I hate to keep starting new threads but I also hate changing the subject of my other recently started threads.

The majority of what I'm reading is that the 1988 Crown Victoria came with a 5.0L roller engine. Also, it has speed density sequential fuel injection. It has flat top forged pistons (edit: not true, they are cast) with no valve reliefs. It has E6SE heads.

There are posters here and elsewhere who contradict all the above statements. Even Wikipedia is fuzzy.

I have located an engine locally that is advertised as running and having 55k original miles. Relatively cheap even if for parts. My guess is I would have one chance to salvage the SEFI if that would be worth the effort. Seller dependent.


Please help me understand what is true or not true about this engine. If speed density SEFI, is that worth salvaging?

 

I would likely tear the engine down for a look and upgrade the cam at least. More likely a thorough going through. Since I want bottom end torque, the E6SE heads might be the way to go instead of the E7TE heads I jusst picked up.

And hopefully, the car has the digital dash found on other Ford full sized products in '88. It would lend veracity to the mileage claim.

If I buy it (seems likely) I will try to check compression before pulling it.

 

The plus side is that the engine probably has had an easy life and will last a really long time with that low mileage.
The minus is that there are much better options for power, such as the Exploder engine (see my reply to your other post).

With such low mileage, I'd simply run the engine and not tear it apart.

 

Should be a roller motor but it only made 150hp so it's really only good as a rebuild, the heads and cam are junk, the intake is tiny and the injectors are only 14lb/hr so even the EFI system isn't worth salvaging as there is no upgrade potential.

 

Looking at the Crown Vic's cam, it appears to be almost identical to the 1986 F-150 5.0 cam that is stock in my current engine. If I did use the Crown Vic engine, I would need to bolt on my current EFI manifolds and injectors. Doing this, could a mustang cam be simply dropped in? Are my current injectors 14#? Would it need Mustang injectors? Would my current ECM go nuts?

Where does my current engine get its 20 extra HP compared to the Vic?

I'm leaning toward sticking with what I already have. However, the idea of dropping in a low miles engine that could be pepped up easily and cheaply intrigues me.

 

I have this same engine in my 52 Ford F1. FMX Auto and 3.92 gears in the rear.

The engine in stock form has a severely choked down exhaust with 4 cats. It puts out 150 hp, but even the factory ford dual exhaust option upped that to 160. Torque stays the same at 270 TQ. The intake is also restrictive.

On mine I have kept the stock camshaft for now and have freed up the intake and exhaust of the engine. I am using speedway tight fit headers for ford (warning will need a smaller starter from 94-95 mustang) with 2.5" dual exhaust no cross over pipe yet. On the intake side I went with a old Edelbrock 289 Streetmaster intake with a 670CFM 2v throttle body from a old Holley Pro-Jection Kit. It's the same as the Chevy 454 TBI TB.

The Streetmaster intake is high rise single plane, but it's not made for racing. The runners are small and long for building torque. It was made during the gas crunch of the 70's and tethers out at about 4500 RPM so it makes it a good match for the engine where the cam and heads stop around the same RPM range. Also throttle response has been good.

(later on I do have stuff put up to upgrade like GT40 3 bar heads and a explorer roller cam)

For now it works great as a bump around engine and I can smoke the tires on demand.

 

It is the same.

Yes.

No.. 19's, no, no.

Intake mainly.

 

Thanks for the timely and informative responses.

FWIW: I made a deal to buy the engine. The car was in estate limbo for years before the present owner picked it up. He said he has had it about five years. Little old man owned. Pristine interior with that godawful plastic wrap on the red velour seats. For my part of the deal I get anything I want off the car. The car has been sold for demolition derby service. I see a lot of bling under the hood. The seller has invited me to help pull the engine on Monday. Save anything I want which includes the AOD transmission. Other things like relays, fusible links, washer fluid/overflow tank, fuel pump, wiper motor, AC compressor and condenser. Where all my wiring harnesses were wrapped in black tape, all the harnesses on this ride have like new, shiny loom. This was a super nice car when the old gentleman passed away.

The seller only wants the cat dual exhaust system.

 

88 Crown Vic cam is the base roller cam, The 86 truck cam is a flat tappet cam. The Vic motor does not have valve reliefs.

 

Oh right good catch. In '92 the Crown Vics switched to the 4.6 Modular motor and guess where those now surplus 5.0 motors ended up... yes in the F150 for '92 and '93.

 

As of this moment, I am planning to put my truck's intake and EFI on the Crown Vic engine and run it like that. If the machine shop gets my E7TE heads done, I may go ahead and run them at this time. Meantime, I am proceeding with the machine work on my original block. It will get drilled and tapped for the roller equipment. The original block will get new pistons with reliefs. I'll be looking for some GT40 heads also. I'll build the motor I want for swapping in later. I have been looking at aftermarket EFI and may do that too. It would depend on how my current EFI acts with this first swap. I'm not going to put up with the 2000 RPM cold starts. That was possibly a factor in the destruction of the original engine. And I was never happy with the high RPM cold starts.

 

I was aware that the '88 roller had flat top, no relief pistons. I thought there was debate as to weather the higher lift cams, Mustang and 31-255-5 would work with these pistons. I thought I remember that the no relief pistons would be okay as long as they were under the deep, E6SE heads. I'll be damned if I can find that debate now.

 

The CV motor will run fine in your truck but it won't make any more power. P-V clearance isn't a problem with a relatively short duration cam(anything stock or the common aftermarket EFI cams) even with flat top pistons, the piston is always down in the hole when the valves are open the most. Yeah that cold start high idle thing made me cringe too, the Mustang PCMs weren't programmed that way so I was happy to get rid of it when I did the MAF conversion.

 

I've run stock SD for 30 years and stock MAF for about 3 years, and the only time I got a 2000 rpm idle was when I accidentally knocked off the big vacuum line going to the PCV valve.

If your engine is doing this, I suspect you have a bad air leak somewhere.

 

Done it since new. Ford techs said it was normal when I cried about it.
Revs high for about ten seconds then settles down to normal idle.