Hi Everybody,

I'm looking to make my 06 GT Vert as quick as possible while keeping it NA. Here is what I've got so far:
FRPP CAI
FRPP Intake Plenum
FRPP Twin 62mm throttle body
Bama Tune
Pypes Pype Bomb exhaust
Track ready suspension (replaced nearly every suspension component)
20" staggered rims
Ford Racing SVT front brake upgrade kit
Carbon fiber hood and fenders

I'm thinking of getting BBK ceramic headers with hi flow catted x pipe and cams but not sure which ones. I may someday down the line buy a 1 piece aluminum drive shaft.

Am I missing anything, what do you guys think?

Thanks,
Alex

 

Ford sells a complete heads and cams package for about $4,000 that is supposed to be good for about 50 HP or so? That is probably the biggest thing.

Also cams can add a few HP, just make sure you go with the performance oriented ones because some of them are just for sound.

Get rid of the big heavy 20" wheels and go with some light 18" wheels

Charge Motion Plate Deletes -- but I think that is already in the intake manifold that you already have

There are other bigger CAI's that might give 1 or 2 HP over the FRPP one

Custom dyno tune

that's about all I can think of

 

Hmmm.... how much money you got? And why no supercharger? - J/K

Are these things you've already got installed on your car, or things you've picked to do? How many miles are on your engine?

I think you're on the right track, but you're going to want some extras:

- those BBK long tube headers
- cams
- gears (maybe)

I'm actually getting ready to do almost the exact same thing on my '06 in the next couple weeks (I don't want the weight/heat of a supercharger) and I can share what I've learned. Just a head's up - all my research tells me that the FRPP Intake plenum will net you almost zero gains w/out cams and long tubes. The stock intake manifold isn't really the bottle neck in the stock induction system.

As far as cams go, how aggressive would you want to go, and how much lope do you want when the car's idling? the FRPP hot rod cams are supposed to net decent performance gains, but there are two trade-offs. One is the lope (unless you like that sort of sound), and the other is you'll sacrifice a little bit of low-RPM power for upper end gains (better for a track car, not so much for street).

I ended up going for Comp Cams XFI SPR Stage 1 (127400). The SPR means that since the cam has a much bigger profile than stock you end up with much smaller piston-to-valve clearances, so they need upgraded springs to close the valves faster (you don't want a valve still closing when the piston comes up), and phaser limiters - to restrict the camshaft phasers from 60 deg of travel to 10 or 20. I picked the these cams because my driving style is more around-town than passes on a drag strip. I didn't want to sacrifice low-end power and drivability and wanted the big gains to be in the midrange. I was talking to someone on a different board who had these and said they were a great sleeper cam (idles and sounds very close to stock, so nobody suspects you've got major upgrades).

The upgraded springs/phaser limiters is of course extra cash - springs are $200-300, limiters are ~$220. The reason I asked about how many miles you've got on the motor is the age of the camshaft phasers themselves need to be considered too. The 4.6's are known for them failing around 100k, and an SPR cam just puts more stress on them. New phasers are ~$250 each from Tasca. Livernois motorsports actually sells new OEM phasers, with limiters installed internally, for $700 for the pair, so $20 less than the comp cams limiters + OEM phasers. And they're supposedly stronger.

And you still have the extra labor $$ to do new springs.

So even after all this, you're still talking only about ~350 RWHP. And you're spending **** near supercharger money by the time its all said and done. That's why everyone says just go forced induction.

Hope all this helps

 

As far as heads go, my shop advised me that you get very minimal gains by upgrading the heads in a stock 4.6 (even with the intake manifold, cams, and longtubes). Maybe with a bored/stroked motor w/ higher compression. And that's coming from people that are (a) already pulling my heads in the work they're doing and (b) only stand to make money on parts.

I think the Ford Racing kit probably got most of its gains from the cams (not sure if they still sell it).


^^^ THIS

Yeah the intake manifold doesn't have any charge motion plates built into it and you remove the factory ones during the install.

 

Ok, that's quite a bit to digest and thanks for the feedback. I weighed my wheels when I put them on and the front weighed about 1.5 lbs lighter than the stock fan blade wheels and the rear tire was about .4 lbs heavier. All in all weight wise its a wash with the wheels.

I have about 94k on the engine right now and maybe 500 miles on the new auto tranny. That's one of the reasons I don't want to go super charger. The engine is old and the tranny is an auto.

The car is quick enough as it is and by what Cavero says I'm looking to drop some serious coin on mods that won't gain me that much hp. I guess I'll just use my money to upgrade it cosmetically and wait till the engine to die then go from there. I really love the car and I plan on keeping it for a really long time.

Who knows I can still go for a carbon fiber trunk lid and doors to complete the hood and fenders.

 

Yeah, they weigh the same as the stock wheels, but still a LOT more then good, lightweight 18 inch wheels. You'd be surprised how much performance lighter wheels will open up.

 

Even with 94K in the motor, with a good tune a supercharger can still be safe. As far as the transmission goes, as long as your didn't beat on it, I think it would hold up ok.

One thing a lot of people don't budget for with a supercharger though is a big brake kit and wheels/tires to fit over them. Not necessary, but a really good idea to have with his much faster you can build up speed. Brand new, you could be talking an extra $5k right there. That's one thing that helped me decide to stay NA
My car is going in for all this NA work in a couple weeks, I'll let you know of it was worth it.

 

Cavero thanks and keep us posted on your upgrade.

I already have the big brake kit because I was fooling around on the expressway with a Challenger when a car cut me off and my brakes didn't stop as fast as I hoped they would almost rear ending a aforementioned car. I also realized that Challengers aren't very fast at all. Yes it did have a Hemi.

 

I can get you to ~400RWHP N/A out of a 3V on the stock block, the big questions are A) How much do you want to spend and B) What do you want out of the car?

Obviously if you want you can go with a 298, 302 stroker block if you feel your block needs to be refreshed (I think JDM still offers their 302E stroker short blocks for a really nice price) or you can go with the 323ci Big Bore Stroker's and get even more power. As I said, it all depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. Do you really want to go as fast as possible while being N/A?

The #1 thread in the history of any forum when it comes to N/A mods on the 3V is this one right here.

http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showt...ght=motor+moon

 

What about an aluminum drive shaft, 3:73 gears (as another mentioned), and a limited slip diff.

 

Hey, I should have asked way back at the beginning:

Why do you want to spend more money for less power, by staying N/A?

 

+1. That should be the question.

And let's not forget about the Jesel rockers/followers so you can really spin the motor up.

 

Ok, got the car back Saturday. I'm going to save all the details for a separate build thread, but the end numbers were 350 RWHP, 319 RWTQ (SAE corrected). So flywheel numbers (assuming 85% efficiency for manual trans) are ~411HP and 375 ft-lbs at the flywheel. That's with SPR cams, TB, Ford Racing headers, and long tubes. I probably could've gotten a little higher peak HP if I picked a cam that was set up more for top-end gains, but I didn't want to lose anything on the low end.

Impressions -- can't fill in too much right now. Since getting the car back, the alternator's faulty diode finished its downward spiral, so haven't driven it much as I'm still waiting on a new one from Rock Auto. When I have driven it, Ive only really opened it up once. The headers make that sucker LOUD when you whomp on the go pedal (stock mufflers, BTW) -- i mean from sounding like a sort of neo-old-school muscle car driving around normal, to a full-on hotrod at WOT -- so I'm not going to be that guy.

Driving impressions though -- pulls noticeable stronger even at restricted throttle. The time I opened it up on an on-ramp it was definitely a "DAAAAAAAAAAAMN!" moment. It doesn't shove you into the seat like a Coyote would - it just doesn't have as much torque - but **** its a difference.



-----edit----

I forgot to mention -- I actually gained a little gas milage too, provided I don't mash the gas. I'm up ~1-2 mpg on the highway, back up to 25 from the 23 I've been getting.

 

Thanks for sharing with us your results. I'm still on the fence, I want and will get headers and hi flow cats but not 100% sure about the cams.