I was wondering how I could get some more horsepower out of my 87 cougar that has a 5.0 engine. I am putting a k&n filter in there but don't know what else I could go with. Help me out? Keep in mind I am on a limited budget being in college and all. Thanks
change to flow masters or dynaflows... i think that will give you something..
well first of all we need some pics of your cougar, second we need to know where your from :D
No such thing... Start Here: http://www.coolcats.net/tech/ , read through all of it, then come back and quiz us. We'll help you out where that info leaves off ;) !!
If you want anything to work for a Cougar/Bird most of all Power you are going to have to dish some cash out, and put in some time. I would suggest a custom exhaust system to start with. Mine only cost $700 for everything. If you can get away with it, find a shop that will get a system on without Cats. That saves a good bit of money.
You could also put a BBK Cold Air Kit on for $150 give or take. My dad did that to his 88 and it kicked up a little bit of power.
Lastly, the best place to check for cheap power would be the boneyards, or the boneyard of the net EBAY. :D
Goodluck! Keep us posted!
Let's see...
1 pull the air baffle thingy from the inside of the fender
2 bump up the timing a bit
3 HO upper intake manifold, throttle body and spacer plate
4 make sure everything is clean and set properly. If your 5.0 isn't happy, it isn't going to perform well ;)
Budget is the limit and college budgets suck. I'm on one now wohooo!!
Good luck and welcome aboard! If you can't find what you need, post about it and we're here to help :D
Ok I updated my profile for whoever cares. But yeah I was planning on putting a nice exhaust system without the cats since we are country folk in Indiana and we don't believe in quiet cars or trucks. Also I was wondering what you guys thought about putting a Mustang upper intake manifold on there with the mustang throttle body and everything? I think i could find that at a salvage yard around here, there is a big place down the road that has everything. Just throwing that out there?
Mustang manifold, yep... Posted above you ;)
Look for one too off a Lincoln Mark VII. They were HOs as well and the manifold is the same as Mustangs.
I removed the air silencer and i dont hear a difference (does it really silence anything?) and i dont feel a difference, but i have also heard that it takes 20 horsepower increase for a person to feel a difference (i seriously doubt that gave me 20). but anyways i guess if what ive heard is right, remember your gonna have to buy/do $20 worth of stuff to it to make it feel stronger.
Amen brother!
Im from Ft Wayne
i think i felt a difference when i put the stang shorties and h-pipe on my car... not bad.. then i threw some cherry bomb turbo II's on it sounds nice and all under $300
and the ho upper helped me out too :D
You're in for a rude surprise.
At 20 bucks, you're only fixing things that are broken already.
How effective are underdrive pulleys on the non-HO 5.0's? They sure seem to work good on Mustangs and aren't that expensive :dunno:
is the baffle thing the thing that bolt son to the other half of the box i cant remember and i dont have my car to refferance from. i miss my car so much
Removing the air silencer on my car (3.8 even) did provide a noticable difference. Not "I think it did" but a seat of the pants, goes up hills easier improvement.
Ok fellas. I took out the air silencer thingy out of the fender which was more work than it needed to be. Now I have the k&n filter ordered and in a couple of weeks I should be in the market for the mustang intake manifold. Thanks for the help guys, if you think of anything else let me know!!:D
my bad, i meant you'd have to do atleast 20 horsepower worth of parts and labor to feel a difference, not 20 dollars
carefull what year tho, some had actual manifolds, some had a realy py looking header log style, and the "good ones" looked like a actual tubular shorty header, think they were on the later ones, 87 and up?
I think they were talking about the intake manifold.
oops... looks like its bedtime :p
So doing just the upper intake and throttle body will give a little boost to the SO? I was thinking about doing the mid HO, or even the full HO, conversion, but I really did not want to dig into changing the heads since I've hardly done any engine work.
OK another question, if and when i install this upper intake manifold do i need to take any precautions? Or is it just simply take out and replace?
Yep. Don't forget the spacer plate too.
It's basically take out and replace.
Just be careful not to break any bolts.
Label stuff so you remember where it goes.
Oh and you probably should check the tps sensor after you're done to be sure it's set properly. That's easy though.
Also I don't think just the manifold will do much or anything for you. You'll need the matching HO throttle body and spacer as well.
Yeah i was planning on getting the HO throttle body and spacer. Thanks for all your help 5.0willgo
makes it more responsive all around and adds a few upper rpm ponies.
And for the thread starter
87-93 mustang upper intake,throttle body,spacer etc
good 86-88 mustang cold air kit with large K&N cone filter
set of underdrive pullies for a 87-93 mustang
set of unequal shorty headers 1-5/8 tube
a good 2.5" exhaust with a H crossover to some hi flow lers
and a 3.73 gear from a ranger
bump the timing to 12-14* base depending on fuel
and enjoy my old 88 5.0 bird was set up similar and was a fun car to drive and got mid 20's mpg
:iagree:
That's about the best thing you can do to a 5.0 SO. I almost the same thing to my car and it feels completely different. I can put it sidways through a turn, but that could have something to do with the 215 section tires:rolleyes:
does that surprise you?
$30,000+ 3800lb luxury coupe better have some decent power.
What is in the rear for gears,go numerically higher tho get the car moving on the bottom end. Try full tube headers to increase torque as well,these are heavy cars to get moving.
I started mine pretty much the same way that you're thinkin about. For easy and cheap here's what I would do (actually what I did do):
1. K&N and remove the silencer.
2. HO intake and stock HO throttle body. Should be able to score both for less than $150 including shipping tops.
3. Stock HO headers and H-pipe. I got mine for $75. Or for around $120 you could buy an off road H-pipe. You wont be able to use your current cat back set up so to save some more bucks just run turn downs from what ever lers you use. Dont waste money on new 1 5/8" shorties and definitely forget about long tubes. The py stock "crimp tube" HO headers are actually good to around the 300 HP level (and you can pick them up for near nothing) so anything better is a waste of money while you're shooting for 200 HP.
4. Tune up items... plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter, etc... This stuff will probably eat the better part of $75.
5. Underdrive Pullies
6. Run as much timing as you can for the octane fuel you're using.
Do all this stuff and you'll definitely feel a big seat of the pants improvement. Then later on as get get more money you can knock out the rest of the HO conversion. Forget about "bling" items like cold air intakes. They wont improve any power over the stock plastic air box. Just focus your resources on things that will give results for the REALISTIC power level you can achieve on the cheap.
The only reason I didn't mention gears is because at around $500 installed it doesn't constitute "cheap".