3.8 out of an 02 Mustang

BirdofPrey97

Registered User
Tossed a rod yesterday in the 89. Been reading over on v6 sites and Mustang guys are swearing the 01 and up blocks can handle the M90. Ok, but what about the crank, pistons and rods? Anyone have information on that? Came here asking as I wanted more of a non bias information.

This would not be a permanent fix, but something to get by for a few months and park and swap out back to an SC engine before Spring.

Wont be putting the MPX and OD on the mustang just a stock M90. Experience from the guys that have done this?

Again, this is just so the car can be moved and possibly driven no more then a few hundred miles total.
 
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I'd be somewhat leery about that. A person in Toronto, Tom(Tom I forget his last name) had quite a business going totally rebuilding SC 3.8's from the block up. The V6 Mustang crowd was buying up SC blocks like crazy and having Bill build motors for their 'stangs to handle our blowers.

If anyone recognizes Tom , older gent on the left, please chime in.

I can't say about the 02's I don't know but the 90-somethings could not handle it.
 
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3.8 Mustang

I can't comment on the Mustang internals.

There has been pics posted that confirms the thicker webbing on the latter blocks.

I have a 99 block but it is all forged internals.

The one thing that had to be addressed was the crank sensor.

I had a piece milled and welded to the right engine mount.

The Crank Sensor is mounted to this piece and has maintained alignment for over 2 yrs..

I may be wrong but I think you will find the early model sensor does not have receiving holes in the latter model blocks.

Paul
 
The block will be fine, need provisions for crank sensor and Knock sensor. If your swapping back to a SC block I wouldn't bother.

If it were me I'd go to that block and EDIS/High data rate (94+) setup, though not exactly cheap.
 
I have a highly modded '99 3.8 Mustang and have researched the compatibility of those engines and the SC's (which resulted in me loving and buying an SC!), but for the '99-04 3.8's, there's no point of putting the M90 on it. Those are split port intakes on the engines, which resulted in the 45 hp leap from the '94-'98 3.8's 145 hp to the 190 hp in the '99-'04's. The M90 intake is designed for single port.

You'd have to convert it to single port (heads), which would negate most of the gains and nobody's really too sure how well the stock pistons/ rods/ crank holds up to the heat and pressure of the M90. The '99's received stronger main bearing caps and a better crank, but the SC pistons and bottom end are still better. The blocks should be up to the task with the M90.

IMHO, if you're really wanting an engine in there just to move the car around as you say, you could try a '94-'98 Mustang 3.8, as they're single port and are ready to just drop the M90 onto, relatively speaking. It's still a bit of work, though.

The guy on the left in the picture is Tom Morana. His site was the first place that i'd looked into the possibility of putting an M90 on my setup and ultimately decided against it. He has lots of good performance parts, though.
 
No motor is going to explode just because you put an M90 on it. For temporary purposes I would not care what the motor was, just keep the boost reasonable. Also keep in mind that any of the NA motors are going to have higher compression. As for the 01 block, you won't be able to mount your crank sensor on it so that makes it more work than it's worth. The rest is just incidental stuff.
 
No motor is going to explode just because you put an M90 on it. For temporary purposes I would not care what the motor was, just keep the boost reasonable. Also keep in mind that any of the NA motors are going to have higher compression. As for the 01 block, you won't be able to mount your crank sensor on it so that makes it more work than it's worth. The rest is just incidental stuff.

Good points. The compression of a '99-'04 3.8 is 9.27:1, I believe. Morana recommended not exceeding 5-7 psi on the Mustang 3.8, if I remember correctly.
 
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