dima4855

Just bought a 97 Ford Mustang V8, 4.6l, 107 miles, with a 5sp and would like to use it for drifting at the track.

I have already upgraded the brakes/calipers to Cobra brake system. Put in Flowmaster cat's and mufflers. I read that 97 only produces 215hp and since I had 2002 mustang with the exact same engine that produced 265hp I'd like to know what was different and may be get this one to 300hp+.

My ideas were:
1. K&N intake
2. Chip
3. Pulley Kit
4. ?????

I want to keep the engine naturally aspirated so no turbo chargers or superchargers. Another problem is that I am 5500ft elevation and so that horsepower is probably down 172hp from 215. Please help with suggestions.

SVTeeshirt

first off mustangs understeer makes them not so good of a drift car, how exactly did u arrive at 172hp lol, anyway, normally i would say rear end gears, im not sure what they would do for drifting tho... PI swap is a must.

dima4855

I figured 20% loss for altitude it's probably less then that in any case it's probably between 180-190

Sxynerd

You wanna drift buy a 85 Corrola.

russ98stang

well, 96-98 mustangs were the non PI engines and in 99, Ford started using new cylinder heads in wich they called the PI (performance inhanced). 96-98 cylinder heads restricted the exhaust from about 3000 rpm and up. so the first thing you need to do is install a set of PI heads, cams, intake and the heater tube. You can look around and find a deal on all this and come out for around 1000 dollars. It should give you about 50 ponies off the top, even more with a decent tune. Dont take it to some jack leg mechanic like i did though.

Someone correct me if im wrong on anything but i think i got most of it right.

562cobra

the 215 that is being produced is to the crank, what you wanna do is get the rear wheel horse power as high as possible. I have 390 hp to the crank. when i went to dyno it, it came to 367 rwhp. still a work in progress. PI swap is a must. the 02 you had made more power because it has better heads, cams, and intake manifold. [dont know if im missing anything] I've been told that a pi swap in a 96-98 gt will gain more power than a 99-04 gt, cus of the bump in compression. hope you like 91 octane. visit your local junk yards. at times you can get a killer deal on heads, valve train, and manifold.

bai.

cliffyk

Re: your altitude related HP loss, you were spot-on for all practical purposes...

Here's an online calculator.

dima4855

what do you guys mean by PI swap

jlg32281

Not a good drifting car. That said, if you're going to stay with a mustang, you need heads that like to rev. cobra heads love to rev and swapping to cobra heads will give you a serious horse power boost.

562cobra

pi swap= 99-04 gt heads, cams, and manifold.