How powerful can you make a 1999-04 Mustang GT without turbo/supercharger (Reps)

[Getter_done]

always wondered this, and wut would u have to do? didnt get very much info in regular misc so i come here. no nitrous either.

[VlKlNG]

with bolt ons u could prolly get 15-30 hp more. I think those 99-04 gts have 275hp.
\To get some serious power u would have to either bore the cylinders and or change the pistons
Bolt ons:
Exhaust headers,mufflers,bigger down piping
New Air intake,bigger throtle body
Cams

[Heiber]

nitrous is good, 100 shot gives about 100 hp and over 150 tq

bolt ons dont really seem worth it


check mustangforums.com

[BoostBrah]

with bolt ons u could prolly get 15-30 hp more. I think those 99-04 gts have 275hp.
\To get some serious power u would have to either bore the cylinders and or change the pistons
Bolt ons:
Exhaust headers,mufflers,bigger down piping
New Air intake,bigger throtle body
Cams

All depends on how much $$ you want to spend, remember, speed cost money, how fast do you want to go...?

If you had some cash, and didnt want to go w/ forced induction ide do the following:

Build the bottom end with some high compression slugs (increase the stroke and maybe a .20 overbore)
Get some nasty breathing heads w/ matching cam
EVERY BOLT ON POSSIBLE
Some sort of Nitrous system (most power would be a direct port)
Then you need to get a ceramic clutch to hold that power
Lightwieght flywheel
New rear (you will break it)
and a SOLID ASS engine management!

Looking at WELL over 10k
****, to go from 230hp to 462 on my SRT (safely mind you) i dropped around 12k, and i did the work myself, you add in labor if you dont wrench and that would have been an easy 5k extra, then another 1k or so on tuning. Its not cheap to go fast.

WHen everything is said and done, depending on how streetable you want it, you could pull a good 500ish HP all motor (with some nasty heads/cam) and depending on how bulletproof the block is, you could be tossing another 300or so in there on the bottle. But this would cost and arm and a leg. Still, ide go turbo imo =D

[ratmonkey]

depends upon how much work you want to do and if you want to stick to the "stock" block.
do you want it to be streetable? anything over 6 or 7 hundred in that chassis is gonna be tough to drive as a daily.

[Getter_done]

good info in here, thanks, well a stock gt from that era is 260 hp, i was thinking of getting one in the near future and getting it up to low-mid 300's hp without forced induction, i guess itll cost quite a bit eh

[Onebadgtx]

Drop in a 5.4. Install heads/cams, intake, throttle body, underdrive pullies, headers, exhuast, and chip. I would just drop in a cobra motor myself.

[ctgblue]

always wondered this, and wut would u have to do? didnt get very much info in regular misc so i come here. no nitrous either.

unfortunately, forced air is going to give you a lot more 'bang for the buck'
moderate 30-40 or so hp gains can be had with bolt on stuff, my wife Mach had 310 normally aspirated, shaker scoop, but that was about max for stock

a supercharger system will run about $5-7k and will net you at least 100hp more (cobra 4.6 supercharged, '03 395 hp) streetable, and well over that if you just want it to cruise in every once in a while.
we almost sold her Mach for an '03 Cobra with 450, and that was maxing out the power/durability factor for a daily driver, it would break the rear tires loose at 40mph in second with a good romp, just not what you really want for back and forth to work, no matter how fun it seems

jacking up the hp, as mentioned, will require upgrades to drivetrain after a certain hp, unless you want to wait to replace the rear end and tranny until you blow them, at midnight, near coyotes, in rural BFE...

good luck, just have fun with what you've got, good susp and tire upgrades make it more fun, cloverleafs at 50mph are still more adrenaline pumping than burnouts

[Onebadgtx]

unfortunately, forced air is going to give you a lot more 'bang for the buck'
moderate 30-40 or so hp gains can be had with bolt on stuff, my wife Mach had 310 normally aspirated, shaker scoop, but that was about max for stock

a supercharger system will run about $5-7k and will net you at least 100hp more (cobra 4.6 supercharged, '03 395 hp) streetable, and well over that if you just want it to cruise in every once in a while.
we almost sold her Mach for an '03 Cobra with 450, and that was maxing out the power/durability factor for a daily driver, it would break the rear tires loose at 40mph in second with a good romp, just not what you really want for back and forth to work, no matter how fun it seems

jacking up the hp, as mentioned, will require upgrades to drivetrain after a certain hp, unless you want to wait to replace the rear end and tranny until you blow them, at midnight, near coyotes, in rural BFE...

good luck, just have fun with what you've got, good susp and tire upgrades make it more fun, cloverleafs at 50mph are still more adrenaline pumping than burnouts

CTG is spot on above. I wouldn't go much more than 400RWHP for a daily driver...

My buddy has an 04' Mystic.. With 12" wide drag radials at 40 he can light them up (500RWHP). I am buying a Cobra for my next vehicle and have been looking at something in the 600RWHP range, which is ungodly fast to me. I have driven friends cars with that power on the street and at the track - it is plenty. You have to be very careful about thottling up - you can't punch and go.

[Dock_Rocker]

If you are looking for cheap and streetable you cannot beat the bottle. I would go have a good tune done ON A DYNO, and a nice n2o setup put in. As long as you dont abuse it you will have a blast. Make sure that you have all of the safety hooked up ie. window switch so no puddling in the intake, burst disk in the bottle so you dont go over pressure and a good bottle heater for consistency. You can get one hundred HP with the flick of a switch. I currently have a 250 shot on a built block and it is a blast.

If I had it to do over again I would definitely go with a turbo or a pro charger. All the time power and for me a fun new challenge to get it to work right.

[3kgtjunkie]

Drop in a 5.4. Install heads/cams, intake, throttle body, underdrive pullies, headers, exhuast, and chip.

thats about the most you can do to an n/a mustang, maybe a port n polish. I've heard that theres an M40? (the tbird supercharger?) thats super easy to put on there if you did decide to go FI.

[89FoxBody]

Just get a blower. You'll end up spending more than that on heads, cams, intake, and all that other **** than you would on a mid-range blower w/ supporting mods, and make less power.

Plus, you can always just mod it more later on, and this way is better because then you will make sure that you have mods that will make the best use of your blower.

Example...AFR makes 2 sets of heads that are feasible for a 5.0. AFR165s and AFR185s. The 185s will cost you torque at the low end because they have bigger combustion chambers and therefore less compression. For an engine w/o forced induction, 165s are the way to go. So say you spend 1500 on a set of 165s and decide to get a blower down the road? I'd be pissed that I'm not getting the best performance out of my blower, and I'd want a set of 185s, thus wasting a ****load of money. I dunno what heads cost on an SN-95 cause I'm a Fox guy but they're definitely more expensive.

Just get a supercharger. Turbo will be crazy expensive. Look at Procharger (seems to be the most popular), Paxton, Vortech, Eaton, Whipple, and the venerable KB (the most expensive, but arguably the best, plus they have that sweet whining sound). Don't touch Powerdyne, they are notorious for horrible quality. I had a friend who ran a Powerdyne, the impeller blew apart and was inducted into his engine and blew out the side of his block. They refused to pay for the repairs even though it was their device that caused the block to fail.

Procharger, Paxton and Vortech are crank-driven centrifugal superchargers, they are a lot cheaper than the twin screw Eatons, Whipples, or KBs, but they don't perform as well. Supporting mods means bigger injectors, higher flow fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, new air meter, and you will definitely need a tune (which you should do after any H/C/I swap anyway). You will probably also have to tap the oil pan unless you get one of the new self-lubricating ones.

You could get yourself a centrifugal blower for 2500 - 3000 bucks, and all the supporting mods for probably a grand. Then figure 500 to 700 for a full dyno tune, and get yourself a chip burned for your car's computer. If you install yourself, it's not bad. Labor would be expensive though. This would put you in a great place to mod your car even further in the future without having to worry about bottlenecks. You could even find a used blower (just the impeller and housing) on eBay for like 1500 bucks. It's easy enough to see what kind of shape they are in. Then you need to come up with the oil lines, pulley, belt, and piping.

With stock block, rods, and crank, I wouldn't go crazy with the boost though, unless you wanna be picking up pieces off the road. Maybe 6-9lbs at the most IMO, depending on what the tuner says.

Be careful though....This is definitely a disease. Once you feel the power of the car, you will become OBSESSED. Before you know it you'll be blowing craploads of money on stuff like tires, a sticky clutch, suspension (no use having ridiculous power if you can't make it hook), exhaust, and everything under the sun. Trust me I know, lol. I have about 10k into my car right now including what I paid to buy it. Not high for a big build by any means, but a good chunk of money nonetheless.

[89FoxBody]

I saw you asked me about suspension mods. There are a few things to look at:

1. Subframe connectors. There are bolt-on ones, and weld-ins. Definitely get the weld-ins. Some also have seat supports, since floorpans are pretty much the weakest sheet-metal of the whole car. SFCs will minimize any twisting of your car's frame from excessive torque under high acceleration. You might also notice that they help to eliminate little rattles and squeaks. Believe it or not, they can actually make your car feel faster. Why? Because when you launch your car, the flex of your car's frame absorbs some of the power that should be going to the wheels. SFCs limit this.

2. Lowering the car. This will give you more responsive handling, and lowering springs are better quality than the stock ones. The same with shocks and struts. There are a lot of different shock/strut configurations. 50/50, 70/30, 90/10 (TRACK ONLY), etc. Find the set that meets your requirements. Lakewood is a great brand to look at. Look at getting some caster/camber plates as well, as they keep the front suspension tighter for better handling.

3. Strut tower brace. This goes over the engine, inside the engine bay. It bolts into the cowl, and into the strut towers. This limits flexing in the front of the car.

4. Upper and Lower Rear Control Arms. You can get all 4 pieces as a set, or you can get just lowers, or just uppers. I recommend getting everything. These help keep the rear end planted to the pavement. Higher quality pieces result in better weight transfer and much better traction.

5. Front A-Arms. These will also improve the handling of the car. I put new ones on my Fox and it handles MUCH better than it did previously. To do these yourself, you will need a spring compressor and BE CAREFUL, if you lose control of the spring it can cause serious injuries if it becomes decompressed rapidly. If you get these done, I'd recommend getting new tie rod end links as well, since they're going to come off anyway.

Another thing to check would be motor and transmission mounts. As these degrade, the car will vibrate more and more, and cause more stress on the driveline. Nobody wants that. You can get rubber or synthetic ones.

As you can see there are a ton of different things that you can do, it all depends on your budget and what you want out of the car.

Brands to look for would be Maximum Motorsports, Steeda, Lakewood, Bilstein, Tokico, etc.

I get all of my stuff from either www.summitracing.com or www.jegs.com, but there are dozens of vendors online.

Lemme know if you have any more questions.

[GTROB]

I have a 01 mustang gt, the 01 was actually the best year cause they upgraded the motor alot giving it PI heads, intake, etc and has stock 260 hp and 302 tq. U can get more 500 hp easily from a gt at 6 psi from a turbo then a cobra running at about 10 psi. My cars at 350 hp and all I have done is 78mm BBK throttlebody intake plenum with 76mm throttlebody, BBK cold air intake, mac long tub headers, x-pype without cats, BBK underpully system, NGK iridium lX Performance plugs, stage 3 clutch, and a SCT stage 3 tune running 93+ gas with fuel additives.