Aero NPI turbocharging

[mercurygm88]

This guys at 647hp, 605 torque with a supercharged 4 valve. Page 10 is dyno numbers, top of page 9 is his dyno video. Of course thats also at 19.5 PSI.

http://mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=96587

[knucklehead0202]

Lets get real here guys, horsepower numbers mean much less in a big car than torque, and especially where the torque is. To the OP, if you have the means and are not restricted, a 351 swap would be a better choice than any of the others, as they make gobs of low-end torque. A 5.4 is a good alternative simply by virtue of making much more low-end torque than a 4.6. If you dump a ton of crap on a 4.6, it'll make more horsepower than a 5.4, and maybe more torque, but it'll be much higher up in the revs, requiring a gear swap and a stall converter. A stock PI 5.4 with little to no modification would be a world better than a sad, tired '93 4.6, and likely not adversely affect fuel economy. That's why I proposed it. Crownvic.net may be a better source for info on this swap, as we are more geared toward boxes here. When I had my '98 I looked at just about every motor angle on it before deciding I'd just rather have a box with a pushrod motor in it.

Your old computer would probably not know the difference with the 5.4 except that you'd have to run your funky old ignition stuff on it. There are plenty of folks out there that have converted the older stuff to coil-on-plug too, with or without engine swaps, and the beauty of sticking to any mod motor crap is that you can source a lot of it in boneyards to save yourself money. Or......you could buy a cheap ebay universal turbo kit, piece together a bunch of shit and do some serious fab work, as well as tuning, and have a turbo car that would be pretty cool, but a mechanical abortion. I remember years ago seeing video of an aero grand marquis that had a triton v10 swap with twin turbos. That'd be neat but a logistical bastard for sure. I would say decide on a budget, start pricing some stuff, and that will likely dictate what direction your project takes you. Good luck and keep us in the loop.

[89TownCar]

Tis a shame you have a '93 if you had an early 92 Id be suggesting a nice 5.0L HO swap

[C-Dave]

5.4 swap is not worth it unless it's DOHC. With simple bolt ons PI 4.6 will be just as fast.

Also, PI heads and intake will work but that will raise your compression and if you want to slap a turbo on top of that might not be such a good idea. PI 4.6 with a blower and you will be at 400 RWHP without issues.

The thing is, I don't want fast. I want more low-end torque. If the car never sees 5 grand, I'm good with that. That's why I'm not looking for answers on a Mustang board. PI swap puts the compression at 10.4:1. For a blower on top of that, I'd have to swap in PI pistons, too.

If I'm looking at pulling the original motor out, why replace it with another 4.6? How much work am I adding to an engine swap to put in a 5.4 or a 351 Windsor?

[C-Dave]

Tis a shame you have a '93 if you had an early 92 Id be suggesting a nice 5.0L HO swap

The stock 5.0 High Output would give me 30 more ft/lbs at 3200 rpm. I wouldn't swap motors for 30 ft/lbs. For a 5.4 with 350 ft/lbs, maybe I'd consider an engine swap, and for a 351W with 400 ft/lbs, I'd be pulling the 4.6 out right now.

[sly]

yeah... for low end torque... you'd be better with a truck 5.0 (explorer) or 351. Truck 4.6 for the direct swap. The car mod motors aren't really set up for low end torque. They're more staged for mid-range grunt. Although, a higher stall torque converter can make all the difference. But if you want to actually use low rpm grunt, yeah... pushrod.

[gadget73]

Ford's own internal fix for the lack of low end torque was a wide ratio trans with a lower first gear. Swap that thing to a 4R70w and you don't need so much bottom end grunt.

[Bobcat]

If you're not looking to make it a racecar, why are you looking at turbo. This isn't a diesel truck, this is a gas motor 4.6.

Your motor is one of the worst 4.6l they made. Honestly, I'd just gear up the rear end and then PI swap it and if that's not good enough, get a Vortech supercharger kit. Look in your engine and you tell me where you can fit a 3" downpipe for a turbo, without removing AC and or Heat. The whole idea of "slapping a turbo on a car" is much more complicated than you'd think.

Turbo
Custom piping
Headers
Tune
Injectors
Pump
Wastegate
Wastegate controller
Intercooler
intake piping

Then at the end of the day, you've still got a wheezy ass NPI motor.

[JeffBoudah]

5.4 swaps are pretty disappointing from my years reading about the few done on CVN. Not a plug and play deal at all. Plus you'll need a spendy HPS intake... they are all a mile tall in trucks.

There is no easy answer for these early 4.6's, the motors and the electronics dont do mods well.

Probably the easiest would be PI heads on your NPI bottom end, with an edelbrock and carb with a stand alone distributor. Compression would go up to like 10.2:1

[pantera77]

5.4 swaps are pretty disappointing from my years reading about the few done on CVN. Not a plug and play deal at all. Plus you'll need a spendy HPS intake... they are all a mile tall in trucks.

This. Everyone talks about 5.4 swaps, but I've yet to see an impressive one. Billy's car ran what? Low 15's? I think Pier ran low 14's with a 5sp, longtubes and all those others mods.

[gadget73]

There is no easy answer for these early 4.6's, the motors and the electronics dont do mods well.

True. Not sure if it has been done with any great success, but the one experience I have with trying to do a PI motor with stock electronics failed. OBD2 swap is possible, but not the easiest thing to pull off and utterly impossible without a couple of wiring diagrams and a lot of patience.

[Mr Bean]

OBD2 swap is simple. Find a donor car, swap the whole harness. Done. lol

[gadget73]

Interfacing the engine harness to the stock body harness is the pain in the ass part. Making the engine work in a vacuum so to speak is not so bad. Its the same thing stuffing a 302 in a roundbody car. Engine is simple, making the motor talk to the car is more troublesome. It wouldn't be so bad if the EVTM's had connector face pinouts for every plug. They don't have them for inter-harness connectors, especially on the older stuff. Going through those books page by page figuring out what wire in what connector does which thing is the bear.

[sly]

+1 I had to fix a couple things Thain missed on my car. Took me a few days to do just 3 f'n wires. This car is now the epitome of if it ain't broke don't fix it (involving the engine electrics at least - I still do all kinds of AUX electronics stuff that has no bearing on engine operation).

[gadget73]

I missed a couple on John's car too. He had no oxygen sensor heater circuit. I never realized it wasn't just powered as part of the engine harness.