i would love to get the stage 3's one day. question is since we cant rev our engines to the moon will the stage 3's be good for just limited rpm's?

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too and 3 grand is a lot of cash.

 

Not much new on getting my build really under way. Taking it to the shop for disassembly and cleaning boring etc..
Looking for some pistons..possibly KB hyp. and since people are saying the weakest link is the rods.. I was gonna forge those and just have the crank cleaned etc.. heads will get cleaned milled etc.. add in a cam..

This weekend i broke down and got a 20 gal air compressor and impact wrench etc.. so I replaced the quad/axle shocks with some monroes.....put in a bullet front sway bar..had it left over from the bullet suspension package... shocks , springs and both sway bars..

Attempted swapping out UDP's but that crank bolt would not break loose.. Tried a few different things.. Nothing worked..
>

 

i had my heads done by modular head shop they do outstanding work!! not sure what cfm they flow but they did top of the line port work, i took 6 sets of p.i heads to nick he owns mhs met him personally and he is a great guy to get along with he will hook you up,he carries all heads even t/f give him a call 321 262 1132

 

Will give him a call today. I'm looking to order the heads on monday. The problem is finding someone who has them in stock.

 

your better off than me. my problem is not having the money ha.

 

If it'll flow 260 or better intake at .550 on their stage 2 port, yeah. The others... nah. Stage 3 seems dangerous since they have to weld a repair into the spring perch after they break through it. If it were my 800 bucks, I'd probably say **** it and stick em' on the motor as cast.

FWIW, Be careful of putting too much head/cam on it. Those affect your power band RPM. Keep in mind that the HPS intake is at its best really up till about 6500rpm. Remember, when it was initially designed there was no such thing as stage 3 ported TFS heads and no reason to rev to 7000 rpm. 2v 5.4's are great because you don't have to rev it to the moon to get the beef. Just keep that in mind.

BTW, desktop dyno says that the cam is still more important than the porting. The small amount of difference from the porting was making 10-15hp differences in the simulations. Cam changes from comp xe270 to MHS stage 3 and 3.5 were 30hp+ changes.

 

I have seen several forums listing the flow rate of the TF's but half of them say different things. I just called trick flow and they said that their heads flow:

int ---------------ex
.300 - 175cfm -143cfm
.400 - 224 ------174
.500 - 250 ------179
.600 - 255 ------188

I figure at about .550 lift you would see 252-253cfm. I don't want to have to rev the engine to make power. so i don't know if its worth it to go with a port and polish. MMR stage 1 p&p is $600 extra for 10-15cfm, so between 262ish and 267ish.

 

You answered your own question. You're willing to sacrifice bragging rights for most top rpm hp to be able to have an absolute beast at all the RPM points it can use.

Fixed displacement means more RPM to make higher HP number right (since HP is a fictional number based on rpm and actual tq production), so even if the heads can flow say 400hp worth of air you still have to rev it far enough to do it. Since you don't want to rev it you don't need the port/polish because you don't need the extra RPM. As cast will do best for you. You still get the nasty *** high flow for great 6000rpm HP numbers but you also get brutish grunt from just off idle all the way to redline. Granted you might see a peak of 350ish rwhp but the area under the curve is, to use the vernacular, substantial.

Yep.. like you'd expect, in every sim I've run as you increase head flow you increase the RPM needed to use it and it seems that since we lose velocity on better flowing ports that you lose bottom end and end up needing numerically higher gearing.

 

Just got off the phone with MHS (i do a lot of calling around). Nick said that the stage II's flow 5-10 more cfm. (not worth the cost and low end power loss for my set up and goal.)

So now I know I'm getting stock TF's and saving myself some cash .

Does anyone know what the HPS 5.4 intake flows stock, I have a feeling that the TFs out flow the intake.

 

dont' think anyone has ever hooked one to a proper flow bench. They more often go directly onto a car. FWIW, The runner exits in stock form are the same size as those on a PI intake and will have similar limits without porting. HPS made the intake fairly thick in some key spots so it can be ported to keep up with your head flow.

 

on the lightning engines i see that the redline is 5250. so when i have the set-up done on my car am i gonna have to shift that low or can i push it a little harder? is it that the supercharger runs out of steam?

 

Yeah... unless you've got hot cams in it, it's probably going to peak hp at like 4800rpm with the lightning setup. If you have hotter cams it should stretch it out a bit. The blower isn't overspun by there so it's not out of steam but without hotter cams you might as well shift at 5200. With my cams I shift at 5500.

 

ok. ill do the cams when i do the heads and built short block. what do you think the best BLOWER cams are for a lightning engine with a eaton/kenne bell supercharger? the more choppy the idle is the better

 

MHS stage 2.5 blower cam or maybe a Hitech stage 2 blower cam.

 

The CMS 2.5 blower cam is a nice set but I didn't think they had much chop when I had them on the 4.6. Then again my idle was around 1000rpms so my long tubes wouldn't ding off the body of the car at a stop light.

I'd call up either company, tell them your set up and what your goals are and they'll point you in the right direction.

 

what about the cms stage 3's? well i have the vt stage 3 blower cams....i thought they would be to much though and figured it was for a high revving centrifugal supercharged car instead of a low revving eaton car. was i wrong?

 

i went with the mhs stage 3 blower cams,after many long conversations nick said most of these shops vt and others all get their cams from the same people bullet racing cams,he told me he has access to 250 different cam grinds for 4.6/5.4 from bullet

 

by any chance in one of the conversations did they say what the power band was gonna be in the 5.4 with the stage 3's?

 

Hey guys, It's been a while sine I posted anything but i'm starting to get the motor worked on. But I do have a few questions, what is a good RPM for a Daily Driver thats going get to see the Strip/ Auto Cross and once in a blue moon a track day. I also want to know what the stock rods can hold. I plan on running 11:1 Compression with Trick flow heads. If the stock rods can hold just fine I won't have to buy new ones.

 

i cant really remember, but he said the stage 3 would be the ones perfect for my setup with motor bored 20 over,his stage 2 ported heads with over sized valves stage 5 ported steigmeier blower,nick and a friend of his are gonna dyno my car once i get it together, so if they dont do great i will have new ones put in on the spot lol

 

that works. well if my cams don't sell on ebay then i can still use the them after all. sweet.

 

bondfreak: I'd still replace em but if you keep it under 5800 you're pretty safe as long as you keep the oil up and the bearings are good.

 

r3dn3ck:

Got the headers from JBA today. They look sweet but I thought that they would have their patented firecone collecter but sadly they don't . Also hope fedex drops off the HPS intake today.

 

i did some digging here are a few pics and the specs on my cams

i had time-sert inserts installed so spark plug blowout is not an issue,sorry bout the side ways pic lol couldnt turn it up right for some reason

 

Should be getting my setup built and installed in under a month. I have ALL my parts finally after starting when I saw this thread 2 years ago.

Built includes the following:

5.4 MMR900
Trick Flow 44cc Heads
CMS Stage 3 blower cam
Lethal dual pump return fuel system w/ cobra tank
Tork Tech complete supercharger(which is on my 4.6 now)
and alot of misc crap thats takin forever to get together.

will post pics once I put it all together after valve covers and timing cover are back from powder coat.

 

Eviloxide....sounds like a bad *** set-up your gonna have there.

 

put the car in 5th gear if it's a stick. then get a HUGE breaker bar....

 

Nope sorry its an auto :P
(great for year round driving in my mind)

Will Drive do the same thing..was going to do this but it was getting late and had already been changing out shocks and sway bar and a few other little things.

I had put up my UPD's on CL after i was PO'd that I just couldn't get in...sale is pending..
These wouldn't fit on the 5.4 so might as well keep them new and clean and sell em..

On the side note I have bought something for the engine...good ol serp belt lol
had an extra belt from the 4.6 and just traded it in for the 5.4

 

Welcome! Really excited to see what the TT kit does and how well the side mounted adapters work on their intake. I don't know for sure that they've even cut a prototype set yet, so I'm really pumped that you finally decided to chime in.

I'm hearing 500 ponies in your future.

impact gun my friend...