99austin99

I have had a few threads about different ways to to add power and fuel economy and all that random crap that people ask about, but to this point I have still not done any work to my car (other than a new sound system) for two reasons.... 1. I am still in the research phase trying to decide the best route to go, and 2. my wife will kill me if I start dropping a bunch of money into my car..... But mostely number 1. So here it is, I'm hoping this thread will sum up all of my research and answer all of my questions... I would like to hear from Jthorn, Stangant, LilRoush and the others that have a lot of expierience with these cars but input from every one with something productive is perfectly welcome.

So here it is....

I'm looking at 4 possible builds at this point, M112, M90, Turbo, and natuarlly aspirated.

I know mysteedperformance.com used to do kits for the M112 build, but I emailed that guy like 2 months ago and still no reply on that, infor on how this works and where to get the stuff is needed.

TMAturbo.com does a street kit that I am looking at, more info on turbo charging plz

I know that the super coupe came with a 3.8l essex, but had the M90 s/c on it, this one I need a lot of info on if any one has done it.

And finally the naturally aspirated 4.2l... I'm thinking if I do this then I want to go down to a junkyard by my house and pull the entire engine off of an f150 for $250, pull the crank shaft out of it and the upper intake and use the pistons and rest of the parts from my current 3.9l with <100k on it. Pair that up with Pypes true dual off road exhaust, no cats, bbk crome headers, and a bama flash tune.... Can do all this for less than $2000, and start getting my car ready for the show. Oh and throw in a new cam from either super six or morana.

So there it is, Need feed back so I can start making my final plan. Wife already said I can go down and get an SRT8 charger if I get rid of my stang so I need your guy's help before I pull the trigger on that offer.

jthorn9

Well you left out one extremely viable option.......vortech or paxston superchargers. Neither company still makes an active line for the 99-04 V6, however there are tons of lightly used complete kits on the market that can be had for a relative steal. For what you're looking at this will be your cheapest way out and will still offer nice performance levels.

M90 - won't work. Yes, I know you "could" make it work (by reverting your car back to a single port design, then doing the thunder bird to single port swap), but you can also put an LS2 motor in an 05 Mustang. Just because you "can" do something doesn't mean it's a smart economical decision.

M112 - I've seen a lot of people take this route, however most of them quickly sell off their car or the supercharger either due to problems with the install or custimization and or not the performance they were looking for. The M112 is still a roots designed supercharger and not as efficient as a twin screw, hense why so many 03/04 Cobra owners dump their M112 and upgrade to a twin screw Ford Racing M112 variant, and or Kenne Bell.

As far as turbos go, I've never directly messed with one, but have done loads of research and this is what I've generally found. Turbos cost 2 - 3 times more than a supercharger to install. Turbos make more power than superchargers. Turbos can require enormous amounts of custimization to fit certain cars which doesn't exactly make them an "at home project" for most people. Turbos are generally only ran in track cars and not on most street machines.

Remember you have 3 forms of super chargers:

Roots - M90/M112 design, are very efficient at making boost in lower RPMs, however due to problems with heat soaking and natural lack of efficiency in design, they tend to can out in the upper RPMs or higher gears.

Twin Screw - Ford Racing M112 variant/Kenne Bell/Eddlebrok/Vortech TS - These superchargers look and function nearly identical to roots except for their core design. Where as a roots has 2 tri star impeller blades that spin opposite one another to force in air the twin screw has, you guessed it, two screw cylinders that spin opposite one another. Both accomplish the same goal by generating positive pressure (aka boost) by compressing the incoming air, just that the twin screw design is much more efficient. Kenne Bell did a test on an 03 Cobra and a 5 PSI Kenne Bell made 10 more rwhp than the 9/11 PSI M112 super charger did. Only down side to twin screw superchargers is that due to their improved efficiency they do put much greater stress levels on engines and if not built right will quickly mess up things. They also still suffer from some heat soaking and can tend to fade out a little in the upper RPMs.

Centrifugal - looks like a turbo, but mounts off to the side of the air intake and uses a turbine (powered by the crank) to generate positive displacement to create boost and force in more air. These are the superchargers most people go with. They're sort of a happy medium. They don't seem to get out the box as hard as roots/screw designs (due to them having to spool up similar to a turbo) however they do perform better and offer more consistent power in the upper RPMs due to not being mounted directly to the motor. So this one is a bit of take and give.


So it's a bit of a long read but I hope it helps. There really isn't any "right" way to do this. There are ways that are cheaper than others, there are ways that make more power than others, and there are ways that are "safer" on the motor than others. Just really comes down to what you want out of the car and what you can realistically afford or can invest in the car.

samiamthemustangman

If you get a good 4.2 all of the engine parts are the same. No the water pump is not the same and I do not consider it a engine part. The oil pan has to be exchanged with yours. The only naturally aspirated cams worth buying require rocker arms. Add that into your budget. I can show you cheaper rocker arms but they will need machine work. If you get a cam,AM bama can not tune. They only tune basic mods.