Ford 3.8 Experimental Engine

In April of 2014, I went to the 50th Anniversary Mustang show in Charlotte, NC. I brought the glovebox of my 1991 Tbird SC with me and I got it signed by Neil Ressler, Gale Halderman, Art Hyde, and John Clor. I’m 90% sure it was Neil Ressler who told me that he was involved with the Super Coupe project. According to him, the SC was years behind schedule; it was supposed to be ready in 1987 or 1988, but it wasn’t, so Ford milked the fox platform a little longer and gave us the 1987 Turbo Coupe. He also mentioned that some early Super Coupe engines would “sound like a police siren” as they drove it, and other cars would sometimes pull over as though it were a police car. I cannot find any information online to confirm or expand on this, but I thought I would share.
 
I have 3 Turbo Coupes, as well as the XR-7's & Super Coupes. I'm sure I read in a 87 editon of car-craft or motortrend or hot rod( some magazine) doing a review of the 87, that Ford egineers had a 3.8 Supercharged fuel injected engine ready in 86 for the 87, but they couldn't find a way to make it & the associated piping for the charge air cooling fit in the fox based chassis. The MN12 was in development for 89, so they had to shelve the new powerplant until then. Anybody else seen this article or know?
 
That's my goal. I don't think it will be too bad. I've checked the inside of everything and it all looks good. I will post pictures shortly. Everything internally looks stock to me. I've been looking at aftermarket ecus. Anything input on that would be great.

No need in an aftermarket ecu. Simply get a 36-1 reluctor wheel and mount it to the crank along with a vr crank trigger, same setup as the 94/95 supercoupe and 94+ v6 mustangs. You'll need a VR cam sensor (2 wire not 3 wire) along with the cam stalk from a 99-04 v6 mustang. You'll probably want to verify the cam sensor stalk is secure and all being that its a protoype engine so may be a different deck height or bore tolerance, etc.. In any case, snatch the ecu and ecu wiring harness from any 03/04 luxury sedan ford from your local u pull it yard. Crown vic, town car, grand marquis, marauder, etc.. they all have the same ecu and any of them will work.

If you want to double verify before ripping the ecu out you can plug the ecu hardware code in to the search box here and download the files to custom tune it for free. http://www.efidynotuning site/downloads.htm
It will be RZASA regardless. http://forum.efidynotuning.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=55

Here is the link to the ecu pin out. Scroll down to the 2nd section for eec-v and the RZASA (03/04 Marauder) column is what you will reference specifically as you go through and clean up the harness.
http://www.efidynotuning site/pinouts.htm

The only expense tune wise is you will need to buy a moates quarterhorse $250 direct from moates.net

Give me a shout when your ready and I'll shoot you a tune file no problem.

As for a mass airflow sensor you can snatch an oem ford slot sensor from a 2005-2010 ford vehicle along with pigtail to wire up to your harness. Toss that in a 4" pipe and your good to go.

Looks like those are the stock 30lb injectors on her. I wonder if they added more cuz they were running out of fuel which is no surprise since a simple pulley swap will peg the injectors on a stock supercoupe. Best bet would be to toss a set of siemens deka 80s from poweradderstions in there. You can use my discount code, name all caps to save a few bucks.

Looks like it uses a stock supercoupe coupler for the cross over but does it have a supercharger bypass somewhere? if not you will need to fabricate something using a bosch vac vent valve.

I assume you have the timing cover and pulleys etc.. ?
 
Wow that is awesome. I have an ecu that has 'motorola engineering sample' on it. I wonder if it would work with that engine? Not sure
 

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I have 3 Turbo Coupes, as well as the XR-7's & Super Coupes. I'm sure I read in a 87 editon of car-craft or motortrend or hot rod( some magazine) doing a review of the 87, that Ford egineers had a 3.8 Supercharged fuel injected engine ready in 86 for the 87, but they couldn't find a way to make it & the associated piping for the charge air cooling fit in the fox based chassis. The MN12 was in development for 89, so they had to shelve the new powerplant until then. Anybody else seen this article or know?
Hi Doug,
I wasnt even 3 when this stuff came out, so im just guessing with these magazines. But I've found a few with the sc on them or with ford performance heads (not sure if they are relevant to the sc) and a couple articles that barely touch on the sc engine. Im wanting to buy the magazines actually and browse them. I got screenshots of the magazines. The last article below doesnt really say much, just figured i would throw it in. The first link has a little info on the eaton blowers.
 

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When you think you know everything about da birds, and then something like this comes along. This is the first time I'm reading about this engine. Great piece of history! A few months ago, I stumbled upon an SC that Aston Martin used as the test mule to build their Twin M90 V600 engines. Lots of great engineering on the mn12, for sure.

I'm reminded of the rare prototype 160 or 180 mph speedo that was sold in the classifieds by, I think, an ex-engineer. And the Autokraft "fanblade" wheels with the part number castings for the Super Coupe. Lots of great goodies still floating around out there.

Any update on this engine or the history behind it?
 
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