95 5.0 Street Performance Mods?

[Lil95.0]

I have a 95 5.0 and was looking into getting some performance mods to gain some HP. I already have 4.10s in the rear, CAI, GT40 upper and lower intake and a Magnaflow full catback exhaust. What else should i go with for some good HP gains while still being able to drive the car on the street?

 

[revhead347]

Looks like you are off to a good start. How much money do you have to spend?

Kurt

 

[Lil95.0]

Looks like you are off to a good start. How much money do you have to spend?

Kurt

My budget isn’t really a problem but at the same time I dont want to jump straight into a supercharger if that makes sense

 

[revhead347]

My budget isn’t really a problem but at the same time I dont want to jump straight into a supercharger if that makes sense

Your next step is a set of heads and a cam. Doing a top end combo doesn't deliver quite as much power as a supercharger, but it is a lot easier to make it work, and keep road manners. It's a solid day of work to put them on if you haven't done it before, but it's a huge increase in power. The bottleneck on the stock engine is the factory heads. With the right setup, it's going to be very daily driveable, with no inconveniences. Your car mods seem well thought out so far, so I get the impression that you want this done right. To go with your head and cam combo, you will need a bigger mass air flow sensor, a larger throttle body, and 24lb/hr injectors. You also have to understand that the Engine Control Unit was basically designed in the 1980s, and it is pretty stupid, making it intollerant of even reasonable modifications. So you are going to want to factor in a tune with your budget. The cost of one varies dramatically based on your location. I live in a big city, and I can get a car tuned to perfection for $500. The price will not be the same if you live in Montana. Complete off the shelf combinations can make between 270hp to 320hp at the rear wheels with no modifications to the bottom end of the engine. The stock engine puts about 190hp to the wheels with a manual transmission for reference. The go to source is Trick Flow performance. They make great heads, and have good cam combinations to go with them. Call their tech support line, and ask for their suggestions. Just be honest about what your goals for the car are. They are probably going to recommend TF170cc heads, TFS stage 1 cam, and their intake manifold. Don't buy the intake. The GT40 intake is actually a really good design that delivers more average hp across the board. If it comes up short, you can always get Tmoss to do his port work magic to the lower for around $150 to make your intake very suitable for your setup.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

Kurt

 

[Lil95.0]

Your next step is a set of heads and a cam. Doing a top end combo doesn't deliver quite as much power as a supercharger, but it is a lot easier to make it work, and keep road manners. It's a solid day of work to put them on if you haven't done it before, but it's a huge increase in power. The bottleneck on the stock engine is the factory heads. With the right setup, it's going to be very daily driveable, with no inconveniences. Your car mods seem well thought out so far, so I get the impression that you want this done right. To go with your head and cam combo, you will need a bigger mass air flow sensor, a larger throttle body, and 24lb/hr injectors. You also have to understand that the Engine Control Unit was basically designed in the 1980s, and it is pretty stupid, making it intollerant of even reasonable modifications. So you are going to want to factor in a tune with your budget. The cost of one varies dramatically based on your location. I live in a big city, and I can get a car tuned to perfection for $500. The price will not be the same if you live in Montana. Complete off the shelf combinations can make between 270hp to 320hp at the rear wheels with no modifications to the bottom end of the engine. The stock engine puts about 190hp to the wheels with a manual transmission for reference. The go to source is Trick Flow performance. They make great heads, and have good cam combinations to go with them. Call their tech support line, and ask for their suggestions. Just be honest about what your goals for the car are. They are probably going to recommend TF170cc heads, TFS stage 1 cam, and their intake manifold. Don't buy the intake. The GT40 intake is actually a really good design that delivers more average hp across the board. If it comes up short, you can always get Tmoss to do his port work magic to the lower for around $150 to make your intake very suitable for your setup.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

Kurt

I've been away for a while so just now seeing this. Thank you for all of this info man very very helpful. Big changes will hopefully be coming soon the only part I'm not too sure about is getting the car tuned, nowhere around me can PROPERLY tune a car so there's more for me to look into there.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

The good news is the OBD 1, MAF computers are flexible enough to not need tuning with most H/C/I swaps. It’s not like the new cars that need a tune if you change the brand of air filter.
A tune can maximize things, but we just had a big discussion about at what point do you NEED a tune you might want to search for.

 

[General karthief]

Do you really need a 'tune' or is it bs

I get a chuckle when I read 'I have a bla bla mustang with a belly button engine, a 70mm tb and maf with 24 lb injectors, twisted wedge this and equal lenth that and a (pick a cam). My buddies (that likely drive 'tuner' toyotas and hondas) tell me I need a 'tune'. I have my uneducated thoughts...

stangnet.com

 

[revhead347]

The good news is the OBD 1, MAF computers are flexible enough to not need tuning with most H/C/I swaps. It’s not like the new cars that need a tune if you change the brand of air filter.
A tune can maximize things, but we just had a big discussion about at what point do you NEED a tune you might want to search for.

Eh, the SN95s are actually quite a bit more particular than the foxbodies. Steeda actually had the #19 cam ground back in the day, because the #18 cam didn't agree with the SN95 ECU. It was a minor lope seperation adjustment that was required. To that end, the Steeda #19 cam works really well with most entry level aftermarket aluminum heads, and was specifically ground to not require a tune. I have met the engineer that spec'd that cam, and spoken with him many times in the long long ago.

Kurt

 

[7991LXnSHO]

Eh, the SN95s are actually quite a bit more particular than the foxbodies. Steeda actually had the #19 cam ground back in the day, because the #18 cam didn't agree with the SN95 ECU. It was a minor lope seperation adjustment that was required. To that end, the Steeda #19 cam works really well with most entry level aftermarket aluminum heads, and was specifically ground to not require a tune. I have met the engineer that spec'd that cam, and spoken with him many times in the long long ago.

Kurt

I have been unable to contact the owner of a 94 or 95 5.0 owner from a local car club to ask what cam and the rest of the combo is. So I will not be able to recommend other cams that work well with the newer computer. These inflexible computers sound like a dumb step backwards in Ford engineering.

 

[revhead347]

I have been unable to contact the owner of a 94 or 95 5.0 owner from a local car club to ask what cam and the rest of the combo is. So I will not be able to recommend other cams that work well with the newer computer. These inflexible computers sound like a dumb step backwards in Ford engineering.

I just recommended it. The Steeda #19 cam was ground specifically to make up for the backwards engineering between a 93' and a 94' Mustang. It was new logic that was load based instead of torque based, or whatever, some that I don't understand that made the SNs a pain in the ass to mod.

Kurt

 

[Dan02gt]

I just recommended it. The Steeda #19 cam was ground specifically to make up for the backwards engineering between a 93' and a 94' Mustang. It was new logic that was load based instead of torque based, or whatever, some that I don't understand that made the SNs a pain in the ass to mod.

Kurt

The Steeda #19 is a great choice. It was engineered with a 115* LSA which is very close to the stock cam. My brother ran one in his ‘95 GT many years ago and it ran great. You do need 1.7 RRs to get good lift out of it though.

Another option is the Comp XE264HR-14. I run this cam in my ‘91 and have a friend that runs it in a ‘94. Drives great in both cars and provides a little more low end than the #19.