06 Slvr Bullitt

I'm looking at doing some upgrades to my daily driver (2003 Ford Mustang v6, 36000 miles at purchase). I've had her for about 3 weeks now and can easily tell she's significantly slower that my 2006 Ford Mustang v6. I actually did a amateur 0 - 60 test and got to 60 in 12 seconds...that is slower than my old '03 Cavalier and I now understand when people were saying on the old Cavalier forum I belonged to that they used to eat Mustangs for breakfast because they were so slow!

I want to do some things to bump up the horsepower...or at the very least the acceleration of this pony. I want to start with exhaust, seeing how I did that with the '06 and the acceleration is just way better with the new exhaust (dual Magnaflows) than it was with stock. The 3.8L engine is different than the 4.0L so I'm wondering what kind of exhaust would you guys recommend? I'm looking for something that will possibly increase acceleration and power. I will be doing an intake and tune on the 3.8L (probably will do it first before the 4.0L since it definitely needs it more) eventually but I want to get the exhaust out of the way first. Also, I'd to do a single exhaust upgrade on this v6 as opposed to duals. The only problem is most bodykits (which I'm looking at for increasing the appearence) have outlets for dual exhaust which may force me to go duals but I want to stay with a single on the daily driver if possible.

So what would you suggest on the exhaust front? I'm a newb to this generation of Mustangs so all the details you can give me the better.

Knight

exhaust will have little if any effect on acceleration or power.

You really won't get any use out of new exhaust unless you are adding a SC or turbo.

And the sn95s will not see as much benefit of a intake/tune as the 05+ do. so don't expect too much there either.

you can do a top end swap from a thunderbird supercoupe. meaning swap the heads intake and SC over for realativly cheap.

06 Slvr Bullitt

How much on average would it take, and what else would need to be done to the car if I decided to do the swap?

Knight

Well its not cheap cheap but cheaper then buying a sc kit.

here is intake/SC and all the air and fuel parts like injectors
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/3-8-T...spagenameZWDVW

youd still need the cylinder heads or a machine shop that can make adapter plates for port alignment to allow that intake to work with the stock heads.

bt4

Out of curiosity, has anyone considered sliding a D35 under the hood to replace the 3.8?

Since the 4.6 V8 fits under the hood, there should be enough space in the engine bay. With 263-hp (on regular gas) it should offer considerably more power and still offer good economy.

jarradasay

It is probably physically doable to put in the D35,but the cost factor would make it nearly impossible.

05MustangFanII

Camshafts would be a good way to go for power

bt4

Yeah, you're right. It was just a thought--

I doubt I'll ever mod my 2000 V6, it does nicely as a commuter vehicle. But I saw the specs on the Edge after my brother bought one and it has some respectable figures for a V6. After driving his Edge, I thought, hmmm, I wonder how this would perform in a much lighter vehicle, like an SN95.

The SN95 is over 200-lbs lighter than the S197 (3064 vs 3300) and over 1,000-lbs lighter than the Edge (4073). In 2000 the 3.8 was only rated at 190-hp/220-ft lbs. The new D35 in Edge tune actually produces more HP than the 2000 GT--265 vs 260, but of course the 4.6 produces more torque--302 vs 250. (I think the V6 rear-end might handle the 250-ft lbs, though I would be leary of using it with the V8.)

The Edge's weight argues against its V6 excelling at fuel economy, but in the SN95 I think the D35 might offer better than average MPG. And with 265-hp might have a high fun-to-drive quotient. I suspect the balance (front/rear weight distribution) might wind up better than an SN95 with the 4.6.

It was just a thought--

If I ever have money just to pi$$ away..

1999Pony

That would be a cool swap but It would be cheaper just to go with the V8 just because of the custom factor that would probably go into swappong the D35.

06 Slvr Bullitt

Well I definitely think that there might be something wrong (not too serious) with the 3.8L engine. Like I stated previously, it's realy sluggish and doesn't want to do much unless you really (and I mean really) romp on it, which isn't good for daily driving, which is what I use it for. Best 0 - 60 Time I acheived thus far is about 10.5, which is better than the 12 I had initially acheived when I first got the got car, but still out of characteristic with the 8 - 9.5 second 0 - 60 time I read for the SN95 Mustangs. Compare it to my father's 1997 that he picked up recently with 142,000-plus miles on the non working odometer and it's world's faster than my 2003 even with the potential engine problems (CHECK ENGINE indicator came on recently on his 1997) that it may possess. At this point I think the next time I get the oil done, I'm going to have the dealership take a look at everything and make sure all the essentials are fine. There's gotta be something that's causing it to be as sluggish as it is. I thought it might have to do with the fact that at one point it was old lady driven still at that it should be faster right? The mileage is great (22.7 on average since ownership) but it feels like it's working with 93 horsepower at times instead of 193 horsepower.

jarradasay

I don't know about your power problem, but my 04 MT averages 25 mpg, one tank averaged 30, but I thing that was a fluke. Have you tried changing all your filters? Oil, air, fuel? check your plugs.

1999Pony

Yea do a little tune up on it. Change the filters and the plugs and see it that helps at all .You might have some plugs bad so that could be why its not running right.