I just bought a k&n intake today and the Guy at the store was telling me about different upgrades to look at for the most bang for my buck. He said getting 3.76 gears would be the best and would run around $400 with installation. The other one was a Diablo chip tuner which was also $400. Are these the best to go with?

 

He's basically correct. 3.73's and 4.10's are the most common gears to go with. The 4.10's are more agressive and a bit more fun all around imo. You also have the option of 3.90's, which is what i personally run.

Diablo, SCT, and Sniper just to name a few, are some of the more popular tuners for our cars, and make a big difference as well.

$400-$500 for the gears and install, and $400 for a hand held tuner sound about right.

Both of these combined are 2 of the best mods you can do as a beginner.

 

OK cool, thanks for the quick reply. What kind of difference are those different gear ratios make between each other. And is about +27 HP accurate for the chip tuning?

 

Well, when i went from the stock 3.27's to my current 3.90's, my rpm's increased by about 400. At 80 mph in 5th gear i used to be at 2100, and now it's at 2500. That little difference didn't really affect my gas milage either...maybe 1-2 at most. Any drawbacks that could be had are far outweighed by the benefits.

A tuner will give you more like 10 hp, but it's power across the board and better throttle response as well.

 

Oh wow. Looks like his stats were a little off. I didn't realize I would lose fuel economy. What are some upgrades to look at for a noticeable increase that aren't going to hurt the mileage, or that will even help it? I would like to hit 320-400 HP, and get at least 20 MPG.

 

good luck with that

 

Opening up the intake and exhaust will net you a small increase in mileage. Like i said though, the 1-2 mpg loss that you may get with gears is a small price to pay for what you get in return.

Making your car faster and trying to increase gas mileage after a certain point is basically a contradiction. You need to decide which is more important. I don't know about you, but i didn't buy my stang with gas mileage being a prime concern lol.

The best way to hit 350-400 hp is to do nitrous or a supercharger.

 

Well I'm constantly learning more about this stuff. As of a few weeks ago I knew NOTHING about cars. I'm looking at maybe getting the gears(no clue which ones), possibly the chip tuner, and these:
http://store.roushperformance.com/detail.aspx?ID=503
http://store.roushperformance.com/de...spx?ID=476#top

Obviously the kit won't add any power, just make it look better, but maybe with these 4 things on top of the K&N intake I picked up, I could be pulling close to 300 hp? If I could do that, maybe just save up for a good turbo for a few months.

 

FRPP (Ford Racing) gears are probably your best bet.

A tune and K&N intake will be more like 280 hp. Assuming we're going off the 260 fwhp stock rating.

If you're going with a turbo, i'd go with 3.73's then.

 

I am planing on getting 3.90's & Traction-LOK Rebuild Kit w/ Carbon Discs for my 02 gt automatic.. do you think I needa new differential/axles?? I got 110k miles on my car and dont plain on reaching anymore than 275hp....