Upgrade advice for a beginner (HELP)
 

I have an 89 LX 5.0 5-Speed. It has a F-cam, Flowtech headers, Flowtech off-road H-pipe, Mac after cat exhaust, Lakewood 50/50 shocks, Mac fenderwell kit, A/C eliminator pulley and underdrive pulleys. I have some 3.73 gears waiting to be installed. This is the way that I purchased the car. I was wondering which direction I should go from here. I was thinking either a cobra intake or C&L mass air meter. If I use the Cobra intake can I use just the upper? Does that make any sense to just use the upper? I am looking to do the work myself and am not sure if I can change the lower. I wasn't really wanting to get into changing heads or anything. Also, do my upgrades warrant larger injectors? Is an adjustable fuel pressure regulator worth it with my setup?

Thanks in advance!

First off, that cam is hurting you more than helping. The stock cam is actually a great cam for stock and near-stock engines. About the cobra intake, you cannot bolt a cobra upper onto a stock lower, even if you could, it would do nothing. In my opinion, get an h-pipe and some headers, and take out that f-cam. I would look for a cobra or explorer intake, and port the exhaust side of your e7s.

check out www.neweraperformanceparts.com , great prices on lots of parts for mustangs.

hey notch johnson, how do you like your prochamber on your car? I was thinking about ordering one but i have never heard a car around here with one on there.

FYI
 

you do not have to worry about messing with the heads when changing an intake, upper or lower. There is a RTV seal you need to reseal, but the heads are already bolted up to the block. You do have to take the fuel lines off to get the lower off though. If you need help during the installation, PM me, or someone you've noticed is knowledgable, (I'm not very knowledgable unless I've actually done the work myself). take care, welcome to the boards, Keith

Project, yeah I do like the sound of the prochamber. I have heard that it is slightly quieter than the h-pipe, but I dont mind.

1Bad89lx, sorry if it seemd as though I said the heads need to come off to change the lower, they dont. Dont sell yoiurself short by thinking you cant do the lower yourself. It is really pretty easy. Alot of stuff needs to be disconnected, but its a no briner when it comes to putting it back on. Dont get discouraged when you see the fuel rails, injector harnesses, and injectors. The injectors pop right out, and I didn not even have to disconnect the fuel lines, i just moved the whole fuel rail/injector assembly in one piece, and carefully placed it in front of the engine to get it out of the way. Also, dont worry about changing heads either, they too are no biggie.

Oh I forgot to mention that you wont need to upgrade your injectors with light mods, they handle up to around 300hp I believe. I also didnt see that you already have headers/h-pipe, so scratch that. - John

you might have not stock heads since you are sort of new to this, make sure they are e7's, if so, some porting would help ALOT, or just buy some cheap gt-40's like i did, the cam would work with the airflow and probaly be the best thing you could do for that car, even with stock intake, the cobra intake wont gain anything near what heads, or head work would do.

Thank you for your input. As far as the heads are concerened, is there an easy way to tell if they are stock or not? Coupe50h had mentioned the number E7's?

Also, how long should it take to replace the upper and lower intake? Would you recomend it for a beginner?

Thanks once again.

As long as you have basic mecanic knowledge, and have some tools, it will take about a weekend for a beginer. Just stare at the upper and say"what is in my way." Then just move it. If you get real unsure about the ECM harness, take some masking tape and mark numbers on each peice you remove and left in place. That way when you put it together, you just match up the numbers. My .04$, get an intake(any is better than stock) and try to find it used. Ebay is a great place to look. Get a C&L 76 Mass Air with flowtube(Also on ebay) and a shift lite. The shift lite is great because you will be consistant in you shifts and it is dead simple to hook up. Oh yeah, a shifter too.

Intake - around 350$
C&L76 - under 200$
MSD Shift Lite - around 120 after getting shift pills
Shifter - around 150$

Good Luck, and just remember, its all downhill from here on your bank account:cool:

I have to go look at my e7's heads, i think they have a #13 on them, but not sure yet.
When i removed the upper, i thought it was alot of vaccuum lines and stuff in the way, but after doing once, i can do it quick! now the lower, you will have to pull the distributor, try and mark it's position, it sometimes takes a minute to get the dist gear to fall in place, (i've never done this) but I read my haynes manual all the time, you need to get one, and also a torque wrench, would be good to have.