Should I stay close to stock?

[Triple White 91]

Hello everyone.

I'm new to the site. I would like to say I'm glad to have found a site where people talk and discuss mods/repairs etc. on fox 5.0's. There are not many 5.0's in my neck of the woods these days or many people around who have a lot of knowledge on specific questions with respect to these cars, so stumbling across this site was a life saver. Anyway, I have a triple white (interior, exterior, top) 91 gt 5.0 5 spd. convertible with approx. 159,000 km (100,000 miles) on the car (and no, I didn't get the car from Vanilla Ice). The car to my knowledge was all original when I bought it in the summer of 2004 from the origional owner, with the exception of aftermarket rims (Prime 17's pollished aluminum), tires (245/45/17 front and 275/40/17's rear Good Year Eagle something), a lowering kit (approx. 2 inches not sure what brand) and a K@N pannel filter. Last summer I added a Magna Flow stainless X pipe with cats and a Magna Flow stainless cat back exhaust along with a BBK fender mount cold air intake. The car sounds much smoother and pulls harder higher up in the rps, not to mention the fact that I'm getting 40 to 50 more km's per tank after the slight mods (and my right foot has not eased off). The car runs excellent. It doesn't burn or leak anything (knock on wood) and passed emissions when I bought it. My question to you people is if I should LEAVE THE CAR ALONE!!!! I was thinking of changing the the MAF to the 70 mm 94-95 stang version and the top and bottom intake manifold to the Edlbrock Performer 5.0. Based on your experiences, what should I do? There is no track or 1/4 mile strip around here to go on. The city I live in is only about 115,000 people so there are few major highways or interstate roade to travel on consistantly. The majority of my driving is from stop light to stop light from May to the end of October (the car has never seen or will ever see a winter and has no rust ANYWHERE!!) What do you think? If it ain't broke, don't fix it? or should I continue on with some more mods? Your input as a fox stang 5.0 community whould be greatly appreciated.

 

[91 HATCH]

imo i think you should do what ever makes you feel the best about it it is your car,your choice.if it was me i would start with a new cam to hop it up some maybe like a tfs stage one then i would buy the tfs intake

 

[Cajun93]

The more I get my car back to bone stock, the more I enjoy it. I've been taking silly mods off my car that the previous guy did. With the exception of exhaust, gears, shifter, synthetics and a darn thorough tune up I would leave it alone. One of my best mods was the replace every moving part in the suspension, all bearings, rubbers, etc and to take out the injectors and replace with CLEAN gen III 19 lbs'ers.

 

[lang williams]

If you're happy with the car, stop. Your next mod could be the one that hurts drivability an wont enjoy the car as much. I'd def do a gear change if your runnin the 273's in the back tho.

 

[4G-KDMP]

everyone wants something that's nice and stands out about move the others, but sometime you can go to far and then it's no longer fun to drive because your worried about it. if you're not going to the strip or road race your car then i'd leave it where it is if it were mine.

 

[90_Red_LX]

If your wanting more power but don't want to start hurting driveability and reliability, I would just do that intake you said, maf, and throttle body upgrades. I had an rpm on myn that I ran for several months, didn't question her reliability at all. Helped out quite a bit too, even though it was too big for my mods at the time.

 

[JustA5.0]

It sounds like you are happy with the way your car currently is, so I would leave it alone in terms of mods. EXCEPT, I would upgrade to some unequal length shorty headers to replace the stock exhaust mani. Currently, the upgraded mid-pipe & catback are not being utilized to their full flow capability, as the exhaust flow is restricted right at the beginning. I've chosen unequal length, because they are the easiest to work with.

If you are still looking for some more oomph, the next thing I would do is upgrade the gear ratio to 3.73 or 4.10 gears. The fun factor is definately improved, but at the cost of increased fuel consumption if you are flooring it a lot.

If you would like to get the car handling better, look into Maximum Motorsports for Full-length subframe connectors and a strut brace, get a performance spec alignment (camber adjustment bascially), and perhaps upgrade the suspension bushing to poly.

Another thing you should do with mods, is look into upgrading the stock brakes, even just performance pads on the front will make a good difference.

imo i think you should do what ever makes you feel the best about it it is your car,your choice.if it was me i would start with a new cam to hop it up some maybe like a tfs stage one then i would buy the tfs intake [/FONT][/SIZE]

I definately would not upgrade the cam at this time. You should do what's called an H/C/I swap at the same time IMO, heads, cam, upper & lower intake, as they all work together to increase flow. If you were to upgrade the stock cam, it would almost certainly degrade performance, with so few mods on the car. Sure you'd get a 'cool' lopey sound, but at the cost of HP/TQ and cash.

 

[AnthonyR23]

I definitely agree the the last post about the sub-frame connectors... If I were you I would do that first.. and brakes are always a good thing to upgrade... If you are happy with the performance.. definitely concentrate on... first chassis stiffening (with those connectors get the other chassis stiffening components while your at it.... pretty reasonable upgrade!!!).. then brakes... then suspension .... then gears .... the work your way up to the engine... not other way around... replace the drive shaft with an aluminum one.. then go with a short throw shifter... then think about the engine.... just my opinion

 

[v8only]

IMO, the only thing "fun" about a stock 5.0 mustang is the convertible top. If it's not a vert, there is nothing fun about a stock 5.0 any longer. 5.0 mustangs are slow by todays standards, when your average import is doing the same 1/4 mile trucks, and companies are sticking viper engines in pickup trucks, and ford offering a factory 725 horse gt500 mustang.

Modify the **** out of it, and don't look back. Don't go so far as to ruin the "driveability" of the car though, as that's when it starts to become no longer fun.

FYI, keep the stock tb and mass air meter until you mod the intake. FYI, don't bother changing the intake without changing the cam and heads too. you'll spend WAY too much money for what may be a tenth or two in the quarter. However, play it cheap, and you can do right. If you grab a 96-01 ford explorer 5.0 intake, it'll flow about the same as the gt40 intakes, and only set you back $150, vs spending up to $600 on something aftermarket. For the heads, grab some 5.0 explorer heads from the same year (gt40 heads) hell, I swapped in an entire 97 explorer 5.0 motor, and with some bolt ons, my bro and I (he did the same thing) are easily in the mid 13's untuned with tires, with a junkyard motor.

As for the exhaust, only upgrade the mufflers, or cat back. Do it for sound, not for performance gains. the h pipe and headers are more than sufficient to handle a stock mustang, so spending money on headers is a complete waste of time until you get heads and an intake.

What I would do is the subframe connectors #1. that will save your chassis from flexing, cracking, and sagging, and improve your cornering, and get rid of those creaks and groans.

next, gear her up. 3.73's is a great choice. On a budget? grab an 87/88 thunderbird turbocoupe rear...the auto's came with 3.73 gears from the factory, and the manuals had 3.55's, and will upgrade you to 4 lug rear disc at the same time.

another must is good rear lower control arms and uppers.

once you get your suspension in line, then I'd start with the engine mods, until then, any suspension upgrades will go down the tube to lack of traction.

 

[AnthonyR23]

I have to agree with the last post.. more power is definitely fun!! but don't build up the engine too much till you deal with the chassis stiffening... suspension.... and power won't do anything unless you have traction... v8only.. you have any suggestions about a good all around street/maybe strip tires??? for a 88 gt vert.?? what do ya think about the factory quad shocks??

 

[v8only]

The quads are an absolute must. My most recent venture to the track (and my first test run with the explorer motor a couple of weeks ago), netted me nothing but massive wheel hop all the way through first gear. It was so bad, I thought I was going to break something. In fact, my buddy running a bone stock 89 vert with an afr headed motor had wheel hop worse than mine, and broke his tranny that was recently rebuilt a couple of months ago.

Both of us are running aftermarket upper/lower control arms (him the max motorsports arms, me the pro3i knockoffs) and no quads.

Within 3 days of that race, I had changed my entire rear suspension (this was only a couple of weeks ago). I'm now running VERY stiff kyb shocks in the rear, with an airbag in the right rear spring, and I re installed the quads. My buddy did the exact same thing as myself.

Try for yourself, but i'll never run without the quads again, it's just not worth the breakage.

as for tires......I have the fortunate circumstance of having a company issues work truck. As a result, I only drive my personal vehicles 2k miles a year tops. I plan to run drag street radials year round. My buddy just bought a pair of drag radials for $300, and has been commuting in them, and with his afr combo (but 2.73 gearing for now) cannot spin the tires in first, and he's putting out just shy of 300 horse to the wheels.

as for the drag strip, my bro has an almost identical 86 to mine, with a few more mods, including full lowering job (h&r springs, bilstein, etc) and has NO weight transfer.....mickey thompson et streets provide 100% traction for him with 0 weight transfer. he's running quads, but otherwise the same control arms as my buddy and I, and has 0 wheel hop.


if you're not willing to run drag radials, I can't othewise help you. All I can say is aprox 300 horse flywheel and street tires get me nothing but 100% spin through first and part of second, and I'm going to spend the dough on the drag radials just to make it driveable should I get a cocky bastard in a 350z pull up next to me.

 

[skunk21]

I agree with the recent posts. i'm also new here and just purchased a stock 91 gt. she also has just over 100,000 miles so I put engine mods at the bottom of my list. I'm starting with refreshing the suspension with new bushings, new control arms for the rear and maybe new lower control arms for the front. frame conn. and braces, then a brake upgrade. Once I'm done then I will start with some motor mods. In the end it's up to you and what you want , but I think these guys are are right, they sent me in this direction it was a good plan, glad I didn't start at the motor first other than a good tune up.

 

[AnthonyR23]

Sounds good about the tire post .... and thanks for the information about the quad shocks... I guess when it comes down to it... tracking is everything... I am doing the same as the previous post.... worrying about chassis stiffening, suspension, tires, brakes first... while at the same time I'll think about a gear kit.

 

[JustA5.0]

once you get your suspension in line, then I'd start with the engine mods, until then, any suspension upgrades will go down the tube to lack of traction.

I agree with you 100% here. The previous owner (a.k.a 'tool') of my car, entirely spent his money on engine mods. I have almost no traction in first and second, including the 4.10 gears. Even with new tires on the back, I will not drive the car in the rain (I'm not scared at all of the power output, but the poor handling I sure am). In the long run once I get the suspension in order I'll love those mods, but as it is now it's all wasted horsepower.

 

[v8only]

it sucks doesn't it? I've got a fairly stout motor, but can't break out of the 14's because of traction issues. of course I just buttoned up my rear suspension, so we'll see what it does now at the track.