Hi guys,

Please see my gallery for all pictures
I am midway through a project I started almost 8 months ago. Ill start at the beginning, in september of 2011, I was 18 years old and just bought my first car (1997 F-150 Supercab flareside 4.6). I was the proudest owner ever and i loved the truck to death... literally. in november of the same year, on my way to the last day of school before the holidays, I was late and in a hurry and made the mistake of gassing it around a corner.... on a slick road. the truck fishtailed (i began to correct it) when a Altima was right there going the other way. I had 2 options: t-bone the puny nissan or go into the ditch. I made the wrong choice. I decided to put it in the ditch. In doing so it went head over heals and landed on it side...facing the direction I had come. I walked away unscratched. my truck saved my life but alas it was totaled. I towed her home and set her in my garage (i just couldn't junk her).

Well in late february of this year I found an add on craigslist. Someone was parting out an entire f150.. the same year and model as mine. I paid him a visit and worked a deal with him. I bought the entire truck for $1600, i had 60 days to remove the cab and any other parts that I wanted and bring the truck back to him for a $1000 refund. So as you have guessed, My project is rebuilding my first car and my best friend. I towed both my truck and the donor to my buddy's farm and began the slow process of doing a full cab swap. I built a large wooden frame and used an electric winch. I gutted both of the trucks and removed both of the cabs. Everything went smooth and to plan thanks to my dad and 2 brothers adding in some muscle. I painted the frame and I replaced the shocks and was ready to set the new cab on its frame.

I was working alone, late one night, and I decided that I could not wait for the next day for my brothers/dad's assistance.... I set the new cab on the frame and bolted it down! After a few more small projects and a few tweaks, I towed it to Macco for paint. I was promised a few days for all body work and paint... three weeks and a TON of hassle later. (NEVER USE MACCO. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR AND THEY ARE HARD TO DEAL WITH, ABSOLUTELY AWEFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE). Sorry for the rant... but they pissed me off and in the end refused to quit working on it. Anyways, after a long three weeks, the truck was painted and ready to be assembled.

It took me only a month and a half- 2 months to fully reassemble the interior and hookup all of the wiring. (everything but the badges, headlights and tail lights). I was able to start the truck but.... it was running rough??? This was very intriguing since before I took everything apart (and after the wreck), everything was running smooth and strong. I figured it was programing and that the whole truck needed inspection. So I took it to the local shop I normally use. It turns out, that 3 of the cylinders had almost no compression and the other 5 had decent (not great) compression and that when they put air into cylinder 1 they could feel it coming out cylinder 3. They were at a loss and told me that the motor was not worth looking into and that the tranny had slippage codes (which i knew were from before the wreck) and that i had wasted my money and shouldnt put another penny into it..... so being the gearhead that i am i took her back home and i have started researching and i am preparing to take FULL advantage of the situation and do a 4.6 to 5.4 engine swap. It was something that i have been wanting to do anyways and now seems like a good excuse to do it.

so that is where my project is at. please let me know what yall think and also any thoughts on the upcoming swap or whats going on with my current 4.6. thanks!

-Matt

 

It sounds like a really good project bud and you'll love the power of the 5.4 that's what I have and I love it. Fools luck and keep Workin on it!!

 

your head gasket is causing dead cylinders... common on the 97-98's. when you do the 5.4 swap you may as well replace the tranny. if it is slipping already that 5.4 will rip it to shreds. anyway, good luck, and i hope that macco crap lasts... dad and i did the same thing to a 76 and a 90, its fun, but a lot of tinkering goes with it!

 

It sounds like a really good project bud and you'll love the power of the 5.4 that's what I have and I love it. Fools luck and keep Workin on it!!

 

Good*

 

Matt, your on the right track. Sorry about your luck with the engine. IF the truck was running on it's side or rolled over, = bent valves and usually happens immediately since these engines DO NOT incorporate dry sump systems. Used in the off road series trucks mostly, these systems are to eliminate oil starvation at the pump during hard cornering or extreme angles. A truck on it's side running would be very extreme lol, -and like I said, it doesn't take long. In this circumstance, the valves take a hit first... For sure. Anyway, -that's why you have compression issues now and is definitely the reason for #1 leaking down in #3 lol. Common knowledge for any mechanic ? Well, I guess, -maybe ??

Other internals get hurt as well, so an engine swap is logical.

Macco has been around much longer than expected. I tell you that right now. Just search that one for a quick education lol.
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I took a look at your Gallery's and noticed that you have two with the same name. Yea, that screws things up big time when you try to upload. In-fact, any "same" title gallery or "same title" photo within a gallery tends to create havoc after uploading new pics. So, if perhaps your trying to add pics of before and after or even during your progress/work with your truck, -this will keeping that from happening. You just to change title names. If you would like to use the same title name, - just incorporate a different number after the name. For instance, -"Garage - Mach III (01)", "Garage - Mach III (02)". It just can't be the same.

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Great deal on that other truck you found for parts! I could use a find like that... Post up some more pics if you have them. You can have your pics display in a thread like this after you upload to your gallery. Just choose a pic in your gallery, you will see two url's below the pic. Copy and paste the bottom url into any thread like this and the pic will display after you submit your post.

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Oh, and welcome to the site.

 

Almost forgot. - If your trans is slipping, it's fairly simple to fix yourself. Simpler than it sounds IMO. I did it after my trans was slipping so bad that the truck would barley move. Actually, Mike Troyer told me what to do lol. You just flush the trans, then pull the valve body and clean the snot out of it (that's clutch/disk contamination build-up). Then re-spring it (transgo shift kit for that trans, -the "tugger" kit). Then (very important), use Amsoil on the re-fill. She'll be like new all over again.

NOTE: -That's only if all its doing is slipping.

 

Glad you were able to save it..post some pics!!

 

all of my pictures are 2500x2500+ and in the megabytes. any ideas on getting them on here? lol

 

Thank you! that actually does make some sense of what is going on. I am glad to be here! So I have been looking around for engines online and everyone seems to have bad reviews. I am looking for a motor thats a little bit up from stock but not a super performance $100kkk motor lol. I have seen decent looking motors from ATK, Motorcraft, Powertrain products etc. Where do yall get your engines from?

 

Great job for a young man to build his own truck. You will respect it more now, and hopefully never pile it up again. That is an expensive and time consuming mistake.

You will love the bigger engine, I love this 5.4 in mine. I think it is the best engine Ford ever made and I have driven a lot of them. There are some faster engines, but this one is built to last. I have been over 225k on this one now.

Those cheap paint houses, Maaco, Earl Snibe, they are for used car lots that take a POS to shoot and sell. You could look around and find some guy in his garage that would do a better job. And when it comes to body work, bondo work, that is fun to learn and do yourself too. If you mess up bondo you just keep doing it until you get it right. Another thing about learning and stuff.

Great job. I wish more younger people had the patients and wherewithall to do what you are doing. When I was young and when my father was young we always did that kind of stuff. We put engines in cars that weren't made to have them, made engine mounts, altered drivelines, you name it. Fun stuff and times to laugh about when you get older.

 

This would be a project I'd love to do one of theses days.

 

Yea, pretty easy,- once you do it . Anyway, the quickest way, - throw a copy on your desktop. Right click, -open with, -the paint program. Go to re-size image. Hit 50/Tab/50, - Save as/replace image. Now it will upload here.

That's all I do. That way my original stays in tact as well. After you do this once, it will go much faster second time around. Also, IF the image is still to big, - you may have to do it again.

I left out the long explanation lol. If you need more info, head over to, Help, -with posting pics on this site. I've never been there, but I know around here somewhere.

 

http://www.car-part.com/

Look for a Harley or Lightning engine. Complete - It searches your area for you after you thro your zip code in. - Best site for that out there IMO.

The Lightning engines for years 99 - 03 or 04 will all work in the 97-03 F150's. 4x4's and 4x2's.. All.....

Easiest and cheapest way, that's almost always worth while, - A used "L" engine from salvage. Sometimes you can find them on Ebay or whatnot.

 

Inspiring story. Good luck with the engine swap.