What is the most realistic power numbers

I think the 8th # in your VIN is for engine type/size. Not sure if Ford continued to do it, but on my car at least and on my FIL's '01 Cobra there was a white sticker right above the electric fan with the liters shown (3.8L, etc.).

You can enter your VIN in at autocheck.com

Look at the stickers on the radiator cover, it should say 3.8 or 3.9 on it. Underdrive pulleys give 7rwhp, shorties don't give too much, true dual exhaust can range depending on mufflers and cats, but about the same as pulleys probably, intake gives little and a simple K&N drop in usually yields same results, ported heads and intake manifolds with a cam is the biggest rwhp increase, but costs the most and hardest to install. 4.10 gears and a T-lok is the biggest seat of the pants increase, but doesn't truely change the output of the engine, just uses mechanical multiplication to increase accelleration at loss of top speed, plus they can cost a good deal too. A SCT or Diablo handhald tuner is ~$400 and can give a good increase if you want 93 octane, if not they have 87 tunes that still give more power. Throttle body, TB spacer, larger MAF sensor are pointless because the stock ones already flow better than the heads and intake manifolds can support.

www.vmptuning.com
www.rpm-mustangs.com
www.moranav6racing.com
www.supersixmotorsports.com
^^ all good V6 aftermarket places, the last two are more towards lots of power and power does cost.

TMX said:

Look at the stickers on the radiator cover, it should say 3.8 or 3.9 on it. Underdrive pulleys give 7rwhp, shorties don't give too much, true dual exhaust can range depending on mufflers and cats, but about the same as pulleys probably, intake gives little and a simple K&N drop in usually yields same results, ported heads and intake manifolds with a cam is the biggest rwhp increase, but costs the most and hardest to install. 4.10 gears and a T-lok is the biggest seat of the pants increase, but doesn't truely change the output of the engine, just uses mechanical multiplication to increase accelleration at loss of top speed, plus they can cost a good deal too. A SCT or Diablo handhald tuner is ~$400 and can give a good increase if you want 93 octane, if not they have 87 tunes that still give more power. Throttle body, TB spacer, larger MAF sensor are pointless because the stock ones already flow better than the heads and intake manifolds can support.

www.vmptuning.com
www.rpm-mustangs.com
www.moranav6racing.com
www.supersixmotorsports.com
^^ all good V6 aftermarket places, the last two are more towards lots of power and power does cost.

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Keep in mind, less the heads, cam and intake mods, you're still only looking at around 225-235 at the flywheel. It's not the 250hp you originally talked about, but it's close. And with the right gearing, you should be able to keep up with pre-99 stock GT's.

i thought gears increased your top speed, not take it away???

Higher gears is for better acceleration but it lowers the top speed. Lower gears hurts acceleration but increases top speed.
5200 rpms in 3rd gear (1:1) with 25.5" stock V6 wheels and 3.27 final drive is 120.68 mph
but with 4.10 final drive is 88.36 mph.
It helps acceleration by doing mechanical multiplication, 100ft-lbs of force before a 3.27:1 ratio becomes 327ft-lbs, but through a 4.10:1, it's 410ft-lbs of mechanical torque. All the higher reving engines use 4-5:1 gear ratios to get fast (seeing as how HP has no value in the physics world of acceleration, torque is the only thing that moves the car), but when you goto 8000 rpms, that 25.5" tire in 3rd gear with the 4.10's is now 148mph. Dragsters create immense amounts of torque through a high reving engine so they can use higher gear ratios and not run out of gearing before they want to. For street cars, you put little force down low and all the force up high, then with a HIGH first gear, you can move through 1st gear quickly in a race and stay in the top end where all the torque is, but when you're driving around town, you stay in the lower RPM range not generating much torque, therefore not using up much gas.
And there's everyone's small physics lesson of the day lol.

nicely put.