I know this term applies to different Ford engines,but what does it mean? Other manufacturers don't use this term. How do Ford Modular engines differ from the other brands and how do the current Modular Ford engines differ from former Ford engines that are pre-modular. All brands have a block, crank, connecting rods and pistons, etc. so what distinguishes a Modular engine from one that is not Modular?

 

Modular is the ability of the plant to change tooling when variants of the same engine are needed. It pertains mostly to V8's. jd

 

The modular design is so called because the cylinders are all the same design. They can take the cores and make a any engine configuration that they want with very minimal changes to the tooling. The 4.6l, 5.4l v8s the 6.8l v10. I believe that even the new 3.5V6 is a variant of the modular series.

 

When Ford planned the new engine plant in the late 80's, they wanted to be able to make a variety of engines in the same plant and on the same line, all at the same time. Supposedly they're able to make V2 through V16 engines all on the same line at the same time. So far I think they're only making V8 and v10 engines, but they might be making the new V6s on that line as well. It would be cool if they could make a nice high output V4, though.

 

From Wiki:

The Modular engine is Ford Motor Company's modern overhead camshaft (OHC) V8 and V10 engine family. It gradually replaced the Windsor small-block and 385 big-block engines over several years in the mid-1990s. Contrary to popular belief, the Modular engine did not get its name from its design or sharing of certain parts among the engine family. Instead, the name was derived from a manufacturing plant protocol, "Modular", where the plant and its tooling could be changed out in a matter of hours to manufacture different versions of the engine family.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-0>[1]</SUP> It is used in Ford trucks, (called Triton) in Lincolns (called Intech) and in Ford and Mercury cars.

 

Well that's news to me, I was told the 4.6 and 5.4 used the same block, just with a longer stroke on the 5.4.

Also, if you divide 5.4 by 8, then multiply that by 10, you get 6.75. Round up to the nearest tenth, and you get 6.8, the size of the V10. Coincidence? I doubt it.

I always heard the whole idea of the "modular" family was the ability to interchange parts, and that's why it was called that.

 

Thats correct, the 5.4L just has a taller deck other than that the blocks are the same and a 6.8L is just a 5.4L with 2 more cylinders added to it. Even though they share a lot of parts Ford still changed things from year to year and model to model so the engines aren't exactly the same but darn close.

IIRC you can only stroke a 4.6L block to around 5.0L FWIW.

 

I am kinda laughing at what it says on why it is called modular, because last I checked, those are two things that are done together to ease both production and maintnance. (i.e. parts are interchangeable, if they are not, they are so close that their tooling is to ease production) makes things much cheaper to produce, therefore easier on the consumer's wallet

 

I did too it used the definition to discredit the reason for its namesake then to affirm it. Have to love wikipedia.

I also forgot to mention from what I remember the 4.2L was suppose to be a modular engine but someting went wrong in the process and it wasn't. You would think the easy way would have been to either have a 5.4L with 2 cylinders lopped off or a 4.6L with 2 cylinders lopped of for a V6. A 5.4L minus 2 cylinders would be a 4.05L FWIW.

 

Wiki is not disputing any of the parts interchange capability except for model changes, and different engine configurations. It is simply stating the meaning of the term "modular." Just because parts interchange doesn't make them modular. jd

 

No, it wasn't. The 4.2L is a bored out 3.8L, which was derived by removing two cylinders from a 302.

 

Yeah the 4.2 dog is going to be replaced by a 2 valve 4.6 V-8 in 09. Gets the same mpg as the 4.2 with alot more power.

 

I guess what I should have said was the base V6 in the '97 F150's was supposed to be a modular based engine.

 

IIRC, this is a photo of the new 6.0L Modular engine at the 2003 auto show.

I could be wrong as there were tons of things to photograph in such a short time.

 

Thats the 5.4 Ford GT enigne