Cheap Horsepower?

[Ferocious]

Ever since i got my car, i haven't dumped any money into my engine bay.
I was wondering if there's any parts i could get that are cheap to get better performance out of my car.

So far i was thinking about getting a CAI, and a new throttle body but thats about it. (searching in the $100-300 range)
I'm not car smart at all, and i could use any help/advise.

 

[OnyxCobra]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

No such thing as cheap horsepower. Gears will do a lot more than any minor engine bolt on.

 

[coupe5ohh]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

you can buy my ported gt40 heads for $280 shipped

 

[boosted93]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

what he said^^^ The best thing i ever did to my mustang was gears.. So much funner to drive along with making it get up and go!

 

[PI96GT]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

you can buy my ported gt40 heads for $280 shipped

he's a 4.6 lol.

But once you have the money nothing beats a PI swap.

 

[duh09]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

Gears, PI swap, bolt-ons... Not too much for 4.6Ls in terms of cheap go-fast.

 

[LI98GT]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

Cheap hp for us are pi cams and pi intake with some type of cai. Also seen many used stainless steel mid pipes out there with hight flow cats if you need to stay sniffer legal or without if not. Now "Relatively inexpensive" is the full swap option, but you got a lot more work there plus you need to use higher octane gas from then on.

 

[Dalamar]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

Start with gears.
CAI is a good idea, removes a little restriction over the stock filter/box.
TB won't do much for you with the NPI IM/heads/cams. that's where the restriction lies.
for power gains beyond gears & CAI - look at a NPI cam swap, and possibly the PI Intake, or full PI headswap,
other bolt on's are all hyped up and are not worth the cost with the NPI combo.

for your price range, definately start with steeper gears. 373, or 410's

 

[mikey94gt]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

Im with Dalmar..... Gears are where its at. oh, and a good shifter, cant beat a Pro-5.0. best mod ever though? the driver mod.... get out there and learn how to drive it!

 

[Ferocious]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

the only thing im not too sure about are NPI cams. what are those exactly? and where can i buy some?
as far as the gears, what set would you guys recommend? is 4:10 too much?

and thank you again for all the help.

 

[duh09]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

Don't fear the gear. I run 4.10s in my 95 back when I drove it everyday. Not a big deal.

 

[mikey94gt]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

96-98 GT's are known as Non Performance Improved (NPI, 215hp) and 99-04 are Performance Improved (PI 260hp) so, if you do a PI swap, you are swapping the intake, cams, heads and sometimes the T/B to improve performance. It also bumps your compression from somewhere around 9:1 to about 10.5:1 because of the smaller chambers of the PI heads vs the NPI heads. Mod motas love compression and boost, so the bump in compression makes a big difference.

 

[Dalamar]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

IF your staying NA, then i'd go 410's and let your motor rev!

Here's an example of NPI cams, i'm not saying Crower is the best profile, but I know they're good.

http://www.crower.com//products/camshafts/ford.html?cat=1588

 

[boosted93]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

the only thing im not too sure about are NPI cams. what are those exactly? and where can i buy some?
as far as the gears, what set would you guys recommend? is 4:10 too much?

and thank you again for all the help.

If you dont drive much on the freeway 4;10s would be fun but if you do (like me) 3.73 are still fun and a big improvment over stock

 

[ryclef331]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

nitrous

 

[Twista]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

no such thing

 

[coupe5ohh]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

you can buy my ported gt40 heads for $280 shipped

he's a 4.6 lol.

But once you have the money nothing beats a PI swap.

so..he can still buy them..lol

 

[Ferocious]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

no such thing

why bother posting if you're not going to help.

 

[Ferocious]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

thanks to anyone who helped. how does getting new gears (4:10 im leaning towards), a cold air intake, underdrive pulleys, a 70mm throttle body, and maybe an o/r h-pipe to really set of my flowmasters. im estimating thats at least 35hp+ and a much more fun/responsive car i'll have.

am i at least somewhat accurate with what i said? lol

 

[Dalamar]

Re: How to get cheap horsepower?

having done all that, and seen a lot of feedback, don't waist your money on underdrives and the TB will do nothing for you with the PI setup, there's no restriction there. Flows are nice for the sound.

don't believe the advertising hype from parts companies