Okay, so I've had some time to actually spend some miles with the car after a flurry of Black Friday mods are now in. Here are some thoughts, reviews, lessons learned, recommendations, etc.
1) ARH long tube headers (2"), full exhaust system. Don't do it. Don't even think about doing this yourself. If you do decide to knock it out yourself (and save the $1k+ installation costs) then just drop the K-member and pay for a realignment afterward.
Not only is swapping headers on any modern car a PITA, but with the 350 and all the additional cooler lines, etc, it's even more crowded.
I went with Stage 8 locking header bolts (bought from Kooks, see other thread) and the tabs and clips add another level of frustration and misery. Unless you have small, child like hands or you're true calling in life was to be a surgeon, it's insanely difficult and time consuming to lay under a car and try to blindly work locking tabs/clips onto header bolts.
At the end of the day, it turned out fine, but in hind sight, I should have just paid to have this done. Once you're 10% of the way into it and you realize this however, you're already committed and it's too late.
1.B) The system sounds incredible. One thing that is noteworthy is that the sound level is actually more quiet than the stock system when at low rpms or no engine load, but once you throttle or under load, it is INSANELY loud. As in, one of the loudest exhaust systems I've heard, let alone owned. I took a friend out for a drive and he commented on how ridiculously loud it is. And you know if it's loud from inside the car with the windows down, that outside behind the car is even louder.
2). MGW shifter. This shifter/install was not only more expensive than what I'm accustomed to, it was a PITA to install. You get a lot of youtube vids with guys commenting about the stock 350 shifter and how great it is (I think most of these guys never experienced a quality aftermarket shifter). The stock 350 shifter is just okay. It's not total garbage (like most mustang shifters) but it ain't great either. The MGW simply upgrades the shifter experience to what all of us who are used to after market shifters expect. I purchased the gripper ball with the old school (previous) 350 stainless steel topper (you have to ask for it intentionally as MGW stopped offering it). Shifts are now precise, intentional and give a ton of confidence I'm in the gear I wanted to be in.
3) Sequential Brake Lights, 4th Brake Light, LED side marker and interior LED lights. The LED side markers make a big improvement and the 4th brake light is kinda cool (but something I don't get to see/experience other than arming/disarming the car). The sequential brake/hazards is probably not worth the $72. The interior LEDs is kinda meh, take it or leave it. I didn't really have enough time to experience the stock bulbs and whether or not this makes a difference.
4) Floor mats. I went with the Chinese "maxpider" floor mats as I wanted something more sturdy and robust than even aftermarket pile mats and yet, didn't want the look of a pickup truck with the weather tech. There's a couple of different versions of the other laser molded poly mats, but they look great and fit very nicely. I also used to get really frustrated that the stock driver's floor mat would always come disconnected from the two floor fasteners. Now the entire mat is one piece and this is definitely a mod well worth it.
5) Escort Max 360 with mirror mount. So I spent a TON of time researching radar detectors and went with the Max because A) I absolutely HAVE to have a radar with two antennae (front and rear) to give directional information and B) The Max offers some refinements and features that the Valentine does not. Valentine's patent on the directional indicators expired. I owned and loved a V1 for many years. I'm getting used to the new 360, but I love the fact that it doesn't produce an alert unless you're above the speed limit. There's other features that are nice too, but we could spend an entire thread about this subject. The mirror mount is a must if you want a clean looking, hassle free setup.
6) N Guage with the in dash vent mount. I went with a Lund racing can tune for the JLT intake and long tubes. The car sounds very grumpy at cold start, and the timing runs out beyond 30 degrees, and I have no way of knowing how much power/torque I picked up. There's plenty of vids on the N guage and what not already. My only noteworthy addition is that the 350 has a manifold in the dash behind the two stock gauges that routes air to the two remaining vents. I'm in FL, so I haven't turned on the heater as of yet, and only run A/C. The manifold channels air directly onto the N-guage, so if you're somewhere that you run heat a lot, this would probably need to be modified to keep the N-Guage from getting too hot.
7) Steeda IRS braces. Easy to install. Haven't really noticed a difference yet. People in youtube vids swear they make a difference. Who knows.
8) Splitter Savers. Only did this mod because after crawling under the car to do all the header work, discovered that the hex screws in the front of the splitter were slightly worn (and corroding). You should check your fasteners. Once the heads are scraped, they corrode faster and a couple of them were almost to the point where I would have needed to drill and tap to remove.
1) ARH long tube headers (2"), full exhaust system. Don't do it. Don't even think about doing this yourself. If you do decide to knock it out yourself (and save the $1k+ installation costs) then just drop the K-member and pay for a realignment afterward.
Not only is swapping headers on any modern car a PITA, but with the 350 and all the additional cooler lines, etc, it's even more crowded.
I went with Stage 8 locking header bolts (bought from Kooks, see other thread) and the tabs and clips add another level of frustration and misery. Unless you have small, child like hands or you're true calling in life was to be a surgeon, it's insanely difficult and time consuming to lay under a car and try to blindly work locking tabs/clips onto header bolts.
At the end of the day, it turned out fine, but in hind sight, I should have just paid to have this done. Once you're 10% of the way into it and you realize this however, you're already committed and it's too late.
1.B) The system sounds incredible. One thing that is noteworthy is that the sound level is actually more quiet than the stock system when at low rpms or no engine load, but once you throttle or under load, it is INSANELY loud. As in, one of the loudest exhaust systems I've heard, let alone owned. I took a friend out for a drive and he commented on how ridiculously loud it is. And you know if it's loud from inside the car with the windows down, that outside behind the car is even louder.
2). MGW shifter. This shifter/install was not only more expensive than what I'm accustomed to, it was a PITA to install. You get a lot of youtube vids with guys commenting about the stock 350 shifter and how great it is (I think most of these guys never experienced a quality aftermarket shifter). The stock 350 shifter is just okay. It's not total garbage (like most mustang shifters) but it ain't great either. The MGW simply upgrades the shifter experience to what all of us who are used to after market shifters expect. I purchased the gripper ball with the old school (previous) 350 stainless steel topper (you have to ask for it intentionally as MGW stopped offering it). Shifts are now precise, intentional and give a ton of confidence I'm in the gear I wanted to be in.
3) Sequential Brake Lights, 4th Brake Light, LED side marker and interior LED lights. The LED side markers make a big improvement and the 4th brake light is kinda cool (but something I don't get to see/experience other than arming/disarming the car). The sequential brake/hazards is probably not worth the $72. The interior LEDs is kinda meh, take it or leave it. I didn't really have enough time to experience the stock bulbs and whether or not this makes a difference.
4) Floor mats. I went with the Chinese "maxpider" floor mats as I wanted something more sturdy and robust than even aftermarket pile mats and yet, didn't want the look of a pickup truck with the weather tech. There's a couple of different versions of the other laser molded poly mats, but they look great and fit very nicely. I also used to get really frustrated that the stock driver's floor mat would always come disconnected from the two floor fasteners. Now the entire mat is one piece and this is definitely a mod well worth it.
5) Escort Max 360 with mirror mount. So I spent a TON of time researching radar detectors and went with the Max because A) I absolutely HAVE to have a radar with two antennae (front and rear) to give directional information and B) The Max offers some refinements and features that the Valentine does not. Valentine's patent on the directional indicators expired. I owned and loved a V1 for many years. I'm getting used to the new 360, but I love the fact that it doesn't produce an alert unless you're above the speed limit. There's other features that are nice too, but we could spend an entire thread about this subject. The mirror mount is a must if you want a clean looking, hassle free setup.
6) N Guage with the in dash vent mount. I went with a Lund racing can tune for the JLT intake and long tubes. The car sounds very grumpy at cold start, and the timing runs out beyond 30 degrees, and I have no way of knowing how much power/torque I picked up. There's plenty of vids on the N guage and what not already. My only noteworthy addition is that the 350 has a manifold in the dash behind the two stock gauges that routes air to the two remaining vents. I'm in FL, so I haven't turned on the heater as of yet, and only run A/C. The manifold channels air directly onto the N-guage, so if you're somewhere that you run heat a lot, this would probably need to be modified to keep the N-Guage from getting too hot.
7) Steeda IRS braces. Easy to install. Haven't really noticed a difference yet. People in youtube vids swear they make a difference. Who knows.
8) Splitter Savers. Only did this mod because after crawling under the car to do all the header work, discovered that the hex screws in the front of the splitter were slightly worn (and corroding). You should check your fasteners. Once the heads are scraped, they corrode faster and a couple of them were almost to the point where I would have needed to drill and tap to remove.
I actually snapped off two different extension drives removing the stock cat flange nuts (which stripped the entire threading all the way until they came off. Luckily they didn't snap the studs. The nuts were HOT by the time I got them off. My car has less than 10k miles on it and the nuts were already seized up that bad on the flange studs.
