laxonlax96

About a month ago, i saved up enough money to buy a car, and i ended up buying a 2001 v6 mustang, stock everything except for a K&N CAI. The car is nice, but lately ive been regretting buying it since GT's here in arizona dont cost that much more. What im really looking for is the power and feel of a GT, and was wondering if it'd be cheaper to sell my v6 and buy a gt or to tune my v6? Or possibly an engine swap? If i went with the engine swap, what else would i need to buy to get my car running like a GT?

jthorn9

It depends on what kind of "GT" you're talking about. If you're talking about a 74-78 Mustang GT then you've already got those beat lol.

I'm assuming you're talking generation for generation so here you go.

General cost to make a 99-04 Mustang perform on "par" with a 99-04 GT is approximately $2500-5000. So in short its an extremely costly adventure and the price I listed is an extremely wide range and also assumes you can do most the work yourself. Now you could add Nitrous to the car for around $1000-1500 but you won't have "constant" power so I'm assuming that's what you mean.

In short it's cheaper to buy a GT/Cobra then trying to make a V6 perform on the same level. I know the 70 bhp difference doesn't sound like much, however trying to get 70 bhp out of a motor that's already running at it's near peak performance without major enhancements is extremely hard. In short, Ford got most of the power that you can out of the old 3.8L without all the modern technology and without forced induction. Sure you can make more power but it comes at the extreme cost of reliability and gas savings, not to mention more money, which is why people opt for the V6.

zentin

Yeah jthorn9 is right. But if you need support for your sixxer, I made a sixxers support thread somewhere around here a while ago...If you can't find a good GT, love your six!

crysalis_01

It may not be so difficult. Hell, my '96 would run away from stock/light bolt-on '96-'98 GT's.

It took this:

Split port swap with Windstar upper and ported lower
CAI
GT MAF
24% UDP's
4.10's
TG shift-kit in a swapped in 4r70w

All in all the car wasnt a fun DD after the gears and shift kit. But it was quick. In hind sight I should have not done the shift kit and looked into a 4.2 swap with the engine top end I had. Oh well, live and learn.

ByPopularDemand

If you want v8 power buy a v8. Modding that v6 is going to be an expensive letdown.

LilRoush

No let down at all if you do it right. I loved watching Cobra/Vette owners run away crying after moping the floor with them in my V6.

jthorn9

One big difference is you had the knowledge and spent the time and money to do it right. Most people will try but generally fail due to a lack of time, money, or knowledge.

samiamthemustangman

[

In short it's cheaper to buy a GT/Cobra then trying to make a V6 perform on the same level. I know the 70 bhp difference doesn't sound like much, however trying to get 70 bhp out of a motor that's already running at it's near peak performance without major enhancements is extremely hard. In short, Ford got most of the power that you can out of the old 3.8L without all the modern technology and without forced induction. Sure you can make more power but it comes at the extreme cost of reliability and gas savings, not to mention more money, which is why people opt for the V6.[/QUOTE]

In his case I would agree with buying a v-8. A port and posh, tune, and a Comp cam will wake up a 3.8 and compete with a 4.6. A few more mods are necessary to stop car lengths in a quarter mile. I know how to port n polish. A $350. cam and a $270 chip.But you are right it is a money pit. Why do you think the factory achieved great hp. They did go from single port to split port. But the motor has naturally aspirated potential.