My Introduction

[spitfirees20]

Hello everybody! My name is Aaron, I'm 18, and I've been reading stangnet for a couple of months now, but I didn't have a mustang. However, yesterday that all changed I bought a 1998 Mustang GT, dark green in color. The bad news is it's an automatic , but it only has 70 thousand miles on it. The interior and exterior is mint, and the guy before it put a k&n cone filter (sucking in hot air from the engine bay, classy) and flowmasters on it. I'm pretty damn excited because I've wanted a 'stang for so long, and I can finally say I've got one! The cars I've had before this are a 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis, which is a really comfortable ride, and a 1989 Jeep Cherokee 5 speed, in which I have a built 4.0 that my dad and I put together, but I thought would be faster.

The downside is that I know it has the garbage non-pi equipment (head, intake, etc), but I think it's plenty fast for me right now. When spring comes I want to get some 3.73's and call it a day, not messing with boltons and saving up for a paxton or something similar. Just a couple questions: for the 3.73's, can I just get a speedcal to fix the speedometer, or am I going to need to get a tuner too? Also, with 3.73's, what rpm am I going to be cruising in OD at 60 or 65 mph? Thanks in advance, I'm proud to finally be part of this community!

P.S. Pics are coming, but it's 9 degrees out. I just can't get out there right now.

 

[streetstang03]

with the auto, go 4.10s; nothing less. You'll have to use a tuner on the automatic and i'd recommend a tranny cooler while you're there. I'd add some lowering springs to your things to do and then be done until you can afford a blower or full PI swap.

Smart move by not wasting your time/money on bolt-ons You're off to a smart start.

 

[flyboy86]

Congrats!! I second the idea of springs, get rid of the 4x4 stance. I had a similar plan, of doing a few things and stopping, but the mod bug bit me, and I'm out of control. Good luck!

 

[spitfirees20]

Thanks for the quick responses! What will I be turning over rpm-wise at 60 or 65 with the 4.10's? Although I don't drive on the highway alot, I still do it often enough and I don't want all of my highway mileage gone. Also, what do you recommend for springs? Will they actually help with handling or are they almost solely for looks?

 

[spitfirees20]

A couple pics, I apologize for the quality. Also, the hood is open because the original battery died and I put in a taller than stock battery just so I could drive it home.

 

[GToddyT5]

Congrats on your new stang.

 

[four six]

Nice stang man Where are ya located? Oh and Welcome to:SNSign:

 

[spitfirees20]

Rhode Island

 

[d98gt]

I don't really feel that our year of mustangs require the drop nearly as much as the 99+ stangs do.

How are emissions in RI? An aftermarket mid-pipe would be nice

 

[spitfirees20]

Emissions are... nice I was thinking of an x-pipe, but it seems like it won't give that much of a gain

 

[spitfirees20]

Wait, you ran a 14.7 with a similar car?

 

[BurningRubber]

Welcome man. Your also on Jeepforum right? Im xj4oh over there.

Nice Stang, happy modding...




As for gears, my buddy has a 99 GT with 4.30's and it is rediculous. He is also spraying a 100 shot, and the car is a freegin beast. Realisticly though, 4.10's are great for an auto car. If you fear the gear 3.90's are a nice compromise between 3.73's and 4.10's, especially if your going forced induction, even then alot of people will stick with 4.10's.


As for the exhaust, your stock H has 6 catalytic converters on it stock. Nice and restrictive. If you can deal with swapping the stock H out for a catless midpipe id highly reccomend it. I definatly picked up some punch in the top end when I switched to a catless x pipe.

If emissions are an issue even a catted h/x/Prochamber would show an improvment. For Flowmasters I would go Prochamber or H pipe for the classic muscle car sound. X and Prochambers tend to free up the most power, and X pipe and Flows sounds pretty unique... alot of people dont like it. Personally I do.

 

[spitfirees20]

Haha yeah I was on jeep forum until about 6 months ago, I built up an 89' 5 speed with a fresh rebuild, erson cam, bored throttle body, larger injectors, modified map sensor, custom exhaust from the header back, etc. I never had a side by side race, but I'm still pretty sure it was slower than my grand marquis, and with the renix ecu which never "learned" it always ran like crap for the first 5-10 minutes it ran. I'm happy to have something a little bit nicer

 

[BurningRubber]

Yup I remember that build, lol. I think I replied in that thread a good bit.

No offense to anyone over there at all, but I learned really fast that without dropping a crap ton of money into it an XJ will never be more than quick (well, reliably... there is always a big shot of nitrous).


The first time I drove my Stang after being in the Jeep I was blown away. That little 4.0 had some tourqe, but it was all off idle and once ya punch it you arent doing much... but the Stang just pulls and pulls untill I slam another gear.

 

[bluextc]

Nice car! Welcome to the site.

 

[elite130]

Nice lookin car you got there! Reminds me of my old Forrest Green '98.

Anyways, it sounds like you have it all pretty much figured out. I just wanted to let you know you do not need a tuner to adjust your speedo when you get new gears. All you need is a $14 speedo gear and that will fix your speedo.

 

[Saleen4971]

Haha yeah I was on jeep forum until about 6 months ago, I built up an 89' 5 speed with a fresh rebuild, erson cam, bored throttle body, larger injectors, modified map sensor, custom exhaust from the header back, etc. I never had a side by side race, but I'm still pretty sure it was slower than my grand marquis, and with the renix ecu which never "learned" it always ran like crap for the first 5-10 minutes it ran. I'm happy to have something a little bit nicer

nice stang man.

im on jeepsunlimited and there are quite a few 4.6-ish strokers on there and they all have been using the stock cam becaus eof repeated crane & comp failures (wearing off lobes, collapsed liters, etc.) what kidn of cam do you have? is there a link to them? the mod of the speed freask forum over there dino has a 80's i think 5 spd XJ with a budgets stroker, and he hit a 14.3 IIRC 1/4 mile


get soem 17's and springs for that stang! then a PI swap

 

[four six]

X pipe won't net you too much in power but the sound is

 

[spitfirees20]

I'm not sure, the h-pipe and x-pipe both seem to have subtle differences with power ranges, but with the flowmasters I think the h-pipe may sound a little better. Any opinions?

 

[BurningRubber]

H pipe = low end grunt

X pipe = opens up the top end

Prochamber = nice compromise

Thats what people claim.

H and Flowmasters sound great. Id suggest watching some vids on www.videos.streetfire.net