BUYING A T/A need alittle help!

[D3VIL]

Hey guys i've always been a T/A fan and i've finally saved close to 15k to buy my dream car(T/A WS6). I've had 3 previous cars and for all of them i did the same thing and IMO it was very smart, alittle risky but smart IMO. I simply go to autotrader and when i search for a car i put "any distance" for my "distance" and you'll see BUNCH of cheap cars that your looking for. Im doing the same method for my upcomming T/A. Like i said i have 15k or so and i wanted to spend 10-11k of it on the car, and the rest on Mods. Now heres where i need you guys help. Im not an expert in mods in anyway, and i know alot of people on the forum are and props to you guys. I want to see what i need mostly for the ENGINE to bring up the HP from the 310(stock) to somewhere near 350-400HP. Like i said i only need some Engine mods. JUST pretend like you have 4-5k in your pocket right now and you want to spend all that for your engine for your stock T/A. WHAT WOULD YOU BUY?

Thanks to Everyone in advance!

[joejenkinsglass]

getting 350-400 would not require much I would say you could be at 400 with headers exhaust and a tune about $1500 bucks for the most expensive if I wanted bang for buck performance and I had 4-5k it would get a turbo or supercharger (used) and some suspension work then you are lookin at closer to 500hp or just spend the whole budget on a car already moddified good luck

[Pyromaniacal]

First off let me just get one thing out of the way...

BUY - A - SIX SPEED

You will love yourself later, trust me.

Now on to the meat...

**Quoted from an earlier post of mine 'cause I don't want to retype this shit!!**

Your best bang for your buck as far as basic, cheap mods are concerns are as follows.

Headers/Y-pipe/Cat-back 2.5" - 3" - Budget price would be around $800 - I highly recommend doing all of this at once, you can do it all yourself and avoid horrendous labor charges. Assuming you get a tune(which you will need to do if you take the cats out) you can expect a good 15-30hp gain from this alone.

Lid - $100ish - This will net you a solid 5-10hp, I would recommend lumping it in with the exhaust package I talked about.

3.73 to 4.10 gears - $150-$300 depending on which you purchase and where - 4.10's are the most extreme and I would recommend them if you plan on having no more than 420hp, any more than that and they become very unruly at the launch due to the fact that they love to spin the tires. These gears will make the most solid difference in your car's acceleration, people I've talked to describe it as "night and day" vs stock gearing. Drawback? Your speedo is going to be off a bit so it'll take some recalibration and you're going to be burning some rubber, count on it.

A couple of other essential mods are SFC's (subframe connectors), a panhard rod and LCA (lower control arms) relocation brackets. The other suspension pieces (tubular k-member 'n the like) are also useful but mostly to cut weight. You should also be thinking about what you want to do first, H/C (heads/cam) or suspension pieces because they are both very expensive. If you get shocks and springs your car's ride quality is going to increase exponentially, on the other side of that if you get H/C your power is going to go way up but the car may get unruly, if not unsafe, if you don't have any suspension work done.

Now to talk about option #1 - H/C. This is the big money spending stage, you're going to want to make sure you can do all of this yourself or have buddies that can help you because this is gunna cost you a pretty penny if you take it to a shop, perhaps the entire 4-5k you have. If you don't do the above mods you will not be taking full advantage of the power either. What to get depends entirely on what you want to do, I would recommend doing extensive research online, call up some of the reputable shops as well (Texas Speed, Thunder Racing, Comp Cams, Crane Cams... list goes on) and tell them what you wanna do, I'd recommend getting advice from every single one of them, write it all down for comparison sakes. I can't stress enough how important it is that you get this to your idea of perfect, don't settle for seconds here!! If you don't have the money, save it up, don't cut corners bro. You are also going to want to hit up your local dyno for a tune immediately after getting this done so you can make all of your beautiful mods play nice with one another.

Theres more but I need to go to work, haha. I hope this helps a bit!!

Good luck on your plans bro.

[SINISTER-TA]

First off let me just get one thing out of the way...

BUY - A - SIX SPEED

You will love yourself later, trust me.

.

Yeah, until your sitting in rush hour traffic. I got rid of my 99 SS Camaro six speed because I got sick of shifting it a month after I bought it. They are fun...not saying their not, but I get sick of people always saying how much better and faster six speeds are... it's all opinion and your personal preference. Anyway, an auto with a good converter and sticky tire's will always get the six speed in a straight line (most of the time) on comparable vehicles. A stock six speed in barley faster than a stock auto. Nothing your gonna be able to feel anyway. So get the one you want, instead of letting people tell you what you should get just because "they" like that perticular type.

[D3VIL]

lol thanks to everyone and their advises. But the car that im getting is a 6speed stick shift. i've had 4-5 previous cars and they've all been stick shifts. I usually go by a general saying " i like to drive the car, not the car drive me" just something i go by. I like manual b/c its more fun IMO and its something that you can abuse much more on your cars haha the one and only thing that i dont like about manual thing is that, i run late all the time going to work so i grab my breakfast and eat it in the car, and its hard to eat and drive a manual. haha other than that i love manuals

[D3VIL]

Pyromaniacal, i know you said buy headers,cats, intakes ect. but what brands would you suggest on each of those parts? like im probably going to end up buying a K&N intake for it b/c i've heard decent things about it and its not Extremely expensive either, but not sure on everything else.

[JHayesLS1]

Get the K&N Filter and SLP lid. For budget headers get pacesetters, if you want the top knotch stuff go Hooker or QTP. If you want stupidly loud get SLP loudmouth catback, if you want mellow and WOT loud get magnaflow. I have the following mods : QTP Longtubes, ORY, SLP LM2, SLP Lid, 4.11 gears, Ford 9" Rear end and a tune. I put down 352 RWHP and 363 TQ.

[JwMonE99]

Just get 4.10 gears, intake, full exhuast, SFC, a good cam and a tune and you would easily be in the 400 mark.
I seen some cam only cars that make a little over 400. Most likely your still going to have money left over so go ahead with the short shifter, if you want a racing clutch maybe even some heads. There is so much you can do