1998 V6 upgrade journal.. thoughts?

[odingalt]

I have a totally stock 1998 V6 Mustang (automatic transmission), 65,000 miles, just got a dry compression test done and all turned out well. Here are some mods I'm thinking about, I know it's been covered time and time again but thought it'd be nice to hear anyone who's had experience working on thier cars to chime in, and maybe give me an idea of what budget I'm looking to blow. I'll probably keep a running log slowly as I get around to thesee things:

*Probably start out bolting on new exhaust manifolds and a 'modified' dual exhaust just because dual exhaust would look cooler. Cost, somewhere around $600???

*ATI Procharger PSC-1. I know there's been a lot of debate on turbo vs. super, and which brand to use. I've picked this brand because of ease of installation. Two long weekends and I should be able to get that sucker in. I have a few questions : how do I choose what size fuel injectors and fuel pump to use, and how difficult is relocating the ABS brake unit?? Cost, somewhere around $3000 + fuel stuff + gauages etc

I live in a small town, where can I find someone to do the dynotuning after the charger is in? Is it ok to drive it just to get it to the dealership (can they even do this kind of stuff?) or am I going to have to plan on dragging the car down for the dynotune after I get the charger installed.

After the engine is breathing better, it's going to go a little fast for the plain old V6 suspension. Body mods?:

*Sub-frame kit

*Front/rear anti-roll bars, new springs, new shocks/struts, new rear upper and lower control arms? I know nothing about the FRONT suspension, can anyone give me a clue here?

At this point I will be out having fun avoiding radar guns, and probably timing my 0-60 and 1/4 mile on my wristwatch begging the next question: differential?

I am totally lost on rear differentials. I know you'll really lose fuel milage on the freeway if you change the ratio to get better acceleration, I want to be able to drive this sucker on the freeway, should I just leave the rear diff alone? If I could get this 150HP sucker up to say 250HP with the above mods, there;s not going to be any question about rear end torque hurting the stock driveline is there? How about the tranny?

That's my last question, are there any mods that one would suggest for an auto trans with the new power under the hood. I've read about electronic shift kits and that they aren't as good as actually going into the tranny and making adjustments.

So basically I'm looking at new headers, exhaust, supercharger, sub-frame strengthening, front/rear suspension upgrade, and possibly tranny tweaking. After that would be body mods. Are there any places that sell decently price intererior stuff like seats/trim or exterior mods? How about headlights/taillights/that good stuff.

Let me know where you guys like to BUY stuff at, I'm gonna have to mail order all this stuff as I'm out in the boonies.

Thanks a million!!! Looking forward to hearing your 2 bits!

 

[Ernad]

Doing all that, hmm... , you'll blow at least $5000 in parts alone.

 

[odingalt]

Yeah that's how I had added it up in my notebook. I paid $6000 for this car with 60k on it (too much but I lost the transmission on my Taurus, big surprise). The only reason I talk about spending so much instead of just buying a new '05 GT stang for $25g's is at least this way I own the car rather than making $450 car payments the rest of my life. I should be able to do about half the work, the supercharger... well that's going to be up to the professionals for the most part. Does it run over a grand to get a supercharger put in?

 

[marvinmycat]

For the rear end, you basically have two options to get that power to the ground and be able to handle it. First off, the 7.5" rear end should be able to take 300HP as long as you aren't running slicks. Your other option is to just swap in an 8.8" rear end.

In either case, I would suggest 4.10:1 rear end gears with a posi-trak unit so both wheels get power to the ground. If you stick with the 7.5" rear end, then you might want to go so far as to hunt around for some hardened rear axles. That should, I think, at least take care of the rear end.

For an 8.8" rear end, try to scrounge up one that has the 4.10:1 gears, or you might have to buy new gears as well for it. The stock axles with those will be fine.

As far as the driveshaft goes, you should probably get an aluminum drive shaft as added insurance as well as a safety loop if you start going over 300HP.

The transmission is probably the weakest link in the whole thing. Since I plan to stick witht the 7.5" rear end, I threw in a TransGo shift kit and still need to play around with the bands and plates, but there is another option and that is to do the Jerry mod that you can find on http://www.tcoaa.com which outlines everything needed to make the tranny rock solid. While you're at it, throw in a B&M tranny cooler, and get a higher torque converter after you get some power in that pony.

Try not to drive the car anywhere until you get it tuned after the SC install. And DON'T take it to a dealer, you will need to get the chip and everything else tuned by someone who knows what they are doing!

Front suspension is basically done with the lowering kit you will install, but a beefier front sway bar, Steeda's X2 ball joints and poly eurathanre bushings all around should help out a lot. Check this link out for some ideas http://www.stangsuspension.com/store/comersus_dynamicIndex.asp

As far as engine mods are concerned, take a gander at this site http://supersixmotorsports.com/PDF/Formula403.pdf

Let us know how things are going, and good luck!

 

[odingalt]

Great tips!! Absolutely great! I'll post my results in the spring

 

[squares98]

tard.