Biggest bang for your buck?
 

Hey as far a basic bolt on modifications not including forced induction, what performance modification gives you the most for your money?

GEARS.Did I happen to say Gears.

The first mod I would of gotten if I can go back would of been gears.

Are gears considered a "basic" bolt on?

Gears are for those who are experienced mechanics but its a fairly easy job and can usually be done for 150 with lube if you happen to know someone, otherwise shops usually charge 75 an hour for labor plus parts.

The gears will generally run you 200 with installation kit and lube.

I agree with Venom, if I could take all the money I've spent on bolt-ons and put it towards gears I would do it. I'm going to do it eventually, but labor is so damn expensive in SF Bay Area it's crazy.

So back to his question. Pulley's would be my choice.

For basic bolt on hands down would be an off road mid pipe. My car went so much faster wihtout then. with just a off road h-pipe and catback (catback doenst do very much) i dropped 3 tenths.

Ok I've seen you guys say gears 4.10 is what someone said, but the I did a search on the site and someone said for 5 spd get the 3.73 or something like that which one for 5spd? I also posted somewhere else about putting the heads from a cobra onto the GT block <--Is this possible? I was also wondering about putting the 6spd manual in the GT will it bolt right up?

See I just bought my mustang and it's already been modified, I'm just not sure what has been I've lifted it up the whole exhaust is custom mandrel bends from the exhaust manifolds back the cats have been removed. The shifter throw has been modified the clutch is nice and stiff, there is a cold air intake, I think that the ECU might have also been modified, I also asked somewhere else if the engine normally cuts off when you hit redline... I haven't pushed it but I know I can rev it over 6k... I'll look into the gears.

Gears and sticky tires..

I say 4:10's,I have 3:73's and should have gone 4:10's.

4:10's all the way, by far the best mod I've done!

Gears. Then nitrous. Then drag radials. End of story.

Why are gears such a big thing what do 4:10's do?????

Will make your car feel alot faster and launch alot better.

I just got my 4.10's put in on wednesday and it should be the first thing people do to their cars. Basically it pulls a hell of a lot better through all the gears. When I used to drive 50 on the fwy and try to accelerate in 5th, I had to downshift. With the gears I can accelerate at a decent pace...you will have to shift more when driving around town but it's soooo worth it...I don't even use my 1st gear to start unless I'm on an incline.

It increases Torque multiplication and get's into a vehicle's powerband faster. Which is beneficial on these modular OHC cars as they love to rev more then their pushrod counterparts.

4.10's Minimum.

:director: Don't Fear the Gear!

I think mine pulls decent until 5th then it's kinda like WTF? is that all anyway I'll probably do this soon. Aluminum Driveshaft make a diff? if I'm going to be working on the trans might as well do this as well?

I'm not sure about the driveshaft, I don't have any experience swapping those...These cars do pull pretty good stock till 5th...I hate overdrive...imagine all of your gears pulling like the one before...that's a pretty good idea of what it's like. With the gears your second gear will pull like stock 1st and 3rd like 2nd and so on...now, imagine what 1st will feel like :eek:

Some people get a bad vibration when they put in aftermarket gears, and they say the aluminum ds helps that, but you wont notice any substantial gains as far as hp.

gears are awesome,3:73 or 4:10 there both great, its just personal prefrence. aluminum DS doesnt really help anything just lighter, but if you do happen to get some vibration with your gears, DS would'nt be a bad idea.

I guess I just figured an aluminum ds would free up horsepower, not necessarily give you more horsepower just eliminate some of what is lost through the transfer of power from the engine to the wheels..similar to lightening a flywheel or something like that.

As far as the aluminum driveshaft goes it did cure a driveshaft vibration i was experiencing at ~80-90mph. The vibration now occurs around 135...but is subtle.

The Driveshaft does reduce weight (11 lbs or something like that), which makes the car marginally faster. The difference however when you're discussing resistance in the drivetrain is rotational inertia. In this instance a "Fatter" driveshaft (3.5" for Aluminum vs. ~3" for stock) will have more rotational inertia, and therefore requires more force(torque) to complete a revolution.

The formula for moment of inertia of a solid cylinder is

I=(1/2)MR^2
Where M is mass of the cylinder; R is radius of the cylinder

As you can see Moment of Inertia is a product of the mass and the square of the location of the mass from the center axis (or how large the radius is); if the mass density is unifrom throughout the object (which is the case for a driveshaft.)

This means that as weight decreases the Moment of inertia will decrease slightly, but as the radius increases proportionally to the square of the radius it counteracts much of this decrease in moment of inertia.

So...in conclusion the driveshaft does make the car marginally faster, but not as drastic as people would conclude. If you want to have it all call Strange and get a Carbon Fiber driveshaft...that's what im going to do when I get a new G-Force Tranny this fall.

Philip K.

:downtown: :glasses11

Sounds like a high school paper...conclusion and all!!

Very good Johnny, you get an A+. LOL jk, that was a good post, very helpful. Dont go into a driveshaft looking to get a meelion hp gain from it, but yes, you are correct, it will make it lighter and do the same thing as a flywheel being lighter. GET THE 4.10's FIRST!