" averaging our three runs and comparing them to the baseline, removing the trap cost a hair of power. If anything is clear, it is the hydrocarbon trap barely hinders airflow at stock power levels."

I just put mine back in ...

However, doing a Xcalibrator tune with no trap they had a gain of 8 hp...

 

Jeff - interesting - thanks for the post!

 

However, doing a Xcalibrator tune with no trap they had a gain of 8 hp...

did the do the tune with the hc trap removed?

 

Removing the air filter certainly does not help according to them.
Michael

 

interesting, though I have to admit, somewhat unexpected....

On the other hand, the car does seem to respond in strange ways to all supposedly performance enhancing mods in the absence of a tune. One thing seems apparent. Ford really tuned the heck out this car to maximize power with all of the factory hardware in place. Someone in the tech forums added flowmasters and LOST power (no tune). Now we just remove the trap and LOSE power (again, w/o a tune). Never seen a Mustang that was so unresponsive to simple bolt ons....

 

I wouldn't call this car unresponsive to simple bolt-ons but more that the complex engine management system corrects for abnormal conditions to "save" the motor and this sometimes results in a loss over stock power levels. The factory settings on the computer have been for the most part optimized for the physical setup under the hood, when you change that you must let the computer "'know" what you have done.

 

So, I guess we should put those bad-boys back in then.

 

It depends.

If you don't have a tuning capability, then you may not want to remove your HC trap or add a CAI or any of these mods.

On my SCT tuned 05 (tuned with the HC trap out), putting it back IN cost me 4-7hp across the RPM range.

 

I'm getting a tuner...