Bert

OK, I'll bite -- what is "torque limiting" ?

SteedaGus

Power limiting commanded by the ECU. On the 2011 5.0L GT during a datalog if you are looking at throttle position, where you see the power drops on the dyno you would see the ECU actually phycially closing up the throttle, even though you have your foot to the floor asking for wide open throttle and maximum power.

Sometimes this doesnt manifest itself on the dyno as I mentioned. If you don't see it on the dyno then you dont see as big of a measured gain after you do your modifications.

However this limiting happens every time you are on the road or track on the stock calibration with the 2011 5.0L GT. When you get rid of this behavior you maximize actual power for maximum performance.

Overboost

Gus, how invasive is the torque limiting on the 2011? Is it something that is visible in only the early gears?

Bert

Interesting -- why does the stock programming do it? Is it a glitch in the stock program or is it part of traction / stability control?

SteedaGus

Short of first gear, I've noticed it in every other gear. So its not gear specific. It just happens and seems to happen primarily 4000 and 6000rpm.

SteedaGus

We believe it is simply a long term strategy for engine longevity by Ford. A bit of overkill really. Just Ford being extra careful. It is a burden to all out performance though.

As some tuners and enthusiasts are beginning to show in supercharged applications Ford has built us a stout 5.0L engine. So eliminating the torque limiting that is taking place for all out naturally aspirated performance is not going to be a concern for longevity.

Overboost

I figured it was a combination of engine durability/longevity and keeping traction available for drivers who aren't as "talented" as others.

I'm familiar with torque limiting using the throttle by wire system, as my Speed6 had a similar system. Once removed, it added a ton of power through the powerband, mainly in the first three gears. I can only imagine a similar feeling on the 5.0.

knk11stang

So is there a specific tune that will eliminate this issue?

KonaBlue5.0

With the Speed3/6, is the torque limiting something that can be turned off, via traction control?

Likewise, does turning off and/or eliminating traction control eliminate the torque limiting? I know with my old RX8, on the dyno, because the computer saw the front wheels doing zero MPH, the computer would limit power to the rear wheels, hence the reason for low dyno numbers when leaving traction control on.

Overboost

Well, long story short, the throttle only opened to ~65% at WOT, and torque was limited in the gears regardless of what you had on or off. With a tune, you got full torque in all gears, and the throttle opened up to 90-95% at WOT, which gave the car a huge bump in top end power. The stock tune fell flat on its face at 5000 rpm.

Without looking at the tables for the Mustang ECU/tune, I can't really comment on how it's setup. I'd love to be able to see what can be tweaked in the tunes, but don't really have access to any of that.