I need some help guys

[Chowder Head]

I've been wanting to get some healthy mods for my car, but I keep changing my mind. I'm leaning towards three choices. I've got a lot of questions too so if you don't mind answering those, I'd appreciate it.

1. NA motor, maybe some AFR 165-185 heads, mild cam, 3.73 gears, and a nice healthy exhaust. This seems fine for the street but I have a feeling I'd be wanting more power...

2. NA motor, 331 stroker with beefier heads, intake, cam, and eventually turbo it now that I don't have to worry about the block splitting at 500.

3. Slap a turbo on my stocker motor and take it from there. Get some heads, probably keep my stock gears, intake and keep my stock cam because turbo like that cam.

I like step 1 because I don't have all the money in the world, but is it stupid of me to think if I end up getting the HCI combo, and 3.73, I'll have to revert to other stuff if I turbo it? Re-use my stock cam and run a numerically smaller gear?

Also, if I go with choice one, and have a healthy stock block motor, what cars can beat me stock for stock? I'll be what, in the 13 range?

Regarding choice 2, how hard is to replace the block? I know it's at the very bottom but is it a major task?

Thanks for reading guys, I've been torn on which path I want to take and would really, really appreciate any opinions.

 

[4Jenna]

if u have a good healthy motor now, stick with that bottom end and go from there. Your limited to the afr165s unless you wanna notch the pistons.
You can have a mean lil combo on your hands their if put together correctly..but then again if you plan to go stroked/boosted later you will likely end up running diff h/c/i (bigger, more suited for boost)

 

[Chowder Head]

if u have a good healthy motor now, stick with that bottom end and go from there. Your limited to the afr165s unless you wanna notch the pistons.
You can have a mean lil combo on your hands their if put together correctly..but then again if you plan to go stroked/boosted later you will likely end up running diff h/c/i (bigger, more suited for boost)

Your referring to choice 1, correct?

Yeah, I think you're right. It's not like the combo I chose will be final forever. I can have many more Mustangs with different combos. The next one wilder then the last one.

And since I have limited know-how, I'll probably go with the first choice and work my way up from there.

Thanks man.

 

[darthcual]

Nice name chowder head. Whatever you choose, make sure you do all the little things first as far as plugs and wires and any other tune up that is needed. Also consider putting that power to the ground. Tires and a nice suspension go along way. Good luck

 

[Chowder Head]

After thought, I have just one more question.

If I stayed NA and with the stock block and did everything I could with the stock 302, would it have some respectable power? I know it won't be the fastest thing out there but I'd like it have a car with some very nice power that only a few cars could pull away from me.

Thanks!

 

[CarFreakGT]

I would go w/ option 1. No matter which combo you go with, you're going to be bottled up w/ stock exhaust. Option 1 takes that into consideration. Also, if you decide to go w/ a power adder later, and need different heads, gears, etc., you could probably sell the 165s and 3.73s pretty easily. In the meantime, you would have a nice combo that'll give you much better performance than stock.