I am new to this forum and need some help deciding what to do with my 02 v6 mustang. I have about $2500 to spend. I dont really have anything added now except for a flowmaster dual exhaust, saleen replica rims, and a few other dress up parts. I was thinking of going with the stage 2 powerpak from supersixmotorsports.com but i dont have the money to get it installed. Besides any power adders, what would give me the most hp? I am also trying to get a loader roar from my exhaust. What kind of headers and h/x-pipe would help me?

 

BLOW ER

 

This is the setup i was thinking of:
sct livewire flash device
k&n gen 2 fipk
jba cat4ward shorty headers
pypes high flow catted x-pipe
ford racing 3.73 gears
ford racing posi-traction

does this sound like a good combo and what kind of gains would i be looking at?

 

Not even close to blown V6. Save more and get a blower.

 

turbo would be better.

 

Well i wasnt really planning on any power adders but is there anyway to beat a stock 98 gt with just bolt ons? if im right it only has 225hp stock so i would think it would be possible. Im not really going for a race car but would just like to add a bit more power until i get a zo6. so is $2500 enough to beat a 98 gt? and if so what would be the best mods?

 

just curious here... why NOT put on a turbo or supercharger?

the bolt ons are expencive and yield very little return. In reality i would be real suprised to see more than 15-20 RWHP from those mods, probably even less.

2500 is enough to snag a used turbo or sc with enough leftover for a custom tune to keep her running good. I dont know the power gains from a s/c on a 02 v6 but im sure you could see another 60-80rwhp i would assume?

 

+1

 

Well even if i went the supercharger/turbo route, installation would probably cost another few thousand. if i could get everything for around $2500 then i would definately go that way. i was planning on adding a supercharger next summer but was just hoping to get a little more power for now. My car stock has 190hp which means about 152rwhp since its an automatic. I thought that with lt headers, catted h-pipe, flowmaster dual exhaust, k&n intake, throttle boddies, flash tuner, pullies, gears, and posi-trac i would at least be able to beat a 98 gt???? How much rwhp does this add up to because my guess was about 185rwhp total. Is that about right or just completely off???

 

install is free. lol. do it yerself. if you are not too sure about it, ask a car buddy. it would be time consuming but it cant be that difficult if you pay attention to what yer doing... you can probably get it done for as low as 400-500... it is only 6-8 hours of work...

as for HP increase ignore what the manufacturers claim. they will do the install on an added car and show the gains which will be twice what you would see on a stock motor...

if you REALLY dont want to do the supercharger, then go with intake, full exhaust try for some long tube headers, offroad mid pipe and 4:10 gearing. the 4:10's are gonna do more than anything else, they will give you the best accelleration gaion, the intake/exhaust will have a little bit better throttle responce and make all kinds of cool noise.

install on the headers aint gonna be cheap tho, probably cheaper to install a supercharger. once again, im not too up to speed on the 3.8's

 

yeah if you want a big increase I would go right to a SC. dual exhaust won't do anything stock hp wise.. K&N intake nothing but a little better MPG, if you go SC don't get pullies before, gears won't increase hp but it will increase acceleration

 

Well it would be real hard for me to install the supercharger. i havent really done too much work on cars and i would be afraid to mess something up. anyway i know that the 4.10's will give me better acceleration but my car is a daily driver. i go home on weekends and it is a long drive so i think the 3.73's will better suit me on the interstate. i also think that the posi-trac will help with acceleration since it puts both wheels to the ground.

americanmuscle.com claims that the sct livewire flash tuner will give me +19rwhp and +20rwtq which is definately worth it. It was supposed to be dynoed on a stock v6 so im hoping it is pretty accurate. Since cai dont really work i think ill go with just a k&n filter instead.

i would rather keep the h-pipe catted and although the lt headers dont give much hp, i want a deeper roar from my exhaust. after all of this, in addition to throttle boddies and 25% underdrive pullies, is 190rwhp a reasonable goal????? Im not sure if i mentioned earlier but my car is an automatic with about 57000 miles. If anyone has added the sct livewire flash tuner to their stock v6er please let me know what kind of gains you achieved. thanks for any responses.

 

i dont know what the 3.8's dyno at stock, but i would think 190 is a LOT to ask for.

The sct programmer makes a lot of claims. So does Diablo. you REALLY gotta take thier claims with a grain of salt.

the gearing yer looking at about 300+ for install. Headers are gonna be several hundred as well, dunno about the posi. The UDP's normally give what, maybe 4-5 HP gain on the dyno? Throttlebody/plenum give about 9. this is on the GT at least..

Well, good luck, maybe somebody with a modded 3.8l can chime in here with some more accurate info about expectant gains, but i dont think yer gonna see more than 15-20 hp increase TOPS..

My vote is still for the supercharger. The install isnt THAT difficult, as long as you follow the instructions you should be good, or better yet pay a car guy 100-200 to come over and help you with it.

I seriously believe that at the end of the day, if you spend 2500 on boltons and install for what yer listing yer gonna get a slight kick in the pants and kind of a half acknoledgement from the driving experience that you got some performance gain.
However, i think if you try to find a complete used supercharger setup for 2500, then either install it yourself or find somebody to help you out, at the end of the day when you romp on the gas yer gonna be grinning fro0m ear to ear 100% satisfied with it, and you would probably be beating lightly modded 99-04 GT's....

you can always go the nitrous route as well. There are some good threads on here if you want to explore that option

 

does anyone know how much top speed will be knocked off with 4.10 gears??? what about 3.73 gears??? and what else do 4.10 gears affect on the interstate besides gas mileage that 3.73s do not?????

 

I can let you know that my 2000 V6 had about 185HP at the wheels with the follwoing mods on a 5 speed Manual:

Flowmaster Force 2 Catback Exhaust system with 3 inch pipes
BBK Cold Air Induction
MAC V-6 Long Tube Headers
V-6 2.5 H Pipe for Long tubes

After the Vortech Supercharger and new throttle body it has about 265hp at the wheels.

So It might be a bit difficult to see 190 with what your thinking. But I could be wrong.

 

Well since you have a manual im guessing your car has about 170rwhp stock? Mine has about 158 rwhp stock. Since the cold air intake really doesnt do anything im gonna leave that out and just get a k&n filter. But in addition to a complete exhaust(long tube headers, h-pipe, and cat-back exhaust), im also adding throttle bodies and pullies. i know its not much, but it has to be some hp. In addition to that with a custom tune on a sct livewire, i dont see why its not possible to get up to 190! if you got up to 185rwhp with that, am i crazy to think that i can get 17 additional rwhp with throttle bodies, pullies and a good tune????? please let me know

 

It should get you pretty close. Go for it and let us now what happens. And then start saving up for a SC or Turbo. Becuase you will want more HP later on.

 

just trying to get the basics on first. next heads/cam/ported upper and lower intake. and by next summer_turbo!