Its great to see both sides.. the 4.0's and the GT's are fighting and winning our own battles... Us 4.0's are fighting all the V6 competitors and we are kicking butt!! As well as the GT's, they are fighting alot of the V8's and totally kicking ***!!! and especially with those people who have their stangs, with either turbo's or superchargers... its great too see many of the Kills that we have acomplished with our stangs... we are holding on strong.. and stangs unite!! We take pride in our cars and go out with pride in our hearts and our competitors in the dust.... We are at war with our enemies... We will be ready when the time comes, dodge and chevy.. bring it on!!

 

ugh... why doesn't FORD help us out a littlle...(5.4 option for the GT)

 

if fords gonna help us out at all we need the boss 302 man.

 

We don't need bigger powerplant options. The 4.6 works just fine. It's capable (in built form) of 800ish, and that's all you're ever gonna need. 500 is overpowering the street. 800+ is drag car territory.

 

When you look at how much hp per liter these Ford 4.6 engine are making they are very impressive. Look at the current engine GM is putting in the Limpala SS. They need 5.3 liters to get the same hp which impressive enough for the Ford but GM's pushrod engine even with all that extra displacement doesn't even generate any more torque than Ford's 4.6.
The Europens learned a long time ago that overhead cam engines are more efficient than pushrod engines. It took Ford a while but they got it right and that's why I switched. (I was a diehard GM fan for years)
In regards to the 4.0 liter guys. I have that 4.0 in a 2007 Ranger and it's a very nice engine too. Again it's OHC and I am getting better mileage and I have more power than my friend has with his GM 4.3 pushrod engine.
Ford represents very good value for the money. Our cars aren't perfect but I know for the same cash there's nothing better in terms of engineering or styling.

 

Truth be told, there is no reason why they can't increase the displacement for our engines... really what is the disadvantage?

I mean my old LS1 had better gas mileage with a 5.7L by a long shot.. so they aren't savin us any money by the engine being smaller. Weight? Possibly 50 lbs more for the larger engine.. larger internals, head, valves, etc.. but with that extra liter available it wouldn't be too tough to compensate for it. And you could de-tune the engine and have more emissions equiptment to further increase the fuel economey, while maintaining or slightly increasing the power.

 

There's nothing wrong with increased displacement. It works. Before my Mustang I had 460 ci big block Chevy and I was pretty happy with it. The torque that came out of that thing was amazing. My only argument against increasing displacement is that it should not be the only way to increase power. Before you increase displacement you should make your design as efficient as possible first. Look at all that 1970's crap that had large displacement with pathetic outputs. There were 460 Fords that only made 200 hp, 454 Chevys that made 195 hp ect. It doesn't do any good to make a large displacement engine if you are going to choke it up with a low lift cam and a restrictive exhaust and this is what Detroit did in the past. Yes displacement works and I would be all for having a 5.4 option for the Mustang GT. It would work well and I am sure Ford has considered it. Basically I am happy with my 4.6 but you can bet that if there was an all aluminum 5.4 option on the order form I would have checked it. If it was cast iron I would not becuase I don't want increased weight in the front of the car. The weight distribution on these cars is nearly perfect and certainly better than 99% of American cars out there and that's important for me but everyone is entitled to their own preferences.
I am all about choice for the consumer however when you look at it from Ford's point of view though, making more options available increases their production costs. Ford took a gamble on this entirely new design, filling a niche that had been abandoned my GM and Chrysler and it worked but as a company they are still struggling and need to keep costs down.
The fact that Ford isn't offering a 5.4 is most likely an economic one however with the Challenger comming soon, as impressive as the Ford 4.6 is they are going to need something bigger to compete with Chysler's large displacment pushrod beast and unless Ford is going use supercharger or turbos the 4.6 will not be able to keep up. I fully expect some variant of the 5.4 to show up in the Mustang about the time the Challenger becomes available. It's going to be interesting.

 

The 302 is coming, and it will have that little extra edge that will be nice... Ford has allready been talking about it with the dealerships... The best thing Ford could do is give it a forged crank, rods and pistons; oh and please give it the 4.6 aluminum block bored/stroked not some heavy iron block... We will see it as a 2008 model next Fall...

 

i would really like to see 400ish hp N/A

 

I think we shouldn't underestimate GM's ability to produce a very efficient OHV engine, but then again Ford is committed to the Romeo
power-plant(modular V-8). Yes the 'Vette makes 400 N/A hp and with 27-30 mpg on the highway(aerodynamics, gearing, vehicle weight contributing heavily) from a 6.0L engine(366 cu. in.), but runs on premium only(20-50 cents higher per gallon than regular). Ford gets 300hp from a 4.6L running on regular gas. This works out to 1.09hp/cu. in. for the GM 'Vette motor and 1.07hp/cu. in. for the Mustang GT motor. The 'Vette runs a 10.9:1 C/R where as the GT runs a 9.8:1, I'd say Ford's doing a wonderful job making their GT motor affordable, cheap to run and ready for future mods....seems the Chevy 6.0L is tapped out(from a DYI perspective). You wonder why there's a fantastic aftermarket for our beloved "Pony Car"? Imagine running a blower on a 'Vette engine at that C/R? I realize there's S/C kits for 'Vette owners...but have you seen the boost levels they can run at? Not very high or depending which way you look at it. Ford can easily make a 400hp 4.6L 3V....but where's the potential after that? A low boost S/C? And end up at the same power level if you had started with a "regular 300hp V-8"? The engine would be more costly and would only respond(I'm talking DYI friendly here, I realize you can fortify any engine, but that equals $$$$$) to a certain point. I think Ford really knows their Mustang market, remember, we've had uninterrupted H.O. type Mustang V-8s for 24 years(1982 being the rebirth) they are giving us what we want and the aftermarket realizes our aspirations. Why do you think the Camaro/Firebird and now GTO died?
Why do you think the aftermarket didn't warm up to GM products as much as to Ford(specifically Mustang V-8)? Yes GM cars make more factory hp right off the showroom floor....but what's after that? I totally agree that Ford should make fortified internals a factory standard practice..let us make 1000hp without a tear down/rebuild! I think Ford, in trying to cut corners, didn't think the GT500 was gonna be such a pig, and with the limited volume(yes, in Ford's eyes, 8-10 thousand cars/year is very limited) I'm sure they're not gonna sweat it too much. An aluminum block in the GT500 would've solved so many problems(mainly 100-150 lb off the nose!). This only the beginning...Ford's not gonna let their market lead slip out of their hands. Although we do need a Camaro/Challenger/newGTO to make Ford not rest on their laurels. IMO