Engine Identification

Hi Guys, I bought my '40 with suspension & engine/trans roughed in, & not much else.

I am wondering if anyone can help with identifying the engine - I am told that it is from a '95 Mustang, but that is all I know. It has what looks like standard Mustang FI & a sticker on the RH rocker cover with the following info :

+10 4K342BA
MU 955565 559
05/25/95 CEP1

Can I tell from this info whether it is a "Mustang Cobra", has GT-40 heads, etc ?

Any info or pointers to something that explains how to decode this would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

Peter,

I'm sure that you will get a flood of information on this one from people far more knowledgeable, but for starters, I can tell you that the GT40 heads are aluminium.

I remember reading in an earlier forum that you had ordered some literature on the Windsor small block. Have you taken delivery yet? It would be interesting to know if you have, but have not been able to gleen this type of information from it. I'm still waiting for delivery of my books from Amazon.

Peter,

If it is from a Mustang GT or Cobra then I am very familar with the engine.

First, if it was from the 95 Cobra Mustang of that year it would be wearing a intake that says Cobra on it. this intake will have staggered that are round instead of the runners in a line and oval. Additionally it would have GT40 (don't be confused, Ford American calls them that) iron heads and a slightly different cam than the GT motor. Bottom end the same on both.

The Cobra engine for 1995 made 240hp.
The standard GT engine for 1995 made 225 hp.

However, the drag trap speed told the tale and the Cobras made more than 240hp for sure, most figure around 260hp.

The standard GT 225 was right on the money, torquey but didn't want any more than around 4200-4400 RPM. I used to have a 95 GT that I supercharged, the engine seriously needs a head upgrade if that is what you have and want to make good power.

Ron

Chris, I ordered Isaac Martin's "Ford Windsor Small-Block Performance" from Amazon & got it about 2 weeks later. Whilst it gives a very good overview of most of the after-market go-fast bits, it has almost nothing on how to ID a standard engine.

Lynn, the sticker on my engine looks the same as yours (except for the codes). I guess that the date on the sticker is the build date, & that the 2 large letters indicate the car type (MU = Mustang, JF - Falcon, etc).

Ron, I can find no trace of the word Cobra on the manifold & the intakes all seem to be in line. It therefore looks like I have a standard Mustang GT engine.

Thanks for all your help guys. I expect to have the engine out in a month or 2 whilst the body goes away for painting. My plan is to install the 8-throttle body FI system at that point, but to leave everything else standard. Once the car has been on the road for a while (& my finances recover !), I'll pull the engine, upgrade to aluminium heads, matching cam & look at re-working the internals. Does this plan seem more or less sensible to you ?

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

Peter,

that seems like a good plan. If your intake is straight, like this if you looked at the intake from the front:

00000000 ---> Front of motor

Then it is a standard intake and probably a 225 horse motor. Never fear, it will be damn torquey!

Cobra intake would look like this from the front and looking at the lower part of the intake:

0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 ----> Front of car

Spacing is pronounced on typing but you get the idea.

Just get the thing running and then do the upgrades, seems a smart way to go.

Ron

Thanks Ron, yep the intakes are 8 in a row, so she looks like a standard unit. It will be interesting to see what effect the cross-over headers & the 8-barrel FI have.

Simplistically, my research so far indicates that longer intake runners ==> more low-down torque, shorter runners ==> more high rpm HP.

In all probability, I'll scare myself silly with 220-250HP in such a light car, so the "Phase 2 upgrade" should be suitably terrifying !

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

I have been told that the 85-89 Mustang 302W comes standard with forged pistons. Is this a generalization or is it, for that matter, just plain incorrect? If its true, how would I recognise one?

I found the original docs on my engine Peter and the numbering for this Falcon engine is similar, but different ;-) Below is what my sticker looked like. If someone could help us decode these to figure out exactly what they have in them, that would be really cool.

Chris, according to Isaac Martin's book, the 5.0L Windsor engines had forged pistons from '85 to '91, after which they switched to hypereutectic castings.

Peter D.

They are indeed forged, I've taken a few apart. If one was to take a good low mileage example of the forged motors and re-balance it you have a great starting place on the cheap. From the factory they lack great balance.

Ron

The following website has some information on engines used in mustangs and engine identification numbers http://www.dmcarclub.com/members/tech.html

Can also try this forum. They come back in milliseconds with the info http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/119417?it=0 (if you can stand those damn pop-ups
cheers
Dave