Remember what I said about any engine 97-11 2v 5.4 will work. That expands your choices allot. Call around asking for a 2003 engine out of an F-150 you'll find allot more options. same thing on Carparts. Look at e-series vans any L code 5.4 will swap so I've seen 08 engines going for $1500 out of e-350 vans with 30k miles on them. There are a whole lot of motors. They will tell you they aren't direct swaps but the stuff you have to swap onto the new engine is minor. Worst case you might need to swap the pans if you got one off a van.

 

The swap is fairly easy if you ask me. I've done a few though. Find a good deal and go for it. 14 hours total for me, with one friend. That included a lot of cleaning, swapping of new parts and installation of new parts... and a few beers

 

It took me longer then that. Think I worked on it probably 4 days 5 or 6 hours a day. I'm getting old though. I also replaced everything I could that I thought might be a failure point..

 

The only things I replaced were new plugs, motor mounts, water pump, gaskets from the intake up. Also wire brushed the valley and painted it, along with a few other parts. scraped and cleaned the heads/intake surfaces till they were ready for new gaskets. Cleaned the intake manifold, TB, IAC, removed and washed down the radiator hoses, de greased and wiped the engine bay down... that was about it. The friend I had working with me is a gear head. Between the 2 of us, we were moving pretty quick. By the time the engine on the stand was cleaned up and ready to go in until the time it fired up was maybe 3 hours. I was a bit weary after asking around on here how complicated it would be. But to be honest, looking back.. it was probably one of the easiest swaps I have done. Best part was the wiring harness was super easy with the few main clips. All the hoses unclipped very easily, Fuel lines popped right off.. every bolt came right out with no issues etc... Worst part would be lining up the TC/trans, motor mounts and exhaust all in one shot. And installing the starter lol..
Id do it again if needed.

 

The teardown will begin promptly tomorrow. I will check head out tomorrow

 

Are you ding it yourself?
If so, hows it going?

 

hey yea i dug into it got valve cover off used mechanic stethascope or however u spell it and heard major knocking in middle of the head area put the truck in tdc and started taking pulleys off... MAJOR PAIN IN THE @$$............. I havent gotten everything off yet I had to stop. I will start back up tomorrow. It almost sounds like a valve is hitting a piston.

 

So your pulling the heads

 

Yes im pulling passenger side head where the noise is coming from as well as where the misfires seem to be coming from..

 

if it were me, I would of pulled the valve cover first so I could look at the valve train while it ran. could be something fixable in there..

 

yea I did that but cant seem to find anything broken or out of place at all... I may put pulleys back on and look again but everything is tight cam looks good springs tight nothing broken that I should see rocker tight... There were no scratches on the valve cover what else should I look for? Can someone tell me what psi each cylinder should be reading?