Thought I should introduce myself/outline my plan/get your input

Hey all,

So I've been lurking around the forums for a few months now, finally got around to making an account and contributing

I'm Michael, 23, Computer Engineering student at Virginia Tech, and USMC Reserves out of Roanoke, VA. Got my 94' GT 'vert 5spd after I got back from the sandbox in '06. The mod bug finally bit me after my friend started building his 383 stroker 83 Monte Carlo since I won't be able to mop the floor with him anymore I was a Jeeper in a former life, had a '76 CJ5 rocking the AMC 360 V8, hell of a fun truck, miss her dearly. I turn my own wrenches with my buddy's help so for the rest of this don't worry about labor costs.

My stang is my DD, so I want to keep it street-friendly, and who knows where I might move after I graduate (one day ) so I want to stay emissions legal. My goal is 300 rwhp and 330rwtq (running 13s ish?), N/A stock block, at least 20mpg highway (I get ~28 now), and good street manners- I hope this isn't unreasonable with a custom tune (talk to you about that when I get there, 2002BLGT). I'm not worried about wanting more "go fast" later (I know I will, but again, DD!), so I'm planning on components for the end state. After this I'll sink some money in "look good," - I'm with you, Grady, go fast > look fancy. What I really want is a reasonably quick street car, I don't plan to spend every day at the track.

I'm starting to piece together my H/C/I now but the biggest advice I've taken from the board so far is (to paraphrase one of you guys, sorry i can't remember who), 'plan twice, buy once.' I've got about $100-$200/month disposable income (+ holidays ) and I'd like to piece the rest of my H/C/I together and do it all at once. I want to have it planned out now, so if I see a great deal pop up on something I want I can jump on it knowing I'm getting the right dope.

So far I have the magnaflow cat back (love the sound) and a TFS StreetBurner intake. Next purchase is a catted mid, not sure what just yet, but I can figure that out from sound clips and whatnot. After that is gears, probably 3.55 or 3.73, I'll probably go 3.73 since from the regrets thread many seemed to wish they had gone bigger.

For the innards- I've found a great deal on a new e303 (of FURY!), which I understand to be a very street friendly cam, although many say it's too wimpy. I know everyone is now going to scream "CUSTOM GRIND!" but really I don't think I need all that and driveability is as important as power for me. Keeping in mind I want something DD friendly it seems like a reasonable option. Also considering the TFS Stage 1 because-

For heads I'm looking at the Trick Flows (matched with the stage1 cam), they seem to be very popular around the 'stang scene and make great power. Also considering some AFRs (for the e cam), but not sure what size for my goals (165?). Certainly open to reasonable suggestions for parts not listed here

Finally (for now) fuel/air, I just read the entire five page thread on injector size, and it seems 30# seems about right for my aspirations (although the same guy selling the e cam has a set of new 24#ers for really cheap too...), better to have too much and tune it back than be pegging the 24s. For pump, it seem 190lph should work, but I can do 255 if we think it is needed. Naturally the MAF and TB to accompany all that.

So back to where we started I don't mind taking my time and saving my money to get quality components- heck, its too cold to do any major work around here til' spring anyways What do you guys think, keeping in mind my goals and requirements? Thank you guys for all the help and advice so far, and in advance for the future. :SNSign:

Holy Tolstoy, batman! Kudos to anyone who actually makes it through all that...
I'll throw this in too, why not, always good to have a visual:

Husky44 said:

Welcome aboard!

Nice color! My first stang was a 68, very similar.

Seems like you've done a lot of research and thinking. You're too smart to be a jarhead! I never met one before that could spell Tolstoy, let alone knew who he was.

Of course, I see that you had to edit for spelling...

As for me, I'm retired! (US Army 83-06!)

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Hey, you know what "marine" stands for, right? Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential Oorah! The reserves are a bit of a different animal, though, since many of us are college students too- its an interesting combination.

red dragon95 said:

welcome to the board,most of my freinds are JUG heads LOL JAR.i was trained by the marines for the army and the best people i ever met were the gunnies and master gunns,so welcome brotha,looks like you got stuff mapped out well,afr165's and the stage 1 cam with 1.72 rockers make for a nice combo,with a tune my bud pounded out 323hp and 347tq.

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I've also known some damn good Gunnies (and my current Master Guns)- you can learn a lot from those guys without worrying about a lot of the rank s**t in dealing with- err I mean talking to a 1st Sgt or Sgt Major .

I think I'm gonna plan on the TFS heads + stage 1 cam, unless I come across a killer deal for some AFRs. Hopefully I'll have it all put together next summer.

Heads, cam, timing chain set, head bolts, pushrods, lifters, rockers, valve covers, MAF(? see below), throttle body, injectors, fuel pump, gaskets. Am I forgetting anything?

One thing I am confused about though- with a custom tune, do I need a new MAF cal'd to 24/30# injectors, or does the tune take care of that?

Redline_351R said:

I have a set of #24's for cheap that I need to get sold if your interested.


That's a pretty good combo to get to your goals. The only thing I would do is if you go w/ the Trick Flow heads get the TFS Stage 1 cam b/c all the trick flow components will work good together. There is nothing wrong w/ the Ford Cams they are just built on older tech and there are other cams out that that will get you closer to your goals.

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PM sent

Killercanary said:

After reading your first post above I had deja-vue as everything you want is what i wanted when I built my first setup. My car was my DD, I wanted a fully streetable setup that'd knock down 20mpg, run low 13's, and make as close to 300rwhp as i could. I did a lot of research and ended up running the following parts:

-AFR165 heads
-FTI custom cam (I HIGHLY recommend going this route)
-Edelbrock performer intake
-65mm TB
-1.6 rockers
-Pro-M 75mm MAF
-24lb injectors
-190lph pump
-FMS shorty headers
-bassani offroad X pipe
-2.5" cat back with dynomax welded ultraflow mufflers
-ASP pulleys
-4.10 gears
-I tuned it myself via an eec tuner as most tuners wouldn't touch these cars back in the day

I put down 304rwhp/331rwtq, got 20mpg on the highway, and in full street trim on drag radials it ran a 12.5 at 109mph and a 12.03 at 112.5mph in track form on ET streets.

I hurt it at the track a number of years ago and built a low compression 331 shortblock and put all of the parts on it except I switched the intake to a holley, switched to a fox style 75mm TB, and started running an AEM stand alone. I made 380rwhp/380rwtq with the same cam, heads, and even the 24lb injectors, although I did bump the base FP to 45lbs.

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Thanks for the advice- as I mentioned in another thread I really enjoyed reading the article about you in 5.0MM, it was awesome to read about someone doing what you've done with the added problems you get trying it with a 'vert- gave my hope mine could drop some decent numbers one day . Congrats on the new times!

As far as components, I looked into the FTI cam setups, and honestly they're a bit more expensive than what I'd like to spend, and since I already have and like the TFS intake I might as well stick with them for the rest, I know I can reach my goal (or get VERY close) with them. I do a fair amount of highway driving (to and from home ~2.5 hrs straight interstate) so I think the 4.10s would be too much for me- currently trying to decide between 3.55 and 3.73.

-Michael