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what else can i do to this thing?

T

TRicker

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jun 25, 2006
Messages
3,931
Location
Center City, MN
well guys you probably saw my dyno sheet. i want to tweak a few things before i get going on a tuning program.

I want this thing to be the highest HP N/A contour around, which in reality, who cares, but its a fun goal to aim toward, before going way of boost.

I like what its doing right now, but what kind of HARDWARE changes can i do to the car to better it? this is the current setup, in detail:


05 Ford taurus Long block.

Stock taurus cams
Stock Taurus Upper intake manifold (bought brand new)
Taurus Lower intake manifold
Taurus 04 fuel rail modified
Nautilus fuel rail mod

Old style PCV system (between the heads) 3/4" tube to stock location 05 pipe.
AC deleted. Stock pulleys used for everything else.

Stock 60MM throttle body from an 03 taurus Half shafted
Lightning airbox with 90MM maf housing (center bar style aluminum housing with stock SVT sensor installed)
Stock lightning filter (flat, paper element)

Weapon R headers
Weapon R y pipe
3 bolt flex pipe (factory ford)
3 bolt Test pipe 2.5" trubendz aluminized
Trubendz 2.5" catback magnaflow muffler no resonator.

MSD dis-4 ignition, NGK TR6 plugs, Ford racing 9mm wires.





so...... thats all i have far as the engine mods go. what can i do yet? things i can think of are:


Underdrive pulleys
Dual mode damper
Plastic 90mm maf housing and sensor (will require tune)
Modified throttle body and remote IAC?
Better Y pipe (without the 180' bend)

anything else come to mind?
 
I'll give you a run for your money on that title! :D

As to what other options you have....

* Good Tune (but id wait until your totally done with hp mods)
* Max Honing on Upper intake manifold (get a metal one), OR find the rare ST220 UIM
* Bored out LIM with knife edged butterflies (provided you have butterflies)
* SHM Long Tube Equal length headers (I "presume" they put out more HP than Weapon R or MSDS)
* PnP Heads
* 3 angle valve job on the heads
* Ceramic coat UIM & intake pieces
* Motor Dextox with Auto-Rx (great stuff)
 
I'd remove the spare tire and battery....just kidding. When you say AC delete did you remove the compressor and evaporator for the additional weight savings etc?

I think realistically that you have three areas to focus on:

1. Make sure your exhaust is really up to the job. Consider true duals.
2. Port and polish the head and get that three angle vj with it.
3. Get a tune.

I think your intake is not only adequate, but possibly overkill...your cams really don't want to make much power past 6000rpm anyways. I've run a bunch of 0-60s with a VBOX and I can do a 5.7sec by shifting to third at 6000. If I run to redline (at 7500) to avoid shifting I do a 6.2sec. As you know the surge you get on the downshift is really nice.

A DMD will kill a little power.

I think this through frequently as I've got essentially the same motor. Just as soon as my head gasket blows again the heads will be ported.

Did you do the Lightning box just to get a good cold air system?
 
Doesn't Tony have PnP heads? And wouldn't the SVT cams give you the highest HP rating while the 3.0L gives you the highest tq?
 
Put in the new PCV style system and an 04+ taurus manifold (if you don't have). You could also pick up an escape upper and give that a shot. It's on par with the ST220.

After that you're on to just cleaning up the intake and exhaust system. Don't listen to all the noobs; true duals sound like garbage unless you pony up and do it right. You'll be fine with the trubendz.

If I were you I'd get her dyno'ed again on a real dyno so you have some more solid numbers to work from.
 
Pudmunkie said:
Put in the new PCV style system and an 04+ taurus manifold (if you don't have). You could also pick up an escape upper and give that a shot. It's on par with the ST220.
Click to expand...

Are there hood clearance issues with the Escape UIM and what year(s) are best? How does a +04 PCV system improve HP?
 
Icefury said:
I'll give you a run for your money on that title! :D

As to what other options you have....

* Good Tune (but id wait until your totally done with hp mods)
* Max Honing on Upper intake manifold (get a metal one), OR find the rare ST220 UIM
* Bored out LIM with knife edged butterflies (provided you have butterflies)
* SHM Long Tube Equal length headers (I "presume" they put out more HP than Weapon R or MSDS)
* PnP Heads
* 3 angle valve job on the heads
* Ceramic coat UIM & intake pieces
* Motor Dextox with Auto-Rx (great stuff)
Click to expand...

How much power is your car making? I've got the same setup as you minus PnP Heads and SHM Headers, but with an optimized 65mm TB, BAT Y-pipe, and a rich (11.2 AFR) tune. At one point, I wanted to get a set of PnP'd heads and get it retuned with the Sho Shop LIM. :drool:
 
Did you gasket match the motor before you put it in? Such as the heads to the lower intake and heads to header (lots of material here)?

That weapon R y pipe sucks. I'm running a MSDS y pipe because the Weapon R actually collects down to about 2.5" instead of 3" like the MSDS.

You could run an electric water pump to gain some hp. Even though some have had issues I'd have to imagine that there is a reliable setup.

Did you delete the EGR?

You said that you are running the 90mm MAF housing with the stock sensor? Do you have an air/fuel plot of your car? Get a wideband sensor if you don't have one already. Your car should be running lean with that setup without a tune. The sensor is expecting a 70mm housing. Say the stock sensor is in place and you have a fixed volume of air going through the 70mm housing. Now lets say you swap out that 70mm for the 90mm but keep the same sensor. The air spreads out a bit more to fill the 90mm and the sensor reads less air and the engine runs lean. The plus side is that you have a full 3L that runs pig rich without a tune so it's probably running better than a full 3L without a tune. When you do tune it make sure you use the 90mm MAF and 90mm MAF sensor.
 
90mm maf is kind of pointless, I know you already have one but I just don't know why these people upgrade them when your not maxing them out. You definitely want a tune due to that maf, just because it's the same sensor doesn't mean the airflow is the same with the bigger housing like blackcoog said. I would bump up your compression ratio if your staying n/a. I would get underdrive pulleys for sure, I know people say they don't do anything but I beg to differ. Is the tb ported? Porting it will help a little at low rpm. If it were me I would pull the heads off port and deck them.
 
Blackcoog said:
Did you gasket match the motor before you put it in? Such as the heads to the lower intake and heads to header (lots of material here)?

That weapon R y pipe sucks. I'm running a MSDS y pipe because the Weapon R actually collects down to about 2.5" instead of 3" like the MSDS.

You could run an electric water pump to gain some hp. Even though some have had issues I'd have to imagine that there is a reliable setup.

Did you delete the EGR?

You said that you are running the 90mm MAF housing with the stock sensor? Do you have an air/fuel plot of your car? Get a wideband sensor if you don't have one already. Your car should be running lean with that setup without a tune. The sensor is expecting a 70mm housing. Say the stock sensor is in place and you have a fixed volume of air going through the 70mm housing. Now lets say you swap out that 70mm for the 90mm but keep the same sensor. The air spreads out a bit more to fill the 90mm and the sensor reads less air and the engine runs lean. The plus side is that you have a full 3L that runs pig rich without a tune so it's probably running better than a full 3L without a tune. When you do tune it make sure you use the 90mm MAF and 90mm MAF sensor.
Click to expand...







i have an AEM wideband. it is PIG RICH. 11.9 AFR at WOT was the LEANEST it got while i was on the dyno.

it is a 05 engine. the 05 taurus is an equal length runner setup which is closer to the ST manifold than the escape manifold is. the escape manifold has more volume and is for torque moreso than the taurus. According to the guys that have ST220 manifolds, the only thing i'm going to gain from having it vs. the taurus 05 intake is the ability to run a 65mm TB and the ability to port it if i feel the desire to do so. i like how the plastic manifolds have no casting marks obviously and all in all i don't think a manifold change is gonna get me a noticible increase in power.

yes everything is port matched. The trubendz exhaust is free flowing as it needs to be for N/A, but i agree with blackcoog in saying that its not the best Y pipe. i do plan on upgrading the Y pipe for sure, UDP's, and hopefully something for a bigger TB.

(icefury, none of my stuff can be max honed, its plastic lol)



yeah blackcoog i do plan on running the 90mm sensor when i get a tune. it reads fine with how it is setup at the moment but i know that's not the best way to go, switching housings and sensors around.

the EGR is deleted too btw.
 
yeah. i guess i'll throw down for a set of UDP's, and see where i get with a tune. i really wanna make a 65mm TB work on this thing but i can't see that happening unless i go remote IAC.
 
Blackcoog said:
That weapon R y pipe sucks. I'm running a MSDS y pipe because the Weapon R actually collects down to about 2.5" instead of 3" like the MSDS.
Click to expand...

Wait what? I was under the impression that the MSDS y-pipe was the one that sucked, and that the Weapon-R was actually really good. :confused:
 
they both suck in perspective, compared to the trubendz one, or the shoshop one. i'd love to get my hands on a nice shoshop Y pipe, but i don't want the cat.
 
The only thing Duratecs really respond to is camshafts for NA and boost. Bolt ons hardly do anything. Headers are really the only great bolt on. Not much to do to the plastic manifolds.
 
TRicker said:
they both suck in perspective, compared to the trubendz one, or the shoshop one. i'd love to get my hands on a nice shoshop Y pipe, but i don't want the cat.
Click to expand...

BAT still sells them... I've got one of those and they are the same as the shoshop piece I believe. I kinda wish they had a better hanger setup like the MSDS Y did but oh well.

I think your money would be best invested in a solid NA dyno tune... Unless you plan on going FI yet this year.
 
Redlineracer12 said:
BAT still sells them... I've got one of those and they are the same as the shoshop piece I believe. I kinda wish they had a better hanger setup like the MSDS Y did but oh well.

I think your money would be best invested in a solid NA dyno tune... Unless you plan on going FI yet this year.
Click to expand...

Yup...looked up the pics on BATS website and it is the same as my sho.
 
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