First Mustang - 2008 GT CS - Need Advice
 

Hey Guys,
I just purchased my first Mustang from my father. It's a 2008 GT/CS with an automatic and 11,000 miles. It's pretty much like new. He bought it and babied it, and has since retired and wanted to rid of some toys. He's done some appearance mods, as well as had the dealer install one of the performance packs with the CAI, FR500s axle backs, and a tune.

Overall I'm really excited with the car, but I'd like to tweak it some to make it mine so to speak. I plan on it being a sunday driver. Taking the wife out, things of that nature. However, I'd love it to have something more than just stock.

I'm leaning towards a gear swap, not sure to go 3.73 or 4.10. Would appreciate any thoughts

Also, I really love the sounds of the Ford hot rod cams, and other like them. I know they are a bit pricey and offer little in terms of HP, but my main goal is to have this car looking nice and sounding nice.

Can I simply install cams like the hot rods, tune the car and be good to go? Do I really need a new intake, TB, and long tubes?

Is my Ford tuner that came with the performance pack of any use for the new gears and possible cam install? Should I invest in something different?

Thanks in advance, excited to start this journey

Congrats on the new to you car!

Your Ford Pro cal can be used for your upgrades but, I would get a different tuner (Like American Muscle, Brenspeed or Livernoise).

Ford Racing makes a solid part but they still use a fairly conservative tune in their tuners. Also, with their tuner you must send the device in every time you want to change something in the tune. This can be a pain. Also, they may charge you for updated tunes.

For an automatic, I would recommend 3.73 gears, not 4.10. The first gear in an Auto is steeper than the first gear in the manual so a 4.10 gear will make first gear almost useless/non existent which may decrease around town drivability.

The cams can be a stand alone mod or you can add the headers and intake manifold to further increase/enhance the performance of the cams. If you go that route in stages, I would go Cams, Exhaust (headers), then Intake manifold. The reason is that the intake manifold is not your primary bottleneck. The Exhaust and Heads are.

If you do get all those mods installed you'd probably want to opt for a dyno tune versus the semi-custom tune from the online vendors I mentioned. A dyno tune will max out the performance for your specific car based on its mods. If you have a handheld tuner other than the Ford Pro Cal , the dyno shop could develop some customized tunes with different octane requirements for your use.

Good looking ride!

I second the 3.73 gears.

As for cams, you would be fine just installing the Hot Rods and getting the car tuned properly for them (either by American Muscle, Brenspeed, Steeda, and many others), as Derf00 said. You don't need any other supporting mods for them at all, they just complement each other nicely.

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated

With what their saying about getting a different tuner for future mods I would agree. But I had 4:10's in my 07 GT and I drove that everyday. Off the line I say 4:10's!

Thanks for weighing in, I just spent last night reading through thread after thread of 3.73 vs 4.10 and I still have no idea what to do. American muscle has a package with a gear kit and a tuner for $619, which seems like a good deal, and on top of that, there's $15 off $100+ orders until today. So I need to make up my mind here quick and order them up

Go with the 3.73s. I had a manual (sig) with 4.10s and I think you will prefer the 3.73s. Even with the manual, first gear was almost nonexistant. I also had the FRPP cams and they do sound great. I have some old vids of mine on youtube.

I'm not sure the sale is still on. I tried to order something this morning and it showed the July 15 discount code was invalid. It may have expired at midnight.

I added to the AM thread about the July sale to see if it was still on or not the rest of the day.

Disregard my last post. I just realized I was putting a space in the code and was putting July 15 instead of July15. Life is good now.

Ha, I saw it and must have done the same thing because it didn't work for me either. But now it is working. Just need to go bang my head on a wall for a few more hrs trying to figure out the answer to 3.73 or 4.10