Seeking Advice On Bang For The Buck Mods

[MustangNewbie]

Greetings all! Looking for some advice on how to approach "bang for the buck" type mods to the car. My Mustang is a 2016 GT w/ the GT Performance package in ruby red. Bought it new last summer, less then 5k miles on the odometer as of writing this. Only changes from stock are that I had the dealer swap out the 19" rims when I bought it for the 20" Mustang Foundry wheels, a Ford racing shift knob w/ aluminum collar, and full window tinting at the darkest Colorado will allow. Very minor appearance stuff. Now, I'd simply like some more power and more growl. My only two parameters, and neither is set in stone, would be to keep phase one to a spend of $3k or less, and ideally maintain the factory warranty. I'll never hit 36k miles within 3 years with this car, so really its 2.5 more years of warranty as this is a part time driver for me. I was thinking of the following items, some combination there of:

1) CAI
2) Tune
3) 85, 87, or 90mm throttle body
4) Some sort of cat-back exhaust mods - I'd really like to amp up the growl, avoiding drone as much as possible

I have considered letting my Ford dealer do the Mustang performance pack upgrades with the GT350 87mm throttle body and the accompanying CAI system and tune. Maybe x-pipes and axle back exhaust swap. I am guessing if I went Roush, Steeda, or BBK I could probably pull more HP / torque than the Ford Performance brand, however, the loss of warranty is a concern.

Thank you all for your time and sharing your opinion and expertise!

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

Get the stage 3 kit and let the dealer install, then after they are done get a programmer and get someone else to write you a custom tune for your car. As long as you put the ford stage 3 tune back in before you go in for service you will be good on warranty. The ford tune is rather conservative and any good tuner can get more power out of the stage 3 kit. Later down the road do some long tube headers, and a set of comp cams and you should be around 525-550 hp at the crank N/A

BTW american muscle and LMR sells the stage 3 kit for $1999, and a custom tune with an SCT X4 will run you 500-750 depending on who you get it from. Under your 3K limit for stage 1


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELe-7dtWp_8