going to buy a 2001 lightning longblock without the supercharger. nothing is wrong with the engine or rotating assembly, plans are to keep it n/a for a few years then eventually turbo it down the road. my question is what can i do to raise the compression without changing the pistons......milled heads my only option? or should i just go ahead and swap out pistons/connecting rods and leave the heads alone for now? I plan on installing new cams and of course im going to need a intake manifold, is there any aftermarket ones that i should look for? this is going into my 2001 4.6 4x4, whenever it decides to die, so i'll be able to work on the 5.4 whenever, and install everything with it out of the engine bay. any help is greatly appreciated and thank you!

 

bump

 

If you mill the heads enough to dramatically increase the CR you will upset the Intake to Head alignment geometry. Either live with the low CR or have your builder use higher CR pistons.

 

i would leave that motor as is... its ready now to take a good amount of power

 

thats what i was worried about, piston to valve clearance if i milled the heads. thanks for the input.
yeah, f/i it would be ideal. but for now its just going to be n/a, so i think its only right if i just swap out pistons.

 

If your going to all the trouble to swap the pistons. Do the rods at the same time.
The rods will be the weak point later down the road when ya go F/I.

Phil

 

probably just going to go ahead and do an eaton or some sort of s/c for the time being. no sense in making it n/a for the same cost as to piece together a s/c for it.

 

anyone know if my 4.6 pcm will work with the new engine and s/c?
also, connecting rods, should i do i beam or h beam? pistons?

open to any suggestions, i just want to build a engine that will be used daily and be reliable.

 

As long as you using the same trany, (yes) the 4.6 pcm can be tuned to run your new setup.

I thought you said you were just going to run it with the stock internals?
If that's a L motor , it has forged pistons and crank. So the weakest part is the rods.
I'm not positive but I think the H beam rods are strongest. But ether will work just fine.
Your not going for over 1000 RWHP are ya? lol

Phil

 

ok, then thats the plan, build the 4r70 when the 4.6 dies and swap in the 5.4. I've been thinking since i have the block on a stand i should just go ahead and swap in stronger rods since i've heard they aren't that strong. and 1000rwhp would be nice, but not in a daily application for me hahaha.

also, is it worth porting/polishing the heads? if i can get by with cams and not needing to p/p the heads then i'm not too worried about it.

 

You can get away without porting the heads, but you will make a lot more power if ya have them done.
If you do have them done, have them redo the spark plug threads with more threads so you never have to worry about blowing a plug out.

When I had my heads worked, they welded in the plug holes and re drilled them.

Phil

 

smart idea, if i do i'll be sure to do that, already had it happen once on my 4.6 and that wasn't fun!

 

thanks to jayflo88 on here, i was able to get the s/c for it and most of everything else too. now i'm just saving up for the internals and for the transmission to be built.

 

 

considering the rods suck, he migh as well doa rod swap, have his heads ported and change the valve springs and enjoy it...