Barley

Last month I bought my first Mustang, a 99' GT in Silver Metallic. She's got just under 120k miles on the odo but is really clean inside out. So far I've swapped the cracked alternator for a junkyard alternator, changed out the factory speakers and headunit and I've put on a new cold air intake. The cars been lowered 1.5" on Einbach Springs, and I have semi-slicks on the stock rims. That's all my budgets allowed me to do so far, the next thing I need to do is a full tune up on her but I can't drive it yet due to the harsh weather of my Canadian homeland. :P So no rush to do that yet, waiting for warmer temps.

Anyway, here's a list of problems that's popped up. Before anybody says, yes I've searched plenty of forums for answers, but I'm looking more for opinions then straight up fixes. First and foremost, I'm not looking for mega horsepower, I'm just looking to make the car run as good as possible as this will be my daily driver.

A few days ago, I was running the car and it threw a code. I plugged in my reader and it told me P0355. Sure enough I looked it up and it was telling me the coil on cylinder 5 was bad. I did another test and we tried different RPM's, unplugging the coil, etc... I managed to get P0358 at one point and I might be wrong, but I think it threw a P0356 at one point too. I looked up replacement coils and Ford wants nearly 100 dollars per coil up here. I'm a guy in his early 20's, obviously my first reaction is "Screw that, I'm going aftermarket then."

I've been looking at Accels, and I found a pack of 8 on Amazon for under 200. However, I keep seeing mixed reviews on them, some people stand by them, some people are saying they're bad. I really need to figure out what I'm going to buy as I'm putting the car on the road mid March. Any input would be awesome on this.

Other than that, I'm planning on getting a Steeda Tri-Ax Shifter, SCT Tuner, Underdrive Pulley Kit, Borla Catback, and probably replace the Quad Shocks (the passenger side quad shock is shot) with aftermarket ones.

Anyways, sorry for the long *** post. Thanks everybody!

stevednmc

Welcome to MF! Looks like a good list for starter mods there. As far as the coils go.....Its hard to say. The general wisdom on these is if there is nothing wrong with your stock coils, stay stock. Were it me, I might just replace the one bad one with one from Ford, but that is just my opinion. People have had mixed results with aftermarket coils like you said, so its really a chance you have to take for yourself.

EddyG

Get MSD coils they have a lot better reviews.

Shredder505

From the research that I have done, if you are changing your coils, ether the factory one or weapon x coils work the best.

Barley

Does anybody know where I can find Motorcraft ignition coils cheaper than the 100 they're asking up here in. A pack of 8 would be awesome, just change them all when I change the plugs.

supermario

Im not sure if they work well in the mustangs, but Ive bought Accel coils on my 5.4 Expeditions and they have been great so far. I got all 8 of them at Summit Racing for $230 shipped.

zero2005

from what i've read over the years, most aftermarket coils are produced by the same manufacturer, just painted a different color and running a different label, and maybe tiny differences in specs.

The ONE manufacturer that i know stands out is the weapon x coils. however these are somewhat expensive, and generally not needed for naturally aspirated motor. even then there are much better options out there IMO, eg; i'm running "LS1" truck coils (aftermarket ECU allows me to).

that said, i think your best bet is just to get what you can afford without going to a cheap chinese off-brand where you might even not know what your getting. better yet, go to a junk yard and see if you can find a low-milage wreck. if i had all 8 of mine (well, if i could find them) i'd give em to ya.

as for the quad shocks, rather than replace fords "band-aid" in the suspension, get some good aftermarket lower control arms. quad-shocks were fords response to a problem with the craptastic suspension they designed, where you can get excessive wheel hop due to the axles wanting to rotate. good quality aftermarket lower control arms will allow you to remove them.

Barley

I was thinking of the junkyard route. This may sound stupid, but will ignition coils from any 2V work? Mustangs are a bit rare up my way, but there's plenty of F150s and Crown Vics in there. I actually took my current alternator off a 5.4 F150. At some point I'll dish out the money to replace all the coils with new ones, but right now I just need a running car so I can pass the e-test and get it safety'd and all that.

I was looking at the Mr. Gas Quad Shocks on American Muscle, for less than 50 dollars a piece. I figure I can't lose for 100 dollars to improve my ride 100%.

Thanks again for the help.

Barley

Oh crap, just made the realization that you can't edit posts. I meant KYB Gas-A-Just Quad Shocks sorry. Not sure why I typed Mr. Gas.

zero2005

you should be able to edit posts, i did. should be right next to the "quote" button on your own posts...

keep in mind, that the quad shocks are a band-aid fix. why not spend that 100$ toward some good lower control arms which will yield better returns AND allow you to ditch the quad shocks? hell, you could even get some weight jacking control arms and have adjustable ride height!!! thats a 3-fold return!

if you only need 1 or 2 coils i could ship mine out for ya if you pay for shipping. I no longer need them due to the fact that i'm running LSx based coils now since i ditched the stock ECU. i dont have a full set of 8, we'll im sure i do just not easily available, they're all spread across my garage since i'm in the process of re-wiring the whole car and running new fuel lines...

edit: they only have 30k miles on them.

just to throw out some numbers for you:
Maximum Motorsports Rear LCA's are 390 for the "weight jacker" (adjustable ride height). 260 for non-adjustable (you could just get lowering springs), you'll want to replace them crusty old *** arms eventually, as the bushings are probably on their way out. I would consider these the "ultimate" in rear control arms.

alternatively, you can go to American Muscle, and look at the J&M arms. their weight jackers are 260, and only 165 for their non-adjustables!