3 of my fleet, a Black 99 Sport 4x4. This project isn't a loss however the Ex will be. I'll revive this thread once I've located another truck for the build. This time the truck will be a clean southern 2wd with no rust to start with. In the mean time I'll be doing a lot of the behind the scene's work on the motor, trans end of things. Squeezing a few more ponies out for the build
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