01 V6 - Need Help + Opinions
 

Hi guys, first time posting here.

So here's the situation. I just bought a 2001 V6 mustang, 5 speed. I want to do a little work to it. But I don't know how to get it done or what exactly to do.

Now I'm the type of person where performance ranks higher than appearance and it's already a pretty nice looking car, performance red, windows tinted right out, black lemans stripes. We're good for that.

I want to put on dual exhaust. I need recommendations for a good exhaust setup. I dont know where to find the appropriate X/H pipes to convert to, and if anyone can link me some good ones that would be great, also a good set of duals to go with it would be appreciated.

Additionally, I'm looking for some items to increase the performance. Starting from least expensive to most expensive if you could provide me some items that would help and their benefits (I'll probably need how some of this stuff works explained to me) that would be ideal.

The car already has a CAI, and a short shifter. I'm trying to track down the original owner to find out what else might be in it.

Can't wait to hear from you.

J

Exhaust options are personal preference. I liked having an H pipe with magnaflows and having it dumped before the rear axle.

If the car has an H or X pipe it'll already be dual.

As far as items to increase performance.. power isn't cheap and it will cost ya..

3.73 Gears
Traction Lock (Posi)
Tuner (SCT preferred)
Pullies

And then you get into things like.. nitrous superchargers turbos..cams, heads, intakes, stroking a motor, ect, ect.

Not alot to do to the car without having to put in some serious work..

I'd do gears/posi/tuner/pullies and then start working suspension..

^ Knows what he's talking about. :)

The Car has the Factory Y in it.
I was reading on the exhaust guide that the best set up is a longtube-x/h midpipe-catback
the catbacks are easy to find, but any suggestion as to where to find decent priced longtube headers and a midpipe to go with them?

I take it you're talking about underdrive pullies, thats fine.
Tuner I understand, thanks for the reco on SCT.

Can you explain the traction lock and the gears and the effect they will have?
Thanks, I'm pretty new to this.

J

ALso whats the difference between 3.73 gears and 4.10 gears?

4.10 pulls harder, the general rule is 3.73 for standards and 4.10 for automatics. Although if you dont plan on going to forced induction/nitrous then you might go with 4.10s anyways. gears/posi basically multiplies your torque although you wont see any gains at all on the dyno, you will drastically feel the difference when driving. Posi makes sure there are no more 1 tire burnouts and makes sure that both tires grip instead of 1 gripping and 1 burning. 4.10/3.73s are usually one of the best recomended things above extreme power adders. They will run about 160-220 for the gears 250+ for the posi, 50 for a bearing kit, another 50 for fluids/lubricants, a tuner(preffered unless you really wanna stick to a speedcal) 300, and last install which varies allot.

As far as my exhaust setup. I have:
BBK shorty headers..
Pypes off road x pipe
MagnaFlow Catback exhaust..

I bought all of the performance parts from www.americanmuscle.com

Setup sounds great and does pull harder than before..
im also running a K&N Ram intake from American Muscle.

if you want more power I heard long tube headers have more horse power increase.. you might wana look into that =)

Enjoy and Good Luck with your project.

Welcome to the Mustang family.

I have an H-pipe with Magnaflows and I love it. It sounds better than a Flowmaster setup.

Are there specific H-Pipes you need to get for the v6 model?

Most of the listed products read GT and up, I just dont want to order the wrong parts and have them shipped to canada and find out they dont fit.

:S

So you live in Canada?

TBH..power wise? The long tubes aren't worth the price and the aftermarket shorties won't change shit.

Only reason to change between the stock headers and aftermarket shorties is this: stocks have a tendency to crack on the passenger side.

H Pipe - well do you got an exhaust shop around locally?

Cut the Y pipe, have them weld in the H pipe, pipe it down to about the rear axles, put in some mufflers, and dump it.

SCT over @ vmptuning.com is amazing.
You can also get under drive pullies there as well.

Also, 3.73s for a manual because i figure you'd like some of 1st gear.
T-lok, gets both tires spinning.

And as far as I know, speedcal is only good for a 94-98.

Check this out to understand how a differential works and gears.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/gears.htm

Thanks
 

Ha yes, I live in Canada.
It's coming winter time and the car is going in the garage, and I'm going to play with it.

Thanks for the howstuff works links, and the other links. That stuff is all very helpful and exactly what I'm looking for.

I take it then that the aftermarker shroty header + H pipe conversion kit and some catbacks is the most inexpensive way to go for exhaust then?
(Also what do you mean when you say "dump"?)

As for the gears it's sounds like 3.73 is the way to go.
But what do you mean i'd lose first gear with 4.10? (I'm thinking your suggesting I would be off it almost directly after I was on it)

The Posi is understandable, any idea what it costs for an install? ballpark?

Side note: If anyone knows where to get a good deal on a set of tires and rims (thinking 18x9 fronts and 18x10 backs) i want to get a new round of those on.

Also thanks for the family welcome :)

cold air intake to add to that list as well those are easy to install and sings you a nice whistle tune

also, most cold air intakes are the same, so don't go and spend an arm and a leg on them..most of the time ur just paying for the brand name.

+1 about the passenger side manifold cracking...mine cracked so i'm replacing them with bbk shorty headers, hopefully tomorrow, but i'll let ya'll know how it goes!

Gears and posi should be done at the same time, as it will cost the same to install them together. The stock open differential has to come out for a gear install so its nothing extra to setup the posi differential instead of the stock open (aka one wheel gets power) differential.

Thanks for the heads up on gears and posi install.

I already have a CAI so that's done and done.

Right now I'm looking for a good dual exhaust setup as thats first on the list to get done.

Considering the conversion kit and a set of GT exhaust, any additional reco's would be helpful. I dont know where to find the X or H pipes for v-6's, I'm assuming they wouldnt be the same as the ones on a GT

Ok, so I just read the entire mustang exhaust thread, it left me with some questions.

Originally I was thinking about getting the adapter kit and doing a self install.
Question: How difficult is it to do this properly on your own? I realise there is cutting involved but I wanted to know if anyone had trouble doing this.

The other thing I was reading about, was having a shop fabricate the Y pipe that was in there to fit the duals. How much does it usually cost to have them do that? If the adapter kit is cheaper for basically the same effect, I'm not going to hunt down a shop to do this for me.

Opinions? Also thinking of going with some magnaflow catbacks to go with whatever setup I chose. Keeping the stock headers and everythign for now.

go to an exhaust shop have them turn your car into a true dual h pipe buy some flow master super 40's or violaters lol and have them make it into a cat back ....dont put it on the y pipe you'll regret it and spend more money like i did to fix it

Well then. I'll have to check that out. Thanks for the advice. :)

Here's a quick question.

Im looking at the Posi and the 3.73 gears and I'm noticing there's different .. sizes?
specifically like 8.8" 31 spline, and 7.5" 28 spline.

I just want to be sure, stock v6, 2001 comes would use the 7.5" 28 spline?


Also. I kind of asked this before, but can someone give me an in depth explanation of how 4.10 and 3.73 gears are different in changing the performance of your car?

What are the positives and negative of both compared to each other?

The 8.8 and 7.5 is in reference to the rear end in the mustangs. Only the v6 mustangs have the weaker 7.5" rear end So you would want gears for a 7.5" and a posi for 28 spline axles and for a 7.5" rear end.

As for the gears for every one turn of the drive shaft the tires will turn either 4.10 times or 3.73 times depending on what gears you buy. For a manual car that is a daily driver and your worried about mpg 3.73's are fun and will make it alot faster. 4.10's would be my gear of choice for any auto car.

Thank you, this was the perfect answer.

ANyone have a link to a set of Underdrive pullies for the v6 I can order?