Let the Modding Begin - Fall/Spring 2004

With in the first to second year I started modifying the car with the commonly know upgrades to improve the performance of the handling and power. I also did some minor visual upgrades.

Rear Stabilizer Bar: First thing to go in was a GT rear stabilizer bar. Without a rear bar, the car has quite a bit of roll and lean when cornering. I picked up a 15/16 inch rear GT stabilizer bar from a local bone yard for $35.

UDP (Under-drive Pulley): This 25% reduction pulley replaces the harmonic balancer pulley attached to the crankshaft. The small pulley will turn the accessories at a slower speed thus freeing up some parasitic loss. As with the CAI, I noticed a slight increase in throttle response and about a 1-2 improvement in gas mileage.

CAI (Front Draft-Cold Air Intake): This is a fabricated intake consisting of PVC tubing, a 1 gallon water pitcher for the filter housing and a K&N filter.
There's 4" tubing that leads to the passenger side foglight opening. I notice a slight improvement in throttle response and a slight change in exhaust tone. My highway mileage increased by 2-3MPG. I began seeing fill up averages of 28-30MPG. One long highway roadtrip (~800 miles) I recorded 32.8MPG with the cruise set to 75mph and the AC on.

STS (custom made): I was really bored the winter of 2003-04 so I figured I try to make my own sequential turn signals. I found a schematic on the internet that called for 556 chips. I could not find any without ordering them so I redesigned the circuits to use 555s, which I had a bunch of laying around. In the end, I think it cost me about $110 in parts, which is about $40 more than units on the internet. But this baby is built like a truck. It's totally adjustable and the relays are 10 amps each I believe.

Steeda Short-throw Shifter: Replacing the stock shifter with the Steeda piece made for much better shifts. The stock shifter has a rubber spacer between the accuator nub and the shifter stalk. Which lends to it feeling rather sloppy.

Dual exhaust: I bought a GT take off system from Saleen for $100. Another $100 to have a local shop fab me some connecting pipes and it was done. Exhaust tone sounds the same as the single, just a little louder. I decided to do the bumper cut outs instead of buying a GT bumper, I like the look.

High Rate Ford Racing C Springs: I put these in the same time I put the dual exhaust in. I planned that if I had to drop the rear end down to get the pipes around the axle I could take the time to install new springs. I modified the springs and installation by cutting 200 degrees off the rear spring's dead coil. There by increasing the drop by about .75 inches. I also left the insulator doughnut out of the front. Increasing the front drop by about .3-.4 inches. Over height drop for the car was about 1.3-1.4 inches. I like the drop and the ride stiffened right up.

Page 1: In the beginning - Fall 2003
Page 2: Let the modding begin - Fall/Spring 2004 (you are here)
Page 3: Deer hit damage - Summer 2005
Page 4: M112 Blower Install - Spring/Summer 2006
Page 5: Suspension/Drivetrain - Winter/Spring 2007
Page 6: Eaton M112 Porting Project - Winter/Spring 2008

Page 8: Modification List