Beginner Advice

[Neigh]

I have a 2017 mustang GT manual, my first performance car, whatever you’d like to call it. Certainly never driven any rear wheel drive car with this much torque. I’ve had it for about 3.5 years, stock, aside from air filter, exhaust, suspension, and tires. Only other mods are cosmetic. It has 52k on it currently. I am almost finished school and now have a garage to keep it, along with the money finally to do something fun to it.

Ideally I’d like to slap a Paxton on it, or TT. At 52k, is it still okay to just throw power at it? Are there any supporting parts or replacement parts I should be replacing before if go this route? Just looking for a starting point and some general advice for a newbie. Thanks

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[RTR077]

Your car looks great man.

Personally my advice would be not to go the FI route. Keep enjoying your car and save some cash

 

[Johnny Rockit]

Sweet ride.

 

[Balr14]

Turbos with a manual transmission tend to be an annoyance, as they lose boost with every shift. A Paxton would probably be a more enjoyable choice, although not as much peak horsepower as turbos. Depending on how much you beat on it, your clutch and axles will definitely need upgrades. If you keep the boost low (5 psi), you should be OK with a stock engine.

If you are thinking of 700hp or more, you may want to rethink things, because that will start costing a lot. You may want to buy a better car that doesn't need the upgrades. It's cheaper in the long run.

 

[ice445]

Upgrading to FI properly is going to be about $8-10K. A lot of guys are liking the ESS G2 and G3 kits, which are a little less expensive. But you're going to need fuel system and other miscellaneous upgrades to hold the power regardless.

But yes, you can just go ahead and do it. Just keep in mind that you'll need to be responsible, these cars go from quick to genuinely fast when you slap some boost in them.

 

[Twall]

Since I have the exact same car I recommend starting off with full bolt ons and e85 tune and flex tune. 440-450 wheel horsepower and 400 lb ft of Tq is plenty. On good tires you can move. And it’s reliable. I’m at almost 100,000 miles no issues.

 

[xSouthSyde]

Since I have the exact same car I recommend starting off with full bolt ons and e85 tune and flex tune. 440-450 wheel horsepower and 400 lb ft of Tq is plenty. On good tires you can move. And it’s reliable. I’m at almost 100,000 miles no issues.

Yep I agree, it’s cool to have high HP numbers but it’s so difficult to put power to the ground unless you are roll racing and willing to go into “go to jail” speeds (which I’m too old for that ).

 

[rolfe.oliver]

I have a 2017 mustang GT manual, my first performance car, whatever you’d like to call it. Certainly never driven any rear wheel drive car with this much torque. I’ve had it for about 3.5 years, stock, aside from air filter, exhaust, suspension, and tires. Only other mods are cosmetic. It has 52k on it currently. I am almost finished school and now have a garage to keep it, along with the money finally to do something fun to it.

Ideally I’d like to slap a Paxton on it, or TT. At 52k, is it still okay to just throw power at it? Are there any supporting parts or replacement parts I should be replacing before if go this route? Just looking for a starting point and some general advice for a newbie. Thanks

How do you like to drive? Do you plan on racing, or do you just want something with more power around town?

In my opinion, the best street blower for 90% of folks with gen 2 mustangs is the roush 2.3L supercharger. With the Phase 2 kit, you can make damn near 650whp and be absolutely chilling on the motor. Your will have usable torque and power and it will remain very low maintenance.

If you want to go Paxton, I would recommend ESS instead. The ESS G3X seems to be the hottest centrifigual supercharger right now and for good reason. Around 10 psi on 93 octane you can make right around 650-680whp. You won't have torque, but that may not be an issue for you.

Turbos can be inherently more troublesome for maintenance. If this is your only car and your daily, I would stick to superchargers. If you do go with turbos, a hellion sleeper kit will set you up for a lot of growth, but as others say, it can be cumbersome on the street due to always falling out of boost.

Either way, just know that 10-psi of any forced induction will be your limit on 93 octane. If you want to go to E85, you can get any 1000cc injector (Injector Dynamics, FIC, DW), a return style fuel system (I prefer Fore), and party.

52k miles ain't no big deal with reasonable power

 

[KingKona]

Dunno....how much money are mommy and daddy going to give you?

 

[robvas]

Turbo will make more power but it will cost more and be more complicated. Either on e85 will be plenty of power.

52k is no big deal. Plenty of boosted cars running around with more miles than that.

 

[FUN2RIDEFAST]

I have a 2017 mustang GT manual, my first performance car, whatever you’d like to call it. Certainly never driven any rear wheel drive car with this much torque. I’ve had it for about 3.5 years, stock, aside from air filter, exhaust, suspension, and tires. Only other mods are cosmetic. It has 52k on it currently. I am almost finished school and now have a garage to keep it, along with the money finally to do something fun to it.

Ideally I’d like to slap a Paxton on it, or TT. At 52k, is it still okay to just throw power at it? Are there any supporting parts or replacement parts I should be replacing before if go this route? Just looking for a starting point and some general advice for a newbie. Thanks

I've also got a 2017 PP manual. At 37,000 miles I had a Roush Phase 2 installed. It's a daily driver and brings a smile to my face every time I drive it. Do what makes you happy. If you plan to keep the car go for it but if not it's a bad investment. BTW, I'm 78 years old. Your car looks great.

 

[daSNAK3]

If you are fine with staying on low boost, get a ESS G2 kit w/ an upgraded fuel pump or BAP.. nice and cheap, you may want to think about OPG, but other than that, I think you'll be fine.

 

[Zrussian13]

I boosted my 19 manual with a hellion kit at 48k with no other supporting mods. I'm at 96k miles now and still kicking. I have done meth, clutch, shocks, irs braces and tires since installing it. If your engine is healthy knock yourself out and have some fun!

 

[Twall]

How do you like to drive? Do you plan on racing, or do you just want something with more power around town?

In my opinion, the best street blower for 90% of folks with gen 2 mustangs is the roush 2.3L supercharger. With the Phase 2 kit, you can make damn near 650whp and be absolutely chilling on the motor. Your will have usable torque and power and it will remain very low maintenance.

If you want to go Paxton, I would recommend ESS instead. The ESS G3X seems to be the hottest centrifigual supercharger right now and for good reason. Around 10 psi on 93 octane you can make right around 650-680whp. You won't have torque, but that may not be an issue for you.

Turbos can be inherently more troublesome for maintenance. If this is your only car and your daily, I would stick to superchargers. If you do go with turbos, a hellion sleeper kit will set you up for a lot of growth, but as others say, it can be cumbersome on the street due to always falling out of boost.

Either way, just know that 10-psi of any forced induction will be your limit on 93 octane. If you want to go to E85, you can get any 1000cc injector (Injector Dynamics, FIC, DW), a return style fuel system (I prefer Fore), and party.

52k miles ain't no big deal with reasonable power

I agree. From what I learned a TVS is the way to go for street setup for reliability and fun. I’m wanting to get into aurocross and road racing one day, so I want an all out N/A build.

 

[WERA49]

I am almost finished school and now have a garage to keep it, along with the money finally to do something fun to it.

Just looking for a starting point and some general advice for a newbie. Thanks

Sir, welcome to the forum. You have a nice car. Congratulations on almost finishing school.

For mods, superchargers are street friendly but not as easy to tune as turbos. However, superchargers on the street are usually "set and forget" because they don't require much tuning after the car is sorted. My car has a Roush Stage 1 kit and makes 700 HP. It is perfectly reliable. Anyone can drive the car without worrying about the car, as long as the keep there foot off of the floor. The first 1/2 throttle is fun and will have you passing a lot of cars. The second 1/2 throttle is different and requires driving skills.

CJ Pony Parts, on YouTube, has a great installation video. Watch this carefully to determine if you want to tackle a project this big.

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