[pnyboi]

just doesnt seem to wanna go. has a hard time hitting redline. went to 3.55 gears, cleaned the throttle body and maf sensor. bumped timing up to 12, at 10 it doesnt go at all. pulled air filter it runs alot better, put it back in and it sucks!!! any ideas? cats maybe??

[Bullitt95]

Possibly but if your 5.0 is still stock, it'll be asthmatic to the extent that the torque drops off rapidly above 4500rpm anyway and has to make a long slog to reach the 5900rpm redline. You're better off shifting a stock 5.0 no higher than about 5000rpm.

[pnyboi]

ok, this is my first sn95. didnt expect it to be this sluggish. guess Ill start with some mods. thanks

[Bullitt95]

You could do these "free" mods first:

1. Remove air silencer from air filter housing and replace air filter.
2. Remove MAF sensor housing mesh screen.
3. Remove smog pump assembly (you could also install an ASP underdrive crank pulley at the same time so you'll only need to buy one replacement shorter belt Gates K060868).
4. Remove the 25lb weight from the front passenger side fenderwell (you can do that at the same time as removing the air silencer).
5. Bump timing up to 14 degrees, even 16 degrees, as long as the engine doesn't ping.

You could also have the cats hollowed out so they'll no longer be a restriction.

[95BlackStang]

how do you remove the weight?

[97S281]

dude, why is there a weight?

[95BlackStang]

Originally Posted by 97S281 dude, why is there a weight?

i have no clue but its thier.
how do you remove it?

[Bullitt95]

Originally Posted by 95BlackStang how do you remove the weight?

I believe the weight was put there to balance the weights of the front corners in the vert. To remove it, you'll need to remove the fender liner to gain access. Once you've done that, there's only a couple of bolts to remove to get rid of the weight. You'll also see the airbox silencer while you're there and you can pull that off too.

[Ryno8705]

Originally Posted by 95BlackStang i have no clue but its thier. how do you remove it?

The weight is there because Ford realized there was a vibration/shutter in the front end of a Mustang convertible at highway speeds. They added a weight to counter-balance something and it made the shutter go away.

It sounds like you need to replace your fuel filter. My fairly stock 5.0 5-speed (has headers and full 2.5" exhaust) pulls hard to redline. I don't notice that it falls off anywhere until I shift then duh, it's going to. I have my timing at 12* running 89 octane. I had it at 14* and 93 octane for a while and couldn’t justify the extra performance with the extra $ for gas. It was barely noticeable, if at all between 12* and 14*. If I ever run it at the track I would run 14*-16* base timing, but only for the track.

Check the ECT sensor to make sure it's telling the computer the engine is warm. If it isn’t your car could be stuck in open loop, which would cause poor performance in the higher RPMs.

Before you throw money at it, get a Chilton manual and check all the sensors. 5.0s are known to have stupid sensor problems. The TPS could be another that could cause your symptoms. If your TPS is bad it may not be telling the computer that you are at full WOT.

Check to see if there is crap stuck to the contacts under the distributor cap and if your spark plugs are shot.

Contrary to what many say, you DO NOT have to poke a hole in the wire to read the voltage of many Ford sensors. Where the wire enters the harness is rubber, put the end of a voltmeter up the harness parallel to the wire pushing the rubber out of the way until you get a reading.

Don't hallow your cats unless you need them to look like they are there for inspection. If you hallow them out they will sound like crap above 2500 rpms from the outside of the car. The cat walls are too thin to keep all the sound inside the metal. Just go for highflow cats or an O/R H-pipe.. If you go with highflows or any cat setup with the AIR inlet you need a complete functioning SMOG system or you will burn up your cats, whether you know it or not, within 10,000 miles, period. Bassani and a few others make highflow cats that don't need the AIR system, they work fine without any of Ford's SMOG crap.

Also, run the computer codes and see what you come up with. Finally, replace your air filter since you already proved it's restrictive.

[pnyboi]

thanks that helps out alot. I will start checking things.

[Ryno8705]

IMO, leave the weight in. I took it out for the hell of it once to see if I could notice a difference. I noticed a little shutter at 70+. Many will post they didn't notice a difference with or without but it's not worth the PITA if you don't plan on racing the car. Again, that's just my opinion.

[bretts95gt]

stut bar an sway bar removal (youll notice a big more bodyroll but how often do you go to the roadcourse???.....thatll pull off a good bit of weight and its free i pulled the weight out as meation earlier you can notice alittle shake but it not much at 90mph it feels like a alignment alittle off. like ryno said unless ur gona run your car leave it alone otherwise rip that badboy outta there

[95stroker]

i'd suggest checking the fuel filter and cats...might as well start where its easy. i have a buddy with a fairly stock 94 gt and it struggles to hit redline too, it usually just shifts around 5300.

[fairlane_68]

Originally Posted by 95stroker i'd suggest checking the fuel filter and cats...might as well start where its easy. i have a buddy with a fairly stock 94 gt and it struggles to hit redline too, it usually just shifts around 5300.

I'm not a transmission guru, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. I think it shifts there and won't get to redline because MAYBE the PCM is telling the transmission to shift in order to prevent self-destruction. I say this because this was something I asked a transmission specialist (translation: God's gift to Transmissions) a few years ago. Bottom line, something tells something else to do something in order to keep the engine or the transmission from coming apart.

In my current car, my shift light comes on at 5000 RPM, and I shift at some point after that. Like it was said above, I wouldn't go past 5000 RPM in a stock motor. My excuse is that I'm trying to blow mine up.

[Bullitt95]

The stock torque converter begins to balloon outwards from 5400rpm and up, so that's the reason why the AODE is programmed to upshift at 5300rpm.