Cadillac 4.6 work in v8 explorer?

Asked by Nicole Feb 20, 2015 at 07:41 PM about the 2002 Ford Explorer XLT 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Can I take a 4.6 v8 engine from a deville and swap it into a 4.6 v8 explorer?

6 Answers

17,825

With a whole lot of modification and money, just because the cubic inches are the same it doesn't mean it's the same motor.

15,935

With enough money, tools and time you could do it. Would it be worth it, probably not. what would you gain? I don't see any advantage except maybe bragging rights that "It has a Caddy in it"

74,390

Probably easier to take the body off the explorer and put it on the caddy.

1 people found this helpful.

Why would you do that????Like seriously, WHYYY!? SOOOO many of the Northstar and the 4.6L V8 had all sorts of problems from the factory such as the heads just not being right in many ways-- around the late 90's early 2000's I forget which year except i know in 99 the Northstar had this problem where it would burn copious amounts of oil between changes like 6-8 quarts it could burn in 2500-4000 miles depending on how much you idled--and what did GM Goodwrench and Caddy owners everywhere tell me? Oh it's normal to burn that much because all of them burn that much so it must be ok--the engine isnt completely breaking down because of burning the oil oh and it also often burns tiny bits of coolan t either from the factory or by the time it gets around 100k miles but thats ok too just don't forget to add your fluids --thats why GM but the digital alerts in the Caddy and the best thing I also heard from owners and GM techs was don't bother trying to take off your '99 Northstar head to fix the oil burn and coolant problems if you can help it at all costs because the bolts and thread ols from the factory were pretty much defective on many thousands of them that year alone so they would strip the bolts and the thread holes costing many extra man hours to fix all the busted bolts/holes at best and at worst you might need a new bottom part of the head. I don't know a whole lot about cars--I do know even with these quite common and other problems on the Northstar it DID LAST awhile if you watched the fluid and other fairly frequent "minor" problems that really don't happen nearly as much on Explorers of the same vintage or any Explorer really--and the Horsepower isnt much if any better on the Caddy-- Ford id like 292 HP on my 2007, Caddy maybe had 300 HP on the 99 --the only thing Caddy might maybe have better on that setup is maybe the tranny would last longer if you don't beat it--as Ford has had some issues with I think it was second or other low gear(s) and issued a service bulletin advising people with the problem to put like brass sleeves over the affected make part of the tranny so it would be tight going into the female part and not flopping around like a hot dog in a hallway! lol I am serious too I watched a Ford Tech explain the service bulletin and claimed to have come up with a better, more long lasting fix himself--it was one of the funniest auto repair videos ever made!!!---But if you don't fix the Ford gear issue it shouldn't really be a problem if you aren't like towing a ton or racing or trawling really slowly and in low gear-- in moderate to light use it shouldnt be a problem that will cause real issues for 200+K miles on the affected years of the Ford and I have seen many that have made it to 500k miles without any tranny fix that also did light towing and was supposedly of the year of the Ford tranny low gear issues so YMMV--BUT BOTTOM LINE __STICK WITH THE FORD ENGINE?TRANNY CAUSE IT"S WAYYY BETTER AND MORE RELIABLE THAN CADDY ALL & DAYS OF THE WEEK AND TWICE ON SUNDAYS!!

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