i'm dead (long)

[tmoss]

are you kidding me... he spent 3500 on that?

Yeah, he had to PAY to have the stuff installed!!!! Or did you not read that part? You keep talking about parts prices, but he has to PAY to have it installed, and he went out on a limb with his wife to do it - so why don't you lighten up on him. Nothin like kickin a guy in the teeth when he's down right?

We both know why your down on his combo, but there's no good reason to make him feel bad about what he did because he had to pay to have it done. How much do you think he would pay to have that turbo installed and tuned?

 

[mytight95]

if i am not mistaken i think you used p heads on your car right


just curious

:wink:

 

[BlackVert]

ok here is the detail:

Stuff I bought:

695 Thumper heads
-62 Core heads refund
387.99 TFS Street Heat
64.99 MAC 70mm elbow
7.95 Ship above
308.9 Rear Control Arms
109 BBK Aluminum pulleys
60.44 Headlight housings
549 TwEECer R/T

total: 2,121.28

Shop parts

60.23 break pads
93.02 rotors
35.85 swaybar bushings
144.42 head set
59.7 motor mount
51.97 motor mount
23.18 oil pan gasket
55.62 drive belt
21.62 oil switch
57.04 ac hose
6.98 exhaust hanger
4.99 oil filter
250 h-pipe w/cats
20.56 pinion seal
9.75 housing gasket
24 spark plugs
12 posi additive
9 quart gear oil
8.75 clamp and bolt
19.24 rear trans seal
4.98 t-body gasket
9.5 intake adapter gasket
14.88 fog light bulb
5.19 pcv valve
9.9 gal anti-freeze
48 injector gaskets
10 quarts 10w-30
37.95 shop supplies
0.25 epa waste disposal

total parts: 1108.57

Mechanic labor

959 engine work
heads
intake
h-pipe
motor mounts
oil pan gasket
fanbelt
oil pressure switch
a/c line
oil change

68.5 front break job
incl r&r 2 rotors

reseal shifter cover 34.5
r&r tailshaft seal

143.85 rear suspension
springs
control arms

171.25 front suspension
springs
swaybar bushings

68.5 rear end
gasket cover
pinion seal

102.75 install headlights
also fog lights and
marker light assemblies

total: 1548.35

2121+1108+1548=4777 spent on this car!
that is 1200 more than i thought before i added it all up!

 

[BlackVert]

so i could have saved $1500 if i had done the work myself ...

 

[BlackVert]

How fast was your 96? Exactly what mods did it have? I've driven 2 97's...both felt slow to me...and haven't EVER lost to a 96-98, modded or not. For your modded 95 to feel slower than the 96, something has to be wrong. Either the 95 is way out of tune or has stock gearing. Or the 96 was a freak...

i never took it to the track, but the throttle response is good on the 96
only mods are 4.10s, steeda pulleys and t/a. that's it performance wise.
96 dynoed at 170 rwhp, 240 rwtq sae
i am hoping the tune is the problem.

 

[BlackVert]

Looks like you are focusing on the wrong thing. I don't know about others, but I mod for the fun of it, not to see how much I can get for how little. You sound like an accountant or a financial advisor--trying to figure out which car is cheaper to mod. Who cares? Drive the car you like, and enjoy modding it. That is the fun part, so stick with it and have some fun.
Jon

i care about the money because i don't have alot to blow. mine is the only income for my family of 4, and the kids are both in private school. i don't have alot of disposable income.

 

[BlackVert]

the rest of the story is i am expecting to sell the 96 for $1000 more than i paid for the 95 and i am selling/have sold alot of stuff off the 1995 and 1996 for a total of about $1800 all together.

so that gets $2800 back, which means i am $2000 poorer, not $4800 poorer.

 

[BlackVert]

if i am not mistaken i think you used p heads on your car right

sorry, i don't know what p heads are.

 

[maverick0716]

sorry, i don't know what p heads are.

GT-40P heads are what he was talking about......Thumpers are better.

 

[984.6gt]

96 with Ported PI heads, cams, and LT's would have made over 300 easy.

 

[984.6gt]

As a matter of fact, I just bought a 01 GT Motor with 23k miles for $1,100.00, after install and a few other odds and ends it came out to about $1700.00. I pick it up tomorrow.

 

[5.0 from 95]

It looks like where most of your money went was the misc. BS. Just the heads and intake stuff would not have been that bad, but you had all that other stuff done and that eats away at labor. If that is not something you could do then that is alright, but that is where the rest of save a little, you know, for more parts. Check your gears and get it tuned.


Paul

 

[tmoss]

WOW - you should be able to make more than the 96 with little trouble. I'm not sure you want to spend $100-200 on a dyno tune, but it would verify your A/F ratios, timing and give you actual RWHP too.

 

[Green 94 5.0]

then i bought ported stock heads (thumper), trick flow street heat intake, pulleys, control arms, springs, and had the mechanic fix other minor things and make sure it would pass inspection and be reliable. i also bought a tweecer r/t to tune it.

i just got the 95 back from the shop today after the headswap. $4500 for parts and labor. it is not tuned yet.

ouch. $4500 for that sounds a bit high even with labor included. i may be able to provide some assistance with the tweecer for you. getting that setup properly could easily add some pep to the combo. just give me the details on everything the car has, type of tranny, along with injector size, maf size, and the type of fuel yo run, and ill see what i can do for you. also, does the car feel sluggish, or have any sort of miss/popping? it could very easily be something as stupid as a reversed plug wire or the timing being off causing all of it.

 

[maypo59]

Also, may I point out, you have a lot more than just a head and intake swap listed there. You have spent a lot of money on parts and maintenece items that didn't really have to do with the engine performance. And it no doubt hurts the bottom line that you did none of the work yourself. Stuff like brakes, springs, etc. are so easy it isn't funny. You should deffinatly tackle those your self, once you do, you will soon find that you want to do more of the work yourself anyways. As you said, you could have saved $1500+ on labor.. hey thats $1500!!!

Check your gear ratio by raising the rear end off the ground, lay next to the car, put a chalk mark on the driveshaft were you can see it, rotate a rear tire while watching the drive shaft, the number of times it goes around compared to one reveloution of the rear tire gives you your rear gear ratio. Your engine mods should have you running strong, esp. since you have tweecer to tune with.

 

[mytight95]

your 95 has or will have more power when you get it tuned in. I would say that should have chose diff. heads. I am in no way a proffessional porter, but me and a friend ported my heads as well as having them milled .035 to raise compression. After doing this i was not THAT impressed with the gains. I think between the heads and intake you bought and not having a cam is what is making your car feel slow. you already have the tweecer, so i would put a VERY HEALTHY cam in that car, and it should move



just my .02 cents


btw i was referrring to snoozer when i stated that about the p heads


i seen in your sig also you have the fr500 wheels etc. i would like to see some pics of your car, if you cant post them e-mail them to me and i will post them for you.


jason

 

[StangJonGT]

i care about the money because i don't have alot to blow. mine is the only income for my family of 4, and the kids are both in private school. i don't have alot of disposable income.

I'm sure you don't. I just hate to see a modder start focusing on the money so much. It strips away the fun, as you can see.


Jon

 

[Josh94gt]

i care about the money because i don't have alot to blow. mine is the only income for my family of 4, and the kids are both in private school. i don't have alot of disposable income.

Technically money left over after you pay for necessities such as food and shelter to spend on "luxuries" like modding your stang is called "discretionary income". "Disposable income" is the amount of money after taxes that you have for necessities. "Gross income" is all the money you make in a year before taxes.

Anyways, don't worry too much about it. Yeah it sucks when you spend a lot of money and stuff doesn't work, but in the end you will figure it out. I just bought a whole bunch of new computer stuff (new windowed case, better motherboard, ddr400 memory, cooling fans, cathode lights, IDE/floppy cables) and re-used my hard drives, cd/dvd drives, and processor. Well, I spent about $350 on the new stuff, and I put it all together, and the thing would NOT boot up. And that was the LAST of my "extra" cash. So I was pissed. It turns out my processor was bad because i stuck it in another computer and it wouldn't work at all either. It had been running really freakin' slow in my other computer (pentium 4 1.6 ghz), but I thought the problem was the motherboard or memory. So I ended up buying a new p4 2.8hgz processor w/hyperthreading and 800mhz FSB. Now my computer is faster than ever and I couldn't be happier.

So the moral of the story is you might get a bunch of new stuff and still be disappointed, but in the end you will fix a problem you probably already had anyway and simply didn't know about. In the end your car will stomp all over the 96.

 

[mytight95]

agreed

 

[BlackVert]

i seen in your sig also you have the fr500 wheels etc. i would like to see some pics of your car, if you cant post them e-mail them to me and i will post them for you.

will do. i have a web site, i'll post them there.

WOW - you should be able to make more than the 96 with little trouble. I'm not sure you want to spend $100-200 on a dyno tune, but it would verify your A/F ratios, timing and give you actual RWHP too.

that is why i got the TwEECer R/T, so i could tune it myself. even though i don't have a wideband o2 sensor, it should help alot. i'm hoping to install it soon.

It looks like where most of your money went was the misc.

yeah. lots of little things but they added up pretty quick. it looks like the control arms lowered it some as well as the springs. i like the way it looks. i'll post some pics in a few days.

96 with Ported PI heads, cams, and LT's would have made over 300 easy.

yeah, but that would have ended up costing me about $3000. i know, that is less than $4700, but the 95 car has a new top, a great stereo, and a cobra bumper. those things would have put right up there anyways.

i may be able to provide some assistance with the tweecer for you. getting that setup properly could easily add some pep to the combo. just give me the details on everything the car has, type of tranny, along with injector size, maf size, and the type of fuel yo run, and ill see what i can do for you.

i'll get back to you with the info, thanks.

also, does the car feel sluggish, or have any sort of miss/popping?

yes, it feels sluggish. the throttle response is not good at all. when i am cruising at 2000 rpms and i step on it, it is sluggish. once the rpms the around 3000, it is better.