It's easy to overlook V6-powered Mustangs, but these cars have proven to be great budget performance platforms thanks to a low purchase price and inexpensive insurance. Since the four-cylinder Lima engine was finally dropped in 1994, there have been three V6s under the Mustang hood.
Aside from a very brief offering in the mid-1980s, the first V6 used in the Mustang was a 3.8-liter OHV Essex producing 145 HP and 215 lb-ft. of torque. Over the next decade, the engine received several small improvements, gradually increasing output. In 1996, the new EEC-V ECU added 5 horsepower. Split port induction was added in 1999, bringing with it another 40 HP. In 2001, Intake Manifold Runner Control brought output up to a peak 193 HP and 225 lb-ft. of torque. The last Essex engines used at the start of the 2004 model year had a slightly longer stroke for 3.9 liters of displacement, adding low-end torque but maintaining the same peak output.
By early 2004, the Essex had been replaced by the 4.0-liter Cologne. Although the Cologne was originally an OHV design, Ford introduced a SOHC version in the 1997 Explorer. This oddball configuration has a jackshaft running where the OHV camshaft would normally be. The crank and jackshaft are connected via a chain with two more chains, one at the front of the engine and the second at the rear, connecting the jackshaft to the cams. This engine produces 210 HP and 240 lb-ft. of torque, and was left mostly unchanged during its run in the Mustang.
Since 2011, Mustangs have used a 3.7-liter Cyclone engine. Also called the Duratec, this wasn't a new engine, but the Mustang was the first to get it with Twin-independent Variable Cam Timing (Ti-VCT). This engine is rated at 305 HP and 280 lb-ft. of torque, making it more powerful than the V8's used just a few years prior.
