What Exactly To Do To Get Into Low 13's

Btrainfiveoh

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Jul 25, 2015
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Hey all, after doing much research and reading forums, I see how 13's in a foxbody isn't too difficult. I ran 14.4 and at that time all I had was subframe connectors, factory 3.08 gears, and flowmaster mufflers (stock piping) and k&n drop in filter.

Since then I now have a full exhaust, bbk unequal shorty headers, bbk o/r h pipe, flowmaster 2.5 american thunder cat back(super 44). Cold air intake, and eibach sportline springs, tokiko blues.

I want to be able to have a budget build daily driver that's fun. Winter time I'm pulling the motor to attend to some leaks(oil pan, rear seal, etc) at that point, I'll be doing some more mods.
My question:
Will these mods added to what I have get me close to low-mid 13's?

Typhoon intake or somethin simular, edelbrock maybe(upper and lower
65-70mm tb
bigger maf(76mm maybe)
E303 cam or tfs 1
Port out the e7 heads and upgrade valve springs
3.55 gears

Would those mods and a tune afterwords do the trick?
My buddy has a 07 charger srt8 and ran 13.4 bone stock... I'd like to hang with him !
 
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Put a tire on it and you are very close. I would guess at a 14.4 your 60 ft was a 2.1-2.2 or worse. Gears and tires will get you there for sure, tires alone may. Skip porting the heads or a cam swap with stock heads. Not worth the effort/cost.

Save up for a trick flow top end kit and supporting mods (70mm tb/spacer, injectors, maf, fuel pump).

Stock wise the t/b and maf will give minimal return. Broken record here but gears and tires will go a long ways. Maybe lower control arms if you suffer from wheel hop.
 
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Mods mean little if you can't drive worth a flip.

The Emmons family is a well known racing dynasty down here. When the brothers were young, their father sent them to the track in a station wagon. The ran predictably slow, but learned to crawl before they could start to walk.

I suggest that you learn to drive the car as it is and THEN worry about making mods. If you can't drive it consistantly, then it will only lead to frustrations.
 
Mods mean little if you can't drive worth a flip.

The Emmons family is a well known racing dynasty down here. When the brothers were young, their father sent them to the track in a station wagon. The ran predictably slow, but learned to crawl before they could start to walk.

I suggest that you learn to drive the car as it is and THEN worry about making mods. If you can't drive it consistantly, then it will only lead to frustrations.

Totally understood, but with lame tires, stock gears, basically a stock 5.0 that's 26 years old, hitting 14.4 with a passenger(I weigh 210, she weighs 115, so an extra 325 lbs and my sound system 50lbs give or take) and a soft launch to avoid too much wheel spin... I think I did pretty well, considering I've read so many people hitting high 13's low 14's with quite a bit more mods than I have and much better rubber/gears.
So I don't understand where that comment came from...

I'm not building a drag car, just strictly a daily driver I can have fun with.
 
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Put a tire on it and you are very close. I would guess at a 14.4 your 60 ft was a 2.1-2.2 or worse. Gears and tires will get you there for sure, tires alone may. Skip porting the heads or a cam swap with stock heads. Not worth the effort/cost.

Save up for a trick flow top end kit and supporting mods (70mm tb/spacer, injectors, maf, fuel pump).

Stock wise the t/b and maf will give minimal return. Broken record here but gears and tires will go a long ways. Maybe lower control arms if you suffer from wheel hop.
Yes I've looked into a tf top end kit, obviously that'd be the best way to go, but this is a budget car I'm looking into building cheap, just for fun. I have a 1970 mustang me and my old man are working on which is getting a :poo: ton of money dumped into it, I don't want to end up getting to that level with this car too.
 
Budget still equals tires and gears. :)

The rest will support more air flow but the stock E7's are going to be bottleneck (an intake is a good swap if one is sourced cheap)
Yes tires and gears I was going to do regardless. And yes I'm also getting a typhoon intake which is like an edelbrock knock off for 150 dollars which I thought wasn't too bad, it has a 65mm tb connected to it as well
 
Throw some gears and drag tires on it and you'll have a 13sec timeslip with some aggressive driving (and no extra passenger). I've gotten stock cars into the 13's with good tires/gears/regular bolt ons. The intake/cam/and if you are dead set on those heads could get you to your goals(13.0-13.5)
 
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Throw some gears and drag tires on it and you'll have a 13sec timeslip with some aggressive driving (and no extra passenger). I've gotten stock cars into the 13's with good tires/gears/regular bolt ons. The intake/cam/and if you are dead set on those heads could get you to your goals(13.0-13.5)
Okay, that'd be good/fun enough for me for that car on the street. The e303 cam(or something like it) I've wanted mainly because of that idle sound(I know that's a :poo:ty reason to want it, but still).. I've been in a car which had a little bit of weight reduction, 373 gears, intake exhaust and e303 cam, and I loved how it pulled up top and sounded.

It's crazy how you got some people running bone stock foxbodys in the 15's and others hitting high 13's... Probably one of the few cars that can jump 2 seconds give or take from minor minor mods and specific driving style.
 
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If you do ANYTHING but a stock cam (or at least anything that MIGHT be worth the swap) you need to upgrade springs on the heads as well or you will get valve float and break springs.

In regards to the et gap, these cars are 20+ years old now, most have seen a ROUGH life and are starting to show their age. But look at the new coyotes, I see some run mid 14's and others barley mid 13's with mods. I have a few friends mid 12's with a tune on 19 inch street tires. You hit it on the head with the driver ability.
 
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Please don't spend any money on a cam unless you're ready to go the rest of the way.

Squeak: Gears and tires. Yep... This will solve the question that you asked.



You want budget? Replace every leaking gasket that you can find. Have your stock injectors flow tested. Do a compression check. Replace the in-tank pump with a 255L high pressure. Spent $2k or less on a 5-8 psi centrifugal blower. Stir until moist.

This will make the car fun. :nice:


Bushings and control arms are next.
 
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It's very true(the 1.5-2.0sec variable) on these cars. For an example I took my "new to me" 89 LX to the track for the first time in '91. Bone stock ran low 15's. Within 2 months(gears,exhaust,tires,etc) it was running 13.80's. With a nitrous hit and some rear control arms it was running 12.00's
 
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Please don't spend any money on a cam unless you're ready to go the rest of the way.

Squeak: Gears and tires. Yep... This will solve the question that you asked.



You want budget? Replace every leaking gasket that you can find. Have your stock injectors flow tested. Replace the in-tank pump with a 255L high pressure. Spent $2k or less on a 5-8 psi centrifugal blower. Stir until moist.

This will make the car fun. :nice:


Bushings and control arms are next.
Why not throw a mild cam in it when I have the motor out to change the oil pan gasket and other seals and gaskets if I'm porting the heads and upgrading the valve springs... Springs, porting heads, cam, upper lower intake and tb/maf will cost me a total of $1000... If I can get close to 250whp with that, and a set of 3.55 gears I think that'd be fun enough for me.
2k for a supercharger set up? Lol, I do not know where you live, but a supercharger set up here costs 3500-4500 and I wouldn't throw a supercharger on it and feel comfortable/reliable. If I go that option then a complete rebuild and tons more money would be thrown at it. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a 1970 mustang that's getting completely re done... And it's at 25k and counting... I definitely do not want to start that up on this car as well.
 
The stock cam is actually very good. It responds well to mild bolt ons and keeps the driveability better than most aftermarket cams (sans a custom grind). Used blowers are 1500-2k ALL Day. There is no reason NOT to toss a blower with 6-8 psi and have a very reliable car that is an absolute blast to drive (Not to mention some under hood eye candy).

You're going to find you have more in a ported set of E7's then you would a used set of trick flow/eddy heads. Heck just go find a set of gt40's and put springs on them and be work ahead of yourself.

Don't forget bolts and gaskets, fluids etc in that $1000 budget. Unless you have a solid discount somewhere or this stuff sitting around you'll find that 1k goes FAST!


Good luck!
 
The stock cam is actually very good. It responds well to mild bolt ons and keeps the driveability better than most aftermarket cams (sans a custom grind). Used blowers are 1500-2k ALL Day. There is no reason NOT to toss a blower with 6-8 psi and have a very reliable car that is an absolute blast to drive (Not to mention some under hood eye candy).

You're going to find you have more in a ported set of E7's then you would a used set of trick flow/eddy heads. Heck just go find a set of gt40's and put springs on them and be work ahead of yourself.

Don't forget bolts and gaskets, fluids etc in that $1000 budget. Unless you have a solid discount somewhere or this stuff sitting around you'll find that 1k goes FAST!


Good luck!
How reliable would a used blower be? And I'm in canada... There's no used superchargers here that I've come across, if you're looking at the states, tons... But 1500-2000 US dollars converted to canadian and then shipping... All for a used supercharger... Is it worth it? And then supporting mods... You're looking at 3-3500 canadian invested into a stock long block now with a used supercharger on a daily driver, I don't think that's budget or reliable... As for gt40's yes, but I've found none in my area or wreck yards. Same thing, online there's used sets for 250-400 us, which will be 350-500 canadian, plus spring upgrade on those as well, you're looking at 6-700 again. And I've seen multiple graphs of ported e7's performing as good as imported gt40's... And the port work and spring upgrade will run me about 3-400 for the e7's....
 
I wouldn't throw a supercharger on it and feel comfortable/reliable.


Why? It's a 302 with 9:1 compression and an OEM cam that ALREADY responds very well to boost. :shrug:

Nobody's saying you can't install a cam. My response caters more to the direct approach with the least amount of money spent. To elaborate, I could go on for days and start talking about the 4 cylinder brakes on the car, caster/camber plates, the list goes on. A used blower is a hell of a lot cheaper than an HCI and with an FMS you can continue to use your current injectors. This route, over the long haul or even DD usage, is considerably cheaper than nitrous even.

I get the gist of what you're trying to do but the way you're trying to do it doesn't justify a cam swap. That money is better spent elsewhere.

Even the tone of your exhaust will take on a deeper note with a blower feeding the intake.
 
Checking the shaft play on a blower is really all you're looking for. I'm not one bit afraid of a used blower. Obvious signs like broken impeller fins etc are clues to stay away from.

At the end of the day if money is an issue, stay away from a cam swap for the 2 rwhp it will net you in stock form.