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Finally decided to bite the bullet and join a mustang forum and this is the one I went ahead with picking since it seems to be fairly active. Having no luck with the mustang reddit for questions/discussions pertaining working on mustangs or diagnosing issues, I figured a spot like this would be the right place to get involved in finding more accurate and available knowledge.
I've been a mustang owner since 2020, having bought my 06 GT for $8500 at 120K miles, and racking up another 51K since as it's my daily driver. It's my first car that I've actually enjoyed owning and explicitly wanted to get, having learned to drive manual with it, as well as self teaching maintenance and modifications (I'm sure it'll make some shudder imagining the torture the car has gone through with my lack of knowledge). I've always wanted to own a mustang since my stepdad took me to the unbuilt back of our neighborhood when I was 9 years old and let me drive his 04 v6. That experience, alongside playing NFS Underground 2 and Most Wanted (2005), have cemented my love and desire for the car, and finally getting it was like a dream come true.
My mustang is a 06 GT in Tungsten Grey, with manual transmission, black leather interior, and more dings dents and scratches than I can count. I got it as a moderately abused well loved car from a random backwater used dealership, and have only continued its "well loved" tradition with modifying it to (hopefully) become a street killer. The mods I have on it currently are a Roush CAI, Roush cat-back exhaust, stage 1 Exedy clutch, functional fiberglass ram-air hood, 18x9 American Racing Torque Thrust-M wheels, and a stage 1 dyno tune from Kurgan Motorsports over in Gainesville, GA. It currently puts down 298HP at the wheel, with ~314 ft-lbs of torque at around 4K RPM if I remember right (I sadly lost the dynamometer chart). I named the car 'Buzzbomb' after the Dead Kennedys song of the same name making fun of macho car dudes.
I guess for some personal stuff about myself, I'm in a Hardcore Punk/Technical Metal band and enjoy music more than anything else in life. I have a variety of hobbies I enjoy from cooking to clothing modification, videogames, drawing, political research, Magic: The Gathering, and any other hobby I can get my hands on and financially support. I work as a delivery driver for an auto-parts store making a pitiful and embarrassing check every other week (which has made getting my car repaired a challenge, even with the discounts we receive). My dream car is a 1969 Mustang Boss 429 (which inspired the S197 choice since I really dig the boxy-flat car design of muscle cars) which I know I'll never get to own, and personally have always preferred the older generations of mustangs compared to the 2010 and up models. Other cool things to note was getting to work for Year One for a year and seeing some famous cars in their lot such as the orange Dodge Ram 1500 from 2Fast2Furious, the blue Camaro that jumped the boat from the same film, the year-one mustang pace car that was in one of the Forza games, Kenny Wayne Shepard's Nova, like 4 separate firebirds with the Burt Reynolds package, and one of the race cars from the "Big Race" at the end of the new Dukes of Hazzard movie (I forget what model, I remember it was Red/White with a BF Goodrich sponsorship on it).
I hope to have some cool convos and learn more secrets about my 06 Mustang as well as mustangs in general that I otherwise wouldn't. I've lurked on this forum for a bit when trying to research repairs I have done previously, and it feels good to finally have taken the shot to join it. Looking forward to meeting you guys. I've attached a photo of my car so yall can roast how much I've ruined my car.
The Thread Link in My Sig Has Many S-197 Topics From Upgrades & Mods We Did From Day One Upon getting Our Then New 05 Mustangs!
Your Car Looks Great to me!
As You View Current Posts Notice The Join Date of the Members. Some Have Been Here a Long Time!
Mgb,
KC
Happy to hear theres love for the S197 here! Locally to my area they get pretty underrated compared to the S550s or mustangs older than the SN95s.
I appreciate the warm welcome, and it's gonna be interesting to catch up on all that I missed out on in the heyday of S197s given that I was in kindergarten when they came out lol
Last edited by DriveLikeIStoleIt; 8/18/23 at 12:11 PM.
Reason: add quote
Welcome Andrew and congrats on your pony. There are quite a few of us here that would agree with your dream car!
A Boss 429 would really be the dream wouldn't it? I'm surprised that it doesn't get as much recognition as the Boss 302 given the almost 200HP more that the 429 has overhead.
Happy to hear theres love for the S197 here! Locally to my area they get pretty underrated compared to the S550s or mustangs older than the SN95s.
I appreciate the warm welcome, and it's gonna be interesting to catch up on all that I missed out on in the heyday of S197s given that I was in kindergarten when they came out lol
Well You Know That Boss 429 You Crave, They Came Out When I Was in Kindergarten! Loved the Boss Look and Had The Hot Wheels Version!
Just Got an Emergency Phone Call for Road Assistance From My Old Boss! Gotta Go!
The 302's are so popular because they could handle the twisties better than the 429's due to better weight distribution. So the 302's were the race car and the big block was the drag car.
Finally decided to bite the bullet and join a mustang forum and this is the one I went ahead with picking since it seems to be fairly active. Having no luck with the mustang reddit for questions/discussions pertaining working on mustangs or diagnosing issues, I figured a spot like this would be the right place to get involved in finding more accurate and available knowledge.
I've been a mustang owner since 2020, having bought my 06 GT for $8500 at 120K miles, and racking up another 51K since as it's my daily driver. It's my first car that I've actually enjoyed owning and explicitly wanted to get, having learned to drive manual with it, as well as self teaching maintenance and modifications (I'm sure it'll make some shudder imagining the torture the car has gone through with my lack of knowledge). I've always wanted to own a mustang since my stepdad took me to the unbuilt back of our neighborhood when I was 9 years old and let me drive his 04 v6. That experience, alongside playing NFS Underground 2 and Most Wanted (2005), have cemented my love and desire for the car, and finally getting it was like a dream come true.
My mustang is a 06 GT in Tungsten Grey, with manual transmission, black leather interior, and more dings dents and scratches than I can count. I got it as a moderately abused well loved car from a random backwater used dealership, and have only continued its "well loved" tradition with modifying it to (hopefully) become a street killer. The mods I have on it currently are a Roush CAI, Roush cat-back exhaust, stage 1 Exedy clutch, functional fiberglass ram-air hood, 18x9 American Racing Torque Thrust-M wheels, and a stage 1 dyno tune from Kurgan Motorsports over in Gainesville, GA. It currently puts down 298HP at the wheel, with ~314 ft-lbs of torque at around 4K RPM if I remember right (I sadly lost the dynamometer chart). I named the car 'Buzzbomb' after the Dead Kennedys song of the same name making fun of macho car dudes.
I guess for some personal stuff about myself, I'm in a Hardcore Punk/Technical Metal band and enjoy music more than anything else in life. I have a variety of hobbies I enjoy from cooking to clothing modification, videogames, drawing, political research, Magic: The Gathering, and any other hobby I can get my hands on and financially support. I work as a delivery driver for an auto-parts store making a pitiful and embarrassing check every other week (which has made getting my car repaired a challenge, even with the discounts we receive). My dream car is a 1969 Mustang Boss 429 (which inspired the S197 choice since I really dig the boxy-flat car design of muscle cars) which I know I'll never get to own, and personally have always preferred the older generations of mustangs compared to the 2010 and up models. Other cool things to note was getting to work for Year One for a year and seeing some famous cars in their lot such as the orange Dodge Ram 1500 from 2Fast2Furious, the blue Camaro that jumped the boat from the same film, the year-one mustang pace car that was in one of the Forza games, Kenny Wayne Shepard's Nova, like 4 separate firebirds with the Burt Reynolds package, and one of the race cars from the "Big Race" at the end of the new Dukes of Hazzard movie (I forget what model, I remember it was Red/White with a BF Goodrich sponsorship on it).
I hope to have some cool convos and learn more secrets about my 06 Mustang as well as mustangs in general that I otherwise wouldn't. I've lurked on this forum for a bit when trying to research repairs I have done previously, and it feels good to finally have taken the shot to join it. Looking forward to meeting you guys. I've attached a photo of my car so yall can roast how much I've ruined my car.
Cheers!
Buzzbomb, a s**tbox of my very own.
That is certainly one fine looking "06"GT you have there... Hard to believe there's 120k miles, as it sure doesn't look it at all... In the meantime, there are plenty of folks here on TMS who have continued to remain loyal and dedicated S197 Mustang owners, myself included
Meanwhile, thanks for sharing an image of your awesome ride, congrats and welcome aboard...
The 302's are so popular because they could handle the twisties better than the 429's due to better weight distribution. So the 302's were the race car and the big block was the drag car.
Ah that makes a lot more sense, guess it clears up my preference for the 429 since I'm more of a nut for drag racing anyways
That is certainly one fine looking "06"GT you have there... Hard to believe there's 120k miles, as it sure doesn't look it at all... In the meantime, there are plenty of folks here on TMS who have continued to remain loyal and dedicated S197 Mustang owners, myself included
Meanwhile, thanks for sharing an image of your awesome ride, congrats and welcome aboard...
Lol I wish it was still at 120K, thats just what it had when I first got the car in 2020, it's at 170K now after adding 50K from daily driving, my apologies for the confusion. I appreciate the compliment about the car though, I'm happy to find myself among the ranks of other S197 owners such as yourself!
Lol I wish it was still at 120K, thats just what it had when I first got the car in 2020, it's at 170K now after adding 50K from daily driving, my apologies for the confusion. I appreciate the compliment about the car though, I'm happy to find myself among the ranks of other S197 owners such as yourself!
There was no confusion on your part, as you did in fact clearly state in your intro about adding the 51k miles to the 120k... I somehow missed that when reading your post, therefore I take full responsibility for any confusion on my part... In the meantime, thanks once again and welcome aboard...
I think your pony looks great. And it sounds like you are having great fun with her.
One thing might (or might not) pop up as you approach 200k miles. If she starts to run hot, or starts losing coolant/overheating, some of the tubing for coolant distro runs under the intake manifold. So it's hard to see the location of the issue. The intake has to be pulled in order to replace that tubing.
The only other big $ item I ran into during 200k miles with an S197, was the evap core for AC. That can fail, sometimes leaking coolant in the cabin. (My bride used to tell me it smelled "like giraffe" in the car.) The entire dash has to be pulled to replace it.
Those were the only two big dollar items in 200,000 miles of great fun.
I think your pony looks great. And it sounds like you are having great fun with her.
One thing might (or might not) pop up as you approach 200k miles. If she starts to run hot, or starts losing coolant/overheating, some of the tubing for coolant distro runs under the intake manifold. So it's hard to see the location of the issue. The intake has to be pulled in order to replace that tubing.
The only other big $ item I ran into during 200k miles with an S197, was the evap core for AC. That can fail, sometimes leaking coolant in the cabin. (My bride used to tell me it smelled "like giraffe" in the car.) The entire dash has to be pulled to replace it.
Those were the only two big dollar items in 200,000 miles of great fun.
So I went ahead and took a look at the coolant tank since I was under the hood fighting a slew of electrical problems with the car anyways and sure enough the coolant is running low again. I refilled the tank twice this year already so it's looking like I have more fun ahead of me than I thought I did lol. I appreciate the heads up at least because I probably wouldn't have been able to figure that out myself, haven't had any puddling below the car or anything. I'll keep an eye out for the AC evap core pulling any funny business as well
In Your Original Post You Had Stated You Were a Parts Delivery Driver and Bucks were Tight. I Was in Ford Dealer Parts For 30+ Years. If You get the Opportunity Try To Get a Driver Gig at A Dealership. Drivers often Work Up To Counter and The Dealership Pay is Usually Better Than Aftermarket Stores. If you Like Your Mustang Consider Trying At Your Favorite Ford Store! But Most Dealership Makes are Going To Pay Better. Working Hours are Usually Better Too! Just An FYI From an Old Ford Parts Manager! Also Ford Employee's Get Parts at a Real Good Discount.
8/17/23, 12:41 PM
