Just wanted to say hi.

I am in the process of putting a 4.6 SOHC with T45 and a single Master Power T70 turbocharger into my 1995 Eddie Bauer edition 4.9L automatic, short bed, 2WD F150.

The truck is a two owner unmolested beauty that lived the majority of her life in California before a few years in North Carolina. She is totally rust and accident free and sports only 77K miles on the odometer. She runs and drives like a dream! Sadly the 4.9L inline six and automatic just don't make my heart thump like some of the other fast cars and motorcycles I have previously owned. So a pretty substantial upgrade is in the works!

For the horsepower junkies among us, this is how she will end up being powered in the next few weeks:

2002 Mustang GT 4.6 SOHC in completely stock form save for 42 lbs. injectors. 4.6 Will be converted to return style rails and 255 LPH in tank pump.
Single Master Power T70 turbo.
T45 5 speed transmission.
Megasquirt II standalone EMS with Megaview indash Vacuum Flourescent Dislplay.
Stock rear end.
Stock suspension at all four corners, at least until I am up and running!

For right now I am mainly interested in doing the engine swap, getting the Megasquirt to function properly, and getting the auto to manual swap done.

At the current time I have the truck, engine and trans, turbo, and the Megasquirt EMS in my posession.

For those who don't know about the Megasquirt, it is a standalone engine management computer that comes as a kit. You recieve many, many bags of electronic compenents that you solder together and customize for your particular install. It is a lot of fun, however, if this is your first electronics project the Megasquirt may not be for you. It requires a little bit more than a basic understanding of electronics, but not much. Seriously, for those of you contemplating a $2000.00 or more standalone EMS, look at the Megasquirt, it is the same thing for 1/5 the price. Just a bit more work from you initially.

It took me about 10 hours of soldering and head scratching before my Megasquirt, Megastim, and Megaview were fully functional and ready to be wired into my truck. And I have to say it was a LOT of fun. I really hope it works when I hook it all up to my engine swap!

The engine and trans are in my posession as well as the turbo. Other details such as exhaust, intercooler, BOV, wastegate, etc. have been ordered and should be here soon.

This may be more of a project than I had first bargained for but hey, it should be entertaining!

I have pics of the current goodies and the truck itself which I will try to get uploaded soon.

Any advice or help from someone who has already done a modular swap in a pre 97 truck would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I am already aware of the horsepower limitations of a stock 4.6 and T45, having owned a twin turbo 2000 GT Mustang with a T45 I am starting with at least some experience. So comments about my foolishnesh/stupidity can be saved, thanks!

P.J.

p.s.- Pics of the VERY early stages should be up in the next 24 hours. I have just been collecting parts for a while and was anxious to share.

 

Hot dang, welcome aboard. No swap of this magnitude has been attempted and posted here or fullsizebronco where I'll be linking this thread too. Get pics up as this sounds really cool!

Adrianspeeder

 

Thanks for the welcome adrian!

Here are some pics of what I have right now.

The truck itself, hideoulsy dirty I might add! She got filthy on the trailer when I moved from N.C. back to Maine 3 weeks ago and it has just sat outside since. The truck is not my daily driver by the way.



The mystery crate sitting in the back of my GMC. I bought a 4.6 with all accessories and a T45 on E-Bay from a guy in Miami. He shipped it to me and I picked it up in Boston. Just yesterday as a matter of fact! Here is the crate just before I opened it. For all I knew it was full scrap iron! He did however do a kick butt job on the crate.



Uncrated and sitting in my garage. Everything is there and his description was spot on. The drivers side valve cover got broken by the hold down strap running across the top of the engine. Oh well. I will be keeping the COP (Coil On Plug) system which will be fired by a Ford EDIS-8 module with the Megasquirt handling timing duties. No distributor for me!



The Master Power T70 turbo. That is a 6 inch machinists rule sitting in front to give some idea of scale. I am shooting for 400 RWHP. The general concensus is that stock 4.6's will survive at this level. 450 RWHP seems to be a death sentence for the stock rods so I may be on borrowed time at 400 but we'll see! The turbo should be capable of 550+ but I'm not interested in that kind of power right now.

 

The components of the Megasquirt engine computer. Lots of resistors, diodes, transistors, capacitors, etc.



All put together! Not seen in the photo is the MAP sensor attached to the bottom of the circuit board. Now, will it work?



Thankfully you can buy a "Megastimulator" (that name cracks me up) which will emulate engine functions. A serial cable connects to a lap top and a free piece of software known as Megatune will show real time engine functions. Moving the pots on the Megastim simulates throttle position, intake air temp, RPM, etc. According to the laptop everything is functioning just as it should! Megatune is an extremely powerful and versatile piece of software allowing you full control of fuel maps, timing tables, and many other functions, too cool! Oh yeah it datalogs to boot when hooked up to the laptop!



And here it is hooked up the Megaview. It will mount in the dash just to the right of the instrument cluster. It is a scrolling display showing a myriad of engine functions. In the picture here it is showing engine RPM and injector pulse width. Through a series of 4 momentary pushbutton switches you can freeze the display on any parameter you want to watch. With the other switches you can actually do some basic tuning without having to have the laptop hooked up. On the fly adjustments you might say. Also showing at the top of the picture is the relay board which prodives a convenient wiring block and relays for fuel pump, ECU power, etc.



That's it for now! When more parts show up and I start tearing into this thing in the next few days I will update again.

 

Friggin awsome, never have seen anything like it.

Adrianspeeder

 

pretty cool stuff you got goin on here! personally i think you should have turboed the 4.9

 

well, shoulda found a dohc 5.4, but you can build a 4.6 if you want, may as well build your bottom end or you're gonna send it to pieces with that turbo, and just to tell you, i twisted my stock rear with my hopped up 302 just on a launch, so you may as well and do a 9" rear or somethin, with a posi, lookin like you're gonna be makin some power if that factory engine'll hold, good luck with the project

 

Thanks! I had actually considered doing that very thing. But it seemed too easy. It would be cool though.

The 5.4 DOHC is WAAAAYYYYY overkill for my horsepower goals. In addition they are far more expensive, difficult to find, and have an even more limited aftermarket than the 4.6. The factory bottom end of the 4.6 is quite happy up to about 425-450 RWHP so I am not concerned in that regard. The 8.8 in the truck is essentially the same as the one in the Mustang and lots of people are running 10's and faster on them. So for right now I'm not going to worry about it. I think the stock engine will hold for a while.

 

But you aint movin a mustang... I see a 10.25 or a big Dana in your future.

Adrianspeeder

 

Between the 95 short bed F150 and the 00 Mustang GT convertible (what I owned) there is only aobut 400 pounds of wieght difference. The rear end in my Mustang held up fine and is still on the road today unopened since it left the factory, I purchased the car brand new and never touched the rear end. I occasionally chat with the current owner and he says no problems.

My personal opinion is that the tires will go up in smoke before anything breaks. When and if I start finding traction things may be different. I kind of doubt it, the 8.8 is pretty tough. And if need be it can be upgraded with some pretty stout axles.

 

how will the turbo lag affect getting off the line in a heavier truck vs. a car?

I have been looking at stuff to do such as a swap or power adder, I had looked at a 460 as I have one in a 67 Galaxie and know how to work on them. but I doubt it would fit in my f-150.

I have looked more at superchargers than turbos, I don't care for the whining noise from a turbo. reminds me of ricers too much.

 

just wanted to say good luck , and hope to see more pics...peace

 

Turbo lag is a non issue with a properly thought out and designed turbo install. I did my homework long before placing an order for my turbo. The key to proper turbo choice is reading and understanding a compressor map for a given application. This particular turbo will be boosting hard at about 2600 RPM, perfect for a street application. And again, just to be clear, turbo lag is a MYTH perpetuated by improperly matched turbo/engine combos.


I can't say for sure whether a 460 would fit or not. But I am sure there is more than enough room under the hood for a big block. The 4.6 I am dropping in is huge. At almost 28 inches wide it will fill up the bay but the tape measure says no problem.

I don't really know what to tell you on this one. Turbos sound great to me when they are screaming under boost. As far as sounding like a "ricer", well, I am driving a truck. When I think "rice" I think of imports with crappy body kits, torched springs, buzzy exhausts, ridiculous non-functional wings, lots of stupid stickers, etc. etc. etc. If, however, I see an import with a front mount intercooler and a whistling turbo the last thing I think is "rice". I respect anyone who has the determination to stick a turbo in a car or truck that was never designed for one.

I am going to put an engine in a frame it wasn't designed for, fabricate and install a complete turbocharger kit, and build and install an entire standalone engine management computer and wiring harness. If someone thinks I am a "ricer" for doing that then that is fine with me. It will only make me laugh harder when I blow them off the road.

Thanks a lot! More pics coming soon I promise.

 

what happened to the pics???????????????????????????

 

***UPDATE***

Well I know it has been a while but there has been some progress made! More parts have shown up and the engine and trans are out.

Enough talk though, onto the pics.

Here are the Ford Racing 42# green top injectors. I picked them up slightly used for a song. The stock 19# injectors in the 4.6 would run out of fuel long before I reached my HP goals.



The absolutely CAVERNOUS engine bay just after I pulled out the old I6. That I6 is one big engine I might add, what a monster!



The engine bay after being degreased, and cleaned of un-needed items for the swap. Sorry for the crappy picture.



The 4.6 on the crane awaiting its first trial fit in the engine bay! For as long as the I6 is the V8 is just as large in width, this thing is huge as well. This picture clearly shows the broken drivers side valve cover.




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