Modification Survey Thread

UPDATE (Again):

(Note, all mods were done at same time)
K&N FIPK Gen II : Looks pretty cool, makes a sweet sound when you rev it up.
Steeda Pullies : Since they were all installed together, can't tell which is providing the most power.
FMS Aluminum Driveshaft : Quite, looks awesome, much lighter weight.

In all, I'm pleased with the mods, and I can DEFINATELY feel a lot more power through all first gear it seems and top end of all the other gears.

Originally posted by Saleen201
UPDATE

BBK LT headers and BBK O/R H pipe- It was a PITA to install but worth every knuckle breaking, tool trowing moment
If i was to do it again it would be so bad... i think i made every mistake the first time. Gains are very noticeable. The car doesnt seem so slugish anymore.

BBK LT, BBK O/R H pipe, Borla Catback Exhaust Sound- At idle it is pretty quite with a noticable grumble. Normal driving under 2500 RPM gives a sweet low tone and grumble but as soon as you go WOT above 2500 RPM it gets LOUD and i love it. From what i hear not as loud as the MagnaPacks but it is still loud

-Mike

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Mike,
I have a borla cat back and was thinking of going with the BBK longtubes. How much louder is it after the Longtubes are added and did you notice any more power?
John

Anyone have the saleen series 2 on a '98? I am deciding between it and getting the headswap (p&p with .510x.530 cams). Looking for about 100 hp.

Originally posted by stimmler
Mike,
I have a borla cat back and was thinking of going with the BBK longtubes. How much louder is it after the Longtubes are added and did you notice any more power?
John

Click to expand...

Not sure if Mike is able to be on SN for awhile. So, I will answer for him if you don't mind.

His car became much louder. If you are a few car lengths behind him and he accelerates, you can hear it loud and clear. And I am sure he noticed more power. L/T's give some nice HP gains.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, that was exactly what I was wondering. Hope Mike does well, I'm also a , USNR.

Scotty, why don't you cruise around the local high school and find another 17y.o. girl to screw like you did with Sarah.

Originally posted by SpeedJunky
Scotty, why don't you cruise around the local high school and find another 17y.o. girl to screw like you did with Sarah.

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99 GT 5 speed

Here goes

Bassani X pipe with aftercats
My first significant mod....definitely worth the money. Easy installation....sounds absolutely awesome. If you want your car to sound FAST and want a noticeable performance gain, bassani is the pipe for you. If you want MEAN or loud, go with another

3.90 Motive Gear
Combined with the exhaust, turns my tame GT into a contender. Gears and high flow exhaust with a bit of good driving can make a world of a difference. 3.90 is a good gear, best of both worlds (3.73 vs. 4.10)

Ported Bullitt Intake, Accufab TB, Ferrea Valves, SVO springs, Ported Heads, radical cams
Ralph from powerheads did my port work. The bullitt intake is VERY expensive (both the intake itself and all the other nickel and dime parts that have to go with it). Although an aftermarket intake is a must to have really significant horsepower down the road, it's very overpriced for the amount of horsepower you're going to get. AND it's a real pain to install. Lots of parts that don't match up between bullitt and GT. (valve covers, vacuum setups, radiator hose, thermostat housing, gaskets, brackets....all sorts of painful purchases). However, port work and throttle body combined with the cams makes the car scream. After the work I did, the car would break loose at 70 mph (naturally aspirated) I wouldn't recommend getting custom cams until your ready to purchase an autolgic chip (you must get autologic so you can reset the rpm idle, the only way it will idle). If you really want to build horsepower without beating on your engine with a truckload of boost, powerheads does a great job. No complaints there

I haven't had the rest of my major mods long enough to give you feedback, the jury's still out....but if I were starting all over again, I'd do everything except I'd probably pass on the bullitt intake and put that money into my suspension.

Re: 99 GT 5 speed

Originally posted by Fatty1570
Ported Bullitt Intake, Accufab TB, Ferrea Valves, SVO springs, Ported Heads, radical cams

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im looking for info on the same type of N/A heads/cams/intake setup that you have. im planning for the next off-season, so i do have time to research.

are you using re-grind cams? i have read some horror stories, and some success stories as far as regrinds go. from what ive gathered so far, the install of the cams is what makes or breaks them. any imput is appreciated. after you get more driving time on your combo, please re-post on its durability.

if i may ask, what did the top end cost you? a ballpark figure would do.

thanks,
-Mike

All the N/A work I had done, was through powerheads.

Depending on what you have done, the cost varies. If you use your heads (which I did, ship them off, have them cnc port them and ship them back) it's around $1200 for the porting work. Include the cams (regrinds, which are awesome, no complaints) I'm not sure. I bought the intake and the accufab from powerheads as well. All in total, the powerheads purchase was $3675, not including shipping ($70 one way). Keep in mind that the bullitt/accufab was $1800 and the rest (heads, valves, springs, cams) was the remainder (around $1875). Then throw in all the bells and whistles to go with the intake (two sets of gaskets, radiator hose, alternator, mounting brackets, throttle cable, valve cover, air intake tube,) the cost of the bullitt with installation was somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500! I had the mechanic work done for me....because I wanted it done right and it was a bit beyond me (I could have done it....but the risk and the amount of time it would have taken was too much compared to the money I was spending). So....bottom line

heads (yours), cams (regrinds) valves and springs .....around $1800 (keep in mind my sit. was a package deal)

Bullitt/accufab....around $2500

If you want it done right....it costs money

Talk to Ralph at powerheads, they did an EXCELLENT job. My car N/A was seriously strong. The cams are way radical though, they don't even wake up until 3500 rpm. You'll have to have it tuned or an autologic chip like I said...(only autologic can reset the idle rpm)

i figured as much...

hey man, thanks for posting the info.

did Powerheads actually do the regrinds?, or did they send thier specs to Crane (or whoever)? do you know who they used as an outsource for the cams (if applicable)? when you recieved your heads were the cams already installed?

i apoligize if some of these questiond seem 'stupid' but, truthfully im ignorant when it comes to the 4.6 engines. i only know about the bolt-ons that work... not the bolt ins.

i figured id be $5k+ deep into this next winter. i better figure on $6k just to be safe. hopefully ill have the money available.

thanks again,
-Mike

edit... im not concerened with anything below 4,000 rpm since i launch at 5k+, and id like to stretch the redline to 6,500 on the stock shortblock if possible.

You'll have to talk to Ralph (powerheads). He did outsource the cam regrinds, not sure whom though, it was there local in CA though. I sent the heads complete, but when they come back, the cams will be out (they have to send them to regrind them) and so they just left them out. I suppose you could request them complete upon return.

thanks again...

Ralph @ Powerheads is on my list of contacts.

-Mike

MAC O/R H Pipe: well worth the 120 something bucks...had a BBK pipe with cats and the cats went out...decided I really didn't want those damn things anyway...MUCH LOUDER and a little bit stronger. I had a bit of a problem with the install at first they were hitting the frame but after a bit of manipulating it was great.

K&N with silencer removed...car had 4:10s and flows already on it when I bought it but the engine was completely stock...dropped in the new filter and noticed a pretty good improvement right away...don't know why they didn't do this in the first place!

SHM shortblock - nice foundation for a race motor!
SHM Blower cams - Really wakes it up!
Ported heads - allows other mods to make even more power!
JBA cat4Ward headers - i put these on mainly because of the carb #
Canton Road Racing Oil Pan - with the baffles in the bottom, i feel a lot safer
Canton Windage Tray - why not?
Vortech- was on the car already
AFM Power Pipe - i gained 4 psi boost and over 6 mph in the 1/4 mile! installation was failry easy, the benefits incredible!
Accufab single-blade S/C Throttle Body - lovely piece! works well @ the 500 HP level
MSD Dis-4 - Keeps everything nice and safe! best investment in a supercharged setup to avoid the factory limiter under boost.
Nitto 555R Drag Radials - hook and book!

GOROBGO 11s

I have a 99Gt and used to have a 96GT. I had so much success with a minimal amount of mods on my 96GT that i would like to incorperate my experience with that car into this post. Hopefully nobody will mind me talking about a car which i no longer own.

On my 96GT
K&N filter and 2 chamber delta flows
-Just put them in because i liked the sound of 2 chambers and I needed a new air filter. Still ran the 15.1@96mph or so that i did in stock trim...go figure
Mac economy off-road H-pipe and underdrive pullies
-$209 shipped to my door. With just these mods an learning to bog the car off the line, shift at about 5300rpms, running threw the traps in 4th, I ran very consistant 14.3s, with my best being a 14.32@99.8mph with a 2.26 60'(i think that was the trap speed it was a while ago) With the times i ran for such limited amount of mods I as well as my buddies are to this day asstounded and recomend these be the first 4 mods for anybody with a 96-98GT. My goal was to hit 13s with out the head swap but i got cliped on the E-way and sent into a wall totaling the car.

On my 99GT

K&N filter and 2chamber flows
-These are the first 2 mods I made on the car. I opted for the original 2 chambers as the deltas seemed to just be quiter not drone any less. I ran a 13.93 with a 2.26 60' (i also had a 103.7mph trap speed but that must have been due to a tail wind because everybody trapped pretty damn high that day)
king cobra clutch
-I had a nasty sounding thowout bearing and basicly changed the clutch out so i could get a new throw out bearing put in. 3 weeks later the chirping came back even worse lol not a bad clutch but started showing signs of failure 30k miles later. I did like launching with this clutch much better and with some p255s I cut my 60' to a 2.09 running a 13.81@101.x
Mac longtubes, Prochamber and blocked off EGR
-Pain to install but i did eventually acomplish it with some help from some friends, alot of pizza and some beers for everybody. I did notice a nice SOTP gain but have not been to the track with good conditions to get any ETs. If i had to do it over again i would have gotten the headers coated because they are starting to rust already disspite the 2 cans of high temp engine paint i put on them. Only thing that I regret really though is i should have just gotten a off road H-pipe. The pro-chamber keeps this set up quite. Im gonna try a magnaflow catback in the future to make it louder but if that doesn't work im installing some dumps.
SPEC stage two clutch kit
-This clutch is awsome, I got it from www.mustangX.com for a pretty damn good price aswell. TOB is chirping again but the pedal feel is great and well its just a great clutch kit. One of my favorite mods to date.
NX wet kit,GenX2 upgrade, window switch, tach adapter and some phantom series gauges
-The car sure did move with this kit installed but i ditched it. I got sick of having to pay to get he bottle refilled all the time. I only used it a handfull of times. I say use the money towards some heads and cams, save to get a blower or save even more and get a turbo. Gauges look good though haha
Maximum Motorsports subframe connectors
-My car feels so much more sturdy with these installed you can definetly feel a nice difference with these installed.
Motive 3.90s
Very pleased with them
Autologic Chip
Well as of right not i can't tell of any perf. gains but it did turn off my EGR ses and compinsated for my speedo after the gears.
Steeda Tri-ax
-BAD ARSE well worth it, however it is a little noisey
Mac CAI
-looks awesome
FMS billet flywheel
-My clutch seems to like it alot more, no shuddering when starting out in first like it used to do


Next up P&P my 99 heads, some cams and some of those alluminum valve covers. Anybody got stories to tell about their P&P heads and cams expeirences?

MustangWorld White Face Guages- Look great! Install wasent bad! Check signature for installation help!
Pioneer TS-A6880R 4-way Speakers- Sounds Much better!
K&N FIPK Generation II- Better Sound and it looks better, little to no horsepower gains!
Autolite 764’s @ .54- Nothing
Intake Spacer- doesent feel faster but the rpms dont hang!
Synthetic Mobil One 5w30- Nothing
Clear Corners- 5 minute install!

Black1998GT update from 1st page:

C&L 80mm MAF:
I found a deal on this that I couldn't resist, so I picked it up to try it out. I switched my Densecharger MAF-Fenderwell out for this. I kept my Densecharger throttle body pipe though. As far as gains, they're not as huge as everyone says (at least not that I felt). I think it gave about the same gains as the Densecharger did (maybe an extra HP or 2). But like I said, I only tried it because I found a great deal on it. I wouldn't recommend this as a first mod unless you're itching to blow some money.

Redline D4 ATF:
This stuff is great! Well worth the money! Took away the notchy shifting in my 65K mile T-45. Also helped with some of the grinding. I still get grinding in cold weather sometimes though. This stuff should've came in the tranny from the factory.

Lakewood 50/50 shocks:
Bought to replace my busted POS Bullit shocks. I haven't installed them yet, but will update when I do. Not expecting anything from them. But they're cheap, so that's why I went with them.

FMS 3.73 Gears – Should be the 1st mod anyone does.

Novi 1000 Supercharger with Paxton Intercooler – Power is amazing. Gears & SC made my car a beast. Getting my ’02 tuned properly has been very difficult however. I’ve added several things to compliment the blower:

90mm Lightning MAF – Bought same time as the Delta Chip
IAT Sensor – Needed for tuning in the chip
IAT Plug – Got off a ’93 Taurus. Needed for tuning in the chip
2nd By-pass Valve – Car was bucking with one. Problem is gone with the 2nd
Delta Chip (mail order Dennis Reinhart) – Hopefully 3rd time is the charm. It runs rich and has too much timing at WOT. Dennis is fixing it & will have it to me by 4/4
MAFterburner – Control/Modify my Air/Fuel
Smaller Pulley (10 psi from Paxton) – Help the Novi 1000 push air thru that IC

Bassani X-Pipe with CATS – Great addition. Love the sound and SOTP (12hp on the dyno) feeling along with the quality of the piece.