Thread: 4.6 conversion

Timing cover with distributor, oil pump, spacer for the long nosed crankshaft. There may be more.

The 4.6 has a locating dowel in the end of the crankshaft, you need to drill a clearance hole in your 3.9 flywheel/drive plate adaptor to suit, no particular accuracy required. There's also one dowel in the front face of the block that needs to be removed. You will need to replace the camshaft and timing chain with distributor compatible ones. Basically all you can use of the 4.6 are the block, pistons and crank assembly and the cylinder heads. All the accessories swap over from the 3.9 with a little work. The crank pulley spacer can be made out of an old lower timing chain sprocket with the teeth ground off.

Thanks guys. Actually looking for the right vehicle now but just juggling the budget with view to the end result. Wondering if a cheap P38 is worth the cost depending on whats needed and what can be flogged. Can I presume you could use the complete 4.6 if you run aftermarket ECU which would also make the 3.9 saleable as an offset. I guess the other equation is if a P38 is worth the value in parts.

Originally Posted by fester

Thanks guys. Actually looking for the right vehicle now but just juggling the budget with view to the end result. Wondering if a cheap P38 is worth the cost depending on whats needed and what can be flogged. Can I presume you could use the complete 4.6 if you run aftermarket ECU which would also make the 3.9 saleable as an offset. I guess the other equation is if a P38 is worth the value in parts.

An aftermarket ECU (and tuning time) will set you back far more than you gain for selling a running 3.9 Then there's the age old hazard of loose liners, I'd never install a used motor that hasn't already had the cylinder liners replaced with flanged ("top hat") liners unless it had a documented "little old lady" type owner with a perfect maintenance record and less than 150,000km on it.