damn emissions
 

i live in massachusetts (finaly got my stang back on the road after a crappy winter :D ) and theres strict emissions tests we have to pass or no sticker. i have flowmasters already on and a fenderwell intake also. im putting on my underdrive pulleys this weekend. i have ford motorsport shorty headers im going to put on when i move to connecticut (no emissions) within the next 2 years. until i put on the headers, are there any mods i can do that will give more power (besides gears) that wont effect emissions? im getting an 85 mm MAF, 75 mm TB and an accufab plenum soon, but will inter-change them with the stock parts when it comes to emissions time. if not, should i just work on maybe a tri-ax, springs, any other suggestions?

None of those parts you listed will affect your emissions test to the point where you wouldn't pass.
BTW - I'd skip the MAF. Your stock MAF flows plenty of air for those mods. You can put that money towards other parts. And you might want to sell those headers. They are not worth the trouble of the install.
Shifter is a geat idea, and a high flow catted H or X-pipe will help.

like said above NONE of the parts you listed will cause you to fail

as of now the only headers worth doing are long tubes at least till a company comes out with A shortie that shows any gains

thanks for the info. but i have a friend who has high flow cats with flowmasters and he failed emissions. the testing here is VERY strict. selling the headers i think is definitely a possibility, it has run through my mind before. thanks again

Thats very surprising. Usually a properly tuned 4.6L could almost pass w/o the cats. You probably have the same emissions standards as my county does being that I am a suburb of Phila (Cali standards, but not as strictly enforced, meaning they don't look at carb stickers on aftermarket parts.) Technically even with high flow cats it shouldn't even pass the visual inspection, so it makes sense that you would want to stick to your stock setup.

you can get away with doing the shorty headers. The big deal with the visual is that it can't change the factory location of the cats. Living in Cali you make sure to know what they can get away with. But I agree with above. Long tubes are the only way to go. That's what I did. The time it takes for the install isn't worth the little gains of shorty headers.

long tubes is what i origanily wanted, again i was informed that the car would not pass emissions, and my friend convinced me to get the shortys (mistake). ill find out some more info about the high flow cats and h pipe and if what you say is true then ill go with it. any suggestions on what brands? i heard bassani makes a good x pipe, any others?

I would go with magnaflow cause I heard that the cats that bassani uses are junk

again I agree with the above. Either BBK or Magnaflow, but stay away from bassani. They have a problem with burning out.

Yeah, I'm having a problem getting my to pass. We dont do sniffers here, they hook a computer to read readiness codes here. The people at JMS like turned off all of my systems so they show as not responding and wham...you fail.

Got a plan to get it inspected though, and I plan on doing away with the damn JMS chip and get a dyno tune. Oppss No Cats on mine..lucky for me my friend can turn blind at times.

its always good to have a friend who does inspection. anyone know of any dyno tune facilities in the northeast? connecticut, massachusetts?