With a saleen blower and headers, how much can you run till BOOM?

 

Most folks say the breaking point on stock internals is when you reach ~500 to the wheels, but that's not really accurate. It has more to do with the driving characteristics.

Some owners have been running in excess of 500 to the wheels for thousands of miles virtually trouble free, while others have blown their motors with very few miles and much less rwhp.

If you beat the hell out of the car each and every day, you're asking for trouble.

 

What's a safe amount if you beat the hell out of the car each and every day?

I'm 99% stock & NA right now and I abuse my car every day (after the engine has warmed up completely). I want to get a turbo eventually. How much HP to the wheels is safe for people who drive their vehicles to their fullest potential, at all times?

 

I'd like to get about 450 hp to the rear wheels, but i wanna know if i can do it safely for thousands of miles!

 

With a safe tune and GT500 fuel pumps, you should be fine. Keep it on the richer side of things and rest easy.

 

If your intention is to the beat the hell out of the car all the time after adding turbo boost, it's probably a good idea to get a cobra rolling assembly from somewhere (forged crank, forged pistons, h-beam rods, etc).

IMO - it's way too expensive for casual street use. The labor on redoing the bottom end is quite expensive. If you're ambitious enough to do it yourself, then more power to you.

 

I had my Whipple on my 05 GT at 441rwhp and 425tq for almost 20K miles with no issues at all.

 

450 seems to be the number most stay at. It really depends on the tune. Crap tune will blow an engine with any HP rating.

 

I run 500+ at 10 psi everyday and somewhere in the range of 550-600 at 13 psi on race gas every once in awhile. There's probably only a few cars out there that have lived a tougher life than mine.

 

Most tuners like to keep it around 450whp. Above that, you are rolling the dice.

 

Agreed. I'd say 450rwhp is a good safe number if tuned right. Personally I wouldn't go higher than 475rwhp without forged internals.

 

+1
I agree

 

Roush and the Ford Racing units seem to go to about 435 Hp and offer a warranty. So that's a sign that they don't plan for issues. I would figure a good figure would be that benchmark + whatever you are willing to risk. Mind you, if you make 800 Hp and you only get 350 to the ground, you aren't making your car "faster".

If you just want a "number" for the sake of saying your car has "so much horsepower" than you probably won't use half of that on the street. If you are going to USE the power, first set the car up for traction and then build a kit for max boost on the stock motor internals. You can move your redline down and use a conservative pulley. As you figure out how to lay down the power, change the pulley and keep moving the rev limiter.

If you're in the 460 Hp to the ground at 6500 rpm on stock internals, then you're probably near what the motor can handle. If you detonate with a bad tune...game over.

So, NA and beating your pony isn't such a bad situation. You can run in the upper 12s with a decent NA setup and have a great handling car. You can get into the 11s with a blown car on stock internals. You have to decide what the cost and reliability is worth.

 

You've got to ask yourself what your intension and objectives are as well.

Some higher power applications would not be very useful when cruising through the twisties or around town in bumper to bumper traffic. I remember nursing a sore leg because of a 4 hour delay on a bridge with my '94 GT and the heavy duty clutch was killing me.

 

I kill mine every time I get in it

 

According the the folks at Steeda once you start pushing 425+ you are at risk.

Read this article it tells you why. The piston ring is susceptible to breakage under detonation.
http://www.mustangmonthly.com/featur...ust/index.html

 

Nice write-up. When they talk about 425+ HP, do they mean at the wheels or at the crank? I will assume they mean at the wheels...my stang puts 442 HP at the wheels. I guess I'm dancing with the devil...but I know there are many other stangers who put down much more than that on stock internals. I haven't heard of too many who have blown their engines yet. I guess time will tell. Thanks for the write-up. I like the discussion on how to lower the 05+ stang. I might have to follow some of that advice.

 

Nice. That's what I want to hear.

 

The key word there is detonation, if your tune is on and you are on top of your plugs and 02s there should be no detonation. Its really the rods that like to take 5 on our cars.

 

Yeah it's not the piston rings its the pathetic looking powdered rods.