Increasing horsepower on a Towncar

9

99Towncar

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Some ideas:

Underdrive pulleys
Underdrive pulleys are supposed to free up about 6HP by running your alternator and air conditioner slower. You can buy pulleys from Steeda for about $160. Installation is a little tricky but the gains are supposed to be noticable. Please e-mail us with your results if you have done this upgrade.
180 degree thermostat
Stock TC's run a 192 degree thermostat. Running a cooler one, 180 degrees, allows the engine to start cooling itself sooner, thus allowing you to run more advanced timing and a more agressive computer program. These thermostats are around $6 from you local parts store. No actual horsepower gain here, but it enables you to run a bit harder.

Exhaust
I bought a set of stock 96 Mustang headers, but after sizing things up, I don't think they will fit. I've heard of other people that have installed different mufflers, but most are very loud or too annoying to drive a lot. No major gains have been reported with aftermarket exhaust. Dual exhaust, however, is a must! See the link at the top of this page for upgrading to dual exhaust for single exhaust cars.

Does anyone else have any sugestions?
 
Honestly... the only things that may be worth your time are a chip, and reworking the stock exhaust.

The chip will make it shift quicker and firmer and possibly add a little bit of power.

And the exhaust is going to make the car sound much better, and help it flow a bit more, some have terribly restrictive exhausts from the factory so this would help a bit as well.

I wouldn't bother with underdrive pulleys... you won't notice them on such a heavy car.

The only true real power adder would be a supercharger though...
 
maxmk8 said:
Honestly... the only things that may be worth your time are a chip, and reworking the stock exhaust.

The chip will make it shift quicker and firmer and possibly add a little bit of power.

And the exhaust is going to make the car sound much better, and help it flow a bit more, some have terribly restrictive exhausts from the factory so this would help a bit as well.

I wouldn't bother with underdrive pulleys... you won't notice them on such a heavy car.

The only true real power adder would be a supercharger though...
Click to expand...

Actually they weigh almost as much as a Mustang:

99 Towncar 4467 lbs
99 Mustang hardtop 3920 lbs

547 lbs isn't that much.
 
Sorry pal but at first of 547lbs is ONE hell of a lot of a weight...
For every 100lbs you can save yourself .1 second through the 1/4... so if your TC lost 500lbs you would be 1/2 second quicker through the 1/4 about the gains you're going to have if you were to switch out gears and get a stall converter and a chip... or the equivalent of adding 50hp.
Second a 1999 Mustang GT Coupe weighs in at about 3300#s which is over 1000lbs less... the convertible is 3450#s or so.
 
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4.10 Gears + Posi
Chip
Exhaust

Will make it feel quite a bit faster.

I wouldn't bother with underdrive pulleys either.

The Town Cars might not [probably didn't] have PI heads. The Mustang produced 260HP that year compared to the 205 from the TC. If they didn't, a PI head conversion will give you ~50HP and couple this with a chip and exhaust.

So add:
PI Head Conversion

These 4 things will make you quite a bit faster and probably an ok sleeper.

Last there is always spray or a Cobra/Mark VIII/Terminator Motor

How much do you want to spend?
 
Dispite the discourging words, I'm still not going give up giving my car a little added umfff to the petal.
 
What discouraging words? We're trying to help you... as stated above... the best bang for your buck will be a chip and exhaust for now.

This is something you will feel and hear right after the mods are done.
 
I would say PI heads/intake are up there with best bang for the buck especially when coupled with a chip. I mean 55BHP with OEM stock parts. You're not going to get that with exhaust and chip.
 
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How much would a swap like that cost?! I would think at least 2k... when you count parts and labor unless you can do everything yourself.
 
Everything I post is under the assumption you are doing it yourself. No they don't cost that much to convert DIY. For 96-98 NPI Mustangs the PI head swap is a VERY common mod.
 
stevebpuffin said:
is doing a pi swap on the mark a very good mod? what would be involved?.... just swapping the heads and intake manifold?
Click to expand...

Unlike the SOHC, there are no "PI" parts to swap on the 4.6L DOHC - unless you consider the '96-'98 Cobra intake or perhaps the newer "C" heads a "PI" swap.
 
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