SCalla1384

Hey guys, Im new here. I currently own a 2003 Mustang GT Vortech supercharger, intercooled, supporting fuel mods/MAF, 4.10's, exhaust, etc.... Makes 385rwhp/373rwtq @ 10psi. Fun car. But Im looking to go a differant route.

I want to get a 00-02 WS6. I found one at a dealer with 71k miles. Its an M6 navy blue metallic, looks nice. Anything I should look for when I go to take it out for a ride?

1) How are these cars to work on? Hard? easy? My car is okay to work on. Dropping the tranny to do the clutch was kind of a bitch. The 1st time it took a while, then my Fidanza blew up so I put a Centerforce DF in. And it took about 2 hours to drop, and less then 2 hours to put back together.

2) Common problems? How long do the motors last? How are the trannys? I know there T56's but Im assuming they can take a lot of torque, and the clutch/rear is more of a weak point then the tranny correct?

3) Also I know this is kind of a newb/broad question. Whats the best way to hit 400rwhp? Im assuming I need a cam right? Pretty badass. I would never be able tohit 360rwhp in my 2V NA.

4) One more thing, how is a longtube install? Do I need to drop the Kmember (would have to in the stang)? Thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it. Look forward to learning a lot here, and hopefully owning a LS1 very soon.

Heres some pics/vids of my GT right now best run at the track was a 12.7 @ 117mph 2.2 60 foot. Decent ET, but great trap, definatley good for low low 12s or even high 11's.

http://www.youtube.com/user/shauncx1.../0/ZI_PQ6-4u6A
http://www.youtube.com/user/shauncx1.../1/-82PkhoWnUE
http://www.youtube.com/user/BlownGT0.../0/8wTZAHPf_0A

imonmywhey

I went from a 2003 GT with full bolt ons/gears/tune to my 2002 z28.

The z28 isnt refined, it rattles like a ******* bucket of bolts is in the back seat (only 60k miles), and teh inside in cheap. The nice part is that bone stock its much faster than my GT ever was. The z28 has 64k miles on it. Good luck finding one that hasnt been wrecked. These cars are dangerous in the rain if you aren't used to it.

I blew my T-56 up in 6 days. It was 8 years old, though. Couldn't take the abuse I put my Mustang through...Viper spec (which what it is now) should last me awhile...

I believe that the 01+ cars have the better heads and intake manifolds, so try to get the newest one possible.

Putting Kooks on my GT was the biggest PITA ever. I hear its much easier on an f body

SCalla1384

Thanks for the info. Yea Ive heard the Camaros/TAs have rattles and ****. Thats why I wanted to take it out for a ride and see what I can hear. If its something minor, just something I can use to talk them down in price.

GIVE EM' THE BIRD

iTrader: (1)

Headers wont be fun for it, but are not crazy hard if you know your way around the shop... Dont need to drop the K member, but lots of guys have to do a little beat of beating and grinding... Nothing complex, just more of a do-as-you-go type of thing...

As far as 400rwhp... With the more radical cams and valvetrains along with a good tune and full bolt-ons 400rwhp is doable... But not guaranteed. Most full bolt on LS1 cars with an LS6 intake(01-02 came from factory with them) will put down 330 or more if its an M6.

They are super fun cars to drive and like said above, they arent as refined as your typical girly mustang. No offense, but thats just how it is imho. The mustangs were more for the eye candy and comfort, while an fbody is going to be faster, get better mpg, and handle better right out of the gate. Sounds really biased of me, but look at your car... Its a blown GT that came out a year after the last LS1 fbody and it still only is putting down 380rwhp and running a 12.7 1/4mile. Find a 01-02WS6 and put a lid, longtubes and exhaust, and a cam setup and you will be making the same power and most likely be a faster car...

Its really what you want to get out of it. If you like the stang style and are wanting to keep your drivability more refined then stick it out with the stang... It just takes a few more mods to keep up with a modded LS1

BTW, yes you were correct on the drivetrain. The rear and clutch are the weak links. The engine and tranny are bullet proof for the amount of power you can throw at them.

So... Basically you will have a more radical platform with the LS1 car, but will sacrifice some creature comforts of a stang, mainly just sounds and ride quality. I personally would take the interior of an fbody over any stang b/c I love the cockpit feel. Just my personal taste.

nice stang btw, I'm sure it hauls on the street and is easy to drive!

SCalla1384

Thanks a bunch man. Really helps me out. Although, I cant say a mustang is a girly car lol. I know Im kind of floating up ***** creek in a LS1 forum with a Mustang, but its a nice car. Im on a very conservative tune. Im running 12* of timing. We ran a tune with 16* and it made 412rwhp. But I wanted to keep the drivability.

As far as the LS1s, Im definatley more geared towards a WS6. The Camaros, this is just my opinion dont look the best. Ive seen some that look really good, but I think the Camaros have to be black in order too look decent. Again just my opinion, I wont diss the power they make at all.

The WS6s I think look nasty. Just a mean look to them.

I saw a video of a WS6 with a 408ci swap, holy **** that thing rolled out. It ate up a TT Cobra. I was like thats what I want. All motor, nasty nasty car.

Again thanks for the info, if theres anything else I should look for when I go to test drive the WS6 please let me know. Thanks a lot man

Wesmanw02

iTrader: (4)

Make sure both headlight motors work, as well as both power window motors. Listen for whining or clunking in the rear end. Make sure it shift smoothy without any gear clash. The clutch is much lighter than in a Mustang (hydraulic vs. cable) so that may feel strange but its normal.

Depends what you're doing. They are relatively easy to service though. All chassis components, brakes, steering, ect. are straight forward. The issues come if you have to work on the back side if the engine from the top, its difficult because the cowl is over the engine. This makes changing the rear spark plugs difficult, as well as getting to the MAP sensor, Oil pressure sender, and Camshaft position sensor. If any of those need to be serviced, you have to pull the intake. Thats a relatively easy an clean job though, just remove the harnesses, the entire fuel rail pops right out, remove the bolts, and take the intake off. No coolant to mess with, its a dry intake.

Motors will last damn near forever if properly taken care of and synthetic oil and high quality filters are used. I've had modulars apart and I think the LS series engines are much more smartly designed and packaged. Even ones that have been abused still seem to run very well. T56 is an excellent trans, the clutch hydraulics are the weak point but can be replaced/upgraded. Early models had paper blocker rings in the trans, later models (00-02) had carbon fiber blockers, which are much more durable. People have put over 600WHP through stock T56's, no problem. The rear is a weak point is you launch the car on sticky tires or have significantly over 400WHP. Then you may have problems. There are many aftermarket solutions, but none are cheap.

Full bolt ons (Intake, Exhaust, Long Tubes, LS6 Intake (stock on 00-02's) and a moderate cam should net you around 400WHP.

Easy. No need to drop the k-member. Very few have had to remove the steering shaft to allow for clearance. Just remove the old manifolds, tuck the heads in from the bottom, and bolt them up. The more tedious part is installing and tightening all the bolts.

As for "refinement", I'd say the F-body is more refined than the Mustang overall. The F-body has a better chassis, better suspension (SLA front and 3 link rear vs. modified macpherson front (wtf) and 4 link rear), and the hood scoops are actually functional . The F-body also has better stock brakes, with 1" larger rotors up front, vented rotors out back with cast aluminum calipers (Mustang uses solid discs with ancient cast iron calipers). Interior of the Mustang is about the same quality as the Camaro, the Trans Ams were slightly nicer IMO (still not awesome though). I've done extensive work on both, and I prefer the F-body any day of the week.

And last but not least, nice car you have there. I'm sure its a fun ride with almost 400WHP!!

matt01ws6

iTrader: (1)

i bought mine with 64K it now has 144,000 miles. ive ran it pretty hard from day 1 and replaced the clutch, thermostat, and recently put a new master cylinder on it. thats it. so reliability is really good. i drive mine everyday also. my tranny still shifts smooth and all too. it still has tons of power i pull 2010 bolt on mustangs all day and i just took a new twin turbo Porsche a few weeks ago. no its not extremely nice inside and all around could be built a lil better but really its not all that bad.

nice stang im bout to buy one for my wife. but she being a pain and only wants white which is a pain in the *** to find btw

SCalla1384

Damn Thanks a **** load man, that really really helped me out. Really appreciate it. So basically listen for obvious noises, tranny/rear. See how the power windows/headlight motors are.

The 00-02 LS1 is exaclty what Im looking for, the WS6 is a 01 so thats good.

They dont seem to hard to work on, I guess just a spark plug change is a pita in its ways, but like you said its a dry intake so its clean (not that I care) and not to bad.

I guess the last question is, hows a clutch swap? Doing it on the GT wasnt too bad, it had its pain in the *** parts though. The starter was a bitch. Other than that, just time consuming. Anything to be aware of on an LS1?

Thanks again for your guys help. Its good to hear someones perspective of a Mustang vs F Body.

SCalla1384

Oh and thanks, yea the car is a blast to drive. Except when belts shred, and intercooler pipe blows and pushes the oil feed line to the blower into the harmonic balancer lol. Just stupid little annoying things that drive me nuts. The fastest car Ive raced was a Porshe Carerra S and beat it.

I beat an LS1 Camaro but honestly seemed pretty stock. Atleast exhaust. And raced a Pullied, intake exhaust Cobra and lost by about 2 lengths. Heres the video, at the end you can hear my clutch coming apart, shitty vid starts at 40 seconds Im on the right

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Kgq...layer_embedded

GIVE EM' THE BIRD

iTrader: (1)

THe clutch swap is really not too difficult tbh. Breaking the tranny from the engine was a PITA for me the first time, but other than that, pretty straight forward... Again, if you know your way around a shop you should be fine. Its not exactly pleasant, but it wont take a week lol. No pulling the engine... different story haha. I took my LT1 out of the bottom once and out of the top once. Both sucked lol

Oh, and I didnt mean anything by the girl car comments, and I hold nothing against a happy stang owner on a gm forum! I like cars in general, but when a question is posed, I will do my best to answer it truthfully, and I was just callin it like I see it Any car can be made fast with a certain amount of money adn time so thats not an issue, its more so what you want your end result to be and act like

Just a word of advice, take you mustangs rear end out and keep it for the fbody You will be glad for it hahaha

SCalla1384

Cool thanks again man. And nah I know its all good man. Everyone has their opinions, and I understand.

I can work on cars pretty good. Everything thats done to the car minus gears, Ive done. Clutch, supercharger, intercooler all that bs.

And lol I know I wish I could. I was acually going to ask that, can I buy a Cobra differential and axles for a Mustang and put it in the WS6? A 31 spline built rear for a Mustang only runs about $280 for axles, and $250 for the differential. Then gears/install kit.

BlackScreaminMachine

iTrader: (17)

With the GM 7.5" 10 Bolt, you can stick only GM guts into it and the rear is considered a weak point, as well as valve springs. So becareful beating on it. Either you save for a 12 bolt or 9" swap, or some have done a Ford Beefed up 8.8 swap but that requires fab work.

Go to the rear end gears section for a little research and you will see. A 12 bolt w/ drive shaft, new runs about 3,000$ and thats taking the options on the rear, or you can find used fro 1800-1900$

SCalla1384

Thanks for the clarification. A 12 bolt would be awesome. But obviously pretty expensive. Ill definatley look into that. Im going to the dealer tomorrow to check out the WS6. Ill keep you guys posted and let you know what Im doing.

SCalla1384

Went to look at the WS6 today. Nice car. Crazy how much differant the clutch pedal feels.

Things I noticed, the driver side headlight locked up sometimes. And the headlight motor made a wierd grinding type of sound. The power windows were okay rolling down, going up were slow.

Idk if it was just me, but I could almost hear a ticking at idle. Maybe piston slap? Not sure.

The guy told me without the supercharger, he can give me upwards of $9k to $10k for trade in. Which is sweet. I owe $13.5 on the car though.

So what Im going to do is, sell the supercharger for around $2500, use $2000 to pay the car down. Use my tax refund ($1500-$2000) and use either $1000 or $1500 to pay it down.

Then come Febuary, Ill only owe about $8500 on it. And my brother can co-sign and get my interest to about 4-5%

So by Febuary, March at the latest Ill have a WS6. They get a decent amount in there. So Im not worried about that. Hopefully, by the time Im getting one there will be a black on black M6 and hopefully 02 with relativiley low miles (under 70k) That would be the ideal situation

GIVE EM' THE BIRD

iTrader: (1)

You experienced the 3 most notorious faults in an otherwise nice LS1 car haha.
Piston slap
Stripping nylon gear in headlight motor
And the heavy *** window with underpowered motor.

SCalla1384

Lmao well atleast I know. How bad is the piston slap? I know my dads 03 Mach gets it when its cold out.

Its not a big deal unless your a tool and start it up and beat on it while the motor is still cold right?

HoLLo

iTrader: (17)

The piston slap is normal, it was a way of making more gas efficient motors I believe. I havent heard an LS1 without a little piston slap. Good luck on snatching up that WS6, I know how you feel right now

Chaospartners

mine has piston slap like an sob when its sat for a few days and i start it, but it goes away really quick