ravyn50

Hey there, been in the shadows of the 5.0 forum for a while and just had a couple of quick questions.

I may be picking up a 96 gt. The car has 72k miles and has told me that the strut bearings are going bad. Should I be worried about this right off the bat or can I drive it without replacing them for a while?

Is there anything that I need to make sure I listen for while I test drive it?

And lastly, how hard is it to mod it? I've read that the 98s are difficult to mod, is that the same for the 96s?

Thanks!

Oh and is this 4.6l the same as the newer ones or the ones in the 99-04s?

sn8kebite

The heads are different, and as a result they are very poor performers. A head swap to the "PI" (99-04) heads is a must. Anything you do until the head swap is going to leave you dissapointed. The 96-98's are all the same.

ravyn50

So out of curiousity if I do the 'pi' upgrade am I able to use 99-04 parts? and can you just pull the heads out of any 99-04 gt? I'm trying to do a read up on it. When it means pi intake, valve covers etc, does it mean straight from the 99-04s? Also after doing these upgrades how much hp can the motor hold if you get it machined and get rid of the hy-fords****tyexcuse for pistons and internals? Oh and when I do the pi swap do I search for 96-98 headers or 99-01 headers?

562cobra

yes it means straight from the 99-04's. After doing these upgrades it'll be like a 40-60 hp increase. (correct me if im wrong) but you'll also get a bump in compression which will require 91 + octane fuel.

sn8kebite

I THINK (someone please varify) you must use romeo heads when doing a PI swap. I know 99-00 winsor heads have a different bolt pattern than later Romeo heads. I believe the 96-98 blocks are of the romeo variety. Winsor/ Romeo are not interchangeable.

defconfire

Its not the head bolt pattern, its the valve cover bolts, I am running romeo heads on a Windsor shortblock.

ravyn50

bump... sorry didn't answer all my questions

Sxynerd

It's not hard if you do the mods in the right order. Start with gears and exhaust, then move onto changing the stock engine.

562cobra

as far as the strut bearing question goes, i am not sure. someone should fill you in on that on. the engine in the 96-98 are the same but as far as heads, intake manifold, valvetrain is concerned, it is different than the 99-04's. 96-98 are different than the 05+ as i believe nothing is interchangeable.

ravyn50

how much hp can the 4.6l carry with out blowing out the bottom end if you get forged internals? how bout the auto tranny also? and thanks for the replies