How reliable?

What problems have mostly occured in the 3.8L Supercharged in the Supercoupes? I have seen many for sale that say that the engine was rebuilt 10,000 miles ago or was replaced. I have seen that a few times with these cars. Im just wondering what might have gone wrong or did they just have the shit ran out of them to were they blew?

they just have the shit ran out of them to were they blew?

Changes are yes.
1) The ford 3.8 is not a strong engine, it will soon develop knocks.
2) The rearend will eventually give because I know how you will drive it.
3) That supercharger is not cheap to replace when it breaks.

But that Supercharger gauge is really cool:D

2) The rearend will eventually give because I know how you will drive it.

How come one day you told me that I'd kill myself if I had a RWD car? Stevo....My race car is a RWD 600hp with a 6.00 gear in the rear of a 9inch rear-end.:finger: Do you even know how easy the wheels break lose and know what kind of driver it takes to keep that much HP and a 3000lb car under you?

9inch rear-end

Is that a ford rear end.:finger: :devil:

The Turbo Coupe was waaaay better than the "Souper Coupe":D

Souper Coupe??? How do you say that the Turbo Coupe is better that then Super Coupe?

My buddy had one, it handled sooo well. When he punched the gas this little green light came on in the dash, and the suspension would tighten up. When I say "better" that is my language as I like it more but realistically it may not be better though.:D

The Turbo Coupe was a bad ass car too.

Originally posted by 450HPviper
The Turbo Coupe was a bad ass car too.

I too like the Turbo Coupe!! Would still like one to fool around with.

I also believe the 3.8 had some head gasket problems too, covered under most warrenties though.

I also believe the 3.8 had some head gasket problems too, covered under most warrenties though

Had some major problems with my Cougar, or better known as"The Cat" It had rearend problems, head gasket problems, and it knocked like hell. I wouldn't recommend the ford 3.8 to anyone. At least the older ones.

Yeah I had a 3.8 in my 87 Cougar. When I bought it the motor was just replaced with one with less miles. After that, I had tranny problems and timing issues. Timing chain was worn out badly! Come to find out the new motor was worn out and the guy who installed it didn't know jack! I loved the rest of the car though, ahh the memories!

The Turbo Coupe was a bad ass car too
Damn 4 banger with a turbo. OH BOY! I rather have a Supercharger than a Tubo Charger.:rolleyes:

3.8 has MAJOR head gasket probs

the turbocoupe ran the same as the supercoupe or at least close, both bad ass cars, but the supercoupe looks beter in my opinion

with the electronic suspension...if it breaks, your done in for, ,too expensive to repair

Won't a Turbocharger give you more power then a supercharger?

In some cases yes, but I think they are just too hard on fuel and the motor.

Actually turbo's are better for engine and gas mileage vs a supercharger. The reason they are better is you can control the amount of boost that your engine recieves via a boost manager. You can increase the boost for track times, and decrease it when on the way home from the track and keep the boost low, untill you need it therefore decreasing the amount of wear on the engine. It's actually very simple and can be dialed in from inside your car, as long as you have invested the money in such an item. Friend of mine running a turbo Laser with a 3g (I think that's right) turbo is running low 12's with a very few modifications. With a supercharger, you have no way of controlling how much boost your engine is recieving and the superchargers are much more labor intensive to increase the amount of boost you want to make. With a supercharger you end up having to remove the belt, then replace the pulley with a smaller diameter pulley to increase the boost.

Joe

Yes, all the ford 3.8's before 95 or 96 (i believe) were blowing head gaskets around 60-80,000 miles. I can't even count how many I had to replace. For the inital first year or so of the bulletin (ford publication to all dealerships) we were to replace the head gasket with the same head gasket that came with the car, after awhile I guess ford caught on that replacing the blown head gasket with the exact same one wasn't fixing squat, because they would come back in another 60-80,000 miles. Ford finally released a new gasket and I think they actually recalled some of the cars/vans with the 3.8's. If you want a good engine with almost as much torque and HP, go with the 3.0, IMO that's the best V-6 that ford made prior to 2000.


Joe

My previous car was a 93 t-bird lx and I had the head gasket redone at 155,000kms. It cost too much but other than that It was a pretty reliable ride. Rear wheel drive is just fun!

only problem i ever had with my old 3.8 was the headgasket which even ford admitted to being a bad part of the motors

With a supercharger, you have no way of controlling how much boost your engine is recieving


joe, i disagree. i only push boost when i want to in my super coupe. depending on the gear and throttle position its very easy to control the super charger.

and swapping pulleys is not hard at all.

matt