Help with new bolt on ideas

[pumperdriver]

Hello all. Iam once again reaching out to my Mustang Brothers to pick your brains for some ideas. Like I stated on my first post months ago Iam new to the mustang world but an old school 80's/90's chevy drag racer, so I do have a clue.

Here is what I bought..

1994 GT 5 speed 82,000 miles
Underdrive pulley
4:10 gear
70mm Throttle body
MAF
X Pipe / flowmasters

The car was advrtised with ram air, but I found out it still has the stock air cleaner setup but with a dryer vent hose (thats ripped in half) going down to a snorkel intake under the car. this will all be coming off and I will be putting in a standard CAI.
I was also told by a friend that the stock plenum intakes opening is only about 63mm (i think thats what I was told) so the 70mm throttle body is actually doing nothing.

Here is what I need help picking out........

- Upper and lower intake (thinking about the trickflow Streetburner combo) Then Iam concerned with space issue with the strut tower brace and my stock hood)

Since I will have the intake pulled apart I was thinking about changing......

- Cam and Lifters - This is the one I need help on. I could use some ideas with a cam and lifter kit. Iam looking for a mild perf, slight choppy idle but nothing to extreme that will kill my vacuum. Looking to perform in the 1500 - 5500rpm range.

Rockers arm & Rods- should I even change these? If so.. any suggestions. I would want everything to match with the cam selection.

Distributor- Thinking MSD 8455 ready to run efi
Coil - Thinking MSD 5227
I dont even know if this dist will even work in this car.
I dont want to get into the the ignition box stuff. I dont plan on making that much power that I would need it.

Fuel Press Regulator

Injectors - Should these be changed?

Gear Drive- I just want this one. I love that old school sound, Iam old!

Shifter- What good?

Iam looking for a fun driver, maybe driven twice a week. Mostly on highway w/some stop and go traffic. The track will be visited once in awhile and Im looking to go low 13's and if I slip into the high 12's then thats fine too. Not looking for a killer that I have to make major modifications to. I read there are tuning issues with the 94 you get into with some modifications and I want to avoid that. Just want to have fun with it without getting to crazy with major mods.

Im thinking about swapping out those 4:10 with 3:73. Your thoughts?

I think that sums it up. Any ideas and help any you could provide will be greatly appreciated. If I have some mod ideas that you think are un-necessary please let me know. I just figured if I had to tear down thetop half then I might as well put in new upgrades.

Thanks for everyones time reading and answering this post

Hissin50 & HEF5, I will be looking forward to hearing from you again

Be Safe
Mike

 

[revhead347]

Your wasting your money on cam and intake if you don't do something with the heads. The heads are the bottleneck. Do something with the heads first.

Kurt

 

[Husky44]

I love your idea of "bolt-on"

Have to agree with 347. Heads are going to hold you up...

 

[final5-0]

Hello Mike

I'm old too

A few random thoughts

Something a lot of peeps don't think about with 94-95 intakes

The Edelbrock intakes will set you back a bit more than TFS
but
Edel's have just a bit more room under the lower
therefore
You can run one WITHOUT a spacer to clear the vc's
which means
No cost of buying a spacer

I'd not step back to 373's from those 410's

I wish I would'a gone with 410's myself

If you do stay NA and are gonna go with some nice flowing heads
then
Your power band is gonna shift up so the 410's won't be as radical

Sure ... I'm with you on that ... bolt-on ... combo

I got flamed big time several years ago
When I called my combo a bolt on combo
I thought it was cuz ... I bolted on all my hot rod parts

If you stay NA ... I think along these lines

Exotic ignition not needed as long as your OEM is in good working order

Yes ... I want low end torque
but
Not at the expense of a power band that peters out around 5K

I picked a cam and mid length runner upper for extended power band

To offset the soft end of the shorter upper intake runners
I used LT's
and
An aggressive spark curve

About the strut tower brace

I just put mine in the shead
I have not noticed anything bad since it has been discarded
The Cobra's don't even have one

My opinion about injectors is to do it like Ford does it :Word:

No elevated fuel presures with afpr's

Use a tune and optimize the pcm to what hot rod parts you choose

You can see in my sig I run 30's with NO afpr and it runs just dandy

About came lope and vacuum

ANY cam you choose is gonna lope
and
Vacuum is not going to be a problem

Finally ... The Tune

Well ... I will admit it ... I'm a bit biased about self tuning

I have spent some time getting to learn a little about tuning a 94-95 Stang

My findings could be boiled down to a few statements such as

With a tune

You can go more radical than you think with a NA combo
yet
You can get it to behave just like a little stocker Stang in every way

Without a tune

You'll start to suffer with drivability issues before 300 rwhp :Word:
and
The more you ask for in hp .......
the more the drivability gremlin is gonna rear its ugly head

Again ... Stuff I've seen from fooling around with my little 95 GT

Grady

 

[pumperdriver]

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

Ok ...Heads it is.Thats not a problem. I guess you know what question is coming next. What heads should I look into for my type of upgrade Im doing.


Hey Final 5-0 (Grady).... Thanks for taking the time to give me your input. I have some stupid questions. What does NA mean (I cant figure it out), What are LT's and AFPR's.
I will go with the Edelbrock as you stated and prolly a matching cam & lifters. I will read up on and try to figure out what tuning is. And the 4:10's will stay.

Thanks again for everyones help!

Mike

 

[final5-0]

Well Mike

My input and a few dollars most likely won't get you a cup of coffee
however
I can clear up a few things from above

NA = Naturally Aspirated or All Motor
LT's = Long Tube Headers
AFPR = Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator

Tuning ... Well that can mean different things with different peeps

But to me ... It means optimizing pcm (powertrain control module) values
to be more effective than the OEM values due to the fact one has upgraded
the OEM parts with hot rod parts

This can be done with a chip or tuning interface

Self tune or Pro tune ... either method will get the job done

As for heads

Most go with Aluminum for weight savings
Most go with TFS, AFR, or Edelbrock

The older OEM iron heads have a poor exhaust design
and
Most use the cam as a crutch for that short comming

The heads I listed above have no such issues
therefore
You would not wanna use older cams since they have older technology

Grady

 

[Husky44]

Well Mike

My input and a few dollars most likely won't get you a cup of coffee

Mike, meet Grady. Grady is master of humility, smilies, and all things 5.0. He's a guru, but very humble and helpful. His advice is generally worth 10x what most others will give you on here. :SNSign:

 

[pumperdriver]

Grady... Iam now on the same page with you. I will def take ur advise and put it to good use. I thank you again for taking time out to help me.

Husky..Thanks again to you.

I may be picking your brains again soon for some more help.

Stay safe

Mike

 

[final5-0]

Sure Mike

Nothing I shared with you is cutting edge tech or anything like that

Just some general info all of us members have seen be put in place
from time to time and the combos have turned out pretty good

You can see that kind of stuff has been done over and over if you
search out those peeps who did the TFS kit

That h/c/i kit has a selection of major hot rod parts that work together
pretty good and many have done well with it

Then again ... many have pieced together their own h/c/i kit and done
pretty good with that option as well

It was my intent to point out .......

Its not always a suscessful endeavor when you mix old with new technology

You can find many different combos done by the members here
thus
You can learn from our successful and not so successful efforts

Just keep what we did good and don't do what we did bad

Grady