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| I first bought the car back in July of 1998. I bought the car to be a daily driver, but still intended on doing some slight modifications. As everyone knows, the mod bug takes hold and what was once planned to be exhaust and filter mods turns into superchargers, tranmissions, and engine swaps. Here is the history of my modifications and my results from each. |
| I started out like most people and added a set of mufflers. I choose a mac cat-back system because it is one of the easier system's to install and I was planning to install it myself. The stock mufflers are not very constrictive, so there is not much horsepower to gain from a new catback system on a 4.6l. |
| 14.8 @ 92mph |
| 14.7 @ 94.3mph |
| I then added a mac offroad hpipe. Again, I choose mac for installation ease and the fact that their hpipe has a big fake metal box on it that *looks* like a cat when in fact it is actually hollow. It has even fooled the ford dealership. I also added a set of nitto drag radials.The offroad hpipe increase flow enough from the stock 6 cat hpipe that I was able to increase my mph by 2.3 and drop my et by .15! Not a bad drop for $250, but the real reason to buy an offroad hpipe is without a doubt for the sound! |
| 14.5 @ 94.9mph - Car # T66 |
| I really wanted a cheap bang for the buck, something to really get my car moving. Most people I talked to recommended a set of gears. However, there was some debate over which set was better for an automatic, 3.73, or 4.10. I choose to go with 3.73 to try and keep my rpm's down during my daily commute to work. The gears themselves cost $200 and the labor to have them installed ran me about $700. The worst thing about having gears installed in an automatic is the shift points. My shift points were so out of wack that at first I could not run better than a 14.7. My auto kept waiting til nearly redline until it shift, sense my peek horsepower was hitting about 4700rpm I knew this was much too late. I then started shifting the auto manually at about 5k rpm and I was able to run a 14.5. |
| 13.6 @ 101.1mph - Car # 44 and # T51 |
| After add gears and still only running mid 14's I was starting to think about trading in the car. The 2v 4.6l stangs from 96-98 are suffering from seriously restrictive flowing heads. Ford corrected the problem in 1999 with new PI (power improved) cylinder heads. I purchased all the parts required for the 98-99 headswap from my local ford dealers. These parts included heads, cams, intake manifold, gaskets, various bolts, and many other small parts. The total for the parts came to around $1000. Next I shipped the heads off to Heads Up performance in North Carolina for them to do a porting job on them. This cost $600 plus shipping. Then I had them installed by one of the ford dealership mechanics (on the side) for around $700. The headswap made an incredible difference in the car. It was a totally new car. Though it is still experiancing traction problems from the new power, I was able to bring it to a new best et of 13.6 at 101mph. Nearly a full second drop and almost 7mph increase for around $2000. Definatly an exceptional bang for the buck. I have finally turned this 4.6 into a very respectable street rod! |
| 12.5 @ 107mph |
| 3 years later and I have finally returned to update this page. The car has been running great with the PI headswap all the while. The car now has nearly 130k miles on it. As of last spring I got the urge to beef up to the next level and went with a Paxton Novi 2000rr supercharger and Paxton Intercooler. In addition I added an adjustible fuel pressure regulator, univer mass air meter, and 42lbs injectors. The stock transmission and block still remain. I brought the car to Kauffman motorsports in PA for a dyno tune. The tired old block and tranny built a nice 366rwhp and 358torque with only 5psi boost! Unfortunately this power was too much for my stock tranny to withstand and now the car is down until I have the money for a rebuild. I did take the care to the track once and even though the transmission was not pulling in 3rd gear I still managed a 12.5 @ 107mph. My next mods to come will be a rebuilt shortblock with forged internals, rebuilt automatic transmission, blower cams, better flowing intake, and more boost! The goal is 10's! |
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