How to increase the horsepower and torque on my 2005 Ford Thunderbird?

Well I was finally able to buy my dream car. A 2055 Ford Thunderbird which is fully loaded. It has 3.9L V8 that pushes out about 280HP. Well for a V8 we all know it can get much more than that. When I tested it out, it did a 6.4 second 0-60. I'm looking to increase the horse power to about 400. What should I have done to the car by a certified mechanic?

Adding a supercharger and putting in forged internals and well… A lot of other things to keep it from breaking due to the higher horsepower

3.9L is 238 cubic inches, give or take a couple. That's actually really small for a V8. The ones making 400 horsepower from the factory typically start out with at least 5.0 liters. It's not the number of cylinders that matters, so much as it is the total displacement With that small displacement, it's cranking out 280hp. Your engine is pretty high strung to start with. It's a high compression engine, wich means turbos or forced induction is not an option if you still want to be able to run on pump gas. It's already factory equipped with a DOHC setup with variable valve timing, so a cam swap, if anyone even makes cams for that engine, would be expensive and net very little gain. That engine is basically a Jaguar 4.0 AJV8 engine adapted for use in the Thunderbird, and Jaguar engineers did a pretty good job of throwing all the hot rodding tricks in the book at it when they developed it, not leaving much room for improvement. In fact, when Jaguar determined they needed more horsepower from that design, they had to resort to punching it out first to 4.2 Liters, then to 5.0 liters.

Some of the Jaguar guys have replaced the 4.0 with a 4.2, using all of the 4.0's sensors and front drive accessories to get a little more torque, but I'm not sure if the Thunderbird's 3.9 would be as accomodating to that type of swap.

The Thunderbird is built on the Jagaur S-Type platform, and I know of one guy on the Jaguar forums who tried to swap in a Chevy LS engine. The Jaguar is so computerized that there was no way to make the Jaguar and Chevrolet electronics talk to each other. He used a Pontiac GTO computer to run the engines and instrument, but lost a lot of functionality with other systems in the car that needed the Jag computer, along with the associated inputs from the Jag engine, to run.

Frankly, as beautiful as the T-Birds were, they were more of a touring car than a sports car, and that's really what killed them in the marketplace. Had Ford dropped in a DOHC version of their 5.4L Triton V8, they probably would have sold much better. Unfortunately, Ford developed the T-Bird on the cheap, using the existing Jaguar chassis and engine and just rebodying it. It would have taken million of dollars to re-engineer it for a bigger engine, and Ford decided to gamble that it could make up for a lack of performance with styling. They gambled wrong.

I'm not saying you can't make your T-Bird faster if you try, but you will end up spending a very large sum of money for moderate returns, and most likely reduce the lifespan of your car by a good margin. My advice is to decide whether you perfer style or horsepower. If power is your number one priority, start with a Mustang or Corvette.

I hate to rain on your parade, but the T-Bird just isn't a good platform to start with from a performance standpoint.

Everything Robert says is correct.

About the only option would be to rebuild the engine and add a supercharger, or swap it for a AJ33S Jaguar engine, which is a 4.2l version with a supercharger, and coincidentally makes about 400 hp.

Either way, it's a major cost and a serious amount of work. Even then you have to consider the clutch / transmission / Diff / brakes / suspension are still stock, and that's going to let you down (Compared to car that's built for that power from the factory)

I have a 2002 Thunderbird, and would like to add engine performance that is the best for the car and life engine. I have heard about the Borla Exhaust, and Cold air intake, my question is are these the best options for the money, do you get any increase in HP and is this a good option without jeopardizing the engine. I would like to get close to 300HP out of it if possible.