Conti engine mods?

[roll224]

Ok i'm wondering what engine mods i can do to my 91 conti to just make it run smoother, and gain a little HP.

I am already planning on fabricating cold air intake, and putting a full catback exhaust with flowmasters. I also want to get some brighter head lights but don't knwo what to get of were to look so any help on that would be great.

So any help in ugrades that would make my car run smoother, and gain a little HP would be great. Thanks
Matt

[LincoConti87]

No offense but you want to put flowmasters on a 3.8? It is a 3.8 right? Have you seen all the 3.8 mustangs driving by with big tips and loud mufflers? They sound terrible. I think you would just end up with a loud annoying interior. I have 40 series flowmasters on mine and they are pretty loud inside. Mine is a 302 so the trade off of sweet mustang like sound outweighs the loudness most of the time. Pretty soon though I think I'm going to probably swap the flows onto the project car when its running good and put those quiet mufflers onto the daily driver

[roll224]

are the 40 series that loud on the conti becuase i was planning on getting the 40's. A friend of mine has them on his explorer and they aren't that loud so i don't know maybe i'll do a little more searching for a dif. muffler that is a little less loud.


Does anyone know about the headlights, and were i would find the right ones to fit my conti. The normal headlights just aren't bright enough.

[PeteAug]

I have a home fabbed air intake on mine made out of pvc, and it will be your biggest gain for the buck. You could try a chip, but I would instead try bumping the base timing up a couple degrees and see what happens. You could try removing the resonator or changing the muffs. That's about your only options, unless you want to port your heads or intake and get real involved.

[roll224]

yea i want to fab one of those pvc intakes when summer comes around. I just finished takng the air silencer off which i like the sound now and when i stomp on the gas. Also it hasn't really changed the pick up but it feels a tiny bit more touchy when i forst hit the gas, but its barely notciable.

[LincoConti87]

Yea I made my own cold air intake but I didnt use PVC. I used a crown vic intake elbow mated to a straight 3 inch exhaust pipe piece from parts store and then I coupled that to a mandrel bent piece of 3 inch pipe that was originally half of a neon short ram intake that my friend had and I cut it in half and used to to curve into the fender hole where airbox originally sat. I dont know about the 3.8s though...doesnt your airbox sit on the driver side?

As far as the mufflers...its kinda weird so I cant give any definite assurance of how it will work but mine are loud and quiet at certain areas. I had my entire exhaust swapped out...stock mustang shorty headers, Mark 7 H pipe(same as mustang basically) and then mustang lx tailpipes and flow 40s 2.25 in and out. My car has the wussy heads and cam so it doesnt make much power at the higher rpms so I think it restricts the sound but on the low end it will slowly build up to a small roaring sound just before 2000 rpms and everything past 2k is pretty quiet because of the low output parts. Basically I think I would put something like Dynomax Super Turbos on your car since it is a 3.8 and theres not really anything you can do to make it sound very good. If it has just a little sound then it will be much more enjoyable than if you make it as loud as a mustang but all buzzy and crappy ya know? I have never heard a 3.8 sounding good with exhaust is all I can say. You cannot get around the firing order on them cus theres only 6 cylinders ya know? Probably as far as power you can just eliminate any resonators that are in the exhaust and put some better flowing mufflers with a y pipe for dual tips and maybe feel a little difference.

The exlporer may not be too loud since I'm sure it still has cast iron manifolds instead of headers and probably a y pipe going to a single muffler. Basically the entire exhaust system is restrictive so changing the muffler is really only going to make it louder. Even with my full dual exhaust conversion it didnt feel any faster, but I did notice that I was able to rev higher when held in first gear

[ February 11, 2004: Message edited by: LincoConti87 ]

[PeteAug]

The air intake is on the drivers side on a 91. It's really easy to fab one....I was gonna post pics of mine, but I can't get my camera to work with my new computer.

Conti 87, that's pretty cool the way you have your car setup. I think the advice about SuperTurbos is right on too.

One more thing, I proved the air intake worked by running my car on my Vericom computer....a nice gain for basically free.

[ February 12, 2004: Message edited by: PeteAug ]

[LincoConti87]

Cool...when I first installed my fenderwell air filter setup with open element conical filter I noticed some responsiveness but it wasnt much. Its fun and custom so I give it a thumbs up

[roll224]

yea well i think i'm gunna hold off on the exhaust for awhile and fab one of thse intakes up soon.
I'll prob. not even do the exhaust because i wanna buy a v8 ls in a year or so.

[MissingLINC]

Ive studied this pretty hard. Some gains can be had from the 3.8. It comes down to how much do you want to spend. If you want a tire frying Conti, get a 4.6 model. I think replacing the muffs, bumping the timing, and fabbing a better intake is all we can reasonably do to our cars without busting the bank.

Ive got a set of stock Stang GT muffs to put on this summer, but Im thinking about trying the Summit turbos for $14 ea instead.

I drilled a hole in the bottom of my airbox and put a 1.5in PVC elbow with a short piece of pipe to the front of the engine. I figure that I doubled the air intake for $3 and it is still whisper quite.

I havent messed woth the timing yet.

Im installing a 180 thermostate for the summer, those 3.8s run hot.

Thats all the performance mods for me, my 92 looks great, is realiable, and gets decient mileage. I want to keep it that way.

I would like a better sound system.

[Desert Stallion]

If you want to keep your mileage, install a high-flo 195* t-stat instead of the 180*. All the colder t-stat will do is open sooner, keeping the engine running rich longer. Once things are warmed up, the t-stat can only flow so much. A high-flo 195* piece will allow the engine to warm to normal operating temp, where all the economy and emissions stuff turns on, and keep it there because they flow more than the stock pieces.

As to exhaust, I fabbed a H-pipe and ran a Summit 2.5" catback for my sister's '95 3.8L Mustang, and it sounds perty nice for a V6. She has GT's wanting to mess with her constantly because at idle it sounds kinda like a mini V8, but that's partially due to the H-pipe which typically adds a kinda throaty bass to an exhaust system.

Running turbo mufflers off of your Y-pipe will still make for a nice mellow exhaust note that lets bystanders know your exhaust isn't stock when you get on the throttle, but isn't much if any louder than stock when cruising/idling.

Just a thought.

[LincoConti87]

Well the thing that I red before was that for a V6 you dont need an H pipe because the reason it makes more power is because of the close firing of cylinders on the same exhaust manifold but the firing order on the 3.8s dont benefit from that. I dont suppose it would hurt anything though.

[Desert Stallion]

Yep, the 3.8L V6 doesn't need a crossover. It can run true dual with no adverse affects. This is because no two cylinders per bank fire sequentially as on a 5.0L, which requires a crossover to allow proper exhaust scavenging, and keep the exhaust gasses from being sucked back into an exhaust valve like true duals on a 5.0L can cause.

I installed the H-pipe on my sister's Mustang because I wanted the deeper sound of the H-pipe than a true dual setup would provide, which would sound kinda like a pair of rice burners idling next to each other.

At least that's what I was told it sounds like.

[roll224]

so those turbo's would make it sound like stock when idling but it would get alot louder when i stomp the gas because thats what i'm looking for rihg now that would be awsome to have. thanx. I was also thinking about boosting the idle would that help me to gain any power?

[Steve Moran]

Boosting the idle will do nothing as in a power gain.
true dual exhaust, turbo mufflers, air box mods, and keeping it tuned up can go along way.