Simple Engine Mods for 01 GT Vert

MustangNovice

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Jun 9, 2011
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I am new owner of a 2001 Mustang GT Convertible with 30K and automatic transmission. Several folks have replied to help me address the sluggish performance of the stock auto transmission, thank you very much, and now I would appreciate feedback and insight on simple engine modifications that I can do to gain some more horsepower/performance from the car without spending too much money or getting involved in overly complex mods or changes.. I appreciate learning from others experiences and knowledge on the topic. Thank you very much.
 
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The standard "starter" mods recipe (we really need an FAQ on this...) includes:

  • cold air intake (preferably one that gets air from the fenderwell)
  • underdrive pulleys
  • 70mm throttle body and upper plenum
  • a decent midpipe (X or H), with or without cats as your local emissions regs require, and catback exhaust
  • if you don't have them already, 4.10s are almost mandatory for slushbox verts
  • tuner and/or a professional dyno tune

If you want to get a bit deeper into it, consider:

  • long-tube headers
  • cams
  • head work (porting) or replacement heads (TF twisted wedge)

Or you can leave it largely stock and bolt a blower up to it. At 9PSI (intercooled) or 6PSI (non-intercooled) you'll be safe on the stock internals with a conservative tune and can forego the death-by-a-thousand-cuts bolt-on approach to building power and torque. It costs a bit more but the end result is much more satisfying.
 
I am already moving down the cold air intake, 70mm throttle body and plenum and 4:10 investments. Not sure about the tuner, ie seems like a pretty involved/complex thing to manage/maintain, but I am interested in the underdrive pulleys. What do those provide/do from a performance standpoint? Thank you.
 
There's not really any maintenance with a tuner: The tune is loaded and that's that. A professional tune is likely to give better results than a "mail order" tune but in any case, once it's in the PCM you needn't worry about it anymore. You simply keep the tuner on hand to go back to stock if you need to and/or to modify or update the tune down the road if you change or add other parts to the car.

As for pulleys, I don't personally recommend them but merely mentioned them as part of a recipe. They're worth 4-5HP typically and if you get a good set (e.g. Steeda) shouldn't give any trouble. I don't think the gains are worth the cost and the oil pump in the modular engines is very sensitive to torsional vibration in the crank snout. Ford's OE damper is designed to quell these harmonics and when you change the damper to "lighten it" and to slow the accessories down, you alter the effectiveness of the vibration damping. In extreme cases this can lead to vibrations serious enough to damage or break the oil pump. Keep in mind that you won't feel these vibrations as a shake in the car. They're occurring at a relatively high frequency and you won't know they're there... Steeda, AFAIK, worked very hard on their damper/pulley kit to slow the accessories down without adversely affecting the effectiveness of the damper. If you have to have pulleys, go Steeda.
 
Underdrive pulleys are the biggest waste of money you could possibly spend money on. Seriously. Save you cash. 0 hp when driving normally and 2 when on full chat. Biggest load of $hit ever pushed onto the modding public IMO.
Gears. Adds 0 hp feels like 40. Butt dyno tells you its money well spent.
CAI. Adds a couple of rwhp. No bang for your buck really.
Catback exhaust. Will add a few hp but you`re buying for the soundtrack really.
Offroad Mid and longtubes will add a few hp as well. The stock manifolds are pish but changing isn`t a 5 minute job mind.
SCT/Diablosport tune . Adds another few hp. But when you already have 260 you`ll convince yourself that you`ve `gained`.
Plenum. Adds virtually f**k all
Throttle Body. Another few.

Sorry for the negativity but its the truth. Take it from someone thats been there and done that.
In reality if you want to feel a real improvement, save your cash and buy a blower or a shot of gas.
If you haven`t the outlay for that then enjoy the fun of bolting hundreds and hundreds of dollars of stuff onto your car for 35 hp.
 
Sorry for the negativity but its the truth. Take it from someone thats been there and done that.

Before the blower, I had been there and done that too. The standard bolt on recipe I followed (CAI, 70mm TB, plenum, pulleys (March piggybacks), MRT catted H-pipe, Steeda catback and a tune) took my car from 228rwHP bone-stock to ~270rwHP. Cams got me another 25HP at 6000RPM (though peak didn't change by as much; they really changed the shape of the curve after 5000...)

It's not so much that you don't gain from these mods as it is a "death by thousand cuts" process as I called it in my earlier reply. Each mod doesn't seem to add much but in totality they add up.

But the bottom line is that you only get a total of 30-40rwHP with these mods whereas a blower gets you to 350-425rwHP, depending on the boost level and tune in one leap.

In reality if you want to feel a real improvement, save your cash and buy a blower or a shot of gas.
If you haven`t the outlay for that then enjoy the fun of bolting hundreds and hundreds of dollars of stuff onto your car for 35 hp.

I agree in principle but what's the entry fee for a good quality blower setup these days? Thousands and thousands?

35HP in these cars with a set of 4.10s or even 3.73s is a pretty satisfying kick.
 
Thank you, that direction is very helpful. My goal is to make changes to the car that improve its output/performance without creating or causing any long term issues for the car. I am not mechanically inclined, so recognizing potential issues and/or being able to repair/fix them myself is out of the question. So any changes I make, I need to be relatively simple/straight forward. Something a local mechanic can understand, complete and support post installation.

The car I just purchased is awesome. You would NEVER know its a 2001 if you look at the car, ie the interior and exterior are absolutely mint. Now that I have purchased it, I am digging into mods I can do to make it even more of a "muscle car" than it is now by getting the most out of the vehicle's power plant and transmission.

I appreciate the help and insight. There is a ton of information and modifications available for Mustangs, which I find to be pretty neat. Watched Mecum Auction last night on TV and saw some incredible Mustangs and older muscle cars that sold for ridiculous numbers... Neat stuff.

Sincerely,

MustangNovice
 
BigKeeko,

Sounds like you done all of these, as it looks like they are listed in the summary of the things your Stang has in it today. At this stage in the game, I don't want to invest $2k to $3k or completely tear apart the motor to gain hp, but as I learn more about the car and its abilities, I may consider bigger investments down the road. What I want to avoid is making investments now that I have to tear out down the road if I decide to say, install a blower (whatever that means, man do I have a lot to learn), versus doing things now that only compliment and/or improve the car's overall performance down the road. As I said to Trinity, I am not mechanically inclined, so doing things that really push the cars limits or mechanical "stability" is beyond where I want to go.

In the end, if I could invest say $1k to $1.5K to in the vehicle to gain 25 to 30 hp, that would great. I would have taken a stock car capable of delivering 260hp to a car that would be pushing close to 300hp. If I can improve the look, performance and sound of the car at the same time, all the better. By the way, I am looking at the same type of rims you have on your car for mine. My car is all silver, black top, so I am looking at either chrome or silver (assuming silver is the alloy color of the rims on your car?).

If you had $2k to spend on improving your cars performance, where would you spend the money? I am going to ask Trinity the same question, as you both seem to have tons of experience with making mods to your Mustangs.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to your reply. Really cannot wait to get started on mods for my car.

Sincerely,

MustangNovice
 
Trinity,

Think I will skip the pulleys for the reasons you and BigKeeko point out. Based on the feedback I have gotten from tons of members on this forum for mods I should make to get the most out of the automatic transmission, including BigKeeko (thanks again for the feedback), I am going to go with a quality shift kit and new 4:10 gears. I am not sure about the torque converter yet and not sure if I should get the transmission cooler added regardless of adding the TC, something I may poke around at a little more on this site before making the final decision.

I am honestly a little lost when it comes to tunes for your car. I noticed BigKeeko has a diablosport 93 tune and I have seen it in other posts... What the $%^& does that mean? What do I have to install in my car to gain the benefits of a having a tune for my car?

Right now, I am leaning towards installing a BBK Fenderwell cold air intake and Professional Products 70 mm throttle body with Plenum. The other investment I am considering is a new magnaflow exhaust, but I am not sure I understand whether a new exhaust system includes new headers or if I need to purchase a new exhaust and new headers, ie a BBK product.

Lastly, as I said to BK, I am purchasing new rims and tires for the car. The current tires, although in decent shape, are OEM from 2001, which is pretty old for a performance tire and today's tires are simply better than they were 11 plus years ago. The stock Mustang rims could stay, but they are some what vanilla/boring, and I am looking for something that really magnifies the car's silver color. Thinking chrome or silver FR500s would do the trick. I am thinking I will be spending a little over $1k on tires and rims alone.

Thanks again for the time and feedback. Much appreciated.

MustangNovice
 
I am honestly a little lost when it comes to tunes for your car. I noticed BigKeeko has a diablosport 93 tune and I have seen it in other posts... What the $%^& does that mean? What do I have to install in my car to gain the benefits of a having a tune for my car?

In the old days (I don't know if you're old enough to remember this stuff) cars had carbs and distributors. You could tweak jets in the carb and play with the base timing, the vacuum advance and the springs in the centrifugal mechanism in the distributor to affect fuel delivery and spark timing. You might have turned an idle stop screw to move the idle up a bit etc etc. With a modern EFI car, the concepts of performance tuning are little different; it's just that now instead of twisting a distributor body or changing a spring or a jet, you do it by changing parameters located in data tables in the PCM.

The car comes from Ford with a "tune" (or, as Ford calls it, a "calibration") suitable for use with 87 octane fuel. A "93" tune will typically add a bunch of spark timing which can really help with in-town responsiveness. However, in order to prevent detonation (spark knock) you need to run a higher octane fuel. In this case, the recommended minimum octane is 93. If 93 is hard to come by in your area you might ask for a "91" tune. Most tunes will make additional power by advancing spark and leaning out the fuel a bit which also ups the minimum octane requirement. These engines are not particularly detonation-tolerant so you don't just want to add spark or take fuel out willy nilly...

The "Diablosport" part of his sig refers to the company that built the tuner and which may have done the tune calibration. For example:

DiabloSport :: Gas and Diesel Tuning Systems

You simply plug the programmer into the OBD-II port under the dash and follow the on-screen instructions. The programmer reprograms the PCM with the new tune and saves the original in its on-board memory. In this way, the original tune is preserved in case you need to go back to stock and the programmer is "married" to the car which prevents one programmer from being used to program a bunch of cars (a means to protect Diablosport).

It's a good idea to get your bolt ons such as the CAI and TB and then take the car to a shop with a load-bearing dyno and and experience with tuning Mustangs and have a custom tune done with an air/fuel probe in the exhaust etc. Failing that, you can get a "mail order" tune which involves telling, say, Diablosport what you have on the car and they will come up with a "generic" tune designed around that combo. It might not be perfect but it's likely be better than no tune at all.

Right now, I am leaning towards installing a BBK Fenderwell cold air intake and Professional Products 70 mm throttle body with Plenum. The other investment I am considering is a new magnaflow exhaust, but I am not sure I understand whether a new exhaust system includes new headers or if I need to purchase a new exhaust and new headers, ie a BBK product.

You can bolt a cat-back up to the factory midpipe (the part of the exhaust containing the catalytic converters which links the manifolds to the cat-back).

You can get midpipes that will fit the original manifolds. They might have high-flow cats or no cats at all (so-called "off road" pipes since that's the only place they're technically legal...)

You can get "shorty" headers (not recommended) that fit in place of the original manifolds and which accept the factory or aftermarket midpipes.

Finally, you can get true headers in the form of "long tube" units that replace the manfolds. You need a matching mid-pipe for these as the stock parts will no longer fit. These midpipes will typically allow the use of a "standard" catback.

Thinking chrome or silver FR500s would do the trick. I am thinking I will be spending a little over $1k on tires and rims alone.

FR500s are nice. IMO, aftermarket wheels for New Edge Mustangs (99-04) should be 18" in diameter (typically 18x9 up front and 18x10 out back) and deep-dish. For example, bigkeeko's or this one with the black FR500s:

greg-myers-small.jpg


Sweet...
 
If you had $2k to spend on improving your cars performance, where would you spend the money? I am going to ask Trinity the same question, as you both seem to have tons of experience with making mods to your Mustangs.

#1 - Gears. It's the single best performance mod I've ever done to a car. Feels like a 300 hp car, and acts like one up to ~100 mph. Might ding your fuel mileage, but seriously what are you trying to do with a modded Mustang in the first place? (took my highway mileage @ 75 MPH from 22 MPG to 20 MPG, and city from 16 to 15)

#2 - Long tube Headers/H Pipe (add another 10-15 hp, some sound improvements)

#3 - Catback (for sound)

#4 - Wheels (for fatter tires)

Only reason I have UDP's is that they came on my car when I bought it used, otherwise I'd never have put them on in the first place, though they've never given me any vibration issues.
 
Trinity,

Great post and a sharp car. BigKeeko's car is also very sharp. There are so many pictures of nice lookign stangs out there, its amazing. I am somewhat old enough to remember the carb'd environment of my youth, graduated high school in 1988, but I am way after the vintage car days..

Two more questions, than I promise, I am done. :)

1) Do I buy a "tune" for the car or will a certified garage doing the work be able to "tune" the car? Maybe they are one in the same, but I would prefer putting the tuning in the hands of someone capable, and to be honest, that is not me...

2) Why do you recommend staying away from the short pipe headers? They seem to present the easiest exhaust mod, as they fit to the stock pipes on their now. Am I missing something? If I go the full route, long pipe headers, don't I need to replace the entire exhaust system, which is going to run another $500 to $750 in addition to the headers, right?

Thanks again for your time. I am looking forward to seeing how the car performs after all the mods.

Sincerely,

MustangNovice
 
ChillPhatCat,

Number one is on the list to be done, for sure. Not sure about the second item, ie long pipe headers (see post to Trinity). If I go with long pipe headers, I was sort of under the impression I HAD to replace the rest of the exhaust system, which would be another significant investment, ie $500 plus... Right? Your answer to this question may answer the third item on your suggested list, as if I go long pipes, I will need to do the rest of the exhaust system, right? And I am doing the fourth, just trying to figure out which rims will look best with my all silver convertible mustang.

Thanks for the insight and feedback. Much appreciated.

Sincerely,

MustangNovice
 
Only reason I have UDP's is that they came on my car when I bought it used, otherwise I'd never have put them on in the first place, though they've never given me any vibration issues.

Just to clarify: As I said above, the type of vibration I'm talking about is not the sort you'd feel in the steering wheel or seat of the pants. An out of balance tire or driveshaft will create a large-amplitude, low-frequency vibration you'll feel. The torsional vibrations that dance along the crankshaft are minute, often tiny fractions of a degree of displacement in amplitude.

Take a hammer and strike a (scrap) crankshaft at one of its throws. You might not see a vibration nor sinusoidal movements of the crank throw but it's moving. Put a transducer on that throw and you'll see the crank is vibrating like a tuning fork. This is not stuff you'll feel in the steering wheel but stuff the metallurgy of the crank is living through...

The oil pump is the big concern where dampers are concerned. As the snout of the crankshaft vibrates torsionally the oil pump gears take a beating. Part of the reason is that there's non-zero clearance there allowing impacts of the driven gear with the drive-faces machined into the crank snout. If the vibration is of a resonant frequency (that is, if you strike the crank and it vibrates at, say, 3kHz then feeding excitation pulses into the crank at 3kHz can lead to what is known as "constructive interference" which acts to amplify the amplitude of the vibration) the repetitive, high-frequency impacts on the oil pump gear can damage or break it and/or cause damage to the drive faces on the crank. It does not help that the pump gears are made of brittle powdered-metal (like the rods) that are not tolerant of this sort of abuse.

And you wouldn't know it was happening because these sorts of vibrations are not telegraphed through the steering wheel or seats.
 
35HP in these cars with a set of 4.10s or even 3.73s is a pretty satisfying kick.

Absolutley man. You`re spot on. Its just not bang for your buck.

My goal is to make changes to the car that improve its output/performance without creating or causing any long term issues for the car. I am not mechanically inclined, so recognizing potential issues and/or being able to repair/fix them myself is out of the question. So any changes I make, I need to be relatively simple/straight forward.

The car I just purchased is awesome. You would NEVER know its a 2001 if you look at the car, ie the interior and exterior are absolutely mint.

Good you have a minter. Mine has 21k miles and looks and drives like new. Its kinda babied and never sees rain and driven carefully so when I go to sell, someone will be onto a winner.:)
As contradictory as it sounds, bolt ons are what they are and won`t have any adverse effects on your car. Cold Air Intakes might and I mean might throw a CEL light in regards to a lean mixture. The stock set up is quite sensitve and some guys have been lucky banging on CAIs and some unluckier guys have had issues. Exhausts , Plenums and TBs if put on correctly will give no problems. Offroad pipes need MIL eliminators to stop the check engine light coming on. They`re no big deal. Simple job. I have a Throttle Body and Plenum write up I`ll stick up for you. Its easy to do.
 
For anyone interested I installed an aftermarket Throttle body and Plenum to my 2003 GT. Added an Accufab Plenum and 70mm throttle body. Went 70mm from reading and asking but the size and make is entirely dependant on the car/mods and owners requirements.
Took me about one and a half hours as I`m no mechanic and wanted to double check everything and make sure I done everything right.
Slow test drive then a the same run as earlier. I`ve never been a fan of `bolt on` stuff on any N/A cars as they offer very little for the cash in terms of anything really. The Diablosport Predator 93 tune offered and I noticed virtually nothing although it did make the auto box shift better, the K&N made no difference, the cat backs made just noise but...........I knew that before spending the money. When added up they all will, however make a difference to the output of your motor.

Anyway, not a full pictorial installation guide nor a bonefide guide. If theres any inaccuracies please let me know and I`ll edit it accordingly so it is more helpful to others. Its pretty straight forward and not as difficult as you might think.

1.jpg


First, Disconnect the Battery

In no particular order I began dismantling the components off the stock plenum starting with the Idle Air Control valve. The 3 main parts are EGR valve, TPS and IAC valve.

2.jpg


In the above pic I`m pointing out the 2 main bolts holding on the IAC valve. As you can see I`ve already unplugged the `elbow` joint and hose from the plenum. A new gasket should come with your new plenum for the IAC valve.

3.jpg


Next I removed the Throttle Position sensor (which I`m pointing out). The two screws holding it on have been locktited from the factory so use the correct screwdriver as you can`t afford to round off the screws. Use a lot of pressure on the screws and slowly turn to loosen them off. You might hear a slight crack then you`re good. I also disconnected the relevant electrical plugs and connectors. You can easily see what needs unplugged.

4.jpg


EGR valve is a simple 2 bolt affair and using a long 10mm socket made life easier. Theres also a gasket supplied for this. If theres not and the gasket looks like new , as mine did I can see no reason why not to reuse it. However new is preferred.

5.jpg


After carefully removing all the bolt ons, including all the pipework to the TB and the red electrical plug. Theres also a small air pipe to the back of the plenum under the throttle linkage. I`m pointing out one of 5 plenum bolts. All are easy to access.

6.jpg


After the 3 main things are off there are a couple of smaller also important bits to disconnect. At the back is the throttle set up which is attached to the plenum with two bolts on a small bracket. The cruise control is the small black connector which just clips on and off. The throttle cable itself is just like a bicycle brake cable and threads round the black cam roller. The spring just unhooks. Turn the throttle to WOT to make things easier. ie; to give yourself more slack.

7.jpg


When you`re all stripped down your engine should look like this. Do a nut and bolt count (they should be kept well away) and make sure NOTHING falls down the hatch :-s. Your new Plenum kit will come with replacement bolts/screws dependant on manufacturer.

8.jpg


If you have a pre 99 GT you might have a smaller pipe than the one in the picture. Accufab supply an adapter but other makes (BBK, dragon ect) maybe won`t I`m not sure. Don`t adjust anything on the thing as they come pre set.

9.jpg


End result.
Fitting is a complete full reversal of removal. Don`t rush and check everything is secure. DO NOT over tighten the new Plenum with the 5 bolts as the upper intake manifold is plastic and we don`t want any problems in this area.

Findings?

I had taken the car out a good run prior and when I was all done, started the car up to check there was no leaks and it idled fine. Just a slow run round the block then back to check for any leaks or any possible mishaps. Then took it out on the same run I did prior to install.

I can honestly say, hand on heart that the car now has a much improved throttle response. Before there was that `lag` before it pulled, like a delay of some sort for want of better words. All the stock (ish)modular SN95 4.6s seem to have that notorious lack of `low end urgency` when compared to the 5.0. BUT, they more than make up for it higher up the rev range. Bottom line is, its a noticeable difference in the way the car feels and pulls from a dig, so its a result.
 
Just to clarify: As I said above, the type of vibration I'm talking about is not the sort you'd feel in the steering wheel or seat of the pants. An out of balance tire or driveshaft will create a large-amplitude, low-frequency vibration you'll feel. The torsional vibrations that dance along the crankshaft are minute, often tiny fractions of a degree of displacement in amplitude.

Take a hammer and strike a (scrap) crankshaft at one of its throws. You might not see a vibration nor sinusoidal movements of the crank throw but it's moving. Put a transducer on that throw and you'll see the crank is vibrating like a tuning fork. This is not stuff you'll feel in the steering wheel but stuff the metallurgy of the crank is living through...

The oil pump is the big concern where dampers are concerned. As the snout of the crankshaft vibrates torsionally the oil pump gears take a beating. Part of the reason is that there's non-zero clearance there allowing impacts of the driven gear with the drive-faces machined into the crank snout. If the vibration is of a resonant frequency (that is, if you strike the crank and it vibrates at, say, 3kHz then feeding excitation pulses into the crank at 3kHz can lead to what is known as "constructive interference" which acts to amplify the amplitude of the vibration) the repetitive, high-frequency impacts on the oil pump gear can damage or break it and/or cause damage to the drive faces on the crank. It does not help that the pump gears are made of brittle powdered-metal (like the rods) that are not tolerant of this sort of abuse.

And you wouldn't know it was happening because these sorts of vibrations are not telegraphed through the steering wheel or seats.

Thanks for the info, would you say this is something that needs to be investigated, or that since it's had this mod for a while that it's probably ok? Like I said, I'd never do it myself, first and foremost because it's a lot of money for minute gains that don't build or help other mods. I've put 25k miles on the car since I got it and it still runs very well. (has 94k total)
 
I would look 1st at what you want the car to be. I dont have gears yet but they have been on my mind for a while. Nearly went for the 4.10's years ago but kinda glad I didnt because I hope to fit a blower this year and I know I would hate that setup (although fun I want driveability).
Not being mechanically minded I would suggest leaving the stock headers and fitting the mid pipe and cat back yourself. Take your time chosing as there are many many setups to chose from and each sounds very different depending on how you mix them (although my setup sounds the best:nice:).
I did a lot of my mods while there was snow on the ground but the intake, tb and plenum along with 93 torque tune really did give that extra uumph and a quicker response.
 
TrickyGT,

Thanks for the reply. I have to admit, I am not a patient guy, want to do it all right now, but over the weekend I decided to slow down a little bit after reading all the posts on this forum. I am going to do the following:

1) CAI
2) TB/Plenum
3) 4:10 Gears
4) Shift Kit
5) New Tune, probably same you did, 93 tune

Exterior wise, I am going to do the following:

1) New Rims - Bullit Chrome
2) New Tires - Not Sure Yet

That will be it for this summer/year. I have decided to leave the interior along, as is, to preserve the car's original features. I was going to go crazy doing chrome knobs, door handles, etc.. and after watching Mecum auction, there is something simple and awesome about an original car as the years go on.

I appreciate everyone's feedback on this thread, it has been tremendously helpful and informative.

Sincerely,

MustangNovice
 
Oh not a problem. Remember its your car so make it the way you want it regardless of what anyone says or thinks.

If I get my loan over next week or so I might be selling my CAI and TB/Plenum combo. Wont need them if I fit the blower. 15,000 miles at most and my car has been well loved. Will post up if I do.