Stage 2 Three-Valve Heads & Camshafts - Three's A Crowd - Three-Valve HCE

Disconnect the fuel lines and remove the fuel rails and injectors to make it easier to gain access to the intake bolts. Have a rag handy to gather up any excess fuel from when you disconnect the fuel lines. The injectors will either come out with the fuel rails, or you'll have to remove them from the intake. Matt sets them aside to keep them from getting contaminated.

Matt then loosens the intake bolts to remove the intake from the engine. Since the engine already features a high-flow BBK throttle body we didn't need to replace the throttle body to reach our goals.

To dress up the Mustang's underhood and open up the intake, we chose a JLT Performance cold air kit. Of course, we had to have one painted to match, which JLT easily accommodates. The JLT kit consists of a painted intake pipe with a billet mass airflow housing, an S&B Powerstack filter, and a corresponding heat shield. Since we were going to have the car custom-tuned after these additions, we chose the just the CAI. Many of JLT's cold air kits are available with a handheld tuner, but in our case, we didn't need that option. We've proven and witnessed many a JLT kit making power, so we knew this addition would prove beneficial as well.

Next up, Matt removes the alternator, coolant crossover tube, and thermostat housing. He also removes all the idler pulleys from the front cover.

In order to remove the heads, the factory exhaust manifolds must come off. They won't go back on, however, as we are adding ARH long-tube headers and a corresponding X-shape crossover. Since accessing the manifold bolts isn't the easiest task, Matt will leave the manifolds attached to help lift the heads off the engine.

Back up top, Matt removes the valve ... I mean, cam covers. The cam covers also attach to the front cover so they need to be removed so the front cover can be removed as well.

Now Matt can remove the front cover to expose the timing chains, guides, and all that mess.

Before removing the timing chains, Matt sets the crank sprocket where it'll be easier to make sure the engine is timed correctly when it goes back together. Making sure the engine is timed correctly is a huge step with a modular engine. There are so many moving parts that if something isn't moving at the right time, there will be wallet-emptying results.

Finally, Matt can remove the heads. It's a lot of work just to get to this point. If this were a pushrod engine, we'd have the thing back together by now!