DoctorFeelGreat
Newbie

Looking around. Would buy used if someone had anything
Is this steering shaft mod particularly difficult to do? Or cheap? I'm a 20-year-old that works 50 to 60 hour weeksThe Kooks 3/4 length that SCP sells are the best off-the-shelf bolt-on, but they come with a price. 4.6 headers for SN95s also fit if you do the steering shaft mod.
I actually saw some jba shorties for a reasonable price but held off that way I could ask for some opinions. Glad I did. I also saw your name on the other Thunderbird forum and I appreciate the helpAvoid JBA shortys, or shortys in general.
cheaper and easier than the relocation.
I'd have to rip off the head for that right? Don't know if I have time for that one, this is my only carYou can port the stock manifolds and do better than the shortys. A member made ported stock manifolds an did very well, but Preston Died a few years back.Best option, much cheaper, is to get the sn95 longtubes, move #8 to the spot in bills pix, and go with it. cheaper and easier than the relocation.
So the intake is the real bottleneck here for the most part then?Skip the time and effort of porting of the stock manifolds. Back in the day a well-known community member ported stock manifolds which did help with raw flow numbers. However the exhaust flow is not the (initial) restriction on our powertrains, but rather the intake port design of the heads. As a result, headers (longer than shorties) are a much more worthwhile investment because of the benefits to scavenging they provide - all the more important on heavy cars like the MN12.
It's the port design in the heads, for the most part. Fix that (ported heads help a lot, TFS heads fixed the issue) and then you can start chasing the domino effect of new bottlenecks. This is why most bolt-ons have a relatively limited effect.So the intake is the real bottleneck here for the most part then?