[fastest95stang]

ok i was thinking about doing some upgrades on my 89 mustang and if you could give me some help on deciding that would be great.i was thinking about upgrading to a trick flow stage 2 cam (or possibly even stage 3) then in a cupple months go and replace the heads also with trickflow then the intake with trickflow efi intake manifold kit (track heat) next following a bbk 75mm throttle body and egr plate? followed by a msd ignition system?the car is compleatly stock right now except for flowmasters and an x pipe assylembly + a cold air intake and some plug wires.any help on this would be great.and do you think it would be a problem to do the upgrades in this order??? and if i do go with the stage 2 or even the stage 3 cam would any other mods be nessasairy?dont have a lot of cash to blow all at once(even tho it would be for a verry good cause lol) so that is why i am doing it in this order.any advice would be appreciated...thanks

 

[Eagle347]

That order is fine, but if possible do the heads, and cam at the same time. And do the throttle body, and intake manifold at the same time to. Trickflow makes good stuff, but there are better parts out there. When you change the cam you will need to change the valve springs. Its a good idea to change the push rods and rockers to. You can buy a whole cam upgrade kit that has everything you will need. Actually, you can buy a whole top end kit. Heads, cam, intake, valve covers, springs lifters ect....The trickflow kit sells on summit for $2100. Its a good way to go, because you know everything will work together ok, and you save money buying it as a package. Also you are better off just doing it all at once. You did say you dont have the money to do it all at once. But you may be better off saving up and getting it all at the same time. The only other thing I recommend is upgrading your fuel injectors. When you start flowing more air, you need more fuel. I have a few things forsale you may be interested in. PM me if you want.

 

[fastest95stang]

ok thanks for the input.i like the idea of the kit but i belive it only comes with the stage one cam and i wanted to put something a little bigger into it.i dont belive they have an option to upgrade to a bigger cam in the kit.and i really dont like the looks of the valve covers either. but i will have to see just how much savings it will be to go with the valve covers and the cam that i dont like.lets say i go with the stage 2 or even the stage 1 cam what lb/hr injectors do you think i should go with?? i was looking at the ones from ford racing...good or not?? any other tips or advice welcome...thanks again.

 

[Eagle347]

The ford racing injectors are fine, and there the cheapest to my knowledge. Depending on what you do, I would go with atleast 24lb, maybe 30lb. Yeah, that is the downside of buying the kit. I would just get heads, and cam. Then intake mainifold, throttle body, injectors, and you will need to do a mass air conversion, before anything, or the car will not run right. What do you want do with the car? Are you planning on doing the bottom end?

 

[fastest95stang]

well as far as what i am going to be using the car for....it is going to be my daily driver for now belive it or not. and no bottom end work at this time is going to happen.ok cupple other ? to throw at ya .... what about the possibility of converting it to a carb setup.good idea or not??...off the top of my head it sounds like it would be cheeper.and just as good performance as far as i know just a thought though.as you can tell i am not sure at all on what i want to do yet.so what do you think about that?

 

[Eagle347]

Well, I dont like carbed motors, but thats just me. I love fuel injection. Your right though going carbed might be a little cheaper. A good setup since you will drive it on the street alot is, twisted wedge heads, e-cam, track heat intake manifold, 70mm TB, and 24lb injectors. This setup will be more reliable than a carbed engine, and you would probably like driving it better fuel injected. There are better parts out there, but for the money you cant beat trickflow. Another good mod would be some 3:73's, and subframe conectors.

 

[green91]

one thing about the stage 2 or 3 cam is that i believe you will run into piston to valve issues. holley also makes a kit like trick flow with heads, cam, intake, and all nessesary parts to do the swap and is rated at about 350 hp, and the trick flow one is also rated at about 350-360 hp (at the flywheel, probably about 300-310 to the wheels) which will haul ass!

 

[nykmad]

the cam thing you may need to do after valve springs our machine shop guy said that the stock ford springs are not able to handle the bigger cam but he may be wrong i dont know well good luck

 

[Eagle347]

If he gets new trickflow heads, they will come with .542 lift springs, or he can upgrade them to .600 lift. I dont recomend the holley because it cost's more, and the trickflow kit is better. You will have to check valve clearace with a stage II cam, but a stage I, or the cam that I have forsale would be fine.

 

[Bogart]

One thing that seems sorely missing from your proposed package is headers.

The factory headers are one of the most restrictive parts of the airflow path when the car is stock. Imagine how big a restriction they will be [relative to the other parts] once you have upgraded all the other components in the airflow path.

A set of BBK long-tubers with their matching H-pipe was the first bolt-on I installed on my 87 GT (after the K&N cone), and they made a huge difference with everything else stock.

 

[Eagle347]

We did not really get on that topic since we were talking about engine upgrades, but yes definitely upgrade exhaust as well. I perfer long tubes, but some people dont like them. And if you can get away with it where you live, get an off road h/x pipe. I recommend MAC exhaust, but most stuff is pretty good, just stay away from flowtech.

 

[tazo]

:eyepoppin hey about the machine shop guy he does it for a living,soooo listen to him.if you get to wild with the stock pistons the valves will hit.i went with cheaper gt40p heads and crane beehive valve springs for my daily driver,to avoid coil binding of the springs/a very bad thing.driver .speedpro e303 cam and 1.7 crane roller rockers,headers gt40 explorer intake and 5/8 headers.runs great,20mpg city and hwy on 19 lbs injectors.the big thing is to measure your need ,driver or race and balance it against your wallet,most all my stuff came from ebay tazo.....

 

[fastest95stang]

o yea i sure did notice the stock headers being restrictive...i looked at them and i was like holy crap those are small lol..but yes exhast is a must also..i have flomasters on them right now and was trying to decide between the short or long bbk headers...more power with the long headers right??...i still have the stock catilic converters on there and did not want to modify the exhast too much...but hey its junk so it needs to come off i guess... thatr was the only reason why i was going with the shorty's...keep the tips comming tho cuz i dont have much exp. with this stuff..so any thing helps....thanks

 

[Eagle347]

Do you have any kind of smog check where you live? I dont like shorty headers because of where they meet the h pipe. disconnecting them is a *****. Long tubes make more power, but they cost more. You can find some good ones on ebay. If you like a really good exotic type sound, get an Xpipe. If you like a louder muscle car sound go with the Hpipe. Its been said that Hpipes are better for performance. I personally agree that they do, but people will argue. You can find a good used h pipe cheap.

 

[fastest95stang]

ok well i think i got some bad news... i think i may have spun a berring...i was driving and i downshifted into first and i heard like a loud chirp then i noticed my oil pressure was at like 15 psi...i dont know if it happend after i down shifted or not.but any way car still performed the same and all and no oil leaks or anything...i posted on here and that is the only response of what it could possibly be...any other ideas??????...so it looks like if i have to replace the berring that i will be doing some of these things mentioned earlier in this post while the motor is out.any other info about this would help me a lot...

 

[fastest95stang]

Do you have any kind of smog check where you live? I dont like shorty headers because of where they meet the h pipe. disconnecting them is a *****. Long tubes make more power, but they cost more. You can find some good ones on ebay. If you like a really good exotic type sound, get an Xpipe. If you like a louder muscle car sound go with the Hpipe. Its been said that Hpipes are better for performance. I personally agree that they do, but people will argue. You can find a good used h pipe cheap.

nope no smog check here so i can put anything on here...and i think i will go with the long tube on there....with the h pipe...any ideas on my other problem would help a lot.

 

[fastest95stang]

disregard about the spun berring thing...it was a gauge ground thing

 

[Eagle347]

Thats good, I will take a pic of the H pipe today.

 

[fastest95stang]

ok man thats cool