I can get my hands on a 5.4 motor for free so I was wondering if there would be enough room for it if I did a mustang II frontend. I would like to do it to be different with the car. just looking for some ideas tell me what you all think thanks
I thought about doing the same thing with my 67 FB. But I decided against it because the 5.4 is a wide and tall motor. And the 5.4 is infamous for blowing spark plugs out. A friend of mine with a 2001 lightning had one blow out just recently, which was neither fun or cheap to fix. Nice idea, but what I would do is take the freebie and sell it to get a stroked 351W. You could also get a 351C and fuel inject it just to be different.
Actuallly....the blowing out of plugs is infamous for 02s and older. In 03 Ford finally changed the threads on the heads a bit. If you have a 5.4 already out, it is a relatively easy modification to the threads to solve the spark-plug shootout problem. There was a petition circulating a long time ago for ford to issue a recall....it never happend.
I have 35k miles on my Lightning (02)...never chnaged the plugs, but I am about to. You just need to make sure they are torqued down to proper specs every other month or so.
I have heard of the plugs blowing out b4 and was gonna get them fixed b4 I put it in the car. someone told me they drill out the threads and put an insert in to fix the problems I actually know someone with a v-10 that the plug blew out I heard thats its common with the mod motors in general. if you have evr seen the plugs they have very shallow thread int aluminum head which I think is the problem. The new shelby does have the 5.4 and makes great power I know it has a charger on it but I like the idea of having the same driveablity. I know I could just put fuel injection on a windsor motor and make great power but everyone does it also by the time I am done building a powerful block I might be at the same price in the end at least for the motor considering that I might have to get a dart block which by itself is almost 2 grand. I know about the mustang2 suspension but the way the car is now it needs shock towers and sheetmetal under the hood replaced so whats the difference? Nothing is set in stone I was just weighing some options but you have to admit it would look cool. DOes anyone know of sites with pics or someone else that has done this swap b4 besides reen and sn65?I know of dvs they actually did it with a 4.6 and looked cool but I think the 5.4 is wider so I dont know if I could just trim the shock towers thanks alot for the info guys!
Go to ModularFords.com and look at modular conversions, 5.4 s/c with NOS in a 67 fastback. I would take out the towers and use a Mustang II front. The crossmenber needs to be notched for the oil pan to clear.