I am the proud owner of a ford fusion. It runs drives perfectly but i would like it to have a little more power. is there any way that i could put a V8 engine in it?

 

Yeah sure - you can make it rear wheel or 4 wheel drive too and when you're going faster than any street car should you better also have a roll cage.

 

Is it a problem that my car is front wheel drive?

 

Yes. If you wanted to fit a V-8 engine in a front- wheel drive car that wasn't made to handle it you would not only have to change the suspension in the front to hold it and find a front-wheel transmission - you would have to strip the car - cut it in half down the middle and add about 6 inches to the width by welding - then find special seals and glass for the front and back windows then repaint it and reassemble it. That would be the cheaper way anyhow unless you've seen a cheap V-8 engine front wheel drive assembly with transmission somewhere that you could swap the whole front and rear end assemblies off of. It would be easier to swap in a 4 wheel drive system out of a bronco or explorer (in which case it will also have rear wheel drive as the primary system anyway). Or you could get an explorer - remove the whole body and weld, cut and fit your body on the frame.

 

then whats the biggest engine that i could put it without customizing it too much.

 

If SVT made some with V-8's you could grab those parts eventually but most new cars with front-wheel drive don't fit much bigger than a V-6. The cars that are raced in NASCAR and such aren't nearly even stock. (I don't even know why they call it stock car racing anymore). And all of those cars are converted to rear wheel drive. If you want the race car parts to change it like that you can find them online. I only have sources for the old Taurus stock car bodies though. I haven't updated in that area. Ford makes some super quick V-6's though. I'm sure you could change up to a bigger/quicker one if you have a standard model V-6 as long as they didn't change the body at the firewall and subframe mounting pointsto fit it. You might even find that some of the parts of the more "high performance" V-6's are fairly easy to swap onto your engine. Some places even sell aftermarket performance parts that bolt on easy. Search engines help you find these things online. Just add and remove keywords and keep it simple.

 

thanks for the reply's

 

my cas has a 16v I4. is that a problem too?

 

You can do anything you put your mind to - but putting a big engine where a small one was takes A LOT of serious work and knowledge. Like I said - hook up with the people making the Fusion NASCAR bodies and you have a shot at transplanting a few of your parts into a rear-wheel chassis with a big motor. If you have a 4 cylinder engine - I'd say you could definitely find a V-6 model (I'm fairly sure I've seen them) and maybe just transplant the subframe (if different), engine and transmission assembly, and computer and wiring harness and have the power of a V-6. There's a lot to be said about a 4 cylinder engine though. It would have a lot more pep if you could find a deal and set up your engine for a low-boost supercharger. It would be a lot less of a hassle. I think it's Formula 1? (or one of the indy type cars) that used to run a 4 cylinder block built up.

 

I know this post is kind of old, but if you're still interested in a V8 Fusion, you ought to look at this site... www.ford-v8-focus.com There's a kit you can buy to put a V8 in a focus, which is smaller than your fusion. It seems like these guys would be the ones to ask about the conversion. Just a heads-up.

-Derek-