Hi all.

I have a 1983 Mercury Capri Crimson Cat. It has a 5.0L v8 small block engine, with a 5 speed manual transmission. Everything is stock since the day it way bought, and I was hoping someone could give me some more information on it. I know it was a special edition, and only about 800 were made, but other than that... I'm fairly clueless. Could anyone tell me about how much horsepower it has?

 

I think the 5 liters were rated for 175 hp @4200rp and 245lbft of torque back in '83.

 

Seems so low for a 5L engine, anyone have an idea what I could do to improve the horsepower that wouldn't be too expensive? Keep in mind this a a special edition (only made 805) and I want to keep it as close to stock as I can.

 

You have to remember it was 1983.

 

go with k&n air filter , plugs , wires , headers , march under drive pullies, the pullies are no where near stock but they will look pretty and give ya few more ponies. headers will help it breathe a bit better , as will the k&n filter. plugs and wires are always a good upgrade anyway .other than that there isnt much you can do for hp unless you want to build a 5.0l hp motor to slap in it for fun and keep the original for stock look later.

 

How much of an improvement are we talking in horsepower? What about rough prices?

 

if you were to put all of em on at once maybe 40 -60hp maybe. im not sure , headers can cost anywhere from 100-600 new or used
air filter= 50 bucks or so
plug wires 80-160
plugs 80
march underdrives 400 i think ford racing are cheaper and look like stock.
as for hp numbers its really hard to say, how many miles are on the car plays a big roll too. as it might be tired and time for a rebuild. i thought the older ones has 230hp but i could be thinkin of the 5.0l h.o. the main thing is are you going to keep the car as an investment , show winner , fun car , street bruiser , or a garage princess. then you can decide if you want to mod it up or just leave it the way she sits

 

Well, it doesn't have too many KM for a 25 year old car. I think it has 165,000 kilometers

 

wow , nice. ya the motor should be just fine. bolt on hp is ok , you might not notice it unless its all done at the same time. you can find damn near a whole exhaust system for cheap on kijiji or ebay. i think if you look through the classifieds here you might find some of the stuff your lookin for. check out the sponsors here or the mustang shop.ca

 

I had one other individual on a different forum tell me there was pretty much nothing I could do to this car to improve hp, unless I "got a newer roller motor with GT40X heads and an E-cam"-- Keep in mind that have interest in cars, but really don't know much at all, this was all a different language. But it sounded quite expensive, I really don't have 3000 bucks to put into the car atm. Maybe 500 or 600
Others said they felt the far was just gutless. It's kinda nice to have some people willing to chat this up with me.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated