Inside The 305HP '96 Mustang - Exclusive: Sneak Peek1996

Get ready, folks, '96 is shaping up to be one of the most spectacular and meaningful years in recent automotive history. Expect to see a potpourri of new technology, new vehicles, and substantive upgrades to established players as automakers feeling the pressures of a hypercompetitive market attempt to lure consumers into their showrooms. We're currently hard at work putting together our annual comprehensive Buyer's Guide of the entire spectrum of domestic and imported passenger cars, which will appear in next month's new-car extravaganza. To help tide you over until then, we've compiled this early look at some of the more interesting offerings that will be tantalizing buyers during the upcoming model year.

A green flag waved off The Movement way back in '83, when Ford stopped hobbling the Mustang with wheezy turbo-fours, clunky inline-sixes, and asthmatic two-barrel V-8s. The '83 Mustang GT got a 5.0-liter/175-horse engine that inhaled through a Holley four-barrel and kicked its heels through a slick Borg-Warner five-speed. The Movement gained stride and stimulated Mustang enthusiasm on a global scale for the next dozen years.

But now Ford has done the unthinkable. Five-liter badges have been stripped from '96 Mustangs and stashed in the rafters. The stallion's stout heart has been permanently silenced. If you want a fuel-injected 5.0-liter V-8, contact your local Ford truck dealer.

Ford's better idea is camshafts. The vacancy left by the demise of the Mustang's thumping 5.0-liter pushrod engine will be filled by the New Wave: a pair of overhead-cam 4.6-liter V-8s. Mustang GT models will now be powered by a 215-horsepower SOHC two-valve-per-cylinder V-8, and the Cobra's hiss will come from a 305-horsepower DOHC four-valve derivative.

Ford Motor Company introduced its "modular" OHC V-8s in the '91 Lincoln Town Car (two-valve) and '94 Lincoln Mark VIII (four-valve). The modular designation refers to a building-block approach wherein key components-such as the cam drive-are common across an entire family of engines. Mustang fans mistakenly assumed they were next in line to join the modular family when the new generation of ponycar was sired in '94. To the contrary, Team Mustang had no desire to simply swap a Lincoln engine for the renowned 5.0-liter, and there wasn't time to rev up a modular V-8 for the task.

So the '96 Mustang V-8s really do represent a New Wave of horsepower, because they are in fact the third and fourth variations on the modular theme. According to Mustang Engine Supervisor John Hasse, developing the new high-performance engines required nearly four years. Scores of new part numbers were generated, many of which have already been used to upgrade Lincoln engines.

Mustang GT 4.6-liter SOHC V-8Engineering goals for the single-overhead-cam Mustang engine were performance parity with the 5.0-liter V-8, combined with vastly reduced noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), particularly at high rpm (where Mustang drivers are known to roam). The full scope of this challenge is best revealed by the new parts required: an entirely different induction system, a reconfigured oil pan, an oil-to-water heat exchanger, lighter valve springs and retainers, revised exhaust manifolds, and a more-durable accessory drive belt.

The NVH improvements of the 4.6-liter cammer over the 5.0-liter pushrod V-8 were to a large extent free because of the care and feeding bestowed on the modular engine before it was approved for Lincoln duty. The heart of the matter is a cast-iron deep-skirt block with cross-bolted main bearings. Long cylinder-head bolts screw into the block's foundation instead of into its deck surface, to avoid cylinder-bore distortion. Cam chains (one per bank) use random-length links for quiet operation. To minimize friction, there are roller-type cam followers and short-skirt Teflon-coated pistons.

The tougher task was making the 4.6-liter engine perform like a hard-charging 5.0-liter V-8. Cylinder heads with less-restrictive ports and fast-burn combustion chambers were phased into production during 1995, but the real breakthrough was an intake manifold specifically engineered for the '96 Mustang. Made of glass-fiber-reinforced nylon, the new manifold has 22-inch-long runners to muscle up the low-rpm and midrange areas of the torque curve. This miracle of modern manufacturing is injection molded so precisely that no machining or finish operations are necessary, except for pressing in a couple dozen brass inserts for threads, hose connections, and mounting bosses.

The intake manifold's air entrance is centrally located not only because that was the optimum location for power and torque, but also because it delivers the deep-throated induction growl that rouses Mustang owners. A 65-millimeter throttle body meters air into the engine.

To help this engine rev smoothly to its 6000-rpm redline, the valve train was lightened with special beehive-shaped valve springs. Tapering the spring's outside diameter toward the top not only saves reciprocating mass, it also facilitates a much smaller-diameter valve-spring retainer. Trimming an ounce does a pound's worth of good in this critical area of the engine.

At high rpm, a spinning crankshaft can whip oil in the sump into a froth, so the Mustang also required attention to the engine's bottom side. The oil pan's floor was dropped slightly to move the six-quart oil supply farther from the crank throws. Two slanted scrapers in front channel the lubricant away from the cam chains while sump baffles keep the oil pump's pickup immersed during aggressive handling maneuvers. An oil-level sensor helps the driver keep tabs on lubricant supplies. Automatic-transmission Mustangs also have a new oil cooler neatly sandwiched between the oil filter and its mounting pad.

Conscientious development resulted in a 4.6-liter SOHC torque curve that's remarkably similar to that of the retired 5.0-liter engine. Below 2250 rpm and beyond 4000 rpm, the cammer enjoys a slight edge, but the meat of this sandwich (2250- to 4000-rpm output) should taste about the same to the discerning Mustang owner. Power and torque ratings are unchanged at 215 horsepower and 285 pound-feet, but peaking speeds are elevated slightly to 4400 and 3500 rpm, respectively.

Mustang Cobra SVT 4.6-liter DOHC V-8In the '60s and early '70s, practically every muscle-bound Ford engine that came along ended up bolted into a Mustang, except for the DOHC V-8s engineered for Indy and Formula One racing. As if to make up for that slight, the '96 Mustang Cobra will be powered by a rapacious four-cam engine that makes the highly revered muscle motors (Boss 302, 351, and 428 Cobra Jet) seem like throwbacks to the steam age. While the New Wave Cobra V-8 is a member of the mod family, it shares only a few parts with the 215-horsepower SOHC GT engine. Upping the ante by 90 horsepower and the redline by 800 rpm demanded a multitude of special features.

Like the engine in the Lincoln Mark VIII, the Cobra uses a deep-skirt aluminum block with iron cylinder liners and six bolts restraining each main bearing. In comparison with the SOHC engine, the cast crankshaft is upgraded to a forged piece, and two meaty counterweights are added; powder-metal connecting rods are beefier in section and use full-floating piston pins. The Cobra's oil pan is shared with the SOHC V-8, but a windage tray is added to skim unwanted lubricant off the crankshaft.

The Cobra's cylinder heads are unique castings with greater inlet port flow than that provided by the otherwise similar Mark VIII heads. Valve timing also is more aggressive to sustain the torque curve at high rpm, while beehive springs and small-diameter retainers save valve train mass. Electronically controlled throttles block the secondary intake ports below 3500 rpm to swirl the fuel-air charge and thereby improve combustion.

A departure from the Mark VIII design is the use of "Siamesed" intake runners to further improve high-rpm breathing. The pairing takes place just above the port throttles in the base of the intake manifold. Inside this aluminum box are eight tuned-length runners (resembling the shape of tightly packed bananas). Air enters the manifold plenum past dual 57-millimeter throttle plates after being cleansed by a remote conical filter and metered by a hot-wire flow sensor.

Engineers considered tubular headers for the Cobra but found that tubing shapes that add significant horsepower can't be bolted to the cylinder heads unless the wide DOHC engine is removed from the car. The cast-iron manifolds chosen instead are high in silicon and molybdenum for long-lasting durability. Both the GT and Cobra V-8s exhale through six catalysts into dual stainless-steel exhaust pipes.

To dress the exterior of the Cobra's DOHC V-8, Ford's Special Vehicles Team (SVT) polled its constituency for suggestions. The fan club liked neatly routed blue spark-plug wires, but rather than hide this fetching chunk of aluminum sculpture under a boring black plastic cover, the brawny cam and intake manifold covers are painted a silver hue reminiscent of Ford's big-block glory days. (Visions of the '69-70 Boss 429 leap quickly to mind.) As a finishing touch, a Cobra snake emblem stands guard atop the intake plenum.

Only 10,000 Mustang Cobras are scheduled for '96 production, so a new factory isn't necessary to build this engine. Head and block castings are supplied by Texit, a division of Fiat. (Blocks are imported from Italy.) Instead of mixing the thoroughbred Cobra V-8 among lesser engines at the Romeo, Michigan, manufacturing plant, Ford has chosen to assemble the DOHC powerplant off-line using a dozen two-member teams. Each team will build one engine start to finish and sign off their creation before sending it on its way.

This personalized touch also happens to be a longstanding tradition at Aston Martin, the most exotic nameplate owned by the Ford Motor Company. Now, with true craftsmanship and 305 horsepower snorting under the muscle-Mustang's hood, America's original ponycar enjoys world-class bragging rights.