lil_Blue_Ford
Well-Known Member
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Supporting Member
V8 Engine Swap
TRS 20th Anniversary
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- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 8,356
- Reaction score
- 6,221
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Butler, PA, USSA
- Vehicle Year
- 95
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 4.9L
- Transmission
- Manual
I kinda like your plan, should do well. I’d throw an aftermarket high flow cat on, if I remember correctly technically it’s a Federal thing that it’s supposed to have a cat if that’s how it came. Not that it’s overly likely anyone is going to really do anything about it, I really don’t have a problem with throwing a generic one on there. That’s how my choptop was done, headers, high flow cat, Flowmaster 10 series and out the back. I’m not huge on the 10 series, I liked the previous 40 series better, but that wasn’t stainless and rotted out. I didn’t think to make sure of what the shop had to put in and ended up with the 10 series they had, lol. I went with 2-1/2” pipe if I remember correctly, but it could have been 2-1/4”Parts are indeed an issue with this one. And apparently so is machining. I'm going to have to look into that even more. I may not be able to stay local with that. Luckily for me, I drive through about 9 states regularly for work. So, dropping some stuff off and picking it up a month or two later would be pretty easy. But, after all the answers and things on this one, it looks like, for the most part we're going to stick with line honing, new bearings all around, polishing and and balancing the crank, indexing throw(and all the other technical mumbo jumbo I can throw at them) stock rods(They are forged after all) with the silly little pedestal weight and cast veins shaved, new rings, everything that can be ported and polished, new gaskets everywhere(gonna try out that gasket shellac too), new lifters, valve seal shims, stainless valves and just for giggles, I'm going to try out the morana rocker setup. I might go with the matching cam of his, I haven't decided. I'm going to do headers, Y pipe, eliminate the cats(we don't have emissions on anything older than 96) and single exhaust all the way out(someone put aluminized exhaust on it a while ago and it looks like crap now). I will have to put the O2 sensor back in somewhere. It's going to stay NA. Efficiency and longevity will be the goal. I didn't cover every little detail in that. I'm sure some power will be gained through this process. How much, I have no idea and it doesn't really matter. I just want to make it a smooth operator. It will be around October when I start. I have a lot of other projects around the house that need decent weather. I do appreciate everybody's input on this one. I have seen these little 2.9s go for over 250k. Which is why I wasn't scared of tackling it. It's at 159k now and running surprisingly smooth even with "The 2.9 tap". But, it'll be a good winter project. Once I get into it, I'll let everybody know how it works out. My only hope is that the stock ECU can deal with the changes. That's the only unknown at this point. If not, we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. The rest of this thing is in such good shape that it should last for a very long time.
I will say that you will have to prepare for adapting the exhaust though. What I mean is the standard headers and Y pipe comes down to an oval flange that mates to the factory cat. Nobody produces an adapter to round pipe for these that I know of, but some of the guys on here have talked about making their own. I should have done that or found someone to make me one. I asked my usual exhaust shop and they said no problem, but what they ended up doing was belling the end of a pipe and beating it to an oval and just weld the crap out of it. I wasn’t really pleased with that. But it’s about your only choice for anything not standard around here. If I had my own shop together, I’d probably get a bender and do it myself.