Well I know this is a buick forum, but since I've sold my buicks and have bought a cough **ford** cough I want to turbo it. It's a VERY VERY VERY slow 98 gt, 4.6, with an auto. I only want something that can give me about 280-300ish RWHP without boosting the crap out of it. Maybe something like 8-9psi. Vortech s trims and such give a stock car about this (with the boost specified), so I was just wanting a turbo that can supply something similar. Where else to go then for info about the right turbo then my old home (here of course). So any information will be appreciated! Thanks!
What turbo would work for a 4.6 ford?
- Thread starter blueta
- Start date
Take it from a former mustang owner...I had a 99 cobra for 5 years. Had 322rwhp N/A and 483rwhp with 11psi and an intercooled Novi 1000..later added a 90mm MAF so probably hit 500. You'll get the best info on corral.net.
Your 98 has the WORST flowing heads around. The best thing you can do is start with a good platform and do a 99-04 GT heads/cam swap. Thats a 60hp gain with stock heads/cams and even more if you have a good valve job done and porting. With forced induction, those heads will equal another 100-150rwhp over the ones you have. The next bad thing about your setup is the auto tranny. That torque converter and the programming in the chip that controls it is terrible. You should get a stallion torque converter and a decent chip to crisp up the shifts and raise the lockup rpms and stuff like that. Itll be like a whole different car with that TC and chip alone. Add the 99-up GT heads/cams and you'll be very happy. By far the best exhaust combo (I had 9 combos over those 5 years and was extremely happy in the end) is stock exhaust manifolds, an offroad Dr. Gas X-pipe and magnaflow catback...not magnapack..get a magnaflow setup. Its important to have an exhaust shop make a little tapered donut that acts like a gasket on the drivers side, between the factory headers and the X-Pipe's collector. The Dr. Gas was designed around shorty headers, so it doesnt quite fit right with stock manifolds and it will leak and it'll sound raspy. Everyone thinks thats just the nature of the X-Pipe. Not true. If there are pinhole leaks all over, then its raspy. So throw that tapered steel donut/ring in there when installing it, use the exhaust clamps to bolt up all the sections, and when its all happy, have an exhaust shop weld up all the seams. In the end you'll be VERY happy you spent the extra money. The Dr. Gas puts the X about a foot farther forward than everyone else's, which brings the resonant harmonics up to a higher rpm. Its an incredible sound Ive never heard on any other mustang. The position of that crossover makes the power gains much higher than anyone else's x-pipe.
You do all this, and you'll have a good platform to start with forced induction. With a K&N and maybe an intake tube and march fluidamper underdrive pullies, you'll have about 250rwhp through the auto tranny. If you're going to spend the BIG bucks on turbo'ing it, then forget the X-pipe obviously. If I were you, Id do all the above and add a kenne bell twin screw blower. Forget the centrifugals with the auto tranny. With all the above I mentioned, add alky injection and a dyno tune and you'll have about 430rwhp.
Theres a guy here..forget his name..its like mark99GT or something like that...he had a 99 GT with a 72mm turbo (i think) and he ran 10's, and it was a very streetable car. The key with forced induction is not cramming more boost through bad heads. Boost is just a measurement of flow restriction between the intake plenum and cylinders. Its all about FLOW. With high flowing heads, you'll get far more air in the cylinders at a much lower boost level, and consequently, less heating of the air charge, which means you can add more timing and make alot more power. My buddy has a 97GT, same engine as yours, and an auto tranny. He added an eaton blower on an otherwise stock engine, but he has a good H-pipe and catback. With a good dyno tune he only made 288rwhp and 320rwtq. Thats at something like 9psi. Those heads simply KILL power potential.
Your 98 has the WORST flowing heads around. The best thing you can do is start with a good platform and do a 99-04 GT heads/cam swap. Thats a 60hp gain with stock heads/cams and even more if you have a good valve job done and porting. With forced induction, those heads will equal another 100-150rwhp over the ones you have. The next bad thing about your setup is the auto tranny. That torque converter and the programming in the chip that controls it is terrible. You should get a stallion torque converter and a decent chip to crisp up the shifts and raise the lockup rpms and stuff like that. Itll be like a whole different car with that TC and chip alone. Add the 99-up GT heads/cams and you'll be very happy. By far the best exhaust combo (I had 9 combos over those 5 years and was extremely happy in the end) is stock exhaust manifolds, an offroad Dr. Gas X-pipe and magnaflow catback...not magnapack..get a magnaflow setup. Its important to have an exhaust shop make a little tapered donut that acts like a gasket on the drivers side, between the factory headers and the X-Pipe's collector. The Dr. Gas was designed around shorty headers, so it doesnt quite fit right with stock manifolds and it will leak and it'll sound raspy. Everyone thinks thats just the nature of the X-Pipe. Not true. If there are pinhole leaks all over, then its raspy. So throw that tapered steel donut/ring in there when installing it, use the exhaust clamps to bolt up all the sections, and when its all happy, have an exhaust shop weld up all the seams. In the end you'll be VERY happy you spent the extra money. The Dr. Gas puts the X about a foot farther forward than everyone else's, which brings the resonant harmonics up to a higher rpm. Its an incredible sound Ive never heard on any other mustang. The position of that crossover makes the power gains much higher than anyone else's x-pipe.
You do all this, and you'll have a good platform to start with forced induction. With a K&N and maybe an intake tube and march fluidamper underdrive pullies, you'll have about 250rwhp through the auto tranny. If you're going to spend the BIG bucks on turbo'ing it, then forget the X-pipe obviously. If I were you, Id do all the above and add a kenne bell twin screw blower. Forget the centrifugals with the auto tranny. With all the above I mentioned, add alky injection and a dyno tune and you'll have about 430rwhp.
Theres a guy here..forget his name..its like mark99GT or something like that...he had a 99 GT with a 72mm turbo (i think) and he ran 10's, and it was a very streetable car. The key with forced induction is not cramming more boost through bad heads. Boost is just a measurement of flow restriction between the intake plenum and cylinders. Its all about FLOW. With high flowing heads, you'll get far more air in the cylinders at a much lower boost level, and consequently, less heating of the air charge, which means you can add more timing and make alot more power. My buddy has a 97GT, same engine as yours, and an auto tranny. He added an eaton blower on an otherwise stock engine, but he has a good H-pipe and catback. With a good dyno tune he only made 288rwhp and 320rwtq. Thats at something like 9psi. Those heads simply KILL power potential.
Wow, now that's a post 
I am a member on the corral, but I didn't really get any responses. A couple things I would like to put out is that the main cork in the non pi (96-98) isn't the heads. While they don't flow well they actually outflow the pi's from .475+. Of course the flow at the lower lift levels are more important but it's not even that much difference. The absolute worst part is the intake and cams. People who do complete pi swaps, vs the pi cams/intake swap only dyno about 10 more RWHP. Which brings me to a very important point about the pi swap and boost. The pistons on the pi mustangs are more dished and the heads have smaller combustion chambers vs the non pi. PI heads on a non pi will get ya 10.3:1. That's not a very safe combo with boost (and that's where most of that extra horse power comes from). Ported Non pi's also outflow ported pi's and keep the compression stock. Our stock 2v can only support about 400RWHP so I don't plan on getting anything close to that right now anyway. I'll probably pick up a set of non pi heads (for next to nothing), do some porting myself (I have some experience in head porting), and slap them on. After doing some research I'll probably pass on the turbo for a supercharger setup. BTW, I also agree that opening things up will lessen the boost which is definitly great and safer. Thanks for the help!
Here's a headflow chart from livernois motorsports 96 heads vs 01. It's only for the intake side, I can't seem to find the exhaust side right now :tongue:
Lift in Inches '96 '01
.100 46 54
.150 66.6 78
.200 84.5 98
.250 103.5 119
.300 121.3 135
.350 134.7 145
.400 147 156
.450 159.4 161
.500 170 166
.550 176 168
I am a member on the corral, but I didn't really get any responses. A couple things I would like to put out is that the main cork in the non pi (96-98) isn't the heads. While they don't flow well they actually outflow the pi's from .475+. Of course the flow at the lower lift levels are more important but it's not even that much difference. The absolute worst part is the intake and cams. People who do complete pi swaps, vs the pi cams/intake swap only dyno about 10 more RWHP. Which brings me to a very important point about the pi swap and boost. The pistons on the pi mustangs are more dished and the heads have smaller combustion chambers vs the non pi. PI heads on a non pi will get ya 10.3:1. That's not a very safe combo with boost (and that's where most of that extra horse power comes from). Ported Non pi's also outflow ported pi's and keep the compression stock. Our stock 2v can only support about 400RWHP so I don't plan on getting anything close to that right now anyway. I'll probably pick up a set of non pi heads (for next to nothing), do some porting myself (I have some experience in head porting), and slap them on. After doing some research I'll probably pass on the turbo for a supercharger setup. BTW, I also agree that opening things up will lessen the boost which is definitly great and safer. Thanks for the help!Here's a headflow chart from livernois motorsports 96 heads vs 01. It's only for the intake side, I can't seem to find the exhaust side right now :tongue:
Lift in Inches '96 '01
.100 46 54
.150 66.6 78
.200 84.5 98
.250 103.5 119
.300 121.3 135
.350 134.7 145
.400 147 156
.450 159.4 161
.500 170 166
.550 176 168
I agree with Wheelie, except I would us the PT6776BB even if I just wanted it mild. You want even look at a SuperCharger after running one of them.
The low lift flow thing is kinda a heated debate anyway. It has been seen many times that low lift flow can hurt performance. Ofcourse alot depends on the combo & cam being used. And even the port design. But a setup that is prone to reversion in the ports will suffer from good low lift flow. Some high end builders will even make the low lift slow down on purpose.
But like I said, its kinda heated topic. Not all think this way or believe in it. Some will even give up high lift for the low lift flow.
Jess
The low lift flow thing is kinda a heated debate anyway. It has been seen many times that low lift flow can hurt performance. Ofcourse alot depends on the combo & cam being used. And even the port design. But a setup that is prone to reversion in the ports will suffer from good low lift flow. Some high end builders will even make the low lift slow down on purpose.
But like I said, its kinda heated topic. Not all think this way or believe in it. Some will even give up high lift for the low lift flow.
Jess
boostingbuick
Going to be buried in this.
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2002
But the engine has powder metal rods and will not live over 450 to the wheels. Been there. But the 03 cobra short block is seeing 875 to the tires and have only hurt it when it went lean. Threw in a used piston and back to beating it.
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