Drake Dabney’s 2002 Ford Mustang came from the factory with a 3.8 L Essex V6 that made 193 horsepower and 225 lb-ft of torque. Drake and his friends set out to make more power in the Mustang which they named Thunderstang. They started by rebuilding the V6 with Wiseco forged pistons, K1 Technologies forged crank, and a set of ported and polished heads from a 1998 Mustang. Switching to the pre-1999 heads allow the team to finish the engine build with an Eaton M90 supercharger and intake manifold from a 1995 Thunderbird. The combination made 557 horsepower and 497 lb-ft of torque to the wheels on 93 octane with 21 psi of boost. Drake is looking into converting the Mustang to E85 for even more power.
Where’d this one come from? I don’t see any original forum links or anything.
I’m kind of skeptical about the power numbers, especially if that’s a stock-ish M90 on top and factory inlet/intercooler plumbing–seems like the factory inlet elbow would be a big restriction. I’m also not sure I’d trust the factory main caps to stay in one place at that power level, fancy billet crank or not.
I previously had a 4.2L Essex with ported heads, a decent cam, and a Garrett GT3582R, in my ’03 V6 Mustang. Made about 450 whp at 12-13 psi and 6000 RPM. Didn’t really trust it much past that (was using forged pistons and H-beam rods, but stock crank and didn’t really do anything to the mains) and there was a decent bit of wear when I tore it down after removing it.
Then I swapped in a built GM LQ9 and a Turbonetics 7875 and made ~700 whp at the same boost pressure. Can’t complain. LS is a cheaper platform to work on.
Drake contacted us directly about this project.
Take a look at Super Six. They sell everything needed to make this much reliable hp and more. Dunno if that’s where Drake went but…So it’s NOT entirely outta the question. peace.
Thanks Carl for letting us know about Super Six Motorsports.
I know about how far people have pushed the 3.8/3.9/4.2L platform, and I know about SSM–I was using their heads, cam, and miscellaneous other stuff on my 4.2 turbo setup. 🙂
Here’s where I’m sort of curious about the numbers, though. If we assume that the SC acted as an ideal compressor (which it surely didn’t) and exacted no parasitic costs, 557 whp at 21 psi requires about 230 whp, which is
certainly reasonable for a 3.8L with a good head/cam combo, and feasible even with the earlier singleport heads if the port job is aggressive enough. So that part makes sense–it’s not totally unreasonable for the engine to support those kinds of power levels at that kind of boost pressure.
The part that gets me, though, is that I can’t imagine that an Eaton M90 could flow enough to support that kind of power. Again, assuming no parasitic loss, that engine is going to need at least 55ish lb/min of inlet airflow to support 550 whp. That’s in the 740 cfm ballpark, which is about 1250 cubic meters per hour.
According to the compressor efficiency chart posted below, which is for a 5th-gen M90 (newer than the version that the T-bird SC engine used), that supercharger is going to be really unhappy if you ask it to flow 1250 m^3/hr, regardless of what boost pressure you are trying to hit. Additionally, you’d be spinning it past its rated rev limit (~14K RPM)
https://www.superchargerforums.com/threads/eaton-compressor-maps.94/
I KNOW it’s possible to get into the 550-600 whp ballpark on an Essex-based engine, but there are reasons that most of the folks in that territory are not using Roots blowers.
I have to agree with you and that is also the first thing that came to mind when I read this article. I’ve seen guys have trouble supporting that kind of power at the flywheel with an older M90, let alone at the wheels. A stock M90 just doesn’t flow that much air. And that is an old M90, but even the newer Gen M90 Eatons that they used on the FwD GM stuff, which flow more than the early M90s would have trouble supporting that power level. Even if he is running a manual gearbox his drivetrain loss is ~ 100 HP so that would make the M90 supporting 650-700 flywheel HP. I don’t believe that.
What’s their website lr locationg. Cause when i type in “Essex super six” it gets the car that was named liked that
What pistons and rods were u running in ur v6 turbo mustang? Do u have any parts for sale? Thanks for the help
That’s …Super Six Motorsports
Will this work with the 4.2l found in F-150’s ?
Any idea on the wiring harness to make this work? I’m starting to get a motor together to do this swap on my 96 V6 Mustang.
ok i have a 1983 fors mustang with the 3.8 v6 was looking for new intake manifold and a 500 cfm carb that will work on my car can anyone help also some headers .. dont care emissions would like to get all that out of the car if possible
MoranaV6racing.com Aka Tom Morana V6 performance/racing. He has some of the best intake manifolds you can get for a Ford V6. They aren’t cheap, but you said you wanted to get all you can out of it, this is the way. But for a cheap alternative, grab a TB injected factory manifold, port the runners a bit, remove casting flaws etc, then run a 2bbl carb on that- Also an option.
For headers run the BBK 1 5/8” Longtubes designed for the 99-04 Mustang V6. They flow plenty for that engine setup. Good luck.
My problem is I don’t know what will bolt up to that year 3.8 V6 . Don’t want to order something and have it not fit