ORIGINAL: jfor441

Well... As far as the bottome end goes. The motor I am getting comes with steel crank already. 1997 to early 99 5.4's came with that. The rods I am getting in on a group by of forged H-beam rods for $265 for 8. Pistons - any piston that works in the 4.6 will work with the 5.4. Intake.... Reichard Racing has or had few adapter plates left for the intake to bolt up to the 5.4. There is another company, can't think of their name off the top of my head, that will soon have production adapter plates available.

LT headers you are correct about. Those will probably have to be fabbed. Actually LT headers will work from any manufacturer that makes them for the 4.6. They just have to be extended some. Any competent exhaust shop can do this. So the cost of the headers plus the cost of making the headers a bit longer.

Here is a nice long thread http://www.mustangboards.com/modular...d-5-4l-17.html on mustangboards.com that got the idea rolling around in my head.
In the above mentioned thread, there are several folks who have done it. My reasoning behind doing this is the fact that I can pump a ton of money into a 4.6 2v and get good gains or I can pump the same amount of money into a 5.4 2v and get even better gains.

I am not doing this to be different. I am doing this to get the most bang for the buck. The motor I currently have in my 96 has over 150k miles on it. Just recently started buring a tad bit of oil. Maybe half a quart every 3k mile sor so. It is time for me to start looking at a new motor and the 5.4 looks like it will have what I am looking for and still pull 21 mpg or so.