Need help choosing mods....

90STANGPONY

New Member
Feb 16, 2008
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Well I talked with my wife and she finally gave me the go ahead for doing some beginning mods. I should probably have some cash ready in about the middle of July or so. I am looking at about $1200-$1400 to start. I am also going to buy tires at the same time. So on that note, I know that Dave has heard my car along with a few others and the first things I think I need to do are; lifters, roller rocker arms, upper and lower intake, push rods and the seals to stop the leaks. If cash permits then i am also looking at a set of headers and doing the shifter kit. Let me know what you guys think. Also If I could borrow some people for wrench time that would be great. I can trade time with you if you want. Thanks in advance.
 
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Exhaust is one of the first things you should do to those things. You have a cat back which is better, but a set of long tubes and an O/R H pipe will make a huge difference. Also if you're going in that deep, look for a cheap low buck cam, like FMS line up. I had an F-303 with all stock vavle train and I could se a huge difference, "also did all my exhuast upgrades at the same time." get rid of that manual fan, save you a few HP. All in all, if you save a few more bucks and just get a whole HCI kit!!! that would be an awesome route to start you off too.

A set of 3.73's for t-5 or 4.10's for auto's will wake them up too.
 
Long tubes will kill the bottom end on a stock engine. Shorties are a much better choice in this case.

My recommendation for the first mod would be a set of 3.73 gears. Of all the stuff I've done to my car, gears were the biggest bang for the bucks spent and I wish I did them years before I did.
 
Long tubes will kill the bottom end on a stock engine. Shorties are a much better choice in this case.

My recommendation for the first mod would be a set of 3.73 gears. Of all the stuff I've done to my car, gears were the biggest bang for the bucks spent and I wish I did them years before I did.


You heard that nasty lifter or rocker arm tap I have. Thats why im checking into doing more of the top end work and then the headers. Do you think that might work for now? Im really trying to keep the car on the road until I can afford to put it down for a little while. I figure the work should be a good weekend worth of work.
 
You have a roller lifters so it won't damage the cam changing the lifters. I have used the same low mile lifters on different cams. Thats what's so nice about roller lifters you don't have to replace them on cam swaps!!
 
Do not forget about underdrive pullys, also a low buck 5-8 h.p. at the tires. For the $ the rear gears will give the best e.t. improvement. With a Auto Trans, I like to go with 4.10:1, still not to bad with the O.D. at highway speeds. I think about 2,300 rpm at 70 mph depending on tire size.
 
So heres the next question then. I currently have either a lifter or rocker arm tap that is nasty. So does everyone think that I need to swap those before anything else? Just for now so I can keep the car on the road. It is my daily driver so I kind of need it. Thanks.
 
you would probably be better off fixing the lifter noise first before doing the other mods, that way you don't spend your money on the other stuff then find out it will cost more to fix the problem you are having right now. if you install a new cam, lifters and or rocker arms and the noise goes away then i would start doing the other mods. as far as the lifters go you can re-use them on a new cam but if you have one making noise now would be the time to replace them.
 
you would probably be better off fixing the lifter noise first before doing the other mods, that way you don't spend your money on the other stuff then find out it will cost more to fix the problem you are having right now. if you install a new cam, lifters and or rocker arms and the noise goes away then i would start doing the other mods. as far as the lifters go you can re-use them on a new cam but if you have one making noise now would be the time to replace them.

Thanks. That is what I was trying to figure out. I want to make sure that certain things get fixed first before I start doing heavy mods and then everything breaks and I dont have a car for a while. I think the lifters will be first and then probably a few other parts while I have the top opened up. Thanks for the info and advice.
 
maybe you should pull the valve covers and make sure its not just a loose rocker arm. That is a cheap fix. Might help take some of the worry away too. Just a thought!

Good call. I have been contemplating doing this for while now and I figured that I go ahead and get the rocker arms and lifters and get them replaced while its apart. The sound is coming from the drivers side head, definitely not the bottom end. Im trying to keep from doing the job twice. I already have all the gaskets, just dont want to do the job more than once :D . Thanks