'94 cougar as a donor?

I am looking at upgrading the drive train in my '65 fairlane to efi with an aod. I have found a good deal on a '94 cougar with a 4.6l in it with about 90,000 miles. Anybody know of any problems I should look out for? Or should I find a different donor completely?

4.6 isn't going to fit unless you do some cutting on the shock towers. From what I have seen.
Isn't the 65 the same as a 64?

Find a 5.0 HO.

I picked up a 95 H.O. for $300. Runs great. Look on Craigslist.

Jet

shock towers will be removed and an rc motorsports front end installed so clearance I"m not worried about.

Might still be a tight fit. I saw a '68 cougar with a 4.6 and it was really snug, even with the shock towers removed.

TJ

RC Motorsports kit! That's what I'm talking about. I love the I installed in my 64 Lane.
I can do some measuring if you want me to? Just let me know.

Jet

Jet that would be great, if you could get me measurements of your engine bay with the kit installed. My original plan was just to go with the 5.0 but then I found this cougar as a good price and thought if it wouldnt be any more trouble swapping it in then why not?

Hey Fastlane after I posted that last night., I thought Doh! He wouldn't need measurements. Should be able to mearure the flat surfaces around the the shocktowers.

But feel free to PM me any questions or if you want my number to ask any questions.

Jet

The 4.6 in that year TBird has one of the lowest hp ratings of all the 4.6s. If you are planning on not rebuilding that engine you will find that out for sure. I deal with these Tbirds all the time and modify them. If you are interested in what will help get some decent power out of them let me know.

Now the 4R70W that comes in these is also the worst for that model trans. It is very weak and will not hold up to much torque. The case design is so bad that I won't even take them as cores. You would want a 98 4R70W at the least and stay away from anything for them from Trans Go.

And last the EEC/PCM in the 94 was also one of the worst. That was the first year Ford tried out the OBD II calibrations. I reprogram these EECs all the time. When I have some kid wanting to just improve the performance some I'll do it. But if he's wanting some decent power I explain to him that the EEC/PCM in their car is junk. They need to pick up a 95 Tbird / Cougar and look for the A5W0 catch code. It has almost twice the programming calibration as the 94 and it is a direct swap. The stock programming is slightly more aggressive also. But what else counts is that you will be able to data log all the engine and transmission parameters without any glitches if you have the equipment. Then if you decide to have it reprogrammed which it is going to need some things turned off and adjusted when installing it in the older vehicles you can use a handheld programmer that will just flash in the new programming. I can give you more info on these also if you want.

Thanks for the info! think I'll just keep looking for a different donor. Not lookin for big hp right now, but down the road it would be nice to have easy options, and this doesnt sound like the way to go for that.

Yeah I would too. I don't know if you know the difference between a non PI and PI 4.6. All 4.6 SOHCs from 91 - 98 were non PI, PI stands for Performance Improved. So think it is Police Interceptor but it’s not. In 99 the Mustang got the new PI engines with a hp jump from 215 to 260. The improvement is based on the heads and why they are called PI heads. They were developed for better flow and more power at the bottom and mid range. Now the trucks and Panther platforms (Crown Vics, Town Cars) didn't get the PI engine until 01.

If you do end up with a low mileage non PI engine there's some easy swaps you can do to improve the performance. The PI intake will bolt on to the non PI heads. There will be a port mismatch and you have to do it right or you will have coolant leaking outside the block. This will net you about 20 more hp. I offer kits to do this with instructions as do many shops. Pretty much the same as when you would install a 4 barrel Cleveland intake on a 2 barrel head engine. The other common swap we do with these is to install the PI heads onto the non PI engines. The non PI engines use flat top pistons and have compression of 9.3 or so. The PI engines have dished piston and the heads have a much smaller combustion chamber. These engines have a 9.5 or so compression. When you install the PI heads onto the non PI short block you increase the compression to a little over 10.2. That alone will boost the power and you have a better set of cams and intake to go with it.

A good street 4R70W can be had with any of them built from 98 on. There's been improvements throughout the years but the cases stayed the same until 03. The 01 - 03 are better suited for higher performance where as the 04 requires some electronics and computer tuning to make work with anything older. And 04 was when you had the 4R70E and 4R75W which made things more confusing for those that don't work with them. 03 was the year that there is no longer a speedo gear as part of the output shaft also. This is a biggy for us that do a lot of resto-mods.

As for the EEC / PCM any 96 on up to say 03 will work as long as you have the correct trans also. I would stay away from the trucks to keep it simple. 96 - 98 Tbirds, Mustangs and Panthers used the same basic hardware. They then somewhat split off in 99. 01 - 04 Mustangs don't use the speedo gear for input and don't have a tach driver. You have to use tach adapters if you want a tach. And thats on most of these processors in those years. The Panther platforms are pretty plentiful since no one thinks of them for any swap or performance. The can be reprogrammed just like any of the others to get you what you are needing.