Replace Engine?

[jabier14]

I recently received a '98 mustang (3.8L V6) as a gift and I got pretty depressed when I checked out the stock hp rating for the car. Despite having a rather large engine (yes, I know it is small for a mustang but it is still big overall) it doesn't have a whole lot of power. I looked into engine mods for the car (I am relatively new to this, I am a mechanical engineer but this will be my first project on a car) but it seems that those would require a decent number of mods and tuning to be done to significantly increase the power of the engine. So my questions are as follows:

1) Is it possible to fit a larger engine (say a 5.0L or a 4.6L) into the body of a '98 mustang? I have looked under the hood and there is a bit of room, probably because some '98's also come with 4.6L. (I obviously would have someone do this for me.)

2)Would it make more sense just to modify the engine myself rather than get a new engine (if possible)? I would generally like to do some modding to make this car into a ongoing project, however it seems that it would require substantial modifying to get a decent hp increase.

 

[Skymarshal]

You're right that 3.8L is a fairly large engine. The reason that this engine doesn't make all that much power (or torque) is that it's old-school pushrod technology, and not a lot of work was done on the induction by Ford. It's intended to be one of Ford's corporate engines for mid-size cars, not a performance engine.

You can pick up some HP by doing the usual stuff like a pulley and CAI. You can also make the car feel faster by switching the rear end to 3.73 gears. Any of those could be done for $500 or less.
If you are looking for power you can definitely notice, you're probably looking at either a blower or a head and cam swap (Super Six Motorsports). Either of those are going to take some handyness and a day or two to put in, but they'll net you 70-100 extra horsepower (at a cost of about $2k).

There are others on this board who have done the engine swap. It's a lot of work, and as has been said before, it's probably just easier to buy a GT and go from there. Even though there are other engines in the 3.8L range that make 300+ horsepower unmodified, they're a lot newer technology. With our 3.8, we just don't have a lot to work with!

 

[2002BLGT]

you can get close to 190 hp with a few simple modifications , the top 4 modifications to make are K&N drop in filter , Dual exhaust kit , underdrive crank pulley from ASP , and getting a tuner for it

my cousins 98 V6 went from an 11.84@65mph 1/8th mile time down to 10.05@71mph with the above modifications and new clutch and good tires

 

[jabier14]

I am in the process of learning how to work on my car. I am starting with some decently easy things like the exhaust and a cold air intake, however I will be adding more as I gain more knowledge. Any good sites or resources to learn how to do the mods?

 

[slowfashow]

if its your first car that you are working on i would personally keep it and invest all that needs to be invested in the car to meet your satisfaction, its the pride in the project that counts and the fact that you made that car that much better (performance wise). Like skymarshal said, super six motor sports has you covered from your basic bolt ons to your internal engine components and forced induction systems.

 

[FoxGT87]

you could always look for a Thunderbird SC (super coupe) i think they are 89-93 not sure. but if you find one intact at the junk yard you could always yank the blower off of it, its a factors stock super charger that ford made to fit the 3.8L engine. it has 5-8 psi of boost and will make your car a bit faster. my buddy once had a junker thunderchicken SC, he got it for 300 bucks lol and it was pretty quick until the rear end fell out on him. the junk yard is basically just as much of a gamble as getting one off of Ebay. i have personally been checking ebay for them for a friend cause im trying to get his V6 to be a little more spunky like my 5.0 fox. been seeing the whole set up for 400-600 bucks a coupple have looked like they are brand new.

 

[Skymarshal]

you could always look for a Thunderbird SC (super coupe) i think they are 89-93 not sure. but if you find one intact at the junk yard you could always yank the blower off of it, its a factors stock super charger that ford made to fit the 3.8L engine. it has 5-8 psi of boost and will make your car a bit faster. my buddy once had a junker thunderchicken SC, he got it for 300 bucks lol and it was pretty quick until the rear end fell out on him. the junk yard is basically just as much of a gamble as getting one off of Ebay. i have personally been checking ebay for them for a friend cause im trying to get his V6 to be a little more spunky like my 5.0 fox. been seeing the whole set up for 400-600 bucks a coupple have looked like they are brand new.

Sounds like a great plan on paper, but the SC 3.8 is actually very different from the Mustang 3.8. Lots of parts are in different places in the induction system. This mod has been done before but it's a lot of work- some people have just transplanted the whole SC engine and gone from there.

Personally, if you want to go with boost and keep it cheap, there have been turbo installs that haven't cost a lot- the only catch is that you have to be very good with welding and fabricating.
Again, there are no magic bullets that will make this car a lot faster for cheap. Nitrous is probably the cheapest way for the strip, but for daily driving you're probably stuck either doing a homemade turbo, a blower install, or a cam and porting kit.

Remember to start with the cheap stuff- gears should be first!