3000 yota in crown vic taxis?? HMMMMMM

[gumbydammit]

I have a fleet of Crown Vic's I will soon be dealing with.

The V-8 motors in them, while not THAT bad...are not the BEST in the world.
The trannies SUCK!

My idea is to take the JDM inline 6's along with the tranniesand retro fit the cars with them.

While the first ones would be harder, once it got down to a science, it would be cookie cutter easy.

I have a nice set of gears I can get for them in the 3.80-4.88 range...whatever I want basically.

I am seriously thinking about running these with low gears. Decent non-turbo power, great reliability and a lot better mileage.

Ex, brackets and mounts are easy...what I need to find is a simple solution for the ECM end of things.

What do you all think would be the least expensive, yet reliable engine management system to plug into the engine/trans??

If I have to wire the ECM from the JDM car, this is a no-go for sure.

If I could set something up that would be a stand alone box, it would make things very easy.

Any ideas?? or links? Anyone running one in american iron?

Please, save the "are you nuts" comments till you have seen what they get for these friggin Ford V-8's and the trannies behind them. (Not to mention the cramped nature of the pieces of shite under the hood.)

[Tommy]

better bet would be for yota v6's, easier to source and get parts for, widely available in the US, US spec harness and ECU will work. Gonna be a lot of wiring/splicing to get it to work with the factory accessories and gauges, but it can be done.

Something like a 3MZ or a 5VZ would be great, give you similar, if not better hp/tq numbers as the lumbering v8's from ford, plus better milage and they'll last longer.

[Flashmn]

I'd just deal with the V8, rather than trying to do some frankenstein installation.

[Tommy]

does seem kinda bizarre. Wanting to create a fleet of taxi's with motor swaps....not sure why you'd want that much complication, but he didnt want criticism, sooo...i say go for it.

[gumbydammit]

Originally Posted by Tommy

...but he didnt want criticism, sooo...i say go for it.

Thanks for understanding that.

I KNEW at least one person on the board would have to voice the opinion about "just dealing with the V-8" *yawn* so it happened.

If there was only one car, this would not make sense. When you are talking a couple hundred of them, combined with the reliability and economy offered by the JDM engines I am able to get for a song in comparison to the "modular" oil burners, it starts to make a whole lot more sense.

I wish someone with one of these motors running a stand alone engine management setup would give me some hints.

[Flashmn]

Exactly because I figured there were more than one, is why I said that.
Doing a frankenstein installation always has its issues, for example parts is one, custom fabrication its another, not to mention cost. Its a shitload of work multiplied by the amount of cars you have.

[Tommy]

dont critize. its not worth it. If he wants to take on the largest engine swap project ever...go for it.


Why do you want stand alone though? thats just added expense/time when you could just use the stock ecu and wiring.

[gumbydammit]

Wow.

just...wow.

I tried to explain.

Really, I did.

[Tommy]

what makes adding a standalone easier? to get everything working right, seperating the engine managment from the accessories would be a total pain, just as much work as using the stock wiring harnes/ecu from the donor engine. I mean, you can get an SMT, work out the programming on one, and figure out how to build a wiring harness to control the engine, but you're still left trying to get half one one system to work with half of another. Stand alones are all at least a couple hundred bucks a peice.

another question, what are you going to do about A/C and Power steering? Are you thinking the systems will be compatible enough to retrofit one with the other?

How many cars are you looking at doing? you said hundreds.... You seem to be set on doing this, and thats cool, Id love to see someone pull off this many swaps, but what are the cost benifits really going to be if you have hundreds of cars to work on. Engine/trans are going to run around $1000+ all the replacement belts/hoses, gaskets, accessories that should be replaced while the engine is out. Then youve got drive shafts that need to be adapted or possibly fabricated, who knows what lengths youll need, plates, brackets, hoses, engine managment, wiring, exhaust system...god knows what else youll run into, not to mention the man hours required. I would suspect around 12hrs per vehical, and thats if youve done all the wiring conversion and part fabrication before hand, and have them ready to go once the old engine is out and the new engine is prepped.

Id really be interested to see where you go with this, and hear what you're plans are.

[gumbydammit]

I think you estimate of 12 hours is a little low actually.

I would be happy to do the conversion for 18-22 hours after the stuff was made up.

Sticking with the Ford alt/comp/pwr str would be the way to go for me.


I am very aware of how much engineering this can suck up in time.

Lets balance that with a friggin Ford nightmare that is just a JOY to take out.
A long block, rebuilt by a joint smoking teenager who doesnt even get min wage.
After spending nearly as much time on all the crap from the blown block getting changed over to the fresh one, you find out it is no good.
(Check out what a Jasper costs...OY VEY!)

I think I have it licked. I have a diagramn coming and I can get the 'puter from the donor motor, so we could make a harness adapter and plug plug plug...

Another thing I am looking into is the diesels.

With the right gearing, they could be the way to go.

I am not green to this kind of thing.
I have retro fitted fleets in the past and done time/cost/benefit work for fleets with 2600 units and more.

The more you have, the less that first ones time sucking matters

I will let you know.

(PS, when you can buy these motors by the shipping container, you can do a LOT better than what you see from an importer on ebay.)

[Tommy]

those guys on ebay buy them by the container. might not hurt to contact them and see if you can work a deal, otherwise youll need a contact in japan to source the out for you.