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Will hung out and helped GTR... Will hung out and helped GTR lead tech Chris Balster drop the new bullet between the GT's fenders. Once the engine was in place, the rest of the drivetrain (transmission, driveshaft) was bolted on below the car. We'll talk more about our experience on the Mojave Mile in our upcoming special issue, focusing on '94-'04 Mustangs, which should be appearing at your local newsstand in August 2010. For now, the following photos, captions, and dyno information will give you a better understanding of the new powerplant that came together over an intense, 28-day thrash. Of course, KJ would pick the shortest month of the year for this type of project, which would not have been possible without the wonderful assistance and cooperative efforts of Crystal Jones, A.R.E. Performance & Machine, the staff at GTR High Performance, and Greg Monroe of Racers Edge Tuning. Rocco recommends using Royal... Rocco recommends using Royal Purple's XPR 5W30 engine oil for high-rev/big-boost, supercharged applications like ours. To complete the Royal Purple package, we're also counting on the company's new 20-820 oil filter to keep the fluid clean between maintenance periods. We're also adding a few gallons of Evans Cooling Systems' NPG+ coolant to the radiator to ensure the new engine keeps its cool at all times.
Because of our project 'Stang's all-purpose persona, we decided to create three separate SCT calibrations using a blower pulley that would work well under daily driving conditions and on the dragstrip, and ultimately the Mojave Mile. "Street" is the first program that our friend Greg Monroe of Racers Edge Tuning developed. The tune is based on our intentions of staying below a 7,000-rpm shift point and primarily using 91-octane fuel. If you look closely at the data, you'll see that boost (PSI) seems to hit a wall at 11.90-and late in the run-which is something that we didn't understand because our calculations (based on pulley sizes and engine speed) showed it should be higher with the 4.75-inch pulley we initially installed. Yes, 4.75-inch does seem like an incredibly big blower pulley. However, when you do the math, the size is theoretically excellent for achieving superior street power for a Two-Valve, 4.6-liter engine, and we figured it would work great on the Mojave Mile, too. However, for our project, it was clear that more boost was necessary, so the 4.75-inch pulley was swapped for a 4.50-inch wheel. Once again, we hit the Dynojet chassis dyno with confidence that we'd see a significant improvement, but we were greeted with pretty much no improvement at all. Horsepower peaked at 518 (454 lb-ft of torque) and the boost gain was minimal at best. The blower's new independent-drive... The blower's new independent-drive setup requires using this ATI Performance Torsional Super Damper (PN 918039; $415), which can be ordered with the House of Boost 2VR system. The damper is designed with an OEM-style six-rib groove pattern along its outside diameter, and accepts the new HOB 8-inch, eight-rib crankshaft pulley that will drive the supercharger. A call to Dorian Comeau at House of Boost brought about a suggestion to remove the stainless-steel mesh filter that he placed in front of the F-1C's inlet. With only that one change made, the ProCharger literally came to life and brought power up to 604 at the feet with 511 lb-ft of torque. With everyone breathing easier now (KJ included), Greg then built a second program, Street/Strip, that will be used for our dragstrip outings. Street/Strip has a higher shift point/redline and 17 degrees of timing. Our final tune is Mohave Mile. It's the calibration that Greg put together for the GT to sustain WOT through the course of a measured mile, or the amount of time it should take our Pony to cover that distance. With the race tune (using VP's VP100 fuel), 5 percent more fuel was added across the top portion of the run, and timing was dropped back to 13 degrees. "The Mojave Mile tune should richen air/fuel to about 11.0," says Greg. "That will be plenty rich enough to keep everything together." With the engine lowered into... With the engine lowered into the 'Stang and ready for installation of the supercharger, Chris finishes the top portion of the engine by bolting on the Trick Flow Track Heat intake manifold (PN 518B0002; $799.95) and 70mm throttle body, Fore Precision Works fuel rails (PN 0053-101; $185), and Ford Racing Performance Parts 80-lb/hr fuel injectors (PN M-9593-LU80). Our new engine setup is returned to running factory accessories on a six-rib serpentine belt. Thanks go out to both GTR and AMP Performance in Phoenix, Arizona, for helping out with the replacement OEM pulleys that were necessary for the conversion from eight-rib. "The Abaco DBX 85mm MAF is excellent. It's great," says Greg. "This engine will easily zing beyond 7,500 rpm, with a clean and smooth power curve. With the DBX, I saw only saw 730 total MAF counts for my Street tune and 820 on Street/Strip. With SCT's tuning software, 1,023 counts are available before a MAF is considered 'pegged' at 5 volts, so there's absolutely no need to use a MAFia to expand the voltage range, or a bigger meter." "Having the ability to calibrate the meter to support almost any injector flow rate is awesome. Once KJ set the DBX up with a base calibration (for 80-lb/hr injectors), all I needed to do was make slight fueling adjustments in each stage of our tuning session, and we only played with timing to see where the window is for pump gas." House of Boost's chief engineer,... House of Boost's chief engineer, Dorian Comeau, made the trip from frosty Kansas to personally install his company's new supercharger bracket assembly and the ProCharger F-1C head unit that we're upgrading to. The 2VR is the industry's first dedicated eight-rib-supercharger-drive system for Two-Valve modular engines, and we believe it will be the stop-all/end-all cure for any belt issues. "It's cool that you can now buy 100-octane fuel at the pump. Here in California we really need it, especially for maximizing higher-end street Mustangs. With the VP100 fuel, and since there's plenty of counts left on the table for making a lot more power when more boost and timing are added to this Mustang's engine, it will be cool to see where we finally max out at powerwise and still keep the car driveable-with a good idle and good in-traffic/slow-speed manners. It will be really easy to do this with the DBX, boost, and octane." Unfortunately, we were not able to dyno tune and test the combination with an even-smaller (4.25-inch) blower pulley before hitting the Mojave Mile. We plan to revisit the dyno with the smaller wheel installed, and hopefully with a correction made to our radiator-restricted inlet airflow situation, and then have Greg go about making a series of new PCM calibrations that are based on boost coming in a lot sooner and in much-greater volume.
| Street | Street/Strip |
| RPM | HP | TQ | A/F | PSI | HP | TQ | A/F | PSI |
| 3,000 | 159.88 | 279.90 | 12.09 | 1.63 | 167.56 | 293.34 | 11.20 | 4.22 |
| 3,500 | 208.76 | 313.25 | 12.05 | 3.30 | 220.10 | 330.28 | 11.40 | 6.18 |
| 4,000 | 264.85 | 347.74 | 12.13 | 4.24 | 292.40 | 383.89 | 12.06 | 7.78 |
| 4,500 | 325.47 | 379.86 | 11.76 | 6.60 | 364.61 | 425.52 | 11.77 | 9.69 |
| 5,000 | 374.36 | 393.21 | 11.36 | 7.71 | 439.02 | 461.14 | 11.32 | 11.95 |
| 5,500 | 432.77 | 413.30 | 11.40 | 8.58 | 509.56 | 486.58 | 10.99 | 14.59 |
| 6,000 | 473.83 | 414.77 | 11.39 | 10.80 | 579.94 | 507.66 | 11.35 | 16.13 |
| 6,500 | 491.81 | 397.40 | 11.73 | 11.00 | 606.53 | 490.11 | 11.41 | 18.24 |
| 7,000 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 584.29 | 438.41 | 11.65 | 18.87 |
| Mojave Mile | Difference |
| RPM | HP | TQ | A/F | PSI | HP | TQ | A/F | PSI |
| 3,000 | 166.20 | 290.97 | 11.12 | 4.20 | 6.32 | 11.07 | -0.97 | 2.57 |
| 3,500 | 223.19 | 334.91 | 11.39 | 5.82 | 14.43 | 21.66 | -0.66 | 2.52 |
| 4,000 | 295.93 | 388.54 | 11.91 | 7.25 | 31.08 | 40.80 | -0.22 | 3.01 |
| 4,500 | 369.26 | 430.97 | 11.79 | 9.86 | 43.79 | 51.11 | 0.03 | 3.26 |
| 5,000 | 444.03 | 466.40 | 11.40 | 11.45 | 69.67 | 73.19 | 0.04 | 3.74 |
| 5,500 | 514.59 | 491.39 | 11.20 | 13.43 | 81.82 | 78.09 | -0.20 | 4.85 |
| 6,000 | 583.81 | 511.06 | 11.25 | 15.95 | 109.98 | 96.29 | -0.14 | 5.15 |
| 6,500 | 627.15 | 506.77 | 11.73 | 17.67 | 135.34 | 109.37 | 0.00 | 6.67 |
| 7,000 | 584.73 | 438.74 | 11.63 | 18.75 | 584.73 | 438.74 | 11.63 | 18.75 |
The crew at GTR High Performance... The crew at GTR High Performance (left to right: technician Elisseos Patronas, co-owner Gonzalo Topete, co-owner Ricardo Topete [not shown], and lead technician Chris Balster) put in the extra-late hours to ensure our project would be ready to rock by our end-of-February deadline.
All of the editors at 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords, past and present, have been involved with building or upgrading "project cars" at some time or another. The special projects basically come with the territory of working at one of the leading Mustang enthusiasts' magazines in the world. In most cases, our project 'Stangs are usually built with the help of several aftermarket manufacturers, who provide products for a build, and the staffs of Mustang shops that we're associated with, such as Extreme Automotive, B&D Racing, Paul's High Performance, A.R.E. Performance & Machine, AMP Performance, Lethal Performance, and MV Performance. GTR High Peformance in Rancho Cucamonga, California, is the facility we called on for help with getting our '02 Mustang GT ready for the Mojave Mile endurance event in early March of 2010. As usual, co-owners Ricardo and Gonzalo Topete and their staff were gracious in accommodating us for the makeover -- in some instances, making major changes in their shop's scheduling to ensure our ride would be ready to rock in the short 10-day deadline that we had for completing all of the upgrades on the car. GTR kept the lights on late for us, and we want everyone to know that we appreciate all of their dedication to the project. (Other aspects of the revamp will be discussed in the upcoming report on our Mojave Mile experience, which will appear in 1994-2004 Mustang Performance, available at newsstands in August 2010.)  Dorian says he designed the...  Dorian says he designed the 2VR to be an easy bolt-on upgrade for any existing supercharger system. There are no severe modifications required for installing this system, save for an air-conditioning line (if you want to keep you're A/C), which can be purchased with the brackets as an option.  ProCharger's Jeff Lacina posed...  ProCharger's Jeff Lacina posed the question: "Will that engine move some air or what?!" Our "yes" answer resulted in a decision to advance beyond the F-1A supercharger and install a slightly larger F-1C head unit on the Aluminator. While it's not likely we'll utilize all 38 psi of boost that this unit can create (the F-1C can support as much as 1,225 hp, 125 more ponies than an F-1A), we're sure that its larger inducer, volute diameters, and enhanced flow volume will bring on a ton of boost for our Two-Valve engine, and contribute to power and torque gains that are on-par with, and in some instances, greater than larger displacement and Four-Valve modulars with power adders. Enthusiasts tend to think that impeller diameter actually determines the size of the blower, which is incorrect. We opened up our F-1C to show you its impeller. Yes, it is big, but the area between two vanes-from tip-to-tip-is actually the criteria that's used to determine the blower's ability to move air.  This is the 2VR in fully installed...  This is the 2VR in fully installed fashion, with the driver and passenger-side base brackets, and "bridge" (spans across the front of the engine and holds the supercharger) bracket installed. By moving the supercharger belt onto its own circuit, the alternator must be inverted. During this project we learned quite a bit about using stock alternators, something we'll discuss a bit more later on in this report.  Here's a close look at the...  Here's a close look at the primary belt tensioners in the 2VR setup. Tension for the six-rib accessory belt is mechanically adjusted, but the eight-rib blower belt gets its tension through a heavy-duty piece that comes directly from the Kenworth Truck's part department. The spring tensioner, which also can be found on big-rig truck engines, uses a rotary cup that allows it to be clocked (rotated using a 1/2-inch breaker bar) and locked in an infinite number of positions for maximum belt tightnesss and total elimination of slippage.  Dorian sets a new 3-inch race...  Dorian sets a new 3-inch race intercooler in position in behind the front fascia of our '02 Mustang GT. The three-core unit from ProCharger measures 27x12.5x3-inch and easily supports more than 950 rwhp. All of the original 3-inch tubing from the intercooler to the throttle body is retained for this application. The only slight modifications necessary are in the tubes that run from the supercharger to the intercooler. House of Boost carries all of the tubing (including 3.5-inch pipes that further-improve airflow) to make installing this entire system a DIY project.  After seeing Abaco's DBX digital...  After seeing Abaco's DBX digital mass-air meters in action back in 2009, we honestly couldn't wait for a good opportunity to use one for one of our own high-horsepower blow-through supercharger applications. The 85mm unit we selected (PN DBX85; $379) is a multi-sensor digital mass air meter that allows you to select 10 different mass-air calibrations by simply turning a screwdriver. The meter is capable of quickly responding to rapid airflow changes in one direction, and has filters that block out camshaft reversion and pressure surge from the F-1C that typically can lead to erratic mass-airflow-sensor counts (in the engine's tune) at idle and throughout the power band, ruining driveability. As we learned in our time spent with DBX expert Rick Anderson of Anderson Ford Motorsport, this new meter puts all of those problems to rest.  Since the new valve covers...  Since the new valve covers are not made with any provision for PCV, we're using this Moroso breather tank (PN 85465; $76.99), which has been outfitted with two AN -12 male fittings to catch oil vapor that is vented through similar fittings in the valve covers that were installed when the engine was assembled. Although the breather tank is made with one AN -12 male fitting attached to its side, additional fittings (PN 22715) can be added accordingly by a good fabricator.  Take away the shininess and...  Take away the shininess and our Mustang's engine almost looks like a stocker with a blower ... OK, a big blower, but you know what we mean. The only somewhat-limiting issue we encountered is the small amount of clearance between the supercharger's inlet and our Pony's Fluidyne radiator. House of Boost designed its 2VR brackets on a Two-Valve Mustang with a stock radiator, which provides more-than-enough space for plumbing a large inlet tube into the blower. With our blower being installed as blow-through (where air is pulled into the blower, and then supercharged air is discharged and runs through an intercooler and then blown through the mass air and into throttle body), we definitely plan on investigating new radiator options that will correct this problem and allow more air to be fed into the blower.  How's that for weight saving?...  How's that for weight saving? When it's all said and done, our conversion to an all-aluminum engine knocked 100 pounds (once again, rounding up by one pound) off our project Mustang's weight. Couple that with your tech editor's efforts to shed a few pounds, and we may have a 'Stang that will absolutely fly across the Mojave Mile.
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