[KULLER94]

Upon looking in to a pi head swap for my 95, ive come to the realization that I can buy a moderately used (2008 130k) crown vic engine for half the price of everything I need to swap on to my stock engine. Ive never swapped an engine before but my dad has a shop in which im sure he could assist me with it. Is it just a drop-in and go thing or do I need other components to compliment the engine? Like ive said, im somewhat new at this so any input on the procedure and precautions would be much appreciated. At this point its still just an option but I will consider what you guy have to say.

 

[T6Rocket]

None of these swaps are ever drop and go. You still will need the intake manifold and all related components, intake pipe/TB/EGR/etc for a 96-97 T-Bird, plus do all the same work you would have done with the PI swap - extend all the wires for the EGR, etc because the 95 is different.

The Crown Vic has the intake pipe on the left side, and a 2008 is drive by wire, so the intake manifold plus anything that attaches to it gets thrown away. Exhaust manifolds may even be different.

A lot of stuff to change, but I consider a PI swap on a 95 to be a lot of work.

Al

 

[MadMikeyL]

None of these swaps are ever drop and go. You still will need the intake manifold and all related components, intake pipe/TB/EGR/etc for a 96-97 T-Bird, plus do all the same work you would have done with the PI swap - extend all the wires for the EGR, etc because the 95 is different.

The Crown Vic has the intake pipe on the left side, and a 2008 is drive by wire, so the intake manifold plus anything that attaches to it gets thrown away. Exhaust manifolds may even be different.

A lot of stuff to change, but I consider a PI swap on a 95 to be a lot of work.

Al

The intake manifold is the same regardless of which way the throttle body faces, so if the replacement engine has an intake manifold on it, don't throw that away!

 

[Woodman]

The "pros" of the 2008 motor are it's all PI, compression remains low so you can get approximately 260 crank horsepower with a good tune, and most parts are readily available.

However, even though it's more work as you need the top end and fuel system off a 96-97 Thunderbird to do a PI swap, and the valley coolant line, the PI head/intake swap gets you a good chunk of more available power thanks to the higher static compression, but it requires 91 octane or better.

I can't say it's "more" work than swapping an entire motor, but it's a good bit of work. Personally, I'd do it because more power is more power.

 

[KULLER94]

How much gain is there from converting my current block to PI?

 

[Woodman]

How much gain is there from converting my current block to PI?

If you go full bolt ons (Kooks headers, full exhaust, under drives, properly sized fuel injectors, bigger MAF, throttle body) and a good, competent dyno tune you can get ~300 at the crank.

 

[XR7-4.6]

300 at the crank is a stretch, stuff like underdrives and TB/plenums really don't do squat, and while kooks will open things up, the scavenging benefits of longer headers won't be fully utilized with a stock PI cam with little overlap, so all you get is the flow, which really ported manifolds are adequate at.

Personally I'd just do a full motor swap rather than the headswap. The newer motors have everything you need INCLUDING the valley tube(I ran the Crown Vic one for years), have better components like the crank sprocket/trigger wheel, and you can just flip the plenum/throttle body around.While you're there you can put on all new gaskets and seals in otherwise inaccessible areas as well, which is really nice down the road. All you'd have to source, which you would regardless, would be the intake tube, EGR tube and vacuum lines off a 96/7 tbird, and if you want to save the hassle of swapping fuel lines under the fender, use fuel rails from a 96-97 Crown Vic/Grand Marquis. Swapping heads with the block in the car sucks ass. I love compression, but I dislike leaky tired short blocks, and really dislike guiding a 40 lb cylinder head with a weird shaped tube into a hole two feet below.

 

[Woodman]

300 at the crank is a stretch, stuff like underdrives and TB/plenums really don't do squat, and while kooks will open things up, the scavenging benefits of longer headers won't be fully utilized with a stock PI cam with little overlap, so all you get is the flow, which really ported manifolds are adequate at.

Personally I'd just do a full motor swap rather than the headswap. The newer motors have everything you need INCLUDING the valley tube(I ran the Crown Vic one for years), have better components like the crank sprocket/trigger wheel, and you can just flip the plenum/throttle body around.While you're there you can put on all new gaskets and seals in otherwise inaccessible areas as well, which is really nice down the road. All you'd have to source, which you would regardless, would be the intake tube, EGR tube and vacuum lines off a 96/7 tbird, and if you want to save the hassle of swapping fuel likes under the fender, fuel rails from a 96-97 Crown Vic/Grand Marquis. Swapping heads with the block in the car sucks ass. I love compression, but I dislike leaky tired short blocks, and really dislike guiding a 40 lb cylinder head with a weird shaped tube into a hole two feet below.

I understand that, and it is a logical thing to do. My car already had PI heads, cams, intake on it when I got it. But I figure if you want more power, and all you have to do is the heads, cams, intake, why not do it? Personally, I would have done the cams too if I was doing mine, but it's all good.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I should say if the op has a cherry picker and stand at their disposal I'd pull the old motor and swap the heads onto it(and new gaskets and whatnot) and swap it back in. In that case the headswap is cake. I just learned the hard way the troubles of doing it all in the car

 

[MadMikeyL]

I should say if the op has a cherry picker and stand at their disposal I'd pull the old motor and swap the heads onto it(and new gaskets and whatnot) and swap it back in. In that case the headswap is cake. I just learned the hard way the troubles of doing it all in the car

Agreed! It probably takes about the same amount of time to swap the heads in the car as it does to pull the motor, swap them, and re-install the motor. The only difference is whether you want to spend that time easily able to reach things and see what you're doing, or whether you want to spend it getting your fore-arms scratched up reaching into places you can't see to remove and re-install bolts by feel, that you can only get 1/8 of a turn on with a wrench.