Alright, 4.6L newbie...answer a few questions.

[88CougarMan]

Ok guys, I am a proud new owner of a 2004 GT auto, and my '90 5.0L is soon to be sold. But I am so excited to have a car that stuff isn't breaking all the time, and I really want to learn everything about the 4.6.

First off, How can I tell what size gear ratio is in my car? I know there were three different stock gear ratios in the 5.0L over the years, is this an issue with the '96-'04 Mustangs or did they all come with the same ratio?

Second, I've been reading a lot about PI heads and intake manifolds. I have no idea what the story is with these? What kind of heads/intake combos are out there for these cars? Throttle Bodies, Cams, Headers...etc.? What brands do I steer clear from? All that good insider stuff on these things.

Third, I noticed my Auto tranny is a GINORMOUS slush box. Aside from a manual swap, what can be done to my tranny to beef it for "everyday fun" driving?

I also want to drop the car, but I had bad luck in picking springs on my 5.0L. I want to still keep the same ride quality and comfort, but a nice conservative drop. Maybe the Bullitt springs?

Ok, I guess that's about it for now. Thank's for helping me out guys, and feel free to add anything of importance that I might have missed.


- Brian

 

[ocbaud]

Ok guys, I am a proud new owner of a 2004 GT auto, and my '90 5.0L is soon to be sold. But I am so excited to have a car that stuff isn't breaking all the time, and I really want to learn everything about the 4.6.

First off, How can I tell what size gear ratio is in my car? I know there were three different stock gear ratios in the 5.0L over the years, is this an issue with the '96-'04 Mustangs or did they all come with the same ratio?

Second, I've been reading a lot about PI heads and intake manifolds. I have no idea what the story is with these? What kind of heads/intake combos are out there for these cars? Throttle Bodies, Cams, Headers...etc.? What brands do I steer clear from? All that good insider stuff on these things.

Third, I noticed my Auto tranny is a GINORMOUS slush box. Aside from a manual swap, what can be done to my tranny to beef it for "everyday fun" driving?

I also want to drop the car, but I had bad luck in picking springs on my 5.0L. I want to still keep the same ride quality and comfort, but a nice conservative drop. Maybe the Bullitt springs?

Ok, I guess that's about it for now. Thank's for helping me out guys, and feel free to add anything of importance that I might have missed.


- Brian

stock gear ratio is 3.27, but since your 04 is an auto it might be 3.55.
get the codes for us from the door jam and we can tell you for sure.

you already have PI (performance improved?) heads and intake on your car all the other performance stuff i'll let others explain on what cams and stuff to upgrade too.

get a good tuner or chip for your car to fix the autotragic tranny. should make driving it a lot more fun

for springs i would suggest Ford C springs. should drop it about 1 1/4" in the front and around 1" in the rear. the ride will stiffen up a little bit, but nothign bad at all, the handling improves a TON

 

[jasonh_86]

For the Heads/Intake/cams.. there's always MPH Stage 2.5 heads, Accufab 75mm TB/Plenum with a CAI, and VT stage 1 and 2 cams, along with Comp Cams. Bullitt, RR, or P51 intakes. There's a LOT more, but those are my personal fav's

For lowering it, you could get some Steeda Sport springs or Eibachs, they're good. Give a nice drop and still have nice ride quality. You could also get some struts/shocks. Go Bilstein or Tokico, not sure that area tho

For the trans., you could get gears, a tuner and a tranny cooler and it'd wake that whole car up quite a bit.

And they only came with 3.27 gears in GT's from what I understand, but you could have some diff gears.. what RPMs are you running at 70-75mph?

 

[helty]

accufab, c&l, BBk, trick flow all make intake plenums for our cars, with accufab putting out the best #'s, and costing the most.

eibach, H&R, Steeda and Ford racing all make good springs, but upgrade your shocks/struts at the same time as lowering.

VT engines is very popular when it comes to cams.

no less then 4.10 gears for an auto. this is the law.

SCT and Diablosport are the popular tuners.

heres the low down on the "PI" thing. when the 4.6 was introduced in 96, it put out anemic #'s. in 99, ford upped the ante with "power-improvement" heads, cams and intake manifold.

there are bajillions exhaust combos out there. just dont get a BBK x-pipe. it will make anything sound like ass.

 

[88CougarMan]

Good stuff!

My friend had a Paxton Novi 2000 SC kit for his 2000 GT and never installed it. He is going to practically give it to me. Will I need to change anything besides the chip? Brackets?

 

['13_ImpactBlue_GT]

First of all welcome to the Board First off what is the color of your GT? Secondly, while us auto GT's are down on power compared to the stick shift boys/girls the 4R70W can be made to perform: At least 3.73 or 4.10 gears, tranny cooler, J-Mod (www.tccoa.com click tech. articles, click transmission and click Modfiying Valve Body to Jerry's specs), 2800-3000 stall torque converter, then some suspension goodies (www.maximummotorsports.com)

 

[TweekedGT]

Good stuff!

My friend had a Paxton Novi 2000 SC kit for his 2000 GT and never installed it. He is going to practically give it to me. Will I need to change anything besides the chip? Brackets?

That's awesome. Depending on the type of boost you want to make you will need to upgrade your bottom end. Welcome to the world of no forged internals , the old 5.0's had them, the 4.6's don't. You can run about 400hp on the stock bottom end, after that KABOOOOM!

 

[88CougarMan]

First off what is the color of your GT?

It's that Dark Metallic Grey with Chrome '00 Cobras. The car is ****ing beautiful!!

That's awesome. Depending on the type of boost you want to make you will need to upgrade your bottom end. Welcome to the world of no forged internals , the old 5.0's had them, the 4.6's don't. You can run about 400hp on the stock bottom end, after that KABOOOOM!

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. He has everything including the injectors and fuel pump for what I'd need and is only asking $700! Needless to say we've been friends a long time and he doesn't have the car anymore.

 

[FOXCOUPE]

Ok here ya go:

www.foxlakeracing.com
www.vtengines.com
www.modularpowerhouse.com
www.steenracing.com
www.modmaxracing.com
www.reichardracing.com
www.griggsracing.com
www.maximummotorsports.com

 

[big T]

First of all welcome to the Board First off what is the color of your GT? Secondly, while us auto GT's are down on power compared to the stick shift boys/girls the 4R70W can be made to perform: At least 3.73 or 4.10 gears, tranny cooler, J-Mod (www.tccoa.com click tech. articles, click transmission and click Modfiying Valve Body to Jerry's specs), 2800-3000 stall torque converter, then some suspension goodies (www.maximummotorsports.com)

Couldnt say it any better.

 

[Stang|ess]

Ok guys, I am a proud new owner of a 2004 GT auto, and my '90 5.0L is soon to be sold. But I am so excited to have a car that stuff isn't breaking all the time, and I really want to learn everything about the 4.6.

First off, How can I tell what size gear ratio is in my car? I know there were three different stock gear ratios in the 5.0L over the years, is this an issue with the '96-'04 Mustangs or did they all come with the same ratio?

Second, I've been reading a lot about PI heads and intake manifolds. I have no idea what the story is with these? What kind of heads/intake combos are out there for these cars? Throttle Bodies, Cams, Headers...etc.? What brands do I steer clear from? All that good insider stuff on these things.

Third, I noticed my Auto tranny is a GINORMOUS slush box. Aside from a manual swap, what can be done to my tranny to beef it for "everyday fun" driving?

I also want to drop the car, but I had bad luck in picking springs on my 5.0L. I want to still keep the same ride quality and comfort, but a nice conservative drop. Maybe the Bullitt springs?

Ok, I guess that's about it for now. Thank's for helping me out guys, and feel free to add anything of importance that I might have missed.


- Brian

ALL 99-04 Mustang GTs have 3.27 gears. 4.10s are recommended for manuals, and I think 4.30 for autos which may be a bit much if you do a lot of highway driving.

96-98 Mustangs have nonpi heads cams etc while 99-04 have pi (power improved) stuff. Intakes are rather expensive for Modular cars I think $1000+, best being Bullitt, p51, Reichard Racing. Heres an article about tb and plenums. VT cams are highly recommended followed by Comp. If you go for VT stage 2, new valve springs are required or it might be a costly fix with floating valves messing up your motor. Comp XE262 being the equivalent of VT Stage 1 cams. If youre going to do headers, dont bother with shorties go with longtubes. You may not pick up a lot of peak horsepower, but a ton throughout the powerband. Also, if you install LT headers, you may have to take off 1 side when working on the clutch unless you go with the following brands: Hooker, Flowtech (same DESIGN as hooker, but not same quality), Bassani, and I think Kooks. People have trouble with Mac headers, with the ceramic coating flaking off after a year or so of use. Mac catbacks and midpipes are good though especially the Prochamber

Im just going to quote a post I made on Corral because Im tired, and it's a rather good post with a lot of links to cheap products.

Your first mod should be a new shifter. MGW, Steeda, and Pro 50 are the most popuplar ones, and all are good. MGW is the new dog and seems to be the best. It has the shortest throws, quiestest, and adjustable. I never had the Steeda Tri-Ax, or the Pro 5.0 so I cant make any unbias opinions, but from what I know MGW rocks

I would have said longtubes and cams, but Im not sure you can pass emissions with those. Most people will say 4.10's since youre planning on staying NA but it matters on if you do a lot of highway driving. It may increase your mileage if you do a lot of city driving, but yeild a 1-2 mph loss on the highway.

I got those from Stangnet.com

A catback wont give you much power, and if you get Flowmasters youll probably lose some. It's more for the awesome sound, and a nice tone. Get a catted midpipe (general rule is X-pipe for straight through mufflers like Borla, Magnapacks and SLP and H pipe for chambered muffs Flowmasters, etc), and shorty headers although LTs rule all :joy:

For suspension, you probably already noticed the awesome 4x4 stance the Mustang comes with stock :curses:. If you want to get super slammed go with H&R Supersports, or Eibach Sportline. Next would be Eibach Prokit, Steeda Sports or Ford C springs. Youre probably going to want to buy new shocks and struts after you lower your car, and if youre on a budget go for the Mach 1 kit. It's a revalved set of Tokicos that work nicely with the milder drop. KYB and Strange also make some nice adjustable shocks and struts for a nice price. For the insane drop, spring for some Bilstein, Koni, or Tokico. After a big drop, your camber may be off. You can try to get it aligned without the camber kit, but if they cant youre going to have to buy a CC kit. Maximum Motorsports come highly recommended along with Steeda.

Your vert comes stock with some subframe connectors, but those are junk. Grab yourself some Maximum Motorsport XL full length, enough said

Dont waste your money on a CAI, just throw on a K&N filter and be done. TB and plenums are a nice mod, but dont increase power a whole lot. There's an article done on the popular brands with Accufab coming out on top. A 70 mm would suit you nice since you dont plan on getting a blower otherwise a 75 mm setup would be better.

A handheld tuner wont hurt, there's the SCT xcal 2 and Diablo. I dont know much about them, so you should wait for someone to chime in or do a little searching. I do recommend getting the xcal2 from the link I provided. They give you 2 custom tunes which many places dont give you.

Get yourself some drag radials, practice driving, and run a nice 13 second run

 

[Stang|ess]

Oh yeah, get a handheld tuner to firm up the shifts. You can also change shift points, calibrate your speedo if you change gears, turn off the CEL if you go with an o/r midpipe, and add timing.

Gonna add this in, since you have a 2004 Stang, the front o2 sensors wont reach the bungs. You can either fork over money to buy extensions, or unscrew them from the mounts and stretch them to fit.

Misc info, front o2 sensors affect performance, rear o2 sensors dont.

 

['13_ImpactBlue_GT]

It's that Dark Metallic Grey with Chrome '00 Cobras. The car is ****ing beautiful!!

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. He has everything including the injectors and fuel pump for what I'd need and is only asking $700! Needless to say we've been friends a long time and he doesn't have the car anymore.

DSG (Dark Shadow Grey) GT's are teh win

 

[Skidzz]

The first thing I would do is swap out the mid-pipe for a catted x, change the gears to 4.10's, and get a tune. After that would be a really good time to put some better tires on. That would get you off to a good start.

 

[timeless2]

No one has mentioned it and it depends on how mechanically inclined you are...but the Jerry mod is a great improvement for your auto tranny.

 

[triggz]

No one has mentioned it and it depends on how mechanically inclined you are...but the Jerry mod is a great improvement for your auto tranny.

jmod = awesome.
This and a ratchet shifter (ie. B&M Hammer) will make things a lot more fun.