What's it take to crack 13s

[Fopar]

Or at least 97-98 MPH in the 1/4 with a stock motor with bolt-ons? Can it be done with stock heads and cam? The first 1/4 mile performance of my car was dismal, managed a [email protected].

Current combo is 150k short block, rebuilt stock heads (recently)
Jet Chip
Crank and waterpump underdrives
I think Fox body exhaust, only 2 cats with flowmasters (they took out H pipe though )
3.73 gears

I know there's not a whole lot of mods but I hoped for at least a 94 or better MPH.. wanted to see at least low 14s. So would a cobra, TFS or edelbrock intake get my MPH where I want it? Is there any CARB legal shorty headers that are worth a sizeable gain? Is this car a lost cause?

 

[RIO5.0]

Def need an intake....13s will be hard as these motors are mutts stock...I would lighten it up some to....If the tune was spot on and your a gearbanging mofo you might just get it..
Good luck and don't break it...

 

[legalize420]

auto or manual? try taking that chip out and see what happens.

 

[Fopar]

it's a stick...

 

[fastgtfairlane]

whats your timing set to? i would say to ditch the intermediate pipe and get an offroad x-pipe. if you havent done so you can bump the timing to 14 to 16 degrees. and run some 93 octane.

 

[stprorolla49]

FWIW, I ran [email protected] two weeks ago on an 85* night with high humidity. I should easily be in the high 13's if I could get used to launching the car better with the 3.73's (all i could muster was a 2.00 60') , and if I wasn't going to the tree at 210*. You should be at least mid 14's where you are now, possibly lower.

 

[Bullitt95]

Or at least 97-98 MPH in the 1/4 with a stock motor with bolt-ons? Can it be done with stock heads and cam? The first 1/4 mile performance of my car was dismal, managed a [email protected].

Current combo is 150k short block, rebuilt stock heads (recently)
Jet Chip
Crank and waterpump underdrives
I think Fox body exhaust, only 2 cats with flowmasters (they took out H pipe though )
3.73 gears

I know there's not a whole lot of mods but I hoped for at least a 94 or better MPH.. wanted to see at least low 14s. So would a cobra, TFS or edelbrock intake get my MPH where I want it? Is there any CARB legal shorty headers that are worth a sizeable gain? Is this car a lost cause?

Here's a hit list for you to work on:

1. Ditch the JET chip. They're useless.
2. Long tube headers (MAC or BBK) and offroad X-pipe.
3. If you're planning to keep the stock heads, port the stock intake. A ported stocker makes more torque than a Cobra intake up to 4200rpm.
4. If you keep the stock cam, add a set of Cobra 1.7 roller rockers.

With all those mods you should at least see low 14's and have excellent low/midrange torque; maybe high 13's if you get rid of some weight.
If you want to get deep into the 13's, you could go for the Explorer heads and intake but the trade-off will be a loss of low rev torque.
I'm at a disadvantage compared to you because I have the slow-shifting AODE slushbox. I'm trapping 95 but my ET is still in the 15's. I hope the Transgo shift kit will get me into high 14's when I have it installed. Later on I'm doing MAC long tubes.

 

[final5-0]

You will lower et more effectively ... at less cost ... with a reduction of 60 foot and improving your driving skills than going for more power

With a stick trans, decent 60 foot times, and those 373's .........
You can break a 13 with less power than you think ... a good bit less

Off road pipe and intake are gonna be your best motor mods for power bang
to the buck IMHO.

Get a set of light weight 15" Welds and DR's

The pulleys are good

Do a short belt at the track

Cool it down between runs

Like Andy said above ... ditch the pass seat for your pass

You will have to be willing to take the chance you'll break something or
beef things up like axles and the like

Grady

 

[Pokageek]

Sometimes I wonder if folks on these threads are really looking for a QM time or the driveablility factor like Grady mentioned. I know that may sound crazy to some but when I wanted a car in the 13's I really wanted driveability more than a "time."

What that means to me is a car that I don't have to pull the guts out, ice doown, pull belts, swaybars, etc etc to squeak in a 13.9. I wanted one that would run the 13.9 as it was driven daily and even with a passenger in it and good low end. O well, just curious. Dunno if I am making any sense to anyone.

 

[final5-0]

Sometimes I wonder if folks on these threads are really looking for a QM time or the driveablility factor like Grady mentioned. I know that may sound crazy to some but when I wanted a car in the 13's I really wanted driveability more than a "time."

What that means to me is a car that I don't have to pull the guts out, ice doown, pull belts, swaybars, etc etc to squeak in a 13.9. I wanted one that would run the 13.9 as it was driven daily and even with a passenger in it and good low end. O well, just curious. Dunno if I am making any sense to anyone.

As we have talked about before

You could setup a car to quarter mile pretty good
but
If you take it out on the street and just drive it around ...

It very well could feel like it ain't got a lot of power

Simply because ... It don't

There is ... full on launch ... WOT power
and
There is ... just mashing the skinny pedal kind of power

Very different applications
and
Very different plans to obtain each goal

Just depends upon what one wants from their Stang :Word:

Grady

 

[Bullitt95]

Sometimes I wonder if folks on these threads are really looking for a QM time or the driveablility factor like Grady mentioned. I know that may sound crazy to some but when I wanted a car in the 13's I really wanted driveability more than a "time."

What that means to me is a car that I don't have to pull the guts out, ice down, pull belts, swaybars, etc etc to squeak in a 13.9. I wanted one that would run the 13.9 as it was driven daily and even with a passenger in it and good low end. O well, just curious. Dunno if I am making any sense to anyone.

Makes a lot of sense to me. I did my last run with full weight (except for smog pump & strut tower brace), a near-full tank of gas, and an intake you could burn your hand on. I prefer my time to reflect what the car will do in the real world; on the street. I know I could run high 14's just by leaving 1/8 of a tank of gas.
I also like to have a good spread of torque rather than going for all out high-rev HP to get the lowest ET. It's no good to me if the engine doesn't make much torque below 3000rpm. That's 92mph in overdrive on the highway so at ordinary cruising rpm (2000-2500), I like to have plenty of torque to make a passing manoeuvre instead of flooring the pedal to downshift.

 

[gcomfx.com]

Post your full timeslip. That'll help as much as anything.

 

[Fopar]

oops double post

 

[Fopar]

Bullit - solid advice except for the off-road pipe, guys all my mods HAVE to be CARB legal it's a california car and I'm not going to do anything shady to get it smogged

I know theres some to be gained in the 60 ft but the MPH is just low period, it takes at least 97 to be solidly in the 13s.

I also want it to be in street trim, no cheating by removing weight or bypassing pulleys

So we know the intake is worth something, is there much if anything to be gained to switch from stock headers to aftermarket CARB legal ones?



gcom - 14.0s with a stock motor? Tell us more

stpprorolla - I see you ran 96, what's your combo?

 

[Bullitt95]

Bullit - solid advice except for the off-road pipe, guys all my mods HAVE to be CARB legal it's a california car and I'm not going to do anything shady to get it smogged

You can get a catted X-pipe or H-pipe instead. Long tube headers would be better than shorties but you might wanna find out if the MAC or BBK long tubes are CARB certified.
Get rid of the JET chip. It might actually be hurting performance.
Also get rid of the underdrive water pump pulley to solve your hot running problem.
Your ET and trap speed are OK considering you only have exhaust and pulleys as HP-increasing mods. The 3.73 doesn't do much for the 1/4 mile run. The shorter gearing increases torque multiplication to the wheels making the car feel a lot peppier, but that's offset by the gearchanges occurring at lower road speeds.

 

[SeventyMach1]

I think Fox body exhaust, only 2 cats with flowmasters (they took out H pipe though )

What do you mean by this?



If there is no H pipe (or any type of cross over) ... you are losing power. True duals = on a 5.0.



Just checking.

 

[Pokageek]

What do you mean by this?



If there is no H pipe (or any type of cross over) ... you are losing power. True duals = on a 5.0.



Just checking.

Interesting. I have never heard that. Do you have dyno or data to back that up? Not being a butt nugget, just curious, thx.

 

[SeventyMach1]

Nope. I just know that it hurt my '95. So I had to go back to an H pipe. It was blown, though .... if that makes a difference. Power was there, but you could tell it was down a bit.

 

[gcomfx.com]

gcom - 14.0s with a stock motor? Tell us more

AODE, 3,000 Street Edge Converter, TransGo shift kit, 3.73s, Cobra Intake, 75mm pro-m M/A, 24lbers, 65mm TB, MagnaFlow mufflers, O/R h-pipe, performance chip, Eibach drag springs, 255lph fuel pump, Mac pullies

 

[Last5.0Cobra]

Sometimes i think my car is great and then i read on here that even if i do spend some extra money..... it will still be slow..... very depressing!