need some help with a 97 ford 4.6 romeo engine.

[HotRodPC]

I read enough when I seen it lost the timing chain. I've been through this nightmare before. And don't go thinking a 4.6 Windsor is any better. They are all zero clearance motors and if the valve timing is off, you'll bend every valve on the bank that has the broke chain or valve timing off.

I went to hell and back with my Bro's 01 Mustang GT when he seized the motor 2 miles after changing the oil and oil filter. Defective oil filter in sorts is where it all started. My bro was ram rodding the project, and I was to be helping. Him being impatient, not waiting for me to get off work and such, getting started on his own.... long story short, we build this motor 3 times. Replaced heads once, replaced a crank, a few rods depending on which build failure happened. I finally gave up when bro insisted not waiting on me, and continued to keep making mistakes. He finally sold the car with a good new motor FINALLY, but was still backfiring thru the carb. I told him 100X, it's cam timing. He said, NO can't be, remember it's a zero clearance motor it would have been valves, I've replaced teh cam sensor twice, the crank sensor 3 times now, MAF and ....... So what else can it be??? Told him again and I got my ass jumped. Told him fugg off, your car, your problem. Sold it, the guy who bought it had it running like a champ in less than 3 hours. My bro never did tell me what was wrong. When I seen the guy and asked what was wrong. Right bank chain was off 1 tooth. TOADJA !!! That whole ordeal over 1 1/2 years and hundreds and hundreds of dollars, well over $3000 for sure, for a damn stock build, and we didn't even bore the block and buy new pistons, and bro sold the car for payoff of like $2800 because he got sick of making the payments on it for over 1.5 years and not being able to drive it and just kept sinking more money into it.

So there you go. Now you have my 4.6 Romeo nightmare story.

 

[HotRodPC]

BTW, Ford Modular Motor Trivia. Most of us know, the 4.6 and the 5.4 are Ford's Modular motors.

Anyone know why they are called Modular motors???

 

[crazy4offroad]

Sounds to me like they consist of non-serviceable parts. A head would be a whole part you have to replace if you had a bad valve, the whole intake assembly would have to be replaced if you had a bad injector, etc lol.

 

[HotRodPC]

Sounds to me like they consist of non-serviceable parts. A head would be a whole part you have to replace if you had a bad valve, the whole intake assembly would have to be replaced if you had a bad injector, etc lol.

Actually, at least on this 2001 GT it wasn't that way. My bro even took his injectors to this place that bench flow tests injectors, cleans them, new seals and nozzle, then re flow tests them and give you a print out of before and after, so he done that too in an effort to get it to start up once.

Since you're the only one to guess, and that's a good guess. I had to wonder myself, and your guess was the same as mine. Being that wasn't the case, I had to research it myself. But, Modular actually has nothing to do with the 4.6 and 5.4 directly. But they get this name, "Modular Motor" because at the engine plant, the assembly is made up of small cubeicals aka Modules, that are rolled in, set into place then locked down. When time to change the build type on the assembly line, the cubes aka Modules not needed now are rolled out, and the respective Modules are moved in and locked down.

 

[Swims350]

so in other words the block comes in a short block, assembled heads, and intake and they just slap em together.???

 

[crazy4offroad]

Sounds like sections of the assembly line are put on trailers so once production of one assembly is done they can drag in the other production line. Sounds pretty neat really.

 

[HotRodPC]

No, the assembly line floor is what's modular, not the motor.

So if they did a switch from 5.4 manufacturing to 4.6 manufacturing, then they'd change out all the floor modules of course. If they were doing 4.6's say for Crown Vics, then they could leave the first modules, and change just the last modules and now be making Mustang 4.6 GT motors just by changing the modules on the assembly line floor. It's my understanding these floor modules are like the size of a small room. Say a 12ft x 12 ft for example. Slide one floor module out and back up against the wall, then bring the newly stocked and maintained floor module back up into the assembly line.

Actually pretty smart idea. Makes the transistion pretty damn quick. Send your assembly line techs on break, they come back, now they're building something different. While the other modules are not in use, those machines are being maintained, parts being stocked onto them, like a pallet of cams or heads whatever the case may be.

I've walked a GM assembly line before. It was almost a mile long. Very interesting to watch with all the robots, conveyers, power and air tools hanging from the ceiling in just the perfect spot for the technician just to reach without even looking and he's got it in has hand. Quite entertaining to watch. You see it come in the main door as nothing but a shell, then it's leaving almost a mile later as running driving car.

 

[HotRodPC]

Sounds like sections of the assembly line are put on trailers so once production of one assembly is done they can drag in the other production line. Sounds pretty neat really.

Very similar to that. A Steel floor on steel roller bearings, but they do use a tug similar to a forklift to pull the modules in and out.