I got my very first mustang a couple months ago and I wana build it up to the best I can. I want to enhance the performance (horsepower, cooling, and all that) as much as I can without getting a new engine. What parts should I be buying so that I can get it to its best ability? And is there any thing I need to be careful of when doin this?

 

Make sure all of your parts come from sites like this. if something is wrong with a part, don't put it on; send it back. Go with the usual stuff first: Cold Air intake, throttle body, exhaust, tunes. Unless of course you're stuffed with cash, in which case you'd get charged up.

 

oh yea, I dont know if it makes a difference, but its an automatic...

 

.. its hard to "max out" an engine..

Its more of a question as to how much are you willing to spend.

Theres guys out there with a v6 engine with over 600 horsepower.. its all about how much cash you have and how much of it you want to spend on the car.

 

incredibly vague question. How fast do you want to spend?

 

I just want to know if there are certain exhaust systems, intakes, or anything else that would make my car perform better and have more horsepower, legally. I dont know anything about cars really, because this is the first car Ive had that is officially mine, so I never bothered to learn. but now I wana take care of it, so im learning how. If theres a way to increase the HP by installing a new cold air intake, then should i get a new exhaust system too? jus stuff like that..

 

just hang out here and learn as much as you can before you start spending lots of money. Your goals and budget might evolve as you learn more about mustangs. And you will be happier in the long run if you know exactly what you want from the car.

 

Real power costs real money.

you can go through the process of the CAI, exhaust, tune, undepullys, etc, etc, etc, and in the end spend a buttload and not have a whole lot more power.

If you really wanna beef it up and dont mind spending some cash, go with a supercharger. That is gonna do the absolute most for you, and after that as you upgrade various things nthey will make a more noticeable difference.

However, if you dont have 4,000+ to spend on a supercharger, i would highly reccommend getting 4:10 gearing, cold air intake, catback exhaust, and performance tune.


Im officially DONE doing any modifications other than visual/suspension because so far the only upgrade i did that i consider worth the money was the 4:10 gearing. if i do ANYTHING else it will be a supercharger.

 

about CAI - i might be outdated, but is it safe to drive with that in rain/snow

 

well yeah, mustangs already HAVE a Cold Air Intake, the aftermarkey ones just breathe better

 

ok cool... so if i eventually, not now cuz i want to learn more about it, but if i got the 4:10, cat back, CAI, and perf. tune, how much more power would that give her

 

4:10 wont give you any extra power but it will feel like it did. It is just a trick of gearing to get better accelleration.

someone familiar with the new V6 mustangs can probably chime in but i would expect maybe 15hp? not sure

 

i think justin at www.vmptuning.com got his wife's s197 V6 to 210 hp/and 240 trq at the wheels with an intake, GT muffler, and re-tune. i'll try to dig up the link


Edit: Found it. http://www.vmptuning.com/store/index...d=200&parent=0

 

is there any problems with using tuners or superchargers or anything like that

 

alright, I ask this question to all the new people with threads like this. 1) what type if any racing do you plan to do with this? 2) What kind of budget are we looking at here? 3) How extreme do you want to go? (nitrous, supercharger, turbo, motor(heads, intakes, cams?)) 4) Do you care more about going around a corner or going in a straight line?

 

ok good questions

1. i dont plan on doing any racing unless its against my friend who has a mustang gt. if i do anything to it, its mostly going to be because thats what I want to do, not tryin to race or impress anybody. yet.
2. budget=any
3. i dont know how extreme i want to go. anything legal and anything besides getting a new engine
4. i mostly care about everyday driving but when i want to go fast, i want to go fast. so either i guess

 

oh yea and i will be on the interstate pretty often so ill be lookin for good acceleration and good performance at speeds like that, but i will be in the city too so i like to keep it everyday-driveable. it sounds pretty specific.. if i can, i want to tweak the car to give it the best performance a V6 can get

 

omg first off great budget we can work with this.

1-custom single turbo kit(you can twin if you want)(fuel pump/injectors will be needed)
2-ported intake manifolds(upper/lower)
3-T-lock(dont change gearing)
4-dyno tune

that is all your need sir. and you can have anywhere from 300rwhp-400rwhp. you'll need to stay under 350rwhp until you go forged internals.

cause you arent going to even be close to maxing out the potential of your stock internals until past the 330rwhp mark and we have seen that up to 350rwhp is safe for long term.(always based on a good tune though).

which is the next part of where do u live. that way people from there can throw tuners at you right and left.

 

in bowling green ky. what are those going to do. i was lookin for maybe up to 300 hp total for now. eventually ill bump it up maybe in a couple years

 

what is what going to do?
the turbo is obviously your power adder it is going to ram as much air into the proper fuel mixture for you and make power.
The ported intakes are going to allow the upper half of your motor to flow much better, which will allow the boost from the turbo to be more effective thus making you more hp.
t-lock is going to allow both your rear tires to have power. Right now you have an open posi(t-lock) which say when you do a burn out only burn's out on tire, hence the 1 tire fire comments you may see
finally a tune, just because you put better flowing parts, bigger fuel injectors, etc on your car, doesn't mean your car knows how to respond, so you need someone to program your car to adapt to these new characteristics, and insure that things are running with in an appropriate range.

Sounds like you need to do alot more reading, and are kinda doing some wishful thinking for parts that you don't even know what they will do to your car. Browse around these forums, as well as some other stang forums and you can learn alot about your car, what things are on it, and what are some great mod's for it. Just read everything you can, especially the stickies at the tops of forums, they offer great advice for some of the more basic and common questions.

 

just lower the boost on the turbo's i told you about. and then up the boost when you are ready.

either way to reach even 300 crank hp you are going to need a power adder wheather it be supercharger, turbo, or nitrous. unless you build the engine with all the N/A goodies.

 

if i put a turbo charger in it, is there goin to be any long term damage to the engine or anything i should brace my car for, like by putting in new exhaust or somethin?>

 

all depends on the boost. If you want to run ridiculous amounts of boost for lots of Hp, then you would need to build the bottom end, but you said something like 300 rwhp is what you were looking for, so you should achieve that with ~11psi I would guess, and basic cat back exhaust system, tune, and the ported & polished upper/lower intake, throttle body with out any problems; possibly more Hp then you are looking for. The key point being a tune, if it is tuned properly then it wont' run rich/lean and should allow the motor with proper maintenance to go through it's life with out any problems.

 

if he goes turbo he wont need any other bolt-ons or mods to hit 300rwhp. 11psi might even hit the 330rwhp range. which is still safe.

 

cool, I wasn't sure. There isn't alot of information on turbos for the 3.8's or 4.0's so I was just giving a good estimate. But good to know.

 

also according to VMP tuning the 4.0's stock fuel pump maxes out around 350 rwhp

 

so if i wasnt goin to get the turbo charger, what would be the best way to go? i dont want to do the turbocharger if it will do more damage in the long run than if i did the other stuff (cat back, intake, throttle body). but a tune is a good idea either way?

 

you can do all the bolt on's in the world, and get a tune and it still isnt' going to get you to that 300rwhp mark. The turbo charger isn't going to destroy your motor any faster than stock. It is all a matter of having it tuned and you not driving it like you stole it from stop sign to stop sign, block to block. If you drive it like a normal person should, and open it up on occasion you will be fine.

 

a turbo will not do damage in the long run as long as the tune is good.

A turbo is actually less stress on the motor than a supercharger or nitrous.

you are going to have to do one of the three to get 300rwhp. unless you build a 4.2L motor with all stage 3 stuff and weight for results on the new race intakes a guy on v6 power is working on. He is trying to hit 300rwhp N/A.

A good tune will be needed no matter what you do.