How can i get to 300HP cheaply?

Thanks for the insult. Yes I do know what I am talking about. Physics 101. The car can only push out so much air, relative to the air it can take in. In short, people who spend money on headers and exhaust alone will NEVER get the full benefits, period. Yes, they will flow better, but so will a fire hose versus a garden hose, but I would not hook up a fire hose to my garden faucet! Headers are only "needed" in high horse power applications. Kook and other would have you believe otherwise, they have product to push and sell. Its called a business, they create the need. Just because it costs a lot, does not mean its quality. I have seen and handled several kook headers. The welding and work was "ok", but no where worth NEAR the price tag. Remember, this was a country that went through and industrial revolution, there are many skilled metal workers who can do better work for less. I had better welds on my mountain bike. Not that it matters in the end, it will hold up. But for the price of kook, you can get something half the price that will do the same job. If its all about flowing better, why not go with 4" exhaust or larger?????

As for cobra owners switching to kook, same thing. They "think" the headers are a huge improvement, they help a little but stock ones are fine. Of course, most people who slap on headers to other work, which helps them utilize the headers better.

This thread was meant to help someone cheaply gain HP. A chip can help, pullied too. In short a few cheap things can be done before replacing the entire exhaust! Slapping on some over-priced metal works and a new exhaust is not the answer, at least not yet. You are right though, even cheap headers and exhaust will run over a grand, easily! I think by cheap, $500 or less is implied.
 
unity said:
Thanks for the insult. Yes I do know what I am talking about. Physics 101. The car can only push out so much air, relative to the air it can take in. In short, people who spend money on headers and exhaust alone will NEVER get the full benefits, period. Yes, they will flow better, ...
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:shifty:

No insult, but I noticed a large improvement with headers and even more improvement with intake work.
 
"You can do it for just over a grand with cheap mufflers. If you spent two grand you're nuts.

Expecting powdercoat on the inside of a set of headers proves it"

I said that as a matter opf how much teh quality of there headers are. I am not expert by any means but I am sure if you have it powder coated inside and its smooth and everything, the air will flow better. my friend bought a cheap set for like 2-300 and the only coated the outside and TRIED to coat the inside.. it was a joke.. and not to mention the bends and welds... so you're saving like 300 bucks but its such crappy quality its like why even bother? and also 2 grand is not nuts.. who wants to do an exhaust and put cheap parts in? like mufflers? why not just keep it stock? I also said if you want it done the RIGHT way you gotta spend money. I work in the a/v industry... yeah you can buy an HDTV for around a grand or 2 but it looks like SH!T. if you want a good picture you gotta spend $.

ALSO unity there is no cheap way to gain HP. headers and full exhaust is proballythe only wayto gain a decent amount more HP for the price. yea you can add a chip and other stuff but the HP doesn't come close.. a chip would probally bring what? maybe 10hp... You want to make some serious power inprovments get the heads ported and polished and get an intake.

And unity I am not rying o insult you but kooks headers are great. I know first hand how they look and how the quality was and I was very impressed.
 
For the $2000 you spent on exhaust you could've gained a lot more HP in other departments than exhaust. Please tell me you have a full mandrel bent system built on the car for that kind of cash. It's still too much.

FYI, 03-04 cobra manifolds do not flow that bad. 500rwhp cobra's gain max 10 hp from going from stock manifolds to LTs, sometimes even not that much.

I had first hand experience with kooks coated headers as well. They're gone in favor of super quiet and resonance free cast manifolds.

Unity is right on the money in most of his points, no need to insult him.

After all this there is still no response from the OP. For all we know he could care less.
 
m_maker said:
For the $2000 you spent on exhaust you could've gained a lot more HP in other departments than exhaust. Please tell me you have a full mandrel bent system built on the car for that kind of cash. It's still too much.

FYI, 03-04 cobra manifolds do not flow that bad. 500rwhp cobra's gain max 10 hp from going from stock manifolds to LTs, sometimes even not that much.

I had first hand experience with kooks coated headers as well. They're gone in favor of super quiet and resonance free cast manifolds.

Unity is right on the money in most of his points, no need to insult him.

After all this there is still no response from the OP. For all we know he could care less.
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I do have a full mandrel bent system on my car. Again for the 3rd time if you want it done right you haveto spend the $. 2 lms mufflers.. xx lms pipe.. headers.. high flow cats.. flanges and fittings and gaskets.. oh yeah and custom installation sounds unreal... I get asked alllllll the time what kinda exhaust is on my car.. even people in faster cars.. such as vettes and the like.. how many times can you say that? I'd like you to get all that for a grand?

and I already have everything else I can get w/o spending loads more. my next goal is p/p heads and cobra intake.. but yeah thats over 3 grand...
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions guys. I really enjoy listening to you all go back and forth. Im new to all of this so im learning alot on this forum. Should have been more specific with what bugdget. Looking to spend less than $500 for a noticable difference in HP. Maybe thats not possible on such a little budget though...The car still has the factory plug wires on it so that cant be helping matters. Thatll be the first thing i change.
 
Get new wires for sure. 96-98 Cobra wires are what you want. For that money I would probably get a chip if I was looking for a little extra power. You could probably get a catback exhaust done for 500 also, nothing too fancy though.
 
with that money a chip and maybe a shift kit... you'll feel the difference and the car will be fun to drive
 
If you just want to feel a difference, save a couple hundred extra and throw in a 3400 stall.
 
MediumD said:
If you just want to feel a difference, save a couple hundred extra and throw in a 3400 stall.
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that'll be alot more bucks.. you'll need at least a trans cooler plus a chip. and while the trannys out you might as well throw a shift kit in and built up the internals..
 
I'd say J mod over shift kit. It's cheaper and safer and does the same thing so kind of a no brainer.

Powdercoating inside of headers, ok I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you don't know how powdercoating is performed. Anybody who pc's the insides of their headers are 1) full of crap 2) hurting the headers. I'm not trying to disagree, but there you go on that knowledge. I'm not trying to argue you seem picky nothing wrong w that....

---

I'd say for $500, you won't get much. I'd start with the plug wires ... and listen to the other guy get 'em for the Cobra they're larger and cheaper. Can't go wrong there unless you order them for a mrk viii and pay more than you have to. I think they're about $90-100 for the cobra wires, around 120? for the slinky mark viii wires.

Then I'd get a different air filter at least on the intake side of things. I have the K n N and it serves me well. Think it's around $40, can get those anywhere even Wal Mart probably.

Then I'd do the J mod. With fluid and springs set 130? aside for that.

Then I'd get the chip. 3-400? I'm going with SCT.

Then I'd get on the exhaust. Which if you're not planning on modding the hell out of your car you don't want mandrel bent. Set aside 350 or so unless you decide you want the manifolds off the cobras such as M Maker speaks of, visit www.svtperformance.com for those. Unless someone has a better alternative.

Then I'd get into getting a built converter and rear gears. Together would run you about $1200 avg, 700 together on the low side unless you're buying brand new parts for the rear. Not including labor if you don't do it yourself.

Some things you might want to check:

idler pulley - I think it's like 12 bucks at Oreilleys - very cheap preventative maintenance. You can't mess up putting that on yourself it's only one 12 thread? bolt. Just get familiar with the belt route. Good for 100k miles usually.

Water pump. You'll need one of those sooner or later in my experience. You can't mess up putting that on yourself either, I don't think. good for 110-120k miles usually.

Belt tensioner arm/pulley. I don't remember how much it costs. 50 bucks? Maybe less. If this goes out you'll be stuck until someone delivers one and only takes 5 mins to change your first time. Good for 120-140k miles usually.

Alternator possibly. Good from anywhere between 90k miles and 150?k miles. Maybe more but why risk. I'll say $100, you can get factory ones alot cheaper on eBay.

Coil packs. Factory ones are good to change around 100k.

And check your tire pressure. Lol. Jk but I think I covered about everything someone else might add to it. It's all in order of importance from my experience.
 
"Powdercoating inside of headers, ok I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you don't know how powdercoating is performed. Anybody who pc's the insides of their headers are 1) full of crap 2) hurting the headers. I'm not trying to disagree, but there you go on that knowledge. I'm not trying to argue you seem picky nothing wrong w that...."

I am glad someone said it. I wrote a response, but figured why bother..... Its true though. I like to use the golf ball analogy. Why are gold balls dimpled? The dimples create pockets of unstable air which acts as a "lubricant" against the air around it. This in effect reduces surface friction, allowing the ball to travel further. Same with manifolds and headers, the rougher, the better. Its air under pressure, not water. Water WOULD benefit from smoother pipes. Make sense? Besides, do you really think that powered coating holds up? It either cracks off almost instantly, whatever remains is covered in carbon build-up! Again - marketing the NEED.

Now P&P intake? Well this is air under vacuum, a polish will help with the flow. But I have read at least two well written articles that explained that the 4.6L will suffer low end lose for P&P :( Unless you can make for the low end torque lose, another waste. Some cars, yes, the 4.6L, no. :( Polished intake manifold is as far as I would go.
 
Thanks for the link. Like i said, im a newbie....So, can some please explain what effect this mod will have on the tranny/engine? Whats gained? Are there negatives? Thanks
 
There is no effect on the engine, you just get firmer shifts. The stock 4r70w tranny in these cars shifts very slow. Everytime I switch from my 98 LSC to the 96 Base it is painful to drive, the shifts are so bad stock. Although I don't have a j-mod in my 98, the line pressure is increased via chip. There are two ways you can make your shifts firmer: by j-mod or shift kit, where the valvebody is modified, or a chip where the line pressure is increased by the ECU. Or you can do both for neck snapping shifts.
 
I really wish this was the last time I have to type this! LOL hehe

The JMod does NOT involve making ANY modifications to the valve body, which can sound scary. Its JUST the separator plate! So if ya screw up, your not toasting the valve body :)

If you get a JMod, do NOT increase line pressure via chip. Doing both will destroy your trans fast. As a matter of engineering fact, increasing line pressure is the worst thing you can do to a 4r70w! This is the problem with the trans in the first place, the "smooth" lincoln shifts are a result of high line pressure. Increasing further does make the shifts firmer, but so does lowering line pressure to make the shifts faster, enter the JMod.
 
JP has increased line pressure via chip and the Baumann shift kit with tons of track passes, no problems with his tranny... he also has one of the fastest NA Mark VIII's in the country.
 
[off topic]

I like your new sig, do you have a larger version of that image?

[/off topic]
 
98LSC32V said:
[off topic]

I like your new sig, do you have a larger version of that image?

[/off topic]
Click to expand...

[off topic on same topic]

No, it's actually a pic from my chocolate flip, resolution sucks!! Someone made this for me as a sig to be friendly, universal sig for all the boards I frequent now I guess! *shrug*

But, I do have a photoshoot coming up with a bunch others in a local community. And will prob post high res pics then!

FYI: none of the car itself is photoshopped. that's how it sits. With dark azz tint.

Again, thanks!

[/end off topic on same topic] lol.
 
ok guys i read all of these and u still manage not to answer the QUESTION of HOW TO GET 20+ MORE HOSEPOWER TO A BONE STOCK MARAKVIII
 
According to LincolnMotorSport.com, the addition of their 900 cfm MAF kit, plus a POWERMAXX chip will yield an average of 22 rwhp gain. Total cost, about $600, give or take shipping.
 
94BLU8 said:
ok guys i read all of these and u still manage not to answer the QUESTION of HOW TO GET 20+ MORE HOSEPOWER TO A BONE STOCK MARAKVIII
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Take the heads off and have them milled down to increase compression. That'll get you 20+

or

Take your intake and have it ported and polished or replace it with a Cobra version.

or

Install a new set of cams with a bigger intake lift and slightly longer exhaust duration.

or

A full dyno tune with a re-calibrated maf.
 
94BLU8 said:
ok guys i read all of these and u still manage not to answer the QUESTION of HOW TO GET 20+ MORE HOSEPOWER TO A BONE STOCK MARAKVIII
Click to expand...

We answered that like 20 times actually, if you would care to read and comprehend what was written.
 
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