So i went to a local shop today to have 3.73 installed and started talking about my car project to the shop owner (very experienced guy who dealt with justin at JPC. He knows his stuff). I told him that i wanted to start with:
tune, cai, udp, differentials, and cmcv (I have those mods)
and that my next step was to get a lca, uca, driveshaft, and k-member+ a-arms. He grinned, which gave the idea that he thinks im going the wrong direction. Told him whats funny and he replied:

What do you want the driveshaft a k-member at this stage? I said this is the direction stang owners are taking, and that i want to improve my suspension,reduce the cars weight and then put the exhaust system + supercharge. (SC was my last step)

He said spend your money on stuff that will give your power and not stuff the reduces weight. Dont get the kmember and driveshaft now. those are stuff that people should do after they reach the maximum hp. Then its time to put your car on a diet to improve your timings.

He conculded by saying that if one day you plan on getting a supercharge, dont waste your money on stuff that will be replaced when you get the SC like cai and pulley.

He didnt convice me yet but he got me thinking if what he says is better for me.

What do you guys think? Is he right? or are all those stang owners out there in all forums right?

 

I would have to agree. I have seen some people buy all kinds of stuff and then sale it later cause of the new item(s) they bought. Think about your plans for the car and buy what you can keep on it.

 

I agree. He is right. The upgrades I did before my S/C...were headers and exhaust, 3:73's and Tune. I did add the CAI before the S/C...so it became a wasted upgrade.

 

I would agree about everything except the CAI and tune. Unless you are buying the SC very soon. The money spent on that is well worth it. It also pretty much convinced me not to supercharge as it makes a good improvement that really wakes up the car.

 

I don't agree with his point of view on weight savings.

 

I have to disagree a bit. It sounds like you are in the same boat I am. Right now I can't go SC but plan to in the future. In the mean time I want to go fast and have a car that performs as well as it can. With the simple mods in my signature I have run some very impressive times and have no regrets. I have chosen my parts carefully and most of them will go right in line when I get the SC. As a matter of fact I am concerning myself currently with weight savings as I want to get as close to the 11 second zone with an NA daily driver. I have a few mods in the works that should get me real close.

 

Ok, here's my 2 cents on this. If you're going to be buying the supercharger right away, then yeah, it's a waste of money to buy a CAI and UDPs. But more likely you're not going to be plunking down the $6000 right away, so I'd say it's definitely worth spending a relatively small amount of money for the basic mods. Then if and when you don't need those parts anymore put them on ebay. Problem solved.

 

The argument is one of personal preference and one I've heard swing both ways from many experienced people. Think of it like this, the bolt ons will give substantial seat of the pants and drivetrain efficiency improvements over the stock engine. But they won't do so anywhere near as well as the F/I. Adding the bolt ons may even go unnoticed after you go F/I, whereas you'll definitely notice them before you go F/I.

So if you do the shaft and suspension and other bolt ons now, then do the F/I later, you'll get to experience two substantial increases in power, and not have to shell out for the most expensive mod right up front.

Of course if I had the money, I'd do all the mods at once and reduce the amount of tuning and gear swaps necessary. But since I'm trying to save more money than spend on mods, I'm going to go with the most bang-for-the-buck mods up front and save the big guns for the end of next year.

Just my $.02.

 

I completely disagree. Unless you can afford to s/c your stang right away you might as well get the cai and tune because it will make your car hella more fun in the mean time. ALSO there are LOTS of cai's that will fit up to different s/c's meaning you can keep them. And there are lots of companies that if you buy the supercharger from them (IE brenspeed) they will e-mail you a tune for the supercharger for free.

My intake for example is a direct fit to the saleen s/c and with the tuner I have I will be able to have my car custom dyno tuned. And as others have said you can e-bay the items you no longer need or sell on a stang site.

Edit: I do agree about not needing the k-member and a-arms yet. But do some research, pic a cai that will work with the s/c you want.

 

Well the socal guys where just talking about this today. I would agree on some terms. I agree that you shouldn't get things if they are going to end up being replaced once the s/c comes on. This is money that could have gone towards the s/c fund. Looks like you've done mods that will benefit the s/c I would hold off on the k-memember and a-arms though.

 

Make a decision on what you want the car to do 1st. Do you want a straight line car or a road car.

Straight line... just get power stuff.
Road car... Make it stop... Make it handle... then make power.

 

Yes ,He is right IMO get the plan that you want and don't do mods for the short term.If a s/c is your goal then some of your other mod don't work or have to be re done = more money. If the man is a respected tech most people would have to pay for such advice . Seem like that he's concern you do the right mods but also has concern about you money.

 

I will not be super charging my car anytime soon, so all the smaller mods to get more out of the car, like CAI, pulleys, tune, driveshaft - they're all worth it because I'm not plunking down $5000 for the S/C.

 

Just like others I've said, I think a supercharger is the way to go, if you've got 6 grand. But for almost instant gratification, a tune and cai go a long way and make a huge difference for the money.

I had an XCal 2 so I bought the tuner kit from KB, which doesn't come with one. And I sold my JLT CAI for almost 2/3rds what I paid for it, so didn't loose much money there.

But for me, I knew stuff like charge motion plates, 4.10 gears, and under drive pulleys was going to be a waste of time and money since the KB kit gets rid of the CMP, I'd have to put the stock crank pulley back on, and I like the 3.55s with all the low end torque of the twin screw.

Once you get a s/c, you have all the power your stock rods can handle and can start putting money elsewhere. For me, I did brakes, anti squat brackets, lowering springs, panhard bar, wheels and bigger tires, clutch and flywheel, and drive shaft after the S/C, which were steps to harness the power instead of trying to get more.

 

Better yet, buy your CAI, UD's and CMCV's off ebay from somebody getting rid of them. You'll lose less money (if any) when you resell them after you take them off for the SC.

 

+1. I hate it when I pay full price for something and find it on ebay the next day for cheaper. HA!

 

go for power

 

I agree with the comments about the CAI and tune. It really wakes the car up and will make it a lot more fun to drive in the meantime. You'll need a tuner regardless so that money is well spent regardless of weather you go F/I or not.
Re: driveshaft - That guy is obviously not familiar with the stock S197 GT drive shaft.
I would NOT trust the stock drive shaft for any length of time with much more than the stock power output. That thing is a needlessly complex heavy piece of junk that any S197 could benefit from swapping to something better. I've had a stock two piece d/s fail and it's NOT pretty.
Also when you consider that the majority of the aftermarket driveshafts are approx half or less than the weight of the stock assembly. It removes approx 20 lbs of ROTATING mass. Removal of rotating mass will make a much greater difference than removing the same amount of weight from some other place in the car.

 

Like others have said, it is about personal preference.

Personally, I like weight savings, because it helps more than just acceleration.
That being said, the minimal weight saving you are talking about probably won't be felt, where as the same money put in making hp would probably be felt/enjoyed a lot more.

It all depends on how you use your car.