bullmastiff

hello everyone, i am new to this forum and to mustangs. i just purchased a 1996 mustang cobra and motor needs to get rebuilt, it will cost me 3000.00 to rebuild but a friend of mine has a 03 mach 1 motor for sale, both are 4.6 dohc 32valve motors, except the 03 has differnt intake, coil over plug valve covers, and no return fuel system, i think i can just swap my intake, valve covers, and fuel set up. please let me know what else i need to do.

silverstang1996

it'd probably just be easier to pull your engine out, then throw the mach1 engine in. Unless you really want to swap everything over, but the 03/04 heads and intake are better than the B series head

Glen

I agree. Pull the motor/tranny out (refer to the sticky which shows how to rebuild an engine, to get info on getting the motor/tranny in and out), mate the T-45 to the new Mach1 motor, and shove it back in. Change the ECU, etc..It's MUCH easier than swapping out a v6 for a v8, or even a GT motor for a Cobra motor. I reccomend just dropping the Mach engine in.

If you have the cash, have the tranny rebuilt (with new syncronizers), or get a new transmission. There are some decent, heavy duty T-45s out there which should directly swap and I'm sure you could get a core discount. If you're going to pull it all out, why not make it all better? I personally wouldn't trust a T-45 from a '96, they are good transmissions but the syncronizers and shift forks have a tendency to wear and fail. The shift fork in my '99 snapped while speed shifting (not super hard).

Just don't forget to get the correct fuel system parts! Let us know how it goes.

bullmastiff

i pulled motor out all ready, my motor and tranny have only 37,000 original miles, but have bad wrist pin or rod bearing. i want to swap 03 mach 1 engine but it has coil over plugs and intake is pointed to side not at angle like bobra intake, and 03 have a returnless fuel system my car has a return line.

what i was thinking isi was going to put 03 mach 1 motor in, and put my valve covers on ( so i can use my plug wires and coil setup, ) swap intakes with my cobra intake (so throttlebody faces right direction for my cold air intake ), and swap my fuel rails and injectors so the return line still works.

has anyone done this swap yet??

any other ideas

BraMas

I'm pretty sure the 96/98 intake will not bolt onto the 99 up 4V's they are different. Just swap in the Mach Motor and call it a day. It's been done hundreds of times. What you want to do is not a common/cost effective thing to do.
How do you know your engine needs rebuilt. These 4V have a common timming adjuster that goes bad and it sounds like a bad engine knock.

bullmastiff

blowing oil out the exhaust, and when i changed oil it had 8.5 quarts in it, and knocks

bullmastiff

3300.00-3600.00 to rebuild or i can replace with low milage 03 mach 1 motor for 2500-3000.00

Sxynerd

I think he's confused about the COP setup. It doesn't affect it, just use your Coil packs/wires with your ECU. And use your fuel rail, it will still work.