Well, after a long long (as in more than a year now) process of ups and lots of downs of me looking for a car I can get, I found a 2003 GT that so far checks out in all regards AND that I can get.

I have no idea what to call the color it is. I don't like to to much but the paint is intact and I'm not going to let the color stop me. I want to say it's blue but it leans towards purple. I suspect some of you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I'm on something of a budget for upgrades and figured I'd run what I was planning to do past the closest thing I can think of to experts. You guys

If you guys see any mistakes I'm making please point them out. If there is a better or easier order to do the upgrades in I'd like to know that as well. Trust me, I won't take offense to anything you say

Budget: I can afford about $150 a month give or take for upgrades. Some of these items therefore are multi-month upgrades.

The first item I was planning to get was a tuner. Probably the SCT X3. My thinking behind this is that I'll eventually need a tuner anyway and my understanding is the automatic transmission gets a considerable benefit from what the tuner does. I was looking at American Muscle's offer of a free tune any time I buy a part from them and it looks attractive given my budget. I read they may not be the best tuners but I'm not certain I could afford the best guys to send me a tune.

Second item I'm planning to get is a JLT Performance Ram Air Intake. I don't know why they don't just call it a cold air intake but I guess they wanted to sound fancy. My thinking here is the intake looks to be a large pie, straight line into the throttle body with no bends at all prior to getting to the throttle body. Most of the other CAIs I've looked at so far seem to have some extra bends in or look like they have smaller tubing.

Third item I was going to get was a set of Steeda's Underdrive pullies. I've seen the physical difference between the Steeda set and the OE set and I pretty much have decided I want the OE set out as soon as feasabile. My only concern here is messing up the install. It looks simple enough but I obviously haven't done it before. I'm also lacking the impact wrench and torque wrench for the job but maybe I can rent/borrow those when the time comes.

Fourth item on my list is a Accufab 70mm throttle body. I figure it's a good match for the CAI and I've heard good things about them. I considered a 75mm but what I've seen has said it's not worth it on a car like I'm going to end up with. On the other hand, having the that extra 5mm may not hurt. I found much less information on that. If it doesn't hurt anything I'd be very inclined to get the 75mm.

Fifth item (or maybe part of the fourth upgrade) is a throttle body spacer. I'm still up in the air on this since I don't know for certain if they actually do what they say. i saw a nice one from Steeda i was considering if I can get some more confirmation about them.

That is about as far as I would probably go for the engine. I may consider a pleilium (I know I spelled that wrong) as a last engine upgrade but I'm undecided.

I do have a series of external upgrades in mind but as they don't' affect the mechanical aspects of the car I won't bore you with them.

Given the money involved I'm guessing it'd be a year long project give or take.

I considered getting new gears fro the rear wheels but I'm restricted there since no place in my area will touch that sort of job and I know I can't do it myself.
Also, it's my understanding that the GT, even the 2003, already has a LOK? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT: If you are wondering about it being a automatic; it's kind of a safety issue. I've got some crossed wiring in my head that makes multi-tasking diffcut. Doesn't effect me driving a automatic and probably wouldn't effect me driving a manual but I feel better about letting the car shift than having me do it.

 

Save all of your money until you have around 800 bucks.

Buy a Zex Nitrous System. Plus Bottle Heater and gauge.

Save yourself the trouble, and waste of money. I went through all that bolt on crap and it isn't worth a ****. especially for the amount of money spent.

Solution: Buy a K&N air filter for your stock intake. Keep your stock tb/plenum. 400 dollars for a shitty hp gain. Its not even noticeable. Buy wet kit. End thread.

 

I would HIGHLY suggest some exhaust upgrades somewhere in that mod list

also...I'm sure we'd all love to hear what you'd like as exterior upgrades, I also sent you a pm

 

lol!!!...straight to the point...Granted I love my n20...I wouldn't suggest it to someone who's in college on a budget. I say this because he's asking for advise on parts so he probally doesn't have any knowledge when it comes to n20. not only that but the power is there only when you push a button (considering you have a button option)...you know what I mean...and it costs money to fill that bottle. I'm not disagreeing with you as n20 as a good modification...but just not right now for him

 

The only drastic change in power is going to be nitrous or a supercharger. Basic bolt ons like hes looking into is just going to rape his pocket and make him maybe 2 tenths faster unless he does gears.

Take it from someone who's spent 400 on a TB/Plenum, 270 on a CAI. Its not worth it.

Grab a good cat back for sound. And if you don't want nitrous, grab a set of 4.10's.

 

4.10's are great!!! I had them in my 03 GT and holy ****...It felt like I was hitting my n20...I would agree on a catback, I would do a K&N filter unless you're going for looks under the hood, and I'd pick out a mid pipe that you like too.

 

Intresting thought Steed. Thanks

I don't mind a more modest HP gain than NO2 delivers. NO2 is I think out of my budget range. Neat idea though

This is pretty much going to be something of a personal project car for me. Something I can drive and have fun with both behind the wheel and to some extent under the hood.

Your right Spitfire that I should have the exaust on that list to. Given that I can't install that myself it'd probably be in the same catagory as the gears. Hopefully it'd be easier to find a shop to install them though.

Aside from the pullys, everything I put on that list I'm hoping to install myself. Even the pullys I'm hoping to do myself if i can find the tools. just the torqueing procedure making me a little nervous.

I'm not acutally in college but I am on a fixed income. Hence the budget

As far as knowlage of N02, your are correct for the most part. I understand the chemistry (sorta s science person) behind it but not the install or part information.

I'll likely save the gears for last unless I can find a shop to installl them. The exaust system would be a good follow-up mod once I finish the stuff I can do myself.

SF: Would you do the K&N filter over a full CAI? If so, why?

 

Reguarding your CAI question...It just depends on your taste...I had a steeda cai on my 03 gt because I took it to shows and I wanted something both functional and that looked good. On my 96 GT I have a K&N filter...I like both. It simply comes down to the looks for me. Is it worth the extra 100-125 for a nice looking system? If so, I'd get a CAI...if not then I'd get a drop in K&N Filter.

 

SF: Not a bad idea if there isn't going to be a big difference between them. The OE intake pipe just struck me as not being as efficent as it could be but if most of the "trick" is actually in the filter more than the part behind it, it would save a good bit of money.

 

Well...granted a pipe will help...the over all hp gain from a intake at the wheels is maybe 1 or 2...so all in all, the gains aren't much BUT it's also a fairly cheap mod so at the same time you can't expect much. The filter has alot to do with it...have you taken a look at your stock filter...I'm guessing it has a fram paper filter of some sort in it...they even look like they flow like crap!!!

 

i did take a look btu I forget what what it is off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a high flow filter (it was raining pretty hard).

 

External Mods:

I'm planing to make these changes most likely after I make the mechanical ones. If I happen to have a few extra dollars in the budget in a month I may get a cheaper one.

Overall I think I'm going to go for a darker theme. I'm not going very extreme here since I doubt i can aford the upscale body kits. The car is already blue or blue-purple (I get the impression different people are seeing a different color) so colors that go well with blue or black should work well here. Black, silver, gray, white come to mind. If you have other color ideas chime in

Item 1:
Dark Smoked Headlights with the clear corners. The car is already a blue-purple color so I think these would look good on it. I truely hate the yellow corners on cars and while I don't mind the lights showing up as yellow when needed, I don't want them showing yellow when they are off. I was considering headlight covers as well but I'm thinking that could be overkill.

Item 2:
Smoked Taillight covers. These would help the tail lights better match the color of the car than the red currently allows.

Item 3:
I am considering putting a racing stripe on the car but i'm undecided. I was thinking white or black wouldn't look bad on it.

Item 4:
Xenon Mustang Quarter Window Scoops. They look neat lol
Probably won't get them due to the cost of them and painting them but they would give the car a nicer look I think. Would keep the sun out of the eyes of the 5-year old that rides in the back seat from tiem to time to (loooong stretch justification huh? )

---------------
Mechanical:
Does anyone know if it hurts the car to have the 75mm T-Body over the 70mm?

 

Post pictures. It would help us out a lot if you want opinions on visual mods and to see what color the car is.

 

It'll be a few days at least till I can post pics but I can dig up pictures of other peoples cars that are the same color.

 

Alot of people hate the scoops that you're talking about but I think their sick as ****!!! They were to expensive for me because all the shops in town wanted 800 bucks to paint them...black out rear lights would be sick...I had them on my 03 and black out fronts would look sick too...as for clear corners I'm finding it hard to picture so I'd have to see pics

 

http://customerpics.americanmuscle.c...=42000&id=7936

http://customerpics.americanmuscle.c...=42000&id=5856

American Muscle has a few pictures of what I'm looking at on someone elses car. These are even very close to the same color. Mine has the GT scoop though. And looking at it I am leaning towards a black stripe.

Even so, I'm considering using the simpler solution of the smoked headlight covers. it would I think do the same thing for 1/4 the money. Maybe save the actual smoked headlights for when I need them replaced.

 

I like the color...I haven't seen many like that

 

I'm curious; what color do you see when you look at it?

 

Smoked Clear Corner Headlights.
Tail Light Tint.
Mach 1 Grille Delete
Mach 1 Chin Spoiler

When your ready, go with a nice set of wheels.

 

I see a dark blue...on the verge of purple but not quite

 

I agree skip the bullshit mods. A cold air intake is not worth **** on these cars. Just pull the intake silencer out and toss in a used K&N filter for super cheap. The intake silencer is the larger rubber piece on the airbox that goes into the fender. Just pull it off and toss in the K&N or like high flow filter. You can get them used for very cheap on ebay.

Unless you get a throttle body and plenum setup used for cheap. I would not bother with it either. Not enough of a power gain for the money spent.

Pulleys I think are worth it for the cheap price of a set now days.

Throttle body spacer does nothing so save your money.

Check out www.vmptuning.com for an actual tuner and not a reseller like AM.com is when it comes to getting a SCT tuner and tunes.

If I had to do it over again on my car. I would do a drop in K&N filter, off road H-pipe, catback (I need to have some sound) and then a nitrous kit. It would be cheap and fast enough to destroy almost any car you come up on. Minus those with a bigger budget then you

 

Spike: I may consider that as a first line mod since it sounds like a very very easy job. I'm 99% sure i know what part your talking about for the silencer. It's the ice cream cone shaped part that goes down into the fender that doesn't make sense concerning how narrow it gets?

I'm curious about the reasons for going with VMP instead of AM. Can you give me more details on that?

My plan for this car is a fun street car. Something I can work on over time myself. It's 99% certain it will never see a drag strip. As such nitrous is pretty much out of the picture due mostly to it's limited application and need to refill the bottle(s) after use.
I'm fairly certain it won't ever have a turbo or super charger on it either.

The gears and exaust are most likely to be the last mechanical mods done due to cost and the fact that i can't do them myself.

As far as the tuner, everywhere i've read says the automatics get a considerable improvement over stock just by having a tune loaded in. If thats not true then the tuner could wait till later. Does anyone have any information on that?

 

I must say, I didnt take the time to read through this long list of posts, but I will share a little piece of advice that I have learned since I started modding my car.. . . . . . .



Cheap. . . . Fast. . . . . Reliable. . . . . .


PICK 2!

 

4.10 gears, tuner with tune for 93 octane gas, ud pullies, k&n filter with silencer removed, mid pipe, and catback

 

MG: Aside from the 93 gas (only have 91 here), thats a pretty good setup I think. I don't have anyone to install the gears though otherwise they would be much higher on my list. Anyone know of a good installer within a reasonable drive of the joplin/Springfield missouri area?

 

I'm gunna have to 2nd this guy. Especially after all I've done. Sage advice.

 

Yeah the silencer is that piece that goes into the fender.

AM.com just sells the SCT products they are not an actual tuner with a dyno etc.. Justin at VMPtuning.com is an actual tuner who makes his own tunes and has a dyno and actually dyno tunes cars. His tunes will be better then the canned tunes that are given to AM.com any day.

 

*nod* So how's it work with VMP? You buy the tuner from them (which seems to cost the same no matter who you buy it from) and then have to buy the tuns from them seperately, yes?

Assuming one can afford to do that, do you just tell them your car, what you have on it and they send you a tune for it that should work?

 

Since your car is an automatic. I suggest the first mods are a Tranny cooler and the J-mod. This will make the tranny more responsive and give it a longer life. In addition, these mods are very cheap and easy to do.

Most importantly, I think you need to define what a good "street car" means to you. For some of us, a good street car isn't so much about raw power as it is about good driving manners, reliability, and good looks. For others it means going from light to light faster and louder than the other car.

If you say your not going to race it, (assume this would mean the street too) Then I suggest the above along with a good set of springs, struts/shocks, bumpsteer kit, exhaust and tuner (in that order). After that I would save for some gears and find a place that does it well.
Then save for some wheels/tires and onto the power mods. The first being a supercharger. Skip all the little bull crap.
Realistically, these cars have enough torque to go fast from factory. Sure, there are alot of faster cars but you said that it wasn't for racing.

Now if you want raw power and speed, Nitrous is the way to go. There is no cheaper and faster way to go fast consistently.