Disappointment with power

[Tom Kuznicki]

I'm new to this forum but I've been checking it out for a while. I got my Marauder this past June and I am here to say that Ford has stuck us with a 1998 Cobra situation. The best ET I was able to run with the car was a 15.28 @92mph. Hardly what 302 Horsepower should have given me! What the Mercury people told us about H.P. is nothing more than gross H.P. I thought they got away from that in 1972 when they printed net H.P., which is taken with all accessories running. My guess was about 240 at the wheels which I saw by another owner who dynoed his and got 236. What I found after plugging an NGS star tester into the car was that at a full throttle slam the processor pulls the timing back to 12 degrees retarded. Now, correct me if I'm wrong but, did'nt they put truck cams in the motor to increase lower end torque, then, put a higher stall converter to augment the added low end power? Then WHY would they pull timing and power out in the processor. Also, has anyone had the drivers side minnell rubber split from closing the window? I myself had called Mercury customer assistance and told them that I felt lied to about power that isn't there. If anyone else feels that way they should complain also, after all, when The Cobra owners stormed the phone lines Ford ponied up and gave them what they demanded, why should'nt we. Sorry for babbling but that is my opinion.

[tetsu]

With 4000 miles on mine, I have no major complaints about power.

Did you really buy a car like this and expect the tune and configuration to be maxxed out for hp and 1/4 mile time?

Many of your complaints might seem to be addressed by minor mods and some break in miles.

Johnny

[cutt]

i to am dissapointed but i'll deal with it.i might make the call if there is really a solution.are they really holding back?

[03 Merc]

Tom,

As a ex-Cobra owner, 01 not 99, I would comment there appears to be a world of difference in the two cases. The 99 Cobra did not produce it advertised HP rating, no matter how you measure it, Gross or Net. This was supposedly due to some exhaust / computer changes made after the tests that established the "advertised" power. The 01 Cobras generally did a little better than the posted 320 HP. With the 01 the problem was "pinging" as if you used low octane gas even with premium. The knock sensors then kill the power to save the motor.

I doubt Ford has made the error in posting it's advertised Horsepower for the Marauder after the Cobra and Miata mess. The dyno's posted so far appear to show the HP is as advertised at the flywheel, with accessories, as the standard requires. The rear wheel HP will be lower due to transmission and drive train losses. With an automatic transmission that number can be any where from 18% to 28% depending on whose number you want to believe.

I suggest you have your car dyno'ed to give you the results then you can verify wheter or not you have a problem with the rated power. If not the Cobra forum on www.blueovalnews.com has indepth info on this issue if you research it. Unfortunately, I think you will find that even after the Ford "recall" for low power the folks who had it done did not get any significant power gains. The average improvement was less than 10 horsepower with the "factory" fix. Check it out and let us know your results. I am having my Marauder dyno'ed in a few hundred more miles and will post it as well....

[b4z]

I think you are complaining about lack of torque not horsepower.
Your 92 mph trap speed tells me that the horses are there.
Afterall this is a 4300 lb car with an auto trans and a torque and power peak that is up there in the rev range.
The car needs more torque. A 5.0L version would help things, or a supercharger.
You didn't mention how many miles you had but I understand these motors need 5-6K miles on them before they loosen up.
Mileage may get you to a 15.1 @ 94 mph.

[Grand_Marquis]

I get Net/Gross HP confused too. Over here, we still get Gross HP Printed on sales brochures.

[Larry Vogel]

I was thinking what Tom was about HP figure's and I also was under the impression that HP figures where taken at the rear wheels since back in the late 60's early 70's for insurance reason's,--( they would naturally be lower), and still think they should be now if your looking for HP that's real and useable. For some reason the new Mustang's 390 HP figure is taken at the rear wheels, unless Hot Rod got that wrong.

[b4z]

Nobody uses gross horsepower figures anywhere in the world anymore.
The USA started useing SAE net figures in 1972.
This is horsepower and torque at the crankshaft.

prior to that they used gross ratings also at the crankshaft.
Which means open exhaust without mufflers, no water pump, no alternator, no A/C compressor and an open element at the carb.
There were no parasitic losses with these engines and this was not representative of the power these engines made in the real world.
You can also bet that they were balanced and blueprinted also.

Some engines like the '03 Cobra engine produce more power then they are rated at. Others include the LS1 in the Camaro/firebird, and the
the old turbocharged Buick Regal and anniversary Firebird from '89
Rated at 276hp they put out every bit of 300hp.

This was done because of transmission torque ratings.

A manual transmission car will put out more hp at the wheels than an automatic transmission car.

Today's cars are much faster than any of the '60s musclecars.
Take a '70 Z28 Camaro with the 360hp Lt1 and put it up against
a '02 Camaro SS with 335hp and the new car's 1/4 mile time would be about a second quicker.
Even a '97 Camaro with 285hp would beat it.
The '70 LT1 didn't even have 300 hp at the crank.
Or take a Z06 and race it against a L88 Corvette. The new Corvette is the fastest Corvette ever made.

[Larry Vogel]

Gross and SAE are not what were talking about here. A hot-rodders true hoursepower is what's coming from the rear wheels, with either trans types. The talk back in the day was with rwh and the muscle car ins. problems. Today's cars being faster, don't think that is very true at all. Depending on what study and company did the testing the numbers are just about the same for muscle cars in general.

[Grand_Marquis]

Originally posted by b4z
Nobody uses gross horsepower figures anywhere in the world anymore.

Unfortunatley, we still do...like I said, we get gross hp and gross torque printed on some brochures. All the Ford-Lincoln-Mercury brochures use gross hp and gross torque. :confused: Dunno whay, coz some brochures from other makes have net hp and torque printed, like the General Motors, Mitsubishi, Chrysler brochures.