5.4L DOHC Navigator Motor Questions

I found myself a Navigator, was interested in pulling the motor for a... well, another toy. I have half the Internet telling me that they are awesome motors, a little work and I will have a great little (yea... little... right....) motor. On the other hand, people are telling me that the 4.6 DOHC is superior, and that the 5.4 is not worth the time.

That's where you guys come in, I don't know a lot about the mod motors. Anyone have input on this? I don't have a super tall budget, but I'm getting a great deal on this. So I guess the direction of this thread is "If you were in my shoes, what would you do?"

Any input is way helpful, and very much appreciated!

I guess I should add that this is out of a 2001ish (give or take, most likely give than anything) Navi. I'll get more details tomorrow

Size aside...... They aren't a bad lil motor. A lot of people keep with the 4.6 as you get a smaller "package".

Yea, we got a mustang (08 GT) with a 4.6 and we like it. Size isn't a big deal, that's what they make shoe horns for. I think if we got this we would upgrade the internals and add a little boost

They're rather tall, and I believe that's an iron block, so it's fairly heavy. They're very wide, too, but so is the 4.6 DOHC.

To me, whether to use it depends on the price, and what you plan to use it for. Road racing? No way. Turbo drag car? Yes. Mod motors love boost.

All the Lincoln motors are intech's aren't they? I remember most people saying they were nearly the same as the mustang engines aside from lacking a forged crank. This is all hearsay though. Someone here should speak modular.

I believe at one point the Navigators upgraded from steel cranks. At this point, I have not done enough research to tell one from another. It seems like they kind of need boost, without it their numbers are kind of 'meh'. This is just what I have been seeing. The mustang people like to chose the 4.6 over the 5.4 in most cases, but the 5.4 has that which there is no replacement for.

save the headache and just get a 460.. physically smaller, probably lighter, and you will be able to make more torques than you know what to do with..

I've been putting together a junkyard 4.6L DOHC Lincoln motor for a project and while I would consider the 5.4 for the extra torque, it weighs a ton more since it's physically larger AND only came in iron block IIRC (in the Navigators). I like the 4.6 because you can get the bulletproof Teksid blocks which are all aluminum with 6-bolt mains out of the Mk VIIIs. It's a great block (it's made in Italy, what's not to like?) and way lighter.

The issue with the Mk VIII engines is that the B heads are E36 M3 for anything but high-power applications due to the twin intake ports.

If you have the Navi motor I'd use it. It'll still make 300 hp and lots o torque, it's just heavy.

I operate a fleet of about 15 5.4 ford trucks, honestly the 5.4 is a lot more reliable than the late model 5.8 and 7.5, it's better on fuel too. The only thing that sucks about them is breaking or stripping spark plugs, and both are getting easy with better tools becoming available for the repairs. Some of my 5.4 trucks are pushing 300K miles and show no sign of getting tired. I also have a few 1/2 ton trucks with the 4.6, and while the torque difference is obvious the 4.6 also seems to be very reliable with one truck about to turn over to 300K

The Mark VIII block would be interesting too. Didn't know they were all aluminum. Those with some aviator heads would probably be an interesting combo. I'll have to keep an eye open.

that is a gigantic engine, which makes it interesting to look at. i'd put one in a town car just for fun. I wouldn't use it because it was better than anything else though.

Something to consider is intake height. The 5.4 was only put in trucks and SUVs and so there weren't any low profile intakes to fit under car hoods. I think somebody makes adapter plates to bolt a cobra intake to the 5.4 so that might be an option.

Aren't the 4.8 and 5.4 blocks essentially the same, except for deck height?

If so, doesn't seem like that would make a significant size difference.

Some interesting (but questionably accurate) Wiki details here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Modular_engine