Getting the most performance our of your v6

If you drive a v6 mustang, and you are sick of the trash talk from the GT and Cobra guys, consider some options you have. Since it is a v6, you might have bought it for the gas mileage, the cheaper price, or cheaper insurance. Even though it is a v6, there are still ways to make it perform much better, and still retain the original qualities that it has being stock. First you will want to decide your goals for the car: Do you want to make it an all out drag car? Do you want to be able drive it daily? Do you just want to use it as a weekend racer? These are all questions you should consider. Contrary to popular belief, the aftermarket for the v6 mustang is HUGE! I will list some sites a little later.

Now there are really 3 routes you can take to make your v6 perform better:
A. Leave it all motor (no supercharger, turbo, or nitrous)
B. Add a poweradder (supercharger, turbo, or nitrous)
C. Swap the engine for a v8


A.
This option can be the cheapest route, depending how far you go. If you just want to get a little extra performance, you can add items such as a Cold Air Intake, Dual exhaust, Chip or Programmer, and a Pulley. These are the basic modifications for a bolt on car.


Cold Air Intake: There are quite a few options here. Company's such as K&N, Demolet, Mac, and even off brand ebay intakes offer close to the same performance. My preference is the CAI from Demolet since it is cheap, and it is plastic instead of metal which can retain heat and cost performance. However, Ebay CAI's may also be a good choice if you are looking for an inexpenise CAI system. However, their quality can be questionable. Mac is a good choice if you would like a system that looks really nice under the hood. Now the Mac system is metal, so some may argue that this will retain heat and cost performance. All these systems range from 140-180 dollars depending on the year of your v6.

Exhaust: The options here are endless, and are really based off of what you want to spend, and how you want it to sound. Most exhaust systems will perform about the same for a car with just bolt-ons, but may sound completely different. I highly recommend getting a GT Takeoff exhaust since these come cheap, and by the dozens. Not to mention they will fit your car perfectly. From there you can swap in different mufflers, or leave the stop GT mufflers since they perform quite well. Some of the better sounding mufflers I have heard on a v6 are from Spintech and Mac systems. It is all really a matter of personal preference and what sounds good to you. If you are wanting your car to sound like GT, forget about it. No exhaust system will ever make your v6 sound like a v8. Don't be discouraged from this though. I suggest doing some research on the internet and find something that sounds good to you. Many v6mustang forums have sound bites you can listen to.

Chip or programmer: This is a big one and probably your best bet for performance on a bolt on car. I will only recommend one company for the V6 mustang, and that is SCT. These guys know their stuff. They can create a program just for your car, based off of what you have done to it, and what your goals are. With my v6, I used the XCal2 programmer, with a tune from Justin Starkey of http://www.vmptuning.com. This guy was nothing but helpful, and even created new tunes for me for no charge. All i had to do was shoot him an email. It is safe to say that he knows more about tuning v6 mustang than anyone else. His turbo v6 has run 10 second quater mile times! You can also get a tune that will you net you better gas mileage. When I went on long trips, I would switch to this tune, and get about 1-2 extra mpg, No joke!

Pulley: There is really only one choice that i am aware of for a pulley and that is the ASP underdrive pulley. Now keep in mind, this will not create more power, but free up power from your motor. Results vary, but the RWHP increase is usually around 7-10 rwhp.


As you can see i have went over these items at a very high level simply because i want you to do look up these things yourself, and not just go off of my opinion. Here are some good forums I suggest you join and learn about the items I have talked about above:

http://www.v6power.net/vb/
http://www.mustangevolution.com
http://www.sctflash.com/forum/


After you have made your decision on which of these bolt-ons you would like to purchase, I suggest searching ebay, or the classified sections of the forums listed above for some good deals. Also, forums will sometime have group purchases on things that will allow to get parts a lot cheaper than if you were to just buy them on your own.

If you would like me to do a post on a specific part, or group of parts, just ask! I will be going over option b and c soon!