I've had my stang for 3 1/2 years. I've put a lot into it. Money, blood, sweat, tears (gasoline BURNS!!...wow...pun.) I'm preaching to the choir here. It's been over a year since I've added any new performance stuff to the car. I'd been fine with that but then 2 weeks ago I let myself get enticed into a race from a stoplight with a Corvette C5. I couldn't tell if it was a Z06 or not, but I CAN tell you I ALMOST GOT HIM! He never got more than a quarter of a car length in front of me. That re-ignited the modification passion in me, and now I'm looking to upgrade something. So...what next?

My signature's got all the parts I have but here's the summary:
-CAI and dyno tune
-aluminum driveshaft
-entire suspension (except for front control arms)
-18" wheels and grippy summer tires

I think short of putting racing slicks on the car, I can't make it handle any better (my own skill not withstanding). So I want to make the car accelerate faster. Easy, right? I have a few constraints though:

-I can't afford a supercharger right now. Even if I could, can't justify the cost at the moment.
-The car's my daily driver. Actually my only car. So it's still has to have good drivability and (you knew it was coming) I don't want to lose any more than 1 or 2 MPG. I don't know if that rules out gears or not. I do a lot of highway driving.
-My powertrain warranty still goes for another year and a half, so I'd like to avoid voiding it (flexible on this one, I know there's not much you can do about that)
-My price range is $0.37 - $1000-ish.

So, let the flood commence! What should I do next?

 

Headers maybe? That'd probably require a re-tune and, thus, be out of your budget I'd reckon.

 

Steeda economy CMCV deletes, headers, FRPP stingers, MGW short shifter just to name a few.

 

Gears might help. 3:73's won't kill your MPG.If your running 3:55's then consider the 4:10's

 

I would say long tube headers (if you want to go expensive) or an MGW short throw shifter (if you want to stay cheap). Both really changed the feel of the car for me, and would thus help quench your mod bug, and headers will get you that extra HP while the shifter will reduce shift times (presumably). You could also do a UDP with CMDP's for about $300.

 

LTs - $450 (flebay)
Tune - $50-$150
Gears - $150
Install - $250-450
Total: $1200 if you are on the high end of the scale, $900 if you find the deals around.

 

Step 1) control yourself.

Step 2) Save your money up.

Step 3) Install supercharger.

Step 4) Stomp Corvettes.

The thing is, if it's a DD, a supercharger would be probably the best thing, if it's Corvette catching you wanna go for, plus you can still have the daily driver aspect... with a new whiny sound, depending on the 'charger.

You could go turbo, but I haven't ever been a fan of those. Just me, of course, I'm sure.

But I doubt you'll be happy when that Corvette wins again, and will just wind up having a bug to mod reassert itself. So just do it right once and be done with it. Patience and saving... It won't be long... Just repeat that:

"Won't be much longer... Won't be much longer..."

And it'll be done!

Well, that's my take anyway.

 

4.10 gears

 

Eh, catch the right vette and the thing will be so weighted down by the fat porker of a driver and all his gold chains a V6 would take him.

 

Too true, I'm getting my SC next week, it's not cheap, but you can get the Non IC kit from brenspeed for 3800 and get 150 HP, it's there when you want it, but you can drive normal and not get into boost at all. It's just that when you SC if you have a lot of mods you might be stuck having to take some off and selling, like I'm going to have to sell my bullitt intake and also the tunes I have will be of no use anymore, so that's 600 I could have saved. Best is to make a decision, do you ever plan on going SC, then buy your mods around that. I made that decision after I got the intake so my other mods are exhaust which will help the engine breath better, more air in, more air out.

At least that's what I've seen and experienced

 

Maybe start losing some weight? (off the car of course)

- Steeda LW radiator support - so you can still keep the swaybar
- replace the K-member

Exhaust might give you just alittle more too. I gained around 8hp and 10lbft at the wheels just with switching to an off-road Prochamber vs the stock H-pipe w/ cats. You'll probably have to get her retuned though to take full advantage.

Just some thoughts while trying to stay in your budget.

 

he said he's trying not to void warranty, i see a lot of things hear that i believe will void your warranty. but incase you go the other route and you want to void it great more power to ya lol.

 

go with a tillman speed all out tune and then go find that same corvette and show him whos boss.

 

**** multi-quote thing won't work...

First off, thanks to all for the replies, I'm going to try to address them all...

classix: I've already got 2 dyno tunes from Tillman, one for 91 performance and then the 93 all out street race. I had the street race one loaded when I almost had the corvette. It's a monster of a tune, even if the throttle is too jumpy. Funny thing is I keep PM'ing and calling CR at Tillman and he says "Yeah, I can fix that no problem", and then I never hear anything back. My experiences with Tillman's customer service are mixed, IMHO. I had to drive to their shop (150 mi, 1-way) to pick up springs that I told them over and over again I needed in time for an auto cross weeks in advance. They slipped through the cracks and never got shipped, and the rest is history.
And about the warranty thing, I realize that most of this stuff is going to void some part of it, so I'm prepared to make that dive.

69Mach1: You're right...I need to lose weight. I just ate that big breakfast too. Maybe I should go purge...great...you just gave me an eating disorder...look what you did! J/K... I could afford to lose 20 myself though, which would help a lot of things. As far as the car goes: how much does weight does all of that actually save? If it's more than 40 lbs, I might consider it. The off-road prochamber setup, do you still pass emissions in your state inspection every year with that?

Starfire: That price doesn't include installation, does it? I've tackled every mod on my list myself except for the driveshaft and dyno tunes, but I'd rather leave a S/C to the professionals.
The only mod I'd have to ditch would be the granatelli intake.

BudgetPlan01: ROFL!! That pic is aweful, think of the children!




houtex: You, sir, make a lot of sense. And the time it'd take me to save up for the S/C would coincide with about the time my warranty would be up, so that's a definite consideration. How much does it cost to have a S/C kit installed anymore? Last time I checked (over a year and a half ago) it was about $7k for kit an install, which is the figure I'm basing this on.

Poco/rony/Bill: I'm running 3.55's now (they were still standard on the 06 GT manual). 4.10's seem a little extreme to me, and it seems like I'd be running at 3k RPM at 60mph.

About the CMCV delete plates, what do the CMCV's do themselves that I'd be getting rid of? They've got to be there for a reason or else Ford wouldn't have spent the extra money to put them in there.

 

My 4.10 gears have only added 500 rpm to my car that had 3.35's in them. My highway milage with an Auto trans is 22mpg (15 in town). Worth every bit of it. My gears were instelled by a Ford dealership with 3 year warrenty.

 

I here ya, but being a non IC kit it's about the easiest to install, I've even seen a few people take it off if they go to a dealer (Not saying that's right) and since it's self lubricated that makes it easier.

 

Gears!

My car feels like it's ready to jump off the line everytime. It's almost impossible to drive slow now! Also, gears are a prerequisite for the next two

I did loose 2 mpg on them though

Second is cams, but that will put you around 1100 dolllars after parts and install. frpp cams will keep your warranty

After you do those two, you can do headers so you really unleash the power. You could do jba's for around a grand installed

 

I could afford to lose that myself!

Rad support & K-member: If you add them all up you might toss 30-40lbs.. but I'm not sure of the exact numbers. I think with the rad support you save 10-12lbs off the nose. I haven't done the K-member yet, but I know the OEM one is heavy!

Prochamber: It will not pass in NJ, but it's a simple 4 nuts & 2 clamps job. You can switch over the 3 O2's over while the midpipe is off the car. With ramps & a beer it might take me an hour to throw the OEM one back on. It takes even less with my buddies lift.


Supercharger: I installed the FRPP 400hp kit in a weekend.. though we were carrying on and having a good time doing it.. so I'm sure it could of been done in alot less time. FRPP's kit was very easy to install and the only 'special' tool I can think of you need is the fuel line tool, but that can be picked up for a few bucks at any autoparts store. After going with the Non-IC kit I strongly recommend going with a Intercooled kit.. it's well worth the extra coin, because you will have to upgrade down the road. Which is exactly where I am right now.

CMCV delete plates: I believe they were put in there to help low end / part throttle torque and have some effect on emissions. I got the blower before I could ever try this mod. With any roots, TVS (hybrid), or Screw style blower you will remove the CMCV plates when the intake is replaced.

 

You're still on PHB.. so you could make the car handle better by moving to one of the better (Fays2 or Steeda) Watts links. If you ask anyone who's run one the car is completely different than with a PHB, much more stuck, stable and composed. Which is why both my cars will have them on shortly.

 

...really?