First time Mustang owner learning to work on cars...what should I do?

[CarsonsFarm]

Hey guys. New guy here. I'm a late-blooming car guy who just traded in his '10 Prius for a Mustang GT (2017 premium). It's my first time owning a Mustang, and I want to learn to work on it at home. I just completed my first upgrade (a Roush Cold Air Intake and BAMA tune).

What do I do next? Looking for something relatively cheap ($1K or under?) that is the best bang for buck and someone who's just getting into this stuff can pull off alone. I don't have a lot of tools at the moment but am looking into jack stands and trying to figure out the basics I need.

Thanks y'all and apologies if this has been asked 1,000 times here.

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[illadvised]

Imo I would get ramps also or possibly first. Some things you will need jacks and jack stands for, but most things can be done with ramps and they are so much nicer and easier.

Personally I would have went with an entirely different tuning company than BAMA, most will tell you the same. If you are talking about horsepower mods, I'd go with a gen3 intake manifold next, or an e85 tune (or both to save money on a third tune). Both of these will require a new tune and you should swap from BAMA.

Non horsepower mods are always good. Tires, suspension etc etc.

Buy some tools if you are working on your own car. A good socket set, deep sockets and an impact?

 

[07S281E]

Tint, Hood Struts, Jack rails, Gorilla Lugs, H pipe. The list goes on and on...

 

[cerbomark]

just a suggestion if you want experience, learn to do all the service items before going into the mod world. Fluids, brakes, filters. That will help you in the long run IMO.
Welcome, good luck. Lots of knowledge here.

 

[CarsonsFarm]

Appreciate the advice and good to know about BAMA. Are they notorious for any reason or just not good? I'd like to do an intake manifold. I saw the Performance Pack 3 brings up the high-end power which is appealing, as my thought was to potentially make this my track car at some point down the road.

I was looking at getting some new tires. I currently have Cooper ZEON RS3s (265/35) that are fairly new. They're not bad / middle of the road from what I can tell by review. Is there a great all-weather or summer tire you'd recommend? I live in Houston and things don't get frosty often around here.

Thanks again for the help

 

[CarsonsFarm]

just a suggestion if you want experience, learn to do all the service items before going into the mod world. Fluids, brakes, filters. That will help you in the long run IMO.
Welcome, good luck. Lots of knowledge here.

That's great advice, actually. I may be getting ahead of myself haha

 

[KingKona]

Buy all the tools and accessories to change the oil.

Ramps, jacks, jack stands, and gigantic oil pan, big cardboard pieces, etc., etc.

You need to learn how to safely jack a car up, and make it super, 2000% safe.

You should also be replacing all the fluids on the car; trans, diff, brakes, and blinkers.

 

[twbthird]

Suggest an oil separator. There is debate if this is really needed on a normally aspirated car, but the JLT I put on the passenger side of my '17 GT pulls about ~3 oz. of oil per oil change. It's not much, but I would rather not have that oil go through the intake tract. The JLT separator simply replaces the passenger side PCV hose, it is a no-tools, 5-minute install.

Also, I prefer the engine sound after blocking off or removing the sound tube that runs from the intake to the firewall.

 

[AZlb5.0]

Buy all the tools and accessories to change the oil.

Ramps, jacks, jack stands, and gigantic oil pan, big cardboard pieces, etc., etc.

You need to learn how to safely jack a car up, and make it super, 2000% safe.

You should also be replacing all the fluids on the car; trans, diff, brakes, and blinkers.

 

[illadvised]

Appreciate the advice and good to know about BAMA. Are they notorious for any reason or just not good? I'd like to do an intake manifold. I saw the Performance Pack 3 brings up the high-end power which is appealing, as my thought was to potentially make this my track car at some point down the road.

I always think of BAMA as "babies first" tuning company lol. Not that great but usually safe. They do not tune for strange or abnormal setups and not as much 'performance' as the companies people here usually recommend (I don't even think they can tune for a blower). Might as well go with a tuning company that you could stick with throughout your whole car ownership, regardless of if you are going supercharged or turbos, or just stock car on e85 or something abnormal like an f150 manifold. Switching tuning companies halfway through can be avoided

Are you doing ALL of the car work yourself? What is the milage of your car? How much are you comfortable doing yourself? There are a lot of things you could theoretically do to your car for cheap right now involving maintenance.

The performance pack 3 thing is nice, but depending on your ultimate car goals, it might not be a good idea. The manifold is good, but a gen3 GT manifold is pretty comparable for a whole lot cheaper, you already have a cold air intake. Also if you go with a PD supercharger you wont even be able to use an intake manifold. As for throttle body, I wouldn't even worry about it

 

[StangTime]

Your first mod should be a set of jacking rails. I have the Steeda ones. Makes jacking up the car much easier and less stressful for the pinch welds. I like to throw a hockey puck on top of the jacking pad to prevent marring the jacking rail. I also use pucks on the jacks too.
Here's a service manual for the 2016 Mustang (wiring diagrams are scans, so text is not searchable). Basically unchanged for 2017. That should help you out: 2016 Mustang Service Manual

 

[CarsonsFarm]

Buy all the tools and accessories to change the oil.

Ramps, jacks, jack stands, and gigantic oil pan, big cardboard pieces, etc., etc.

You need to learn how to safely jack a car up, and make it super, 2000% safe.

You should also be replacing all the fluids on the car; trans, diff, brakes, and blinkers.

Thanks, definitely will do this. I learned today my nextdoor neighbor (just moved into a new place) is a mechanical engineer who loves cars. Think I'll ask him for pointers on safely jacking up the car.

 

[CarsonsFarm]

Suggest an oil separator. There is debate if this is really needed on a normally aspirated car, but the JLT I put on the passenger side of my '17 GT pulls about ~3 oz. of oil per oil change. It's not much, but I would rather not have that oil go through the intake tract. The JLT separator simply replaces the passenger side PCV hose, it is a no-tools, 5-minute install.

Also, I prefer the engine sound after blocking off or removing the sound tube that runs from the intake to the firewall.

This sounds very sensible and easy. It's going on the list!

Also, I did rip out the sound tube by accident while installing the new intake. Turned out to be a happy mistake haha.

 

[CarsonsFarm]

I always think of BAMA as "babies first" tuning company lol. Not that great but usually safe. They do not tune for strange or abnormal setups and not as much 'performance' as the companies people here usually recommend (I don't even think they can tune for a blower). Might as well go with a tuning company that you could stick with throughout your whole car ownership, regardless of if you are going supercharged or turbos, or just stock car on e85 or something abnormal like an f150 manifold. Switching tuning companies halfway through can be avoided

Are you doing ALL of the car work yourself? What is the milage of your car? How much are you comfortable doing yourself? There are a lot of things you could theoretically do to your car for cheap right now involving maintenance.

The performance pack 3 thing is nice, but depending on your ultimate car goals, it might not be a good idea. The manifold is good, but a gen3 GT manifold is pretty comparable for a whole lot cheaper, you already have a cold air intake. Also if you go with a PD supercharger you wont even be able to use an intake manifold. As for throttle body, I wouldn't even worry about it

Welp, guess I proved "Babies first tuner" thing right. There's a tuning shop here I plan to take it to get dyno'd eventually so I can get some better results, just have kind of been reticent about walking into a tuning shop this early into ownership.

As for doing all the work, I just found out today that my new neighbor is a mechanical engineer who's into cars and is planning a K-Swap. His wife says he has a shit ton of tools so it sounds like I might not be totally alone in the dark here if I need help.

The car has 75,000 miles. My goal is to eventually track it. For now, I'm shooting for as much performance as makes sense for a daily driver. Ideally something my wife would still theoretically agree to ride with me in and would not get shaken to pieces or turned deaf haha.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

Get a jack and jack stands, jacking rails. If it was me I would do the FP track suspension kit. It’s not as hard as it looks to install and is a great improvement to the car.

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