2008 F150 4.6 2V Romeo Engine Swap to a 4.6 2V Windsor
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2008 F150 4.6 2V Romeo Engine Swap to a 4.6 2V Windsor
Good morning,
I have looked high and low on the internet on someone swapping a 2004-2008 F150 Romeo 4.6 2V to a Windsor 4.6 2V and could not find anything. Maybe I did not not look hard enough? But I wanted to tell you it can be done, I just did it!!! Here is my story and the differences in the two engines.
I have a 2008 F150 4X4 with the 4.6 2V Romeo engine. My truck has 420,000 miles with the original engine. I can tell it was getting tired. After looking around at the local junk yards and on eBay for the exact engine I soon realized I was not paying $1000+ for an engine with over 150,000-200,000 miles. I started researching my options and discovered that Ford made a sister engine to the Romeo, the Windsor! Why could I not put a Windsor engine in my truck?
I began to search for a great deal and found a 2010 4.6 2V Windsor engine out of a Crown Victoria Police Interceptor at my local junk yard. It cost $405 for the engine and all of the accessories. The engine had 116,000 miles but was ran on propane. I ordered all of the gaskets to regasket the engine before I began to remove my old Romeo engine. While I started to regasket the engine, I could not believe how clean the inside of the Windsor engine was. It was like brand new with 0 carbon buildup. Propane must be a cleaner burning fuel source over gasoline.
I got halfway into the regasket job on the Windsor engine and realized maybe I should remove my old engine and compare the two engines side by side for their differences. I did not want to backtrack. Here is the run down on their differences.
1. The timing cover on the Romeo engine has three idle pullies while the Windsor engine has only one. The tensioner on the Romeo engine is bolted on with three bolts while the Windsor engine is bolted on with a single center bolt. I put my Romeo engine timing cover on the Windsor engine so my pullies, tensioner and serpentine belt would match my truck part lookup at the parts store.
2. The oil cooler on the Romeo engine has the oil filter sticking out the front of the engine while the Windsor engine had the oil filter sticking out of the driver side. The bottom radiator hose on the Romeo engine goes onto the oil cooler on the driver side of the engine while the Windsor engine has the bottom radiator hose going on the front of the engine. Both oil coolers use the same gasket and bolts. I also noticed the oil filters were different between the engines. I just used my truck oil filter part number.
3. The coolant temperature sensor, while the same on both the Romeo and the Windsor engines, the plug is different between the two. One is male and the other is female. Depending on your wiring harness you will have to swap the sensor plug.
4. The knock sensor on the Romeo engine plugs in the back of the engine while on the Windsor engine it was plugging into the front. I had to orientate the knock sensor on the Windsor engine where the plug would come out the back of the engine to plug into my truck wiring harness. Both engines use the same knock sensor.
5. On both of the Romeo and the Windsor engines is the metal heater hose coolant tube that runs from the back of the water pump in the valley of the engine to the back of the engine where the heater hose plugs in from the firewall. On the Romeo engine there is a branch hose that comes off of this metal coolant tube that feeds the back of the throttle body. The Windsor engine metal coolant tube does not have this extra branch hose. I just installed the metal coolant tube off of my Romeo engine on the Windsor engine.
6. The throttle body on the Romeo engine is facing the front of the truck while on the Windsor engine is coming out on the driver side. I removed the whole intake off of my Romeo engine and installed it on the Windsor engine. I did an intake swap on my truck to Dorman a while back. Doing the intake swap is the easiest solution. Note the spark plugs, ignition coils and fuel injectors are the same between the two engines.
7. The exhaust manifolds are different. To reduce on the headache I just purchased two new ones for my Romeo engine. They bolted right up to the Windsor engine. Note the EGR tube on the driver side that feeds the EGR on the intake. This is different between the Romeo and Windsor engines. If you decide to reuse your exhaust manifolds use the Romeo ones on the Windsor.
8. I had to use the crank sensor off of the Windsor engine. For some reason my PCM would not recognize the crank sensor from the Romeo engine.
9. The driver side camshaft sprocket on the Romeo engine has 8 raised notches that the cam sensor reads to send data to the PCM. This has to be swapped over to the Windsor engine. The Windsor engine only has one raised notch. I did not know this and my PCM could not read the position of my camshaft. I used the to wedge my timing chain and the to do the camshaft sprocket swap. That was nerve racking. Make sure you paint the timing chain link where the timing dot is on the camshaft sprocket. I recommend doing this outside of your truck. I had to do it after I already installed the Windsor engine inside my truck.
10. The PCV valve on the Romeo engine has an electrical connection which the Windsor engine did not. I just put my PCV valve from my Romeo engine valve cover on my Windsor engine valve cover. The PCV valve is on the passenger valve cover on both engines. The PCV valve just screws into the valve cover by hand.
11. The oil pickup tube, oil pan and oil dip stick tube are longer on the Romeo engine compared to the Windsor engine. I just took all three off of the Romeo engine and put on the Windsor engine. They are direct swaps.
12. The Windsor engine I purchased did not come with motor mounts. I highly recommend changing them while doing this engine swap.
The journey has been a learning experience! This job is a two man job for sure. I had my friend help me and without him I could not do it. I highly recommend taking the cab off of the frame if you have a lift. You could do the job in a day if you remove the cab. We did not have a lift so we had to use a chain hoist to remove/install the engine. It took us two day to do the swap.
I hope this helps someone and I would be glad to answer any questions that you may have. Save some $, get a low milage Windsor and swap out that tired of Romeo it is worth it.
Thanks,
Michael
I have looked high and low on the internet on someone swapping a 2004-2008 F150 Romeo 4.6 2V to a Windsor 4.6 2V and could not find anything. Maybe I did not not look hard enough? But I wanted to tell you it can be done, I just did it!!! Here is my story and the differences in the two engines.
I have a 2008 F150 4X4 with the 4.6 2V Romeo engine. My truck has 420,000 miles with the original engine. I can tell it was getting tired. After looking around at the local junk yards and on eBay for the exact engine I soon realized I was not paying $1000+ for an engine with over 150,000-200,000 miles. I started researching my options and discovered that Ford made a sister engine to the Romeo, the Windsor! Why could I not put a Windsor engine in my truck?
I began to search for a great deal and found a 2010 4.6 2V Windsor engine out of a Crown Victoria Police Interceptor at my local junk yard. It cost $405 for the engine and all of the accessories. The engine had 116,000 miles but was ran on propane. I ordered all of the gaskets to regasket the engine before I began to remove my old Romeo engine. While I started to regasket the engine, I could not believe how clean the inside of the Windsor engine was. It was like brand new with 0 carbon buildup. Propane must be a cleaner burning fuel source over gasoline.
I got halfway into the regasket job on the Windsor engine and realized maybe I should remove my old engine and compare the two engines side by side for their differences. I did not want to backtrack. Here is the run down on their differences.
1. The timing cover on the Romeo engine has three idle pullies while the Windsor engine has only one. The tensioner on the Romeo engine is bolted on with three bolts while the Windsor engine is bolted on with a single center bolt. I put my Romeo engine timing cover on the Windsor engine so my pullies, tensioner and serpentine belt would match my truck part lookup at the parts store.
2. The oil cooler on the Romeo engine has the oil filter sticking out the front of the engine while the Windsor engine had the oil filter sticking out of the driver side. The bottom radiator hose on the Romeo engine goes onto the oil cooler on the driver side of the engine while the Windsor engine has the bottom radiator hose going on the front of the engine. Both oil coolers use the same gasket and bolts. I also noticed the oil filters were different between the engines. I just used my truck oil filter part number.
3. The coolant temperature sensor, while the same on both the Romeo and the Windsor engines, the plug is different between the two. One is male and the other is female. Depending on your wiring harness you will have to swap the sensor plug.
4. The knock sensor on the Romeo engine plugs in the back of the engine while on the Windsor engine it was plugging into the front. I had to orientate the knock sensor on the Windsor engine where the plug would come out the back of the engine to plug into my truck wiring harness. Both engines use the same knock sensor.
5. On both of the Romeo and the Windsor engines is the metal heater hose coolant tube that runs from the back of the water pump in the valley of the engine to the back of the engine where the heater hose plugs in from the firewall. On the Romeo engine there is a branch hose that comes off of this metal coolant tube that feeds the back of the throttle body. The Windsor engine metal coolant tube does not have this extra branch hose. I just installed the metal coolant tube off of my Romeo engine on the Windsor engine.
6. The throttle body on the Romeo engine is facing the front of the truck while on the Windsor engine is coming out on the driver side. I removed the whole intake off of my Romeo engine and installed it on the Windsor engine. I did an intake swap on my truck to Dorman a while back. Doing the intake swap is the easiest solution. Note the spark plugs, ignition coils and fuel injectors are the same between the two engines.
7. The exhaust manifolds are different. To reduce on the headache I just purchased two new ones for my Romeo engine. They bolted right up to the Windsor engine. Note the EGR tube on the driver side that feeds the EGR on the intake. This is different between the Romeo and Windsor engines. If you decide to reuse your exhaust manifolds use the Romeo ones on the Windsor.
8. I had to use the crank sensor off of the Windsor engine. For some reason my PCM would not recognize the crank sensor from the Romeo engine.
9. The driver side camshaft sprocket on the Romeo engine has 8 raised notches that the cam sensor reads to send data to the PCM. This has to be swapped over to the Windsor engine. The Windsor engine only has one raised notch. I did not know this and my PCM could not read the position of my camshaft. I used the to wedge my timing chain and the to do the camshaft sprocket swap. That was nerve racking. Make sure you paint the timing chain link where the timing dot is on the camshaft sprocket. I recommend doing this outside of your truck. I had to do it after I already installed the Windsor engine inside my truck.
10. The PCV valve on the Romeo engine has an electrical connection which the Windsor engine did not. I just put my PCV valve from my Romeo engine valve cover on my Windsor engine valve cover. The PCV valve is on the passenger valve cover on both engines. The PCV valve just screws into the valve cover by hand.
11. The oil pickup tube, oil pan and oil dip stick tube are longer on the Romeo engine compared to the Windsor engine. I just took all three off of the Romeo engine and put on the Windsor engine. They are direct swaps.
12. The Windsor engine I purchased did not come with motor mounts. I highly recommend changing them while doing this engine swap.
The journey has been a learning experience! This job is a two man job for sure. I had my friend help me and without him I could not do it. I highly recommend taking the cab off of the frame if you have a lift. You could do the job in a day if you remove the cab. We did not have a lift so we had to use a chain hoist to remove/install the engine. It took us two day to do the swap.
I hope this helps someone and I would be glad to answer any questions that you may have. Save some $, get a low milage Windsor and swap out that tired of Romeo it is worth it.
Thanks,
Michael
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