Nitrous isnt the route im going. I know if its properly set up that its not that unsafe, but... its not for me. I rather have a gain all across the board than just under WOT when I hit a switch.
Well I guess my path would be an all out bolt on assault, haha.
How would longtubes, an o/r mid pipe, catback, intake (allready got it), plenum/75mm TB, u/d pullies, and a tune stack up? Is that low 13 second territory yet, assuming traction is there?
If that isnt enough... ive been eying the Typhoon intake manifolds, they seem pretty nice. I read they put a gain of around 25hp out on a stock 4.6 in 5.0 and Super Fords mag.
25rwhp with tb/plenum added at the same time... on a high compression, fully-built 4.6L with a fat-ass set of cams in it
If you really pick the dyno apart, the typhoon intake only gains 7rwhp at most.. Waste of money, imo.. I'll keep my plastic stocker and only replace it with a KB upper/lower
I went with the mongoose kit reason is a blown car is alot of fun on the street but honestly you can run low 13's with decent suspension slicks good clutch and minor bolt ons like jlt rai good exhaust and good tune. I have 360 rwhp ever since my last tune and i my buddy has a 2002 gt with tubular front suspension coilovers, LCA's drag bags mickey tees engine is bone stock he just has a midpipe and catback and with out his nitrous (50 shot) its really close on the nitrous hes gone mostly because of his launch. You will always have to sacrafice something, he sacraficed his ride and saved a-lot of money also he has the temptation of the nitrous, my power is always there my car rides nearly stock but i get 13 mpg city and 22 highway you gotta pay to play, also once you run 13's you want 12's then 11's its addicting i regret modding my car without having a daily driver.
The idea behind this stocker GT is pretty simple. How difficult would it be to take this HEAVY stock 99 GT (AUTOMATIC) into the 12's without digging into the engine. There are a lot of short cuts to drop ET but for now I am going to focus on taking full advantage of the power this mustang is providing. I am going to try to avoid removing the interior and I am hoping to leave this GT looking as stock as possible. The 99 I am working with is a fully loaded car. It has leather, air, a CD player, and even an automatic. I chose to go with an auto because back in 1998 I had good luck with a stock 5.0 coupe. I took that car to a 13.1 with the stock longblock and 12.9 with the addition of a cobra intake. This wont happen over night so check back often for updates.
4/27/03 14.20@97 2.18 60ft
The GT weighed in at a 3,500 lb. race weight on the way to the track. At this point the GT was absolutely show room stock although I did remove the intake silencer. I did not even put a K&N on the car. After driving 60 minutes to the track the lanes were already open so I decided to go straight up and run before even finding a parking place in the pits. The GT went 14.48@95.5 mph leaving the shifter in drive. After a 1/2 hour cool down I shifted the GT at 5,900 rpms to a 14.28 and a 14.20 @ 96.8 mph. I was really happy with a 14.20 in factory stock form. At this point I am feeling the 260 horsepower 4.6L engine has decent potential.
Weight: 3,500 lbs
Modifications: Removed air silencer
10/15/03 13.96@98.3 2.02 60ft
Yes the date here is correct. As you read down you may wonder why I had more mods a few months back. I removed a few parts because I was considering selling the 99 to better focus on another project but one thing led to another and now it is getting a blower put on it. So while I had some parts off I thought it would be a good time to run it to see if it would stay in the 13's. The car was full weight on drag radials shifted at around 5900 rpm's. Traction was not an issue with the STOCK CONVERTER in the car. This again shows how great the 4.6 Mustang is. Just go try this with a stock converter 5.0 AOD at 3,500 lbs....
Weight: 3,500 lbs
New Modifications:
4.10 gears
Custom Chip (advanced timing and improved shift firmness)
STOCK AIR FILTER
5/25 13.46@99 1.817 60ft
The first parts that need addressed were the stock converter and gears. The car originally came with 3.27's but a quick swap to 4.10's really helped the car out of the hole. The major ET dropper though was the stallion converter. These converters are very expensive but for what mods this car has, or should I say does not have, the ET speaks for itself. I ran a 13.46, 13.47, and a 13.48 so I would say at this point the car is a solid 13.40 ride. All shifts were made at 6,000 rpm's. The MPH is pretty low but this may be because I am locking the converter in at WOT at 4500 rpm's in second. This could actually be hurting my ET because it is locked for the entire 3rd gear pull. I have heard good and bad things about doing this but being my first time actually having the capability to lock the converter I will have to do more testing to find out for sure.
Weight: 3,500 lbs
New Modifications
Stallion 3,200 stall converter
4.10 gears
BBK off road X-pipe
Steeda Pulleys
Air Intake System
BFG 275/40/17 Drag Radial Tires
Custom Chip to correct the speedo and control shifting
6/6/03 The GT rolls the dyno drums
Before I went any further with the GT's modifications I wanted to get a good baseline HP after it ran 13.4@99mph. The engine stock is rated at 260 HP which calculates to around 205 HP at the rear wheels. In reality I believe the stock engine is really near 270 than the rated 260. Most guys dyno stock at around 216 rwhp and with such little modifications I was predicting the GT would produce around 230 at the rear wheels. When on the dyno normally the first pull will just clean the carbon out of the engine and then a second pull is made immediately after the first. The second pull would produce better numbers then we would cool the engine down for 15 minutes and make a 3rd pull which should be the best set of numbers of the 3 runs. The third and final run did produce the best numbers...
236 Rear Wheel Horsepower with 274 ft. lbs. of torque. 236 at the rears is around 301 H.P. at the engine. An expert at Ford said that the GT will produce a 20 to 23% drivetrain loss. So to date we have increased the GT's power by 41 horsepower which is a decent amount for just adding pulleys, air intake, tune, and an X-pipe. I have put a 5.0 coupe to 12.9@104.6 with 236 RWHP/268TQ but it was 400 pounds lighter. If the GT were 400 pounds lighter I could do the same but with leather, A/C, and not one piece of weight stripped from the ride I am not complaining.
7/20/03 13.42@100.5 1.87 60 ft.
A recent issue of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords had an article on porting the stock upper intake. This article claimed they found almost 10 RWHP with this simple modification. Always one to try a free mod we removed the stock upper and inspected its design. The center of the runner did actually neck down and looked restricted. Brent Baker spent around 3 hours porting the center section of the runner and shaped the radius so the air could pass through the intake with less restriction. One other modification that was made at the same time was the addition of Mobile 1 synthetic oil.
The results of the synthetic oil and ported upper were positive. We took the GT to the strip 2 time in a 3 day period and it never ran less than 100 MPH. The last time at the strip the GT only ran 99 MPH one time and several 98 MPH runs. The air was very bad when running the new mods and the GT was 60 footing the slowest it ever has. We ran our best MPH and our best ET yet with a slower 60 foot. If we could have ran the same short time as we did on 5/25 we would have went at least 13.3 if not a 13.2.
New Modifications:
Mobile 1 5W30 Synthetic Oil
Mildly ported stock upper intake
8/17/03 Is a 12.99 Possible? In Short....Yes.
The 99+ 4.6 Automatic GT's have major potential. The one factor that plays the major role of keeping the GT in the 13's is the weight. A 3500 lb. car is a sled compared to the old 5.0's. Below I have listed what I feel would put the 99+ cars into the 12's with the addition of the modifications I have performed above.
Slim Fast Diet
Not in-expensive but a diet of 200 lbs., Weld rims, and full long tube exhaust would put the GT into the 12's. To achieve a 200 lb. weight reduction would be expensive or you could sacrifice street car amenities. A tubular K-member will drop at least 60 pounds off the front of the car and a switch to aluminum rims will definitely help. Add the addition of long tube headers and a catback and you will go 12.80 in decent air.
Bye Bye Stock Valve Body
Maybe a tubular K-member is not your style. Enter the trans-brake. The next recipe for the 12 second run would include slicks, full long tube exhaust, and a trans-brake. Launching the car with a T-brake would drop the 60 foot down a couple more tenths and it is possible that the addition of 4.30 gears may be necessary. Your stock axles may or may not last so an upgrade is recommended.
The two above options would be key for a successful 12 second stock engine GT. I believe you could achieve 12's with either combination without the use of a ported intake.