I want to make my convertible go 14s
 

I have a BONE stock 1990 LX 5.0 5spd. I can get 15.2s all day long with my cheap rubber. From what I understand the magic number is 13.99 before you need a role cage. I don't want a role cage in my convertible. You may say why even bother than. Well My Uncle has a 1968 Pontiac Lemans with a 350 He is barely breaking into the high 15.s and it really bugs him that my mustang is faster. I know over the winter he is gonna modify his engine so I want to be able to continue to beat him. He had a 68 GTO that would go 14.3 till the cows came home. I love that I'm faster now. I don't want to do things like gears, nitrous, tires or underdrive pulleys. My mustang sees some highway miles and It has a stereo system. I want to do things that will add more power.
For sure I want subframe connectors and a shifter otherwise all the power will be lost. I would like opinoins on which are best. I'm in college so I'm on a limited budget. I'm hopeing not to spend more than $1000.
Thanks for your time.

I don't know why you don't want to get a set of gears they are a good mod. A set of 3.73's will wake your car up big time and will do little to your MPG. A cat back exhaust system would help out a little and make your car sound good at the same time. Take out the air silincer and do the K&n filter thing. Last but not least you can bump the timing to 15. With the above mods you should go mid to upper 14's and stay under your budget.

What is the difference in the different gears?
I noticed someone else here saying he put low gears on. This was followed up by a comment of how slow it would be.

I take it the higher gears are for acceleration?
Lower gears are for top speed?

You pretty have the concept. A set of 4.10's (like Belle's) make the engine labor around 3,500 rpms to go 75mph on the highway. I have the stock crappy 2.7X's (whatever they are) and I am pulling maybe 2,400 at that speed. However, she just walks away from me off the line....could be the 306, HUGE cam, intake, etc..... but the gears certainly help her out.

It's a trade off. A set of 3.73's are still quite hwy capable and provide a lot of acceleration off the line.

some ideas to get a 14.9 or better!!
 

-use the 1.7 roller rockers (best bolt on when I still had stock heads) they are less than 180 dollars new from summit
-get 3.55's, I have seen better 60 ft's over 3.73's
-get anal with weight in car, lose spare tire, passenger seat, etc
-throw your timing to 13-15 advanced with 92 octane
-launch the car a lil higher in rpm and ride the clutch if necessary
-you may not like this but powershift from 2nd to 3rd to 4th..it will help.
-a aftermarket mass air meter will add 10-15 horsepower also depending on what air inlet set up you have.

in my 92 hatch last year...it went 14.6@99mph..with AOD, full length headers, 1.7 roller rockers and 3.55's and that was all it had on the stock motor...and off road pipe off course.

I ran 14.6 @ 97 in a 89GT drop top five speed with o/r h pipe, flowmasters, and a shifter. I had some cheapo BFG truck tires on it at the time so it wasn't hooking for anything. With some 1.7 rockers, headers, and gears 13's could've probably been possible. Like someone else said ride the clutch off the line and hold the rpms at like 3k keeping the tires tires just barely spinning. Powershifting helps out too. Good luck.

RYAN

14's are waiting for you
 

ziggy:

For under $1,000. you only have a few options, two really.

You can try to find a set of iron GT-40 heads cheap, port them and install new rockers, springs, etc. and then add used Explorer intakes and maybe a set of headers. This would wake up your 5.0 big-time and add another 30 HP or so as the stock heads and intake are fairly restrictive. You can do this for under $1,00 but that assumes you do most of the labor. If a shop does it, add many hundreds to the price.

The other option is to get lower (higher numerically) rear gears. 3.55's work great for a daily driver; I have them on my near-stock '90 LX hatchback and love them. You'll be down in the 14's with those, once you learn how to launch and shift within the new parameters the gears offer. Total cost with professional installation is around $400.

I never understood the fear and loathing so many Mustang owners have about installing lower gears. Everyone sems to expect that a lower rear gearset is somehow going to propel them into 4,000 RPM @ 65 mph jaunts to work - and that's totally bogus.

I went from 1800 RPM @ 65 mph (in 5th) to 2150 @ 65 mph with the 3.55's. Hardly a big difference. My off-line punch improved noticably and all-around performance improved, too.

You could do the gear swap alone and probably beat your uncle but you would still have enough left for other mods, like a bigger Mass Air meter, exhaust (headers) and/or a shifter.

Think about it.

I would agree with the aforementioned except for the gears. I have the 3.73's and lovem. It tears out of the hole and when on the highway, you can still cruise at 75 at low RPM's only a couple hundred more than stock. I kill my buddys 98 Z till 3rd gear because of my gears. I added nitrous a short time ago to kick his rear in the end as well!! My best run with my gears and pullys and full exhaust was 14.2 at 98 i think. That is with stock tires and spinning 2nd gear. I think gears are the biggest bang for the buck! Good luck!