Need advice on a 99 Mustang

[98Quicksilver]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are seriously considering a 99 mustang 3.8 V6. Since this is our first Mustang and first Ford, I am looking for some helpful insite from the collective experiences of this forum. What is the reliability issues with these cars, how about after market parts, Is there anything particular about these cars specifically this year which we should try to find when looking at them?

Thanks everyone

Mer

[OnMy3rdStang]

Well I havent owned one but friends of mine do. And so far they have been great cars. As far as mods go there is always converting to dual exhaust, air filter, superchargers and i think they now have turbos for the 99 and up mustang V-6. The five speed stangs are supposed top be fairly quick especially if you add an exhaust.

If it is a used mustang be sure to test drive it, alot of people abuse the car and dealerships try to sell them like that. But I am sure you knew that

I hope I have helped but I recommend that You post this thread in the Blue Oval Room for more results. Not many people come in here. I only do cuz I have a four cylinder.

Good luck!!

[Stang Runner]

Well if you want power a super is the only way And with a Super ATI intercooled set up will be a bit slower than a Stock newer GT.

[C Pony Go]

I am trying to understand that you will buy a 3.8 but spend top dollars to make it fast when you could for a little mone more buy a GT and enter into a more parts avaibility area...The fors 3-8 is a nice car in answer to your original question..just though I would give you my 2 cents on buying one when in the end you will want to mod it...cheaper to go the 8cyl way IMHO.

[84LX89GT]

From what i've seen and my own experience (i work as an apprentice technician at a ford dealer). The mid 90's 3.8L's are crap. They blow head gaskets quite often (ford has revised their torque specifications for the heads several times) and the older 3.8L's in general signify more than 50% of the engines we replace. A guy i work with replaced three 3.8L engines this last week alone. Another thing that sucks is that if you blow a head gasket pretty bad it will cut down on the engine life in general because the coolant will wash down the cylinders (wash off the oil) which leads to scored cylinders and worn rings and can also cause rust before start up and score the cylinder walls. Engines that blow head gaskets usually don't live a whole lot longer after because of that, although if they're caught early the damage may be minimal, but that's not usually the case.

The new 3.8L's are probably much better as they have different heads/intake manifold, etc. etc. and i haven't seen any '99+ 3.8L's come in yet for engines, although it may take a couple more years for people to really get mileage on them.

This is of course, just my opinion and maybe someone will tell you different, but there are some that i've seen go 150k plus miles without so much as a single problem. I guess it's a crap-shoot as to what you get.