Modification Survey Thread

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Rice burner, take ur mamas car back to advance and get ur money back on your APC parts and stickers that u think makes a little honda worth modding. You kids are so funny, one day you will grow up and find out there is no replacement for DISPLACEMENT, also have fun getting ur front wheel drive to hook up.
 
2001 Silver GT Bullitt

K&N Ram Air Intake: Cheap mod, allows the engine to breathe better. I prefer highway/ street pulls rather than a drag from a dead stop. Don't get me wrong, will still smoke the tires if need be:nice:, but would prefer not too. At higher speeds, it helps.

Koni Double adjustable front and Adjustable rear suspension: This, by far, gave the best handling upgrade. also put a Koni coilover conversion kit on the fron, so i could relocate the springs from the A-arm to the shock itself.

Maximum Motorsports CC plates: no noticable difference other than saving my tires

Maximum motorsports Tubular A-Arms: helps lower the unsprung weight on the front end. Also a must if you are going to run Coilovers

255/35/18 General tires up front: amazing grip for turns at higher speeds

275/40/18 Hankook V12 tires in the rear: Again, amazing grip in high speed turns, plus hooks in a little faster when in a drag.

18x9 American Muscle wheels: gotta have bigger wheels for those huge tires

Cross drilled and slotted rotors: helps stop much quicker than stock rotors, plus looks allot more aggressive
 
1997 GT 4R70W <- Auto

In order of install


This list is long but detailed.

Flowmaster 40 Series
Cost about $180 for mufflers and install. Car got loud but the 8 cats that were on the factory pipe were prohibiting any performance benefits from their more free flowing design.

BBK O/R H Pipe
Cost about $120 from www.SummitRacing.com did the install myself. Stock H pipe was a super bitch to get off. I used liquid wrench and let the bolts soak for a few hours before trying anything. Be sure you have a 12" extension, a swivel piece and lots of patience before you get under your car. It WILL come off I promise! Performance Gained a TON of power from this one and the car got REALLY loud. ET dropped from 15.5 with just the flows to 15.1 with 2.45 r/t's. I know it's bad but I had bald tires :rolleyes:

Home made PVC cold air I did this mod according to the article at www.mustangworld.com I didn't really notice much of a performance gain from this one. Times at the track didn't change but the throttle response was slightly better around 3200 and up.

Transgo Shift Kit Holy hell this mod made a night and day difference in my car's shifting!!! Anyone out there who has an auto tranny, do yourself a favor and put one of these kits in your car. You'll thank me. I got it for $100 from www.summitracing.com Don't skimp out with Jerry's mod. It only does 1/2 the job. The Jerry's mod just firms up your shifts. The Transgo Kit makes the transmission downshift when you pull it down to a lower gear regardless of your speed (This could be a potential problem to morons though) and with the transgo kit, you can hold any gear up to the rev limiter instead of the tranny automattically shifting at redline. I put mine in myself. The install video is awesome. It makes it easy enough for a child to install the kit. My times dropped about .2 sec and 2nd gear chirped every time I got on it. I've put this kit in 2 other mustangs and their owners were just as amazed as I was.

FRPP 3.73 Gears Cost $75 BRAND NEW on EBAY MWAHAHAHA! :banana: Another BIG gain in performance. These work well with the shift kit. 2nd gear now gives a nice healthy 1~2 sec. bark and the occasional 3rd gear chirp. Interstate RPM's didn't suffer too much. They stay right around 3100 @ 90~95 and pulls harder in 3rd and 4th than the factory gears did. ET's dropped about .1~.2 on average. Cost about $150 for install. Make sure you get a new Pinion bearing if your car is older than 2000 and also get synthetic gear lube and a new seal for the axle cover. Another great mod if you can find someone who won't screw you over with the install. If you live anywhere near Birmingham, AL, My guy did an awesome job for less than HALF the price the other guys were asking.

Basanni O/R X pipe Paid about $250 + shipping from www.houstonperformance.com Let me just say this now before I go on: The noise from this pipe is UNREAL!! With the 2 chamber flows on my car, the noise was just...insane. Around 2000 RPM the sound was horrible and rhaspy but at 3000 RPM, all hell starts to break loose and it sounds freakin AWESOME. I noticed a difference in high end pulling power over the H pipe. A lot of the deep sound from the exhaust was missing though. Not a real difference in the 1/4 mile though. I was dissapointed. Eventually the sheer volume of the exhaust got on my nerves. I got tired of hollering to talk to people. That would soon change though...

Magnaflow Catback Exhaust This was a nice change over the boring old flowmasters. The deep exhaust sound came back with these mufflers, the annoying 2000 RPM harshness dissappeared and the high rpm scream seemed a bit more refined and smooth. Very nice indeed. I didn't get the catback system from anywhere. I got my exhaust guy to make it himself. He used the stainless steel mufflers instead of the mirror finished ones. That saved me almost $50 right there. He also used mandrel bent stainless steel tubing and finished it off with a pair of 3.5" chrome tips. Cost me just over $300 for parts and labor and after 5 months, I'm still in love with the sound and power gains from the system. I picked up .2 in the 1/4. Definately worth evey penny.

Home Made Descharger, 80mm C&L MAF and MAC U/D Pulleys I'm doing these together cause I put them on at the same time. I got the MAC pulleys from Chuck at the Pro3I office and saved about $10 on shipping. I got the parts for my denscharger at Lowes for about $25 and a little breather valve from the Rice section in AutoZone for about $7. I picked up the C&L MAF on parts trader for $100. The denscharger and MAF combo surprised me. The throttle response is much better and the car pulls harder past 3000 rpm. I should go ahead and mention that at this point, my exhaust is just straight free flow and the car is sucking hella amounts of air. I know the A/F ratio is probably in the toilet and I'm not getting the ideal power here but the car pulls like a son hava beech at 3000 RPM's all the way to redline. It reminds me a LOT of my prelude with the DOHC VTEC engine. There's really not a lot there as far as the low end power goes but at 3000K, all hell breaks loose. Anyways, the pullies were an absolute BASTARD to put on. The crank pulley took a week soaking with liquid wrench, a 3 foot breaker bar and 3 vice grips locked down on the belt at various places and a guy with a crowbar between the crank pulley and the engine block preventing the crank pulley from turning. After that I had to disconnect all the wiring from the radiator fan and remove it to give me room to put the crank pulley back on. Not a lot as far as performance gains go would be my guess. Also I'm not sure if my alternator is going bad or if it's just due to the larger pulley on it but at idle, the voltage meter drops in the toilet and the car dies if I put 87 octane in it. Wierd :scratch: PM or E-mail or IM me if you're interested in saving $80 by making your own denscharger.

Intrax Lowering Springs Snagged these for just over $100 from www.summitracing.com (Most stuff I want that they have I get from them cause of the free shipping btw) I put these in myself in about an hour. Would have gone quicker if the caliper bolts didn't have to soak in WD-40. The car rides like crap hole but looks a hell of a lot better. Lowered about 2" all around. Hopefully I'll have some Illuminas under the tree on the 25th to ease the pain on my spine.

Griggs Racing Sub Frame Connectors and Bulk Head Stiffener WOW WOW WOW WOW. This made a really big difference in my car's handeling. It's rock solid in corners and the elusive creaking and moaning from the chassis is no more! I broke down and went all out with the full length connectors b/c they weren't that much more than the standard ones and the bulkhead stiffener helped that much more. Got both of them from www.griggsracing.com for about $210 and $50 for install. K-Member and control arms are next on the list. I'm gettin geared up for next year's SCCA Auto X action! F-stock LOOK OUT:uzi:

My OD band burned out this weekend :fuss: I'm going by Jerry's how to bulletproof your tranny article from www.tccoa.com and hopefully I can have some new et's here for you guys before the end of the month. I got my fingers crossed trying to break into the 13's.
Hey can u tell me which kit u got? The summit site says there’s no kits for my car. It’s a 97 gt auto like urs. I want to do this mod.
 
If anyone is looking to go N/A there are 5 basic mods that will net 100-125hp for any 96-04 Mustang GT.

- Locate a used 98-04 Cobra or Mach 1 Short Block - Switching to an Aluminum block not only reduces 65-75 lbs off your front end the 4v pistons will raise your compression ratios from 10.5 to 11.34 to 1 CR depending on dish piston/year of cobra engine. Most range from -4.66 CCs to -2.6 CCs and will net about 30-40hp across the board compared the stock -17-18cc dish pistons. You could find a used SB for about 400-1000 bucks and is usually the best bolt on for any set up N/A.

- Get 44cc TFS Heads. Stock out of the box these flow better than any ported PI head. For an extra 500 bucks you could get them ported and you would have a great flowing head around 260-280 cfms for a mild port job. I have seen some with flows around 295 to 300 with some porters so well worth it IMO. So about 2500-2700 for the heads ported with the cobra block is the best combo.

- MHS Cams.... Stage 2 to stage 3 I would recommend with stock displacement and stock PI intake. Get the degree service and these 3 things alone will make the car a blast to drive. about 1000 bucks for this.

- Long tube Headers. I would go with 1 5/8s longtubes as this seems to be the right backpressure for this combo and will maximize your exhaust flow. Prices vary on long tubes but anywhere between 600- 1300 depending on brand.

- BBK 78mm TB Combo. I have tried almost all of them folks for the TBs. The stock BI with 75mm TB/Accufab plenum flows exactly the same as the bullet intake and I have tried them both on my car. The 78mm combo was actually worth 7-8 more HP and 10-12 more tq over the bullet and PI/Accufab set up with higher flowing heads and compression. I have also tried the TFS intake and don't recommend unless you have a built SB and plan to spin around 7200-7500 rpms... for normal street cars, the PI is the best intake period and you gain a lot of top end usuing the 78mm BBK Combo. All other intakes are not needed other than the Victor Jr with the 3160 elbow but again, power range that is usable on a street car is the limit.

There is one last thing that is needed and is a custom dyno tune. A can tune will NOT work. Trust me I tried. Biggest benefit and really really needed.
With just these mod, you will be sitting between 330-360hp depending on other supporting mods. Max on the 281 with this set up with electric water pump, full catback, underdrives, bigger injectors and fuel pump would be around 380 hp ish. Gears, aluminum DS, or flywheel, or for the auto, aluminum DS, Gears, and 9.5 stall with 3200 to 4000 would help reduce Drive train loss and net 20-30hp as well.

If you have a car with some of these mods already then cost will be much cheaper but the block, heads, and cams are the key. If you have a 96-98 gt with the iron block your CR (around 10-1) would still get a nice bump and be in the 330-340 ish range with most of these mods.
 
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