??swapping a supercharger to my N/A 3.8??

sixpackstang

Registered User
Hey, I'm new here and have a few questions. First off I'd like to say I have a 97 3.8 mustang, and not a supercoupe. This site was recommended to me by a friend.

I am looking to either add a supercharger from the SC to my engine, or swap the entire motor and supercharger setup. I've read a lot about it on mustang forums, but come here to seek some more advice. I've heard there are differences in the superchargers/heads/etc. from year to year. If I'm going to do the swap, what would be the best year car for me to look for? Also, I've been to several junkyards in my area and have yet to find a SC. Found plenty of regular T-birds though. Where would you suggest looking? My ideal find would be a donor car that has a good engine and bad whatever else to do the swap. Any advice you can give me is appreciated. Thanks!
 
first of all n/a 3.8 parts are not interchangable with the 3.8 sc engine iv been their done that ... i have a 1993 cougar xr7 that was a n/a 3.8 swaped in the supercharged engine .. at first tried just bolting on the supercharger to it but na didnt work almost ruined my engine the 3.8 n/a engine cant handle the force of the blower .... period .... so look for sc motor .. 89-93 210 hp....94-95 230 hp i believe... your better of getting a donor car if possible for the fact that your going to need more than just the motor... youll need .. computer.. harnesses all of wich are in the engine because this motor has way more sensors than the regular 3.8 and tranny if possible ... u could use your 3.8 n/a.. tranny but wouldnt handle the abuse for long for the fact the sc tranny has biger servos and more clutch palates than the regurlar aod..... youll also need the fuel pump...... you can leave in you your rear end but their not as fun as the 8.8 track lock on the sc car and u wouldnt feel the power the engine realy has.. not to forget that the shafts on the smaller rear end are smaller in diameter and break fairly easy..... and if the engine u find is blown or not take the time to rebuild the whole engine carefully and use all new parts if possible if not your looking to pull the engine out soon if u try to get around useing used parts... some advice a well known sc brother gave me......... any more info let me know... ill do my best to help u out in anything i can and good luck
 
Ya I understand the internals are a little better in the SC motor which is why I really would like to find a donor car. As far as the tranny in my car, why won't it handle the power? I have the 4R70W which was in the newer SC's right? I would also like to swap to the 8.8 rear end too, another reason for the donor car. As far as computers, would I not be able to use my stock computer and get a custom burnt chip? And one last question...what is the stock gear ratio for the 8.8 rear end on the SC?
 
if u have the that tranny than im guessing your ok but would look up some info on it the internals on the tranny differ to power rating of the car any body correct my if im wrong as far as for the rear end gears i believe they are 3.73 not so sure tough could be 3.23on an auto and i think 3.55 on the 5-speed but u might want to check on the donor car rear end tag id it will tell u right their and for your computer as lond as it has all the output and inputs to all the engines sensors than i guess youll be fine but i think its much cheiper and easier if you gett it of the donor car.... as for prices i dont know the supercoupe donor i had was given to me becuase head gasket problem they estimated it to $2000 and he was going to send it to the recking yard and talked to him so my car is practicly an 1993 cougar xr7 supercharged from factory for i changed everything in the t- bird to my car.. but the frame of course
 
The differential won't work from the SC. You have a solid axle. We have independant rear suspension. If you do decide to do the swap, I have a complete engine from my '91 SC. I would include the wiring harness, intake, MAF, TB, etc. It is still in the car so I can show prospective buyer that it does run and rather well at that.
 
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Not worth the effort if you're on a budget....

It's tough to do an engine swap and rear end swap, computer swap and wiring swap and fuel pump swap and have it come out to be "economical".

Most SC engines you'll find probably are heavily used or have blown headgaskets.

One guy here did a great build up though. He took a SC block, topped it off with the heads and intakes of the 99+ Mustang 3.8l and threw a Vortech on to make things funny.

His name was Gaston.

You might also just want to swap in the Cobra IRS while you're at it. I think it'd work on your car.
 
creeperxr7 said:
as far as for the rear end gears i believe they are 3.73 not so sure tough could be 3.23on an auto and i think 3.55 on the 5-speed

89-93 Autos - 3.27's
94-95 Autos - 3.31's
89-95 5 speeds - 2.73's

-Rod
 
BlkSCnKS said:
The differential won't work from the SC. You have a solid axle. We have independant rear suspension. If you do decide to do the swap, I have a complete engine from my '91 SC. I would include the wiring harness, intake, MAF, TB, etc. It is still in the car so I can show prospective buyer that it does run and rather well at that.

Hey, where are you located, and what are you looking to sell the enging for? Whats wrong with the car its in, and would you be willing to sell the whole car? As far as the diff, not too concerned with that. There are plenty of guys running upwards of 275-300hp on the 7.5 axle in the car now. If it would break, then would be a good time for me to upgrade. :D

It's tough to do an engine swap and rear end swap, computer swap and wiring swap and fuel pump swap and have it come out to be "economical".

Talked to a lot of people on mustang forums and did a lot of research before I thought about doing it. I won't need to swap computers. Wiring is not too difficult. The biggest step comes in getting the radiator and intercooler to fit. You either have to do a lot of rigging, or come up with custom intercooler pipes. (what i think is the easier of the two) If I can get a donor car/motor for cheap, its definately one of the biggest bangs for the buck. Compare this swap to a supercharger kit built for my 3.8 mustang and you'd see why. The kits sell for $3,000+ and still aren't complete. I'd have to upgrade fuel system and probably injectors, etc. To top it off, I'll still have a weaker block and I'll probably need to upgrade to forged internals. If I could find a SC for $500-1000 and do some custom work to get it to fit.....:D
 
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sc engine

BlkSCnKS



I also live in wichita kansas, and am looking for that engine. I am also looking to swap it into a v 6 stang. This might make things a little easier since we live in the same town. Give me an e-mail back @ shotgun0000_@hotmail.com

Thanks Simon there is an underscore between the 0000 _ and @ on my email u can't see it because it is underlined
 
Hey guys, I am testing a kit that will let you bolt up a t-bird blower to the mustang 3.8 V6. I have it made and It will be put in to a test car in two weeks. I am in KC so you guys are close to me. I need to know which pump to put in if I swap the ecc w/harness. I know SC are returnless and NA cars are normal, so will there be any problems with that?
 
You're referring to the fuel system, correct? The SC is definitely a return style, not returnless.

-Rod
 
As far as my knowledge is concerned....

All SC's used the "standard" return type fuel injection system.

Returnless fuel injection systems came along with the Advent of OBDII.

It sounds great that you are coming out with a "bolt on" kit for mustangs. But it would have to be a kit that would limit the boost to no more than 8lbs. And YES I would seriously entertain the idea of using an intercooler anyway. It will allow a mustang owner to get the most out of those 8lbs of boost.

Special attention would then need to be paid attention to tuning and fuel delivery and the engine should be somewhat reliable. However, I really couldn't see a mustang owner going much beyond 200hp with this type of bolt on kit.
 
It sounds great that you are coming out with a "bolt on" kit for mustangs. But it would have to be a kit that would limit the boost to no more than 8lbs.

And YES I would seriously entertain the idea of using an intercooler anyway. It will allow a mustang owner to get the most out of those 8lbs of boost.


Apparantly someone has mislead you about the 3.8 mustang. There are tons of people on the message board I post on (3.8mustang.com) running ATI Prochargers at 11+ lbs of boost on stock internals. And many, many people are running well over 200hp even without a blower. Keep in mind, the 99+ mustangs come stock with 190-193 hp. The 94-98 are only in the 150 range, but the difference in hp comes from better heads and a split port intake, not from bottom end differences. Our motor would be able to handle the boost just fine.
 
Not quite...

ATI prochargers and Vortechs are centrifugal style blowers. Although they have little lag, they don't move alot of air at low RPM. They Ballon the CFMs in the higher rev ranges.

This helps improve high end HP production which is a measure of an engine's power producing efficiency.

On the other hand, a Roots style blower makes 90% of it's peak CFM at low RPM and holds steady throughout the rev range.

You are putting more stress on components at the lower end of the spectrum. Kinda like pulling a heavy load with a truck. That is why ford used strenghend parts. Also since Roots blowers are less efficient than Centrifugal blowers, the total HP gain isn't as big. For an aftermarket manufacturer trying to sell their parts, they need to be able to advertise the biggest numbers possible.

And, Roots blowers heat up the air intake charge a bit more than centrifugal ones do. So an intercooler becomes more of a concern.

Remember that the split port intake mustangs are just freeing up more V.E. If anything, those engines are probably more reliable since the engine is now able to breathe more freely. Anybody who has built up a 3.8 N/A to make more than 200hp has had to probably pay special attention to cam, crank, rods, pistons and porting the heads. Most of the stuff is probably lighter in weight. Which, under a heavy torque load is more likely to suffer a stress fracture.

I'm not saying it won't work flat out, but I am saying that more thought will need to be put into it to get it to work. And in the end the amount of time and money invested won't seem as fruitful.
 
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