taborr

Well I recently purchased my '05 GT in August, and so far have done an AEM Cold Air, and tail's and front corners.

I have about $1,900 to blow and I'm not sure what to really do.

I don't know too much about other performance aspects, and was thinking of going with rims but can't stop second guessing myself.






Any suggestions? Thanks!

adj86

I would start by getting a tuner and some custom tunes, and then maybe some gears 3.73 or 4.10s whichever you prefer, or you might think about getting some longtube headers w/ a mid pipe. A couple of things to caution you about : if you get gears make SURE the are Ford Racing Performance Parts, do not get any other kind. Also whatever you do, get a tuner. Order it from somewhere like brenspeed or B amachips, the guys there will ask you to list your mods and will create a custom tune for you including all the upgrades you have made. The tuner with the custom tune itself helps a ton. Another thing, if you get longtube headers make sure you get the same brand mid-pipe, and make sure it is specifically made for the headers you are buying. Ex Dynatech Longtube Headers get the Dynatech mid-pipe. Many times you can find a package deal that includes the headers w/ the midpipe and everything you need to have them installed. I would also think about purchasing an axle back or cat backi exhaust system of some kind. Visit some of the forum sponsors to see what they have to offer, and search the forums here to research the mods you want to do. I can tell you that every thing i have listed above has been talked about many times before at this forum, and the information is very good. Good luck with your mods, and lets us know how they go.

therobman7

i say if you can save 1900, wait a lil longer and save 6000 and get that **** S/C....

taborr

Thanks for the feeedback and I'll look into to it...to be honest, what exactly is a tuner?

and no I don't plan to s/c. lol[:@]

Black06stang

A tuner is the handheld device that loads "tunes" which are files that are loaded on to the car's computer to increase performance.

taborr

Yea I'm seeing a "Diablo Sport" for around $400....

also had questions about the mustang exhaust, liek what it consists of, I used to be a honda guy and all you had was header, cat, pipe, exhaust. seems like the stang is a bit more complicated and I'm not quite sure how to build the full exhaust.

Sorry for all the newb questions.

adj86

Its cool. As for the exhaust Firstly you have your headers, on a stock gt you then have a mid-pipe in the shape of an H. If you get under your car and look toward the front of your car, you'll see the two cats on the pipe coming from the engine bay. After the mid-pipe there is another pipe that goes over the axle in the back, and lastly there are the mufflers w/ their exhaust tips.

There are a couple things you can do for exhaust upgrades. We'll start with headers. You can get shorties or longtubes. Shorties replace your stock headers and that's about it. They usually clamp straight on to your stock mid pipe. The shorties might gain you just a few horses, but they are negliable. Longtubes on the other hand free up a nice amount of horsepower( i think 20 ish?) they replace your stock headers, but are longer. They will end underneath the car(past where your stock cats reside). This forces you to get a new midpipe.

Midpipes
If you do not want to mess with headers you can upgrade your stock mid pipe. Firstly with all mid-pipes there are a couple things to think about. You can get a Offroad midpipe or a catted mid pipe. An offroad(O/R) midpipe has no cats on it and therefore is illegal(although that doesn't stop many folks). This mid pipe will cause your check engine light to come on, because the O2 sensors will detect that you exhaust is not as clean(thats one thing your tuner can do is turn the light off). A catted midpipe has cats and obviously not trip the Check Engine Light(CEL). Not having cats frees up some horsepower, but mostly changes the way your car sounds. If you live in a state that doesn't care about emissions then your good to go. If they do then a catted mid pipe is the way to go(unless you get offroad legs, but we'll save that for another time). The next thing with your mid pipe is the shape. They come in two kinds and H and an X the h pipe is what you have on your car now. It gives more of a muscle sound while the X give a little more performance. So when you go to purchase a mid pipe you need to look at wether it is O/R and whether it is an X or H. As i stated before if you get longtube headers then make sure and get the same brand midpipe that fits your headers.

Mufflers

There are so many mufflers to choose from. Basically you will get a minimal performance gain out of any of them. I personally have dynomax race magnums, cause they're cheap and they have a straight through design, not the best brand by far, but nice nonetheless. Each different muffler changes the way your car sounds. If i was you i would do a search on mufflers at this site and see what comes up. I promise there will be a ton of info. Mufflers generally come in packages called cat back or axleback. Catback is from the midpipe back meaning it will come with replacement tubing for the pipe that goes over the axle along with mufflers. Axle back systems will include only the mufflers but they should clamp directly on to the factory tubing that goes over the axles.

One other thing i wouldn't get the Diablosport tuner get the SCT excalibrator. From what I've heard it is more common and more folks make a tune for it.

Hope this helps some.

taborr

Thanks for the amazing feedback that helped ALOT!

adj86

Good glad to help. A couple things i forgot. When purchasing longtube headers look at the their size some will be 1 3/4" and others will be 1 5/8". The 1 3/4 connects to a 3" diameter mid pipe, and honestly i would seriously recommend getting a 3" exhaust. I know you say you won't get a Supercharger, but if for some reason you decide later on to get one you won't have to redo you exhaust. If you get a 1 5/8 header it will connect with the stock 2.5" exhaust. If you get a supercharger depending on how much power you make you might need to upgrade to a 3" exhaust. Having the 3" exhaust on a stock motor will not hurt performance much at all and it will be there if you need it. Also try to get stainless steel headers, preferably 304 stainless. They are the best quality stainless steel and hold in heat better which helps with exhaust scavenging and keeps engine bay temps down.

Another thing, i said something in my earlier post about off road legs. Simply stated O/R legs are pieces of straight pipe that you can bolt on to the exhaust system in place of the cats on your exhaust. For example lets say you have to pass an emissons test, but you want on O/R setup to squeeze out all the extra horses. Well when its time for emmissions testing you simply unbolt the off road legs and put the catted legs in place and you pass emmissions.

Lastly. If you decide you want gears you need to think about what you are going to do to the car performance wise. If you don't want to add a supercharger gat 4.10s they will get you good acceleration, but you will lose a little gas mileage. If you think you might get a supercharger or you don't want to lose as much gas mileage get 3.73 the are the happy medium btwn 4.10 and the 3.55s or 3.31s that come with our cars. Like i said before make SURE YOUR GEARS ARE GENIUINE FORD PRODUCTS DO NOT TAKE THE CHEAP WAY OUT!

Arwing

throw some SLP Loudmouths on there [8D]