this is the thing, im buying a z-28 in the next few months because im tired of the amount of money i put into my GT in return for little gains found in ford modular motors. I will have about 3,500 bills to put into the performance of the beast, and with that, i definately want to swap the gears, headers and catback, put in a short throw shifter, and hopefully before i go to far into the bolt ons, throw on some of combination motorsport's stage II head packages for a nitrous application. Im not to keen on the Lt1 motors, but i definately know that there is more prospect in them than my old 4.6. thanks.

 

What happened?Someone knocked some sense into you? Just kiddin.Sounds like you know the road to take.Its just a matter of the right combo.Such as not going to big on the cam. Just free up the intake and exhaust , a litle giggle gas and GO.Just hang around this place and you will learn.

 

always nice to have a "former" stang owner, to learn what real power is, and with 3500 bucks to spend for the mods, you will like f body's for sure

 

Definetly a CAI and catback should be the first things done IMO

Welcome to the board!

 

thanks guys. I'll definately start off by letting her breathe a little. i want to get much more informed about z28's before i begin tearing them apart. What do you guys thinking about supercharging and aftercooling a mostly stock lt1 motor?

 

grizzle97, welcome to the board! I would definately go with the cai, and cat back, maybe some LT's at the same time. As far as the supercharging, go to the forced induction section and do a search. One thing I have learned about this site, the searching characteristics are amazing. It is kind of like in class, if you have a question a bunch of other people do too, except here the questions have already been asked, and a plethera of information lyes in the threads. If you have a question about the best cat back, search for that question, or best cai...same thing. I have had a MILLION questions, and by searching I have found most of my answers...if you can't find it then ask and everyone is really good about answering them. With $3500 you could easily do a cai, 52 mm ported tb, cam(hot cam, 224/230...jason cromer or combination motorsports), heads (nighttrain66), hooker or Jet Hot LT's, cat back, and a tune(pcmforless.com). That is what I am finishing up atleast. Good luck and welcome to the club

 

Welcome to the board Grizzle97. I'm a former 5.0L guy.

Couple of things to note about our cars:
- We have a very weak rear-end. If you can hook when you take off, and if you got a lot of power, you will screw up your rear. There's nothing to do except either get a 12bolt or a nine-inch from you know who. Either of these is over $2k. Because of that, most guys just let'em spin when you launch. Auto's are nicer on the rears though.

- We got a goofy distributor. Basically, it's pretty expensive ~$500 from a dealer, or around $200 from a guy named "Dal" who works for a dealer. Do a search for Dal and you'll find his numbers. The dirstributor is mounted low, on the front of the engine, and it HATES getting wet, so don't pressure wash the engine.

I prefer to dig right in, instead of lots of bolt-ons, however to each his own. A set of really good ported heads and a custom ground cam can put you damn near 400rwhp for around $2500.

Add a CAI and a dynomax exhaust and you'd be over 400rwhp. Long tube headers are a great add-on as well, but in our cars they have ground clearence issues, and (of course) they are not emissions legal. A good Mid length header is made by MAC, they run about $500 I think.

Good blowers are made by ATI and Vortech, but don't go beyond 6psi on a stock motor, unless you like to see holes in pistons or snapped rods.

LT1 cars have lousy brakes. A common "mod" is to bolt on the 98 and newer brakes. You'll need the spindles, rotors, pads, and calipers. That runs about $300 and is well worth it.

With any substantial mod, you need to get your computer tuned. www.pcmforless.com is a great, cheap place to get it done.

If you are staying with the 10 bolt rear, 4.10's make a great rear for M6 cars, and I think most of the A4 guys run 3.73's. GM/Motive are supposed to be the best.

 

Man let me break it down for you. First off, you are going to regret all those years you wasted with a 4.6... 5.0 is a different story but a 4.6, ehhhhhhh. Anyway here ya go:

Start off with free mods, appropriately named because of their low cost. TB coolant bypass (dynoed 6 rwhp for about $1!!!), CAGS delete if you have a 6 speed, spare tire and jack. Do a search to find out exactly what those are.

Then concentrate on intake and exhaust and move towards the innards of the engine... Intake, catback, headers. As for gears, the usual consensus is 4.10's for a 6 speed (if you stay N/A or else say goodbye to traction) and 3.42's for an auto. That will throw a kick in your ***. As you move along in the modding process you will discover lots of little secrets by reading on this board. If you spend your money right you will have enough at the end of the bolt-on process for a nice heads/cam package and some pcmforless.com tuning (how does 75bucks for good tuning and free upgrades for life sound). I would go with an LT4 conversion kit for around 2k, get a local port and polish job on the heads and voila you have a nice N/A 400 rwhp machine. The LT4 engine is a engine that GM put in certain 96 corvettes and certain anniversary 97 camaros. The heads are of a better design that than stock Lt1's. Also the cam that comes with the kit is not the original LT4 cam, it is called a hotcam. Many people use it... sounds nice, passes smog, and many have dipped into the 11's with it. I believe its a 220/230 on 112lsa. The kit also comes with 1.6 roller rockers and LT4 valve springs. EDIT - I forgot, the kit also comes with a 52mm throttle body (that's twin throttle body not a signle mustang one) compared to the stock 48. Of course the rear end is an issue and you have to cover fuel/ignition but that's something that every performance car needs. Oh and I know some people say that you should dive right into the big mods but I say that's a no no... the supporting mods are what the big mods big...

I can try to squeeze what you need to know into one post but I realized its not happening... When i got my car I thought it was fast. Then I heard my friend's car with a cutout and from then on it was reading reading reading reading on this board. Now I know the car like the back of my hand. Good luck, and with 3.5k to invest I'm sure you will love it!!!

Oh yea, one of the most useful websites that I have ever used that's car related is a board member named Brent Franker's (). His page has how-to's and installs for almost anything you can imagine.

www.bfranker.badz28.com, check it out and do some reading. later!

 

damn, in the year and a half ive been a member on mustang boards, ive never gotten this much feedback. thanks alot. right now im leaning toward full length exhaust, some induction work, gears, shifter, and quite possibly some cams with porting and polishing. Aside from a stout new rear end, would some control arms give me strength when launching? i wouldnt mind putting in say 500-600 in the rearend.

 

Since you mention shifter I'm assuming you're looking to buy an M6. With any decent amount of power and traction you will find the single most POS piece of hardware these cars come with.... the 10 bolt rearend. If you plan on putting that much power to the pavement on a regular basis, with an M6, you'd be wise to throw a ford 9" or GM 12 bolt in it from the start instead of wasting cash on the puny factory rearend. This is something the where the Mustangs clearly have an advantage. The rest of the drivetrain is quite impressive, IMO. When talking power adders be sure to tune it correctly as high compression and hypereutectic pistons are rather fragile under detonation

Everything else you should be able to find by reading through this tech forum and using the search function. Start with the basics like you mentioned (full length headers if emissions aren't of concern, otherwise good mid-lengths or shorties, catback, CAI, TB bypass, thermo, etc.) By the time you've gotten the basics completed you should have a clearer picture of where to go next.

 

Start off with your usual bolt ons, Catback, CAI, Electric Water pump, headers, etc. Then move on to Heads/cam or even a stroker engine. A well tuned heads cam LT1 can dyno 400rwhp (460hp). And a 460hp daily driven, very reliable, LT1 would be awesome.