I'm new to the mustang world and have never moded any car. I have a V6
2006 stang. I've been thinking of getting a K&N filter possibly with a cold air intake kit. I've had several people mention to me that I'll get better performance if I do this. My question here is what type of performance are we talking about here? What difference will I see in gas milage. I know I might gain a few extra HP, but I'm conservative when it comes to how I drive so I'm not sure I'll really notice the extra HP anyway. I'm more interested in a better running engine and better milage. Are there other mods I should consider that maybe effect milage more than HP? Or are they pretty much both effected equally.
The typical small mods like better flowing filters, under drive pulleys, better flowing exhaust, roller rockers, etc will improve mileage by improving the efficiency of the engine or reducing parasitic drag and friction. It won't be drastic but it should be somewhat noticeable. This assumes you drive conservatively. Improving airflow into, and out of, a basically stock engine almost always improves gas mileage. Also, look into the under drive pulleys. They are a good bang for the buck mod that will also save gas.
Personally, my advice is to leave the car stock if an increase in horsepower isn't your main reason for the modifications. You will see a relatively small improvement in gas mileage (2%-5%)which, IMO, isn't worth the cost of the mods. Plus, these days, intake systems on newer cars are pretty efficient and you may gain nothing at all with an after market setup. You are probably better served by installing a more efficient exhaust system.
Before you buy anything, tally up the costs and figure how much gasoline that amount of money will buy you. With intake and exhaust mods you will spend about $400-$500 dollars at a minimum which is 3,500-4,000 miles worth of driving at 22 mpg. To recoupe that money from gas mileage improvements (assuming a 5% increase in mileage) means you would have to drive 80,000 mile to break even, cost wise. My advice, and personal experience, has shown me time and time again that modding a car is very rarely justified economically.
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