Moose_of_Death

Hi.

How are you?

Well, to simplify things...there's a Gen 1 Lincoln Mark 8 sitting in my driveway, and two freebie 2001 5.3 engines sitting in the garage.

Would it be a good idea to make the Mark 8 and 5.3 the mechanical version of someone putting chocolate into peanut butter?

The existing 4.6 DOHC engine is excellent...and is quite possibly one of the largest V8's ever produced, as it is larger than both the 454 and 460. Modifying one is an act of Congress, as only turbocharging or supercharging produces any sizable power gains...NA, unless one spends a small fortune...it ain't happening.
Room under the hood is also another thing...there simply isn't any, it's shock tower to shock tower of DOHC behemoth, so turbo pipe routing is ridiculous, and putting any sort of blower in there costs a lot of cash as well.

Is the 5.3 something I need to be messing with, NA, with this car? Or should I skip right over this engine, and find a 6.0? I know the 5.3 needs some head and cam work...and I'm not asking for a ton of power (yet, anyway), I'd like to get as close as I can to a 04-06 GTO, without getting too carried away. I'd love just to do some work with the 5.3, keep it NA, throw it in and drive it, but to be entirely honest, my only experience with 5.3 NA engines is what I see online, and in magazine articles...and I am naturally skeptical about the results, or I see very sparse details about the results from internet board builds:

"It's really fast now!"

"How much power is it making after all that work?"

"I don't know, but it's really fast now!"

Or...they simply disappear after about 2/3rd's of the build is done.

Or do I keep the 5.3 and go turbo? I'd like to keep it simple as possible, meaning, install it and drive it. IF it's possible to do this, turbo 5.3, conservative tune (maybe 350-400 rwhp max)...and use it as a daily (I already have another car to go stupid-fast with...this is meant to be a fun, relaxing Grand-Touring car...and nothing else...a concept so many seem to misunderstand)...I'd love that route as well, as it's been my experience that the 5.3 engines get better mileage than the 6.0's....and well, yes, I do have those two free engines.

To summarize:
1. 5.3 NA?
2. 5.3 Turbo?
3. 6.0?
4. Pepsi, or Coke?

Keeping the 4.6 DOHC is kind of out of the question, as having zero room to work around the engine makes my skin itch, even swapping out the oil filter is a major pain in the ***.

One more question:
4L60E, or 4L65E? Or do I just build a 700R4?

This is something of a serious research project, as there are others out there like me (with this car flatform) who think it's insane to try to work with any of the Ford modular motors, simply due to the amount of room they take up, and the sheer cost of building a DOHC motor (lifters times 32! Camshafts times four! Yee-haw!). To that end, if I like what I see, I'd like to document what I do, in an effort to try to fix Ford's BMW problem with their engines, as Ford has dropped the ball, producing pretty much nothing worth using as JY-sourced swap material...unless you have room for an engine that's about 30 inches across, and makes no power unless you add a blower or turbo. The mod motors are some of the best ever produced (with decent maintenance, a few hundred thousand miles are possible...repeatedly), get excellent mileage, they're an excellent engineering idea, but ridiculous to work on in real-world situations....especially in a truck. Don't even ask what it's like to work on a Lincoln Navigator...

If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts, they would be appreciated.

Thank you.