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

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.