Hack
15 Year Member
Wow, the more carefully I read that post the more I disagree!basically it's just like a 4v cleveland then.....
actually i don't really consider the mod motors to be either good passenger car, muscle car or truck engines, they're too high winding, even the weenie 4.6 SOHC in the crown vics. it's really better suited to something like the GT that's more in the supercar category, especially with the huffer, same for the SC cobras and the GT500s as well thos are cars that are meant to wind higher anyway.
my point, though, was that since the 5.4 mod motor was really designed for the trucks since the SOHC 4.6 couldn't pull a small boat down the damn highway. ford needed something bigger to keep selling trucks so they built the 5.4.
the windsor was never designed to go in a truck it was built to cover the bases between the 302 and 390 in passenger cars, ford didn't even put it in a truck until the late 70's instead they used the 302, 360 or 390 until the 351m/400 and 460's came along, then after they killed the 351m/400 they decided to use the 351w because they didn't even have the 360 anymore, so again it was used to fill the gap between the 302 and 460
Years ago I remember my brother in law being quite annoyed that his new Chevy couldn't keep up with the smaller Ford 4.6 - yes both pulling trailers as well.
Newer cars are getting smaller engines that make more HP. The way to do that is better breathing and wind it. Any NA performance build will always move the peak HP up to higher rpms in order to get the most HP/cube out of an engine.
I was a little annoyed that the human resources woman at my company has a new Camry with 268 or so hp... that's more than Ford ever got out of the pushrod 302. I built something a little stronger in my '83 (GT40 heads and bigger cam), but it bugs me that she might take me if we ever raced! Now if I had a 4.6 (or aluminum aftermarket heads) I wouldn't worry.