My 5.4L 3v Adrenalin engine swap

[FLOffroad]

I'll trust you on this, but wouldn't having a hood scoop over the filter area lead to cooler air blowing into your engine compartment (via the scoop, which would be above/slightly in front of the filter), so cooler area would get to the filter while the vehicle was in motion at descent speeds. Wouldn't it?
No matter, your idea works even while the vehicle is stationary.

 

[stylin99]

I'll trust you on this, but wouldn't having a hood scoop over the filter area lead to cooler air blowing into your engine compartment (via the scoop, which would be above/slightly in front of the filter), so cooler area would get to the filter while the vehicle was in motion at descent speeds. Wouldn't it?
No matter, your idea works even while the vehicle is stationary.

The filter is in the front driver corner. Are you talking about a hood scoop over the filter itself? That would look pretty retarded (although functional yes) .

 

[bill32399]

The ram-air type system makes sense but with a supercharger it is kinda unnessesary. Really what you should do is a roof scoop like the McLaren! J/K

 

[Limited02]

I see no need to cover that beauty up and I'd take the hood off Heat problem solved and the whole world can see that work of art you're covering up!

 

[adrnlnrush]

What about opening up the fender vents and making them functional?

 

[Pimpovic]

Why not find a way to utilize the existing opening for the old intake port and route some type of tube in the direction of the new filter. Or, extend the piping of the filter downward if possible to put the filter in the stream of cold air, and run an AEM filter as a back up in line, or the newer Injen flow wraps if you are worried about water. 3rd you could try and create your own port by the drivers side headlight just as the factory did on the passengers side for the original intake tube. 4th route a tube from either the front bumper openinigs or underneath the truck to pickup cold air and bathe the filter with fresh air. I did the last one on one of my previous cars, and it made a nice difference once you started to pick up speed. Sitting still there wasn't any difference, but as you went faster more air would get to the filter. By bathing the filter with cooler air it also helps keep back some of the hot air in the engine bay.
It's really a pretty easy fix, it's just a matter of getting more air into that area and not letting the filter look for it's own air. Give it what you want it to have, cooler air.

 

[stylin99]

What about opening up the fender vents and making them functional?

Yep, I'm considering that. I see the "Nocturnal" vents and am liking the idea. Looks pretty easy to construct. Still have to cut a hole in the inner fender and build a heat shield, but I like this idea.

I see no need to cover that beauty up and I'd take the hood off Heat problem solved and the whole world can see that work of art you're covering up!

Bwaaa! Hahaha hahaha!! Good one Limited. There's enough ricers running around this town with that concept in place. I don't want to take away from their glory.

Why not find a way to utilize the existing opening for the old intake port and route some type of tube in the direction of the new filter. Or, extend the piping of the filter downward if possible to put the filter in the stream of cold air, and run an AEM filter as a back up in line, or the newer Injen flow wraps if you are worried about water. 3rd you could try and create your own port by the drivers side headlight just as the factory did on the passengers side for the original intake tube. 4th route a tube from either the front bumper openinigs or underneath the truck to pickup cold air and bathe the filter with fresh air.

All good ideas. I've looked for ways to pull air from the front bumper but the air holes are small slits and lots of bends to grab that air. When you're dealing with forced induction, the flow path of intake air becomes even more important, and the straightest shortest path is always best. There's a small hole behind the headlight, but its not a great source of airflow unless I remove the headlight (great for track use!)

The air filter housing itself is super hot to the touch after a drive, so first and foremost I have to build a plastic heat shield to separate that corner from the header and engine heat. I may do some testing to see how much that drops IAT readings and THEN do the fender hole to see what changes from there as well.

Thanks for the input guys, it's very helpful brainstorming.

 

[adrnlnrush]

Any updates? Can you tell I'm hooked?

 

[stylin99]

Any updates? Can you tell I'm hooked?

I've been chasing down gremlins for the last week. Part of building a cool custom one-off build, is putting up with the unique challenges of a custom one-off build.

I have an annoying belt squeal when it's cold. I thought it was a pulley at first, but I'm pretty sure it's just the REALLY long belt itself. You can only get the belt from Whipple because it's so long so I can't swap to a better quality Gatorback or anything. So Whipple sent me a replacement belt under warranty today but won't get it for another week.

My custom exhaust system was completed. But then I had problems with it. I've got an electric cutout right after the Y-pipe that allows me to switch between two different sides of exhaust, one for the Sleeper quiet muffler, and one for a 3" Flowmaster which dumps at the rear axle. Worked great for 50 miles, then somehow the cutout got too hot and fried the solenoid, and as a double whammy, the exhaust dump melted a rubber boot on the rear axle. Doh! So it's back in the shop today getting the exhaust fixed, and rear axle boot fixed.

On the brighter side, I was able to tow my Mustang and trailer to zMax Dragway on Saturday successfully! The truck can still tow but any kind of throttle and it tries to go into boost, and intake temps go up to 140+ on a warm day even on interstate. I'm using my Xcal3 to monitor what's going on.

Soooo... I ordered a larger s/c pulley to drop the boost down by about 3-4 psi for towing. This will also help with trying to figure out the tuning as well as be able to leave the Wendy's parking lot without using 1000 hp to pull out in traffic. : There's so little info available for tuning that 6r60 trans and it doesn't want to apply all of the torque from the motor for some reason. But pulling out in first gear, if you stab the throttle to about 30%, it will blow the tires off! Love it!

So with the new pulley, it will only make around 10 psi but that's just fine for me, because it's looking like it's going to be making 500 rwhp at only 10psi. We can raise it back to 14 psi later once we master it on less power.

Oh and I definitely SHOULD have gotten the TSB fixed first for the 4mph bump on the downshift from 2-1. I was lazy and didn't go get it done. The new motor and tuning, makes the bump amplified. Now it's really annoying. Have to get that worked out as well.

Wish me luck, as I'll be back at zMax Dragway this weekend to race the Mustang in Pinks All Out. If anyone's at the event, stop by and see the truck, and say hello!

How's that for an update!?

 

[juice]

not enough of an update boooooooooo......this is the biggest hurdle of them all....the motor and install is the "easy" part. This is where you get into the insert curses stage of your build. I could only imagine how annoying this is, i'm stuck at this stage with my 300c srt-8 cause I'm one of the first guys trying prochargers stage 2 kit which wasn't made for the 300 just the challenger. My car has been down for two months and we are still working on it. Keep up the good work and I'm sure we are all rallying for you to get the bugs out.

 

[adrnlnrush]

There's so little info available for tuning that 6r60 trans and it doesn't want to apply all of the torque from the motor for some reason. But pulling out in first gear, if you stab the throttle to about 30%, it will blow the tires off! Love it!

I keep wondering how hard and how much work it would be to add a 6spd manual to one of these?

 

[Limited02]

I keep wondering how hard and how much work it would be to add a 6spd manual to one of these?

There's only one way to find out

 

[68 GT]

nice project man looks like something I would / will do lol. I just got into my 4.6L sport trac after I sold my 1998 Cobra that I had put a 04 Cobra motor, T56 trans and full 04 interrior in. I needed something a little more family friendly now so I got the V8 ST. My Cobra put down 476 on the blower and 560 on a 100 wet shot on a dynojet I did some weight reduction and 373 gears too. I had a 708 RWHP 2000 GT Stang also and a Harley blown 2001 F150 crew cab also which made 400/500 to the wheels Well anyway good luck finishing it up I know how those gremlins can be. I'll have to read this thread and check it all out.

So is a 3V 5.4 drop right in basically w/ different exhaust ? Mates up to the 6sp auto ?
what are you going to do with the transmission and rear end ?

Man a 650 RWHP Adrenalin will be a fun ride

 

[stylin99]

nice project man looks like something I would / will do lol. I just got into my 4.6L sport trac after I sold my 1998 Cobra that I had put a 04 Cobra motor, T56 trans and full 04 interrior in. I needed something a little more family friendly now so I got the V8 ST. My Cobra put down 476 on the blower and 560 on a 100 wet shot on a dynojet I did some weight reduction and 373 gears too. I had a 708 RWHP 2000 GT Stang also and a Harley blown 2001 F150 crew cab also which made 400/500 to the wheels Well anyway good luck finishing it up I know how those gremlins can be. I'll have to read this thread and check it all out.

So is a 3V 5.4 drop right in basically w/ different exhaust ? Mates up to the 6sp auto ?
what are you going to do with the transmission and rear end ?

Man a 650 RWHP Adrenalin will be a fun ride

Thanks for the comments. Sounds like some fun rides there.

I wouldn't say that the 5.4 "dropped right in". There was definitely some customizing to make it all fit properly. But it was a better fit than trying to do a 4v motor for sure.

I'm just eager to get this thing on the dyno. Hopefully that will happen in the next 2 weeks as we get the last pieces of the puzzle together.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

u should do some video clips of ur 5.4 adrenalin

 

[YeloPony]

Let me know about the 4.6L you are getting rid of.. I may know some buyers..

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Not sure if missed it, did you open up the fender for more cool air? If so any pics/updates?

 

[stylin99]

Not yet. Focusing on fixing the other major issues first, like the transmission tuning.

I'm dropping the fuel tank to put in the new fuel pumps, and FPDM wiring upgrade on Monday. Then off to the dyno tuner on Tuesday to see if he can tweak the trans tuning to make it drive better, and shift properly.

I've got about 1100 miles on the new motor now. It's running great, except for a belt squeak that has returned. Whipple replaced the first belt under warranty, and it went away for about 500 miles, but has returned during cold startups. Whipple is the only source for this super long Gates belt so I can't buy a different brand to fix the problem.

Also working out the kinks in the custom exhaust system. I had an electric cutout to switch between 2 different mufflers, but the location of the solenoid for the cutout, keeps frying under heavy heat, so I have to relocate to fix that problem.

THEN, I can work on the air filter situation, but for now need to tackle the other issues.

All part of a custom installation! Kinks are expected.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

10/4 and a custom installation it is! Really makes me question how a show like Overhaulin' can do all the custom fab etc in 7 days and how many kinks are left over....

 

[JarvisB]

10/4 and a custom installation it is! Really makes me question how a show like Overhaulin' can do all the custom fab etc in 7 days and how many kinks are left over....

there u go.. thats a lot of work! which explains the fact that they have plenty of people involved at once for 7 straight days.