I am condering different engine options. One of them might be the Ford SVO crate 345hp crate engine. At different Mustang forums I read a lot of different opinions about this engine. Some people claim that the engine delivers about 220 RWHP. Is this true, I know some members run this engine. Is it good choice?
Ford SVO crate 345 hp engine , is it any good? (again)
- Thread starter gait1969
- Start date
Howard Jones
Supporter
I have one in my car. I bought it for $2800. It came with a cog belt reverse drive waterpump, front cover, and dampener off of a explorer along with a 5 quart front sump oilpan and stamped steel valve covers.
I replaced the front timing cover, water pump, dampener, valve covers, and oil pan with normal ford front cover, alum edelbrock victor junior water pump, cobra valve covers, and a canon 7 quart roadrace oil pan. All of this stuff came to about $650.
I made my own brackets for the alternator and AC pump and had a set of pulleys already. I converted to a v drive pulley system because I'm old fashion and already had the pulleys and belts.
The one thing that is important is the exhaust system. Make sure you have good port matching at the exhaust port and some nice free flow mufflers. My mufflers made a 30RWHP difference on Farads car when it was dynoed over the stock GTD muffler. SBF's, even with these heads, are known to be limited by exaust port performance and so attention paid to the exaust system will pay off.
I installed a MSD small cap billet distributor, 6AL box, and blaster SS coil. I am running a edelbrock RPM performer intake with a 750 Holley double-pumper on top. This came to another $900ish
All in about 5 grand more or less.
Am I happy? Yes. The motor makes a "good" amount of power for my DRIVING ABILITY. I can outrun just about all the street cars I have come upon and with a 3.44 diff I have had it to about 5000 revs in 5th and it showed no sign of running out of breath. My car is plenty fast as far as top end goes. 150 easy. As a matter of fact I have been doing a little reflection on how fast is too fast on the street and intend to leave the really fast stuff to the track from now on.
How fast is it? Fast enough for me. I ran the car once so far on track and found myself at part throttle nearly all the way around. These cars weight about 2400 pounds and 300-350hp will make them go VERY quickly. Most of the lap time improvement will come from the drivers(ME) skill increasing and chassis setup improvements. The really easy way to run faster lap times is put on some slicks but I believe it's best to sort the chassis settings out first with street tires and then progress to race tires . This approach will save some money I think.
So..... I think most people will be happy with the power and more importantly will feel that they haven't spend a small fortune on a motor that ends up with far too much power. In MY VERY HUMBLE OPINION much more than 400hp is too much for anything other than a track only car driven by a TRAINED driver with race tires on it.
Here's the bottom line. These motors are not a custom built killer motor. They are built about as good as any other FMC production motor and at this power output that's probably good enough. They are 9 to 1 CR and run fine on pump gas. You do get alum heads and that's a 100 pounds less weight to haul around. The X head is "OK", they are not AFR's but then you are not paying AFR prices. The B cam that you get with it runs out of steam at 6K but with a production line built engine I wonder if it makes since to spin it any faster anyway. The valve springs are the one thing I would change at a later date. The lift could stand to be increased from about .480 to about .520. Maybe add some 1.7 roller rockers to do that at the same time you change springs if you feel the need for more power. All in all these motors are fine for a budget minded person that isn't interested in building a car with more power that they can handle.
Spend your extra money on a properly geared transaxle WITH A LSD IN IT!!!!!! Instead of a big power tire smokin open diff car with a useless 1st gear.
I did the math and I found that I would be hard pressed to build one myself for much less. I have no real idea how much power it really makes. I tell people about 350-360HP.
For what thats worth.
If you can ride in a GT40 with about 350hp and make a judgement for yourself.
I am sure everyone has a different opinion on how much power is too much and how well FMC builds motors. In the end you make a choice and pay your money.
I replaced the front timing cover, water pump, dampener, valve covers, and oil pan with normal ford front cover, alum edelbrock victor junior water pump, cobra valve covers, and a canon 7 quart roadrace oil pan. All of this stuff came to about $650.
I made my own brackets for the alternator and AC pump and had a set of pulleys already. I converted to a v drive pulley system because I'm old fashion and already had the pulleys and belts.
The one thing that is important is the exhaust system. Make sure you have good port matching at the exhaust port and some nice free flow mufflers. My mufflers made a 30RWHP difference on Farads car when it was dynoed over the stock GTD muffler. SBF's, even with these heads, are known to be limited by exaust port performance and so attention paid to the exaust system will pay off.
I installed a MSD small cap billet distributor, 6AL box, and blaster SS coil. I am running a edelbrock RPM performer intake with a 750 Holley double-pumper on top. This came to another $900ish
All in about 5 grand more or less.
Am I happy? Yes. The motor makes a "good" amount of power for my DRIVING ABILITY. I can outrun just about all the street cars I have come upon and with a 3.44 diff I have had it to about 5000 revs in 5th and it showed no sign of running out of breath. My car is plenty fast as far as top end goes. 150 easy. As a matter of fact I have been doing a little reflection on how fast is too fast on the street and intend to leave the really fast stuff to the track from now on.
How fast is it? Fast enough for me. I ran the car once so far on track and found myself at part throttle nearly all the way around. These cars weight about 2400 pounds and 300-350hp will make them go VERY quickly. Most of the lap time improvement will come from the drivers(ME) skill increasing and chassis setup improvements. The really easy way to run faster lap times is put on some slicks but I believe it's best to sort the chassis settings out first with street tires and then progress to race tires . This approach will save some money I think.
So..... I think most people will be happy with the power and more importantly will feel that they haven't spend a small fortune on a motor that ends up with far too much power. In MY VERY HUMBLE OPINION much more than 400hp is too much for anything other than a track only car driven by a TRAINED driver with race tires on it.
Here's the bottom line. These motors are not a custom built killer motor. They are built about as good as any other FMC production motor and at this power output that's probably good enough. They are 9 to 1 CR and run fine on pump gas. You do get alum heads and that's a 100 pounds less weight to haul around. The X head is "OK", they are not AFR's but then you are not paying AFR prices. The B cam that you get with it runs out of steam at 6K but with a production line built engine I wonder if it makes since to spin it any faster anyway. The valve springs are the one thing I would change at a later date. The lift could stand to be increased from about .480 to about .520. Maybe add some 1.7 roller rockers to do that at the same time you change springs if you feel the need for more power. All in all these motors are fine for a budget minded person that isn't interested in building a car with more power that they can handle.
Spend your extra money on a properly geared transaxle WITH A LSD IN IT!!!!!! Instead of a big power tire smokin open diff car with a useless 1st gear.
I did the math and I found that I would be hard pressed to build one myself for much less. I have no real idea how much power it really makes. I tell people about 350-360HP.
For what thats worth.
If you can ride in a GT40 with about 350hp and make a judgement for yourself.
I am sure everyone has a different opinion on how much power is too much and how well FMC builds motors. In the end you make a choice and pay your money.
Good answer Howard. I am running the same motor with fuel injection and the 1.71:1 rockers. Actually I went with the 340 hp version, which had the slightly bigger cam. Why the bigger cam had 5 hp less I am not sure, but I went with the bigger is better theory. The car is plenty fast and VERY reliable. Could not be happier and the price was right.
