Sorry to sound silly or uninformed, but what exacactly is a modular motor? What makes it different from, well... non-modular motors? I've wondered about this for a while and figured I'd ask.

 

i for one would like the explaination as well...

 

First released in 1991 (the 4.6L V8) Ford's "Modular engines" were designed so the engine factory could, within hours, change from building V6 to V8 or V10 engines to meet whatever demand was necessary at that time. The theory was a single engine plant could be more flexable and change production quickly.

BUT the reality was the V8's were in such high demand that's pretty much all that was made. The planned V6 modular based engine never was produced.

Ford quickly found the bore spacing and other internal dimentions limited displacment so they were "locked in" to 4.6 liters on the V8 and there was not room to expand the V8's displacment without casting a new, taller deck height block and increase stroke (the 5.4L V8) to keep cylinder heads interchangable with the 4.6L they kept the same cylinder bore spacing. Ford has, in an attempt to gain a little larger cylinder bore diameter, tried using thinner, larger diameter cylinder liners in some aluminum blocks and spray bore technology but nothing has yet been produced with a larger bore.

The Modulars are excellent engines but size is their limiting factor, externally they are as big as an old pushrod 460 V8 but internally the V8s displacment is limited so Ford adds cylinders (the V10) or supercharging (V8 Lightning and Cobra Mustangs)

 

Ford has just released a 5.0 Version of the MOD engine. It will be available thru FRPP. It is a different stronger block than the production units and can be carburated.