It May Be Time To Start Modding

[Chief_Cleef]

So, first post. Hi, I'm Nick. I love mustangs.

I have a stock manual 2015 GT Premium. I've had it since 2017, when I bought it with 24k miles and just recently I passed the 50k mark. I traded in my 2016 GT350 for my current car to ditch the car payment.

My father-in-law's new dual motor Model Y makes my car feel slow. Too slow.

but at this point, I think I've realized that instead of trading it in for a new car payment I would rather start pouring some mods into it. I've been thinking about doing the simple things for years like CAI and a tune, but never pulled the trigger. The idea of a supercharged mustang has always been a dream of mine and Whipple has my interest. I've been reading up on the pros and cons of the different kits, but coming from the GT350 I think it would also be pretty fun to take my time with it and go "full bolt on" before going straight to the supercharged route. There is something uniquely fun getting the 5.2 over 7k rpm's. I'd like to know what it would take to get the redline to 7800+ in the GT.

I've seen plenty of threads talking about the cost vs power of the N/A route vs FI and haven't found much about the people who did both. I'm mechanically interested, but have no real hands on experience outside of installing an exhaust kit on my first mustang (back in 2012, '04 6 cylinder). Is this something that people even do?

My goals with the build are still very vague and more focused on trying to do it "right" as opposed to aiming for a horsepower number, so I'm really looking for people's personal experience and input on their early s550 shoulda/coulda/woulda's.

I like the idea of doing both, but don't know what considerations should go into it. What do you think?



Just some thoughts I'm going to add after the post:

- Is weight reduction something worth looking into? Really don't need a back seat, sounds unique. What about exhaust or resonator deletes?

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[Robert3487]

So, first post. Hi, I'm Nick. I love mustangs.

I have a stock manual 2015 GT Premium. I've had it since 2017, when I bought it with 24k miles and just recently I passed the 50k mark. I traded in my 2016 GT350 for my current car to ditch the car payment.

At this point, I think I've realized that instead of trading it in for a new car payment I would rather start pouring some TLC into it. I've been thinking about doing the simple things for years like CAI and a tune, but never pulled the trigger. The idea of a supercharged mustang has always been a dream of mine and Whipple has my interest. I've been reading up on the pros and cons of the different kits, but coming from the GT350 I think it would also be pretty fun to take my time with it and go "full bolt on" before going straight to the supercharged route. There is something uniquely fun getting the 5.2 over 7k rpm's. I'd like to know what it would take to get the redline to 7800+ in the GT.

I've seen plenty of threads talking about the cost vs power of the N/A route vs FI and haven't found much about the people who did both. I'm mechanically interested, but have no real hands on experience outside of installing an exhaust kit on my first mustang (back in 2012, '04 6 cylinder). Is this something that people even do?

My goals with the build are still very vague and more focused on trying to do it "right" as opposed to aiming for a horsepower number, so I'm really looking for people's personal experience and input on their early s550 shoulda/coulda/woulda's.

I like the idea of doing both, but don't know what considerations should go into it. What do you think?

As someone that is/was full bolt on I'm going to go ahead and say if you are sure you plan on going with an FI setup just keep the car as is and buy the FI kit. Then from there you can decide if you want to get crazy and start throwing more parts on top of the supercharger/Turbo(s). With a full bolt on car you will be able to take most of the cars that are going to try to mess with you but if you run into a Z06 or something similar then its going to give you some problems. Speaking from experience there lol, I did much better against a hellcat than a z06 but those dodge cars are tanks, super heavy. As long as you have really good tires that is enough to get the distance off the line to stay ahead of most other American v8's in the same category. I was already looking at weight reduction mods before I sold mine since there wasn't much else I could do. I was going to go with a CF driveshaft and deep stage drag baer brake setup front and back.

Even with all that it wasn't enough power for me, I still wanted more, I think I would be happy in the 7-800 horsepower range.

 

[Chief_Cleef]

As someone that is/was full bolt on I'm going to go ahead and say if you are sure you plan on going with an FI setup just keep the car as is and buy the FI kit. Then from there you can decide if you want to get crazy and start throwing more parts on top of the supercharger/Turbo(s). With a full bolt on car you will be able to take most of the cars that are going to try to mess with you but if you run into a Z06 or something similar then its going to give you some problems. Speaking from experience there lol, I did much better against a hellcat than a z06 but those dodge cars are tanks, super heavy. As long as you have really good tires that is enough to get the distance off the line to stay ahead of most other American v8's in the same category. I was already looking at weight reduction mods before I sold mine since there wasn't much else I could do. I was going to go with a CF driveshaft and deep stage drag baer brake setup front and back.

Even with all that it wasn't enough power for me, I still wanted more, I think I would be happy in the 7-800 horsepower range.

Thanks for the insight! If going FI off the bat is the right direction, then I don't know if the Whipple is a sure thing necessarily. I'm trying to figure out the main trade offs of the different gear ratios for them vs some of the twin turbo kits out there. I doubt I'd regret going with the supercharger, but I just don't know enough about the available turbo kits to know what I could be missing out on.

 

[Sigma6]

Just going to put out some friendly notion from the “other side of the aisle” based upon where you said (paraphrasing) …you’re build is a) still very vague b) more focused on trying to do it "right" as opposed c) not aiming for a horsepower number

If it were “I” id probably hold off and zone specifically into exactly what your aiming for.

Just note that anything you do really mod wise unless it’s FI probably aren’t going to get back when you trade /sell unless you demod and sell separately. Either way is funds which could be used towards upgrading platforms completely. For instance something cheap and something that’s reversible would be a “tune”.

Else… you cant go wrong though if you’re starting off small with a shift kit (mgw) if it’s a mt-82 or some adjustable shocks /struts and lowering springs.

Best wishes on you’re endeavors forth of what you decide to choose & do.

 

[Cordero1]

On my last car I went through all that. Intake, boss + intake, injectors, then bigger injectors, exhaust then a diff exhaust. Fun times but still a waste of $ & then went with blower. Wanted to go turbo, but the headers were such a pain that I didnt want to remove them again. Went whipple instead. Could of used that $ to put it twds that. If you just have a mod bug then start beefing up the suspension to handle that future power.

 

[glockholiday]

Had a 2017 GT premium that the previous owner had installed.

Kooks Stainless 1-7/8 primary long tube headers (no cats)
Resonator delete X pipe
Corsa axle back mufflers
GT350 intake manifold
Steeda CAI that requires a tune
Ford Performance 47# injectors
Palm Beach Dyno custom tunes for 91 octane, E85 and E54

All of that cost $5000-$6000 retail without install and it made a little over 500hp at the wheels. Adding the whipple kit to a stock car for a few thousand more will put you 600-700hp to the rear wheels.

Don't know if any of that helps.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Waste of time and money to do bolt ons for $$$$ and <100hp if you're going to go FI eventually. Once you odd up all the install time, money, the tune, hassle tuning it for full bolt ons, just to throw half of that stuff away or even more hassle trying to resell it. Just go FI and don't waste time taking the detour.

 

[Marketplaza]

Thanks for the insight! If going FI off the bat is the right direction, then I don't know if the Whipple is a sure thing necessarily. I'm trying to figure out the main trade offs of the different gear ratios for them vs some of the twin turbo kits out there. I doubt I'd regret going with the supercharger, but I just don't know enough about the available turbo kits to know what I could be missing out on.

You should get the best of both worlds and get a centri. I have 4.09 gears and I installed a vortech so-jt and it sounds just like a turbo and the power is amazing. It seems everyone goes the whipple route. It’s a awesome sc if you want to wait 8 months to get it just to be like everyone else. A centri with gears is a awesome combo. I ended up with 659 rwhp, if I want more I can get a fore fuel system and go e85 to get around 900. I’m happy where I’m at . But in a couple months I’ll probably want more. You can’t get enough hp.

 

[Chief_Cleef]

You should get the best of both worlds and get a centri. I have 4.09 gears and I installed a vortech so-jt and it sounds just like a turbo and the power is amazing. It seems everyone goes the whipple route. It’s a awesome sc if you want to wait 8 months to get it just to be like everyone else. A centri with gears is a awesome combo. I ended up with 659 rwhp, if I want more I can get a fore fuel system and go e85 to get around 900. I’m happy where I’m at . But in a couple months I’ll probably want more. You can’t get enough hp.

Is 8 months pretty standard right now for a whipple kit? I know they're popular, but I'm sure I share a dream car with a lot of people here being the '05/'06 Ford GT's. Paying and waiting for a whipple would feel right for that homage. In the mean time though, what should I add in prep?

• Oil pump gears
• Fuel injectors
• Brakes
• Wheels/ 305+ Tires

Pretty much a minimum viable prep?

Then just plan on 91/E85 tunes after the supercharger install?

 

[Sins550]

I wouldn't waste the money on bolt ons. Especially if you've already had a GT350. You'll be spending money just to get back to where you were with the GT350. If I were in your shoes I'd go straight to FI while figuring out exactly what you'd like to achieve out of your car so that you'd know what type and stage of FI best suites you.

 

[mangosmoothie]

exhaust depends on your goals. If you're trying to eek every last hp, then yes you want to do headers and true 3" cat back (3" connections all the way back, which you'd need headers for).

If this is just a fun street car, I'd send it stock until a cat melts (if it ever does), then evaluate what to do next. I spent a lot of money on headers and they gave me a couple hp but they're WAY louder than I expected, I had a fitment quirk to work through, and now I'm battling a CEL despite still having cats.

I WOULD do some handling stuff in the mean time like vertical links, subframe alignment pins/supports, etc. Any of it is better than nothing

 

[Chief_Cleef]

exhaust depends on your goals. If you're trying to eek every last hp, then yes you want to do headers and true 3" cat back (3" connections all the way back, which you'd need headers for).

If this is just a fun street car, I'd send it stock until a cat melts (if it ever does), then evaluate what to do next. I spent a lot of money on headers and they gave me a couple hp but they're WAY louder than I expected, I had a fitment quirk to work through, and now I'm battling a CEL despite still having cats.

I WOULD do some handling stuff in the mean time like vertical links, subframe alignment pins/supports, etc. Any of it is better than nothing

Sound is absolutely a factor, but I'm having a hard time finding videos on YouTube where someone took a bone stock car and slapped a super charger on it. Almost all of them have exhaust kits too at least. If you kept the stock exhaust, would you be as loud as a GT350 on a cold start?

 

[mangosmoothie]

it wouldn't really make a difference, supercharger won't make the exhaust much louder, at least under minimal load.

 

[M-Driver]

I have the stage 1 edelbrock kit with 700 hp at the crank. I can absolutely recommend to do some handling mods. Even when you only push it on the straight. Wheel hop and directional stability at WOT in 2 gear will become an issue, when you go FI with a PD blower, because torque kicks in early.

I recommend to engage these issues with the vertical links (wheel hop), subframe alignment kit, knuckle to toe link bearing and lower control arm spherical bearings (directional stability).

https://www.steeda.com/steeda-s550-mustang-billet-aluminum-vertical-links-2015-all-555-4121.html

https://www.steeda.com/steeda-s550-mustang-irs-subframe-alignment-kit-2015-all-555-4438.html

https://www.steeda.com/knuckle-to-toe-link-bearing-assembly-15-17-gt-ecoboost.html

https://www.steeda.com/steeda-s550-...spherical-bearing-2015-2016-all-555-4117.html

I did not mention the need for a performance oriented suspension and the Brembo brakes from the PP, as I see them as mandatory for the stock GT when you intend to really get on it and it would be negligent to go over these parts when planning a FI. But that's just my opinion.

 

[KingKona]

My father-in-law's new dual motor Model Y makes my car feel slow. Too slow.

I'd think starting with understanding what you want to do, and why you want to do it, is key to being happy with the $$ you spend.

If you want Tesla fast in a straight line, then FI and Steeda suspension STH suspension stuff, along with tires, is the way to go.

If you want something like your GT350, then I'd just suggest buying another. You're not going to rev your engine out safely to 7800+RPM, you'll grenade it sooner or later.

If you want something like your GT350, without the car payment or the need to rev it to 7800, then do the 500HP bolt ons and all the suspension/brake stuff to have a fun handling car.

So....like....3 different avenues of approach right there.

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