Modular motor, my ass - A tale of two Fords

[Dirty Duc]

So there is this thing with Fords they call the modular motor.

Based on the name and the manufacturers reputation for excellence in manufacturing engineering, you'd think all kinds of things were interchangeable.

They are not.

So, my gearhead family did not know that until relatively recently. My parents own a 2003 Ford Explorer with a 4.6 V8 that recently expired due to oil starvation... a thing that apparently happens to high mileage mod motors. The oil pump housing gets fatigued, and refuses to supply the required oil pressure.

A replacement 5.4 V8 engine was sourced from a 1999 Expedition with half the mileage. We replaced the wear items - Timing chains and improved oil pump; added longevity items - windage tray and trans front seal; and proceeded with swap. The plan was to use adapter plates for the intake manifold, and the Explorer fuel/ignition equipment.

It turns out:

The torque converter doesn't fit the flex plate due to outside diameter. a trip to the machine shop.

The 5.4 starter and the 4.6 starter are different. 

the AWD Explorer has a special oil pan and pickup... they get swapped from the old engine. We found out we needed to swap pickups when we tried to put the 5.4 oil pan on the 4.6...

The power steering pump reservoir bracket from the Explorer will not fit the 5.4 engine... neither will the pump.

Because the power steering pump doesn't fit, neither does the radiator supply/oil filter housing.  

Neither power steering pump allows the pressure line to the rack to fit.  

The engine mounts fit, but the aluminum block 4.6 has 4 bolts, and the cast iron block 5.4 has only 3... should be fine.

The AC compressor bolts up.

You can't swap valve covers between the engines because Ford doesn't care about interchangeability... the heads are supposed to be the same, but if they come from the Romero plant the only parts you can use are Romero parts. Windsor parts have a different bolt pattern for the valve covers because...   So if someone dropped the engine and broke the oil fill thing, you can't just swap the valve covers over....

More to follow... my embellishment-prone brother tells me we are the only people who have done this.  

[Speeddog]

One of the reasons I quit f@*king with cars.

Many moons ago ~'92, the SBC in my '70 C-20 Camper Special gave up when the exhaust valves hit coolant due to no lead in the gas.
The replacement rebuilt short block... had a different dipstick configuration... forcing purchase of the matching dipstick assembly.
So then, the only oil pan to available to work with the different dipstick was a make the beast with two backsing chrome POS, just for a scruffy horse-trailer and racebike-hauler.
And the pistons had a 1/4" chamfer on the top edge, for make the beast with two backsall what reason, but the CR was in the toilet.
And then some sort of bullshit on the replacement heads, can't remember exactly what shit sandwich that was.
And the brand new Doug Thorley tri-Y headers hit components two places on both sides, both the first and (replacement) second sets....
"There must be something bent on your truck, did you fit new motor mounts?"
"No, nothings bent, and yes, I fitted new mounts. The problem is you guys can't thread 1.5" tubes through a gap big enough to stick my whole leg through."
A veritable parade of dumbmake the beast with two backsery that made the Three Stooges look like Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Isaac Newton.
On a good day, that engine ran like it was dead on two holes.

Sorry.  
Bad memories triggered a rant.
I feel your pain, and wish you all the best in sorting it out.

Henry and Louis would wear out a hundred pairs of boots kicking asses if they were around today.

[ducpainter]

I don't know who sold you the line of shit about a 'modular motor', but Ford parts are kinda like Ducati red...

no two are the same. It's been that way for as long as I remember.

[Popeye the Sailor]

Yup.....and....I find life is easier if you put the same thing back in.

[lethe]

Yup.....and....I find life is easier if you put the same thing back in.

pfft, what fun is that?

[Popeye the Sailor]

pfft, what fun is that?

Well, one ends up with less vehicles to hold up walls, but some prefer it that way.

[ducpainter]

Cold

[lethe]

Well, one ends up with less vehicles to hold up walls, but some prefer it that way.

none need to do extra work these days and my running vs non running ratio is now over 50% woohoo

[Dirty Duc]

The thing was already holding up walls... and the engine was $free.99.

Other reasons:
More is better, and 5.4L > 4.6L.

Now when the old man goes on road trips he'll be driving something he can actually get parts for, and fits on a trailer behind my truck in case of failure (in both cases entirely unlike a 1966 F350 with a 6-354 Perkins).

Um... because?
[/reasons]

If the state had not cut funding for the mental institutions, this project could never have happened.

I find your sig line very dissonant with your current naysaying

[Popeye the Sailor]

I'm not naysaying-I'm heckling, and mostly Lethe.


Good luck with your swap.


Tell us more about the F350.

[Dirty Duc]

The F350 is just the latest home for this particular venerable diesel.

The 6.354 Perkins diesel and Clark 5-speed overdrive were my father's senior project at CalPoly Pomona in the 70's. Junkyard truck motor he rebuilt and installed in a 1962 pickup (IIRC, the model years may have gotten confused in my head).

The same combo then transferred to a standard E350, a box truck E350, and now back to a pickup.

In the latest installation, the lack of money for a gear ratio upgrade was originally mitigated by running the output of the Clark through a 4-speed overdrive out of an early 70's Torino as a second overdrive.  On the inaugural long haul mission towing a trailer full of household goods, a guy apparently transporting a repossessed 5th wheel travel trailer with a Dodge Cummins decided to hitch a ride at 3am. The trailer was trashed, household goods, tools, and random bits of trailer were strewn across the highway. The truck still drove but the hitch was done, so first rescue mission.

The flatbed was trashed, but a military trailer had since shown up in the yard. Frame rails are 34 inches apart, just like on the truck. New bed with sides!

The coupling between the two transmissions was overwhelmed by harmonics and the hammering of the big diesel, and the drive home was slow going. It turned out that in addition to externals, the Clark needed a new input bearings. They are NLA from any source. So he bought some sintered bronze and made bushings, complete with oil groove and everything.

Then we came across a 3.55 rear end out of a more modern Ford, swapped that in and did away with the Rube Goldberg setup. That ran well around town, but on the inaugural long trip it started using coolant. All of it. Twice. He pressed on until the transmission started making horrible noises, too. He's 320 miles away, and he calls just after midnight on a Tuesday morning for rescue the second.

With the military trailer bed it won't fit in my enclosed trailer, so I grab his 16 foot flat deck. It turns out the wheel base is about 15.5 feet, and the weight distribution of the estimated 6000 lbs is about 75/25. The trailer tires were horrifically dry-rotted, so I bought a new set of 4. We were still speed limited by the sashay of death due to the poor weight distribution on the trailer.

Upon inspection, not only had it blown the head gasket but the modern low sulfur diesel acts like metal termites on the valves. The sintered bronze bushings in the transmission had been mostly returned to their pre-manufacture state of bronze powder.

Needless to say, I'd rather swap non-modular Mod motors at home than fetch that thing from the side of the road again.

[Popeye the Sailor]

I know this will prove something is wrong with me but...


....I kind of want it.

[ducpainter]

Was there ever any question?

[somegirl]

No 

[ducpainter]

i suspected as much.