Just Bought 91 Stang...Need some advice

Jon, congrats on the new stang! and welcome to the board.

we are currently featuring a riveting 30 page thread about CAI's if you wish to read that (I am kidding).

some induction work might be nice (H/C/I). you already have the requisite gears. you will take care of the free stuff (or have already) - timing, air silencer, etc.

I am sure this thread will go 10 pages - lots of good stuff from the folks here.

good luck it it.

My first question is: What kind of shape is it in mechanically? It looks to be in very good cosmetic shape with a few interior flaws. You scored the aftermarket 17' wheels and the Cobra brake package which is worth a lot. Poke around and see what other mods it may already have besides those you listed.

The first thing I'd do is make sure you tune it up and drive it several hundred miles to see what kinds of things may be wrong with it that you can't live with or are safety issues. Second thing to do is get a quality set of subframe connectors and have them welded in (if not already on the car) as well as install upper and lower strut tower braces. These mods alone will improve the quality of your driving experience considerably.

Third, start your speed mods. I don't think you are terribly short of high 13's right now, so don't short change yourself by buying speed parts to get you into the low 13's when you can go high to mid 12's for a little more. Personally, I'd make a plan for where I wanted to be two years down the road instead of at the end of the month (the speed bug bites hard, friend). I intentionally took a very conservative approach with my combo, and it's pretty quick on a budget, idles and drives like stock and gets fantastic mileage. Should be quicker this summer, with the addition of gears and new tires.

Good luck and welcome to the community.

nice looking car ...check the timing first thing , thats free , then I would look at H/C/I first things , best money you can spend on these cars bar none ....especially since you already have gears , nitrous is always a good mod on a 5.0 too .....

Not sure if you have a shifter or not, but the steeda tri-ax would also be a nice upgrade. An off road h or x would also free up some power. I think with the gears and suspension mods, you should already be able to run in the 13's with a little practice.

since you have the gears, get a shifter... then do a little with the exhaust.

Then do Suspension, like control arms, subframe connecters etc. People run 12's with a little motor and tons of suspension stuff.

goldsmjr said:

thanks for the replies....seems like there are some nice people on this forum.

As for the cobra wheels and brakes, they are great looking, but they rub when I near full lock. I'll use the search function to find out the extent of the free mods.

The car sounds great, but could be a little louder imo. Im sure taking of the cats will help that out. Im am trying to figure out all the suspension stuff I have on the car. Its got steeda springs, and some sort of gold-ish colored upper braces for springs/shocks in the engine bay. There is a bbk sticker on the lower control arm ....leading me to believe something back down there must be bbk.

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one can get rack limiters. it might help, depending upon how far you can turn it before it rubs.

the goldish brace is probably a strut tower brace (goes from the top of each strut housing to the firewall).

someone might have ditched the quad shocks in the back (horizontal shocks in the rear) for wheels. if so, chances are real good that you have aftermarket arms (2 or 4).

Spend $100 and get the McCarville Ford 5.0 tuneup lit. Comes with good cap & rotor, fuel filter, plugs, 9mm Motorsport wires (your choice of colors - I'm partial to blue) and some other stuff. I'm on my 4th 5.0 car, and it was the first thing I did for them. A K&N filter isn't a bad thing either. Then rip out the air silencer under the passenger fender, and bump the timing up to 13 BTDC. I delayed a long time doing it, but it turned out that subframe connectors were one of my best mods, and really not that difficult - can be had for as low as $125 plus another weld job. If that t-5 has a stock shifter, get yourself an aftermarket one.