Upgrading Engine

Just curious if anyone has souped up their continental engines...As far as I know the engine is basically the same used in the 4.6l Mustang Cobra.So that would me alot of performance parts are available....Yes this is a luxury vehicle but a friend of mine had an older 91' mark VII i think and when he bought it the previous owner had swapped a 5.0l mustang engine into it...it was still luxury but hauled ass when he hit it! and level 10 makes performance trannys for our cars for a few grand..

well anyway what are your thoughts?

There are parts for the 4.6 but the problem you run into on these cars are clearance issues.

I would think you wouldn't have any problem chipping the engine if you wanted but I'm not sure about other parts. Check out a Summit Racing or maybe some other performance parts suppliers and see what they offer for the year of Continental you are interested in working on. You never know what you might find.

Chips are available. All the internals are interchangeable with the aftermarket 32v stuff. but as it is fwd clearance is slim to none. i put new cams in and lifters/springs to get another 60hp or so total Est. and another 20 or so from new exhaust and no air box. Hauls ass faster than a stock Mark8

yeah clearance sucks..even a simple change like the serpentine belt is a pain in the ass...But I did see a 97 Continental with a supercharger on car domain once.

I was mainly hoping all the internals would fit..would be a nice way to build a bullet proff engine....but looking at alot of the Intake Manifolds and even some of the heads they look like they might fit?!?! Guess Ill find out when some more $$$ rolls around

I'd be careful with how much power you put to the front wheels... that transmission in not exactly an elite piece of engineering. I would be scare with anything more than stock to be honest.

And swapping out the cams and lifters and springs much a total PITA... that engine has 4 cams and a 32 valves!!!

Also 60hp seems like a very optimistic #.

Yeah ive heard the tranny sucks balls to say the least..but Ive looked around and there a few tranny builder who either rebuild or engineer from scratch tranny that are "bullet-proof" and shift better.And ive heard alot of great stuff about this company when I owned other cars...could get a real nice tranny that will hold alot of power for about $2500...im sure a new stock tranny would cost about as much...thats why if my tranny ever goes i plan to replace it with this.

http://www.levelten.com/store/ford/packages/cougar_tbird_lincoln_95_up.htm