98 expedition 4.6 engine swap

[cleatus]

I have a 98 expedition with a 4.6. I have an available 2001 f150 4.6. What do I need to do the swap or is it worth to make it work. I know some coolant hoses are different, thats easy. I will use my coil packs and wires, but I know there are some different sensors and or locations.
Any info or ideas. Thanks.

 

[1955moose]

We get this question at least every couple of weeks. The motor bolting in is the easy part. Do both motors use coil on plug? Some of the early 98's still used the 2 coils with eight wires. Do you have the wiring harness from the donor vehicle along with any hoses, fittings, sensors? Anytime you jump into a 3 year difference vehicle, their will be issues. You'll need the computer out of the 01, and will have to probably have dealer reflash when all is bolted up. Is the 01 a fairly low mileage motor, that would be worth the trouble?

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[cleatus]

I thought about using the two coil packs with plug wires. I'm not really interested in going into a complicated swap with computers and such If it could be down with some extensions on sensors or rerouting some hoses I don't mind. I know it's not exactly plug and play, even though some not so experts have said otherwise. I figure you could probably get by with the ignition, its the same firing order but I not so sure about everything else.

 

[1955moose]

Nor am I. To find someone that did the exact swap is going to be tough. But as long as you have access to all the 01 wiring and sensors, in theory it should be ok. In your state do they smog the year of vehicle, or the engine. You might want to check that legal part out, just in case.

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[cleatus]

No smog, not a problem just throwing the code might be. I know of a mechanic that had told a friend it would work. I'll try to get up with him tomorrow. There isn't a huge difference in the engines mechanically. The ports and a little compression are a few things but that may be more than enough. A donor is a lot cheaper than a rebuild if its a semi straight forward swap.

 

[TobyU]

I think it will be pretty simple. I swapped an 06 6.8 from a moving van into an 01 Excursion.

Mine was COP to COP but it won't matter with your coils. The spark plugs don't care whether you put a long wire into the hole and onto the plug or a COP into the hole.
I kept my intake form the 01...this is what made it easy.
Several of your sensors are in the intake and throttle body to you remove from old engine and install new gaskets and put on new engine.
All the wiring harness will stay with car and the engine harness that you will pull with engine will be transferred to the new engine as you are putting intake on.
You can switch valve covers too if needed. I had to swap one.
I also had to change over oil pan and pickup tube since van chassis and excursion are very different.
The knock sensor and pretty much everything else just hooks right back up.
I think all the same holes are in the same places on the blocks and heads so if any connectors are different you can swap sensors but I don't think you will have to.
I put new exhaust manifold gaskets on mine since it was out and they are notorious for leaking.
20 studs on a V-10 and I can't remember if it was 4 or 6 that snapped off. A couple had enough sticking out to get with vise grips after soaking with PB blaster and heating up a little.
Had to drill and easy out 3-4 or them but now they have brand new grade 8 bolts and gaskets and should outlast the rest of vehicle.

Think of it like a reman shortblock. The block and heads are what you need...you put your existing stuff on that.
I also wanted to keep ny excursion 8 row serpentine belt so there wouldn't be an issue in future for looking up correct belt at parts store so I swapped the 6 row to my 8.
That meant I had to swap harmonic balancer and there is a little difference in timing chain cover idler boss for 6 row but I only had to put a spacer (even several thick washers would have worked) and a longer bolt through mine.
I could have left the 6 row and just put the belt around the inner 6 rows on alt and power steering pump and ac...BUT I was on a mission to do this as cheaply as possible but now cut any reliability corners so I already had a perfectly good 8 row belt and a spacer and bolt is cheaper than a new 6 row belt. I could have also cut two rows off of belt...but that is a little too out of the box.
All in all I doubt it would have any structural effect on the belt.

 

[crowncrazy87]

I would use your current intake, fuel rail/injectors, air cleaner assembly, basically everything from the air filter to the intake. That should will keep all your top end sensors the same. 98 and 01 are essentially the same except for the intake and being COP vs a waste spark style ignition and possibly sensor location. Doing this should pretty well make it an exact swap because I do believe that even the PI and non PI heads are interchangeable.

I have swapped so many parts and sensors between my 98 f150 4.6 and my wife's 02 Expy 5.4 that it's rediculous! And those are not only 3 years apart but also different displacement engines!

 

[cleatus]

The problem is you can just swap the intake. The 2001 up engines have undated heads and intake. I hear a lot conflicting reports, some say easy some say not. I'm just trying to find out if it just moving some sensor plugs to new locations or does it take a full computer and wiring harness switch. A not to complicated switch is a lot cheaper than rebuilding this 4.6. Trying to see if this financially feasible.

 

[crowncrazy87]

The updated heads to my understanding was an improvement in the ports to flow more freely. As I stated earlier you can put the PI heads on an earlier engine. I may be wrong best way to know is look at the ports and bolt locations on both heads.

 

[TobyU]

The problem is you can just swap the intake. The 2001 up engines have undated heads and intake. I hear a lot conflicting reports, some say easy some say not. I'm just trying to find out if it just moving some sensor plugs to new locations or does it take a full computer and wiring harness switch. A not to complicated switch is a lot cheaper than rebuilding this 4.6. Trying to see if this financially feasible.

Mine was 06-01 and a 6.8 do maybe apples to oranges.
I would check to see if intake fits.
If not can you make throttle body fit.
I wanted to keep my same injectors since same ecm...I thought this would be best.
Runs fine so I guess. Actually less pinging now on 87 but my old was very carboned up.