Motor Monday
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KBStang
Well-known member
Over the years, the Ford Mustang has been offered with four cylinders, six cylinders, and eight cylinders. A V-10 stuffed in a ‘Stang? No, at least not in a production model. However, in the early 2000s, a team of engineers at the Blue Oval’s Powertrain Research and Advanced Engines did just that. And they didn't ask permission first.
That car—a silver 1999 GT coupe that had formerly served as a fitment mule for the naturally aspirated 5.4-liter V-8 Cobra R—found itself the recipient of one heck of a transplant. Displacing 5.8 liters, the 10-cylinder engine was completely unrelated to the Triton V-10 found in Ford’s truck applications; it was actually a 4.6-liter DOHC V-8 with two additional cylinders grafted on.
Let’s restate that. The all-aluminum V-10 in this one-off Mustang was made by cutting up sand-casting molds for a 4.6-liter V-8, retooling those molds in a 10-cylinder format, then pouring in the molten aluminum. The motor got some Cobra parts, including connecting rods and pistons, but received its own billet crankshaft and overall weighed some 60 pounds less than the Cobra’s V-8.
Power? Back in 2004, it made about 426 hp at 6500 rpm, a stout figure for its time and capable of running down the dragstrip in the high-11-second range. Best part? The team that built this car didn’t tell management they were working on it; they simply produced it as a fait accompli, the same trick Lamborghini’s engineers pulled on Ferruccio with the prototype Miura. Based on the displacement, the team started calling it the Boss 351.
That car—a silver 1999 GT coupe that had formerly served as a fitment mule for the naturally aspirated 5.4-liter V-8 Cobra R—found itself the recipient of one heck of a transplant. Displacing 5.8 liters, the 10-cylinder engine was completely unrelated to the Triton V-10 found in Ford’s truck applications; it was actually a 4.6-liter DOHC V-8 with two additional cylinders grafted on.
Let’s restate that. The all-aluminum V-10 in this one-off Mustang was made by cutting up sand-casting molds for a 4.6-liter V-8, retooling those molds in a 10-cylinder format, then pouring in the molten aluminum. The motor got some Cobra parts, including connecting rods and pistons, but received its own billet crankshaft and overall weighed some 60 pounds less than the Cobra’s V-8.
Power? Back in 2004, it made about 426 hp at 6500 rpm, a stout figure for its time and capable of running down the dragstrip in the high-11-second range. Best part? The team that built this car didn’t tell management they were working on it; they simply produced it as a fait accompli, the same trick Lamborghini’s engineers pulled on Ferruccio with the prototype Miura. Based on the displacement, the team started calling it the Boss 351.