I am a 17 year old guy an I love cars and workin on them. I have a 2002 v6 3.8l mustang. The problem is I want more power out of it. I know a tuner is the best bet for huge gains but I don't he the money or that. I am looking for some simplistic bolt ons that are decent price for a part time high school job. What bolts ons should I look at?

 

Cold air intake, pulleys, throttle body, chip, tune, dyno tune. All solid power gains

 

Where can I buy theses under drive pulleys? I have looked in American muscle and the only 3.8l under pulleys they have are for 94-98. Will this still fit a 2002?

 

Seriously, save your money. If you want power get a good V8 and maybe some bolt-ons with it.

 

Our you could spend your money on suspension upgrades until you can afford putting any real power in it.

 

Unfortunitly, the 3.8 is expensive to make fast. Its a great motor, that will live a good while, just takes some money to get good power. You could do all the bolt ons mentioned but you will see minimalistic power gains.

My recommendations would be suspension. You can make your car alot of fun with a good suspension setup. My 99 is a stock motor but with a good list of suspension upgrades and I have a blast driving it. I never felt the need for more power out of it. Even compared to my 95 GT, I would bet my 99 is faster through any turn.

If you want more info however, look at this thread in my signature. Its got alot of info for the 3.8.

 

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/...monic-Balancer

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I just got a CAI and car wait for it to get In and ill soon be getting a throttle body along with it.

 

This.

Don't waste the money on the TB. Get a tuner and 3.73 gears. That will be your best bang for your buck. Also, go to an exhaust shop and have them fab you up a custom 2.5" dual exhaust, and have it dumped before the rear tires. It will be nice and deep for ya!

 

Windstar intake. Nice gains. Would need supporting mods. Tb, and large maf. My buddy has that intake with 3.73 gears and custom tune and he is only 2 cars behind my cobra

 

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Yes, tb if you do the Windstar intake. May as well p&p the heads, intake spacer, 4.2 crank, forged internals, LT headers, O/R H, and m112 while you're at it

But you'll need a new hood for the Windstar intake, or else I would've suggested it right off the bat.

 

My bud is running stock hood

He got the intake for 40 bucks from a wrecking yard. Cheap power

 

Really? Did he have to cut the support structure? I could swear the W intake didn't fit. Meh, I gave up on the old 3.8 long ago. That and I have a Cobra R hood on my sixer anyways, so it was a moot point for me!

 

if you look he shaved the tip of the intake down a bit. then blocked off the iac port. ran the iac off the side to give more clearance. then he added a 1/8 inch shim between the engine cradle and frame to give it just a hair more clearance. he lowered the front enough that you cant tell there is a shim in the cradle. he also had to remove the plastic fake scoop out of the hood. but he got it to fit. the scoop now actually cools the intake

 

Yep. I got one waiting to go on mine.

 

It might be cheap power, but I couldn't live with myself knowing that a part from a minivan was on my sports car.

 

Can you live with the fact that the mini van has 30 more hp than a mustang?

 

Yea, but its the best intake you can get for the 3.8. You could port the stock one, but it wouldn't flow much better then the windstar. Its not really that its cheaper, just a heck of a lot better.

 

It's also cooler, since it's plastic versus aluminum. Looks awesome too, reminiscent of the SHO intake. I don't like the front throttle mount though.