ACTUAL HP gain question? Heads, cam and intake, is it really worth it? Whats up, I drive a 2002 3.8 V6 and I have some questions about gaining HP. What would be more logical, getting ported heads, cam and intakes on the existing 3.8 or picking up a 4.6 GT engine/tranny and making the swap? Through rpm-mustangs, the ported heads, cam, intakes, gaskets etc..it would come close to $2k. How much more HP would one expect from the P. heads, cam and intakes compared to dropping the 4.6 in there? Last thing, how much would the 4.6 GT engine/tranny end up running me total at the end? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Properly tuned, you could easily see 220whp with those mods putting you even with a stock Manual GT. Auto's put down significantly less (205-215whp). Oh, and you will weigh ~200lbs less. There are so many variables in how much the 4.6 would cost that it is hard to estimate. Expect to spend way more than $2k though unless you can swap it yourself. It all depends on how much you pay for the engine and how much you pay to install. Too much variation to make a good guess.
My car is 5spd manual. With that said, would it be even better if I continued to mod after the heads, cam and intakes? What more could I do that would make my mustang see even better RWHP numbers? The only mod I have to date are flowmaster duals, so would it be ideal to get UD pulleys? 3.73 gears w/ tlok? Short tube headers? Once again, any feedback is appreciated.
If your looking to spend less money i would mod the 3.8 there are companies out there that make a vortech supercharger that you can purchase for the 3.8 and you might spend a little over 2k. This would be considerably less than trying to drop a 4.6 in there. I just recently converted my 98 v6 to a 5.0 and we ran into some major issues. I was able to pick up the 5.0 engine with 13,000 miles from this guy in clearwater, fl. for $1300 but i got really lucky to pick that up. If you would rather upgrade the engine I would check out stangparts.com they pull engines from wrecked stangs and you might be able to get a good deal there.
Hey lexman84, you just put a 5.0 in your 98, i just got a 98 and forsee that in my future, I hear it is recommended to put a 4.6 in because the motor mounts just line up, but i would rather have a 5.0. Tell me about what was involved and everything please. You can email me at bjam_2@hotmail.com or add me to MSN if you use it, AIM is bjam272.
Yeah, once you have good mods like the heads, cams, and such, the gains from other things will be magnified. I would think that with heads, cams, P&P, pulley, gears & Tlok, Full exhaust, intake, and a good suspension, we could definately see some 5-speed cars in the mid-low 13's. Now if we only had money coming out our ears.
