well this is my first post on here, normally i am on a different f150 forum,
I have done this exact engine swap project in my 97 f150 4x4 XL originally with the 4.6l (romeo) engine and swapped it with a 2003 5.4l 2v
The best advice I can give you right now is this read and memorize this post from this other forum, it is reffered to as the BIBLE of the 4.6-5.4 engine swap.
It truelly saved me alot of time, money , and just a couple naughty words
nothing can completely save you from a couple of those, it happens just from opening the hood and having to get out your socket set lol
this is the link to the forum that turned my project into a 50 hr one instead of a 2 week one
http://www.f150online.com/forums/art...wap-notes.html
(it may be down temporarily for site maintanance for just a little bit)
Basically this is what i experienced first hand with the project.
Keep your wire harness and pcm from the original vehicle.
the newer engine will have a cop ignition system apposed to your coil ignition
you can swap out the the cop spark plug addapters and plug your coil directly to it, you do have to fab/ drill out the coil packs mounting bracket so you can mount it on the new engine roughly in the same place as it was on the original engine.
SAVE ! the two temp sensors on the intake manifold cross over pipe i believe they were a 19m wrench to unscrew them.
tap them into the new engines crossover( other wise you won't get temp reading in the vehicle for the first one and the second one is the sender to your pcm, and it will think your vehicle is always running at -40 degrees and run like snot) personal experience for that one lol
the tap you will need will be a 3/8 npt 18 national pipe thread, found that out the hard way as well, i found one on ebay for 4.99, beat paying over 50 bucks anywhere else if you don't have anyone with one.
the rear plug that comes out from under the intake to a sensor , not sure what it was called has a male end on it and the new engine had a female end, simply fix, cut the original off and splice it into the new engines one, only two wires pretty fool proof
as for the engine aspect for the pcm its up to bill to do his magic ( which i am still waiting on lol) with his gryphon programmer and some fine tweaking for , idle control and ship points.
I am currently driving this vehicle with out the reflash and it is doing ok as my daily driver, shift points need some work other then that and our -30 winter weather here i am very happy with the change in "balls" the truck has and all around performance, it will be amazing to the see the difference one the stock pcm actually knows what it has at its finger tips under the hood.
oh yes the other thing , the passenger side donut that connects to the manifold from the headers, is on a different angle so you need to reweld a piece of pipe for it , or get a muffler shop to do it , which i desided to do , only cost 30 bucks, i have 3" pipe tdirectly to a dynaflow exhaust straight out the back with all 4 cats out , sounds great and runs very well with no codes
any questions or need of first hand experience of this project feel free to message me or shoot an email to me and I'll do my best to help ya out
NOw Bill get me my programmer so i can raise some hell with this truck lol, or at least answer the phones , hehehehhe i know you guys are crazy busy
Dan