I bought a 1994 Mustang convertible about 2 years ago. It had a V6 in it that was blown up. About a year ago, I bought a 1988 Crown Vic for the engine (302) with plans to convert it from fuel injection to carberuetor and put it in the Mustang. Took several months to gather the parts I need. Now, I have most of the parts and was getting ready to install the new engine and ran across a deal on a 1997 Mustang GT that had been wrecked, but has a 4.6 SOHC (rebuilt, bored 20 over). Have been contemplating putting that one in the 94 convertible. Today, I found a 1986 5.0 HO in a GT T-Top (couldn't buy the entire car because there was no title :-( ) . So now, not sure which direction I want to go with the engine swap on the convertible. Thoughts anyone?
carb'd 302 or EFI 4.6. touchy subject for some Both can make excellent power. My experience is all in the 302's. Never owned a 4.6 so i may be a bit biased. The 302 is a high torquing, low end motor. But the 4.6 can produce some real nice power from what i've seen. Biggest difference is how u get the power and how much u spend. Getting the power from the 302 with carb, would be cheaper IMO. Not to mention the availability of parts is tremendous. You would have to either change your pump, or put an adjustable regulator on it. However if its gonna be a daily driver, you can't beat EFI. The amount of work to put the 4.6 in will be high also. "Know how" is more important for a carb'd engine imo also, tuning wise.
The 4.6L would probably be easier to swap in than the older 5.0. For the 4.6L, you probably just need wiring, ecu, a few misc. parts and possibly change the motor mounts, and some misc. tuning. Either way you're going to want to upgrade the rearend to handle the extra load taken on from the new engine. May want to try and get an 8.8inch out of the car as well and get a rebuild kit for the tlok/gears.
As Outlaw80 said, the 5.0 would probably be the better engine for serious horsepower. But as he also stated, if it's a daily driver, the 4.6L is probably the better choice.
Thanks much for the info guys. I think one of my problems is that I want a daily driver and the horsepower. LOL. May go ahead with the 4.6 for the convertible and look for another to build for the 5.0 HO and just sell the Crown Vic as is. Thanks again.
PI refers to the heads of the 4.6. In 99 Ford started using PI (I believe "port improved?") heads which flow a lot better than the non-PI heads, and thus give a lot more power. If you're looking at doing a heads swap, but don't want to spend the money on real nice heads, you can't go wrong with starting out with the PI heads. Or, Trickflow has just released brand new heads for the 2v that with a decent set of cams will set you between 350-375 rwhp.
Thanks to both of you -- Sonic and jimmy_beaner. The boy that wrecked the 97 had the 4.6 rebuilt and some modifications done. The only things that I know for sure are that it is bored 20 over and the timing gears are not stock any longer. Not sure about the cams or the heads. Most of the paperwork on the rebuild got left in the glove box of the car and the guy I bought it from let it get soaking wet. The engine only has 9400 miles on it but the body is totalled.
I was actually looking for the Thanks button at the bottom of both of your messages, but it is not there. Am I missing something or not doing something right?
perhaps I will have to talk to Brent about it. All I said is "you know where the Thanks button is"... if someone wants to say thanks... that's what the feature is for ... perhaps I'm missing the point of the feature.
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