Thinking of buying '97 GT, have some questions...

[Jim_B]

I'm thinking of buying a '97 GT and I have a few questions:

1) How reliable is the 4.6? I haven't read anything negative, but was wondering if they have had any reliability/breakage problems. I'm planning on keeping the motor mostly stock with few modifications.

2) Is the manual transmission in this car a T-45 (from the factory) or was that only in the Cobra? If so, does it have a lot of problems in a near-stock car? In reading the posts, it seems as if a good shifter may go a long way in alleviating reliability problems. Any opinions? How much $$ to replace the trans. with something better? What's better?

3) Does the 4.6 (16 valve) make decent power at uppper RPM's? I want a motor that 'revs' (unlike the 5.0 in my old '87 convertible) and am wondering if the 4.6 is an improvement over the 5.0.

4) Any problems with these cars in general? Do the A/C systems have the same problems as the older Ford A/C systems, which (I think) had a tendency to leak freon from the spring loaded couplers? I could be wrong on this (I don't know that much about A/C systems) but I seem to remember Ford's A/C being trouble-prone.

Thanks in advance for any advice/help and have a great New Year!

-Jim.