[JKennedy]

Wow! That is pretty slow, but you have shaved over 1.2 seconds probably and very few of your upgrades appear to be mechanical. So, there is good hope for putting some good times up with these cars.

[JKennedy]

Okay, so I played with the method "torque braking" today after a bummer of a day at the office. My only thought is that yes it is a a good way to get the rpms up while at a stop, but isn't it bad on the brakes? Seems like a good way to wear them out faster.

What do you guys think?

[JKennedy]

AB since most of your mods are not in the engine bay should I consider doing other things to add speed without necessarily adding hp. For instance, would upgrading the suspension give better "down force" at the wheels or something? My only thought is that if I put all boltons and a chip in there, but I'm not doing a good job of transfering my new power to the road it was a waste.

[gloomshadow]

Hey man, Ive been following your thread from the very beginning..Never! Never! drop a bunch of work into a motor without getting at that rotating assembly and actually seeing in person what you have in there! Go to harbor freight and get a shop crane, and a engine stand for short money, pull that fucking motor and and strip it right down to the block! Youve got to see those "main" and "rod" bearings to know whats going on..then CHANGE EM!, get new piston rings, and a timing chain and ALWAYS ALWAYS drop a new oil pump into it! Then get a whole gasket and seal kit..total parts about $300!

Once you have that done then you put enging mod and power adders! Imagine how much heartbreak your gonna go through when you Drop $1500-$2500 down on high performance parts and all that labor and your rods start knocking 20,000MI later because your old assed oil pump failed and spun half of your bearings!

If you are Over 90,000mi and youre gonna do engine mods ALWAYS go straight to the rotating assembly, timing chain and oil pump FIRST!
JUST LOOKING OUT FOR YOU BUDDY!

[gloomshadow]

Sorry, this is my first post and im trying to figure out how this site works..anyway Ive given you some sound advice in another post and Im not sure if you were notified about it.

[JKennedy]

Thanks for the help man. That is stuff that no one has mentioned yet. It appears that there is a lot more for me to learn before I start buying stuff for the car. Right now because it is cold and I'm stocking up on cash and good gracies with the wife I'm in cleaning and maintaining mode. I'm taking the car in for a tune-up this week and am going to clean my engine bay this weekend. So, after that she will be as close to her brand-new glory as she can be.

[gloomshadow]

That money that youre saving is better spend on tools! If you play your cards right you can set up a nice little shop right at home. Get a good tool set, a floor jack, air tools like an air wrench and a impact wrench, 4 medium jack stands, a engine stand, a engine hoist and a air compressor, a set of simple pullers and a tourque wrench. Between Harbor Freight and used stuff I found for short money I spent about $500 I can do almost anything now. This is really good insureance for all of the family cars you have, it will save you a buch of money down the road! Next get factory shop manuals and study them! Learn all you can about the basics of internal combustion engines of all types. One you assist in a few engine rebuilds youll have the confidence and "hands on" you need to do your own work. Try finding a local engine shop as ask them if you can help out on a few rebuilds, offer to really do the dirty work of helping to pull one, cleaning parts ect, and ask questions..you will see how its done and know what to expect and they get a free "shop hand" for a few days! But only do this after youve read up on it so you dont sound like an idiot, "whats a crankshaft?" lol
Focus on being a mechanic first, and not being some kind of "parts changer"! or "Parts adder" ...in three months of reading and asking questions youll be ready for your first one!

But start at the begininnng, get a good tool set-up to protect the car that you already have, then gain the knowlege, then gain the experience!..then youll have the confidence!

I built my own 3.8 in 3 days of hard work (but i had to send my heads out for resurfacing and that took 4 days but i dont count that) BY MYSELF and im a lil 5'5" guy and this was before i had an engine hoist ($50 used)..I pulled it out with a coulple of heavy duty nylon straps and a chainfall attached to a celing rafter! lol I only had a ratchet set, engine stand, tourque wrench, jack stands a few pullers and some plasic gauge, but I knew what I was doing, this is my 12th engine and I had a fucking awsome teacher who was a old certified BMW mechanic from the 70s! lol

[gloomshadow]

OH, and I forgot..once you have all that shit, dont pull your motor if its running! Just go down the junk yard a buy a pice of shit motor for a couple hundred buck and put it on your engine stand and rebuild THAT ONE! take your time and drive your car in the meantime...when its ready SWAP EM! keep your old engine as a spare! lol Thats the smart way! the junk one on the stand you can take your time with doing this and that as the money for stuff appears!lol the whole time your driving the car you have and modding the junk one until its this bad asssuper motor! Imagine how youre gonna feel when youve got TWO WORKING motors at all times! lol one in the car and another as a back up! Talk about a warm feeling inside?? lol! So, just build on a salvaged engine on the stand dude, and take your time...my junkyard is a "you pull" so you need the engine hoist and you have to do everything.. they carge $200 for any engine in the lot!

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by AtlanticBlue99 I started with 80k and currently have 127k after 4 years of normal use on the street and a few dozen passes at the track. You aren't too high of miles to begin modding. Remember, maintenance is key.

Im too paraniod for that! I just dont feel right about pouring a buch of money and horsepower onto a 80K bottom end! Im always going to want that added insureance of new bearings, rings and timing chain and definately a NEW OIL PUMP to protect all that work and money! Yeah, Im sure you could get away with it most of the time but for how long?? Im always thinking about lifespan too! I want my shit to be able to get another 100k with no problem! Thats just me, I guess? Ive been around for a while and Ive seen alot of really fucked-up "low-mileage" cars, I dont trust anything until I can actually see it in person and still, I only 1/2 trust that! But this I know for sure, if you want 300+ hp from a Essex based motor and you want it last a long time, you better go with forged internals!

[PacificMustang01]

Originally Posted by gloomshadow ......Ive seen alot of really fucked-up "low-mileage" cars, ..........

+1 on that.

On the flip side, I've seen a lot of really great high (>80,000) milage cars too.

As stated before, maintance is the key! I've had a ford escort last for over 220,000 with NO problems EVER. Just preformed basic maintance. But at about 221,000 it just droped a cylinder one day....no signs/symptoms/or notice, it had just decided it was done.

My wife drives another escort with almost 180,000 on it. Never had a single problem with that car either.

My mustang has 110,000 on her. I got it with 105,000 on it from someone who preformed all maintance. The car runs perfect, and aside from a couple stupid sensors (DPFE and oil sending unit) the mustang is perfect.

I do realize that these cars have not been moded and are just used as basic transportation. Heck, if I was to ever go mod crazy on my stang I would invest the time/$$ to rebuild internal components.....but as a daily driver basic maintance will take care of 99.99% of everything and allow your car to have a very long life.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by PacificMustang01 +1 on that. On the flip side, I've seen a lot of really great high (>80,000) milage cars too. As stated before, maintance is the key! I've had a ford escort last for over 220,000 with NO problems EVER. Just preformed basic maintance. But at about 221,000 it just droped a cylinder one day....no signs/symptoms/or notice, it had just decided it was done. My wife drives another escort with almost 180,000 on it. Never had a single problem with that car either. My mustang has 110,000 on her. I got it with 105,000 on it from someone who preformed all maintance. The car runs perfect, and aside from a couple stupid sensors (DPFE and oil sending unit) the mustang is perfect. I do realize that these cars have not been moded and are just used as basic transportation. Heck, if I was to ever go mod crazy on my stang I would invest the time/$$ to rebuild internal components.....but as a daily driver basic maintance will take care of 99.99% of everything and allow your car to have a very long life.

Very true! People forget that when you take a motor outisde stock parameters it changes everything! Its now not the same Engine and you have to compensate at the stress points and wear is accelerated, NOTHING comes for free! So when you want a bunch of horsepower, start from the very beginings and rebuild from the ground up! Let me tell you a story!

The guy who made me a mechanic was a old guy who was certified BMW..this guy was like fucking YODA! The FORCE flowed through him but it was all in the form of Machines!
Any way, when he (My Master) was a young mechanic he had a old guy come to him with a rod-knock, the car was 10 years old but only had 20,000mi on it! The old guy changed the oil every 3,000 mi and only worked 1/8 a mile from where he lived! So he only put about 1/4 mile a day on his car.
My Master pulled the engine and every bearing was wiped clean down the brass an a conn bearing was spunn...My master couldnt figure out what happend and forgot about the whole thing. A few months later he was shocked awake from a quick nap with a vision of what had happened to that car!
He old guy never got the engine oil hot enough to evaporate condensation that formed down in the block and the water build up until there was enough of it over time to destroy the overlay on the bearing surfaces! The old guy did everything right except drive his car enough! So, low milage didnt mean shit in this case, thats why Im always paranoid! Wierd shit can happen!

[JKennedy]

Well, I know that once you start messing with a car you are opening up the possibility that anything can go wrong. That is why I am investigating the strength and health of my car. I took it today to get a good looking at. I'm expecting to get a good bill of health, but we'll see. My big question is what are my goals for the car. Am I looking for a track car (not likely) or a fun around town driver? I'm thinking that all I want is to make a more fun around town driver. So, adding tremendous horsepower is not the real plan. Adding horsepower will happen, but not the 300 or 400 that all mustang owners hope to harness.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by JKennedy Well, I know that once you start messing with a car you are opening up the possibility that anything can go wrong. That is why I am investigating the strength and health of my car. I took it today to get a good looking at. I'm expecting to get a good bill of health, but we'll see. My big question is what are my goals for the car. Am I looking for a track car (not likely) or a fun around town driver? I'm thinking that all I want is to make a more fun around town driver. So, adding tremendous horsepower is not the real plan. Adding horsepower will happen, but not the 300 or 400 that all mustang owners hope to harness.

Right, your on a good path then..you see the Mustang was not concived back in 64 as a muscle car nor a sports car. It was a 6cyl ROADSTER ment to take on the British 4s like the Triumph, MG and the Austin Healy.. It had to be cheap, fun and good looking while at the same time kick ass on the British 4..and It did! Thats why the British 4 is pretty much gone! So It was actually an American Roadster, not a muscle car or a sports car!

It took several years for he idea that a Mustang was a Muscle car, and that was because of the apperance of custom jobs from California like the Boss Mustangs and Shelby Mustangs..

So youre actually keeping in the Original concept of the car, an affordable fun roadster that could do a little bit of everything and you could put your girlfriend in the passenger seat and her girlfriends in the back seat! Big advantage over the British 4 back in the day, and it was a convertable with a hard to option, something the Birts didnt have at that time! Thats how the Mustang TOOK OVER!..It was a HUGE hit, Ford couldnt keep up with demand. My dad says that seeing a V8 Mustang back in 64-66 was like seeing a UFO, California dealers were getting all of them and Cali was sucking Ford dry!

[goren813]

I heart this thread.

[JKennedy]

My intention is to put a new

CAI
throttle body and throttle body spacer
underdrive pulleys
gears & tlok
and tuner

That is the plan at least at this point. I want to stay N/A.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by JKennedy My intention is to put a new CAI throttle body and throttle body spacer underdrive pulleys gears & tlok and tuner That is the plan at least at this point. I want to stay N/A.

Ok, that sounds good..youre mostly going to just drive around minding your own business. But orignially you wanted to go fast, didnt you? You were even wanting to drop $1500-$2500 in cash on shit like heads and what not right? Mabe gain 60hp and drive around all day drinking up gas and stressing out that bottom end of yours..just to maybe throw it down on some unsuspecting fool for a few seconds and embarass him right? Well guess what? You can do that with a stock motor! How?

NO2!!!
For $500 and a 4 hour install you can put a Nitrous kit in a pretty much stock Mustang6 and get a 70% hp gain for about 2 min! If you set up a wet shot right at the throttle body and kept it kinda mellow and didnt use it until you were out of first or second gear youd probably be alright for a while! I think your actually a good canidate for Nitrous, you get the same gas mileage and the same sound as a stock v6 and you take em by suprise for about 30 seconds! That sucker wont know what hit em!

[JKennedy]

I go back to my original fear that NO2 might be abit much for the average street car. I've fast and the furious and that shit ain't real. I'm not in a hurry to die or hurt someone else by being careless.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by JKennedy I go back to my original fear that NO2 might be abit much for the average street car. I've fast and the furious and that shit ain't real. I'm not in a hurry to die or hurt someone else by being careless.

You can deliver a shot of nitrous thats mild if you want ..depends on what you want they've got alot of different injector nozzles you can use. You could bring it way down to maybe only give you a 40hp boost if you wanted, for a lot longer too..the gas itself is around a dolloar a pound I think, and I think its a 20lb bottle if I recall...I havent really though much about Nitrous lately...HEY!..I think Im gonna get some of that shit! lol

[ewells2420]

DO NOT get the throttle body and TB spacer, completely useless and will not do anything for you without the power packs.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by ewells2420 DO NOT get the throttle body and TB spacer, completely useless and will not do anything for you without the power packs.

Oh, It will "do" something for him, It will cause him to lose some low-end tourque! lol Now, he could gain some of it back on the top-end of his powerband but not enough to justify the cost on a stock motor! Now that set up could help him if he went NO2 later because of the extra flow but not by much I bet. What do you think?