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How much power do you want?

A 460 would be a relatively easy build, they are still fairly common in junk yards. A later model low-compression engine would be a good candidate for forced induction. You're challenge will be engineering the mounting of it, mating it to a transmission, then controlling hte transmission. (Remember, these automatics are computer controlled).

A V-10 will bolt in, but a wiring harness swap will be in order. Forced induction will raise your power level. A sturdier transmission will also be needed. Not much in the way of aftermarket/speed parts for a V-10.

A 5.4L will (of course) bolt in without any modifications. Forced induction will raise the power levels. Your transmission will still need some work to handle the power. The 5.4L has a lot more in the way of available speed parts, mainly thanks to the Mustang and F-150 crowd.

Bottom line, it's your truck, your money and your time.

 

Well with everything I've read, not saying I know, the V10 has a lot more options than the 5.4L. Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places, but in the case of the 6.8 whipple has premade kits for them and you can find videos of them on youtube.

I want boat loads of power, and a respectable quarter mile time for the vehicle. I also want these gobs of power such that I can actually turn an overdrive unit without too much strain on motor so I can also get economy much better than one would expect for the performance range I'm looking towards. Thus the scope of this project is 3 fold:

1. Power
2. Economy
3. AS cheap as possible (although I'm sure it'll be a tall bill)

Power and economy usually dont turn hand in hand, but what good is this power if I can't use it (i.e. keep gas in it) and the whole reason I want to do this with my truck is it is practical and comfortable.

My big issue is how to get where I want to go: do I want a massive powerplant and try to offset it with a bunch of gears, or do I want a smaller engine that can make large power with minimal added gears?

Hope yall get my drift, and if you know where I can find 5.4 parts suitable for the truck motor please post a link

 

I'm a Lightning/03-04 Cobra modder who just got into Diesels so here is something I can actually really chime in about.

You should not have to get a Lightning computer. Only thing different about the Lightning harness that I'm aware of is an additional IAT sensor, a manifold pressure sensor, and the intercooler pump. These are not actually needed unless you actually stick with the Eaton blower (don't know why you would go through the trouble of doing this conversion and keep that incredibly weak blower). The whipples for instance typically have a boost bypass device built in and do not require a computer driven switch to active it, which eliminates the need for the manifold pressure sensor.

If you want to get 4V heads the navigator heads are an excellent choice. They outflow 2v heads by a huge margin. The only DECENT 2v heads are the new Trickflows. Reichard Racing makes an intake adapter so you can use the 03-04 cobra lower intake with a 5.4 4v setup. That gives you a much broader range of options for blowers. You would need the Lightning timing cover, harmonic balancer, crank pulley, and all the lightning lower brackets and idlers etc. You would then need a 03/04 cobra lower intake manifold and intercooler. That's just the start of course because their are many smaller pieces to that puzzle.

The Lightning engines had forged cranks but crappy rods and pistons. You could go with a stronger block but you won't reach a power level that would require it I think unless you have very deep pockets.

The biggest benefit from going with a Lightning conversion is the water to air intercooler system. It's extremely effective and will make good power, specially coupled with a strong shortblock and navi heads.

This is a huge subject and a ton of ground to cover. I know I'm bouncing all over the place. You're welcome to PM me if you have any questions.

BTW, if you tow anything you'd be MUCH better off with a Turbo. Sustained boost from a Roots blower will tear a motor apart in no time.

 

I hadn't read this when I posted above.

After reading this I heavily suggest a turbo kit. On a stock shortblock you could probably push close to 500hp/torque to the tires without needing to tear into the engine. Turbo's are much better on crappy flowing heads like a 2v has. Turbo's are very economical. Also, 6.8 will drink a ton of gas at cruising speeds compared to a 5.4 and if we're talking about streetable power it is just as good as the 6.8.

 

How about an aluminum block?

http://www.teamjdm.com/articles/JDM_Motor.pdf

JDM would have you covered when it comes to that.

I wonder if the new 2011 GT500s with their new aluminum blocked 5.4 would work with our trucks. The Ford GT's block can be adapted to our 5.4s so I can imagine this new block can be also.

Here's a JDM longblock, shortblock, and JDM heads.
JDM Engineering

As for turbocharging 5.4s, I've read that PSI is the go to place for that. Their custom setups are apparently highly touted in the Lightening crowd.

Welcome to PSI Motorsports

 

Not to hijack the thread, but I have thought about a turbo for my 3V 5.4 as they are very cheap to buy compared to the roots style blower, and have the potential for very quick spool up- look at how fast some of the new diesels spin up. Installing turbo's are fairly straightforward, so what turbo would you suggest for a 3V (truck in signature) for a daily driver and pulling a few times a month?

 

Well I'm not against a turbo at all, there are just a lot more factors to the overall system than I am completely knowledgeable about. If yall want to go ahead and get the turbo wisdom flowing I'm in favor. The only reason I wanted a blower was because of the bottom end gains, where my truck is the weakest. However if a turbo can give me the power I want down in the bottom powerband I'm in favor.

 

I think that if you really wanted to get the lowdown on turbos for the 5.4s, maybe you can try to give PSI a call and just pick at their brains for info. Tell them what you're aiming for and perhaps they can give suggestions.

 

Good luck with that. Patrick @ PSI is extremely busy and is not easy to get a hold of.

Really I think anyone with a 5.4 2v could purchase most any Lightning turbo kit and be fine. I'd think you'd probably want a 55-60mm turbo. That will give you great low end and since you already have moderately high compression you can't run crazy top end boost and a smaller turbo won't make crazy top end boost anyways.

The more I look into it the more I think you guys may just want to go with a good centri blower. I can't find any decent quality turbo kits for these trucks.

ProCharger Truck/SUV Systems

Procharger is probably the best choice. They sell Top to bottom blower kits for the 5.4 2v's and 3v's. They offer intercooler kits with injectors and all. Beautiful part about it is that you could install this yourself. If you are good enough to take off the intake manifold you can install the whole kit. Procharger may even offer these with canned tunes so you don't have to mess around with a tuner shop. BTW, picking a tuner shop if you're new to the game can be a dangerous thing.

 

Reps... not a fan of prochargers at all, but given the circumstance I may have to go that route. Well I would rep ya but it wont let me.

 

That's what I was wondering about. So never mind.

 

Subcribing. I am wanting to drop a built 5.4 into my P71, so I am reading as much as I can about getting power out of them.

 

If you've got money, you can get lots of power out of them... on the N/A level in the super duty 2V heads cams, headers, and cold air intake on top of the plastic manifold do wonders. If you are going to use a truck 5.4 I would advise an 04-2V simply because the spitting plug problem has been remedied by adding 2 extra threads and the plugs aren't as hard to change as the 3 valve heads.

If you are going navigator heads or Cobra heads I really dont know too much more than what's in this thread.

Sounds to me like you're trying to build a low-budget Kenny Bell Marauder

 

I'm not huge into the 5.4's but I can tell you the best power I think anyone has ever been able to get out of a 4.6 based motor was around 530rwhp. That's super high compression, race gas, custom everything etc. Probably cost $10k. So if you're trying to do this on a budget and don't care how you get the power I would get an all forged shortblock (spend atleast $3k), trickflow heads (might get away with Foxlake stg 3 heads...almost price of trickflows though), and a basic blower like a vortec or something. Grand total would probably be between $6000-$7000 and it would make a pretty easy 600hp.

The 4.6 and 5.4 motors are actually very strong engines. For instance, I know of a street driven 1200rwhp Ford GT supercar. It's got a 5.4 aluminum block (unique oil system though), 4v heads (specific to GT but not that special), and twin turbo's.

Only reason I mentioned Procharger by the way is the intercooler. Having an intercooler is pretty important for a daily driver that is running a blower.