Thread: Where to begin?

Well I juts bought a 1998 GTX and I know for sure it has a intake on it, looks like the SLP box kit or somthing like that. I think it came with an SLP catback as well. I was looking to add smome future mods to the car and was looking for advise. Th ebest bang for the buck mods. I assume a downpipe and pcm, but agaim I am not really sure. Thanks for the help..

What does plog mean? I see there is all different types of DP to get and I was wondering what the best one is. Is the 3.4 pulley safe to run? I see a bunch of controversy about running smaller pulleys. O yeah what type of numbers do these cars put down with these types of mods. I am just curios; I am not sure what these cars actually put down to begin with either. Thanks again..

I wouldnt run a 3.4 if all i had was a cat back,p-log and a cold air intake. FWIW a guy I know with full headers(comes with 3'' down pipe),cat back,cold air intake,aftermarket catback was getting 6* of kr untuned. Yeah every car is different, some very different...but in general i dont know anyone that will agree to only running a p-log catback and a cold air intake. It's a stupid idea. just my .02. get a scan gauge or a tuner to keep an eye on things before you start modding. Thats what i did.

my gtp with 108000 miles on it a 2.5 downpipe,p-log,fenderwell intake put down 14.6 with a 2.1 60'. I also had an hptuner and had done a maf tune on the car and adjusted the torque management in the pcm along with transmission shift points. this was also done with a stock 3.8 pulley

im running a 3.4 on my SS m90 kit, no intercooler, my car is fine. pick up the powerlog from zzp as well as a 3 inch Downpipe, you can also get a nice ported rear manifold. dont bother wasting money on pacesetters. get a nice set of rockers to help it breathe and drop a pulley. with a new pcm and proper tune you should have no problem running a 3.4 with bolt ons

Originally Posted by QwikGT

im running a 3.4 on my SS m90 kit, no intercooler, my car is fine. pick up the powerlog from zzp as well as a 3 inch Downpipe, you can also get a nice ported rear manifold. dont bother wasting money on pacesetters. get a nice set of rockers to help it breathe and drop a pulley. with a new pcm and proper tune you should have no problem running a 3.4 with bolt ons

First of all, you say your car is fine.do you have a scan gauge to monitor kr or anything? While that may be fine for your car it may not be fine for others. What other mods do you have besides a 3.4 and the ss kit? And why do you say 3'' dp instead of a 2.5'' (the same size as the rest of the exhaust)?. All a 3'' down pipe is going to do is make a whole lot of back pressere where the exhaust reduces to 2.5'', wich is at the catback.If your going to buy exhaust parts make them the same size.I agree that there are much better header systems out there than pacesetters. I made that mistake already lol. You say with a pcm and proper tune you should be fine, well both of those things cannot come from an aftermarket pcm...not even overkill. get a tuner if you plan on modding and the all of the tuners available come with a scanner built in...so instead of getting a 250 scan gauge and a 300 dollar pcm ( the better ones from overkill cost this much) just get a 500 dollar tuner and be set. I like to have a different .bin file already tuned for every 10* that the ambient tempeture changes. 10* outside car throw off your trims and cause kr. most aftermarket pcm's all add fuel to get rid of kr...does it work? sure. is it the right way to tune? not by a long shot.

In reality you cant even get the car properly tuned without having the car present to tune. The ONLY way i would even think of recomending an aftermarket pcm would be if you know Exactly what you want to do to your car and will never change anything...not even a cold air intake...nothing...wich we all know is verry uncommon that this happens.

We all want to go fast and then we want to go faster. wich means changing out parts...just like i did and will probably continue to do. im in the mid to high 12's now with a lot of room for improvment as far as my tune goes. am i satisfied yet? I am very close. But....I have spent a lot of money changing out parts in order to get where im at.

I'll give you some advice. Figure out where you want to be 1/4 mile wise. Then figure out what you need. you will save yourself a lot of money this way.

ill give the modlist then:
m90 kit, 3.4, rockers, plog, ported rear, 2.5 catless dp stage 2 TB for L36, catback, dyno tuned pcm. i bought a tuner back when and tried to tune the car myself. it made 100whp, i brought it to Tune Time Performance in jersey and Matt got me 200whp, this is when i was N/A. in a matter of 10 mins, he scanned my file and whatnot and told me i did everything wrong. i let him tune the car on the dyno he got me my numbers. i have an aeroforce but for what the car goes on the dyno, gets tuned for its mods and thats it. i dont change anything so the scan guage is useless to me. i didnt mean to ruffle your feathers. i was gunna have her tuned tomorrow but i didnt plan on hitting that explorer on thursday so in the coming weeks ill have new numbers for everyone.

Arent the n/a's suppose to be rated at 200 stock? tuning takes time. I for sure did not learn over night. I still done know it all by far. But i know enough and im still learning. Im not mad it's just when i started modding people gave me the advice that i could run xx pulley with xx mods...my first mod was a tuner.and after i got it and did a lot of reaserch i realized that they were wrong and im glad i used my own judgement. I mean really i cant say what you can run saftly...no one can...because of the fact that every car is different. perfect example...that guy i know that was getting 6* of kr. basicly had the same stuff as you minus the rockers. and rockers arent going to take away 6* of kr. but your car is fine. Weather ect.....so many different factors it's not even funny.....good luck on thhe tuning and be sure to let us all know how it goes.

dang, So the PCM upgrade is not good enough for the pulley huh? Can I just run some torco and call it a day? I used to add that in the cobra and good run more timing safely. Better fuel 97 octnae or so. thanks

Originally Posted by PhilsGTX

dang, So the PCM upgrade is not good enough for the pulley huh? Can I just run some torco and call it a day? I used to add that in the cobra and good run more timing safely. Better fuel 97 octnae or so. thanks

ehh...Again i cant really say for sure. Nobody can really. invest in a scan gauge or tuner brfore you start to mod so you dont blow anything up. If you do decide to go with an aftermarket pcm go with an overkill for sure...there much better than dhp and zzp's pcm's.

Okay, I understang completelly now. I was under the impression that the PCM(Tune) would take care of the detonation. What is the point of getting a PCM if it is not going to be any good (waste of money, from what I get). I figure if you get a PCM it should be tuned for the mods you have. Why waste the money if it isnt going to help. I understand about the scanner tool, it would be a safe bet.

the pcm helps support the mods you have, but some things take more than just tuning can take care of, if you just put mods on with no tune, you also won't have a full gain, everything is a system

Yeah, even though many people run the zzp pcm and dhp pcm It is far from the best thing. Now you have to take into consideration that i have a tuner and my opinion may be a little biased lol. I guess look at it like this. If you are going to mod your car and know what you want and probably wont change it after you do so. then you may want to look into an overkill pcm (the better one). they are more expensive around 300 i think. but can be reprogrammed for a small fee if you do change your mods. But I look at it his way. you can get the hp tuner for 500 and it use it an unlimited amount of times on your car plus it comes with a scanner (no need for a scan gauge). so it is cheaper to go with the hp tuner.I know i made the right choice but that doesent mean it's right for you. you just have to figure out what you want to do with the car and how far you want to go into modding it.

Well, I am defiantly not going to go overboard with it. It is my daily driver and I just want to be able to beat some honders when they get froggy and maybe a few others. I really wasn’t planning to do much more than the plog, DP and smaller pulley. Then I was going to go with a tune of some sort. I definitely don’t want to sink tons of cash into it because it is just a DD. I want the car to be in the 14 second range. Im not exactly sure what I need for all of that.. Mod wise..... Hoe many lbs of boost do these things rin stock and with the smaller pulleys....

Originally Posted by PhilsGTX

Well, I am defiantly not going to go overboard with it. It is my daily driver and I just want to be able to beat some honders when they get froggy and maybe a few others. I really wasn’t planning to do much more than the plog, DP and smaller pulley. Then I was going to go with a tune of some sort. I definitely don’t want to sink tons of cash into it because it is just a DD. I want the car to be in the 14 second range. Im not exactly sure what I need for all of that.. Mod wise..... Hoe many lbs of boost do these things rin stock and with the smaller pulleys....

My car is a daily driver also lol...ok i'll stop...stock boost is around 8 psi and a typical rule is for every .1 pulley drop the psi increases by 1. Stock pulley size is 3.8, im running a 2.8. stock short block with supporting mods. FWIW I ran a 14.6 with a p-log, Fenderwell intake and a 2.5'' down pipe. Plenty enough to beat some hondas. and keep up with most of the mustangs.

Originally Posted by TDCRacing

My car is a daily driver also lol...ok i'll stop...stock boost is around 8 psi and a typical rule is for every .1 pulley drop the psi increases by 1. Stock pulley size is 3.8, im running a 2.8. stock short block with supporting mods. FWIW I ran a 14.6 with a p-log, Fenderwell intake and a 2.5'' down pipe. Plenty enough to beat some hondas. and keep up with most of the mustangs.

The most boost ive seen is 7 psi on a stock pulley. Most Honda's around here are all show..no go (have been proved wrong) havent ran a GT yet (want to).

Well I am used to driving 600+hp cobras, I guess I am just wanting to make this thing faster.

Originally Posted by PhilsGTX

Well I am used to driving 600+hp cobras.

Me and you could get along just fine lol. I got a 95 gt track car im working on right now. It's got a little while before it's done but when it is it will have a 351w based block stroked out to at least a 408 along with a c-4 with a trans brake. Going to build the motor for mid to high 10's