Best bang for your buck Mustang upgrade
 

Ok guys we have a lot of new people come onto this forum asking many questions on what cheap mods they can do for little money. Lets help these people out, if you see something that is not on here please post.
This will include most of everything including removing a factory engine piece aka intake and spending a few hours on it doing some porting for better flow, and efficacy.

This thread will cover all Mustangs 2.3, 3.8, 5.0, 4.6......
Please specify what engine your mod will be for.

Ill throw some small ideas out there off the top of my head

All models unless specified
- Under drive pulleys
- Cold air intakes (BBK or MAC)
- Long tube/Short tube Headers (BBK) 3.8, 4.6, & 5.0
- 70mm or 75mm BBK Throttle body 4.6, 5.0
- Wet or Dry Nitrous kit 4.6, 5.0
- Bump timing from 10*ADV to 14* ADV and run 93/94 OCT

This will get the ball rolling.... :tup

are there Under drive pulleys for the 3.8/3.9 L engine ?

Lots of polish/wax as you will slide through the wind better:laughhard Sorry I could not resist:banghead:

lol, but the added weight of 100 coats of wax might slow you down more than you'd gain. Speaking of weight, a FREE upgrade is to shed some weight on the cars. ANd a nitrous kit is definately the best bang for the buck. There is also the 40.00 electric fan from the wreckers for the 5.0 (off a mark 7, or a taurus), a 3g alternator for the 5.0, If you are feeling spry for your 8.8 you can find 4.10 or 3.73 gears in trucks or explorer's fairly cheap. Aluminum driveshaft from an AWD aerostar (also from the wreckers). Bump your timing.

Thats all i can think of off the top of my head. Most of this is wrecker stuff that can be had fairly cheap.

yes there is. V6 Mustang Stuff | V6 Mustang Performance Parts and Accessories has a lot for.. well us sixers:tup

lol even i have to admit that was funny

99-04 V6 (3.8/3.9)
UDP
Wet Shot Nitrous
Headers
T-loc w/ gears (not Hp adder but will move quicker)
CAI
a GOOD clutch
alum. Flywheel
Ford aerostar van intake swap (yea from a van.. :LOL: )

94-98 3.8L
same as above plus
split port swap
OR
M90 Supercharger
**both the split port swap and the M90 will give you the same HP...:bleh:

After that you're moving into the $$$

Stroker's
P&P heads
Supercharger/Turbo
8.8" rear end swap (looking for IRS personally)
and of course V8 swaps... (not recomended)

I think most here know that waxing is your first,mod,and the biggest bang for the buck in the bling factor!!:biggrin:

The best bang for the buck in my opinion would be...
gears,4.10's for the 4.6 crowd,and 3.73's for the 5.0 ,and V6 crowd
drop in K&N filter
mid pipe,and cat back
shifter for the stick guys
underdrive pulleys
and for that aggressive stance,a set of lowering spring wont hurt the pocket book. :tup

agreed with the shifter/springs
but i always thought 4.10 was for auto (4.6/3.8/5.0) and 3.73 for stick.. didn't matter what displacement??:confused:

05+ Mustang GT - one of the best mods is a CAI+tune (mostly the tune but they come as a combo usually). You won't gain sick horsepower like nitrous but you will gain a few ponies for sure. Plus it looks great under the hood.

Killing the throttle delay, better shift points and firmer shifts is definitely where it's at. It literally felt like a completely different car after I uploaded my 91 octane torque tune from bamachips. The other upside is that it's so easy to install a monkey could do it.

2005 4.0 L V6 (2005 Only) do the coolant pipe delete. On the 2005 4.0l V6 Mustang Ford thought it might be good to run coolant through the throttle body which heats the TB incredibly when all you are trying to do is cool the air not heat it.

Remove the coolant lines from the TB and use one of them to create a loop back. This will allow your TB to run many degrees cooler thus helping with that Pony Power.

Oh the best part is this mod is free!!

lose the spare, best gas u can find, no fat chicks sticker, hit the gym yourself.

:LOL: i like that idea:laughhard

Your are partially right.:wink:
Reason the 4.6L,even with the stick,should get the 4.10's as they will equal out to a 5.0L with 5 speed with 3.73's.
The 4.6 makes very little bottom end torque,but creates good power up top the rpm.So to get the bottom end torque out of the 4.6,you need to add gear,anything above the 4.10 is really noticable.
The 4.6L stangs are equipped with 3.27 minus the '96 model i believe,so going to a 3.73 really doesn't give it enough seat out of the pants feel for the great percentage of the modular crowd,where some feel that the 3.73's is alright,as compared to the 5.0L that is factory equipped with 2.73's,or 3.08's for option,then jumpimg to 3.73's,....that my friend is a seat out of the pants difference in how she feels.In my expirience,i felt the 3.73's really didn't do much for my 4.6L GT,so a year later 4.10's went in.:chacha:
Just do a search on any mustang site with the tech topic on the 4.6L,and gears.:)

yay i learned something new today!!:chacha:
but yea i guess the difference is there.. now i'm wondering what i should put in the IRS...:shakeit:

I like 3.90 for my 5.0......:)

the wax weight of snakebites car is for traction... ;)

For the 96-98 crowd, you MUST do the PI swap ! Heads, Cams and Intake from 99+ you can do it in a week-end with moderate mecanical skills.
After that, go for shifter (Steeda, Pro 5, etc..) and then a 3.73+ gears
You will enjoy your "new" car :)

I agree with this guy. Only thing is I think you need more than just moderate mech skills for head and cams... Other than that gears, and quality LT headers, exhaust. Stock headers=COMPLETE CRAP!

I agree, if I were to build another 5.0 car but no intension's of using forced induction I would also do the 3.90's!!!

Never will I ever do 3.73's again it was a dumb part on my behalf....

3.90's = N/A
or 3.55's = Forced Induction!

Turbo all the way!
On top of that headers, intake and exhaust manifolds, and beef up the drive system to handle the power.

just wanna add... i went to a pick a part today, found an 03 v6 with a K&N CAI...

all you v6 owners... GET IT!! you can feel a little more pep out of it, nothing drastic. and i love how the sound of the engine has changed as well!!

lol bonus is now: i also have a better MAF sensor :tup

Best bang for your buck horsepower mod has always got to be nitrous. So much for so cheap.

change your thermostat from 195 to 180 ,motor is colder and air will have more density
and put a little of octane in your tank you can go as high as 110% octane,the timing will get ahead in high rpm a little bit at the time .

CAI.........YES,
K&N air filter..........NO big NO, NOT on MAF cars! Oily residue sticks to MAF and you loose Horse Power!!!
Go with a AMSOil Air filter or even a OEM one for that matter! Stay away from K&N! :banghead:

NOS is a good bang for the buck. I'll second stang illusions about the K & N filters. Not a good idea on MAF sensored vehicles. If you want to go dirt cheap do a weight reduction.

Might question this one. I have an '06 GT and put in a tank of 92 Octane this summer. It ran terribly. Switched back to 87 the very next tank and ran smooth as a top. I don't have any extra mods or tunes on my car so maybe that makes a difference I am not sure but I will be running regular until I get a 93 Octane tune.

Yes Plotnik there are. See Steeda.ca. They aren't cheap but worth the money IMHO.

OK,

This is a load of crap. The ONLY time this is an issue is, after you clean the filter you over oil it. If you follow the instructions given with the cleaning kit to a 'T' you won't have this problem.

OK,

You COULD do this OR you could spend $10 on a bottle of Redline Water Wetter, pour it in your oerflow tank and achieve the same effect without the muss and fuss of swapping out a thermostat, unless it NEEDS to be changed.

Sorry bud but you need to do your research, most of everyone on here will tell you the same thing!
K&N Filters come factory with a oil coating, and using a larger displacment via 4.6, 5.0 etc... and with a larger Throttle body you sucking even more air, hell then there is forced induction via S/Cer/Turbo that wants to suck the air filter right in.
Regardless ANY oil residue on ANY filter is not good for a Mass Air Flow sensor, there is proof all over the internet people have done dyno runs, etc...
When I bought my car it was stock I cleaned the MAF and I actually felt the difference. :tup

Do more research and come back and let us know what your learned.

OK,

No matter what filter you use there comes a point when a MAF needs to be cleaned. Everyone I know who runs either NA or Supercharged or turbo cars run a K&N filter or similar. K&N themselves have been fighting this falicy and have said the same as noted above in my last post. If you don't like using them that's your choice, but don't trash it just because you personally don't like them.

No, No....That's not it at all.
It's not that I don't like them, I run a K&N on my winter beaters that DON'T have a MAF, and I bet you if you walk down the street and ask every car owner what a MAF is I bet you will see that only 1 out of 25 people know what it is.
If K&N didn't use the oil I might use it, but once you hold a K&N up beside a AMSOil filter in the light you can actually see the difference between the two. New VS. New you can see day light threw the K&N and not any from the AMSOil....
You need to understand that I don't bash products I just point people in the right direction to the BETTER products...
And all & all I think the price difference between the two is not much, might even be less but don't quote me on that one.

I'm only telling people this from expierance, People like myself that have a very expencive MAF or any aftermarket MAF want to take care of them....so in that case run a better filter.
If people don't believe me do the test like I did and they will soon see what filter is the better product.

Hope you understand what i'm getting at, have a good day :tup

plus one....and nitrous

plus one...and unless you are running 400 horse the stock airbox is fine..just pu in a kn drop in

Didn't see any 2.3 Turbo advice so I copied and pasted some info from another thread on here....
I'm probably necroposting but here goes.

I have an 85 Turbo Coupe that is replacing the SVO as my race car [which isnow stock and for sale]. Anyways, 85 TC made 175 HP, and had a bit hotter cam in them same as the 85.5-86 SVOs did, and the TC still kept the ,63 turbine housing where the SVOs got the smaller more restrictive .48 turbine [both were T3 turbo.

87 / 88 brought better electronics like mentioned, but a smaller IHI turbo, and wentback to the smaller non SVO / 85-86 TC cam. Merkurs used this same TC/SVO cam hence the 175 HP NON intercooled rating they had.

My 85 TC with: L series EEC and large vam from 88 TC, cone filter, ported E6 ex mani, stock open down pipe, a line pulled off to run 18 psi, ET streets, skinnies [T Bird spares of all things lol], and bypass the PS pump with a short belt went 13.66 @ 99 MPH.

Fuel pump, regulator, injectors, turbo, intercooler, motor top to bottom, trans, clutch, 3.45 7 1/2" rear, were stock. We added a gallon of 112 to 1/4 of ultra 94 because I knew the car was going a tad lean and well, you can band aid a lot of stuff with race gas.

Everyone says vids or it didn't happen lol so here ya go
YouTube - zzzz10

Ford put SO much potential in the 2.3L turbo car combo that is already in there and people rarely use it! All these engines need to run a solid 12 in a 3000 lb race weight Mustang, even a IHI equipped motor [i've done it] are:
-A HEALTHY running motor with w/ a tune up.
-5 sp
-3.55 or 3.73s, even stock 3.45 will get it done in the early cars [3.45s went 12s in my SVO..]
-Later 87/88 TC EEC or 85.5-86 SVO EEC TC ones are common and cheap.
-Big VAM w/ a cone filter
-Walbro 255 pump,
-adj regulator [love my BBK] and f/p guage you can see going down the track.
-ported stock "E6" casting Ex manifold
-stock down pipe run open or cut out
-slicks or ET streets
-skinnies help.
-bypass power steering pump
-Home made or $50 gillis boost controller online...
-race gas
-T3 turbos - 20-25 psi.. If running a T3 20 psi should get you 12.70s in a well tuned car, 25 psi will go 12.50s.
-IHI Turbos - I wired the w/g shut and went 12.80s @ 103.9 boost hovered around 22-23 psi. which was all the IHI would make on a stock longblock, and I wouldn't expect it to love long at those turbine shaft speeds lol.
-Timing you can leave it stock, it will get it done, but you can also unplug the spout, set the timing to 26-27* [RACE GAS A MUST] and leave spout unplugged tighten dizzy down, and run it.. and gain a few more tenths.

Anyways these little motors have a ton of potential if you just tune it up and optimize what is there. Too many people run out and buy all kindsa stuff before they even run a baseline like above. Easiest 12s from an older car I have ever had.

Also the SVO has been sold and motor is now in my 85 Turbo Coupe... So it will be low 12s ish first track outting till I get the 8.8 / 3.73 rear sitting on the floor put in... But it pulls like this now.. not bad for an unrebuilt 27 yr old shortblock on it's 5th season of more than 25 psi..!!!
85 Turbo Coupe test pulls

i gotta say guys.. dollar for dollar, if you're going to spend big bucks, go turbo :) if i ever manage to save enough for another stang, it wont be N/A for long. cause when my little 2l boosted 4G63 can whoop stock/mild GT`s and z28`s... with a shitty trans, deff shows that nitrous or forced induction is the way to go :)

When I had my 98 v6 mustang I threw the cheapest CAI from americanmuscle on my car. I think it was $79.00 or something and it had a small filter. But even with that I noticed a bit more power out of my car and it changed the exhaust note from the inside and outside. I would suggest a CAI for any v6 for sure (K&N)

tuner

Crafty,

I have to whole heartedly disagree with you on this. I have an 04 3.9L and I have gone old school on it. The stock engine puts out by Ford's calculations 193 bhp. By adding dual exhaust, Steeda underdrive pully, Tom Morana's stage 3+ heads, "B" grind cam, roller rockers and the Windstar upper intake with CAI I'm now at 308bhp or 255 rwhp. These engines are not set up for turbo or superchargers. To do either properly, one requires the addition of forged internals. Dollar for dollar the best bet is to do similar work as i have done, have it properly tuned and then be amazed at how strong the car runs!! Oh and I run a 4:10 rear end as well...

tuner and cai ftw

really it's all in how you want to run the car, i'm leaning away from 1/4mile and into solo sprint, where a turbo setup does me soo well. when you think of it, 308bhp is good stuff for a 3.8/9 V6, hell mine only made 285bhp with a 4.2L swap (no good headwork tho).
i'm not going to say you are wrong. you have a good setup in my opinion, but the new modular engines dont gain AS MUCH %gain per mod when it comes to H/C/I, and for the most part, will sustain mild boost (ford sold whipple blower kits that still retained factory warrenties) as long as it has been well kept. IMO, the 4v 4.6L is a boost . the 3.8L not so much. totally different engines, get different benifits.

BTW: post pics!! i miss seeing well done v6 sn95's!