5 Most Popular Engine Swaps To Put In A Ford Mustang

Being one of the most popular muscle cars on the market, it makes sense the Ford Mustang is a vehicle people like to make tweaks to. While the Mustang has had its share of powerful engines over the years, people still like to swap in other motors. For classic Mustangs, it might be difficult to source an original engine replacement, so swapping in something newer could be the only path forward. Luckily, there are many options to pick from that can get some added performance out of your car.

A lot of it comes down to what your budget is and what's available around you. Some engines are much easier to get your hands on than others, but that doesn't necessarily mean those will be the best picks for squeezing out the most horsepower from your Mustang. You can save money by performing the swap at home, provided you have the correct tools, so that's something you can keep in mind too.

Performing a Coyote swap makes a lot of sense for Mustang owners, but its larger size doesn't make it a perfect fit for all of them, so you might want to check if your body is best for a swap beforehand. The Coyote engine comes standard on GT models past 2011, but that doesn't mean you can't put it into older Mustangs.  The first generation Coyote engine puts out up to 420 hp, and the latest gen delivers up to 500 hp, so while the latest iteration has the most performance, all of them are perfectly fine options.

A big downside to this engine is the price. While it's readily available considering it's still in production, picking one up directly from Ford costs more than $11,000. You could have luck looking around a junkyard, but that's going to require some luck, and you might not be guaranteed something in good shape as you would be from Ford. Make no mistake, this is a high-performing engine, but there are more cost-effective choices out there for a swap.

If you have a Mustang produced between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, the 351 Windsor is a great choice for an engine swap. The reason for this is many of your stock parts from your old engine will fit the new engine, so there aren't as many extra costs as there might be with engines that require a lot of new parts. Hitting over 500 hp is more than possible on this engine with some tweaks, so there's a lot of performance on the table if you get your hands on one. It's a huge leap over its stock values, as it only produced 210 hp, and that number was only possible for the last 10 years of its production run. Before that, it topped out at around 200 hp.

Something working in the 351 Windsor's favor is its much more affordable price tag and availability when compared to some engine swaps. You can find one of these engines for under $5,000 at Jegs, and you might even have a better price scouring a junkyard. It was in production from 1968 to 1997, so there are a lot of them out there.

Much like the 351 Windsor, the Ford 302 Boss engine is a good choice to swap into a Mustang for some solid performance. You can snag the engine crate for as low as $3,250 at the time of this writing. You also have the option of getting one built with racing components, but that raises the price to over $11,000. The stock motor produces 300 hp, but going for a racing-optimized Boss gets you 340 hp, so it's a sizeable difference in performance. This engine is a good fit for Fox body Mustangs, a Mustang known for its street-racing capabilities. 

The Boss 302 dates back to the 1960s, but it's seen some changes since then. The Boss engines you're more likely to find today are the ones that reentered production in 2007. The new-age Boss has a much stronger motor, and that makes it a better fit for today's cars. Nevertheless, finding an original Boss engine can still be good for a swap, even if it's only for nostalgic purposes.

It might not seem logical, but that hasn't stopped people from stuffing Ford's big Godzilla motor in Mustangs. It's unlikely that this swap is as common as some of the others on the list, but it's prevalent enough that it might've crossed your radar. If you want to add some flair to your Mustang, and possibly be forced to buy a new cowl hood, then it's the pick for you. While the motor is a large one, it can give a lot of performance to your vehicle. It's better for people looking to race, and you can look up a Godzilla-powered Mustang on YouTube to get a glimpse at how one performs. The Godzilla motor produces up to 430 hp, so it's a powerful engine no matter how you slice it.

You can find a Godzilla engine for $7,389.99 from Jegs, so it's not the most expensive from the list, but it's not the cheapest either. The downside to this engine is you may have to mod your Mustang to get it to fit comfortably, something that's expected from a truck engine, but once it's installed it's a nice motor.

Once you get over the weirdness of installing a GM motor into a Ford vehicle, something some people would say is crossing a bridge too far, it actually makes a lot of sense. LS engines are easy to find, affordable, and produce a decent amount of power — all reasons they are popular engines to swap. These engines have powered many vehicles over the years, and Mustangs are no different, no matter how strange it might seem. The LS system has plenty of aftermarket support, even for vehicles outside of the GM family, like the Mustang.

A refurbished LS engine is relatively cheap compared to many other engines, and you can pick one up for under $3,000 at the time of this writing. Junkyards are another good option to look at, considering how popular the engine is. If you can get one in good shape from a junked car, then you have quite a bit of power you can restore your Mustang with.