i am new -- please give some info.

[96SCstang]

alright guys,
today i did a very bold thing...i bought a 1996 mustang gt with 42,000 original miles. the guy a bought it from worked at a ford dealership and had the mods put on there. the only thing he did really was put on a vortec sq trim supercharger (which u all know is common for this motor), offroad x-pipe, dual flowmaster catback, a tremmec T5 5sp, and a built 3.73 locker rear end. now i am very mechanically inclined b/c i work on cars everyday, but i was hoping u guys could give me some info on the mods for this car and what some terms mean. ok here we go.....first of all i see you guys talk alot about pi heads or non pi heads and cams and stuff. could you guys explain wut pi means and wut kind of heads i have and wut is better?..currently the car is running 6 lbs of boost. wut is a safe boost number for stock internals and where do i get pulleys to increase the boost if i want to? i plan on taking the motor out this winter and building up the bottom end a little bit with new rods and pistons and stuff. is the stock crank good enough for 500 or so horse or should i get a better one? wut kind of internal have u guys used and have the worked well? any other info would be very helpful and appreciated. you dont have to answer all the questions just the ones you have insight on. thank you in advance. :SNSign:

 

[DTNODYA]

Well, welcome to teh :SNSign:

On a stock 96 GT it would have non-PI heads. I think like the 99 or 2000 and up have PI heads but I could be wrong on the start year. I know my 98 has NPI heads.

If someone did a lot of work to the car already, they may have done a headswap though meaning you 'could' have PI heads. A good way to know, look at your intake manifold and if it has aluminum on the front, where the thermostat is, then you very well could have PI heads or just a PI intake. If it is plastic where the thermostat is then you have NPI heads and the stock NPI intake. Hope that made some sense. I'll leave the rest to tha 'pros'...

Take a pic of the motor if you have a camera.

 

[Torinalth]

not a pro, but some insight.

as stated NPI are the 96-98 PI are from 99-04. the difference is the heads, cams, and intake manifold. the NPI setup made 225 HP and 305 Tq, while the PI put down 260/300. the heads were redone to allow more flow numbers, cams reground for more duration, and the intake manifold was slightly redesigned for runner length and added an aluminum crossover for more rigidity of the unit.

you really need to figure out what heads you have as it does make a big difference in power, especially when adding a blower. most blower NPI cars are at about the same power as bolton PI cars (assuming stock nPI heads) the most common upgrade is the PI swap. this is removing the heads and applying the PI setup that 1- increases flow (at this point i'd get aftermarket cams instead of stock PI cams) and 2-increases compression (the PI cars had smaller combustion chamber).

there was a thread a good while ago that benched ported NPI heads against ported PI heads, and with that the gap in power went down massivly. the ported PI heads did flow better, but the power difference in ported PI vs ported NPI was not as large as the non ported pi vs non ported NPI. this means you can port the stock NPI heads you have and achieve near the same numbers. that would be the route i;d go as you would not increase compression that way (which limits your safe boost capability).

as far as on a stock engine, a vortec could do around 8 lbs or so safe... if with enough fuel and correct timing. however, just swapping pulies will be flicking a match into a fireworks cart as you have no idea TRUELY what has been done to the car (tune or otherwise) since YOU did not do it. you can build up the bottom end without a problem, the stock crank can go to 550 (as said by quite a few people) without problems... but forged is always recomended for the time you lose your fuel pump and create a worst case scenario. oh and get an intercooler if you plan yo jump up in boost. others can guide you on that better than i can.

Torinalth

 

[88CougarMan]

Here's some insight...."wut" is spelled W-H-A-T

 

[CanadaStang]

If you still have the NPI heads you're better off just porting them, as running any more than 6 PSI with a headswapped 4.6 is not advisable. The NPI engines [96'-98'] also have different pistons than the PI engined Stangs [99'-04'] so swapping heads also results in a compression bump making it less S/C friendly.

 

[Dope 97GT]

If you have a PI swapped 96-98 GT it would be unwise to run a S/C because of the different pistons and compression ratio on the NPI cars. I doubt you have a swapped PI car but you can get a set of ported NPI heads from Renegade Racing his name is Jim and email @ [email protected] and he will get you the info you need. Or SVO heads that flow pretty darn good

If you have this swap your compression would be pretty high and you said there wasnt much done to it besides the supercharger and there would need to be some different pistons in it.

 

[timeless2]

Here's some insight...."wut" is spelled W-H-A-T

While you are correct, this solves nothing inside this thread or this forum.

 

[Shiroelex]

Welcome to the borg!

Board, rather. I'd say you should hang on to those NPI heads, and throw some PI cams in them, along with a PI intake on top. I've seen that combo do almost as much good as a full head/intake swap, and it took half the time. This way, your compression would stay down, too. Also, it would be very cost effective, seeing as those parts are plentiful. Another idea would be to get a Bullitt aluminum intake and some blower cams after you forge the bottom. That way you can throw some hefty boost in without worrying about blowing the plastic intake apart. As far as a stock block goes, I'd say 400-450hp is right around where your rods would be on borrowed time. You could pick up a Cobra crank for a reasonable price, but the rest of the parts I haven't looked for yet.

Just for safety reasons, I would do a compression test, to see if the guy had swapped on PI heads. Do the runners on your intake look more square, or round?

 

[motorjock205]

mis-information

A good way to know, look at your intake manifold and if it has aluminum on the front, where the thermostat is, then you very well could have PI heads or just a PI intake. If it is plastic where the thermostat is then you have NPI heads and the stock NPI intake. Hope that made some sense.

This information is not entirely correct...I have a 96 GT and it has non-pi heads and intake and it has the aluminum water jacket on the front. The only true way to tell by simply looking at the intake is the runners....if the front runner goes to the passenger side, it's a PI intake. If the front runner goes to the driver's side, it's a NON PI Intake. Just because it has the aluminum water jacket on the front does NOT mean it is a PI Intake...

 

[DTNODYA]

mis-read my post

This information is not entirely correct...I have a 96 GT and it has non-pi heads and intake and it has the aluminum water jacket on the front. The only true way to tell by simply looking at the intake is the runners....if the front runner goes to the passenger side, it's a PI intake. If the front runner goes to the driver's side, it's a NON PI Intake. Just because it has the aluminum water jacket on the front does NOT mean it is a PI Intake...

That's why I said "you very well could have" ...

On your 96 that has an aluminum runner, that is not your stock intake manifold. My point was for him to look at it and see if the manifold was plastic or had an aluminum runner. Step 2 would be to determine if it is NPI or PI ...

 

[squares98]

The Ford recall, replacement npi manifold has an aluminum crossover.

 

[96SCstang]

alright guys....thank you for your help...and i will spell wut however i want . ok i do know for a fact that it has the old npi heads and intake. now my question now is when i take this engine out this winter should i just port and polish npi heads and put in a good cam and put on the pi intake (can i do this)? or should i lower the compression on piston side and throw on ported pi heads? remember i am going to put in new forged h-beam rods and some pistons (not sure which ones yet..any recommendations)? i would like to push this supercharger to 12-14 psi..so i know it has to be strong down below. and i am also going to be putting in a custom air to air intercooler(has anyone else done this) to get those air temps down for no spark knock. thanks for your help again guys..i am quickly learning bout these fords...always had camaros and other chevys.

p.s. this mustang already is better than my last 1999 camaro ss

 

[Outlaw97GT]

This information is not entirely correct...I have a 96 GT and it has non-pi heads and intake and it has the aluminum water jacket on the front. The only true way to tell by simply looking at the intake is the runners....if the front runner goes to the passenger side, it's a PI intake. If the front runner goes to the driver's side, it's a NON PI Intake. Just because it has the aluminum water jacket on the front does NOT mean it is a PI Intake...

Almost correct but backwards.
If the front runner goes to the left side(drivers) its the PI, if it goes to the right side(pass) it the NPI.

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