For the new comers to the 4.6 modding world
 

I found this article to be a pretty good read. If your new to the 2v 4.6L, and wondering what mods are available, then check this article out.
http://mustang50magazine.com/techart...mbo/index.html

Pretty good article. Im impressed that they finally realized most of us dont care about having a mag with NOTHING but 05 stuff in it. Some is ok, but well, most of your readers cant afford, or dont want an 05.

I just read it all. its a great read even for the experienced guys.

yup...its funny that the biggest things (cams and longtubes) for 5.0s arent really too much of a deal for 4.6s

Damn...now I want gears..... :mad:

Was a good read. I also like the fact that they mentioned not everyone has or wants a 05, me being one that doesn't want.

are you kidding me??? :rolleyes:

WAY too much misinformation for my liking...cams and longtubes aren't worth the effort for the money and gains? Riiiight. Ported heads don't add any hp? Riiight. Shorties don't make power? Tell that to the guys with 600+ hp running blowers...or even better-if shorties don't make power, then why are they used in all turbo kits which make more power than any other power adder?

it was trying to say that with a base engine that those items dont make big power diffrences, however when you add a supercharger, turbo, nitros ect, thats when you get the full gains out of those things, so if your not planning on doing those things, make the headers one of your last mods ect ect.

dude, you just contradicted your own argument

sometimes I wonder about you....

he was challenging the statement in the aritcle by putting a question mark after it




and sure 600 hp built 302 block with s/c and nitrous, they make power...but thats not the modular 4.6, shorties on a mod 4.6 are a waste of time and money

Yea, the point of that article wasnt for the supercharged ones, it was for the guy that cant afford the 3500 dollar supercharger. Now I agree, cams and longtubes are a great gain, but if you read the article closely, they said they may not be a good idea because of the installation issues, and the difficulty. And in my opinion, cams are not a bolt on, simply due to the fact that anything that involves taking the front timing cover off (and dont give me that cam tool crap, cause those things suck from what Ive heard from most people), isnt a bolt on. Yes, it bolts on, but so do pistons, rods, etc.

Most of those 600 hp cars are running built 4.6 motors bored .20 over to make them 283 c.i. Some are stroked to 302, but they are still based off the same 281 that you have in your car.

And Tim Barth of Modular Powerhouse made 626 rwph on a little s-trim with shorties so I wouldn't say their a waste.

Pistons do bolt in, but the time in installation is much greater than with cams. You don't have to tear apart the whole block to get to the cams whereas you do with the pistons. I was recently quoted 2-3 hours of labor to install cams. If you compare that to the cost of other bolt-ons, its much more worthwhile to do than the others. For example, Acufab plenum/tb cost about 450, steeda pulleys about 200, and midpipe between 150-400. If you add these up you get about 800-1050 dollars for a gain of about 20-25 hp. Take that same money and put it towards cams and you will probably see a gain closer to 30 at peak and 40 throughout the powerband. Or put it towards longtubes...same thing, but not as high of peak hp as the cams-and we all know that longtubes drastically change the powercurve.

BTW I wish there was someone out there to tell me not to waste my money on the little bolt-ons that don't net much power when I was a newbie and that is the only reason I said anything in this thread.

I definately agree with you on that, and the piston thing was just for comparisons sake, BUT Ive heard that cam jobs are much more than a 3 hour job, but maybe thats just due to a beginners skill. Anyway, yes, you are right about not doing all the little bolt on things, but again, cams are one of those, building block kind of mods. You could skip everything and go with cams first, but cams love to breathe and exhale better, so you may be better off doing things like exhaust, and tb/plenum work first, as your car needs to breathe and exhale to make the power up high like the cams like to on our cars. I dunno, I agree with you, I wish I hadnt spent a dime and had just saved my money for a blower, hindsight is 20/20 ey?

You must have a girlfriend who does your college coursework for you :p

As per the Ford manual, cams require 2-3 hours of work. You are right that the breathing mods help cams, but headers are big part of that. Cams are fine for a stock motor, they are just another bolt-on option or in this case bolt-in. You are right they all help each other, but its the bigger mods I mentioned that net more power.

Oh definately, thats crazy though, I didnt know ford quoted cams that short. Hm, learn somethin new every day. Ill stick to my blower :D

yeah I know. The article claimed that shorties didnt give much..and he was basically saying thats not true..but he backed up his statement w/ referring to blown motors...which have little to no use with shorties to begin with so it really woudlnt matter what they give