[XR7-4.6]

I had the crown vic tube when I did my PI intake swap, then swapped it for the xr3z-18b402-aa when I did the heads/cams. The problem with the crown vic tube is it comes out at an angle rather than straight up(as the stock one does) and the hose gets all bent out of shape to reach it (mine was all kinked). I was able to come up a with much tidier setup using the Mustang tube, tidier than stock even. I don't have CELO on mine either.

 

[Rob]

The motorcraft kt-21 tube fit the 97 mustang stock heater hoses just fine. I just installed a kt-10 on an 03 grand marquis and it exits on the passenger side of the engine and comes up at a 45* angle and accepts 5/8" hose right at the rear inner corner of the valve cover.

 

[Torque]

I'm deep into the swap at the moment and ran into something not entirely unexpected, but disturbing nonetheless.

I have thick, gummy, black carbon deposits all in my head intake ports. I swiped with a blue shop paper towel and it's pretty bad.

Is there anything I can do to get rid of this w/o removing the heads themselves?
I would think whatever I do that breaks this stuff loose would just end up sending it right down into the piston chambers. And I'd rather not pour the generic cleaner chemical in and run it through after I get my brand new intake on.

Is there a cleaner that will completely dissolve this stuff so it'll get safely blown out (meaning safe for exhaust system as well) when I first crank up the engine after the intake swap is complete? I could try carb/choke cleaner spray I guess, but it would take $o many can$ I'm thinking and with the stuff this thick I could be just spinning my wheels at great expense (both monetarily and time wasted).

Tips? Tricks?

 

[Grog6]

Modular motors are bad about recycling oil thru the manifold.

IIRC, that's what seafoam is for.

You Could wash it all out with carb cleaner; that washes it past the rings.

Use plenty; washing the rings down can't hurt at this age.

As long as you pull the plugs and add a healthy spoonful of oil to each cylinder before you crank it over to make sure the cylinders are clear, it should be fine.

You will have to change the oil, of course; it will be nasty, lol.

Relube anything you clean with carb cleaner before it sits overnight!

 

[Torque]

Thanks for the tips.

Upon closer inspection, with adequate lighting and leaning way in for a better viewing angle this time, I noticed the sooty deposits on both heads are mostly on the valley side. Down deeper into the port, it's cleaner and the valve/stem look spotless on all cylinders. I'm less discouraged at this point.

Interestingly, and this may be suited for the 4.6-specific issues thread, the driver's side ports seem to be cleaner on all cylinders than the passenger side -- driver side has 2-3" worth of deposits (down), just not as much all around or as thick.
Injectors have never been replaced on this car, so I'm wondering whether this is a propensity for this engine (e.g., design of the NPI intake). I don't think the fuel rails are dirty inside, so flow should be about the same on both sides. (?)

 

[V8ThunderCat]

We need a REAL Definitive PI Intake Swap Thread!

Pointless to be helpful even when you declare ignorance without others pointing a finger.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I'll make an article. What's it worth to ya?

 

[Bangster]

There are so many variations, what year you start with, what gaskets to use, SATC or not, specific stuff for MN12, general stuff for pre 99, etc.

I remember in 2003 doing the swap on my 97 Cougar. I took all the available stuff at the time, formulated a plan, worked around some inconsistencies, and with only a few additional trips to the hardware store did it in a few hours.

 

[warmaster259]

There are so many variations, what year you start with, what gaskets to use, SATC or not, specific stuff for MN12, general stuff for pre 99, etc.

I remember in 2003 doing the swap on my 97 Cougar. I took all the available stuff at the time, formulated a plan, worked around some inconsistencies, and with only a few additional trips to the hardware store did it in a few hours.

:zwthstpd: Its really pretty easy

 

[Grog6]

If you can't follow Torque' directions, Maybe Cars are Not for You.

Some very good members here don't do their own wrench work; they pay someone competent, like RobertP.

Which partnumbers you need is Directly driven by what you have or buy.
Ford partnumbers change often, driven by problems on cars later than ours; keeping up with that takes employees, not posters.

Always make a list of what parts you install, because it will come up in the future.

I have a Logbook that keeps track of all mods to all cars, with dates and partnumbers; that way I don't buy the wrong part to fix something.

c.v. I have an 03 intake on a 96 that has no gasket, it's glued on with RTV. Works great; the head has deep pits in the gasket surface...buying a gasket for that car and thinking it will be an easy fix is a ruined afternoon, lol.

As far as a better thread, keep in mind We can't and won't spoon feed; that sets a bad precedent.
Linking to the previous posts is a way of giving credit to the guys that pioneered it here.

I suggest making friends with the local ford parts counter guy, and get him to find the parts you need; that works for me.

 

[V8ThunderCat]

Pointless to be helpful even when you declare ignorance without others pointing a finger.

 

[guitar maestro]

best thing to do is to do a backwards search starting from 2002 with the search terms of your choice. Lots of 94/95'ers have done the swap without step-by-step instructions, just piecing things together. If someone climbed on-board after the fact, it's no one's fault, and neither are they necessarily deserving of some kind of extensive/comprehensive 100% complete resource for their model year car for non-stock mods just because of their join date. It would be great if one could just say "well you did [something] first before I even joined here, so you should have to show me exactly how to do it for my car".

 

[S4gunn]

I didn't find a definitive V6 singleport to splitport conversion DIY thread on TCCOA -- just bits and pieces of problems/issues found by other folks or non-tbird specific DIYs on other sites. My solution was not to whine about it in a thread but make one nyself. I also made sure to include the options I found (including ones I had no intention of choosing) as well as my reasoning for choosing my final option.

It's called contributing to the community. Other folks (JCO1385) have since used this information and sent me corrections as needed - they too have contributed to the site.

I don't even own a V6 anymore so when I did the V8 swap and found a definitive V6 to V8 conversion article missing, I repeated that task again.

I'm not going to pass judgement about whether or not you "deserve" to drive a tbird; there are tons of enthusiasts who pay shops to do the work for them and that helps our national economy. However, there is something to be said for figuring out what you need yourself AND making the job easier for the next guy. I'm sure if you found any specific issue/tradeoff (like I found with both my upgrades), one of the other members would be glad to answer your question & you can include this data in your post.

I'm looking forward to seeing it.
-g

 

[lurch]

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Some of us are better working on interior, body, audio, etc. than we are mechanical. I would fit into that category.

I think it is fair for someone who is not mechanically inclined (and maybe afraid to screw up their car) to ask for a "how-to" that is maybe a little more comprehensive and clear.

I do not think asking for a better "how-to" is meant to offend anyone. God knows I appreciate anyone willing to take the time to write one up and have benefited from reading them on this forum many times!

 

[guitar maestro]

I think it is fair for someone who is not mechanically inclined (and maybe afraid to screw up their car) to ask for a "how-to" that is maybe a little more comprehensive and clear.

I would agree with you 100% IF we were talking about a standard maintenance procedure that everyone had to do at some point to their car and IF a paid membership to this club merited everyone that right to have articles left and right on modifications that were never intended for this platform.

Fact #1: PI intake swap is not required maintenance and is for the most part, a non-stock, performance modification never intended for MN12's.

Fact #2: Paid membership exists only to keep the site around and online. Anything else is in the "well at least there's something" category. Show the me the part of the club rules that says "you will get exclusive inside details and 100% comprehensive instructions for your model year on how to do non-stock performance modifications".

Moral of the story: You get what you pay for. That said, there are tons of helpful people here who have helped others get by practically anything. Sure some like me like to make others do a little more work themselves, but hey that's just me and there's no harm in that (other than hurting people's feelings along the way). In the end, I have paid my dues and still continue to do so by documenting in public many things I have done/discovered along the way that no one before me (or very very few people) had. I'm talking completely some things off-the-wall stuff. Just look at my threads on longtube headers, fuel pump hat, one-of-a-kind high compression naturally aspriated engine build with extreme detail on cam degree'ing, COP installation diagrams, SVO intake, Xcal datalogging, EEC tuning information, installation of TFS adjustable crank gears, custom 7 qt Mark VIII oil pan, etc, etc. That's not counting the countless PMs that I've answered regarding many many things to many many people over the years. Anyone think I already knew this stuff when I joined this club? Nope, heck no not even close. Did I deserve for someone to do all this stuff just because I wanted the information and had already paid my $40 for membership when Bill owned the site? Nope, I didn't. I had to use what info was already out there, together with a couple PMs here and there to certain people, and make do. So no, lurch, it isn't all that fair after all.

 

[S4gunn]

FWIW, before i wrote my thread, I actually read every single thread that mentioned splitport on this site as well as on several other v6 essex mustang focused websites. That was how I figured out what my options were for the upgrade.
I could imagine that you could do the same with a PI swap. Even if a tbird specific DIY isn't available (yet), there ARE a ton of them for 4.6L mustangs. Even someone who isn't mechanically oriented should be able to read through that stuff to figure out what parts to buy (or what questions to ask beyond "plz send me a writeup specific for my application").

NOTE: I'm sure there are hotrod shops that would be willing to do all the legwork & mod for you in north Texas.... for a price. It's not like the modular engine is a rare item where the OP lives.

-g

 

[Chris_Murder]

All of the above holds true with my 4v swap as well. My vote is if the modification is that important to you, then dive in and become obsessive with the research.

 

[XR7-4.6]

There's a difference between saying "I wish there was a good how to" and "Someone needs to write a good how to". I take pride in what articles I've written or the things I've done whether or not someone else even follows them, most of the time they simply come about because I happened to have a camera nearby during a project and the rest of the article content is simply finding myself having to explain the pictures. I(we) are not obligated to post up articles because they are the most in demand, if someone does they should be applauded, but if someone doesn't doesn't mean you or anyone else can condemn them. The thing about the sticky (which you probably don't see the humor of) is that that's what people keep demanding and that's the best they're going to get unless they do something about it themselves.

Those of us who've already done it have answered and still answer all the questions possibly asked about the PI intake swap, and every last post is a click away and every bit as relevant as ever. Could one of us who've done it write up a article? Sure. But then we'd get *****ed at for not having part #s, or if we had part #s we'd get *****ed at for not having progress pics(since I don't think anyone is going to undo their intake swap to get them) ect. This is no ones job, the sticky has all the information one would need to make their own article and I'd be the first one to sticky and archive it if someone came up with one. But does anybody? I haven't seen any submissions, despite people confirming swap success... hmm...

When I did my PI intake swap there wasn't a whole lot of information covering the 94/5s since not many people were willing to gather all the additional pieces for it circa 06-08, in fact it's still a rare sight to see a 94/5 with a complete top end conversion(motor swaps are much more common instead). The best advice I EVER got was from searching in a post from a few years before I joined and it the post was essentially this:

"for 96/7 you need...
-PI intake
-PI water pump nipple,
-PI Mustang coolant tube
-PI intake gaskets

And on a 94/5 add every component bolted directly or indirectly to a stock 96/7 thunderbird/cougar intake manifold."

And you know what? That's exactly what I did and it went together like a glove. No 10 paragraph write up, no pictures, no part numbers, nothing. Everything from Ford can be found by a competent parts counter employee if you give them a Model and year range(Mustang GT, 99-04) and everything else 94/5 to 96/7 conversion related can be found at junkyards, forum classifieds ect. and since all of that stuff is long obsolete through Ford, Part # are no help there. The cold hard truth is when people have the parts, it all ends up going together so quick and easy that before they know it there's nothing to document for a write up. It went together just as everyone in the community(past or present) said it would and everyone's happy... except the next guy who hasn't done it yet.

 

[KENNETHL6]

What XR7-4.6 said and my PI intake swap on youtube video should be all the info needed for a 96-97 MN12. For a 94-95 you'll need a 96+ donor for all the top dress. All PI parts can be bought for a 2001+ Mustang at your local Ford store. When checking the junkyard, I give examples to look for in the video.

 

[V8ThunderCat]

Pointless to be helpful even when you declare ignorance without others pointing a finger.