Just got a 1994 GT...What Next?

[Guest]

Hey I jsut got a 1994 Mustang GT with 88k what should i do to start getting some more power out of it without seriously comprimising the engine.  Please try to be specific, like with exhaust, headers, et.

Thanks

[Guest]

With all the aftermarket parts available it's hard to tell you what you need to do. It all depends of your budget and what kind of power you want.
Once you start to increase power you never get enough and at the end you spend a lot of money down the road for all the engine upgrades you've done. If I had any tip for you it would be a good idea to keep your car stock while you save money for a supercharger kit. They are not cheap but a blower can add about 150 HP to your V8 and if you are not planning to make the modifications yourself you will save a lot of money in labor. A blower and its hardware can be installed in about a day and in case you want your car back to stock it will be just as easy to unbolt everything. This way the value of your Mustang will not suffer if you decide to sell it in the future.
With a blower you get instant power and torque as soon as you hit the gas. You can also install a nitrous kit or swap your intake, heads, internal parts but your engine will not be as reliable and powerfull.

[Guest]

First of all, congrats on buying a Mustang.   :-D

Before you do anything you need to decide what you ultimately want out of your Mustang.  Mild street cruiser?  Drag strip performer?  Road racer?  Show car?

Believe me, nothing sucks more than buying parts twice because you decide later to go in a different direction.

Before you do anything, give your car a tuneup, unless you happen to have a good service history of the car.  Most 10 year-old cars aren't well-cared for internally.

Little things you can do relatively inexpensively to get more actual RWHP - remove the air silencer, get a performance air filter, exhaust system (headers, catback, and depending on where you live, a new midpipe).  Underdrive pulleys are common, so is removing the smog pump (again, depending on where you live).  Bigger throttle bodies, bigger MAFs usually don't help much (and can hurt) until you start talking about a heads/cam/intake swap.

"Normal" 94-95 GTs run about 215 FWHP, 185 RWHP.  The 5.0L has a ton more power potential in it - Ford muzzled it for CAFE and the EPA - a mild build-up can net 300 RWHP on a stock block with no problems.  (Ford's own GT-40 upgrade package, at http://www.fordracingparts.com, which is pretty tame, will give it 295 FWHP.)

We haven't even touched braking and handling yet.   :-P  Remember the Mustang GT is basically a power package dropped into an entry-level car.

Cylinder heads, camshafts, intakes, power adders, and new blocks are where the real power is.  But that's also where the real money, and the real time investment kick in.  Are you racing your Mustang?  Do you need this kind of stuff?  Can you afford it?

Reliability is all in the details.  How you take care of your Mustang, what combination of parts you pick and definitely your final tune (modifying the EFI computer to your particular combo).  There's an owner on StangNet with a yellow SN95, 800 RWHP with a turbo and an AODE that's a reliable street/strip cruiser.  It was just featured in the Muscle Mustangs magazine.  There's also owners with stock engines that can't get them to run right 6 days out of the week.

[nmponygirl]

Hey, it looks like it's been about two years since this last posting, but I was wondering if you'd done anything to your '94 to boost the power.  I just got one, loving it, and it sounds totally awesome, but it doesn't have much pickup.  I'm not interested in superchargers, and would like to keep it as original as possible, but still want to give the poor baby the glory she deserves!!!
Any advice?
-Tonya

[rmodel65]

well gears are gonna be the biggest help and its a hidden mod that you cant see. the rule of thumb is 3.73 for the 5spd cars and 4.10's for the auto cars

but if you want to impove it you need to do some weight reduction make sure the trunk is empty of any non needed items or anything else you dont need in the car.

then your gonna need to mod the motor (and get a stall converter to match the gears in an auto car) you can keep a stock look by using ford parts like gt40 head and porting the upper and lower intakes but personally id buy a nice set of alum head a cam rockers and a new intake

[nmponygirl]

Thanks for the advice!  I've got the gears and the trunks nice & clean.  I think I'm going to wait on any more engine mods.  Just got it all tuned up and I'm having some pinging problems (whole other discussion).  Have been learning about fixing it up and I'm scared to do much with the engine because then I'll be fixing everything!  She's got 100k on her and I think maybe next summer we'll talk about rebuilding the engine.

[Soaring]

For a daily driver, you will be wasting money to get the engine rebuilt.  These engines are designed to last well over 200K before they start burning oil and losing compression if you keep them maintained.  The operative word is "IF"