I was looking around at parts for the 97GT and obviously it isn't cheap to mod. The best hp/$ looks to be from an off road H pipe, giving around 15rwhp. Looks like PI head swap would be between $500 and 1500 (used vs new parts) but would bump you to the base 260hp rating of the newer GTs. Seems like other common mods like throttle bodies, cat backs and underdrive pulleys give disapointing gains at 5hp or less, True? I looked at blowers a little, and it seems for about 4000$ you can get a setup that would give around 320hp on a stock engine (9-10psi), but that seems kinda unfortunate when you meet a bone stock LS1 making that from the factory.
I currently own 2 non-running stangs and I consider myself to be at a crossroad for what to do with them.
1. I currently have a 97GT as my daily driver, bone stock and that really cool burnt orange color. The car still looks great, but T45 needs rebuilt and I'll be starting this project very soon so I can have my DD back. I'm thinking I'll throw on an off-road H pipe for a nicer sound and cheap hp.
2. The toy is an 88 2.3 mustang. I've owned it since 1999, when I was a senior in high school. It has gotten very little money put into it, and is in rough shape. None the less, I've run it to a 13.7 on junk yard parts. Since then, I switched to E85, which with more timing, boost and my other small changes should easily put it in 03 cobra territory of high 12s at 109ish. The block is cracked, but I could rebuild another engine for it easily and for less than 500$ or run a junk yard engine for about 150$ (block cracked because I used one of the newer blocks and bored it .030 over, should have used an old block since I bored over).
So here is the question... Keep both leaving the 97GT stock OR part out the 88 to make the 97GT more fun to drive, knowing it would never run the times of the 88?
On the 88, I could cheaply and easily build up another bottom end. Add a small shot of nitrous and some sticky tires to the current setup, and I could run 11s (actaully, I know at least 2 people in the 10s with this sort of setup).
Most of the forums I frequent love the little 2.3, so I wanted a non-biased opinion from you guys.
I currently own 2 non-running stangs and I consider myself to be at a crossroad for what to do with them.
1. I currently have a 97GT as my daily driver, bone stock and that really cool burnt orange color. The car still looks great, but T45 needs rebuilt and I'll be starting this project very soon so I can have my DD back. I'm thinking I'll throw on an off-road H pipe for a nicer sound and cheap hp.
2. The toy is an 88 2.3 mustang. I've owned it since 1999, when I was a senior in high school. It has gotten very little money put into it, and is in rough shape. None the less, I've run it to a 13.7 on junk yard parts. Since then, I switched to E85, which with more timing, boost and my other small changes should easily put it in 03 cobra territory of high 12s at 109ish. The block is cracked, but I could rebuild another engine for it easily and for less than 500$ or run a junk yard engine for about 150$ (block cracked because I used one of the newer blocks and bored it .030 over, should have used an old block since I bored over).
So here is the question... Keep both leaving the 97GT stock OR part out the 88 to make the 97GT more fun to drive, knowing it would never run the times of the 88?
On the 88, I could cheaply and easily build up another bottom end. Add a small shot of nitrous and some sticky tires to the current setup, and I could run 11s (actaully, I know at least 2 people in the 10s with this sort of setup).
Most of the forums I frequent love the little 2.3, so I wanted a non-biased opinion from you guys.