Mods on a budget
 

I have a 01' GT with air induction kit and a cat-back system. Got lucky at the casino the other night and have $600.00 to play with. I was thinking about an ACCUFAB throttle body and intake or installing 3.90 gears. I use the car as a daily driver and do a lot of highway driving on the weekends so I'm not sure which one to get or if there is something else that you all might recommend. I rarely race but once in a while one of those "imports" will come up next to me and rev his little engine. I have not had a problem leaving them until I ran into a modified WRX on the highway that started to pull away at about 80mph. Let me know what you guys think.

Also, I am in the military and on a tight budget so I wanted to know where the best places are to buy items and if any of them offer military discounts.

Thanks for your time and suggestions.

Bill

p.s. I also have a full suspension kit intalled on my car.

with the way gas is going up id stay away from the higher gears. the throttle body is a better investment in my opinion

an off-road mid pipe is wha ti would get. H-pipe is my opinion but then the x-pipe guys are bound to show up.

I would say some sort of midpipe or underdrive pullies. I heard nothing but good things about short shifters as well. But I am also considering the accufab 75mm throttle body plenum route to.

You will only pick up 6-9 hp with a upper plenum and throttle body. I would go with undrive pullies and a SCT tune. If you have enough left over a mid pipe. X pipes make more power, H pipe sound better.
The best bang for the buck by far is gears, 4.10's with a manual. Gears will set you back 175 with install kit, labor anywhere from 250 - 350. If you want to do more look for used parts, pick up a used Steeda timing adjuster instead of the tune. You should be able to find one for 100 bucks.
Look for a used X pipe there are alot online for sale. Just check the classified ads on Mustang sites.

can you even put a new midpipe on a stock xhaust setup? the piping would go from 2.25" into a 2.50" and back into a 2.25" - thats gotta do something bad right

He stated in the original post he already had a catback exhaust, thats the only reason I stated to get a midpipe. But I'm not sure about the answer to your question, I dont think it would be hurt, but its certainly not the optimal setup .

yes you can, it doesnt hurt anything it adds Hp. i had a stock cqatback with h-pipe its nice but way to quiet for me i got mac pro dumps now. its alot better.

gears are the best bang for the buck and compared to a whole tank of gas with 3.90s you will only lose 15 miles per tank. someone on another forum just posted those results.

Thanks
 

Thanks for all the great advice. I just ordered the shifter today and will probably pic up a set of 3.90 or 4.10 gears in the next couple of weeks. I had a 86 GT at one time and went from 3.08s to 3.55s. I loved the pull the 3.55s after the 3.08s. I can only imagine what a set of 3.90s or 4.10s will do:)

One more question...a couple of you mentioned a "tune". I don't think you mean tune up. What do you guys mean? Computer chip or something like that? Sorry, but I've been out of the Modification game for a while.

dyno tune, is when your car is put on a dyno and your air fuel and some other perameters are adjusted for optimum performance. not needed until you have all your mods but if you have basic bolt ons you dont need it.

sct xcalibrater would be a great buy.

Get the SCT excalibrator, comes with a tune and allows you to make changes in the future. Just flashes your factory chip with a new tune. Also stores your original factory settings.