I have put all the pieces together for this swap and I have yet to spend any money because im worried they aren’t worth it. I have looked at the specs and it on paper will only gain me 11 hp and 3 ft/lbs (according to Edmunds)

Heres where I lie.

I found heads for $250

Intake for $100

And then im sure I will encounter a few expenses such as gaskets and such. So im looking at a bit over $400 for the swap. Not to mention tuning.... But I have that covered with a trade.

What im really trying to do is talk to someone who has done a swap on a 4.6. Im planning on doing a 5.4 swap next year and im going to start putting that together next winter. But I need to satisfy my need for power now!

I was looking and I can get efans and see the "SAME" gains, supposedly.

So where do I stand???? I just worried that the time and money I will spend won’t be worth it in the long run.

Opinions?????

Im guna buy either the fans or the heads tomarrow......

 

Your plans are your plans, but I wouldn't hassle with a 4.6L PI head swap if you're just going to pull the 4.6L out and swap in a 5.4L. Just save the $$$ and put it toward the 5.4L. I doubt the 11 hp and 3 ft-lb of torque are going to satisfy your need for power right now.

 

I agree.

I would just get the fans, they can stay on the truck when you get the 5.4 then.
Or like cpaggie said, save it and put it towards the 5.4

 

Or you could put a set of ported PI heads with high performance cams on it and then just swap them over to the 5.4 when you put it in.

I think I saw a set in the for-sale forum....lol

Phil

 

That's close! You gain more torque than you posted. Your at 220/265 now and the PI is 231/293..That's an 11/28 Gainer.

Phill has good point and a great idea.

Personally, I would just get a 5.4L put it on the stand and concentrate on building that, in between time - educate myself on tuning. You need a good understanding there to be successful..

Locate a good tuner as close to you as possible. I don't know how close troyer is to you - Here we have Livernoise Motors.

 

This is before and after my PI head swap

 

Built54 - What else did you do? Not just stock PI swap.

 

Joey , did you pull the motor for the swap ? I have a printout of your conversion in the shop. I don't recall if you pulled the motor or not. Seems like it would be easier setting up the cams/timing hardware that way. Did you use the cam positioning tools? - The lockdowns?


Also - Do the longtubes have to be unbolted at the heads or can I get the motor out by just removing the radiator and upper intake with disconnecting the longtubes at the collector flang. The headers are a b^tch to remove on the heads with motor still in there. Using a cherry picker, I'm not sure if I can pull it off without unbolting the headers @ the motor itself.

Thanks

 

If i remember right you also did a cam swap.

I am looking for a 5.4 as we speak and as soon as i find one it is going on a stand and being my project. But its not going in tell next winter.

Those numbers you posted look a lot better than what i found. Are you sure about those?

I know the 5.4 gains a ton by doing the swap. I just havn't seen anyone do it on a 4.6.

 

AHHH! I just looked at it again -I'll have to cut the longtubes loose first Darnet. I might as well leave it in there if I decide to do the heads.

Twintips - Yea those numbers are correct - Right from the spec sheet- You can't make HP without TQ

 

If you plan to go 5.4 then get a navigator 5.4 32V and be unique plus they're 300hp. Pretty much plug and play with a little fiddling on the injector/coil plugs provided you're coil on plug now.

 

Thats the numbers i was looking to make but then i did some research and i could only find the change that i posted. I think im guna go with the swap. It just through me for a loop when i saw the numbers.

 

Still not worth it to me. Idunno, I would be more into finding the hole deal - A PI 5.4L. I wouldn't waste any time on that 4six if the 5four was going to happen in the future . I would be looking for a NAVI motor or a lightning swap and saving my pennies..

It's totally up to you , it's just allot of work for not that much gain . You won't even notice it IMO. The only way I was sure that I gain HP was to do a 0-80 run and time it

I did that before and after the longtube install - I got it on video and posted it enough times , you prolly already seen that one. But yea, with your numbers, it will be hard to notice those kind of gains unless you add more bolt ons to go with.

 

Yeah i have seen you vids and stuff. Thats what im worried about. Deep down i hear a voice saying play it safe and get the fans cuase you know youll want them latter and they will work with your 5.4

You like those new headers?

 

Just so you know, when you swap Pi head onto a Non Pi block you are also raising the compression ratio to somewhere around 10.5:1. You will want to burn 91 octane to keep the engine quiet. The 97-2000 4.6 made 220 hp and 290 ft/lbs of torque. They were non Pi heads. If it was me I would wait and spend the money on the 5.4. If you still plan on doing a head swap get a set of heads from Patriot or Fox Lake. Throw on some better cams and at least have a 4.6 that has some *****. The heads can then be transfered to the 5.4.

JMC