[arnett]

Hey guys, I am new around here and pretty uneducated in the way of mechanics. I've been doing a lot of lurking around a couple of different boards and reading numerous tech guides, and I think I've finally understood, if not the basics, the concept of how my Pony's motor functions.

I've thought long and hard whether I want to pour my hard earned money, while trying to get through college, on a little v6 Mustang. Over the time I've owned my car, I've come to love it more and more, noticing every increase in performance with every little maintenance I perform. As I've researched on the internet, I've come to see the potential my little v6 has. I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather take the car I have now and make it my dream car, rather than scraping everything up for a cheap v8, then start working on it. So after deciding this, I went around to my mechanic-oriented family and start asking questions. All I get is, "Andy, go find yourself a Ford guy," or, "Just sell it and get a Chevy." So lacking a 'Ford Guy' to confer with, I've come to you all.

Basically, this thread is a plea to anyone with information and nothing to do for information. I intend to pour a lot of money into this Mustang and I want to see what my options are for the future. As I am in college, my source of money is spread out over time, and this is my primary driving vehicle. I am trying to figure out what mods I want, how much they will cost me to apply, how long it will be apart at a time, and in what order to get them, in compliance with my intake of funds.



Before I start throwing off questions, let me introduce the star of this shindig.

Error: They won't let me post the picture yet, I'll do it in a few days.

That is my 2001 3.8l v6 Mustang.

Currently it's pretty well stock. I put in new plugs, wires, and a K&N air filter. Now I believe that before you put on quick fix speed boosters, such as turbos or superchargers, the motor should already be a racing motor. Again, those are the views of a mechanical illiterate, but that is how I see it. So for now, I plan to beef this car up as a straight motor car. It's currently an automatic.

My first order of business, unless objections are raised by anyone here, will probably be to put 4.10 gears and a posi rear differential in it. I would like a little more power down low and I'd like it to feel more like a sports car. After this, I was thinking I'd look towards the exhaust. One question I had about this was whether I need shortie or long headers. As I understand it, long headers give you a less restricted flow, and therefore perform better, but I have also heard that you can't put them on v6's, so I was wondering if that could be cleared up. I was intending to run to an off-road H pipe, and out a Magnaflow catback. If anyone has any general ideas of how much these two modifications will cost me, I am all ears.

This is where I am at a standstill. I have many many options, and I have many ideas. I've been looking from suspension, to fuel mods, to motor mods, to tranny swaps. Trying to find an order to put them in, I've come to the conclusion that the tranny swap will be expensive and a big job. This should be near the end of my list for now as I have a functioning transmission as it is. Suspension has been fighting for a top place on my list, I much prefer how the Mach1 handles. My car, frankly, does not handle how a sports car should. But my heart lies with the motor mods. I want power. So at the top of my list is motor mods, with fuel system mods with/behind it.

Anyway, now that you know what I am looking at, let me start asking your expertise. I will be making other posts, this one is can't hold everything I want to convey, primarily because I have to attend an event on campus soon. But here are just a few basic questions that I would like to ask so that I can understand how I can increase my power with straight engine mods.

What is a stroker? How does it worker, and what are the pros and cons of it? (I believe I understand this concept, but I am not sure)

How big of a deal is it to have someone take your motor out, bore it, put in new pistons, and whatever else, port it and polish appliable objects, and put it back in? What would I gain from these mods? How long would I be out of commission? How bad would it hurt my pockets?

What is the 'whatever else' from the above question? What are the things I can do to the inside of my engine to increase its power?

Can all of my current stock car parts support these internal motor adjustments?

Now, I don't expect everyone to jump in and write me an essay on these questions. But if you're bored and you have an answer for one or more of them, I'd be thrilled if you would share your information. I love details, I love to understand how everything works. When I decided to learn about motors, I started with the history of them. Specifics are amazing. And if you have anything to add that I didn't even address here, or have an opinion on anything I've said, let me know! I want to make this into a mean car someday, but I've got to understand how to do it first! Thanks everyone, if you've read this far down. This is going to be a project car, and I'll be posting everything as I do it when I have made my decisions.

[ESG-642T]

Ouch, my head hurts now.

Welcome to MM.

Most of us are going to sugest you go F/I and save yourself the headache of buying little what I'm going to call "weenie" mods!

However young grasshoppa if you want you can go to SSMS, RPM-MUSTANG, tom morna. Grab an entire engine built with forged rods/pistons/crank/P&P heads/cam/P&P intakes and call it a night, however this option will cost you anywhere from 4-10,000$ easy.

If your going to do it over time look at a stroker kit with forged pistons, rods, crank. Then buy P&P heads, then your P&P upper / lower intakes, and then a cam. Then you can grab that supercharger/forced induction!

Tuner: Get one, they can improve over you car even if its 110% stock. I'm going to reccomend sct HANDS DOWN.

The weenie mods are: cold air intake, headers(we reccomend long tubes unless you have strict emissions), full exhaust (cat back or custom. mid pipe or not), udp. Somet things that may help are upgraded spark pulg wires (msd superconductors), never put bosch spark plugs in your stang.

As for rear end, with an auto 4.10's are the way to go. But the rules change with forced induction. LCA's are a good suspension mod along with a strut tower brace, shock tower brace and lowering springs.

Fuel mods are typically: 310lph fuel pump and 39# 42# injectors. Then you move up to bigger things but we'll wait to you get that far so you wont be confused any more.

Also a stroker works buy... What else increasing the travel of the piston. And this = MORE POWER (all the guys yelling in the background). And what do we want? (all the guy in the background): MORE POWER!!!!

[CosmoRide]

^ He did a good job explaining everything.

It all depends what your final goal is ! 14's , 13's , 12's .......and so on
My goal are 10's and I know that I have to beef up the engine and the way I'm going to do it is by buying the 4.2 long block from rpm mustangs
here is the link http://rpm-mustangs.com/home.php?cat=263
When it comes to going into your engine and changing it ...I dont trust everybody .....Rpm mustang and SuperSixMotorsports are the two companies I would trust my car with !
Running under 13 second in the 1/4 mile you will need something better then our 7.5 rear end.
So what is your goal ?

[arnett]

Finally, some actual answers. Thanks alot for picking that apart for me. I'll review what you guys have been saying when I get back from this school thing.

Real quick though. Cosmo, I'm not sure what my goal is yet. I haven't even done any testing of my current vehicle, so I'm not even ready to jump into getting things yet, so perhaps some of my questions were premature.

As for the rear end, I've been looking around at scrapyards for a GT. I've been reading up on rear end conversions, and I have family mechanics that will help me on things like that. I've helped my cousins do that on their cars.

SSStang, I'd like to address many of your good points when I return. I'll ponder your replies while I ignore this speaker for extra credit points in economics.

[Onemanzu]

i would like to chime in and say that you wrote to much... when it comes to headers you have some options... get long tubes and when the time comes super charge it... or get long tubes, and possibly sell them when you get a turbo, keep the stock ones on till you get a turbo...

those are the options regarding that...

Glad to see you know what your talking about and are headed in the right direction PM me if you are having a hard time finding an answer, best of luck, and welcome

[whitemustang02]

my questen to u is what do u want out of the car i under stand u do not have an idea yet but were are u going do u want a
high praforming daly driver
a 10 drag car
a road corce car
just for some ideas u realy need to decied what ur goles are first befor u get to far because that helps determen what modsw u want to get for example there is a huge diference in a drag car suspention Vs a road cors suspention