[Fryrice]

No, I'm not a technical wizard and this post is NOT the bible, but I feel like I have some good info to share for guys who are where many of us were at one point and weren't really sure where to begin. I have seen a lot of guys who are new to the performance game ask many of the same questions over and over again. Nothing wrong with that, we have all been there trust me. You work hard like many of us,and you want your cash to pay off in HP upgrades. And you certainly don't want to waste that cash on mod's that look pretty and gain shitty (nice huh). So here are some important pointers when you are considering what to spend that hard earned cash on. This post describes a scenario in a modern modular motor (and pushrod in most cases).

Probably the most common "first mod" guys/gals do is change their air intake. Why ? I would say that 99% of the time its because its an easy swap even for a novice, is easy to reach, requires only a screwdriver to change it and of course its visually pleasing. And compared to other power making mod's, it tends to be cheapest upgrade.

Debunking the CAI (cold air intake) hype....

First off,what is the purpose of a CAI? A CAI is supposed to cool the inlet charge or allow cooler/more air into the combustion chamber. The cooler the air,the denser the oxygen, therefore you theoretically have more oxygen in the same amount of space compared to warmer air in the same space. Its simple,more air/fuel mixture equals more power right ? Cooler air makes more power right ?

Yes and no..Say the manufacturers.

When they claim 10-15 hp gains with their CAI,where do you think they do the tests? In the desert where cold air would really be a benefit to your motor? Nope. In a controlled environment with the right environmental conditions so they can give you big numbers under the absolute best conditions. Guys when your car is sucking in 95 degree heat,its not gonna create 60 degree air. Its like the small print you read at the bottom of a weight loss commercial. When they say "you can lose 20 pounds in 4 weeks" , don't you notice the small print at the bottom of the screen ? It says,results may vary blah blah. You get the point.

Is a CAI useless ? Nope. But is it the RIGHT investment for your first mod ? Not in my opinion,and the opinions of people who have been chasing big HP numbers for years. Read on.

1) A nice cold air intake system certainly looks better that the factory intake,but are a waste of money as a FIRST or second mod. Its like a hot chick that wont give up that booty, SHE LOOKS GOOD BUT WHATS THE POINT? The factory air intake is actually capable of handling significant air flow. A K&N filter is a good choice to replace the factory paper cone because is will flow better, and also its reusable and will save you a lot of money in the long run versus throwing away paper filters.

2) For an average name brand CAI you may spend around $150 new. Now ask yourself, how much air are you moving ? You have factory cams and heads (PI in a best case scenario ) and a restrictive factory exhaust. Are you making so much airflow that the factory engineered intake just cannot handle your massive HP ? No.

3)So you may be asking " Well if a CAI is better at creating cooler/denser air as said earlier,then how come its not a good investment ?" Its not a bad investment. Its just not a good FIRST investment. You need a plan of attack when looking for sizeable HP gains. And you cant build big HP from the Autozone shelves. Unfortunately,HP costs money.
"Ok OK I get it." I'm not moving tons of air,therefore I don't really need to cool what air I'm moving now. So whats the plan of attack ?
OK,it breaks down like this among guys in the know ..

GEARS -- The biggest vote getter in terms of first mod's is usually gears. A gear change is possibly the most difficult thing you can do on your car. Not because its so mind boggling confusing,but because the room for error is extremely minimal. Pay a pro if you cant find someone experienced to walk you through it. You can generally get a set of Ford Racing gears installed along with Royal Purple differential fluid for around $400 . Anything higher than that is maybe to high. $450 tops. Your Stang probably came with 3.27 gear ratio in late model modular Stangs. Thats fine for factory performance and fuel economy and your factory tire size. But they do not optimize the potential of the factory power. Picking the right gears for your car can result in a very nice gain in performance. Not more HP,but better utilization of the factory power.

What gears should you get ? First off lets explain what a gear ratio is . A gear ratio is the number of teeth on the ring divided by the number of teeth on the pinion. Its like this.... if there are 41 teeth on the ring and 11 on the piston the gear ratio is 3.73 (technically its 3.7272727272 repeatedly but its rounded up to 3.73). Just divide 41 by 11 on a calculator on you will see.Things like a larger tire size or automatic tranny dictate what gear ratio works best for your car....

Example :If you upgrade your tire size,you want a higher gear ratio. Why ? Because the larger tire takes longer to rotate .So basically the more teeth you have,the faster you tranny will rotate the rear tires,resulting in faster speeds. On the other side of that ,if you keep the factory tires and upgrade your gears,you will see a big jump in performance as far a getty-up movement. Now you might say that "in that case Ill go with a real high ratio" . Logical thinking ,but incorrect in most cases .The higher the gear ratio,the more heat you create in the differential, which COULD cause fluid breakdown. So there is a fine balance between what you desire and what you really need. Bigger isn't always better.
Same logic applies to a automatic tranny versus a manual. So to save you time, Ill just give away the answer to your question . Whats the best gears for an automatic ? MOST guys who know their stuff will say something like 4:10 gears because of the fact that you lose HP from the time its made in the motor to the time it actually reaches the rear tires a.k.a parasitic loss .Thats in a automatic. So its beneficial to have more teeth for a auto. A manual ? 3:73. You don't need as many teeth because a manual doesn't lose as much power along the drivetrain as a automatic does.You will really feel a big difference with gears. But 4.10's tend to be the most popular choice for both transmission types among performance enthusiasts. Just remember that when you step up from say a 3.27 ratio to 4.10 that your car's RPM's will idle higher so you may see a change in your fuel mileage. 4.10's will help you jump off the line quicker so its all a matter of preference and needs.

OK, lets jump to what you really wanna know- Horsepower and the best way to get it ! This topic could be typed for days and still could not be explained in its entirety ,so lets go over the short version.
First of all, I don't care if you have a supercharged 460 big block making 600 HP under your hood. If you cant get that air out the back of the car,your killing your performance,which brings us to ......

EXHAUST -- Now which exhaust is a LONG and opinionated debate. Some x-pipes sound great while others sound like hell with certain mufflers blah blah blah. Thats just really a matter of taste. But what I can tell you is that when your ride left the factory ,it left with multiple cats (up to 6) fuggin up your flow. So yes,you should definitely upgrade your exhaust. Headers are a big job,so you may wanna start with the mufflers and mid-pipe and go from there like most people do. And generally speaking,aftermarket headers don't really give you much bang for the buck unless your pushing a ton of power. So svae you money for something else.If you choose a O/R-pipe ,your car will be louder and illegal in most states. But hey, the odds are slim that you will get caught by the fuzz anyways .So thats on you . You can also choose high flow cats which may or may not pass emissions tests . So basically ,a nice 2.5 system is the typical way to go,and you have to experiment with what set-up you want.
Now we get to the good stuff. Making real power....

You can buy a CAI, a 70mm TB ,plenum and every other bolt-on you can think of for under your hood,and you still are not gonna get the gains you could if you save that money for something like a more aggressive cam profile and tune or a good port job. Why ? Because those parts don't "make" HP . Not in the conventional sense.They are good investments eventually but only after other upgrades.They are mainly a support system for the more expensive parts to put it bluntly. As said before,HP ain't cheap.

CAMS -- What does a cam do ? When the cam spins ,its lobes (egg shaped grooves on it ) open and close the intake and exhaust valves along with the motion of the piston ,rocker arms and the valve springs close them. Soon after you have air/fuel mixing together ,the spark plugs are igniting the mixture and boom ,you have internal combustion. Thousands of controlled explosions per minute. I wont get into TDC ,pistons,stroke and all that other stuff here.Thats the short version.
So you may be wondering then,what does a aftermarket cam set-up do for me ? Its like this. There is NO PERFECT CAM PROFILE. Thats why you have SOHC,DOHC etc . But thats another story Some cams are good at low RPM's while some do better at higher RPM's or somewhere in between. So somewhere you have to make a compromise . Do you want to be faster in a 1/4 mile race and have your power come on in the higher RPM's or do you prefer power earlier in the RPM range? Do you have enough money to have more aggressive cams properly tuned ? These are things you need to think about among others.

The reason a more aggressive (bigger) cam profile is better at making more HP is simple. The bigger the lobes,the longer (duration) the valves stay open and the wider (lift) they open,allowing more opportunity for air/fuel mixture. And that is what HP is all about . More air/fuel. The factory cams are designed for many different purposes in mind, and big HP is hardly one of them .Manufacturers have to meet lots of different federal guidelines when it comes to fuel mileage ,reliability and of course price,so they design parts to accomplish this,and leave the hot rodding up to you most of the time. But when they do build a beast of a sports cars with a forged bottom end and blower ,it usually outta the average guys price range.
When properly tuned and installed,and good cam profile can net you anywhere from 35hp-50 in some cases. It all depends on the profile and what other mod's you have. So as you can see,cam's are the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to modular motors. Talk to any good cam company about your needs,or post it here .

CYLINDER HEADS -- When it comes to cylinder heads,us modular guys kinda got the shaft ( no pun intended) compared to the push rod crowd. The PI heads and their different variations are basically the best available. FRPP has high performance versions however,and they are expensive. The most common method of improving the heads is porting. Thats when you modify the intake/exhaust ports on the heads using a air flow bench ( you don't have one unless your awesome) .This increases gas flow. In case you haven't noticed "flow" is a very common word all in this post. The science of porting is a long one,so I'm gonna skip all that . Basically,you take your heads to a shop and ask for a port job. There are different stages of port jobs,so you need to pick what you can afford and what you want to accomplish.

SUPERCHARGER -- If you have maxed out the modular motor as far as N/A mod's go,you are probably making some nice power ,and you may be done . But as soon as some F-Body does a number on you at the track or stoplight,your gonna want more.
Unfortunately for modular motors,even with all the upgrades discussed here,you will still fall way short of SERIOUS HP. If you make 350hp N/A,you da man. But your only choice for major power is forced induction a.k.a. a blower/supercharger.

I think forced induction is self explanatory ,but here is the easy version. The supercharger intake sucks in air and the supercharger crams massive amounts of air into the motor and creates whiplash power. Thats why you need bigger fuel injectors to introduce more fuel to the equation when you go the blower route. If you are going to get a roots style blower,thats another reason not to buy a TB,CAI plenum and anything else that sits on top of you motor.A roots style blower like a Kenne Bell eliminates all that.

Soooooooooo heres the summation of this little rant. As well as the popular order of modifications that make power ! Not look pretty but make power !

1. GEARS -- If you don't plan on touching the motor,get gears.They are a nice value for the punch factor ,and a good beginning to future mods. Just remember the laws of teeth talked about earlier.

2. EXHAUST -- Making gob's of HP is useless unless in can get out the back. A well set-up exhaust will help make some power by not restricting air-flow. And its just a matter of preference when it come to sound .

3. CAMS -- These are without a doubt the best investment you can make when it comes to making significant HP N/A. Remember ,you can spend $500-$600 on bolt-on and still not make as much as a good cam profile .Just remember ,if you go with a Stage 2 or higher,you will need to upgrade you valve springs and get a good tune. Stage 1 is generally safe on your factory springs and tune. Check with the cam maker for details on that.

4. CYLINDER HEADS -- If you have a 96-98GT and don't want to go through all the hassle of buying PI parts and everything,you can get your NPI heads ported .But I say go with the PI heads and intake plus whatever cam you want if you want to make real gains. A port job is a big bonus at around $700 or higher.

5. SUPERCHARGER -- This is the big one in every way. Big power and big price tag. One note about these is that if you are gonna go boost crazy,you NEED to forge your bottom end or else your asking for trouble .Your factory components would do ok for a while,but the night your out on a date with a hot chick ,trust me...the only rod getting blown will be in your engine,lmao.

OK guys,I hope this has helped you in your dreams for moderate to big power. I obviously didn't cover every ounce of technical data out there ,but its broken down I think .As I said,I don't know everything but I know some things,so feel free to chime in. Just dont waste your money on Autozone stickers a neon CAI'S .

Remember 2 things ;
1 ) HP isnt cheap
2) If it looks pretty ,it gains shitty.

Written by Fryrice

[00vabchgt]

Yes! it was resurrected!

[G.T. Rags]

not only that, it's famous too.........

Once again, good job Fry...... and congrats for making it to the big leagues

now mods, sticky this pullllllllllease.......

[00vabchgt]

Hey Fry, will you sign my MM&FF when it comes out?
and maybe my ass, too?

[06GT4RAD]

What about the CAI+Tune package that is a great source of power maybe not so with the Pre 05 but those cannot be dismissed for the 05-08 Stangs. You can see great gains with that combo.

Nice write up overall though.

[Fryrice]

Originally Posted by 00vabchgt Hey Fry, will you sign my MM&FF when it comes out? and maybe my ass, too?

Since you are a local I will tell security to put you at the front of the line....but Ill only sign your ass if you wash it.



RAGs - Sup buddy !

Originally Posted by 06GT4RAD What about the CAI+Tune package that is a great source of power maybe not so with the Pre 05 but those cannot be dismissed for the 05-08 Stangs. You can see great gains with that combo. Nice write up overall though.

True,but the fact still remains that there are better gains to be had by saving your money and tackling the bigger power/performance getters up front.

Dont forget, this is a "dummies" version. Not trying to get to technical. This will really benefit guys/gals who are lost in their performance endeavor and need simple answers.

[TurboLX]

stuck

[Fryrice]

Thanks to all who gave me rep points.

[HMUSN]

wanna see something cool?

you had 41 rep points.

check now

[Fryrice]

Oh snap.

[Michael7166]

great thanks!!

[Asdrubael]

Good post, I'm loving this forum with all the info. If I read any more I'll be the local Mustang-expert in no time

[Zatrekaz]

Thread Resurrection FTW.... sometimes

[BIG STEED]

Thanks a lot Fryrice that helps noobs like me I think im going to purchase some gears first thing.

[Seabee]

wow