Performance Potentail of 3.8L V6

[goldbird]

I have an '87 with a 3.8L V6 with 175,000 miles on it. The V6 will nees a rebuild soon. I would like more power and am curious about the potential of the V6.

is the bottem end and rods strong enough to withstand extra horsepower?
Are the heads any good?
Is a blower available for the V6?
Could it handle twin turbos?

Should I chuck the V6 in favor of a 5.0L V8?

thank you for any info....

 

[whoareyou1982]

i'd dump it for the 5.0 if you have the option. the 3.8's are notorious for head gasket problems plus they only produce 140 horsepower... any worthwile performance upgrades for the 3.8 would probably end up costing you almost as much as the 5.0 would. now i wouldn't mind getting a hold of one of those newer 3.8's that they're putting in the mustangs... 190 horsepower would be more than enough to make me happy for a while

 

[T-Bird-uzi]

when the 3.8 in my 'Bird ('88 LX) expired...it was due to head gasket failure...and it got hot so the head (pass. side) was warped..and i had a 302 so that was the route i went....i wouldn't think that the older V6's would handle the boost unless you had serious money to spend on the heads and intake...money that would build one heck of a small block and have better performance and reliability to boot

 

[leadfoot95]

I have a 1986 cougar with the 3.8. Very reliable motor with plenty of power. It was snappy and would spin off the tires easily. I have done some cleaning with some mods and no the car doesn't have the blown head gasket. It has hit 120 mph and would drive over 100 mph quite frequently. I loved to get the 20+ mpg too. However the car met an early death due to a drunk driver, not me. If you would like some hints, email me at [email protected]. BTW the car still drives and I concider myself lucky.