New Boss Owner

[t-ray]

Hi guys. I picked up a 2013 Boss (GHIG) a few weeks ago, Someone on reddit recommended I post here because this place still sees decent activity.

I had a 2011 5.0/brembo package for 9 years and 100k miles. I had things like the a/c go out on me (twice, both outside warranty), door panels peel off, hvac fans that didn't work, peeling paint. Lots of annoying but mostly superficial issues. I kept it stock, and never once had a problem mechanically. Even with the stock clutch and mt82. In fact, it had well over 100 1/4 passes on it, and did 12.17@114mph stock on drag radials.

Anyway, the Boss. It has ~120k miles. It has had two owners, and spent the first ~100k in Virginia. It still has the stock shifter (which is just borked and worn out), but I have a new mgw race spec awaiting installation. I swore this thing had an aftermarket clutch because the effort is way way WAY more than my 2011. But the pedal sticks to the floor at anything more than 4k rpms and 50% throttle ... so I guess I need to replace the clutch. Still researching that.

Outside of the shifting experience, I have two main areas that I want to improve: front end feel and brake response. I got rid of my 2011 in November of 2019, so my memory may be hazy, but I don't remember it feeling so vague. The front end of this car is hella floaty and the steering overly boosted. I've changed the steering feel to sport, but that's had very little impact. The car is on some economy tires from the dealer, so good rubber will help. But what my other options? Maybe some koni shocks.struts?

And what about the brakes? I have no idea what pads are on there now, and I can always go to a more aggressive pad, and do a full flush. Any other tricks to decrease pedal travel and help initial bite?

Thanks for the help.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Welcome back.. the Boss 302 is the high water mark for stick axle mustangs ( and some would say that is still true of all Mustangs) the gold standard for competition mustangs was the Phoenix Performance PWC car. So the blueprint is out there.
IMO, I would go over the front end and check for any worn parts first, same with the back end. Once that is settled you have several choices, you can dig up parts for the Boss 302 LS edition, purchase one of the rare but still around Ford Performance suspension packages, or try the Cortex version of
it.

Make sure your Boss has the correct parts in it, since it has 100K+ miles on it, they may have been replaced with standard mustang parts at some point,
rack and lower control arms come to mind.
Once you make sure all the parts are correct and in good shape, you can get a performance alignment, if you want to get a little more improvement, you cut the shock towers and use camber/ caster plates. Don't panic over cutting the shock towers, you can buy or borrow the jigs and it's really difficult to even notice by the untrained eye, but makes a great improvement, with the plates.
The next item would be a decent set of tires @Bill Pemberton would be the go to guy for that, along with some 10 inch wheels.
Feel free to look over project Superbeater for some ideas.