First time poster and first time owner of any American muscle car. Forgive me if this is in the wrong place, or if there's a repeat topic.. I've been combing the forums for the better part of 4 hours and couldn't find a thread that answered the questions that I have.

I recently purchased a 2004 base model 3.8 V6 with a standard transmission. I've been browsing and combing over multiple forums to discern what upgrades for my car would be most suitable for both ease of installation and cost/performance ratio. Via the sticky and several threads I've poured over, it seems that the headers, exhaust, and intake are the most cost effective upgrades for beginning the process of naturally aspirating my car.

Enter the (somewhat) new mechanic. I'm not completely mechanically illiterate but I've never been part of any major engine modifications or repairs. However, I'd love to learn to do some basics to my own car, to save a little expense in the long run on both this and future vehicles.

My starting point for cost and performance seems to be the exhaust system and muffler. I've been looking at a Flowmaster 50-series ( I absolutely love the sound ) and MAC O/R H pipes using the stock header. I'm not sure whether I will need further pieces to complete this assembly as this is a single-pipe exhaust on the model that I currently have.

This finally brings me to my questions:

1.) Is this an upgrade that would be a good starting point for someone interested in learning the nitty-gritty of engine upgrades?

2.) If so, is this something that could be completed in a weekend without an extreme hassle?

Very sorry for being long winded and seeming very novice but I'm fairly new to the modification community and very interested in learning.

 

The mac h pipe is made for their longtube headers. If you want an exhaust upgrade on the cheap get true duals starting from behind the stock cats. I have flowmaster 40 series and I am happy with them, but its $150 a pair. Thrush welded series muffler are $70 a pair and I've been told have similar and very good sound. Take your car to an exhaust shop and you want true duals, you have the mufflers and see if they will do it for $200. I personally paid $250 but some guys around here have paid from $100-300. Just shop around your local exhaust shops for pricing. On a side note I wouldn't bother with a cold air intake, you will probably net the same hp gains from a k&n filter in your stock air box with the silencer removed. Bolt on's will only get you so far on our cars but some that you should look into for relatively cheap bolt ons that you will gain a few hp from are an underdrive pulley, lightweight driveshaft, intake space, longtube headers and full exhaust, you might see a gain with a tuner but they are better on automatics.

 

Well I wouldn't consider exhaust the nitty gritty of the engine but its a starting point. Yes it's something you can install yourself. Only catch is you'll have to use jacks and stands which makes the work take much longer than normal. Also, while exhaust kits are usually bolt on, it's a very wise idea to have them welded at the joints, or at least tack welded as the bolts on the clamps do back off over time, so if you don't have a welder you'll still need to take it to a shop to have them put a few tack welds in there. All in all, if you can lay out conduit, or put together a stupid desk or bookcase from wall mart, then you can put together exhaust. The hard part is cutting and removing the old system, that and crawling under the car and working in tight conditions trying to balance parts in one hand and mount it with the other.


If you want to learn the internals of your engine, start by doing actual engine work. Start small with parts like a cold air intake, under drive pullies (if that kind of thing floats your boat), a throttle body (remove the upper intake and port match it or else it will make no difference at all, even then gains are minimal), and go from there.

 

how much will it cost to port the upper intake??

 

You can buy a hand drill or grinder and all the bits needed for around $200 plus the cost of new gaskets. Then you have to removed the upper and learn to port it yourself. I plan on doing it soon just to try it out with an extra upper and maybe lower if I can get my hands on one, that way if I screw up my first time it doesn't have to go back on the motor. Or you can send it somewhere and have it done which will probably come out close to $300 with shipping. Or you can get one through ssm for about $450, more like $650 done right (imrc's removed and 65mm tb inlet matched). Thats only for the upper though. Lower gets more expensive. Shop around near you see if you can find a local performance shop that does it and see how much they will charge. So you have a few options really. Ive found a few places with cheaper options than ssm but haven't heard great things about them.

 

Very easy to port, just time consuming as hell. Most shops will not port for you unless you have connections due to the time involved and the amount they can charge, just not worth it to them in most cases. But as stated, go buy a dremmel, an aluminum grinding and cutting bit, and get to work. You really can't screw this up with a dremmel unless you're a complete idiot and don't pay attention to what you're doing.

 

I was thinking of investing in the mac longtube headers. I've been talking to a few enthusiasts and guys around town about it and they say that longtube headers give you a noticable performance increase when paired with well-manufactured exhaust and intake.

I don't think I trust my shoddy welding skills enough to mess with my every day driver so I'll definitely need to take that to an exhaust shop. And the intake and underdrive pulley definitely sounds like a good starting point, especially since I'm looking for more low-end torque.

Thanks to everyone for the responses, I appreciate all the advice!

 

I'd definitely do the long tubes. Its a project that will help boost your confidence a little mechanic wise. It's not easy, it was my first little project, but it is definitely doable and it boosted my confidence quit a bit actually. Plus they sound really good, and I personally could feel a difference. How many miles are on the stang?