Dino Dino Bambino

The difference is about 6 car lengths or 100ft over a 1/4 mile (1320ft) race.

Norm Peterson

That kind of difference may seem like "an eternity" at the drag strip (and it might as well be if there are contingency payouts on the line. But that's not exactly what the OP is concerned with.

When the OP specifically posts that the newer car "doesn't seem to pull as hard as my 05 did", clearly he is not talking about actual measured performance. Rather, it's his perception, or his SOTP "feel", that it isn't. And completely aside from things like shifter goodness and gearing, that perception includes differences in the sounds of what's going on and in chassis stiffness/NVH isolation and suspension tuning.


I could probably run a couple of standing start math simulations and end up with a much closer idea of the actual performance difference than "3/4 track vs at the stripe".


Norm

P51C

Question my time and distance maths all you want but, the 4.6 is still way back in the rear view, every time. There is no arguing with a 100 horse deficit in a car that weighs roughly the same. The 4.6 can feel torquier because of its choked-off cylinder heads and mild cam timing. The 5.0 makes more power up high but that ain't going to come for free. One can easily tune around the low-end torque deficit on the 5.0 with the stock tune, with no impact on high rpm performance and have the best of both.

Everyone is probably sensing my distaste for the 4.6 and, I'll be honest, I've had many Mustangs and I was never going to buy another as long as that engine was in there. My heart soared when I heard Ford was going back to 5.0 and better than that, producing an all-new V8 engine for the line Mustang first, for the first time in history.

Dino Dino Bambino

The maths are pretty simple: 110-115mph at the end of the 1/4 is roughly 50m/sec. At a margin of 0.6 sec that's 30m or 100ft, not the 330+ft that you're suggesting. Even 100ft is enough to leave the 4.6 appearing to be way back in the rear view mirror.

P51C

Whatever you gotta tell yourself to mathematically rationalize losing is ok by me....

Frankly, I've never seen a 4.6 with similar mods to my car be remotely that close at the track and there's lots of them out there. They pretty much just disappear at 1/2 track as the 3V gets winded.

Norm Peterson

Let's get something straight here . . . what my car might be able to accomplish at the dragstrip relative to what anybody can get out of a 5.0L car is of no real interest to me.

I honestly don't think I could care less if you in your car beat me in mine at the dragstrip by 100 feet, or by 330 feet, or by even more than that. Even if I did everything right, you did everything wrong, and at the line I was only a car length or so off your rear bumper, it still wouldn't matter. You aren't likely to find anybody else quite like that on the forums, so I know it may be a bit difficult of a concept to understand.

But I do know a few things - maybe more than just a few - about forward acceleration and I am very much interested in seeing reasonably accurate comparisons instead of trash talk. Save that for when you beat a Camaro sixxer.


FWIW, I would be really happy if there was a DOHC/4V head for the 4.6. But that would beg for upgrades in most of the other internal engine parts.


Norm

P51C

...and those internal parts are another reason to consign the 4.6 to the dustbin of history. You push them close to the breaking point trying to get out of the engine what a 5.0 with healthy exhaust and a good tune can do and easily live through forever.

Last I checked, there were 4V 4.6s going back to 1996 in the Cobras so maybe that's your answer. They didn't make alot of power either, unmodified, even the SC Terminators. Time, engine design and engine management has marched on, fortunately.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen some badass modular motors but they require a total build to do it.

Norm Peterson

I've built a few engines over the years, and the notion of going all the way into an engine and replacing rods, pistons, and what-not during a build-up isn't anything new. Hell, I'd expect to be doing those things from the get-go, and then some. A 4.6L/7500 rpm/400 HP 4V "Coyote Jr" . . . hmmm . . . comes up a bit short for the dragstrip, but it'd be plenty for road course work.


Norm

Dino Dino Bambino

Nobody's disputing that the Coyote 5.0 is an awesome engine and a big advance over the 4.6 3V, and it's great that an '11-'14 GT can hit 11's with just a couple of performance bolt-ons (CAI, LT headers) plus a tune and stickier tires. Add a blower and you'd be at 600+rwhp running 10's, possibly even high 9's with major weight reduction and suspension changes. That's Bugatti Veyron territory for a fraction of the cost!
A N/A 4.6 3V could be built to beat a stock Coyote, but few have been willing to spend the $4000+ required to upgrade the heads/cams/intake manifold/throttle body, max out at 390rwhp, only to find that their asses will be handed to them anyway by Coyote owners who've now added the aforementioned couple of bolt-ons!
For roughly the same or slightly higher cost, you could supercharge the 4.6 3V and have a 450+rwhp car that'll run low 11's and beat a bolt-ons Coyote but then again, it might be cheaper to simply trade up from an '05-'10 GT to an '11-14 model now that their value has dropped far enough to make them more affordable. You'd then have a higher platform from which to start adding upgrades.
Nevertheless, there'll be diehards like myself who'll hang onto their '05-'09 GT forever simply because they love the retro looks, the 4.6's soundtrack, and not care about keeping up with the Joneses in the increasingly insane HP wars.

jz78817

the 5.0 is a Modular engine.