Mods to get to 400+ HP, N/A???

[crispy23c]

Has anyone got the MM to close to 400 (+ or -) HP w/o heavy mods? I am considering getting this rig, and I want something "streetable"......or..... maybe I could go moderately blown. Anyone on this thread done these things (I'm sure, but I need to know what I'm in for--$$$, and agravation)? Thanx!!!

 

[dew34]

Has anyone got the MM to close to 400 (+ or -) HP w/o heavy mods? I am considering getting this rig, and I want something "streetable"......or..... maybe I could go moderately blown. Anyone on this thread done these things (I'm sure, but I need to know what I'm in for--$$$, and agravation)? Thanx!!!

the money it would take to get to 400rwhp or close would far exced the amount of a super charger and i dont know how streetable a 400 hp 4.6 or 5.0 cammer motor would be because of the cams , on the other hand the blown marauders i know of being one my self the roots blowers are 380 to 390ish at the rear wheels with a ton of low end torque with a very safe and conservative tune , with a custom tune 450 and up the prochargers with a little more aggresive tune , start out at (correct me if im wrong Tim & tom) 460rwhp and with a custom tune much higher , they both make a lott of horse power either one is a fantastic up grade to a marauder i think for far less than it would take to get to 400 rwhp for a marauder is about 460-475 at the crank hope that helped
mike

 

[ddurnan]

Nitrous

 

[vicmaster]

You could possibly do a stroker kit, but i'm not sure why you would want too, it's already a 302ci. your best bet would be the basic engine work, cam, heads, intake/exhaust, chip, maybe nitrous, and most definately a blower.

 

[DEFYANT]

I am very happy at 425hp / 426tq with the Trilogy S/Cer. This car is simply awsome. It drives and performs normaly until you wallop the go peddle. Then, if you have traction, hold on.

Make a plan on what you want out of the car and mod accordingly.

 

[MarauderTJA]

the money it would take to get to 400rwhp or close would far exced the amount of a super charger and i dont know how streetable a 400 hp 4.6 or 5.0 cammer motor would be because of the cams , on the other hand the blown marauders i know of being one my self the roots blowers are 380 to 390ish at the rear wheels with a ton of low end torque with a very safe and conservative tune , with a custom tune 450 and up the prochargers with a little more aggresive tune , start out at (correct me if im wrong Tim & tom) 460rwhp and with a custom tune much higher , they both make a lott of horse power either one is a fantastic up grade to a marauder i think for far less than it would take to get to 400 rwhp for a marauder is about 460-475 at the crank hope that helped
mike

The most cost effecitve way to get some high horsepower with the Marauder is Nitrous. A buddy of mine has a good tune with a 125 HP shot and his car ran 12.6 et. But a tune is necessary along with a good K&N Cold Air Kit.

A roots style blower (Trilogy) makes a great kit with bolt on low end torque and horsepower around 390 RWHP (42 lb injectors) up to super tuned cars around 500 RWHP. The driveability with Triology cars is great. Most of my buddies and have the Triology blower. I have always been a more radical car guy with power and mods though. My set up is more on the extreme level with a Procharger P1SC w/12 lbs boost, 60 lb injectors, Stallion 3000 stall speed converter, tranny work, complete exhaust and 4.10's. I pulled a max of 515 RWHP but we backed it down to 485 to keep the motor together. But I also had the lengendary Scott Beer from Diablosport tune my car for more than 10 hours. But the car is somewhat agressive to drive around town, but I personally like that. You go for a ride in my Marauder and it is immediately evident that it is an "Extreme Marauder." On the highway it is sweet though, pulling 19 MPG. Around town, a suck 12 MPG. But with 550+ crank horsepower, it is to be expected. But I love it. epper: Tim's Procharger MM car is less radical but still screams and the only difference with our cars is the boost level (9.5 lbs) and he is running 42 lb injectors. I think his driveability is better than mine though around town. There are also several Vortech cars out there with similar results. It is all a matter of what you want and the amount of $$$ you want to spend. :thumbsup:

 

[BillyGman]

You could possibly do a stroker kit, but i'm not sure why you would want too, it's already a 302ci. .

Uhmm, am I reading that right? the marauder engines are NOT 302 cubes. they're 281 cubes (4.6L). They have the 32 valve heads though, and DOHC's.

I agree about the prospect of 400 HP N/A. It isn't worth shooting for on a street driven Marauder. You would have to hog out the intake ports on the cylinder heads so much, and use such a radical camshaft design to obtain that kind of power with such a small engine, that it would move the availability of the engine's power too far up the RPM scale for a street car.

And with the power being that high in the RPM band, the driveability would be terrible too since you would need a 4,000-4,500 RPM stall speed to get it moving off the line. It wouldn't make for a tolerable daily driver. Nor would it be enjoyable to drive on the street, especialy over the longhaul. Forced induction will provide streetable power providing the right choice of power adder is chosen for this heavy car. 300 RWHP N/A is within reach. But not 400 RWHP. The engine is too small. If it were to be dropped in a trailer queen used only for the track, then I'm sure that more than 400 RWHP is possible. But for the street? No way.

 

[crispy23c]

WOW! Thanks to everyone for the info, you all are great! Here's my deal: I am 1st in line at my local SVT dealer for the GT500. With every month that ticks by, the "sinking feeling" that I get in the pit of my stomach tells me that dealer porkage might come into play.
So, anyway, I had test drove the MM from a dealer when they were new. Very tempting. Still on the brain! ;-)

Soooo, my "back-up plan" :idea: is to build a cherry MM to around 400 hp, and I'm seriously investigating all the options. If I get derailed from the '500, it sure as he*l won't be for long.....sounds like I'll need to slap a blower on that thang for >400 HP of fun. Just needed to know which way to go for reasonable reliability, etc. This thing could be pretty bad arse... epper:

Thanks again, I will be sure to be poking my head in here from time to time.

 

[BillyGman]

.....sounds like I'll need to slap a blower on that thang for >400 HP of fun.

BTW, it just so happens that my Marauder has 400 RWHP, and I LUV driving it!! it's my daily driver, and it even gets driven in the snow back and forth to work. It does it all. Very streetable with 100% of the driveability it had right off the dealer lot when I bought it new.

 

[crispy23c]

Thanks for the input. BillyGman, I see that you put an Eaton M112 Supercharger @ 9.5 PSI. Were internal & driveline mods necessary for this (concerned about breakage)? You have to look at the whole package.
I want the motor/driveline/suspension to last so I want to do it right......and I want it drivable for day to day, so I would be looking for 400 + or -, plus is always better!

Finally, I noticed (mainly) 3 suppliers mentioned: Eaton (BillyGman), Trilogy (Defyant), & Procharger (Marauder TJA & Tim). Which of these has the best install & support that you have heard & experienced? Are prices relatively close? I don't mind forking over extra $$$ for a better unit with better support.

PS--I really appreciate the support & response. I know that if I go this route, I will have an awesome group of guys (& gals) to hang on the web with. You guys rock! :beer:

 

[BillyGman]

Thanks for the input. BillyGman, I see that you put an Eaton M112 Supercharger @ 9.5 PSI. Were internal & driveline mods necessary for this (concerned about breakage)? You have to look at the whole package.
I want the motor/driveline/suspension to last so I want to do it right......and I want it drivable for day to day, so I would be looking for 400 + or -, plus is always better!

Finally, I noticed (mainly) 3 suppliers mentioned: Eaton (BillyGman), Trilogy (Defyant), & Procharger (Marauder TJA & Tim). Which of these has the best install & support that you have heard & experienced? Are prices relatively close? I don't mind forking over extra $$$ for a better unit with better support.

PS--I really appreciate the support & response. I know that if I go this route, I will have an awesome group of guys (& gals) to hang on the web with. You guys rock! :beer:

Okay, first, I also have the TRILOGY supercharger. it happens to be an Eaton M112. Trilogy has sold 103 of them to Marauder owners so far. My Marauder was Trilogy kit #24 so I felt confident about it since there were 23 Marauders that were S/Ced before mine and they were doing well. If you stay with the way the S/Cer kit comes to your door ( with the 9.5 PSI pullley on it) you won't have to do anything else to your Marauder (although I would seriously consider the widened back wheels and the Nitto P305/45/18 drag radials for off-the-line traction like many of us Trilogy customers have opted for).

I haven't done anything else to my Marauder to beef-up the drivetrain. I installed a set of gears in the rear end, and an aftermarket torque converter, but those mods were done waaaay before I ever thought I would supercharger this car. There are some Marauder guys who had the Trilogy S/Cer kit installed and have stayed with the stock gears and stock stall speed, and they LUV it. What I like is that Trilogy is NOT a speed shop, nor an aftermarket parts supplier. They're an engineering company that has 90 employees including their own engineers and has had Ford as one of their clients for years now. I was very impressed to learn of that.

Anyway, I installed the Trilogy S/Cer kit myself (never thought I would perform such a task, but the installatioin manual is the best and most specific I've ever seen ) which was when my Marauder had 11K on it's clock, and now I have 34K on the odometer, and so after 23,000 S/Ced miles (hard ones at that) the car still runs fantastic. I never even had to get any custome dyno tune after installaing the Trilogy kit, because it comes with a chip burned by Lidio of Alternative Auto with a complete engine tune.

So I only had the car Dyno TESTED to confirm the RWHP. I never had it Dyno TUNED. And I've been driving it daily now for the last 17 months since the S/Cer installation. I LUV driving it on the street. It's very mild mannered until I go past the half throttle point, and then the animal from underneath the hood comes out!!! I don't know if you've read my other posts, but I just beat two Vettes a couple weeks ago. One of them was a standard Vette, and was from a stoplight, and the other was a Z06 and was from a 70 MPH roll and it was over by 110 MPH. Both times I had two car lenngths on them when they gave up. Not bad for a 4,200 LB car that also does NOT have highway gears.

I also beat three Camaro SS cars (a modified 98, a 01, and a stock 2000). One from a 30 MPH roll, the other three times from a stoplight (the guy was so ticked off to get beat by a big car that he insisted on running me three times) and the 2000 Camaro was four times ( from a standstill, from a 50 MPH roll, and from a 70 MPH roll twice).

It's my understanding that as long as you don't take the RWHP of these cars over 430, the stock transmissions will hold up. That's according to Jerry Wrobelewski (sp?) who is a former Ford engineer who helped design these transmissions.

 

[carfixer]

Crispy, I agree with all that was said. I have a Trilogy S/C also. If I was to throw you the keys to my car and tell you to drive to the store and back without accelerating heavily, you would never know it is blown. Take it to the track with some DR's and it will rip a 12.xx @ 105MPH+, no other mods needed. None.

If you need any convincin', post your location and I'm sure you'll find someone near you that will take you for a spin.

BTW, Trilogy is up to 106 kits sold.

 

[MarauderTJA]

It boils down to what you are looking for in performance. Modified street or wild street. Look at all your options in supercharging based on your preference. Opinions of others are valuable. But your own research and testing will give you what you are looking for.

 

[2Marauders]

Finally, I noticed (mainly) 3 suppliers mentioned: Eaton (BillyGman), Trilogy (Defyant), & Procharger (Marauder TJA & Tim). Which of these has the best install & support that you have heard & experienced? Are prices relatively close? I don't mind forking over extra $$$ for a better unit with better support.

The Eaton is in fact the Trilogy kit and by design has an air-water intercooler system.
The Vortech kit is available from Dennis Reinhart and can be had in air-water or air-air intercooler configurations.
The Procharger kit is available from Greg (F.I.T.) and uses an air-air intercooler available either under front of the car or behind the grille.

Basically it depends on what you want. All three can easily exceed the power handling capability of the stock engine internals.

 

[BillyGman]

Crispy, in my last post, I wanted to try and answer all of your questions, but I had forgotten about your question concerning price. I know the Trilogy S/cer kit the best since that's what I have on my Marauder. It costs $6K but it adds 140 RWHP to an otherwise stock Marauder. That's what it was designed for. You should give Trilogy a call and ask them to e-mail a PDF file of their installation manual to you. Jerry Barnes has done that before for others who were curious. It has color pics of the installation procedures, and of the S/Cer kit parts throughout the entire manual. I hope this helps you.

 

[Smokie]

I also endorse the Trilogy Kit, I have one in my car and I love the OEM look and feel. It has perfect manners until you choose to flog it. The Base kit provided my car with the 400+ rwhp you seek. I have some exhaust work and CAI, other than that my car is stock.

In the interest of fairness; I also had the opportunnity up close to observe a Vortech S/C car one of the MM. members has that puts out about 500 hp to wheels on regular 93 octane, this car is also quiet, perfect idle great manners...yet it ran 11.6 at over 115 mph in 100+ degree Florida heat. The owner is a car guy that turns his own wrench.

In conclusion: If you want to take a stock MM. and have about 400 hp in the most direct cost effective way. and you are not a guy that turns you own wrench and demand perfect manners,Trilogy is the best choice in my opinion.

If you know cars well and can turn a wrench, the Vortech /Procharger Kits are well worth exploring, you will need other things to get the low end torque in the proper band..however they do fly.

 

[DEFYANT]

Beware of MarauderMark. I got a taste of whats to come with that beast he's driving. By no means is he entry level... but his car is well worth watching out for.

 

[BillyGman]

Keep one thing in mind.....as far as I know, all the S/Ced Marauders that are pushing 500 RWHP (and most of them that are over 450 RWHP) are obtaining those numbers with engine tunes for 100+ octane race gas regardless of their S/Cer choice. And all of the S/Ced Marauders that are getting into the 11 second bracket are doing so with race gas tunes that have to be used with 100+ octane. Which is fine, but they obviously are NOT able to drive on the street with that level of power since street driving usually means the use of 93 octane pump gas.

 

[The Wraith]

Beware of MarauderMark. I got a taste of whats to come with that beast he's driving. By no means is he entry level... but his car is well worth watching out for.

Its detuned for now..
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/dtuned.jpg

We have a member that did a 5.0(302) forged bottem end with cams (not sure what was done to the heads)and he's doing high 13's on just motor.and also another one that also has a 5.0(302) built just for 300 shot of NOS(dont know if he had a run with 300 shot but its built for it)

 

[MarauderTJA]

Keep one thing in mind.....as far as I know, all the S/Ced Marauders that are pushing 500 RWHP (and most of them that are over 450 RWHP) are obtaining those numbers with engine tunes for 100+ octane race gas regardless of their S/Cer choice. And all of the S/Ced Marauders that are getting into the 11 second bracket are doing so with race gas tunes that have to be used with 100+ octane. Which is fine, but they obviously are NOT able to drive on the street with that level of power since street driving usually means the use of 93 octane pump gas.

Billy, I am putting 485 RWHP with 93 octane and Tim at 460 RWHP also with 93 octane with our Procharger kits. You are right, the higher numbers 500+ are using race gas (100 octane) tunes. But everything is in the tune. Both kits are great and offer incredible performance for both street and track.