paynecasey69

I have a question regarding the structure of 96-04 Mustangs. But first I would like to give a low down of my car.

1996 Ebony Black Ford Mustang GT
Factory 5 speed transmission
New Intake (factory) installed this year
235,000 miles on the original motor
dings in both doors, striped (because of break in) passenger side door lock
paint chiped and front bumper with several paint scratches all over the body

Modifiedparts
K/N FIPK
03/04 Cobra A-Arms
Valve Cover Breath oil cap
Short throw shifter
3.73 rear end gears
cast camber plates
bbk lowering springs (suspenion needs updating bad)
Ford Racing Shorty Headers
off road X pipe with new 02 sensors and Mil Elminators
SLP Loud Mouth Cat back with 3.5 inch tips (yea its loud)
Spec Stage 2 Clutch kit with Ford Racing throw out bearing
Steeda quadrant, cable, firewall mounted adjuster kit
7 inch tv, with separate dec DVD player
Ripped the side skirts off for a more muscle car look

My car is a pos really with some nice paint still hanging on here and their. I can out roll an Auto 350Z on the highway. But my question is, when does milage and age play a role in trashing a car or fixing one up to look nice? Is the frame shot by now? Is the frame fixable and no I'm not noticing anything. This is my daily driver too. But I want to put money into, but at the same time think its long gone because of miles. What things can be done to break a car back to a new feel were body milage is not a big deal? My guess is it would be a $15k project. Thoughts on a old ran hard stang?

***Edit*** I wanted to note that in 2 or 3 years I plan on purchasing either, 03/04 Cobra, 2005 GT, or a new Mustang GT as a secondary car.

sstang

So there is nothing the car is doing to make you think the frame is bent? If your car has never been in a wreck before, your frame should be fine. There is nothing wrong with putting $ into it. Get it painted and fix any suspension/drivetrain problems to make it mechanically sound and start modding from there. You can replace the things you need to with performance parts instead of stock replacements.

paynecasey69

Sstang thats about what I do, when a factory part breaks replace it with a better after market part. To my knowledge there is no wrecked frames. Some bad spots behind the front tires were I jacked it up incorrectly on the fold pointing to the ground though.

Things I've wanted to do.
Complete paint job with Cobra R parts replace except the wing.
performance wheels and tires
New motor and Tranny
At one time I wanted FRPP heads ported with a FRPP (SVO) Intake with Slightly aggressive street strip cams for torq and power through the entire rpm range. But that motor idea was $10k easy not to mention needing a new trans. With a big bore short block.

sstang

Yeah, with that many miles, I would rebuild the engine or get a new one. I would look into finding either a 4.6 4 valve or a 5.4 2 valve motor. Of course if you came across a great deal on another 4.6 2 valve, then that would still work. This will give you a solid foundation to build upon. How much money are you able to spend? Thats what determines which route you should go.

paynecasey69

I have a couple issues picking engines now days and for some reason short block producers never show dyno sheets on their webpages such as vtengines.com. They'll show you all kinds of blocks but never give you a real world example or dyno results from each expected motor. Don't get me wrong I love VTengines and their staff. Once I heard from one of them that 96-98 FRPP heads and Intake wasn't as good as the PI heads and Intake. For me they lost a bit of crediability. I'm smart enough to know that FRPP ported and polished while way more expensive will flow better then PI heads fully ported and polished.

If I were to look for the perfect block. It would be.....
An aluminum big - bore block with dry sleeves
Slightly better then factory internals, nothing fancy expensive (high compression pistons unless with a blower intake)
Street port and polish on FRPP heads for the best low mid high torq and hp (none of the top end only power, its for the birds)
Stage 2 cam from anyone really
FRPP intake

Can the 5.4 liter blocks that I hear about handle hp at high rpm? Can they mate on the normal GT heads? Or is it a different beast all togather?