Prioritizing a bunch of mods

[esandes]

Here is the deal. I live in a small town where there are no dyno's, there are no engine builders and there are no mustang shops. However, there is a small clan of us that get together every week to talk shop.

So, I'm wondering what mods I should do without having to go to a dyno for chip tuning. Here are all my goodies:
-FR shorty headers (ceramic coat)
-Steeda U/D pulleys (already put in)
-Bassani X-pipe w/ cats
-Bassani Catbacks
-FR heads
-FR intake
-FR 3.73 gears
-Pro-M 80 mm w/ K&N
-180 Stat
-FR windage tray
-SHM GT Cam (2730)
-Steeda 8mm Ignition Wires

I think it would be ok to install the exhaust system and gears without having to muck with the EEC, right?

Plus, I think I'll wait a bit and get the heads and intake ported and polished before I put them in.

Cheers

[SLOW 97]

You won't have to mess with the EEC with gears and exhaust. As for the heads, go for them first because they offer the best bang for the buck. SD Wheeler can help with the heads,intake and cams. In his package the heads come ported. I think the PI heads are better than the FR heads. The FR parts are too expensive. The PI heads and Bullitt intake (half the price of the FR intake and just as good just designed for PI heads) are much cheaper because they are production parts. I'm not a big fan of bolt ons because they will nickel and dime you to death since they cost big money but don't offer very big horsepower.

[esandes]

That's good to hear about the EEC!

About the heads...there was a post before where a SVO pair was up against a 99+ PI heads/intake pair and the SVO pair killed it (20+ extra HP on a boosted engine). I know it's probably not worth the extra price but I don't want to bottleneck my engine in case I want to bolt on a supercharger.

I live in Canada and I got the best deal possible for the SVO parts from an honest mustang shop-thats actually the name of the place "Mustang Shop" (Calgary, Alberta). Anyways, it's very hard to find someone like Shannon around here. I'm keeping my ears open for a good engine builder in Alberta.

Cheers

[Hammer]

That was my post...

Please be aware that this was using STOCK PI heads....
With a little porting, the #s might have been a bit different.

The other issue will be the compression with the PI heads as opposed to the SVO...

Don't get me wrong, the SVOs are GREAT, especially since they are basically throw 'em on... no muss, no fuss, everything bolts in correctly sort of thing. But you PAY for it...

SD Wheeler,
What's your opinion on some PORTED PI heads, and what can we do about the compression\blower issue without breaking the bank?

[SD Wheeler]

The ported PI heads are more than a match for the SVO heads. Even if you port the SVO heads you can put a bigger exhaust valve into the PI heads. SVO engineers moved the intake valve away from the chamber wall to unshroud it. This severely limits the size of the exhaust valve. In fact, the SVO exhaust valve is the same size as the stock '96-98 valve. The PI heads will accept much larger valves. The ModMax oversize stainless steel valves along with some well executed porting will allow the PI heads to run over the SVO units.

Next you run into the problem of compression ratio. The PI heads (in stock form) will bump the compression of the '96-98 engines to 10.5:1. Not good for boost! With a few hours spent modifying the combustion chambers I can lower the compression ratio to a more boost-friendly 9.25:1 compression. If you do this mod and remain normally aspirated you will lose some of the added horsepower you would have gained but you will still have a very tough street engine on your hands. Better ports, better cams, larger exhaust valve.

In my honest opinion, the PI heads are a much better "bang for the buck" deal than the SVO heads. Also, the Bullitt intake can be had fully ported and ready to bolt on for $1500. The new pricing on the SVO Hi-Flow Intake from Ford is over $1600 and that doesn't include the installation kit.

For your car I would do the following:
Ported PI Headswap Kit
Headers (shorties are easy, longtubes make more power)
DTA Regrind cams or Crane regrind cams (the SHM cams suck......the stock PI cams feature more lift)
3.73 or 4.10 gears
Stock throttle body, MAF, injectors
Aftermarket H-Pipe with cats (H pipe works better for torque on these engines than the X pipe does)
Three chamber Flowmaster Delta Force mufflers (no 2700 rpm drone)

The SHM cams will kill low and mid range power and throttle response due to the large duration number on the intake side along with the wide centerline. You want cams with good lift numbers (.540-.550) with intake duration no larger than 222 degrees at .050" lift. Lobe seperation angle of 110 or 112 degrees.

The parts you listed will make OK power. They'll also cost you an arm, leg and one testicle. With the PI power combo I listed above you can run rampant over an SVO-equipped car for less than half the money. The headswap kit is $1500 (or $1300 without the intake) and the Bullitt kit is $1500. So, for less than the price of the SVO heads, fully equipped, you can have a complete top end package that will put you into the high 12's with good tires and driving. Plus, I can tailor it to work with a blower if you want to do that in the future. Add a blower to this combo and you're a mid-11 second player. You don't have to mortgage the house to go fast. You damn sure don't have to rely on FRPP or SHM. Let me know if I can answer any questions you may have.