02' GT Convertible, Need help choosing intake manifold.
 

Hello everyone!

I have been doing an immense ammount of research, but am new to these forums, so please excuse me if this is a topic that has already been discussed.

I have a Black and Tan 02' 4.6L GT Convertible, 156k, 2nd owner, always been a FL car. It's primarily always been the girls daily, but recent circumstances have caused me to start to gain some great appreciation for this awesome piece of American muscle history.

List of what the car currently has, non-cosmetic (and yes its not much lol);
BBK Cold Air Intake
Red Top Injectors
Flowmaster H and tails

That being said, a few months ago the car began to develop a bit of an idle issue. Short story long, I ended up tuning it up with copper NGK's, SR Performance COP's, New BBK air filter and a Ford fuel filter. I replaced the PCV and some cracked vacume lines, as well as a new ICV valve (the old one was clearly broken internally). Turned her on, and she purred nicer than I ever remember her sounding.

So I threw the girl in the car and went to go for a test drive. It ran amazing for about 10 miles, when I had to come to a stop. I went to accelerate forward and suddenly coolant splattered across the windshield and the car started immediately billowing pure white smoke. After things cooled down and I got a closer look, at first I thought my heater core had gone. But then when I looked closer, I noticed that the hose coming out of the heater core, had blown off the intake manifold. Upon a closer look, the dumb PLASTIC tube that the hose is supposed to slip onto and broken off at the base of the manifold.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/mustang...7223ffd3a2.jpg

So, my question is what intake manifold would be my best option to assure that this issue would never happen again?

I suppose it's worth noting that I do plan on essentially "restoring" the car if you will. With 156k it's showing a few signs of wear. So I'd like to eventually go through this car from the ground up and build it to be a b.a. fun street car. I'm not sure yet if I would want to supercharge or turbo, but that will be on my list of mods for the future.
But for right now I just want to get it running again, while being able to have the most options in order to gain some extra ponys when I have the time to do more mods to the engine, after more important things like breaks and suspension.

So, does anybody have suggestions on intakes for an 02, that are not plastic, that allow for future mods?

Go back to the factory style intake. Its the best manifold for any stock/mild GT. But get the Ford Racing unit and not a oem replica.
http://www.americanmuscle.com/intake-manifold.html

Like ^he said, just get another stock PI. Without heads, cams and headers you're pretty much just gonna lose power with anything the aftermarket has to offer. The factory manifold lasted 13 years and 156K miles so it's pretty likely another stock replacement will last at least as long.

Agreed with schoolboy. Stick to the ford oem. If you're not running some sort of forced induction it's really not worth straying away from. Don't touch the replicas, oem ford or don't get a new one.

I agree,even though my original in my 04 only made it to about 60k/nine years(failure was upfront,not the heater outlet)(not sure about an 02,but mine came new with the metal crossover) For about 275 with gaskets,you're done.Still exercise care with the heater outlet.
As I understand the aftermarket metal manifolds leave something to be desired,and cost more than twice as much.
If I'm wrong about this,please let me know.I considered springing for a metal manifold when mine went south,(the car is totally stock) but concluded that if it went again,it wasn't such a big deal.

Ps: I've had a few cars since new that I put that kind of mileage on,150k+,with the notion of a semi restoration and keeping it going for many years to come.Big chunks of money thrown at them at that point,was money not well spent.

02' GT Convertible, Need help choosing intake manifold.
 

I had this exact part break on me. I got the ford OEM replacement and new gaskets. Problem solved