It was always my dream to own a Mustang. During my college years I even had the opportunity to purchase a restored '66 Mustang, but as a starving student; there was no way to fulfill that dream. Some years after graduating and in the work force, I was able to purchase a '98 V6 5pd Dark Forrest Green Mustang Coupe. At the time, I had just leased a FORD Explorer and therefore could not afford a GT. My 150HP V6 was most enjoyable until the speed bug bit me. One year from purchase, the mods began with a Y bolt on catback system from Bassani. Soon thereafter I had Chicane install an 8.8" rear end with 3.55 gears.

The car had some pickup and sounded great, but I knew that I had to do more modifications to make some serious horsepower. So my research began on head/intake porting shops and camshaft specs. Needless to say, there wasn't much out there for my V6. Luckily I came across www.rpm-mustangs.com and with the help of Mikael Strand and Robert Greene, we got all the details down. I knew that I wanted to supercharge at a later point so we opted for blower porting on the heads and intakes. The camshaft specs were also set for a bigger exhaust side. With the new lift specs on the cam, new push rods and stronger springs were put on the heads; that way I would not suffer valve float at high RPMs. 1.73 roller rockers were also used. As plans were being laid out for my engine, it was time to upgrade the fuel system; so in went a 255lph Walbro in-tank fuel pump and an Aeromotive Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator. To keep an eye on my fuel pressure and future boost, I had Chicane Sport Tuning install my Saleen twin gauge pod.

Once I got all my parts delivered, I scheduled the next weekend (which happened to be Memorial Day Weekend) for engine work. With the help of my friend Saul Ortega, we tackled an 18hr job doing a head/cam/intakes swap. I had it running by Monday afternoon and ready to go to work on Tuesday. Oh, did I forget to mention this is my daily driver? After a dyno tune at PowerTrain Dynamics, Steve reported that my V6 was making 186.4RWHP & 228.9RWTQ naturally aspirated!

While saving for my blower upgrade, suspension was upgraded with Eibach ProKit springs, Bilstein shocks & struts, '95 GT strut tower brace and rear swaybar. Also, I used my core exchange money from the heads/intakes to upgrade my intake to a Stage 3 (cut, shorten runners) and a true dual exhaust with FlowMasters. I returned to PowerTrain Dynamics for another dyno tune. Although the peak HP did not increase by much, the low end HP increased by 15RWHP and due to the intake the HP downward slope carried over nicely to 5500RPMs. Now my pony was making 188.6RWHP & 230.0RWTQ and the power-band looked awesome! This configuration got me a 15.164ET @ 90.53MPH on the 1/4mi, and this was on 245 16" BFG Comp T/As.

After saving some money, I talked to Mikael again and ordered my ATI ProCharger kit (11psi Intercooled) by the end of 2001. My 2002-year began with the installation of a new blower. With the help of two friends, Danny Monterroso and Fidel Acosta; we had the system up and running within 16hrs. There was some pinging because of the naturally aspirated Autologic chip configuration, so I took my car to Xtreme Mustang Performance for a data-log tuning. Eric at XMP took care of the pinging throughout the RPM range. With all this power, it was time to upgrade the braking system. So Eric set me up with front 11" rotors, 2 piston calipers and steel braided lines.

It was time for another dyno tune, so Swanson Performance performed the fine tune and optimized this pony to run 305.9 RWHP with 308.1 RWTQ @ 5400RPMs! That’s an approximate 351HP at the crank. Danny reported that my 30# injectors were seeing near 100% duty cycle and that we had nasty dip on the fuel curve in the upper RPMs, he suggested some fuel system modifications.

The itch for more horsepower didn’t stop, so 2 cats were deleted and a 3" X pipe was installed. At the same time, Robert Greene had a new custom Monster Upper Intake that needed some testing; so it was installed then back to Swanson Performance we went for another dyno tune session. This time, the rollers reported a awesome 332 RWHP with 317.9 RWTQ @ 5700RPMs. With this setup, the best 1/4mi results are 13.059 @ 105.41MPH.

In the search for more power, a bored over 4.2L V6 shortblock was built. This offered larger displacement for the much needed lower end torque. While using the same heads, cam, supercharger, etc. setup. The car produced a stout 327RWHP and 339RWTQ. The current Autologic chip is pulling fuel out at the top end, so a new chip might be in order.

To wrap up the package nicely, both JB-GRAFIX, BigT Concepts, and friend Phil de Lorm, provided their services. JB-GRAFIX took care of the exterior paint job with a subtle silver flame pattern with purple tips and engine graphics. BigT Concepts installed the race inspired leather seats. Phil took care of the custom FORD logo headliner and A Pillar vinyl wrap. The combination has worked out great, as the car is turning heads on the street and local car shows. And with the power figures to back it up, this V6 does not qualify as just a beauty queen.

Even though good power was on tap with the Autologic chip, it got replaced with an SCT chip (Racer Pro Package) and tuned by Greg from Racers Edge Tuning producing 353RWHP & 383RWTQ!! Now, that's some good power for a V6! With peak torque around 4500rpms, that's a great street combo.

Many thanks go out to the people that have helped me along the way, especially my wife Julie and new baby girl Jenna for withstanding many hours of rambling about modifications during my speed bug craze.