best bang for the buck

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dave krum

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would like to know what is the best bang for my buck I am looking for a little more performance from my 2005 sport trac ok give me some ideas of engine mods and cost

thank you
 
SCT-X is, without a doubt, the FIRST mod you should do to your trac. I've said this over and over. I have a supercharged trac, that's obviously a lot of bang, but it's also a lot of bucks. ;)
 
Y-pipe, but I lease mine plus I have to get a smog check every year, so I don't bother. Couple people have said theirs passed smog w/o the pre-cats but I don't chance it.

Supposedly it gives a better hp increase than JBA headers. An cat-back exhaust from Gibson or whoever would cost a little less and help some. That will probably be the next thing I do.
 
Pull out the air filter box snorkle. It's FREE! Do a search in the projects for instructions.
 
The SCT-X not only gives you better mileage and/or more horsepower/torque, but it DRAMATICALLY improves your shift points...which on the sport trac, leaves a LOT to be desired. Even if you don't CARE about the extra mileage or horsepower (yeah RIGHT!), the better transmission function ALONE is a good enough reason to get one. It'll feel like a new vehicle.

I agree that pulling the air box filter snorkle out will help too. I did that a while back and it helped (but then mine was crammed full of wires from my HID lights too, so I was getting very little air haha). Anything you can do to increase air in and out makes your engine more efficient and gives it more power.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd get the SCT-X FIRST though. Originally, I went with a Flowmaster first, then K&N filter. Both are great, but they really don't do nearly as much as the SCT-X.

You're probably going to get a lot of opinions on this though, so take your time and consider each one according to your budget and what you want out of your truck. If you have no budget...removing the air box thing will help. If you have a relatively small budget, go for the flowmaster/K&N filter. If you have a medium sized budget, get the SCT-Xcalibrator2. If you've got a whopper budget, you just can't beat the supercharger for pure power. If you have a bill gates budget, what are you doing with a stock sport trac???!!!??? ;)
 
If you buy a turdnado, I'm pretty sure you'll get banned from the boards. ;)



STAY AWAY FROM THE TURBNADO!!!!!!!!
 
As I have posted before....



Don't knock the Tornado Fuel Saver. I installed one on my Trac and went from 18 MPG to 21. That's a big gain. The only other mods I made at the same time were ro remove the OEM bed cover, remove the brush guard, trailer hitch, inflated the tires to 50 psi, gutted the interior ( except for the driver's seat), remove the glass (except for windshield) and put a block of wood under the gas pedal to limit its travel. So please don't knock a product that you haven't tried!

:D
 
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my opinion, don't go crazy. on my 04 adren i put on a magnaflow cat back and k&n fipk and just ran a " lightning fast " 17.0 second 1/4 mile !. there is not much to work with on the stock motor. a couple of minor mods is ok for a little extra power but if your looking to tear up the track, look elsewhere !. don't get me wrong i love my trac , but it needs alittle extra power straight from the factory. just my 2 cents !

barin, with your supercharger on have you ever run it at the track ?, just curious to see what time at the 1/4 mile with the supercharger.
 
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I plan on do a quarter mile when the track opens up again next spring. Until then, I have the d-pic (I'm not sure how accurate those are, but I should have some quarter mile times soon). I anticipate that it'll be somewhere in the mid 14 second range...which is roughly equivalent to a stock Trans Am. My relatively modded 1996 Trans Am did low 14s with only a flowmaster. It got down to 13.1 with other mods...nothing too serious though.

It's by no means a race-truck. It might out-run a stock family car, but it's not going to blow the doors off of a built ricer. The truck wasn't meant to do that anyway. I suppose if you wanted to get "crazy", slap a V8 in there...then add a supercharger. Gut the interior, shed every ounce of weight, then it might truly be FAST. However, doing all that is going to cost you more than a Lightning, so just get a Lightning to begin with...they're fast and can be tuned/built to be HELLA FAST. If that's still not enough, get a Mustang Cobra, there are tons of performance parts out there for even the 05s. If that's not fast enough, you might consider buying your own Nascar team and seeing if they'll let you take the car around the track a few times. ;)
 
krumby,

They recently did a test on HorsepowerTV with a new 2005 Mustang GT. They first dyno'd it in stock condition and got 255 RWHP. They added a K&N FIPK and picked up 10 more ponys. They added a flowmaster muffler and got another 8 HP. After that they added Nitrous and gained a total of 81 HP over the stock 255.



I think you can pick up the biggest HP gain with a simple K&N filter and intake pipe, and it's the first thing to get even if you never go any further. Sport Trac's seem to respond very well to more intake air.



Next you might go for a free flow exhaust. Then get the chip reprogrammed.



...Rich
 
Rich has a good point about getting that stuff before the tune. However, if you don't plan on getting exhaust/intake upgrades, then just go with the tune. The reason to get those things BEFORE you get the tune from wayne (or doug) is because they can add extra horses knowing that you have those exhaust/intake upgrades. It's more of a specific tune based on the stuff that you have. I should probably tell people that whenever I so highly recommend the SCT-X. You can always get the SCT-X now, then add the parts later and get a new tune, but that will usually cost you $50-$75 more. It's entirely up to you about how you go about it though. I would differ from Rich in the respect that I would get the SCT-X even if I DIDN'T plan on getting the exhaust/intake upgrades, purely because of the improved transmission function (which I see as a necessity on a sport trac because of their crappy FRENCH transmissions).

Good Luck.

-Scott
 
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