speaking of longtubes. How difficult are they to install on a mustang? On my old dakota, they were a nightmare, and no one made a y-pipe to go with them, so you had to have that fabbed up.

 

theyre a huge PITA due to a small space to work with, even after you remove the K-Member. before you dive into it, read up on this install guide: http://www.sn95mustangs.com/index.ph...Header-Install

good news is that there are plenty of mid-pipes available. just make certain you get one that will mate up with LT's. i think they're referred to as "shorty mid-pipes"

 

Wow, that does look like a job. I'll save that until I'm more familiar with how the car is all put together. I've read gears are the best first mod, I think I read 4.10's are a good ratio for N/A motors. (I can't afford a turbo or SC)

I'd like to do a couple mods myself first though that don't require a weekend like the longtubes look like they do. Do aluminum driveshafts, bigger throttle bodies, plenums, or intake manifolds do much? Is a superchips or some sort of canned tune a good starting point on these motors? That's where we usually pointed the noobs towards in the dakota forums.

 

4.10 gears would be the biggest noticeable gain from stock, and the cheapest. i have been debating whether to get those or 3.90's for driveability purposes, but i'm leaning more towards 4.10's as they're made by Ford and 3.90's aren't, and have a history of issues for certain brands. as a side note, plenty people on here will tell you they run 4.10s on their S/C'ed setup and have no problems with tearing down the track. guess it depends more on tire height at that point..

an aluminum driveshaft probably shouldn't be a top priority, but it reduces power transfer loss (frictional loss? i dunno, somethin like that..), so its not like its a bad mod to do, it just wont net you any true gain, and won't feel much different on a stock car.

a bigger throttle body/plenum combo won't net you much as far as noticeable gains, but your throttle response definitely improves, and it made me a lot happier with my daily driving.

intake manifolds probably arent worth it if you're goin NA as your plastic one have a useful flow up to about 500hp.

stay away from superchips. most people on here go with SCT and Diablo tuners. i went the more advanced route with Delta Force Commando, but Delta Force's Special Forces package comes with all the same stuff as the other two mentioned, and maybe one or two extra options, and will run you about the same price. But, if you ever want to go and get your car dyno tuned by someone, check to see which brand they're more familiar with and go with that.

if you want some better all-around performance, do some research into re-vamping your rear suspension. the geometry of it sucks in stock form (hasn't changed since '79). beefing that up should make your car more fun to drive (esp on twisty roads and turns)and give you better 1/4 mile times.

if you want to really get to know the car, i recommend doing some routine 60k miles maintenance procedures, such as radiator flush/fill, tranny flush/fill, oil, power steering, etc etc. then dive right in to the LT job. no better way to get to know your car than jumpin in the belly of the beast!

 

Yeah, they just changed the oil at the dealer, cheap **** I'm sure. I've got a bottle of autoRX sitting around here that I'm going to run through to clean out the oil system. Also going to pick up some techron fuel injector cleaner at some point. Tranny fluid and power steering are some things I've never done before, but I'm sure they are within my capabilities.

I wonder how the spark plugs are looking. I know this can be a religious war, but any recommended brands? Lots of people liked NGK v-powers on my old truck.

Found a cheap mod I want to do, remove the slack from the throttle cable. I have a good 1.25" of slack which is pissing me off a bit. Probably going to fashion a spacer tomorrow for it.

edit:discovered I already have an aftermarket throttle body. It's a BBK 70mm unit. The previous owner just saved me $200. He was also nice enough to put a catback exhaust on. What a nice guy!

 

a throttle body doesnt do **** on an NA car. grats on saving the $200 though.

 

For spark plugs, get Motorcraft. It's what the car came with, and they usually last 100k miles. Yours should be fine, although inspecting them doesn't hurt.

For cheap mods, the throttle cable thing is an iffy issue with me. I wouldn't do it to my car cuz i'm used to my throttle and like it the way it is. Having a very touchy throttle is not my "thing." My gpaws 2007 Taurus has a sensitive accelerator, and i hate it. You and many others may have a different opinion, but whatev. For cheap mods though, check out the IAC mod here. This will fix that annoying hanging idle everytime you shift while daily driving. I recently did mine and LOVE it!

As for turbo232's comment, the TB doesn't give you much performance wise, but it does give you a more consistent feeling with your throttle, and to me, that improves the driving experience. You may disagree, but I have felt it first-hand. Also, I found mine NIB for under $100, so I don't feel it was much of a waste, since I could probably resell it for higher if I wanted to.

 

I had an aftermarket TB on my old NA dakota, I could certainly feel a difference with it installed. Granted, totally different engine, but it seems like the concept would carry over. I've got the throttle cable adjusted with some tubing I found around the house. I'll take it for a test drive tomorrow. If I don't like it, I'll remove it. It took 5 minutes to put on, shouldn't take more than 5 to remove.