BurntPony

Lots of wishing for an affordable turbo or S/C kit around here. there are other ways.

Lets discuss the old school way of building hp. Remember the internal combustion engine is nothing more than an airpump.

1. Exhaust: Many fine systems on the market, not much room for improvment here.

2. Intake: Im still running my stock intake. I dont like any of the current offerings. I want a free flowing enclosed cone filter that ducts to the fenderwell or in front of the radiator, and a smooth intake tube,

3. TB/MAF: I dont know the size of either. Im assuming they are matched to each other and the intake manifold.

4. Heads: Here is where I think we can get some hp. The 3V GT guys are saying a full P&P nets 50 rwhp. Im curious what gains we could expect from some quality head work.

5. Cams: As far as I know, there are no aftermarket offerings for higher performance cams for the 4.0.

6. Tuning: When I get ready, Im going to travel down to Bama and get some dyno time with a custom tune. I think canned tunes work wonders, but nothing beats your car on the dyno, tuned for your particular mods.

My current plan is to see 250 n/a rwhp. I want to own this car 20+ years and I dont want any premature engine wear or catastrophic failures due to performance mods. I also want to keep my mods to 6k or less.

My 88GT dyno'd at 230 rwhp with very basic and inexpensive mods. I owned that car 11 years and never had any issues other than maintenence and normal wear and tear items. At 135,000 miles she ran as smooth and tight as the day I brought her home. I really screwed up selling that car.

Forced induction is easy on demand hp. I may go that route a couple years down the road, not now. I will let others work out the bugs and let the cost come down.

I dont want to slap the first viable system on that comes on the market without doing the other groundwork first, like a P&P on the heads and better cams.

Wouldnt it be great to have a big cam along with that S/C whine?

Excepcion13

I really like the direction you are going with this.

http://www.supersixmotorsports.com/

Wealth of information on this site. I, too, am looking to strengthen my internals now that my rear end is beefed up. If I wrote that anywhere else I might feel more than just a little strange...

Read the 4.0SOHC Tech PDF (link on the left) and check out their 4.0 Performance catalog.

Gash05

I plan on getting SSM heads (as well as most of their 4.0L product line) sometime this summer, I'll give a nice writeup as well as dyno numbers and E.T.'s after each install

TJ06

Ok I will play.

Update 1/12/06 edited the HP per knowledge gained in the 4.3L thread.

Old School 4.0 N/A
This engine is diff capable of more HP without ripping apart the bottom end and with out supercharging or turbo charging. My plan would be of old school for about 285+HP and would be as follows.
(I saw and know about the SuperSix nothing new when looking to rebuild for HP.


1.The first and most important would be to get the cylinder compression up perferably to 10.5 1if poss.or as close to either by milling/diff heads.

2. The heads first have to look to see any earlier versions came with bigger valves smaller CC chamber doubt it but would check. If not the heads would have to be fitted with larger intake and exhaust valves. Then of course ported ant polished with a 3angle valve job. Of course lets not forget heavy duty valve spring if available but not so sure this is that important on this engine due to the fact would be shifting at 6k or slightly under.

3.The next item would is to have custom cams ground which can be made, lift and duration would have to be determined (checking Valve to piston clearance ) after some researching,. I would have to look at in deciding on the cut where I would want the power range to be for the cam to really kick in. Iwould think as of right now would say not the low of high but a midrange power band cam.

4.The intake I am a little fuzzy on I have built only carburetor motors would need help with this, not sure but poss. larger throttle body along with a CAI and tune. I would run the cool can for fuel delivery system for track or street racing and poss. a ram air system.

5. The exhaust LT’ headers along with as of now the (article MM&FF Redheaded Step Child added 13HP to a 199HP 5,0) Magnaflow Tru X-X Xpipe along with free flow mufflers. If you want, a custom made set of SS TUNED (equal lenght tubes) LT headers would also be nice.

6. Stock ignition should be ok colder or hotter plugs due to the higher compression would to be researched along with gap size but stock setup should be fine.

7. The rear end, limited slip with either 373’s or 4.10’s I would go 4.10’s in this setup with a stick.

8. Synthetic oil with oil pan baffle.

The above would be IMO a sweet set up without putting pressure on the bottom end or having to rebuild it period at relatively a reasonably cost.

If anybody wants to add or comment on the above setup feel free.

rygenstormlocke

I too have been curious on this one, and wanted more information on this avenue. Unfortunately going this route currently is expensive, and I think for me going with a SC/TC will be cheaper for now. In the long run, engine re-work will be on the menu for me. Right now, supersix is the only game in town and they are a bit expensive.

Here are some threads on this:

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?sh...38298&hl=stroke

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?sh...38180&hl=stroke

Lot of good information here, might help with this thread.

TJ06

Thanks for posting Rygn that was a good read.


Thats true if you pull the bottom end apart, IMO its just not worth it and I wouldn't be interested going that route on a 4.0, A S/C or T/Cis a fast, economical, and easy way to get to around 300-350HP if you don't mind going charged vs N/A.

I perfer the S/C way IMO for a number of reasons and other people will perfer T/C for thier own reasons both systems will get the job done.

BurntPony

Anything other than a V8 has allways been expensive to mod.

I dont think Supersix's prices are that high.

$2000ish buys you a set of P&P heads with stainless oversize valves, reground cams, springs, retainers, and seals.

No claims as to hp increase.

One of the nice things about going this route is the ability to continue to use 87 octane fuel. For those who drive alot, over time this adds up. For me it isnt as big an issue, I only put about 400-500 miles a month on my Stang,

On a side note, the station where I usually buy my fuel has 1 pump labeled 103 octane race fuel. About $3.25 a gallon.

This may very well be the route I go, longevity being my biggest concern. 250 n/a rwhp would make me perfectly happy.......for now.