Performance Modifications

Previously my combo was just a stock bottom end heads/cam car with nitrous. It worked well for what it was and ran a best of an 11.0 @ 128 mph blowing the tires off in 1st gear.  The engine had the rare ring issue and over bored cylinders from the factory so it used some oil and smoked at WOT and high RPM decel.  I tried to get the thing to blow up but never did accomplish that.  Instead I got bored with it and decided to change it up before I could blow the motor to bits.  Honestly I tried but I just couldn't get it to pop.  :)  Surprisingly enough the pistons/rings and bearings looked flawless when I pulled it apart. I thought for sure with the amount of smoke the car would blow at WOT and how much oil it consumed something would have been visibly wrong. The block itself looked fine, but when running your finger over the cylinder walls you could feel flat spots. It was time to move on.

After tuning and working on various turbo mustangs and LS1s over the past couple years I decided it was time to put one on my car. This is something I wanted to do myself, dropping my car off and just picking it up when it was done wouldn't be any fun.  All in all it wasn't bad at all and nothing was difficult, just time consuming.  Some things had to be cut, modified, and moved like most turbo installations in a car that wasn't intended for forced induction.  Everything with this setup I was trying to follow the KISS theory.  I wanted to relocate the minimum amount of shit in the car and keep things as factory as possible along with easy maintenance, like plug changes, oil changes, and easy access to just about everything all while making decent power.  Sounds easy right? :)

Here is just a quick break down of my current setup...

• Forged 347ci 8.4:1 compression shortblock, AFR 225 heads, and a custom Ed Curtis (Flowtech Induction) turbo cam
• TTi race turbo kit with an AGP custom T-76, custom 3.5" exhaust with two Dynatech Split-Flow mufflers, bigger Tial 60mm wastegate added to control boost better
• Used to be a T-56 car but now a Rossler TH400 w/transbrake, Neal Chance converter, Moser 12 bolt, Denny's driveshaft
• Nasty Performance sump tank, Magnafuel 625 pump, stainless braided lines, Nasty performance rails, Magnafuel regulator (click here for my 99+ install of a factory style single pump)
• BMR torque arm w/relocation crossmember, lower control arms, panhard rod, sub frames, k-member, QA1-R shocks up front, QA1 shocks rear, drop brackets, Spohn drag anti roll bar, 6 pt Wolfe Racecraft cage

The TTi race kit installed fairly easily with just a few minor bumps in the road.  I had to bend and trim a few spots on the frame where the lines ran to prevent them from chaffing and to prevent some fittings from hitting.  I had to trim the bumper fog light hole right at the intercooler so the bumper cover would fit back on properly.  I had to slightly bend the upper rail of the radiator and upper support rail to get clearance for the cold side pipe and cut a section out of the middle after the BOV for the stock MAF so I can pass emissions.  My pipe going from the turbo to the intercooler has a reduction to go on the turbo outlet (2.5") that comes with the kit and since I had a custom turbo done it needs to be cut off and a larger 3" inlet welded in it's place.  I got a generic overflow tank that I had to mount since the water tank for the intercooler sits where the stock one was.  The aftermarket airlid looked like it would fit perfect with some minor trimming to hide the piping and it works great.  Overall it was a nice kit and fairly easy to install considering the car was never designed for something like this.  TTi's customer service was also very good and I received the kit within 2 weeks of having my order go through.

Here are some motor build up and turbo install pictures, click on them for larger versions.  They kind of go in order through out this forever ongoing project.  Most recent pictures are at the end.

Here is a scan of the time slip and the video of my first 10 second pass with the turbo setup back in 06.  It was running on 10 psi with just plain old 91 octane in the tank racing my buddy in his 03 cobra with pulley, exhaust, tune and a 150 shot of nitrous.  It just spun through 1st gear with a horrible 1.7x 60' so it had a lot left in it with a dead hook and the good suspension that I have on it currently.

10.63 @ 132.8 mph time slip

10.63 @ 132.8 mph Video

Here is a picture of my last dyno graph on my medium boost level.  I knew what it was approximately before but it was nice to see some hard numbers.  This was on 16 psi with a 91 oct pump gas and 104 octane race gas mix and pretty conservative timing.

Here are just a few more older pictures of various parts of the car.