this is for the lightning swap guys.....did any of you make your own brackets on the cheap for the stock heat exchanger? if so have any pics so i can see what to do?

 

This is my goal right now. Although I wish I had known the trickflow heads we're going to be as readily availible as they are now. As much money as I've spent porting me PI's I couldve spent a lil more and done fully ported trickflows.

Got Custom cam's, my PI heads are as far ported as I could find anyone to do, gasket matched the HPS intake, ported my C&L Plenum to match the upper on the HPS intake, big 75mm TB, JLT intake tube with 90mm tb, 30 lb injectors, new Screamin Demon coils, FRPP wires, A/C delete, MMR windage tray.

Im pullin all the stops i can to try to get some awesome NA numbers. Then tis time for a tubular front w/coilovers, and a built rear to see what she'll do in the 1/4

Should be fun

 

Modified my rear seat delete kit today and got it fitted. Had to clearance it to fit all the relays and controllers for the methanol kit. Made a bracket for the back piece to add some rigidity (not visible) to it and made another (visible) for over the battery as a secondary hold-down. The battery terminals poke through for easy jump starting. Here's some pics:

 

Was thinking of staying 2V and stock heads and 12:8-1 Compression with a 108 duration set of cams but going back to a JLT and the hard ballet intake etc but i don't know if its worth it considering im building the car to race it i can just build the 02 bottom end boost the eaton to 16lbs and hit it with juice but idk if thats what i want to do either lol...

sounds like a nice build how far along are you?

 

I did. REAL cheap. I'll see if I can get you a pic or two. I just used some aluminum angle and had it welded to the tanks. Don't make the mistake I did, though. I had the brackets sitting a little above the top surface so it stands down from the sheet metal bumper. It should have sat against it instead of a little down. It hangs down a little and may be vulnerable if I scrape the front when entering a driveway etc. I could fix it, but I'm not gonna. I'll get a pic soon.

 

cool. ill be looking forward to the pics.

 

heres my intercooler setup ,this was a intercooler out of a 18 wheeler with twin turbo the truck got into a wreck and the top was messed up,so my fab man cut it down to the size i wanted it plated the top off and relocated the water inlet/outlets works like a charm,i put a water temp sensor in my intercooler reservoir and a water temp gauge in the car just to see what the temps are. the gauge starts a 120 and so far the temp never even gets hot enough to register.

 

ha the 18 wheeler inter cooler is awesome. how is it staying up there? i don't see a bracket or anything....also you you have it right under the bumper bar or is there a little gap between the top of it and the bar. i have the cobra heat exchanger and i am trying to find out exactly how it needs to sit and a way to keep it there aka custom brackets. im gonna be putting a 03 cobra front bumper on the car and want to make sure the heat exchanger is at the proper place.

 

its bolted to the bumper support,but i have some pics from doing a 03 cobra setup,i think my friend paid less than 100 bucks for the intercooler bracket from ford,but the provisions for mounting it are already there ,if your gonna do custom brackets then thats all trail and error ,but here is how it looked mounted with the factory stuff and a saleen front bumper

 

anyone have the scalars of a base tune they could send me i really need to get my 5.4 running better any infor would help alot

 

What's up all. I'm new to this thread and have read hundreds of pages. I have go a quick question. I'm in the process of building my 5.4 and have a set of stage II patriot head that I took off my 4.6. I am really tempted to get the new Trick flow heads but wondering if they are worth it?

 

i found my MTF file for my old base tune. It should run an NA 5.4L with 21lbs injectors and a stock mustang maf. You can load all the tables you need from it and fiddle with your injector files and MAF xfer as you need to. LMK if you need some help

PM me your email addy and I'll send you my base tune. It's for SCT software but may (probably) work with other software.

It's 2 grand for basically 30hp. Your call. I would start with as much head and cam as I could afford.

 

Yeah, That's what I thought too. Just wanted verification. Thanks.

 

What is a good cam for a N/A 5.4 with the trick flow heads? I have heard that the hi tech stage II are good. With my patriots I had xe270s and they were pretty good then I changed them up for a set of CMS 2.5 blower cams after installing the vortech.

 

i have comp stage 3 NA's they would really wake up in your engine...... pm me if interested.

 

I'm not crazy about spinning the engine up to high rpms for power. I had the CMS's still in the car after I took off the vortech and didn't care for them in a N/A setting. Very little torque down low (w/ 3.73) but once you hit 3500 rpms or so it was like a damn two stroke power band. I want that power and torque down low.

 

also have mmr nitrious cams off hunters motor.

 

 

I'm guessing that you took the blower off a 4.6 since you're building your 5.4 now. Let me make 1 thing clear, you can run the most aggressive cam you want and still not want for tq with a 5.4. I put a stage 2 comp cam in and was wanting more cam to pull some of the bottom end out and put it on the top.

4.6's feel a little anemic low in the rpm's with cams but 5.4's don't suffer a whole lot from that same malady. I'd look at illwill's cam or one of the rattier bumpsticks from MHS or Hitech or CMS. Your CMS stage 2's should be pretty nice on their own.

 

Almost done. Engine is at the builders. Should be done in ~1 week

Still need - clutch, fuel pressure regulator setup, oilpan/windage tray, and some other nic nacs.

Im trying to get a tubular k and coils before i swap the engine so I dont have to do it later. Should be a fun N/A setup

 

I have an FRPP windage tray you can get off me cheap. LMK what other nick nacks you need.

 

O.o nice, is it full length? And what all will i need to do to make if fit?

 

yeah, still up in the air about the cams but I got a minute or so to think about them. I'm waiting for someone to pick up my patroit heads to get some cash flow.

Myillwillinc. What are the specs on those mmr's?

Also has any body check out the MHS stage 3.5 cams for the 5.4? This is the first time i've seen them.

I had figured out my DCR of 8.2:1 with flat top pistons .020, 44cc trick flow heads, and the 2.5 blower cams that have a LSA of 114. I worried that I'm reaching the limit on pump gas. I was reading that the closer the LSA is the more cylinder pressure there is. I'm wondering how far I can push it?

 

Just called up MHS and said I'd be ok using thier stage 3 N/A TF specific cam. This would put me at a DCR of around 9.085. Isn't this a little high for 91/93 octane?

 

330: Nope. It's just fine. Just barely but it's fine. You may have to back the timing off a degree but nothing huge.

1996: it's a FRPP model.. half length. All you need really.

 

yeah i estimated 9.0:1 to be on the high end using the kb-silvolite site. I actually found a better calculator (asks more questions) on projectpontiac.com and it dropped the DCR between 8.54 and 8.64 (the guy at MHS couldnt recall the avert. duration but said he though it was between 270 and 274). Anyways I wouldn't think twice about running 8.6 or so.

 

dang man, i think im going to be pushing around 9.4-9.5:1 after everything is said and done.

 

is that static or dynamic?

 

on boost mine should be around 13.4 dynamic. Methanol is my friend.

 

The JBA's are on their way. The TF heads look like they are back ordered up till the 25th of march and Bob at HPS is having problems with finding a decent machine shop to get the 5.4 intake out. He said by then end of this week he should start sending them out again, so hopefully by next weekend have the intake and start gasket matching.

R3dn3ck: what were your final n/a dyno numbers with the 5.4 intake and shortys/LTs?