4.6 liter questions
 

I'm looking at purchasing a 2000 F150 with the 4.6 in it. Is the 4.6 a good reliable engine? Are performance upgrade parts pretty easy to find?


Thanks for all of your help!

Yes and yes, although it doesn't have near the torque that a 5.4L does.

I bought a 97 F-150 with the 4.6 about 3months ago with 221,000 on it It doesn't use any oil, it runs good and gets about 14mpg. I'm now in the progress of several mods.I don't regret buying it. As a matter of fact I looked at Trucks for about 6 months and got exactly what I wanted.

98 4.6 Expy 93,000 miles no problems other than IACV at aroun 45,000. sweet motor! still has all 8 plugs too!

I enjoy my 4.6 in personel truck, but I do very light hauling in it. My work truck has a 5.4 and I pull loaded trailors that the 4.6 could not handle.

My 2000 F150 4.6 5 speed weighs less than 4000lbs. so the 4.6 does pretty good.

Here a good one, I have a 2002 F-150 supercrew with the 4.6 It burns about 2-3 quarts of oil between changes,I use Mobil 1 10-30. Any suggestions?

Change the PCV Valve

Thank you for all of your replies. I bought a 2004 F150 Heritage 4X2 last night with the 4.6. My last truck had the 4.2 in it. I really like the rumble of the V8.

i think the 4.6 is junk. mine was ok at 177k miles then coolant started leaking and it started to burn a lil oil. its a dog if you want to do any real pulling. upgrade to a 5.4 and throw some headers and a good intake on it and get a k&n air filter. i found a lil but more power in that setup. good luck

I've got an 03 f-150 with a 4.6 and i love it. get about 18-20 mpg hwy going to work and it does any light pulling and hauling i need just fine. Even had a trailer with a car hooked up to it one time and it pulled just fine. But as far as towing most of mine is heavy and not even a 5.4 can handle it, thats when i bust out my 79 f-150 with the 460

Well, Mine's now at 208K miles,and I routinely tow a 6000 lb travel trailer with it....No leaks,no oil burning,and plenty of power. My Tbird was the same way when it had 215K miles on it.
JL

as long as they are taken care of they will last a good while, thats what ive always been tought and its true

thank you Johnny for defending the 4.6l. there's no way in hell anyone can make a general statement saying that engine is junk. sure they don't have the power of the 5.4, but it also is down a few cubes. i've got the 4.6 and wouldn't hesitate to get another tomorrow. awesome engine...all heart. i'd definately reccomend it to anyone and everyone.

Wow only 177K trouble free miles, that's just terrible :-missingt

My '97 (well I gave it to my son & daughter to travel to college ( Southern Fla-Alabama). 4.6, purchased new, changed the oil regularly, changed the plugs wires @ 170K (gap was BIG, I think 140. oops ). Anyway has 225,415 miles on it & runs great & good gas mileage. The engine light came on & I think it's the DPFE sensor from some reading I've been doing. Just got back from North Fla & the trip (300 miles away) OD is not working but other than that the motor purrs just fine.

My hat's off to FORD!

P.S. Original tranny, rear etc. Changed the fluid & it keeps on ticking.

i have 99 150 4x4 i,ve had it since new,regular oil changes,and plugs and wires.im just now replacing timing chain at 196,000 mi.id say good ,dependable, moter.as for power,its no dog.parts are pricey.

When I bought my Aviator, my bro in law said that it's too bad Ford still puts junk motors in such nice vehicles, at which my sister and their daughter said he deserved a good swift kick in the family jewels. He also said the same thing about my 94 T-bird which I sold 1 1/2 years ago to a friend of my wife's. It still runs good, so does my Aviator, and also another bro in law's truck with a 4.6 which is not taken good care of, and another bro in law had a crown vic for a few years with never a problem, and was high mileage when he bought it. So I think they're good engines.

i have a 03 4.6 single cab 4x4 with a super chip and magnaflow exhaust just clicked 65,000. I regularly pull a twenty foot trailer with a 35 hp john deere on it and never had a problem. love the motor, keeping it forever

All the stuff made for the 4.6 is more than the 5.4.

My thoughts exactly

I own a 2wd '97 f-150 w/ 150,000k on it. It has the 4.6L which still runs great! I just recently hauled a huge load from Birimingham, AL to Atlanta, Ga consisting of a 4-wheeler in the truck bed, and a double-axle trailer with another f-150 sitting on top of it. Kept the overdrive off and cruised around 55mph with no problems. Beat that 5.4L!

I just traded in my 1997 4.6 liter with original motor and tranny at 225+,000 miles. Most trouble free truck I have ever owned. Power was never an issue as I dont tow a whole lot and when I do it is nothing extremely heavy. I never had to worry about a plug launching out of the head either.

smooth 4.6
 

HI
ive got a '04 F-150 XL with the 4.6 in it. 50,000 miles with no probs. But one thing bothers me, has anyone noticed and problems with sluggish hi speed acceleration. It doesnt do it all the time and the dealer hasn't given me any answers besides "didn't do it for us." It almost seems like the electronic throttle is lagging when i really step on it. Anyone got any ideas???

Is it definitely the engine power and not the transmission choosing not to downshift? Do you drive in areas where there are "false flats"---like shallow hills that might appear flat when you drive on them? I remember one stretch of freeway like that where my old '78 Ford pickup with the 300 inch six would just seem completely out of breath, but then realized that other cars would struggle there too.

Are you talking about acceleration from say, 55 to 75 mph? Even a good headwind might make *some* difference if you're driving in a windy plain area. (A 30 mph headwind is pretty daunting in a truck, or an E150 like mine, which has a 4.6 that *does* work hard when I'm moving fast.)

George

Thanks George, you've got a good point about the false flat idea about the roads. Most of the time it is when im accelerating from about 55 to 70 ill step on it and its doing like what you described. Most of my highway driving is in the city of chicago, but the problem i've described happens more often on open roads out of the city and on my way to florida and south carolina. The dealer did look into the transmission and they assured me that it was in fine working order so hopefully there right! Thanks for the advice!!

You ever given thought to getting a tuner? I bought one and couldn't believe the increase.

Tell me about tuners....
 

I'm an old hot-rodder (ran a couple Chrysler Hemi cars in the 70's, actually), and my son's buddy has a Subaru WRX which, with one of the little tuner boxes, has run 13.2 second quarters (amazing--faster than an STI) although one of the things he's manipulating is turbo boost (I don't think the brand new Subie his daddy bought him will make it past 20k miles).

Anyway, I will research this more later (working on honey do Saturday things right now), but I just did a quick lookup on livewire tuners and it looks like they have a couple models (like $379 and $569). Is there any way that you can tweak a 4.6 so it will continue to run on regular but give some more low-end and midrange grunt without a loss in gas mileage? I'm not gonna be running my E150 at the strip, but I miss the grunt of the old Chevy 350 in my '96 Savana (although that was the Van from Hell for other reasons).

These little thingies just plug into the OBD2 port, right? Do they reprogram the PCM flash, or do they just override it while they're plugged in?

My 60k Premium Care warranty is up in 800 miles, so this might be the right time to play with the van just a little--it's an '02 with the PI heads, same as the current 4.6 (and the dealer replaced the heads for me at 42k based on a TSB regarding a bad run of early Romeo PI heads).

Talk to me, bud...

Thanks in advance for any info,
George

It's a plug and play. You tell who you order it from (I got mine from 5 star tuning for $535 because I'm a member here) and give them the info (online) for your vehicle. I got an email saying I had to fill in a code but the rest I found out from the VIN sticker with all the codes. You get 3 levels of tunes preloaded for 3 grades of fuel. You also get 3 levels of tune in the custom tune(that's why they want those codes). Try both the tunes and see which is the best. You get to manipulate spark for all rpm's and w.o.t. fuel. Now when you are done uploading a tune you can disconnect the tuner or mount it on the windshield and use it to monitor vehicle operating parameters you select. Nice tuner and toy too. You can reprogram your trans for firmer shifts and if you change tire size and/or rear gears you can recalibrate to the new values. That saves $127 I think.

I'm an old school hot rodder too. Worked in the automotive industry most all my life. Learned carbs from working 15 yrs at Holley carb and learning how to transpose to FI. It is nice to sit in a clean dry cab and reflash the ECU. I did a little mapping when I was working. It took so many tests and data logging a single person couldn't do it all to develope mapping. To change mapping it isn't that awful with the choices you have to work with. You wouldn't believe how much one of those Cyclones would put out unbridled.

Interesting, thanks. Hey, I'm in Grosse Pointe Farms and ride with the Wolverine Bike (bicycle) Club which is heavily based around Royal Oak--my son is a Cat 2 racer for their elite team and trains at 12 and Woodward (which is where all 4 of our parents are buried as well), used to work (pension desk job) in Southfield until I retired 6/30/07....

And I used to play with carbs a lot--used to rebuild Quadrajets (along with Holleys and others), file metering rods, play with light distributor springs, pull off vacuum advance. Ran at the old Detroit and Motor City Dragways and would do some "testing" (well a lot of testing) on Gratiot Ave as an Eastsider.

One followup Q (and I will research some more)--will the regular gas tune make enough of a low and mid-throttle difference that it'd be worth it? Just paid $85 to fill the sucker up yesterday, and would *not* enjoy the extra 10-20 cents per gallon for the van. (I've had lots of premium fuel cars like my '91 BMW 318is which is still my summer toy car and don't mind paying the bucks with a 14 gallon tank.)

When I *really* nail the throttle, the van runs just fine for my needs, but it's just *so* flat in the middle compared to my 350 Savana (or any of my old muscle cars, Corvettes, etc--even my '71 Olds 98 with a 455). I suspect I'd be happier with a 5.4, but as it is, this is probably my last V8 vehicle. Kicking up the shift points would probably help--Ford kicks the auto trans into 2nd gear at 5 mph....

Thanks,
George

I'm near 13 and Woodward. Still storm it in the same places I ran my big block 57 chevy. A stock looking truck isn't supposed to act like mine does. I'm running the 93 octane tune right now. The tunes are tailored to the fuel used. More octane will allow more spark and more power but the tunes are running a base spark table that is higher than stock. The amounts of spark you can deviate from is mainly a negative value with little advancing. Otherwise you could time it into the next cylinder and destroy the motor. You tune for idle-2000, 2000-4000 and 4000 and up. If you take the factory inlet/exhaust restrictions out you can also tell a difference. I opened up the air box and changed the filter. The exhaust is just another muffler and the original pipes. As far as the trans I'm gonna go with my local shop put a kit in it. These things will go over 150k and I have 34 now. I fell in love with it instead of leasing another one.

I can't believe you filed a metering rod with all the combinations available. I used to doll them up with a super stock calibration if someone wanted more pizazz.

Here YoGeorge this should explain a lot of what I said earlier. This is what the custom tuner will select from to allow you to change parameters in a custom tune.

https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f...seroptions.jpg

Thanks, Kaboom...
 

I'm starting to get it; appreciate the info.

I'm a tiny bit confused--if the seller puts in 3 tunes, does the user still get to manipulate stuff just a bit (I believe that's what you're saying). If I have the reg gas tune, for instance, and get a tank of particularly low octane, can I kick back the timing? Or if I put on bigger tires/wheels for the winter, can I change speedo calibration quickly and change back in the spring? It's clear that I can switch to a premium gas tune whenever I want to fill up with that.

I've been building my own computers since 1991 or so, so I'm sure I can figure one of these boxes out. But, I don't know if a 4.6 liter E150 would be a fun vehicle to play with. Actually I know it's not.

My son's bud (and maybe I should talk to him or ask him for a ride) has been downloading WRX tuning setups off the Internet, and with parameters like turbo boost, has a lot more leeway. He'll call my son to go for a test drive with him to check out a new tune...again, he's run a bonafide 13.2 with his tuning thing (and like 20 lbs of boost or something stupid), huge exhaust, and 4wd traction. Amazing.

Thanks again,
George

YW.

There's leway on the spark if need be. Different engines off the same assembly line have different requirements since the owners have given them different amounts of maintenance. Engine A may not be able to tolerate the same spark curve as engine B. The fine tuning can be used for each engine to get max performance. Now bear in mind any of the parameters you have changed can be put back to stock or modified to work with your particular engine. Say you sell you tuned vehicle. Before giving it to the new owner you take and put the stock tune back in. Since the next vehicle now can be tuned but under a new VIN number you're back to tuning again. Say you sell your 4.6 and the next is a 5.4 just plug n play and go. You can change tires from season to season and recalibrate each time. You also can run out the display to a very accurate read out. Say you want to see A/F out to 3 places just select it. The only drawback is all your read outs will be that display also. You get pulled over for speeding and you can say you were only going 4.372 mph over the limit. My speedo is 1.5mph over actual.

20 lbs. of boost is one heck of a lot. It produces a lot of power but it puts a terrible amount of extra stress on all components. Blown head gaskets and broken rods are just some of the problems.

While on the subject, I'm considering a newer E250 van with the 4.6 engine. I'm currently driving one with the 5.4 and positrac. Will I notice any substantial loss while pulling a trailer with three dirtbikes or hauling 700/800lbs of tools? How about better gas milage with the 4.6?

it'll do just fine, probably near the same mileage, given the vehicle. you might notice it hasn't got the power of the 5.4 but it won't have any trouble doing what you ask of it with ease!!

Thanks man!

I'd like to add to pick up a tuner for towing. Load in the max tune and then take it back to either stock or 87 octane tune. You can get one from mike@5startuning.com where I got mine. Just let him know you are a member here. I change tunes to see what I can get with the gas I can afford.

I recently purchased a 97 f150 with the 4.6., 94k miles. The check engine light was on ,bought a code scanner & found o2 sencer bad [ 1 of 4 ]. Replaced it, fun job!! Now light came on again, #3 misfire. working on solution. The 4.6 and 5.4 have two coil systems. One has a coil on top of each sparkplug for short called cops, and no plug wires.The other has 2 coil packs,,one for each side of engine with plug wires running to each plug. [4 coil & 4 wires per side.] Just from reading in these forums it sounds like both engines have a challenge to change spark plugs, especeally rear plugs [no room to work]. Another issue is heater core replacement! sounds like you have to remove intire dash to do it. IF you a doityourself kinda person you can save some money if problems occur, Or you pay at the staelership!
I hope this helps? PS fords like oem parts!

my bros got a 91 300 I6 w 362k miles on it trouble free beat that 4.6,lol from what i hear the 4.6 is a pretty relaible motor.it doesnt have the low end power like the 5.4 but is a good overall motor