sgtpat

So I bought a 05 GT Conv as a going away gift to myself before I left for Afghanistan. Now I am about 6 months from leaving and am thinking upgrades. I want you guys to give me the good, bad and ugly of what i am looking at.

-62 mm Throttle Body
-Ford Racing Cams
-Ford Racing High Performance Intake manifold
-Cervinis Stalker Hood with Ram Air Kit

Ok, give it to me, be honest. And give me an idea what is a reasonable price to do the install without the hood.

raredesign

First, thank you for serving sir, and BE SAFE!

In regards to your desired mods:

62 mm Throttle Body
-- the most benefit obviously comes from pairing it with forced induction, however, it definitely breathes better with a nice Cold Air Intake. Unfortunately, I have only tested mine with the butt dyno.

Ford Racing Cams
-- I am in love with the idea. I am planning on getting these myself. I have heard that it can make the car a little unsmooth to drive at slow speeds due to the "chug", but I don't do much city driving with it.

Ford Racing High Performance Intake manifold
-- less money than the C&L version but people have reported that it flexes and have even shown videos of it doing so. Some have said not to worry about it, but it only makes sense that a more rigid version such as the C&L would be better. Is it worth the extra $200 though?

Cervinis Stalker Hood with Ram Air Kit
-- Great looking hood. Cervinis uses really nice fiberglass, so don't hesitate, and certainly don't try to get a knock off hood.
The Ram Air Kit is pretty much useless if you use a CAI. The open vents will help cool your engine, but the duct work won't pair up with the CAI. Even without a CAI, I did have the duct work on, and maybe it made a difference at mid-to-high rpm especially at higher speeds, but the main benefit is getting new cold air rather than stale engine bay air.
Currently, my duct is sitting in my closet, and I just take advantage of cold air being forced in the engine bay, and smile at the suction sound of the CAI.

4.10 gears are a really fun mod too, but check on the price of install if you don't want to do it yourself. I had them installed for 300, but I have heard some guys got hit with $700 tag.

Headers and Exhaust are always good too. Doesn't hurt to let the car breathe.

Nuke

+1 on the ram air being useless.

Where's the love for the CAI & tunes you'll need for those other mods?

808muscle

Forget the TB, get a CAI and tune. 4.10s are a great mod too. FR intake, IMO, no.

Franchi

For first mods on a bonestock car, I would highly suggest CAI, tuner, exhaust.

And cams are awesome, I seriously considered the Hot Rods before I eventually settled on the Comp Thumpr series camshafts.

I would suggest finding your exhaust BEFORE cams and see what you like as the cams will increase the volume of your car drastically if it's a flow thru style muffler.

Nuke

Normally we'd tell you to scrap the aftermarket TB but if you're installing cams AND the performance intake manifold, an aftermarket TB MAY help a bit but I wouldn't expect much increase over the stock TB. Add some LT's to the mix you currently have going and you're talking more decent gains. But they're mediocre w/o the CAI & tunes. Plus, you'll need new tunes for some of those anyway.

sgtpat

Hey guys, thanks for all the info. It has CAI and exhaust and it runs nice and smooth so i asume a tune also. I love the sound of the pipes on it now, but i love the old muscle car thump in you chest more, hence the cams. As far a 4.10 gear what is the big gain there, I'm just getting into this. I have a stick and have had people tell me to go with a short shift kit also. And let me ask this. I have looked into superchargers. What does everyone thing of them? Is the gains worth the money? And would I not need to work on the bottom also when doing the charger or cams? Also one last thing, with c am sthat are "bolt on", like the FR Cams, do you guys trust them with no other work to springs or anything?

Franchi

Far as cams, there are No Springs Required ( NSR ) cams ( like the FRPP Hot Rods, Detroit Rockers, or Comp Thumpr ) and some are Springs required. Far as installation, NSR are much easier to do but it all depends on your eventual power goals.

If you get cams, you wil definately need a new tune and for that, you need a programmer like a Xcal 3, Predator or Diablo. Then you get an email tune from a place like American Muscle, Blow By Racing, or Brenspeed ( lots of others around too ) and upload it into your programmer from the cpu, then upload it to the car via the programmer.

Far as gears, they actually don't increase power itself. But the car will wind up MUCH faster depending on what gear ratios you get. 3.73 or 4:10's seem pretty standard for the S197 cars. Gears you will feel a quite a difference in the ole "butt dyno"

Short throw shifters are pretty good too, quality and how the throw is depending on which one you get, can be installed fairly easily with basic hand tools and couple hours. I have a Pro 5.0 and it's rock solid but I've heard a lot of good things about the MGM shifter too.

I haven't had personal experience with superchargers so I'll leave that for somebody else whose had one to answer that. lol

sgtpat

So I read that you have Comp ***** thumper cams.... what is you thought on your idle with these? I have read of people who love them, others hate the idle. Did you springs oranything else if so why?

Thanks for the info, might try to do some of this myself. But need to save enough to cover someone else fixing my mistakes just in case

Nuke

Having a CAI doesn't ensure you have a tune. The previous owner did you a diservice by not informing you. A no-tune required CAI won't gain any respectable power but a CAI & tune is probably the biggest bang short of going FI. Also, if you DO have a tune and don't have the handheld to return the tune to stock, you'll run into problems (but not insurmountable) when it IS time to retune.

You can dump more money into performance mods than a SC costs and still not reach the RWHP and reliability of the SC. Our engines and drive trains can safely handle about 450 RWHP and most of the "entry level" SC's will keep you below that. If you have the cash, hold off on other mods and research the SC and what mods work well and which ones don't with it.