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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shovel" data-source="post: 1586871" data-attributes="member: 29855">back when v6mustang dot com was still a forum there were a few people who were getting around 300 crank horsepower naturally aspirated from 3.8.s and 4.2's.. but they worked hard to get there and I'm not convinced it's worth it.  That really seems like it's the absolute ceiling for getting horsepower through those cylinder heads NA no matter what else you got going on. Having built my own 96 3.8 and been the pit crew for my wife's 2002 3.8.. and now also owning a 4.2 f150 I'm reasonably familiar with the north america essex motor.   I don't love or hate it, it's got its high points.   For me the game is really just get it up somewhere over 220 crank horsepower (true dual exhaust goes a very long way especially if you replace the 4 cats with 2 high flow units.  1.8 rockers or a cam, rockers are easier and cheaper & get you probably 90% of the hp potential if you're not going absolute max effort) - then just work on making the rest of the car tight & tidy.  On my wife's we did bilsteins, 3.55 gears w/LSD, rear sway bar,  quad shocks, cobra brakes in back and little chassis bracing.   Just enough to give it a little balance and refinement without going overboard like I'd rather improve 10 things 10% each than improve only one thing 100%. It doesn't have the gut punch that a V8 has but it's also not spending more than GT money just to catch up to stock GT performance.</blockquote>