Ford Mercury Capri
 

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:tup

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. :tup 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

no problem. there are alot of guys on here that are very knowledgable and could help you way more than i can. these are just a few that i know about. i know on a efi 5l you can bump the timing a few degrees and it improves hp. im not sure about carbed though. being an 83 i would think its a carberator? i almost forgot, a new coil ,about 60-90 bucks, you can get a msd blaster coil , looks like a stocker but provides a better spark , you can peel the sticker off , spray it flat black, and no one but the very trained eye could tell the difference.

Also, I talked with my father (it was his car originally, and only recently have I been driving this car), and the Capri we have apparently has the 5.0L H.O. engine. Is that different than just a 5.0L. Also... he is pretty sure he got new plugs, plug wires, and air filter put on it in the last 5000 km he put on it. What would be the next logical addition to this car's engine? Is there a difference in horsepower between a 5.0L and a 5.0L H.O. engine? Or are they the same thing?

I don't mind moving a bit away from stock... just keep it mostly the same. And yes... it's carb'd.

no the h.o is high output, more hp im not sure how much but its got more.ill do some checkin for you. :tup

I would greatly appreciate it! :D. I just wanna keep making a list of things I can do to work on it... because other than a cigarette burn on the back seat (courtesy of someone smoking in the back in 1984...it is in really good shape). I currently have it jacked up in a garage, with some fuel stabilizer in the tank until spring. It runs pretty nice. It still has it's Cougar TRX wheels.

(Only other problem I've had with it is that it seems to want to stall for the first 5 minutes until the engine warms up)

no prob , im bored right now anyways. got any pics of it? sounds nice. i always liked the style of the body on those cars. :tup

if your bored waiting ,ive got a few pics of my car in here on the board under pctures and video. scroll down a little in there and youll find it.


or click this , this is easier. lol.

https://www.cmoc.ca/forums/t10876/

I'll have to take some pictures. It's parked up in north calgary now, and I'm down in the south east, so I'll have to take some new ones when I get some time. But I'll sure have to check out your car! But first I'm gonna grab a quick bite to eat first, and I'll be back on the forum. :) Thanks.

oh , you r not far from me , im in blackfalds , just north of red deer about 7 km. lol.

ok so i found , the hp of the 5.0 motor was 200/210bhp on the standard 5.0. now for the h.o .... didnt find much but its got more hp. i think i seen 225bhp

here is something that should peak your interest: :tup

2nd listing down is the pic and manufactor set up for the crimson cat..... very cool.



ascMcLarenCoupe.com, Dealer Literature

Oh that's great! And yeh, ur not too far away. I'll be sure to put some pictures up this next week if you are interested! I wonder where this 175 hp stat was coming from... I've seen that a couple places!

Interesting! Very neat. Funny! The notes on the crimson cat says 3 doors, mine definately only has 2.

not sure, i got it from the ford manufactuor sheet. :confused:

hell ya on the pics. the guys around here love pics of cars

http://www.ascmclarencoupe.com/Liter...ctsBook_38.jpg


Here it says 175 horsepower. Hmmmm

ya at 4000 rpm , but at 5800 it was 200/210. ....... i think. lmao. i dont know now. now im all f@#ked up. lmao. ya thats weird. cause on the other sheets it says 200/210 for h.o

I wonder. 210 or something seems more likely in my head. Because that capri goes, spins tires in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears. I drive a corolla around most of the time... and it would sadden me to think that the capri only had 50 more horsepower than my corolla (which is rather pathetic!). And it seems to go as quick or quicker than the 08 Acura TL we have too (which I KNOW has 258hp).

To be quite honest, I don't understand the different classification on whether it's 4000 revolutions per minute or 5800.


And I checked out your ride. Sweet car man!

Maybe 175 at the motor, Id be shocked if it layed down that much on a dyno.

Lets see some pics!

I walked away from a sweet capri because, well, it was a capri. :banghead:

produces more hp at peak rpm wich is 5800 rpm.

thanks , i love my stang. :wiggle:

i read somewhere in the stuff i posted for him the 5.0 liter high output is 200/210bhp :confused:

Well, I wonder how much of a HP increase I'm looking at if I go ahead this spring and put new exhaust headers, and what else did you suggest? march underdrives? What is that exactly?

underdrives? they change the hp it takes to drive power steering , water pump ,air cond ect. i cant remember if its larger or smaller but they reduce the hp it takes to drive them. exhaust ( in stock form) is restrictive , headers ,y pipe and muffler will wake the car up a bit. then start on the intake stuff. its carbed so a k&n air filter.

Ahh kay. So it looks like headers would be the biggest bang for my buck to start with.

yup , IN MY OPINION ONLY. lol. thats what i would do first. headers ,ypipe , mufflers .maybe the tail pipes too. depending on where you get it all from. call matt at the mustang shop in calgary. they rock. i buy alot of my junk from there. talk with him. hes an expert and knows mustangs. he can give you a better idea of hp gains and what to but and what not to buy. :tup

im no expert but i have had a few mustangs and from what ive read and what i have learned thats what i have told you. :tup

Well thank you very much! I greatly appreciate your help! I'll have to go talk to him soon. Sounds like a great place to get some more information. I expect he should probably know a bit about Capri's, pretty darn close to the mustang mechanically I understand, so he should be able to help. I'll have to head up and take some pictures the car in the next week or so and postem (Certainly won't be as pretty as your stang :) )

Zeb.. if it were my car..my concerns would be:
posi
gears
frame connectors



When you have the funds look into an electric fan, cam & heads.

Again, if the car made more than 200 RWHP on a dynojet, i would be seriously shocked.

First thing it's likely gonna get is a new tranny. I would like to do cams and heads... but I don't know how much that will end up costing.

Generally the labor gets a bit pricey. If you're going to do heads, I suggest you headstud and o-ring them, it's cheap! :tup

I wish I knew what that meant :D

And probably gonna do the work myself, at least with my father... who should at least know what hes doing somewhat. HAha

Well, I will do part of the work ourselves

oh damn ya i forgot about the gears. yes gears will wake her up in a hurry. i think they ment 200/210 at the crank and not at the wheels though rick. it was off a sheet on that web site i posted for him. i think it was ford thumpin thier chest as every automaker does. then you get the said machine and it makes less hp. lol.