Since we all know by now - or soon will, Ford has approved their new V6 EcoBoost engine capable of up to 415HP for the 2010 Mustang. From watching and reading stats on this engine, I personally feel it’s going to come down to Sound or power. Do we want both the V8 growl and that power, or will the EcoBoost have a close enough V8 growl to it.
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We know that this engine and it’s internals are capable of up to 415HP. After all it is born with twin turbo chargers. Just taking a close look at the crank, cam and pistons tell me that it’s got some quality internals. I also know by personal experience that you can even take Fords 3.8L V6 and get it to have a V8 growl. I’ve done it and I even had a Ford Mechanic think it was a V8 until he opened up the hood. I installed the right upgrades, tuned it myself and ended up with 300hp at the flywheel and 230 at the rear wheels. Naturally aspired and the right true dual exhaust helps anyone achieve the same.
The question here then, is the EcoBoost going to have that V8 growl right off the showroom floor or will we need to tweak it a bit to get the sound we’re after. Maybe some of us just simply want a V8 regardless of how much power we can get out of the new EcoBoost. Most of us will most likely need some time to learn how to work on it without messing with what they’ve done as well. We will also have a new 6 speed select shift with manual mode automatic transmission that’s mated to this beauty now as well. Ford announced on the 18th of Feb. that they upgraded it already with Larger rear gears, better torque converter and stator etc.. and the transmission itself.
I’ve grown up working on OHV engines with the good ol’ single cam so long it’s going to be hard to switch. I remember my first cars, one had a 265 and one had a 289 K code engine in it. I loved how easy they were to work on. I loved how much hp and torque you could get at the rear wheels with right parts. After my first Mustang I was a Ford man to make a long story short. Can anyone tell us why Chevrolet put the distributor at the rear of the engine, making it as hard as possible to change timing, points, rotor, cap, etc..? The only cool thing was the little window to adjust the points.
Then the OHC engine came along. Hmmm, some like these engines and some don’t. With the right internals (especially Connecting rods, pistons, valve springs & rockers/hardened pushrods) any OHV engine will be capable of adding Super Chargers, Turbo Chargers or Nitrous. Don’t expect to add power add-ons and keep stock internals unless you like to blow up internal parts just to see how far you can push them. In fact some have added Super Chargers to Stock SOHC engines, added more boost than their stock internals could hold, and then whined because their internals blew up.
So if we push the internals of stock engines beyond what they were designed to hold up to, we can safely say that the engine will soon have the correct internals in it, it will be sitting in the garage for a while or at a shop charging you up the rear end. I’d rather just avoid all that frustration and upgrade the internals first before considering power adders. Of course you can’t forget about the rear end gears either. I’ve learned that the hard way when I was a teenager. If you’ve got so much torque heading on it’s way past your transmission that you end up twisting drive shafts, breaking Ujoints, breaking ring and pinion gears or even busting welds on your ladder bars etc.. that’s going to put a huge dent in your wallet.
Personally, I feel if the test drive goes well - and I’m pretty confident it will, I going to find myself purchasing my first Twin Turbo Charged V6 Mustang. Again, from what I’ve seen and heard, this engine won’t have a problem sounding like a V8 with the right upgrades including complete exhaust system if necessary. After market parts and Tuners, will most likely be available as well for us, that’s a safe bet.
Soooo, how many of us are going to be willing to switch to a V6 that is capable of V8 Power and get better mileage at the same time and how many of us will stick to a V8 ? That's my question.
We know that this engine and it’s internals are capable of up to 415HP. After all it is born with twin turbo chargers. Just taking a close look at the crank, cam and pistons tell me that it’s got some quality internals. I also know by personal experience that you can even take Fords 3.8L V6 and get it to have a V8 growl. I’ve done it and I even had a Ford Mechanic think it was a V8 until he opened up the hood. I installed the right upgrades, tuned it myself and ended up with 300hp at the flywheel and 230 at the rear wheels. Naturally aspired and the right true dual exhaust helps anyone achieve the same.
The question here then, is the EcoBoost going to have that V8 growl right off the showroom floor or will we need to tweak it a bit to get the sound we’re after. Maybe some of us just simply want a V8 regardless of how much power we can get out of the new EcoBoost. Most of us will most likely need some time to learn how to work on it without messing with what they’ve done as well. We will also have a new 6 speed select shift with manual mode automatic transmission that’s mated to this beauty now as well. Ford announced on the 18th of Feb. that they upgraded it already with Larger rear gears, better torque converter and stator etc.. and the transmission itself.
I’ve grown up working on OHV engines with the good ol’ single cam so long it’s going to be hard to switch. I remember my first cars, one had a 265 and one had a 289 K code engine in it. I loved how easy they were to work on. I loved how much hp and torque you could get at the rear wheels with right parts. After my first Mustang I was a Ford man to make a long story short. Can anyone tell us why Chevrolet put the distributor at the rear of the engine, making it as hard as possible to change timing, points, rotor, cap, etc..? The only cool thing was the little window to adjust the points.
Then the OHC engine came along. Hmmm, some like these engines and some don’t. With the right internals (especially Connecting rods, pistons, valve springs & rockers/hardened pushrods) any OHV engine will be capable of adding Super Chargers, Turbo Chargers or Nitrous. Don’t expect to add power add-ons and keep stock internals unless you like to blow up internal parts just to see how far you can push them. In fact some have added Super Chargers to Stock SOHC engines, added more boost than their stock internals could hold, and then whined because their internals blew up.
So if we push the internals of stock engines beyond what they were designed to hold up to, we can safely say that the engine will soon have the correct internals in it, it will be sitting in the garage for a while or at a shop charging you up the rear end. I’d rather just avoid all that frustration and upgrade the internals first before considering power adders. Of course you can’t forget about the rear end gears either. I’ve learned that the hard way when I was a teenager. If you’ve got so much torque heading on it’s way past your transmission that you end up twisting drive shafts, breaking Ujoints, breaking ring and pinion gears or even busting welds on your ladder bars etc.. that’s going to put a huge dent in your wallet.
Personally, I feel if the test drive goes well - and I’m pretty confident it will, I going to find myself purchasing my first Twin Turbo Charged V6 Mustang. Again, from what I’ve seen and heard, this engine won’t have a problem sounding like a V8 with the right upgrades including complete exhaust system if necessary. After market parts and Tuners, will most likely be available as well for us, that’s a safe bet.
Soooo, how many of us are going to be willing to switch to a V6 that is capable of V8 Power and get better mileage at the same time and how many of us will stick to a V8 ? That's my question.