Iodification Information
Well I've read everything about this car I could find and if you want it to be MORE of a sleeper than it already is, you'll need lots of money. And a shop that can do MAJOR custom work. First this this is a Taurus Platform car, with lots of differences, EXCEPT the most important one, the transmission is the exact same one as the Taurus has "ax4n", a good (not GREAT) tranny for the v6 taurus. but with 275 hp and 275 torque from the Inec, you cannot add much more power without really shortening the life of your trans. There are some mods for the trans available but this car is a BITCH to work on the trans so be prepared for some HEAVY labor costs. Next is the intake, you can find some help around here if you look had enough, but save your time and just find a shop that does custom work, oh but wait man there ain't much room under the hood is there. My OPINION is to relocate the battery to the rear, and work around that area, maybe remove the :q:q:q:q inside the fender and go from there, again lots of custom work for a GOOD and true COLD AIR intake. Now here is the good news, apparently the motor is similar enough to the cobra mustang 4.6, to use the headers from it but my guess is that the transverse mount and the transmission are going to present problems there too but at least the part is there... maybe, AGAIN CUSTOM! man I feel like
I am repeating myself here. Okay now cat back is almost always a good idea for more power, and its not to hard with an X pipe ,and just the normal amount of custom work for exhaust you could be the proud owner of a Conti with TRUE DUAL exhaust. COOL! Following all that there is also rumored to be a CHIP available for the ECU but that I have not confirmed through more than one guy, so who knows, I'm sure there is SOME chip that will do SOMETHING?!@#* but what for sure is unknown as far as hp/ torque gains. WANNA GET NUTS! try finding a supercharger for that Mustang cobra 4.6, except I heard that the way it mounts on the InTec the pulley for the blower is on the wrong side, again only heard that from one source so heck who knows. Uhh hmm crap lost my train of thought... Oh if yer REALLY nuts just mod the trans to take more power and No2 it till she blows, on second thought Nitrous is stupid for a daily driver so strike that. More BIG MONEY can be spent on porting and polishing the intake and heads, but I've heard tell of Really decent gains from those mods. Theres always the suspension to worry about, the SEMI-ACTIVE system in this car is freakin expensive to replace with original eqipment or similar, but I think there are some options there as far as the rear air leveling and front struts go. FINALLY (I think) Is the engine swap to the taurus sho motor made by Yamaha and the manual transmission from the same car I believe. you can spend alot of time looking around here to confirm all this or you can start saving, this car was just not built for EASY modding. But with time and lots of money, you could have one SWEET sleeper. GOOD LUCK!
P.S. anyone else who reads this please let me know what you think of my compilation of all the info on here, I think I got the majority of the important stuff, but if I missed something, let Us (98-02 Conti owners) know.
