A few weeks ago I got a call from Jim Gilmour asking about tuning an 05 Mustang GT. He had ordered one as a surprise for his wife Mandy and wanted to know if we were able to tune the 05 and what we could do for it. Since we are an SCT dealer, I told him it wouldn't be a problem. He had an MMR intake and Magnaflow catback so we decided to gather some data on what each modification would do. The plan was to put each part on one at a time for some accurate back to back comparisons.

When considering adding more power to my 2003 Mustang GT, I considered just about all of the options. Build a naturally aspirated/lopey cam car, centrifugal supercharger, nitrous and a turbo. But when the 2V Kenne Bell was released, that put an end to all of the debate. In my opinion, this is the best option available for a street car looking to step it up to the next level. It gets rid of the plastic factory intake, gives you instant torque that the centrifugal superchargers can't match, and best of all it's a Kenne Bell kit. This means it's a complete, well thought out kit which is very important.

A couple of real world examples should demonstrate how these ideas apply equally well to two completely different engines. First, a 46ci Suzuki Katana motorcycle engine; next, the 454ci Chevrolet V8. In the charts shown below, the green/grey line is torque and the red/black line is power. In these examples, I assume that shifting up one gear lowers the engine RPM by 25% -- if you're at 3,000 RPM in a gear and you shift up, you will be at 2,250 RPM. While this is pretty close for most vehicles, the actual number used does not affect the conclusions (try using a different number and see for yourself).

During the off-season, I made a pretty bold statement. I said that my 2VNA 4.6L would run a 10 by the end of 2004. This took alot of people by surprise considering my car was already the fastest 2VNA 4.6L and the best it ran was an 11.72 in extremely good weather. As the months of 2004 clicked off, I slowly reeled in that 10 second pass.

Gearing
Gearing is not voodoo magic, it cannot change the shape of the engine's torque curve. In a given gear the acceleration of a car follows the torque curve. Many people, even experienced racers, believe this means they should shift gears just past the peak torque RPM before the engine's torque rolls off. While this seems like plain old common sense, it's wrong. Read More...

Before I run through the details of my season I wanted to say thanks to those that helped me get through a full season of NMRA racing. First and foremost I have to thank Jeremy Martorella for the great advice and support he’s given me and the use of his trailer, to Mark and Joe Mainiero of UPR Products for their support, suspension products and help with the car over the past couple years, to Ken, Brandon and Gene of MD Motorsports for their help as a sponsor and as good friends on the boards and at the races, to Chris Johnson and the guys at SCT for making a great product, to Mike Bowen, Rich Starke, Joe Monaghen, Doug Johnson (especially for the use of the bracket race truck!) and the rest of the Modular Depot crowd that kept prodding me to keep on racing this year. Last but not least by any means the great group of racers that I’ve had the pleasure of racing against and have gotten to see this year. From watching Bob Cosby and Tim Matherly taking their respective crowns with modular cars in heads up competition to Robert Hindman taking the Modular Muscle crown in the last race of the season. Read More...

Hey folks, I’m back from a rather long sabbatical. After my cam ordeal, I sort of vowed to not wrench on my car for awhile. That combined with the absolutely terrible winter we’ve had in the northeast, had made it virtually impossible for those without garages to get anything done. However, now that spring is here, I have been spending some much needed time on my trusty daily driver 99GT, a car that I have literally put through hell, high water, and some really bad parts choices. Through all this, it has not wavered in its exemplary service to me…. Well, except for that dropping a valve thing. ;) Read More...

This article was written originally as a forum post to clear up some misconceptions about MAP sensors in the 2003 Cobra. We decided to post it as an article because it contains some great information.

First off you need to understand a mass air system. A mass air system measures the MASS of air flowing into the engine. There are several ways that this can be done, none of them are important for this discussion. Air-Fuel ratio is a ratio of the MASS of air the MASS of fuel. So if you are commanding a given air-fuel ratio and you know the mass of air coming into the engine, you know the mass of fuel that needs to be injected as well. If you know the total mass of fuel you want injected and the injector flow rate and the number of injectors, you then know how long to hold the injectors open for to get that desired amount of fuel. Read More...

Now that most tracks are closed for the holidays or winter for you folks up north this is the time that most people will start looking at more modifications for their cars. Not just racers but everyone, simply because it's the off-season for not only racing but for cruising in our cars. This is also a good time of year to do a once over through the entire car and take care of general maintenance. Read More...

A big question that has been asked is how much HP can a returnless fuel system support. The answer is probably as much as you want as long as you have enough money. But, at some point, it’s probably cheaper to convert the car to a return system than try to keep it returnless. Read More...

How long have modular motor owners been waiting for an aftermarket intake for the Mustang? We are coming up on 9 years! Well, thanks to Fox Lake Power Products, the wait is over! Fox Lake could have taken the easy way out - throw together a nice looking aluminum intake without much testing. We all know that would have sold, but that's not Fox Lake's style. This intake was designed from the ground up to make some serious power. And the best part is, it performs on a completely stock car.