Advice on a car I am considering

I've had a 95 5.0 and now a 97 with the 4.6 the modular engine was not made to handle the abuse a 5.0 will honestly I would try and find a 94 or 95 not only that aftermarket parts are way cheaper for the 5.0 and the motor is a beast.

IMO the price is a little high. Hes selling it so low after investing so much, the smoke, the unused nitrous..... I think I would be walking away personally and thanks for the test drive.

and 320hp? Really? Better ways to spend $11000

I can understand how he spent that much on the car and got so little in return. If all the work was really done in the early 2000's, very few cars had probably undergone the PI swap, Livernois was a much smaller company, and parts for a mod motor were more expensive and rare then compared to now.

Depending on how the motor was put together, a little smoke on startup could be no big deal. However, it shouldn't be there, but it doesn't necessarily mean disaster is near.

I'm sure there's more power to be had out of the engine with some update head or cam work, even with the FRPP blower. It can be mated to PI heads if you decided to go that way in the future, and that'd probably put the car at the 350-360rwhp mark if you spun the blower as hard as you reliably could (just a guess).

As far as the nitrous... it's hit or miss as far as how the car will take to it. If the owner took care to put the proper plugs in, properly adjust the timing for boost AND nitrous, has a fuel system that would support both forms of power adder, I wouldn't be concerned. Nitrous is generally as safe as you make it unless something fails (like a solenoid, fuel pump, etc.). It happens, but there's a reason why it's the cheapest, most volatile bang for the buck in terms for performance. I would assume he doesn't have it set for a big shot, probably a smaller shot to cool the intake charge - but I could be wrong.

I would stay well under 10k... 8k at the most if it's what you really want.

BradleyMustang3 said:

I've had a 95 5.0 and now a 97 with the 4.6 the modular engine was not made to handle the abuse a 5.0 will honestly I would try and find a 94 or 95 not only that aftermarket parts are way cheaper for the 5.0 and the motor is a beast.

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I want some of what you're smoking.

Abuse? How about 90% of taxi's and cop cars.. they all have the 4.6. The 4.6 is as solid as it gets. I'd take a PI 4.6 over a 5.0 any day.

KBExperience said:

I want some of what you're smoking.

Abuse? How about 90% of taxi's and cop cars.. they all have the 4.6. The 4.6 is as solid as it gets. I'd take a PI 4.6 over a 5.0 any day.

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+1

Sounds like a 5.0 nuthugger who has never had any experience with any 4.6 motors. Other than the new 5.0's, the old pushrods are old, slow, and garbage.

Nightfire said:

+1

Sounds like a 5.0 nuthugger who has never had any experience with any 4.6 motors. Other than the new 5.0's, the old pushrods are old, slow, and garbage.

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I wouldn't say they are slow and garbage. They are great reliable engines as well, but lets face it... its old technology. Comparing the two has been beatin to death, so there's really no point. Having owned both a 5.0 and 4.6 for several years, they are both great engines and awesome cars to own.

SteedaGT9150 said:

I wouldn't say they are slow and garbage. They are great reliable engines as well, but lets face it... its old technology. Comparing the two has been beatin to death, so there's really no point. Having owned both a 5.0 and 4.6 for several years, they are both great engines and awesome cars to own.

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Nope, all 5.0's are slow and garbage and I hate them



Jk

The pushrod 5.0 is far from garbage. They'd take whatever you throw at them at not puke until the block split around the 500 mark in many cases.

They'd spin 7k all day long with a stock bottom end, heads, cam, and intake... they'd run for 200k plus miles under abusive conditions, they are simple to work on, parts are inexpensive and abundant. It's nothing to get a N/A 5.0 based engine to put out some serious power compared to doing the same mods to a 2v. Building a bad ass 347 stroker would leave 302 (4.6 based modular) in the dust in terms of performance and cost.

Winters98GT said:

The car has an SVO blower on it. Same blower I had many years ago(not for long, but that is another story). Will(sneaky) runs this blower now. It's an old M90 Eaton. Doesn't make a lot of power, but it basically an install and forget about it blower. Very, very reliable compared to centris.

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Yup, I'm running the FRPP/SVO blower on my car. And Mark is correct on this blower; it's not a big power maker (although not bad), but it is very simple and fun to drive. I daily drive my car with it, get 25+ mpg, make tons of low-end torque (fun), and then go run solid 12 second passes at the strip in full street trim. Can't ask for a whole lot more.

However, it is an M112 (the same blower on the Lightnings and Cobras), but with the integrated intake manifold.

320 rwhp for that blower with bolt-ons is about right, or maybe a little on the high side. I made 325 through the automatic, but I had PI cams (which I understand are worth at least 20 rwhp with a blower), a CAI, throttle body, exhaust, and a good tune.

My plan for later this fall is to go for the 400 rwhp with this blower in stock trim. No one has done this that I'm aware of. I think this is a very nice blower, but it's limited by the stock NPI heads/cams and the fact that it's non-intercooled. Well....I'm going to fix those things and see what she'll do....rubhands

Also, I thought about running a small shot of nitrous to cool the blower down. I ran that idea by my tuner (who is very reputable in this area), and said that he absolutely would not do that with a stock motor (pistons specifically). So I'd be a little weary of doing that.

As for what the car's worth...it's most definitely NOT worth $11,000. My car has a lot of those same mods, and is very clean, but I would never expect to get more than $5-6,000. Because that car has less miles, and may be a tad cleaner, it may be worth $6000-$7000, but absolutely no more than that. Remember, mods decrease the value of a car, not increase. BUT, if it is exactly what you are looking for (as in, you like the body style, you like the color, you like the condition of the car, you like the appearance mods done to the car, and the performance mods are something you would do anyway), then it may be worth a little more. IF, and only if, that is the case, I might would pay up to around $8,000.

Knowing what I know now, if I had to do it all over again, right now in 2011, I'd pay a couple thousand more and get an 03-04 Mach 1. They can be had in GREAT condition for $12,000-$14,000. Add $1,000 in bolt-ons and it'll do the same thing that '98 will do, but have WAY more potential and actually hold its value. And I've never heard of anyone that doesn't like the 03-04 Mach 1 looks.

JymboSlice said:

haha i know, those Frpp blowers are so rare ive barely seen any. Very hard to miss though in the pic, in my defense haha.

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Haha, yes they are. One time, I had a guy come over to my car at the track after a run. I had the hood open letting it cool down. He came over and was looking under the hood. After looking at it for a minute he said (no joke), "Oh, I thought I heard a whining when you ran, and that you had a Kenne Bell. I guess not. Anyways, car looks and runs good man!" I didn't tell him any different. Just nodded and said, "Yea, it runs pretty good for what it is."

I have had that happen MULTIPLE times. Hence, "sneaky".

sneaky98gt said:

One time, I had a guy come over to my car at the track after a run. I had the hood open letting it cool down. He came over and was looking under the hood. After looking at it for a minute he said (no joke), "Oh, I thought I heard a whining when you ran, and that you had a Kenne Bell. I guess not. Anyways, car looks and runs good man!" I didn't tell him any different. Just nodded and said, "Yea, it runs pretty good for what it is."

I have had that happen MULTIPLE times. Hence, "sneaky".

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If I thought I could get $11k for my Vortech GT, it would be on the market right now..but in my area I might actually get close to that because there is 100k mile 03/04 GT 'verts asking $9k-10kish. But, I'm not too interested in selling it.

The price has a lot to do with the geographic region. FL always seems to sell Mustangs for more than what you'd think they would be priced, at least that's my personal experience.