jmcmike

Hey all. I'm new to the forum and Mustangs in general and I have a situation for which I am up for hearing a broad range of opinions. If you see my post duplicated on some of the forums you follow, sorry for the duplicate posts but I want to make sure I reach out to the Mustang community at large.


Background: Sort of middle aged dude, owned a wide range of cars in my time but have been a truck guy (Ford FTW) for many years. I have always wanted to own a yellow sports car and in my recent quest for replacing my truck (have grown tired of trucks really) I ended up buying a very clean 2001 yellow Mustang Cobra. I bought it from a well known used car dealer chain (hence the fact that it is very clean, visually and title-wise) and I paid, well too much probably.

The only mods done to my car are a Flowmaster cat-back exhuast and some after-market shocks/struts.


Based on my over-the-top geek-fueled research over the last 2 weeks I have come to the following conclusions:

1) Had I to do it all over again, I would have bought a yellow terminator via non-retail channels.

2) Since I can't "do it all over again" I am in possesion of a car that I paid dealer retail for and am therefore upside-down by a bit in this car.

3) Regardless, I am 'bound' to my new car. I love it really. Call it fate or providence, in any case, I love my Cobra.

4) No matter the love, I now realize (all too late of course) that unless I am blessed with the skill of the Stig himself, I can easily be walked by a number of new comer's, especially Terminators.

5) My car cannot compete with a ported Termintator without spending obscene amounts of money, more than it would take to sell my car at a loss and buy/port a terminator.


Goals: What do I really want to do with my car?

1) I am not up for spending the the money necessary to compete directly with ported terminators (looks like 8-10K)

2) I do want to ensure that with appropriate skill, I can beat a mostly stock terminator and at least hang with a ported terminator. (I don't mind losing, I just want to hang well enough to give props with dignity.)

3) This is a daily driver car (low miles FTW) and I may never bring it to a strip. I mostly care about stop-light to stop-light performance. I understand that a lot of this is based on skill, I can handle that slack. If I lose because of how I run, that's my fault.

So this brings me to my question (if you've hung in long enough you get a cookie).

What should I do?

I won't directly suggest the many options I know already, I've read enough to write a flippin' book on the subject. I just want a fresh specific opinion on these options from someone in, or close to, my situation. Feel free to smash my conclusions, so long as your advice fits my goals, go for it!

Thanks!

Justin

conv_stang

if you are looking for cheap good bang for the buck mods. You can't go wrong with rearend gears, 4.10 at a minimum if you arent a MPG nut. Cold Air intake and aftermarket tuner and tune. A bit more on the expensive side, longtube headers and x-pipe. Could also add some lightweight suspension parts(k-member, control arms etc). You cant match the HP of a terminator w/o a blower. But weight removal will make a car faster as well.

jmcmike

Thanks. I am really leaning towards some sort of FI. Need to determine how much I am willing to spend. I've been looking at Eaton swaps. Would love a 9 psi Kenne Bell but $6700? Yowza!

1999Pony

A blower. Your motor is still a 4V, while it doesn't have the heads a termi has, a blower will do wonders and you can run with a stock termi.

Knight

I am a terminator owner...I really think that an eaton swap is your best bet.

The higher compression and revs that the 01 engine has will net you 450rwhp, basically what a pullied terminator would put down.

Next you need to do gears, swap the 3.27 for atleast 3.73's, I would say 4.10 atleat if you were staying NA or doing a centrifugal SC.

Unfortuntly the rear end half shafts will most likly need beefed up, or you could just go solid axle.

jmcmike

An Eaton swap looks like a good possibility. It takes a bit of luck to find a mostly complete kit for a good price but that is what I may end up doing. I think I am going to start with gears and IRS upgrades first though.

jmcmike

Thank you all for your advice. I have pretty much decided what I am going to do. I am going to keep the car and build towards a low boost FI setup, between 400 and 450 RWHP.

I am going to start where it seems to matter most, beefing up the IRS and changing gears, probably 3.73. I'll probably do a new shifter and mid pipes either at the same time or shortly after. Then I'll start piecing together an Eaton swap. It may take a while to get it all done but that's OK. I am a low miles driver so I plan to enjoy this car for a few years at least.

Thanks again!

Knight

Try to find a guy on SVTP that is wanting to go turbo, you could swap your intake for his eaton for very little cash that way.

But even if you don't find anyone to trade you can sell your stock intake for decent money to recoop funds in buying the eaton setup.