My Mustang is screwed up!

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

Mustang overhaul

Hey, first post here! I have a whole laundry list of questions about my mustang. I'm 16, just bought my SN95 1995 Mustang GT convertible about two months ago and I have jumped right into working on it. So far I have drained and replaced all of the fluids except for brakes, put in a K&N air filter, seafoamed it,put on Flowmaster 40 mufflers and exhaust on it, and replaced the spark plugs. So now that I have the basic stuff out of the way, I want to start adding power.

1. Before I can start though I need to diagnose a problem. Basically, while I'm driving there is a phut phut phut sound that gets higher with acceleration. I didn't mind it at first. But yesterday while I was overtaking someone at around 5000rpm, I heard the phut sound get REALLY loud and the acceleration is a lot worse now. There is an exhaust smell coming from the engine while i drive and more smoke came out from underneath my hood than my exhaust when I seafoamed it. So I think I have blown the header gaskets. I am thinking about seafoaming it again and watching where the smoke comes from. Is this a good idea? What else could it be?

2. Secondly, I want to replace a lot of things on my car as I get the money. So if you something on the list that you would like to make a recommendation on, please do so!

What do you recommend when it comes to:

Headers
X-pipes/H-pipes
Brake lines
Convertible tops
Rotors
Brake Shoes
Calipers
Springs
Shocks/Struts
Throttle bodies
CAI
Spark plug wires
Intake manifold
Gears
Shifter
Front Bumper

AND PICS

Danman765432 · Aug 12, 2007

Check your harmonic balancer if the rubber is sticking out and maybe hitting the timing cover I guess it could cause the phut phut phut sound. You should check that anyway since they do go bad...Also just wait for someone else to respond since they may know something else

bill302 · Aug 12, 2007

prolly as you stated, its the header gasket try tightening the bolts if that does not work replace gaskets.

Danman765432 · Aug 12, 2007

is it making a clicking/ticking sound or is it a deep thud?

Normally with a header gasket it will be clicking/ticking. I guess if it is really bad maybe it could make a deep thud.

Also i didnt read the thing about the header gasket before, i kind of skipped over that part.

Fopar · Aug 12, 2007

sounds like a head gasket to me

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

ok, update I was peeking around and i realized that two spark plugs have pretty much exploded, the top is gone and the wires are gone and one of the boots melted. What could have cause the spark plug tops to come off like that? I just put new ones in.

Pokageek · Aug 12, 2007

So you are 16, just got the car and driving it around @ 5000 rpm racing people on the road? Please tell us you are not doing that regularly. We don't want to see you wreck your car, kill someone else or lose your insurance. Safety 1st I would UPGRADE the brakes cuz they suck on our cars. Make sure the antilock is working too:

Brake lines
Rotors
Brake Shoes
Calipers
Springs
Shocks/Struts

You can buy the CAI but it is for $#^!! It does not give the car anymore power but you will lose power because of the intake tube taking so many curves. Plus the car will make an annoying "airy" sound that it didnt make before. No kidding. SO hope you can benefit from my wasted money ont the CAI.

The Green GT · Aug 12, 2007

Headers
Long tubes

X-pipes/H-pipes
O/R or high flow cats. Brand does not matter for the most part.

Brake lines
Stainless steel

Convertible tops
I have a coupe, couldnt tell you.

Rotors
Cobra

Brake Shoes
Cobra

Calipers
Cobra

Springs
Depends how low you want to go. I have H&R Race springs and they gave me about 2 inches of drop.

Shocks/Struts
I need to get some. Im thinking KYB.

Throttle bodies
Build motor first

CAI
My eBay one is fine. I like the airy noise.

Spark plug wires
I use Ford Racing

Intake manifold
Cobra or GT40

Gears
3.73 for 5-speed, 4.10 for auto. Thats the norm.

Shifter
I plan on getting a Pro 5.0 Shifter.

Front Bumper
Whatever you want as long as its not rice.

EDIT: And I forgot. If you get lowering springs. INSTALL C/C PLATES AT THE SAME TIME. I lost a set of tires in about 8 months due to that.

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

Pokageek said:
So you are 16, just got the car and driving it around @ 5000 rpm racing people on the road? Please tell us you are not doing that regularly. We don't want to see you wreck your car, kill someone else or lose your insurance. Safety 1st I would UPGRADE the brakes cuz they suck on our cars. Make sure the antilock is working too:

Brake lines
Rotors
Brake Shoes
Calipers
Springs
Shocks/Struts

You can buy the CAI but it is for $#^!! It does not give the car anymore power but you will lose power because of the intake tube taking so many curves. Plus the car will make an annoying "airy" sound that it didnt make before. No kidding. SO hope you can benefit from my wasted money ont the CAI.

I wasn't racing, I just pushed a little harder than I should have overtaking someone on the highway. But anyways, what makes you say the CAI makes you lose power, pretty much everything I have seen up to this point says that CAI's increase HP

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

The Green GT said:
Headers
Long tubes

X-pipes/H-pipes
O/R or high flow cats. Brand does not matter for the most part.

Brake lines
Stainless steel

Convertible tops
I have a coupe, couldnt tell you.

Rotors
Cobra

Brake Shoes
Cobra

Calipers
Cobra

Springs
Depends how low you want to go. I have H&R Race springs and they gave me about 2 inches of drop.

Shocks/Struts
I need to get some. Im thinking KYB.

Throttle bodies
Build motor first

CAI
My eBay one is fine. I like the airy noise.

Spark plug wires
I use Ford Racing

Intake manifold
Cobra or GT40

Gears
3.73 for 5-speed, 4.10 for auto. Thats the norm.

Shifter
I plan on getting a Pro 5.0 Shifter.

Front Bumper
Whatever you want as long as its not rice.

EDIT: And I forgot. If you get lowering springs. INSTALL C/C PLATES AT THE SAME TIME. I lost a set of tires in about 8 months due to that.

Thanks man. A few questions. What exactly do the gears do? I assume they make acceleration faster in the lower gears, but what other effects do they have? What are C/C plates? What kind of effect do you get from lowering your car so much?

The Green GT · Aug 12, 2007

El Horsepower said:
Thanks man. A few questions. What exactly do the gears do? I assume they make acceleration faster in the lower gears, but what other effects do they have? What are C/C plates? What kind of effect do you get from lowering your car so much?

Gears change how many times the wheels turn for each turn of the pinion. Something like that. The higher number, the faster they will turn. But you also will have to shift sooner, and will loose top speed. I went to 3.73's from the stock 2.73's and I love them.

C/C plates means Caster/Camber plates. When you lower the car, the wheels lean inward. Thats negative camber. The insides will wear down to nothing. And the stock C/C plates are not adjustable enough to fix it with lowering springs.

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

The Green GT said:
Gears change how many times the wheels turn for each turn of the pinion. Something like that. The higher number, the faster they will turn. But you also will have to shift sooner, and will loose top speed. I went to 3.73's from the stock 2.73's and I love them.

C/C plates means Caster/Camber plates. When you lower the car, the wheels lean inward. Thats negative camber. The insides will wear down to nothing. And the stock C/C plates are not adjustable enough to fix it with lowering springs.

So what effect does that have on the speed of your car? I mean does it make it so that you get faster acceleration while sacrificing top speed? Also I heard this kills gas mileage?

The Green GT · Aug 12, 2007

El Horsepower said:
So what effect does that have on the speed of your car? I mean does it make it so that you get faster acceleration while sacrificing top speed? Also I heard this kills gas mileage?

Pretty much. Yea. I didnt notice much of a drop in MPG though.

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

Sorry for so many questions, it just hard to find good resources for some things! My next question is, what is the difference between long tube headers, equal length headers, shorty headers and all that? Advantages and disadvantages? Also, what is the difference between H-pipes and X-pipes? I really would prefer to run catless, Ohio doesn't run any kind of emission testing and catted pipe cost so much more. Is there any kind of advantages to having catalyctic converters other than the legal ones? Thanks for the help!

juiced_94gt · Aug 12, 2007

El Horsepower said:
Hey, first post here! I have a whole laundry list of questions about my mustang. I'm 16, just bought my SN95 1995 Mustang GT convertible about two months ago and I have jumped right into working on it. So far I have drained and replaced all of the fluids except for brakes, put in a K&N air filter, seafoamed it,put on Flowmaster 40 mufflers and exhaust on it, and replaced the spark plugs. So now that I have the basic stuff out of the way, I want to start adding power.

1. Before I can start though I need to diagnose a problem. Basically, while I'm driving there is a phut phut phut sound that gets higher with acceleration. I didn't mind it at first. But yesterday while I was overtaking someone at around 5000rpm, I heard the phut sound get REALLY loud and the acceleration is a lot worse now. There is an exhaust smell coming from the engine while i drive and more smoke came out from underneath my hood than my exhaust when I seafoamed it. So I think I have blown the header gaskets. I am thinking about seafoaming it again and watching where the smoke comes from. Is this a good idea? What else could it be?

2. Secondly, I want to replace a lot of things on my car as I get the money. So if you something on the list that you would like to make a recommendation on, please do so!

What do you recommend when it comes to:

Headers
X-pipes/H-pipes
Brake lines
Convertible tops
Rotors
Brake Shoes
Calipers
Springs
Shocks/Struts
Throttle bodies
CAI
Spark plug wires
Intake manifold
Gears
Shifter
Front Bumper

AND PICS

OK:

headers: BBK Long tubes
Shorty X-pipe
SS brake lines for sure
I have a 03 Cobra CLOTH top on my car
Brembo rotors
Brembo pads
Brembo calipers(or at least cobra calipers)
Tokico illumina struts & shocks
BBK thottle body (70mm)
JLT CAI
FRPP Wires
Trickflow street heat manifold
3:73 gears (FRPP)
MGW shifter (the BEST i've had all of them)
And a cobra front bumper

The Green GT · Aug 12, 2007

El Horsepower said:
Sorry for so many questions, it just hard to find good resources for some things! My next question is, what is the difference between long tube headers, equal length headers, shorty headers and all that? Advantages and disadvantages? Also, what is the difference between H-pipes and X-pipes? I really would prefer to run catless, Ohio doesn't run any kind of emission testing and catted pipe cost so much more. Is there any kind of advantages to having catalyctic converters other than the legal ones? Thanks for the help!

Long tubes are longer. They make more power.

Equal lengths are crap. They dont make any more power than a regular shorty header, and they tend to burn alot of plug wires.

Shorties are just better flowing versions of the stock ones. Ill probably get those because Longtubes hang low, and my car is too low for that.

If you dont have emisions, then get an off-road pipe. Which basically means, no cats.

And the difference between and X and H pipe is the way the crossover is shaped. The H is shaped like and H, and the X is shaped like and X.

I have an O/R H-pipe. From what Ive heard, the H gives more of a classic muscle sound, and the X gives more of a race car sound.

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

I have kind of heard the long tube are a PITA to install. Is this true or is it just as hard as installing shorties? Also, would I have a problem with ground clearance of the headers If I kept the ride height stock? How much of a difference in power is there between shorties and longs? Is it enough to give up lowering the ride and gaining ride quality? Kind of off topic, but how would I go about fixing bumpsteer, my car has it pretty bad.

juiced_94gt · Aug 12, 2007

El Horsepower said:
I have kind of heard the long tube are a PITA to install. Is this true or is it just as hard as installing shorties? Also, would I have a problem with ground clearance of the headers If I kept the ride height stock? How much of a difference in power is there between shorties and longs? Is it enough to give up lowering the ride and gaining ride quality? Kind of off topic, but how would I go about fixing bumpsteer, my car has it pretty bad.

Ok lt's arent hard to install, remover the motor mount bolts and lift the engine SLIGHTLY...(very easy to do) My car is lowered with the eibach pro kit and hve no issues, the headers tuck up very nicely so you can still lower the car...you wont feel power from shorties but you wil from lt's plus the exhaust sound just plain BETTER, as for bumpsteer, i would look at tie rods, steering rack, and steering shaft before looking into a bumpsteer kit( not needed on a un-lowered car) is your car aligned?

El Horsepower · Aug 12, 2007

juiced_94gt said:
Ok lt's arent hard to install, remover the motor mount bolts and lift the engine SLIGHTLY...(very easy to do) My car is lowered with the eibach pro kit and hve no issues, the headers tuck up very nicely so you can still lower the car...you wont feel power from shorties but you wil from lt's plus the exhaust sound just plain BETTER, as for bumpsteer, i would look at tie rods, steering rack, and steering shaft before looking into a bumpsteer kit( not needed on a un-lowered car) is your car aligned?

Yeah I just had it aligned, it got a little bit better when I did it but its still pretty bad

toyman · Aug 12, 2007

The Green GT said:
Gears change how many times the wheels turn for each turn of the pinion. Something like that. The higher number, the faster they will turn. But you also will have to shift sooner, and will loose top speed.

I think losing top speed is a bit of a myth about gears. I was able to run to 140 mph (GPS verified) with 4:10's. Somehow I don't think the car would go much faster if I had the original 3:27's still in. What I believe happens to maintain the same top speed is that the taller gears enable you to run to a higher engine rpm than you could with shorter gears. For example, the AOD-E in 4th and at 5000 rpm your speed will be 138 mph whereas if you had 3:27's and were able to reach 5000 rpm your speed would be 173 mph, not very likely. You would reach the 138 mph though at 4000 rpm and at 4500 rpm your speed would be 156 mph if you could get the engine speed to that level.

My Mustang is screwed up!

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