What Bolt On Will Gain the Most Power????

[Nagash01WS6]

What are they?????

Headers??? (full length / short)
Air Induction??? (Cold Air... whatever its called)
Upper Intake???
Lower Intake???
Throttle Body???
Pullies???
Gears???

Ive already got an H pipe with factory manifolds, flowmasters and dumps, and damn do those manifolds look restrictive.

I plan on this becoming a blower motor... so I dont want to waste too much on stuff that will replaced anyway.

And... other than the parts listed in the FAQ... is there somewhere I can find out about diff block manufacturers, head manufacturers... good places to find parts for 5.0 Stangs... etc....

 

[CivicEater]

If you want to gain the most TIME then the gears will do that, but for the most HP probably pullies or long tubes but for the long tubes u would need to get a new H-pipe.....from the list u named...the intake is restrictive yes but so are the heads so the intake wont help nearly as much without the heads.....

 

[cb18201]

well if i were you i would do gears, (preferably 4.30s ) other things will gain you power but to really have it make a difference you would have to do just about all of those mods, i mean they will help you but not that much, gears make the most difference in my opinion. when i got my gears it felt like a different car, and my car keeps up with cars that it shouldnt be able to seeing as i have a stock motor. its funny to see the look on peoples faces after i race them and pop the hood for them an they see a bone stock motor

 

[Nagash01WS6]

So... pretty much... to whoop the Trans Am's ass....

Heads / Cam / Intake / Gears / FI

Im still undecided... boost or juice....

I LOVE the Juice.

 

[cb18201]

my friend beat a trans am with only 4.30 gears in his 95 cobra, that is what convinced me to get them after i saw that. they raced twice, the trans am had juice, the first time they raced he didnt hit it an my friend won by like a half a car lenght not even, then the second time they raced the guy hit the juice an was gone.

 

[CivicEater]

I am undecded too on the jucie or boost ..... but broke for the time being so I guess I have time to decide.....

 

[Nagash01WS6]

I guess Ill make the PVC style CAI for now... and eventually get 3.73's out back.
I might get a set of pullies as well.

 

[67stang390]

Thinking of it all in terms of a combination is really helpful. For example, let's say you upgrade the intake manifold. All of a sudden your throttle body, MAS, and heads become restrictive. You upgrade the heads, but that's not doing you much good because the camshaft isn't big enough for the newfound airflow. Everything has to work in unison for you to gain the most power. I would definitely go with gears. Mine will be going in next month and I have yet to hear a single bad thing about installing gears (except that people regret not going steeper). Good luck!

 

[cb18201]

I have yet to hear a single bad thing about installing gears (except that people regret not going steeper).

some people are just affraid of the steep gears, i drive mine everyday with 4.30s without a problem

 

[Nagash01WS6]

heh... now that you brought up cam's....

Has anyone tried a reverse split pattern cam????

some people are just affraid of the steep gears, i drive mine everyday with 4.30s without a problem

4.30's seem STEEP. 1st gear a bit useless????
What kinda cruising RPM are you at???? I do a LOT of highway driving....

 

[67stang390]

Reverse split pattern? Like more intake duration than exhaust?

 

[Nagash01WS6]

Reverse split pattern? Like more intake duration than exhaust?

Yup.

Especially since the exhaust flows so well for almost all aftermarket heads.

Anyone have any dyno graphs of various cams with different types of heads?

 

[Venom351R]

heh... now that you brought up cam's....

Has anyone tried a reverse split pattern cam????



4.30's seem STEEP. 1st gear a bit useless????
What kinda cruising RPM are you at???? I do a LOT of highway driving....

That answers that question. You dont want gears that steep if you do alot of highway driving. 3.73 or 3.55's would be the best for you.

 

[Zero Signal]

Well if you want to save some dough. You could run. . .

Gears ( I vote 3.73 or 3.90 if you're gear hungry): $170 + install
Pulleys: assume $100, probably less though
Ported lower intake plenum: $100 + shipping
Thumper ported heads: $600, but for $900, you could get some new Aluminum GT-40's
headers (shorty unless you want a new h-pipe): $200
roller rockers: $170 (crane magnums)

With all that, I'm gonna guess you'd have a high 13 second car at least. Then with some nitrous, you could be in the 12's but I'd worry for the motor and tranny at that point.

My opinion on the aftermarket cams for our cars is that you shouldn't get one unless you plan on buying a tuning device or pay a tuner to modifiy the EEC to get your car to run properly on it. I'd say at least 80% of the guys here who have after market cams have idle problems. From what I understand, our stock cam isn't so bad for power adders like turbo or supercharging anyway. It could just use more lift whic the rockers will do for you. Just a thought. . .

EDIT, My favorite place to find Mustang parts is www.stangparts.com or you can try

http://www.johnsmustang.com/
http://www.50resto.com/
http://www.mustangparts.com/main.htm
http://www.mustangparts.com/main.htm
http://www.jdsperformance.com/index.asp

 

[Killercanary]

Well, I see some problems here with the recommended mods and your goals for the car. If a blower or nitrous are in your future, 4.30/4.10's are too much unless you plan to spin the motor to 6500rpms plus, heck 3.73's can have you crossing at over 6000rpms with 120mph trap speeds. Pick the gear for the combination, and the type of driving you do. I've been to florida and for the most part the roads are flat, and since you drive on the highway alot, that should be concidered too. Here in PA, I recommend a minimum of 4.10's to any car that is not blown or running nitrous, but none of the roads are straight for long, and there are hills and mountains everywhere. Also, you said you don't want to buy parts that you can't use later... if you go with a blower most times you can not run underdrive pulleys. Now you could buy them now and sell them down the road if you so wish. I recommend ASP aluminum underdrives, their fit and finish are second to none and the power had from them always seems to be above the others. I went from a 14.96 at 91.5 to a 14.6 at 94.89 with nothing more than pulleys.

In terms of which of the mods you listed for power, I'd say pulleys and intake are your best bets now. I'd leave the stock headers on there for now until you gte that blower, or change the H/C/I. If you want to go the blower route and beat up on LS1's, just get a vortech, an edelbrock or like intake, fuel upgrades, t-body, MAF, and there is no reason you shouldn't put down 350+ to the wheels even with the stock vortech pulley. Some of the blown stangers can help here more than I though as I'm a NA sort of guy.

 

[Venom351R]

Well, I see some problems here with the recommended mods and your goals for the car. If a blower or nitrous are in your future, 4.30/4.10's are too much unless you plan to spin the motor to 6500rpms plus, heck 3.73's can have you crossing at over 6000rpms with 120mph trap speeds. .

Thats a good point as well, if your plan on going the power adder route then you really dont want anything steeper then 3.55's b/c you will be running out of gear by the end of the 1/4. That happed to a friend of mine, he had a 91 GT pushing 446 RWHP ( Vortech S-trim) and when he went to the track he was running out of gear way before he crossed the 1/4 mark.

 

[cb18201]

Thats a good point as well, if your plan on going the power adder route then you really dont want anything steeper then 3.55's b/c you will be running out of gear by the end of the 1/4. That happed to a friend of mine, he had a 91 GT pushing 446 RWHP ( Vortech S-trim) and when he went to the track he was running out of gear way before he crossed the 1/4 mark.

true, but for n/a killer is right....no less than 4.10s

 

[randomjoker]

well if i were you i would do gears, (preferably 4.30s ) other things will gain you power but to really have it make a difference you would have to do just about all of those mods, i mean they will help you but not that much, gears make the most difference in my opinion. when i got my gears it felt like a different car, and my car keeps up with cars that it shouldnt be able to seeing as i have a stock motor. its funny to see the look on peoples faces after i race them and pop the hood for them an they see a bone stock motor

he's adding a blower.. its not smart adding those low of gears w/ a blower

 

[cb18201]

he's adding a blower.. its not smart adding those low of gears w/ a blower

yes i know that, i didnt see that when i read it before, my mistake.

 

[hawaiian]

its in your best intrest to buy things that will be needed when you get your blower or whatever power adder you choose. dont try and get the best bang for an almost stock car. maybe you can get your heads O-ringed so you wont blow head gaskets when your boosting. stuff like this is the route i would choose if you are truely goin to get a blower. hope this helps... I too am NA and i will leave the best thing to do up in the air.