Yea, this is about a year old. But the question still remains. Clearly with ENOUGH CASH and extensive internal work/state of art ECU big power can be pulled from even the 2.5L (the Cougar racing engine is over 320 HP supposedly). But I think now that 200 FWHP can be had with only careful modification, addition of bolt on parts...Thanks in no small part to Demon's pioneering efforts. With careful intake tweaking, exhaust design and chip tuning he hit 187 FWHP - WITHOUT headers or even tuning his S-AFC. NOW with headers, no butterflies, extra Extrude Honing of UIM and careful port matching, big t.body added to that list he has an excellent chance of surpasing 200 IMHO. And then, several more HP available with the electric water pump!
Dan's current thoughts... I think the SVT heads have some nice big smooth ports and cams (potential)... I think the butterflies in the LIM are a problem (modify or remove),and that port matching the UIM is a good thing (as is keeping it cool -more on this after some testing). With these improvements and tunability of A/F ratio, a bigger t.body should help rather than hinder as it has in the past. . Current goal for me is 190 FWHP while keeping warranty intact and keeping exhaust sound the way it is (no headers or cat removal!)...
