Blower?

[98gt5sp]

I am now at that point that everyone eventually reaches where they must decide whether to stop modding there car or to get serious. I am running out of easy/cheap things to do for my car, and am now considering getting a blower, maybe around 6-10 psi. My car is my daily driver, and I am looking for opinions on supercharging a car that I rely on for transportation. I don't have too large of a bank account, so if I blew my engine I would pretty much be screwed. Is it easy to get a lower psi blower installed correctly with a chip that is reliable and safe? Or should I not supercharge my car and go the safer route: 99+ headswap? Thanks a lot for the advice,

-98gt5sp

[98gt5sp]

Oh yeah, if anyone does recommend a blower for a daily driver, any ideas on what brands and/or psi to go with? Thanks,

-98gt5sp

[Hammer]

A 99+ PI head\intake swap would net you a good gain and probably be cheaper than a blower....

Plus, If you ever decide to go the blower route later, you'll get much better numbers....

Just a thought

[98gt5sp]

When you say intake, what exactly do you mean? Intake manifolds? Also, do you have an estimate for the average gain from a 99+ head swap? Thanks a lot,

-98gt5sp

[surfbeast]

For the 98 4.6's like we have you need to move up to the PI heads. The best are the 2001 heads and intake. You need the complete kit, heads,intake,gaskets,etc.. The kit can be purchased for about 1,150.00 complete and will give you 52 rwhp ( 60 hp ). You can buy the ported heads/intake for about 1K more or buy the new billit cams for about $ 700.00. The ported heads can give you up to 85 rwhp ( 100 hp ) . The normal heads and cams would probably give you 65 rwhp?. Anyway there are alot of ways to go without going the blower route. The cost of a blower and all the parts needed to upgrade plus install could go up to the 4 - 5 K range. The head upgrade could cost between 1500 - 2500 depending on install cost.

Hope this helps.

[tireburner163]

Just a word of warning.....if you do a 99+ head swap it will raise your compression to about 11:1. If you want to add a blower on top of that, you've got bigger kojo's than me. Plus that 11:1 will be hard on the rings, exc. I vote blower.

[98gt5sp]

Ummm..... According to my research, without installation, new cylinder heads for my car cost $895 each plus a $120 installation kit, and the intake manifold costs $1700 plus a $475 installation kit. This brings the grand total for parts, before installation costs, to around $4100. If you know of somewhere to get those parts for $1500, please let me know because I would be really interested. Thanks,

-98gt5sp

[blue00gt]

You must be thinking of a Ford Racing or Bullitt intake for that kind of money. You can just use a 99+ GT intake for the swap.

[98gt5sp]

Is doing the swap with the 99+ intake/heads worth the money? Is there a significant gain? Also, how do you make the 99+ heads/intake fit? They aren't a direct bolt on for the 98 right?

[Hammer]

Most shops who do the swap sell swap "kits" that include all that is needed to perform the intake\heads swap.
There is usually a gain of around 50-60 hp at the crank after the swap on an otherwise stock setup...

Tireburner is correct about the increased compression ratio when using the PI head swap....

Another option is more expensive, but blower friendly....
The Ford motorsport Intake and Heads.... expensive yes, but if you take a look at my numbers with a low boost setting and a conservative tune you'll see that you can take that setup quite far.... especially if you went all out.... (Blower cams, forged internals, 10 psi pulley, aggressive tune...)

All I know is that you don't want to put boost on that stock intake.... it WILL go bye bye. Mine did after about 2 weeks on the blower.... and it IS NOT covered on a TSB like the 96-97 intake.

A good mid-cost solution may be a roots type blower....
Replace that crappy intake with a blower!
I think Ford Motorsport, Saleen, and Kenne Belle all make kits for the 98 GT....

Nobodies given any input on the supercharger side of your question. About fix month's ago I had Vortech (V-2 SQ) supercharger put on my '00 GT. To date it has run great without any issues. Shocking increase in power. I chose Vortech because I never really heard any bad things about them, plus lots of stories from folks who've had them for years on their daily drivers without any issues. Also I was looking for more upper end hp, which a centrifugal sc will give versus a roots style, which give more torque. All I know is both hp on the upper end and torque on the lower end increased very noticable for me. I paid $3800 for the entire kit (blower, chip, K&N, injectors, fuel pump, etc, etc) and this included installation. I bought directly from the speedshop that installed it, and they saved me about $400 (cost of installation) over buying directly from Vortech. This model does not require an intercooler and I was told the shop was able to get me to 10 lbs of boost. The car now requires premium fuel and it has to be excellent quality premium or under certain rare circumstances it will detonate. My experience is Texaco is by far the best, car never detonates with it (Amoco seems the worst, car ALWAYS detonates, I know they're suppose to be the best, I am now convinced they have the best marketing department on the planet, because this is the second car I've had which hates Amoco and loves Texaco, anyways.....).

I too seem to be at the end of the road for upgrades which will get me significant upgrades in performance (unless anyone has an suggestions). My next mod will be an intercooler, but fully installed this will cost about $1600 and take me up to a max of about 15 lbs of boost without other significant motor upgrades. I've already dipped a little too far into the kids educations fund this year, this will happen next year. I have a feeling I'm going to need a new clutch in the not too far future, however mine currently seems to be doing OK (maybe a little slipage in 3rd gear under race conditions).

I've attached a pretty informative web page on supercharging which was very helpful when I was doing my pre-sale research. They are a bit Vortech biased, but this seems justified (IMO). Good luck! Any questions let me know.

http://www.motorsportsdigest.com/tech.htm

[SMOKE]

Yet another option for the dily driven and slightly blown performance ..... FRPP/SVO roots blower.

With the 9lbs pulley you can easily attain 290-305 rwhp. No muss no fuss.
Ford Racing Mustang Supercharger Base Kit
PART NUMBER: M-6066-M462
VEHICLE TYPE: Mustang
Purchase price FRPP blower and 98 5-speed control kit.......$3100
Can be found for less at www.roushperf.com

This kit is designed to be used with the production engine, requiring only the intake manifold to be changed. No internal modifications are necessary.


All required fuel system parts are supplied in hardware kit. Including high capacity fuel pump and 30 lb./hr. injectors.


Requires an engine management computer unique to this application which is included in hardware kit.

[98gt5sp]

Will my intake manifold "go bye bye" even if I stick with a conservative 6 psi? If so, is an upgrade to the 99+ intake manifold enough to handle a 6-8 psi blower or would I have to get a better ford racing intake?

Also, what's a roots blower?

Thanks,

-98gt5sp

[98SteedaGT]

It's not a question of "IF" it will go, it's "WHEN" will it go. The stock manifold will not hold out under boost.... Some will last longer than others, but, sooner or later you will blow it apart.... My stang blew its manifold, and it didn't even have a blower.... The whole front water jacket just fractured one day at a red light. You can put it on there and see, but; one day it will break. Hammer lost his, and I know of several others that lost theirs....

Who knows, you might have it for years and never blow it.. or you could crack a runner the first time you start it up after the install... or, according to Murphy's Laws... it will blow itself apart when a rice-burner decides to set up, then he gets to brag about how he toasted a Blown Stang....

[SMOKE]

The FRPP/SVO supercharger would replace your plastic intake. So you would not be able to upgrade to any other intake.

You could upgrade your heads to compliment the supercharger but there has been little proven improvement on its performance.

A roots blower is a positive displacement type supercharger that many auto makers use.

Example: 03 Cobra

I always recommend this type of supercharger to anyone looking for more performance and less worry from the 96-98 4.6Ls.
The kit is complete and only requires you to use premium gas.

No muss no fuss!

[98gt5sp]

With the FRPP/SVO supercharger set up, if I did upgrade to the 99+ cylinder heads later, would I have compression issues like tireburner brought up earlier?

Re Smoke: The new heads may not increase the performance of the blower, but I would still get a big horsepower increase from those heads independent of the blower right?

Thanks a lot for the help, this is very useful.

-98gt5sp

[tireburner163]

Originally posted by 98gt5sp
With the FRPP/SVO supercharger set up, if I did upgrade to the 99+ cylinder heads later, would I have compression issues like tireburner brought up earlier?

Re Smoke: The new heads may not increase the performance of the blower, but I would still get a big horsepower increase from those heads independent of the blower right?

Thanks a lot for the help, this is very useful.

-98gt5sp

Yes you will still have the compression issues. Although I'm not even sure you can bolt up 99+ heads with the FPP blower.

Yes if you swap on some better flowing heads you will pick up significant hp.