Welcome to The Square-Root-of-One.

Project TPS Reports

One BAD ASS 5.4L Powered Mustang

Give it up for Triton Power

It started normally enough. Just a need to go fast all the time, so a simple 03 Mustang GT was purchased and slightly modded. Little stuff like big brakes, subframe connectors, seats, etc... All the little mods really made a drivability difference and exposed the real power deficit that the little 281cid OHC engine suffered from.
Trying to get maximum use of the power that was on tap an independent rear suspension and bilstein coil overs were added all the way around. The IRS was a great feeling and decent handling setup but there were shortcomings. The soft bushings allow the diff to load and unload rapidly which eventually led to its total distruction. Repeated attempts at beefing it up only made me poorer though and the rear steer tendencies were beginning to show themselves vividly as I got more in tune with the handling of the car.
I wasn't happy with the fragility of the IRS, and after breaking it severely 3 times I said the heck with it and went back to the 8.8" solid axle but now with a Maximum Motorsports torque arm and panhard bar. I decided that it was time for a power upgrade and I initially looked to N2O. I thought maybe a 4.6 and 125hp of nitrous would be enough. Wrong. Note to self, there's no such thing as "enough".
Then it hit me. Why not just drop in a 5.4L? It'll make more power than the 4.6 and be easier on the motor than nitrous or a blower. So parts began to accumulate. First intake adapter plates and intakes were collected.
And other intakes and all kinds of little intake tract parts, fuel system parts and some custom roll bar work to seal up loose ends. The car was finally approaching a state that I could contemplate installing the tall deck motor.
Then more motor parts, more fuel system parts and a Oil Air Separator of my own design and construction found their way in to the project. OHC cars aerate a lot of oil and drink it into the intake. This is bad, so the OAS is a very important component to keeping the new high compression engine breathing clean pure air.
3 sets of ported heads and a pair of 5.4L blocks gave me parts to build from and parts to use for all the mockup work for new parts designs. I would have been happy with any one of the block/head combos but the extra bits made the ideal pairings much easier to come by. I added a nice set of Comp cams to make the heads worth it and we are off to the races.
Porting my HPS Hardball'R intake was intended to shorten the runners and open up the inlets. After the big stuff a simple port match to the runner exits for the heads and adapter plates.
Engine completed on the stand and just about to go in. A very exciting time for a lot of people. The motor went in without any real hassle despite the size and mounted up just like the 4.6L. The hardest part was really the waiting.
Engine going in with all the little bits being installed.
Finally got all the parts hooked up and the hood clearanced and it's ALIVE!
Some Pics of the whole car. You'll want to know it for when it runs you down.

Updates:

20071125: I spent about 4 hours pulling out all the Autometer gauges and the associated rats nest of wires to get my new Volt gauge in and fix some ground crosstalk issues that had been nagging at me.
20071126: I have a dyno run scheduled for day after tomorrow. Pretty excited to see what it all comes out to on this version of the combo.
20071128: Dyno graphs. The original 4.6L 2v engine baselined at 232rwhp/279rwtq and after tuning and bolt-on parts finally turned out 244rwhp/280rwtq. The graph to the right is the 5.4's first ever run in anger. It was run on a Mustang 750 eddy current load cell dyno. The tune on the motor is running a full point rich and with a little timing pulled out for the first set of runs. I only ran the pulls to 5500rpm. There's at least another 700rpm in it but longtubes come first.
20071130: Going in for another dyno run on Saturday. This is scheduled to be on a Dynojet inertia dyno which notoriously posts higher numbers. I've never subscribed to that kind of thinking but we'll know for sure tomorrow.
20071202: A set of backup runs on a DynoJet inertia dyno netted exactly the same results as the earlier run. This time we took the RPM's up to 6100 to explore the fuel system limits a little further. Power leaned over really hard at 5000rpm and continues to lean over with a fuel supply limitation brought on by 21# injectors being too small and the intake adapter plates seem to be limiting flow through the intake to about 440cfm. There's a new set of 30lb injectors and a new high volume fuel pump to treat the motor to about 50% more fuel delivery capacity which should be plenty for up to 350rwhp NA.
20071223: Got a new set of wheels for the beastie. Decided on a used set of Motegi Touge wheels. 18x9 in front and 18x10 in back. They're skinned in Sumitomo HTRZ II in front. The rears are in need of tires but I'm planning on matching the Sumitomos in front with the same tire in back. Front tire size is 265/35/18 and in back they're going to be 285/35/18. I'm putting my 95' Cobra R wheels and tires up for sale to cover the cost of the new rear tires and then it's off to the races.
20071229: Got my tires in and on. Sumitomo HTRZ II 285/35/18 in back and 265/35/18 in front. They're a cheap tire so I don't expect much from them other than 12 miles of commute a day. After the front and back are worn out I'll go for something more aggressive.
20080114: Finally got off my butt and washed the car. Took out the good camera and took some good clean pics. I'm lovin' how it's looking lately. Got a couple minor changes to the external appearance (rear diffuser, grill delete, ...) but this is the basic look it's going to have for a while. The flame dealie behind the cargo net is actually copper filament made into a paper of sorts and cut out in the flame pattern (my first try). It's in the cargo net on the headliner. I like it ... just a little touch inside. I also used the copper paper to make wear patches for the seats. It's doing great at keeping the harnesses from wearing holes in the race seat fabric.