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2008 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Afco Dual-Fan Heat Exchanger & Samco Silicone Hose Project Vapor TrailJoining The Fight Against Heat Soak With A Twin-Fan Heat Exchanger And Silicone Hoses From the October, 2010 issue of 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords By Steve Turner Photography by Steve Turner
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Here are the new bits designed... Here are the new bits designed to keep PVT cool: Afco's new Dual-Fan heat exchanger for Shelby GT500s, Blue Collar Performance's complete Samco silicone hose kit for Shelby GT500s, and a five-gallon bucket of BeCool's new BeCoolant. The hoses are exclusive to Blue Collar Performance at the moment because main man Ron Willim went to the trouble of sending a set of stock GT500 hoses to Samco, and paying the hefty, up-front tooling cost. Thanks Ron! Devoted followers of the 5.0&SF gospel know that since it was born two years ago (time flies) Project Vapor Trail, an '08 Shelby GT500, has seen a constant string of modifications. The goal has long been to create a mild-mannered but ultra-powerful 'Stang that looks great. In our last installment, PVT reached my arbitrary goal of surpassing 700 rear-wheel horsepower through the stock exhaust manifolds. The exact numbers were 706 hp and 701 lb-ft of torque, which is serious business for a street car burning wholesale-club 93-octane fuel. Our admiration goes out to Justin Starkey at VMP Tuning for the tuning and inlet science that allowed the goal to see fruition. However, if you read the story, you know that we attained this goal in idyllic Florida-in-January conditions. Once the weather warms up and gets wet, PVT will certainly slide back into the upper 600s. While we all know that cooler, denser air creates more horsepower, you might not know that the GT500's engine management will start reeling in timing to protect the boosted engine from detonation when things get toasty. Safe is good, but a hot engine with less timing is no recipe for maximum horsepower. Here's a comparison of the... Here's a comparison of the standard Afco heat exchanger (PN AFCOHE; $399.99) and the new dual-fan unit (PN AFCOHEDUAL; $669). As you can see, the new dual-fan unit is a bit taller than the standard dual-pass unit to accommodate the twin 10-inch Spal fans. To be exact, the dual fan unit is 113/8 inches tall, 26.25 inches wide, and 2 inches thick. The standard unit is 9x22.44x2 inches. As a result, the dual-fan unit yields 96 square inches of additional front-face area (298 versus 202 square inches.) over the standard dual-fan unit. Of course, the dual-fan unit also holds a lot more coolant than the stocker-170 percent more-which helps shed heat as well. "To give you an idea of where we are starting, stock spark (for '07-'09) is in the mid-teens at average temps. Depending on boost level, an aftermarket tune will have spark in the 20s (same goes for 2010s). "The 2010 has slightly less aggressive ACT retards," Justin said. "This is part of why stock cars vary so much in power output. If you were to dyno one on a super-cold day, its possible that the PCM will add timing and you'll run over 20 degrees of spark. On the flip side, if it's hot enough outside and the car is heat-soaked, spark can go down into the single-digit range. "When you're in the middle of a timing curve, 1 degree is roughly equal to 10 rwhp (the laws of diminishing returns apply here). So you can see how these approximately 10-degree timing swings result in stock GT500s making as low as 390 rwhp or as much as 480 rwhp." Both units are huge improvements... Both units are huge improvements over the stock single-pass heat exhanger. Here's a photo from the original install of the dual-pass Afco. Although obviously taller and thicker than the stocker, it's tough to show just how much taller and thicker. As mentioned before, the Afco measures 9 inches tall, 22.44 inches wide, and 2 inches thick, while the stock heat exchanger is only 6x23x1.25 inches. Even the standard Afco dwarfs the front-face area of the stock unit 202 to 138 square inches. So you can see why stock GT500s heat-soak so quickly. "I am often asked by customers considering boost upgrades whether they must upgrade the heat exchanger. The best way to look at it is the factory system was designed for factory boost (and the in-block intercooler is quite good). Factory systems are generally over-engineered alittle bit and tolerate small increases in boost," Justin adds. "For a street car that sees only short blasts of WOT for a few seconds at a time, the factory cooling system will work fine. However, for the same street car that sits in traffic with no airflow over the intercooler, there will be a big improvement in felt power when everything is kept cool with a fan-cooled heat exchanger." In order to ensure that the power doesn't slide back even further due to blower heat soak, I opted to upgrade the car's heat exchanger yet again. Having had good success with Afco's standard dual-pass heat exchanger, I was excited to try out the company's new twin-fan unit. While things were apart, it was an ideal time to install some Samco silicone hoses from Blue Collar Performance as well. So, I packed up PVT and headed over to VMP Tuning in Deltona, Florida, to document Justin Starkey performing the install.  Next Justin prepped the dual-fan...  Next Justin prepped the dual-fan heat exchanger with the required silicone isolator bushings; then it was just a matter of dropping in the new heat exchanger and bolting it up.....  ....Afco provides a detailed...  ....Afco provides a detailed instruction manual, so give it a thorough read before you embark on the install.  To swap a heat exchanger,...  To swap a heat exchanger, it's necessary to remove your front fascia. There are several fasteners holding the nose, so take your time. After putting the nose in a safe place, Justin drained the coolant, disconnected the hoses, and unbolted the heat exchanger.  Before wrapping up the heat...  Before wrapping up the heat exchanger install, Justin moved on to the hoses. The GT500 features a maze of coolant hoses and tubing, so it takes a while to remove everything. It helps if you have the proper tool for those spring-loaded clamps.  One of the hallmarks of silicone...  One of the hallmarks of silicone hoses is durability. The hard-plastic crossover at the heart of this serpentine arrangement seems like it might be prone to trouble years down the road. According to Ron at Blue Collar, buying all new stock hoses will run you $1,500, so the silicone units could be a bargain for the long run.  The hose kits are available...  The hose kits are available in three configurations-coolant only, heat exchanger only, and complete. They are also available in blue, red, orange, and black ($815.98), as well as silver and white ($915.98). Clamps specially designed not to cut into the hoses will run you another $30.95. Obviously we went with silver. While it's not an exact match to Vapor, the silver hoses serve to brighten up the previously murky confines of PVT's engine compartment.  Ron and Samco obviously did...  Ron and Samco obviously did their homework when designing the GT500 hose kit. The hoses fit just like the stockers; we only had to trim them for PVT's Moroso intercooler tank. Most of the aftermarket tanks require trimming the hose, be it stock or aftermarket.  With the hoses installed,...  With the hoses installed, Justin turned his attention back to the heat exchanger. First he reinstalled the factory intercooler pump; then Justin attached the Samco hose to the inlet side. Because of the Afco's dual-pass design, it requires a unique pump-outlet/heat-exchanger inlet tube, so we still have one rubber hose in the system. If you're a perfectionist, you might consider ordering a hose for this section, but it's hidden behind the fascia, so only you will know it's there.  If you are least bit intimidated...  If you are least bit intimidated about wiring up the fans for the Afco, don't be. Not only are the instructions clear and detailed, but the kit is well designed with a pre-built harness. The first step is to tap into power at the fuse box underhood. Just removed this bolt, installed the connector, and reinstalled the bolt.  This connector brings power...  This connector brings power from the fuse box to the relay, and mounts to the strut tower using an existing bolt. If you need to power down the fans for any reason, you can simply unplug this connector.  The fans' relay mounts at...  The fans' relay mounts at the rear of the stock engine management computer using this existing bolt. The results of this arrangement are simple, clean, and appear stock.  You need only cut one wire:...  You need only cut one wire: the wire that turns the intercooler pump on and off. After clipping this wire, Justin used this wiretap included in the kit, which puts the fan turn-on wire in series with the pump turn-on wire. As such, the fans turn on and off with the intercooler pump, which is controlled by the engine-management computer.  With everything buttoned up,...  With everything buttoned up, it would be wise to jumper the intercooler pump and make sure the fans engage before you put the fascia back on the car. From this view, you can see the Afco dual-fan heat exchanger fits with no problem, and is as thick as the radiator. It's worth noting this unit will fit all '05-and-up Mustangs, so if you have an air-to-water intercooled blower on your Mustang GT, you can use this heat exchanger too.  Since we had to drain the...  Since we had to drain the coolant from both systems to install the heat exchanger and hoses, it seemed like a good time to upgrade the coolant as well. Getting the nod was BeCoolant, a new coolant from BeCool. With the five-gallon bucket, we could fill both systems and have some to spare. It's a biodegradable propylene-glycol formula that is said to protect cooling systems and aluminum components down to 26 degrees below zero for 300,000 miles. Additionally, BeCool says this coolant "is capable of sealing hairline cracks in aluminum blocks and heads." Hopefully PVT won't test that claim, but it's reassuring nonetheless.  PVT is now much cooler, literally...  PVT is now much cooler, literally and figuratively. The silver silicone hoses make it visually cooler, but the Afco dual-fan heat exchanger will keep its air-charge temps in check. If we hadn't shown you the wires previously, you wouldn't even notice them. Of course, when the car warms up, you do hear the fans whirring away, but they actually make the car sound even more intimidating as they pull 1,900 cfm across the heat-exchanger core. Consider PVT a fan-club member.
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