kid on a budget - what mods should i do

302stangGT · Feb 1, 2004

i hav a completely stock 92 gt with aod, and i have about a 2000 budget to spend on aftermarket stuff. i want to spend most of it on the engine and exhaust cause i want this thing to be fast, but im open to suggestions...please help me decide what to do.

ram360 · Feb 1, 2004

Everyone's probably going to say go w/ some 4.10's since you have an auto. It's amazing what a little gear will do. Probably a good place to start. BTW welcome to stangnet!

willys1 · Feb 1, 2004

Before you get to the motor,set a good platform to handle any hp you will add on.The aod is sluggish,and fragile.Get a good quality high speed torque converter (That will totally wake up you car) shift kit,and a tranny cooler(this will make it not so fragile).Next get some gears,3.73's or 4.10's.Your stang will be "alot faster"just with these,and you didnt even touch the motor yet!!

Kdubslugga · Feb 1, 2004

2 grand will get you off on the right foot. Personaly i would start with gears, 4.10s with AOD, unless this is your daily driver you might wanna consider 3.73's. Go with full exhaust of your choosing. Maybe some underdrive pullies and a shift kit. With just this you'll notice a huge difference and have alot of money left over. It truely is amazing what gears, stall converter, and shift can do to an AOD. You dont even have to get a stall right now, but when you do you should definetly consider a trans cooler

iluvcars · Feb 1, 2004

first off, are you mechanically inclined? if so, id do the following mods in order:

1. catback. i prefer flowmaster but listen to a few sound clips on www.mustangexhaust.com to pick what setup u like first.
2. BBK ceramic coated Long Tube headers and a shorty X-pipe to go with that.
3. gears id go 4.10s if its not gonna be driven on the highway
4. u/d pulleys, easy bolton and worth about a tenth in the quarter
5. TIRES! traction is the most imp. thing to make ur stang fast, if u can't hook now theres no point in adding more power. if its a daily driver id get some Nitto Drag Radials for the rear.
6. with the rest of the money id actually do an AOD to t-5 swap. u'll be much faster with the manual especially once u do heads/cam/intake.

if anything i mentioned confuses you, PM me about it and ill try my best to explain, i once was in your postion and had no idea what to do. your doing a good thing by coming on here and learning, thats the first step and ur already there.

willys1 · Feb 1, 2004

iluvcars said:
first off, are you mechanically inclined? if so, id do the following mods in order:

1. catback. i prefer flowmaster but listen to a few sound clips on www.mustangexhaust.com to pick what setup u like first.
2. BBK ceramic coated Long Tube headers and a shorty X-pipe to go with that.
3. gears id go 4.10s if its not gonna be driven on the highway
4. u/d pulleys, easy bolton and worth about a tenth in the quarter
5. TIRES! traction is the most imp. thing to make ur stang fast, if u can't hook now theres no point in adding more power. if its a daily driver id get some Nitto Drag Radials for the rear.
6. with the rest of the money id actually do an AOD to t-5 swap. u'll be much faster with the manual especially once u do heads/cam/intake.

if anything i mentioned confuses you, PM me about it and ill try my best to explain, i once was in your postion and had no idea what to do. your doing a good thing by coming on here and learning, thats the first step and ur already there.

Im getting 4.10's next Friday,and I do 126 miles a day,all highway.If you do the mods I told you to the tranny,youll hang or beat any stock 5spd out of the hole !!

25thmustang · Feb 1, 2004

Put a stick in it... I spent so much engine mods trying to run 13s with the auto, and never got there. Then in went the stick and bam first run hit a 13. Then added headers and H and went low 13s, which would have NEVER happened with the auto...

If not, get gears!

willys1 · Feb 1, 2004

25thmustang said:
Put a stick in it... I spent so much engine mods trying to run 13s with the auto, and never got there. Then in went the stick and bam first run hit a 13. Then added headers and H and went low 13s, which would have NEVER happened with the auto...

If not, get gears!

Im curious,what did you have done to your aod,and what gears did you have?

25thmustang · Feb 1, 2004

I had an AOD with a 2600 converter, and 3.73s... ran a 14.185...

Then sold my mass air and injectors and only went 14.3.

Added the stick and went 13.9, with stock clutch.

Then swapped shorties and H for LTs and prochamber, pulleys and clutch, and went 13.2.

Then rebuilt Tloc and went 13.0.

bmo37 · Feb 1, 2004

i'd do gears and a full exhaust, its pointless to add engine mods and leave the exhaust stock best bang for your buck though is probably going to be nos or supercharger.

9 Deuce GT · Feb 2, 2004

gears, exhaust, 5 spped.

1hot5.0 · Feb 2, 2004

Here is what I would do:

1. Tranny Cooler. THIS IS A MUST, especially when you get into a torque converter. If I was to do it all over again, I would do this first. I was amazed at how hot the cooler got, and I have a 100% stock transmission. I went with a B&M cooler.

2. 4.10 gears. I had them put in my daily driver about 2 weeks ago, and I do not regret it at all. I was amazed at the difference that they made. It felt like a +60 HP increase.

3. Underdrive Pulleys. This is a real easy mod that you can do yourself. They are good for about +1 mpg and give you a nice power increase. Try and get them used if you can. Save some cash that way.

4. Headers, H-pipe, catback. I would go with shorty headers for ease of installation. A friend of mine has BBK shorty headers, and has no problems. Another has MAC shorty headers and has no problems.

As far as the H-pipe goes, I would go with an O/R if you don't have emissions in your area (or if you don't mind swapping out every 2 years to pass the e-check).

Catback. It's up to you. They all perform basically the same. Make your choice by deciding which one sounds best to you. Like previosuly stated, http://www.mustangexhaust.com has some nice soundclips to listen to.

5. Torque converter. Don't go cheap here. If you do, you will regret it later. I have heard good things about http://www.converter.com/and http://www.edgeracingconverters.com/. Be sure you installed the transmission cooler before getting a converter.

6. Shift Kit. This will reduce the time that it takes your transmission to shift, and produce a snappier shift. I have heard good things about Trans-go.

Hope this helps. I am by no means an expert, just giving you my $.02.

88stangmangt · Feb 2, 2004

with 2 grand i would do gears,shift kit,gt-40 heads/intake,full exhaust and no one mentioned a short throw shifter.

25thmustang · Feb 2, 2004

short throw shifter on an auto? Never heard of it.

Sicarius428 · Feb 2, 2004

What simple things I think you should do with your budget if you are going to do the work yourself is: change the rear gears, full exhaust, tranny oil cooler, shift kit, underdrive pullies and replace your air filter for starters. That should leave you some money to see what else needs improvement after all that is done.
If you are hard core, maybe some some head, intake, and a tranny cooler, expect to not have your car for a couple of days though. If you get that done you can save up to get the exhaust done later but at least you have the core of the things done and work around the engine from there.

302stangGT · Feb 2, 2004

alright thanks guys, this helped alot. any recomendations on where to buy some of this stuff, like the tranny cooler and the torque converter. And also what type of converter should i be looking 4, cause this car wont be hitting the drag strip too often.

SYLENTBUTVYLENT · Feb 2, 2004

I would say:
1. Trans cooler. and make sure you hard pipe the lines, you wouldnt wanna have a hose blow off while runnin' it
2. Shift kit. Trans-go make a pretty good kit and its pretty easy to do yourself if you are mechanical.
3. Gears. no less that 4.10 no more than 4.30 for a street car. You might wanna rebuild that trac-lok while you are there.
4. Exhaust. If you do long tube headers, make sure you triple check that they will fit around the body of that aod. Alot of companies make them for 5 speeds and the manual case is smaller.
5.Tires. What good is Torque if you cant plant it
6. You should still have a good amount of money left so I would look into lower control arms and subframe connectors. If you have someone that'll weld the subframes in for you, get a pair of torque box reinforcements and have them welded as long as hes there.,,,hope that helps

88stangmangt · Feb 2, 2004

i meant if he switched over to 5-speed

Sicarius428 · Feb 2, 2004

It sounds like he wants to work with what he has and build it up from there. I don't think you need to go as far as to take the tranny out to put a new stall converter in for your every day driver. It would really push the limit of comfortable driveability not including more added stress on your aod. Just get the typical upgrades. If you were going to go as far as to redo your converter you might as well do the heads and intake too. Then save up for the tires because you will be tearing those up quick.

bmo37 · Feb 2, 2004

5 spd is more fun driving and yes when the car is only mildly modded 11's and higher the 5 spd wins but as the et drops you will see many aods dominating over the manuals. Id do gears 4:10s and a torque convertor.

kid on a budget - what mods should i do

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