V-6 Performance Package Bolt-Ons

The baseline runs were made on Superchips’ Maha two-roller chassis dyno. Stock number was 114 hp at 4,200 rpm. Lori’s car has an automatic transmission, by the way.

The first step in installing the Kenne Bell ram air kit is to cut the stock rubber spoiler as shown in the instructions. An 8-inch section must be removed to make room for the scoop.

This is how the scoop is oriented, and it’s held in place with two bolts and nuts. Put it in position, mark where the holes are, then remove the scoop and drill two 3/8-inch holes in the bumper cover.

Attach the plastic ducting to the scoop and feed it up inside the fender, then bolt the scoop to the underside of the bumper cover.

Pull the ducting up through the fender and into the engine compartment, and attach it with the supplied hose clamp to the Kenne Bell air box. A K&N conical filter is included in the kit. It attaches to the mass air meter with a big hose clamp, then it all goes together.

The air box is held to the mass air meter with two springs. It’s not a real secure fit, and it requires some juggling to make it all fit together with any confidence.

The California Mustang underdriven crank pulley (right) is significantly smaller than stock, to free up some parasitic loss through the accessories. It only took about five minutes to install. Make sure to use Loctite on the four bolts holding it to the crank.

You’ll be hard-pressed to get the alternator nut off without an impact wrench. With an impact, you can just grab the pulley by hand and the wrench will shock the nut loose.

The pulleys come with a shorter belt. It’s a Gates PN K060960, in case you’re wondering.

The dual exhaust system that California Mustang sent us uses two Walker DynoMax turbo mufflers, 2-1/2-inch pipes, and chrome tailpipes.

The stock pipe measured a really wimpy 1-7/8-inch. Man, that sucks!

Here’s the stock Y-pipe, which connects the twin catalytic converters to the single stock muffler. This Y-pipe must be cut off and the new pipes welded to it.

The first step is to remove the stock exhaust from the Y-pipe back. As with any Mustang, this entails cutting the pipe just ahead of the rearend.

Since we’re installing two pipes where there was originally only one, new hangers must be used. Thankfully, they’re included in the California Mustang kit.

We held the mufflers and tailpipes in position with a jack and a piece of 2x4, then held the H-pipe pieces up to see where we’d have to cut the stock Y-pipe. Measure twice, cut once, is the motto here.

Once we were sure we had everything mocked up where it would fit, we cut the Y-pipe as shown. Then began the process of slipping it together and adjusting it for a perfect fit.

We couldn’t figure out why, but the H-pipe had a slight bend in it where it went into the muffler. This put the muffler solidly into the floor pan, which is not good. After a lot more measuring, we cut the curved part off and slipped the muffler over the pipe. It fit, but it’s still a bit tight.

CFM spent a good hour moving everything around by hand to make sure that the exhaust wouldn’t hit, rub, or rattle, then welded it together. The system was clamped to the cat pipe, welded to the mufflers, and clamped at the tailpipes so it can be removed without too much effort if the trans ever needs to be pulled.

The finished installation fits very well.

Lori’s diggin’ the big chrome tailpipes and raucous sounds of her new turbo mufflers.

With CFM’s bolt-on work done, we drove the black bomb back to Superchips for some computer tweaking. The first step was to remove the computer from behind the passenger’s side kick panel and note the code on the computer (arrow). If you’re ordering a chip, you’ll need this code before getting on the phone.

To install the chip, you must remove the cover plate, which is easy. The contacts (arrow) are there to program the computer at the factory, and this is where the aftermarket chip connects. The contacts are covered in grease, and with a clearcoat paint that must be removed in order for the chip to make contact. After wiping the grease off with a rag, Superchips used a screwdriver to scrape the clearcoat off the contacts, and cleaned it up with some lacquer thinner.

The main parameters that are changed with a Superchips chip are the ignition curve and the fuel map. This computer screen shows the code in the EEC computer; the dark areas show where the timing (in this case) has been altered from stock.

Back on the dyno, we were stumped. The Superchips chip was only worth a single horsepower, even after a few hours of tuning and testing. In tests on a bone-stock V-6, they’ve seen as much as 10 hp and 20 lb-ft of torque. For some reason, our car just didn’t respond as well.

We wanted to find out just how much power a stock V-6 Mustang made, and how it would respond to the simplest of bolt-ons. After all, people buy these cars for economic reasons (why else would they?), so most are not keen to drop three grand on a blower, and custom engine work is completely out of the question. So for the majority of folks, it’s limited to easy, relatively inexpensive bolt-ons.

We stole the keys to our ad coordinator Lori Sharp’s ’97 V-6 Mustang and proceeded to throw some parts at it and see what it had. California Mustang has special V-6 packages, so they were the perfect choice to work with. We ordered a set of underdrive pulleys, a dual exhaust system to replace the limp-wristed single exhaust, and a Kenne Bell ram air system. Central Florida Motorsport graciously volunteered to install the stuff for us, and Superchips did the dyno work, as well as burning a custom chip to get the most out of the car after the mods.

Was the effort worth it? Well, we gained 10 hp, and Lori claims that the car feels much quicker. We couldn’t tell if it was quicker (it still felt slow compared to our 5.0s), but she’s convinced it’s faster. One thing’s certain, it sure sounds better. And one thing to consider: While 10 hp won’t set the world on fire, consider that the rear-wheel horsepower (rwhp) went from 114 stock to 124 after the mods, a 9-percent increase. That’s the equivalent of a 190-rwhp 5.0 picking up 17 hp.