I have previously built a hi-po Mustang so I am familiar with working on carburated V8's but, computer controlled, fuel injected, 4cl engines is a completely new world to me and I am not exactly sure what to do. I have owned a manual 1996 RS for three years and have been tempted to play around with some performance mods but never did.

This is my daily driven car. Gas mileage, drivability, reliability, and duribility are top priority over more horsepower...keep this in mind while suggesting ideas and recommendations as well as my own ideas. Also, please suggest products and where to buy them. I am looking primarly for lower cost products, that make sense for the application.

It will probably progress in a few stages due to cost.

I am first planning to get a cold air intake, cat back exhaust, and possibly headers. I would like the exhaust as quite as possible.

Stage two. Underdrive pulley, "street" cam that is still drivable(gas mileage)

Stage three. Computer chip, and any ignition upgrades needed.

The car has almost 90K miles on it but seems to be okay. How much HP can safely be added to a old engine without adverse effects on reliability?

PLEASE HELP with any info, recommendations, or suggestions.

Thanks,
Phil

another good one would be an overbored throttle body. i got mine from machv.com. i like it.

remember you usually get what you pay for, meaning cheap parts usually suck ass. but you should keep checking out the for sale section. you can get good used parts for a good price.

if you stay on this board long enough you will want to go turbo. you will forget all that "reliability, durability" stuff soon enough :thumbsup

all your stuff sounds good but your car isn't going to be quiet with those mods like you said. actually, a turbo would quiet things.

as for a "chip", stay away from all aftermarket chips. the only company that makes a tuned ecu for us is Howell, and they don't have one for your model year yet.

well for starters i would suggest u look at hahn's website, its a banner that shows up when u first look onto the forum for info about turbocharging and all, it switches from time to time.. Howellautomotive.com is a good place to look at parts for a resonable price. 2nd you mentioned headers? im not sure if u want to stay na or go turbo but, either way i suggest you get a rebuilt engine, for about 1000 somethin u can get a bottom end done but thats in the future, you have good ideas but like the person said above, stay away from chips.... a Safc will be good or one of those af/x computers, that should be enough to get you started

now that u know H A Y B!!!

Thanks for the quick responses.
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I forgot to mention, I may upgrade the TB after changing the cam. Any suggestions for a good/mild cam?
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I know you do get what you pay for, but just as often you pay too much for what you get.
I don't want junk so please give suggestions for products that prove to be a good value for a street machine. I will pass on the ultra high end racing products.

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Absolutly NO TURBO!

Cost is way too high to install on a 7 year old car that's only worth $3500 or so.

I know that the exhaust upgrades will be louder compared to stock but, like I said...as quite as possible.

Here's a good mild set up for you. I'll list them in the order I would recommend buying.

-Cold Air Intake.
-Upgrade exhaust; for what you are looking to do, I wouldn't go over 2.25" pipe size, best bet is probably a custom mandral bend exhaust you pick your muffler and resonator.
-Underdrive Pulley. AFX from http://www.howellautomotive.com or unorthodox, which is more expensive.
-55mm TB (Howell or http://www.advancedracingdynamics.com)
-Header. stay away from Pacesetter OBX and HP seem to be good and nicely priced, Greddy is good but at a cost.
-Port and Polish intake manifold, Advanced Racing Dynamics (ARD)
-High Flow Cat
-Stage 1 cams from Crower or Crane (I'm partial to Crower)
-Upgrade ingnition: Screamin Deamon Coil Pack and Ignition amp. (for your set up this stage not really needed)
- Apexi S-AFC, the ability to tune and lean out the ECU would be good, help your mileage and power, our ECU loves to just dump the fuel in.
-Make sure you get some guages for tuning: A/F ratio and EGT, plus oil pressure (always a safety thing).

That's what I suggest for a mild street set up.



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Cams, Hooker Header, ERT/Catco Cat, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC

Thanks, that basically reinforces what I had planned. I plan to do all the exhaust upgrades at the same time...why do you recommend doing it piece by piece? I don't like ripping the same parts of repeatedly to install things individually.

Is there some kind of drawback on doing the entire exhaust first?
I plan to do the UDP, cam, springs, TB, and any porting all at the same time in the "step two" of upgrades. Where do injectors come into play? What determines if they should be upgraded?

Also I am tempted to pick up a small(50HP or so) nitrous system if I start taking the car to the track. Anything else I should consider before this upgrade beside the fuel pump?

How strong are bottom end of these motors? I really don't want to do any work to the block.

Thanks again guys. Keep the info coming.

Phil
_______________________________
>Here's a good mild set up for you. I'll list them in the
>order I would recommend buying.
>
>-Cold Air Intake.
>-Upgrade exhaust; for what you are looking to do, I wouldn't
>go over 2.25" pipe size, best bet is probably a custom mandral
>bend exhaust you pick your muffler and resonator.
>-Underdrive Pulley. AFX from http://www.howellautomotive.com
>or unorthodox, which is more expensive.
>-55mm TB (Howell or http://www.advancedracingdynamics.com)
>-Header. stay away from Pacesetter OBX and HP seem to be good
>and nicely priced, Greddy is good but at a cost.
>-Port and Polish intake manifold, Advanced Racing Dynamics
>(ARD)
>-High Flow Cat
>-Stage 1 cams from Crower or Crane (I'm partial to Crower)
>-Upgrade ingnition: Screamin Deamon Coil Pack and Ignition
>amp. (for your set up this stage not really needed)
>- Apexi S-AFC, the ability to tune and lean out the ECU would
>be good, help your mileage and power, our ECU loves to just
>dump the fuel in.
>-Make sure you get some guages for tuning: A/F ratio and EGT,
>plus oil pressure (always a safety thing).
>
>That's what I suggest for a mild street set up.
>
>
>
>15.9 @ 86.7mph
>
>Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Cams, Hooker Header,
>ERT/Catco Cat, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC

>Thanks, that basically reinforces what I had planned. I plan
>to do all the exhaust upgrades at the same time...why do you
>recommend doing it piece by piece? I don't like ripping the
>same parts of repeatedly to install things individually.

he was refering to making a custom setup.. just go down to an exhaust shop and then you let them know what you want (glasspacks, mufflers, high flow cats, straight pipes, etc..). then they build you a complete system.

>Is there some kind of drawback on doing the entire exhaust
>first?
>I plan to do the UDP, cam, springs, TB, and any porting all at
>the same time in the "step two" of upgrades. Where do
>injectors come into play? What determines if they should be
>upgraded?

as far as i know.. no NA 2gnts will need more fuel than our stock injectors provide. so unless you are going all out on a NA project.. you should be fine with the stockers.

>Also I am tempted to pick up a small(50HP or so) nitrous
>system if I start taking the car to the track. Anything else I
>should consider before this upgrade beside the fuel pump?

never had the funny gas before.. so i cant help you there.

>How strong are bottom end of these motors? I really don't want
>to do any work to the block.

our stock bottoms are strong.. if you stay NA, then you will be fine (of course that depends on how many miles, how hard you drive).. but most of the NA guys are still on their stock bottoms. nos, thats a different story.

you can also add to the previous list... cam gears, ES motor mounts, spark plugs one range hotter, new plug wires, new clutch... the list goes on for ever :)

Why motor mounts?
...Increased torque transfer??
...Are "ES" solid motor mounts?

The engine is bone stock with 88,000 miles. I have had the car for 3 years with no need for repairs. The car has never overheated to my knowledge and oil changes are fairly well kept up with besides a few times where it went about 7K miles without a change. I have never really "beat" on the car and I rarely rev it over 5000RMP during driving.

Making an educated guess, how would you rate the condition of this block? Before I undertake any mods I plan to check oil pressure and compression to look for red flags. Is there anything else I should look into?

Any info on nitrious??

I did say I was listing in recommended order.

There is nothing wrong with doing the whole exhaust in one shot, it certainly is easier. I was simply listing in order of what I see to be bennefiting the other mods, trying to keep exhaust and intake flowing well together. the minor differences in that portion of the list between intake and exhaust are not as important and having all that setup for the cams.

With a mild street set up like that I don't see any upgrade to the fuel system except, say the fuel pump mod and an S-AFC. You shouldn't going to outflow the stock 235cc injectors.

Bottom end, should be no problem at all if you spray a 50 shot, safely, i.e. enough fuel, tuned properly. That is all assuming yuor bottom end is sound to begin with and you don't go beating on the car every day like it's a race car.



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Cams, Hooker Header, ERT/Catco Cat, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC