I've had 3 5.4's and never blown a plug. The biggest thing is to change the plugs properly and not like people have on cast iron heads for the last 100 years(force it out if stuck, tighten with ratchet until it won't go any farther, start ratcheting it before realizing it's cross threaded, etc). Work them out easy, use a torque wrench, torque to proper specs, use anti seize and start them by hand.

 

Getting the truck towed to me. I plan to remove the front end stuff tonight to get it prepped for engine removal.

 

Well, the tow truck didn't get here until late so I didn't get very far tonight.

Beer time.



I assume I can remove the front support up top by unbolting the 2 bolts on the left and the 2 bolts on the right. Going to need to invest in some 5 gallon buckets for coolant, oil, and tranny. Both my radiator and tranny cooler have seen better days.

 

At $1500, I would forget the used engine and look into a Ford Reman or Jasper reman. Honestly I have heard the Ford ones are much better now than the Jaspers. But you also get a warranty with a reman engine and it will only cost a little more than the junkyard engine. Plus with the JY engine, you have no idea how that one was treated.

 

A Jasper reman motor is not "a little" more than a junkyard motor. Try double at least.

 

I have a good machine shop right down the road from my house and they are VERY reasonable. I didn't get much done today because I had to deal with selling my motorcycle to fund the V10 project.

The good news is I have some extra cash now to do some upgrades/mods. The bad news... Which mods do I choose?

Im going to rip both heads off and look at the bottom end and decide if I just reuse my bottom end or if I have the machine shop get the bottom end back within tolerance. My hope is the bottom end looks good and I am going to buy the ramcyl heads with the timerserts in them, bolt everything back together and call it done.

I am going to do the 05 style front end for sure.

Debating on the following mods.
New head unit with backup camera
Diesel transmission cooler
05 Style Tow Mirrors
Thorley Headers?

Would love to do a BTS tranny but think its a little out of my price range due to shipping etc.

 

Ok, so even if it would be $3000 for a reman with warranty it still is better than a 122k motor with no warranty (maybe a 30 day at best) and no known history. He could get one that had 4 blown plugs in it. Could have had 10k miles between oil changes. All the JY does is make sure it fires, has no major leaks and sounds good. Other than that its buyer beware. Plus even if you get the manifolds, they might still be cracked, or he still might have to spend lots of time removing and replacing broken manifold bolts (notorious on V10, I know, I had one) and who knows what else.

I have no problem with JY parts, I visit alot of them. But sometimes its not worth it.


If it were me, instead of spending $1500 for a JY motor, I would just fix the existing motor. At least you know what was done to it and what the internals look like.

 

I highly recommend doing the newer square tow mirrors. visibility is so much better!

 

Same here. My grandpa owned a junkyard for 50 years and I got plenty of parts out of it over the years. His going rate was $500 for any entire car and $500 for any engine that would run. He was very reasonable on his prices because he knew he was selling junkyard parts with no knowledge of their history. He basically sold them for what the scrap price would be if he just hauled them off. Most other junkyards I've looked at charge almost new price with no warranty, which is why I rebuild my own(engines) or buy reman(transmissions).

 

Made a little more progress today. I got the radiator out, removed a few of the pulleys up front, intake is unbolted and some other small odds and ends removed. I lost my dental mirror and can't figure out where the fuel rail connectors are on the back of the intake. Seems that's the only thing holding me up from removing the intake. Once the intake is removed I need to find out how to remove the fan. Once the fan is removed I am on to the dreaded exhaust manifolds and then the bell housing bolts. I think I may have about 6 hours into it so far.

 

About the time I posted this I remembered there was a bolt on the back of the fuel rail that bolts it to the intake. I removed that bolt and the intake came out.

 

FYI to everyone saying buy a Ford or Jasper re-manufactured motor. Being in Alaska our shipping is insane on small items, large items get down right scary. Whatever you guys pay for in the states you might as well add another 1/4 to half for shipping costs.

I checked with the local ford Dealer for a Reman V10 for the day the Excursion may need it. Parts alone was over 5500 + shop time. It seems the majority of guys up here will try and rebuild their engines if they can versus a long-block.

 

Does the Thorley kit come with a fastener kit? If going through the trouble of removing both heads have you thought of upgrading to the 02-04 style top end? I believe they have more threads and are PI which flow better.

Header install thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13037361

Manifold removal thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13033699

Another Header install:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ll-w-pics.html

V10 cooler is fairly decent and definitely larger than a 7.3L Cooler, Skip the 05 mirrors and go 08+





Very good points, was going to mention this until I saw your post.

 

I didn't know I could just upgrade to the better style heads with the 8 threads... If this is an option, how would I go about finding them? Is it a direct swap? Do I need anything different other than the heads?

My plan for the exhaust manifold studs was to just simply cut the nuts off the exhaust manifolds, I would then keep the studs in the heads and send them off as cores when I buy my replacements. I am not going to take the time to mess with removing the studs as the machinist said they don't care what condition the cores come in as long as they get cores. Figure the least amount of time involved to remove the engine from the bay is my best bet at this point.

I was planning on going with these heads.

http://ramscyl.com/PagesHeads/Ford%2068_V10-PI.html

 

Time to have the heads ported and polished and a set of cams ground for it.