blue06roush

I've done a lot of research on performance parts for these 3V's and theres so many parts i'm wondering what I should do with the money I have set aside for the car. I already have a Diablo tuner and a WMS intake, with axleback Flowmasters. I really want to skip the whole underdrive pulley thing and go straight to head work and new mild cams. Does anyone have any experience with the work livernois does? I really am interested in sending mine in or buying a new pair outright. The same goes for the cams that i've seen in blow by racing - I have no experience with any of these as it wil be the first car i've ever replaced cams on.

Besides heads and cams, would there be any advantage to buying a full header back exhaust system? I've seen some people "claim" they can make 20 - 30 HP but it doesnt really seem to be true to me. I guess i'm asking should I go with the engine internals and skip the bolt ons or go with all bolt ons like UDP, exhaust, intake and such?

Also what would be the relative power gains from doing each of these? Would I make mor epower with heads and cams or bolt ons?

Rkbarnes82

youd make good gains from a CAI and good tune. this would be far less than 3k. As far as head and cam work goes im not too sure but im sure you would see far more gains than any exhaust product.

CrazyAl

The Livernois head work was documented in a recent 5.0 Mustangs & Super Fords Magazine. I belive they were getting +30 HP from the porting.

As for the cams, I belive that a very limited number of people have actually run them at this point. Comp Cams has 4 different grinds. I have been researching them myself, but I haven't heard of anyone that actually has them and is running them yet...still too new. However, I do remember reading that the OEM cams are already quite good, so I wouldn't expect a huge gain here.

As for the exhaust, there is definatley power to be had. Shorty headers are known to give anywhere from 3-8 HP. (There was a recent magazine test about these as well). Long-tube headers are where the real HP is when you are talking about exhaust work. I have them on my car, as do many people on this forum, and the HP/torque gains are very real. I don't doubt that longtubes can be worth 20 HP or more. Keep in mind that longtubes pretty much mandate either an off-road X pipe (no cats) or high-flow cats, which gives you extra power in addition to the improved scavenging from the headers as well.

Personally, I'd suggest looking into gears as well. Gears are a killer "bang for the buck" mod. I would do longtube headers and gears before the ported heads. Though, depending on how much work you do yourself, you might be able to pull off all 3 for your budget of $3000. (Longtubes, gears, and livernois heads)

bunit9685

I'm in the same boat. Gonna do LT exhuast manifolds (errr headers, workin on boats too much), O/R xpipe, axleback, intake, tune, udp, gears, and a shifter. Ought to be enough for the time being.