Ford Racing ProCal Tune

[Turbong]

Power output for 2018 EB's is the same for the Ecoboost, most of the meaningful changes are on the V8's with higher compression / flow for a power bump and the 10 speed auto (although I suppose a 2018 EB might get a 10 speed auto as well but I'll bet my bottom dollar they will keep the 6R80 in the EB as more justification to buy a V8). That's mostly because the current mustang V8's stock can't compete against the new ATS chasis and corvett V8 GM used in the 2016+ Camaro.

If there is any minor power bump in the 2018 EB's it's unlikely to be anywhere close to the power output of a FP tuned EB and even less likely that there are any hardware changes (turbo, pistons, rods etc), so any power potential of the 2018's is not going to be any better. So what's the point? I could see some one who leased a V8 trade up to the 2018, but I think most people who got EB's bought them to mod so they aren't leasing. A trade in will loose a bunch of money in the mods. I'm not hopeful Ford will make the stop EB anywhere close to a FP tuned EB with a FMIC upgrade, not this cycle. Plus they would be encroashing on Focus RS territory which which is even less justification to update the EB stang platform and for $1200 worth of upgrades (FP Calibration + FMIC) you can spank a stock Focus RS / WRX STi at 7k less.

I'm just wondering what value there is in getting a 2018 over putting the trade up cost towards suspension / power / body mods that would make your 2015 the better car by a wide margin.

It's clear that they are not interested in the EB at all, there is too much in between like mentioned you got the Focus on one side and the GT on the other, you can't dramatically improve it without stepping on either toes. If anything from 2018+ and forward no one should be buying the EB version since they are clearly not interested in making it better, let them keep it. 2018 GT devalues the previous models big time as they made big significant changes, the GT is the only option going forward now the only thing that makes sense to buy or upgrade from if 2018+ Mustang is on your list.

Sponsored

 

[TheLion]

It's clear that they are not interested in the EB at all, there is too much in between like mentioned you got the Focus on one side and the GT on the other, you can't dramatically improve it without stepping on either toes. If anything from 2018+ and forward no one should be buying the EB version since they are clearly not interested in making it better, let them keep it. 2018 GT devalues the previous models big time as they made big significant changes, the GT is the only option going forward now the only thing that makes sense to buy or upgrade from if 2018+ Mustang is on your list.

That's what I was saying. For the cost, a lightly used 2015~2016 EB, throw in a FP Calibration + ATM or similar Inter Cooler and you'll be competing with and beating stock cars that cost 7k~10k more like the WRX STi or Focus RS. You can spank a V6 camaro or 370Z which costs 2k more than the EB and is nearly already tapped out (NA V6). You can even nip at the heals of 2015~2017 stock GT's.

It's a golden hayday for a cheap fast but reasonably economical car. No it's not the fastest, but with the above mods + gearing it's darn quick for it's price and will surprise a lot of guys who paid a lot more! I'm not suggesting there's no point in 2018+ EB's, once Ford Performance updates their cal for the 2018's they will have the same potential, but if you already have a S550 Ecoboost stang, I just can't see a reason to trade up unless your going to the new V8 which will run low 12's stock with the 10 spd auto.

 

[TheLion]

On a side note, I think the EB Mustang just doesn't make sense stock over something like the 2015+ WRX (non-sti), 370z or 2016+ Camaro V6 etc. THose are it's competitors. Yah, it stomps on a BRZ / Miata at the price point, those make even less sense lol, but it's competitors eek it out bone stock.

Throw in a properly sized inter cooler and it will run on par with the above cars. Throw in the FP Calibration and it will beat those cars by a decent margin. Throw in gearing and it will nip at the heel of a GT and stomp on it's competitors, all while maintaining the factory warranty.

It makes a lot of sense as a mod platform that can serve as a DD or cheap fun car and while it's rather unimpressive stock (from a power standpoint, stock PP's handle as well or better than any of the above), there's a much larger potential hidden within you simply can't tap into with any other car without adding a lot of risk by going after market. If your not concerned about reliability / warranty and service life, then it doesn't matter what platform. You can throw in a V8, built big turbo, super charge etc. Sky is the limit with enough money thrown at it. Just pick your flavor of poison as they say.

Flash the PCM with any other car though and your eating the cost of an engine if it fails (which a high enough amount of them do even with canned tunes like Cobb). With the EB Mustang you have 3 options (FP, Montune and Roush all with offer warranty coverage, but with Montune and Roush you pay extra for warranty and you don't get as much of a power bump at a similar price point). I think inter coolers and Ford Performance are the saving grace of this car that turn it from ZERO to HERO.

 

[DavidHuff]

Are you running stock Inter Cooler Pipes ?

 

[Edkiefer]

On a side note, I think the EB Mustang just doesn't make sense stock over something like the 2015+ WRX (non-sti), 370z or 2016+ Camaro V6 etc. THose are it's competitors. Yah, it stomps on a BRZ / Miata at the price point, those make even less sense lol, but it's competitors eek it out bone stock.

Throw in a properly sized inter cooler and it will run on par with the above cars. Throw in the FP Calibration and it will beat those cars by a decent margin. Throw in gearing and it will nip at the heel of a GT and stomp on it's competitors, all while maintaining the factory warranty.

It makes a lot of sense as a mod platform that can serve as a DD or cheap fun car and while it's rather unimpressive stock (from a power standpoint, stock PP's handle as well or better than any of the above), there's a much larger potential hidden within you simply can't tap into with any other car without adding a lot of risk by going after market. If your not concerned about reliability / warranty and service life, then it doesn't matter what platform. You can throw in a V8, built big turbo, super charge etc. Sky is the limit with enough money thrown at it. Just pick your flavor of poison as they say.

Flash the PCM with any other car though and your eating the cost of an engine if it fails (which a high enough amount of them do even with canned tunes like Cobb). With the EB Mustang you have 3 options (FP, Montune and Roush all with offer warranty coverage, but with Montune and Roush you pay extra for warranty and you don't get as much of a power bump at a similar price point). I think inter coolers and Ford Performance are the saving grace of this car that turn it from ZERO to HERO.

I disagree that 2018 EB is some how not worth it now.
The 2018 EB while peak HP is about same (I think its few HP more) the TQ under the curve is a lot higher, so mid range will be improved a lot. I take it as it coming with a water down FP tune.
You can get 10speed auto and also things like magna ride shocks, 3.55 gearing etc.
Though you need to add the packages , PP for gears etc.
The problem with 2018 GT that I see it now base price starts 35k so your not going to get away with something in the 38-40+K.

So I am pretty sure prices went up a bit, but we have to see how they perform, maybe base suspension has improved, I was hoping they could lower weight somehow.

Most or many change out decent smount of suspesion parts so not sure how improtant PP is but everything is in packages , so you can't just get say gauges or bigger rad, better brakes etc. I wish you could get more granular . Let users pic rear end ratio, HD cooling, HD suspension etc instead of few packages they have now.

 

[TheLion]

Are you running stock Inter Cooler Pipes ?

Stock on the hot side. AEM on the cold side just because I lost the stock rubber hose lol. The AEM hot side didn't fit the ATM well and the couplers were a royal PITA.

I never felt any difference with the change in charge pipes, the main reason was to prevent them from popping off, that was before I learned about the spring tension clamps that fix the issue on the stock pipes.

Just a buy a set of spring tension clamps for the stokers from Tune+ or on E-bay and call it a day as they self adjust over temperature changes which fixes the issue of the stock ones loosening over time (due to heating and cooling cycles of the plastic / rubber tubes). The only ones I think might potentially worth be upgarding to are the ATM all silicone charge pipes once they get the reticulation configuration up for sale.

Currently the ATM charge pipes only offer a vent to atmosphere which I don't want and many of us don't want either, but they are the cheapest on the market and probably one of the must durable designs.

 

[TheLion]

Really you have several good configurations for this car:

Configuration 1: stock appearance, keeps active grille shudders, lowest cost. I would say this is the bare minimum to make it worth you time, but it really wakes up the car and is very easy to do.
1. FP Calibration + FP GT350 CAI (kit)
2. CP-e, Mishimoto or MAP Stage 1 Inter Cooler
3. Tune+ Hose Clamp Kit

Configuration 2: better cooling for track or maximum performance applications, looses active grille shudders.
1. FP Calibration + FP GT350 CAI (kit)
2. ATM Inter Cooler
3. Tune+ Hose Clamp Kit
4. DV+ Valve

Configuration 3: best overall performance but at the highest cost and most involved labor (mostly due to the differential swap).
1. FP Calibration + FP GT350 CAI (kit)
2. ATM Inter Cooler
3. Tune+ Hose Clamp Kit or ATM Charge Pipe Kit
4. DV+ Valve
5. 3.73 Torsen Diff for Manual or 3.55 Torsen Diff for Auto

Yes, there's in between options, but that's kind of a guide line to the common configurations most of us are running with the FP Calibration. Also Mike Goodwin at FP suggested running a 0.030" down to 0.028" spark plug gap to avoid spark blow out. That mod only takes 30~45 minutes of your time.

Torque spec for the 14 mm tapered plug design is between 7 ft-lbs and 14 ft-lbs. Do yourself a favor and buy a torque wrench if you don't have one. Replacing the upper block because you stripped an aluminum thread is no fun!

There are other mods that add up as well that many people do. If your doing another set of tires and wheels, get Forged 18" (that's what any of the actual track cars run) or if budget doesn't permit forged, get a set of Flow Formed 19's like I did. Another mod that's worth while form a fun factor and performance standpoint is cat back exhaust. You may pick up a small amount of response, but mostly your loosing weight (20lbs+ on many of them) over stock and you actually have a decent sounding car. Then there are suspension mods, the Ford Performance Street handling kit is probably what most of us Non-pp guys would get. PP cars only need get their lowering Street-x springs to drop the ride height. Rest is just visual mods unless you anal retentive like me and squeeze every bit of efficiency out of it you can like the Anti-gravity battiers that are 25lbs less than stock or the Velossatek Ram Air Duct + GT Grille.

Hopefully enough people will see this post and find that this is the culmination of over a year's worth of testing, data gathering etc. for this platform, at least those that don't want to have a high risk setup, something they can depend on, beat day in and day out and expect it to last 150k~200k miles. This is my daily driver so the mod can't have a negative impact on reliability. I also still get about 31 mph (all highway, cruising at 77 mph) with the current mods including the tune, inter cooler and short 3.73 torsen diff. I get about 33~34 if I travel around 60~65 mph. Not bad for a car making a touch over 300 HP to the wheels that has the power band of a rainbow (big and broad compared to say the Camaro's peaky and short power band of it's V6).

 

[Glenn G]

Just to add my thoughts to this, I have to agree with what was posted here. The EBM is in a Bad place in the lineup right now, It is now a base model, not an upgrade anymore that the V6 has retired and although Ford has opened up some room under the New GT any performance gains will put it too close to the much more expensive FoRS. I'm not sure but I have a feeling it has taken sales from the ST camp, Focus more than the Fiesta though.

It's sort of the same situation GM is in with the Camaro I4t-V6 and SS-Corvette but with bigger price deltas.

A 2018 EBMs only real improvement will be the A10, the extra 30ftlbs is simply a software change and as pointed out, the FPtune will blow it out of the water, Not worth trading up for at all.

As far as mod path is concerned I don't think a stock EBM is too bad, but it is just too heavily nerfed in stock form to keep it in it's niche, really the extra $1k to get the intercooler and FPtune should just be considered a performance pack. Once those are added it becomes a real player in the sporty coupe segment, and there is nothing in it's price range that touches it. No Car magazine will even test it with the FP tune. I think if Ford fired some of the bean counters and talked to some car guys they would find out that not many people who bought a V8 would buy an EB regardless of performance, Similarly I will never seriously cross shop the EBM with an RS, Turbo RWD coupes are just my thing, though I admit I think it would cannibalize RS sales a bit.

Once you are out of warranty, (or like me threw it out the window already) a down pipe, and good cat back really helps with the top end fall off, My car will maintain ~22psi to redline. E30 is just simply amazing, Nothing but Positive ignition corrections at WOT. I have ~33k miles on the car now so in the end it wouldn't have made a difference to me, but I admit it was a gamble that most people probably shouldn't take.

Just some food for thought for you guys

 

[TheLion]

Just to add my thoughts to this, I have to agree with what was posted here. The EBM is in a Bad place in the lineup right now, It is now a base model, not an upgrade anymore that the V6 has retired and although Ford has opened up some room under the New GT any performance gains will put it too close to the much more expensive FoRS. I'm not sure but I have a feeling it has taken sales from the ST camp, Focus more than the Fiesta though.

It's sort of the same situation GM is in with the Camaro I4t-V6 and SS-Corvette but with bigger price deltas.

A 2018 EBMs only real improvement will be the A10, the extra 30ftlbs is simply a software change and as pointed out, the FPtune will blow it out of the water, Not worth trading up for at all.

As far as mod path is concerned I don't think a stock EBM is too bad, but it is just too heavily nerfed in stock form to keep it in it's niche, really the extra $1k to get the intercooler and FPtune should just be considered a performance pack. Once those are added it becomes a real player in the sporty coupe segment, and there is nothing in it's price range that touches it. No Car magazine will even test it with the FP tune. I think if Ford fired some of the bean counters and talked to some car guys they would find out that not many people who bought a V8 would buy an EB regardless of performance, Similarly I will never seriously cross shop the EBM with an RS, Turbo RWD coupes are just my thing, though I admit I think it would cannibalize RS sales a bit.

Once you are out of warranty, (or like me threw it out the window already) a down pipe, and good cat back really helps with the top end fall off, My car will maintain ~22psi to redline. E30 is just simply amazing, Nothing but Positive ignition corrections at WOT. I have ~33k miles on the car now so in the end it wouldn't have made a difference to me, but I admit it was a gamble that most people probably shouldn't take.

Just some food for thought for you guys

Nothing wrong with shop tunes and exotic fuels if your going for power, problem is that some of us depend on these cars for daily driving. I think you just have a different set of requirements than most of us. Regarding boost, yes I've seen 22PSI at 6500 RPM with the ATM inter cooler as well on the FP calibration. But, I see it vary quite a bit, just today I saw down to 18 PSI, but the top end felt the same, I could not detect any difference in power. I notice that when the car is empty, I see boost in the 20~24 PSI range. When I have passengers it's lower, not sure if due to loading they are pulling a bit of power for safety or if they are running more timing and less boost? What ever the case, it's not a big deal, I'm not going to break records with a full passenger load and it still has tons of power when being used as a daily driver ;-). But I REALLY love that short 3.73 rear end when I have a full passenger load, the car still moves well, I just utilize the low end torque more like I would a truck and it cruises really nice. It's an excellent balance of practical low end torque for daily use and higher end power for more sport driving (plus gets you out of a dig real quick).

A ford fusion or a Focus ST was only a few thousand less than the base Mustang EB, so as a car guy the mustang was a no-brainer on the cost perspective. Technically the mustang EB even stock is quite a bit faster than the Focus ST (13.9 vs. 14.5ish), but I did a bunch of research and realized there was a huge power potential still in the car even going the warranty safe route, I figured minimum it would running in the mid 13's with a few simple bolt on's and I was right. None of the other cars on the market offered such a jump in performance for such a low cost and the ecoboost is known as one of the more durable TDI engine's on the market. I wasn't too impressed by what subaru offered in terms of reliability. Seems as soon as you start pushing more power half of them were failing pistons. Even with the insane amounts of power people are pushing through the stock blocks, there's far fewer failures here than there. The Camaro V6 doesn't really have any additional potential that's worth while as it's a tapped out NA engine, not without voiding the warranty and going FI which is expensive (mine as well buy the V8).

But for a daily driver the level of testing, the warranty and the fact that you can't make E30 in a lot of places (there is no E85 at the majority of stations here in Ohio nor Wisconsin where I go visit family) and the fact that mixing fuels and proportions isn't really practical. The reason I started this thread was to work on the most optimal way to make power with the FP Calibration so we could have fast, fun and reasonably fuel efficient daily drivers. More of my modifications are focused on utilizing power efficiently rather than pushing more power.

There's no doubt E30 has benefits, but not for the majority of us. I'd say those modifications are better suited to weekend toys than daily drivers unless your a big gear head (yes I am, I did the GT diff swap in my garage, but on a regular basis I need practical transport). At that point though, in my opinion, I think stepping up to a GT makes sense, especially since the current generation of GT's will be super cheap now that the next iteration is out, but I'm generally pretty satisfied with my EB with the ATM inter cooler, FP Calibration (the fixed -CJB revision) and the 3.73 torsen diff. Or one could do what I plan to do, buy an engine and 10A from a wrecked one in 7 years once my 2.3L is worn out and turn it into a project car.

I would have no problem however, even now, edging out a much more expensive STi or RS. I'm putting down a hair over 302 hp to the wheels while the STi puts out only 305 hp to the crank with a narrower and peaky power band. Although a FP tuned RS with inter cooler might have the advantage, especially with AWD, but it also costs half of an EB more or as much as a GT which would spank any of the above with a stage 3 power back (they are running low 12's with that).

It's a good car for what it is, just gotta be careful what modifications one does as turbo engines are more sensitive to changes. Even if ineffective modifications may not hurt the engine's reliability, they can negatively affect performance like I found out with the top end and the Levels FMIC. I absolutely love this ATM unit though, I had originally wanted to get the ATM unit when I first bought the car, but they went out of production right at that time (Adam at T+ had recommended it as the best unit on the market).

I especially like that it's powder coated, salt eats up radiators like a like a V8 does gas! That will help it maintain it's performance over the life of the car. At any rate however, I think we've found a really good "go to" combination for anyone with an Ecoboost Mustang looking to turn it from Zero to Hero that won't add any substantial risk of failing the engine over a long service life. I assume my cars should last a minimum of 150k in the worst conditions (assuming regular maintenance, which is how OE's spec engine life). I usually get 200k ~ 250k out of most of my cars.

So all of my modifications are keeping that in mind.

 

[ypena02]

Nothing wrong with shop tunes and exotic fuels if your going for power, problem is that some of us depend on these cars for daily driving. I think you just have a different set of requirements than most of us. Regarding boost, yes I've seen 22PSI at 6500 RPM with the ATM inter cooler as well on the FP calibration. But, I see it vary quite a bit, just today I saw down to 18 PSI, but the top end felt the same, I could not detect any difference in power. I notice that when the car is empty, I see boost in the 20~24 PSI range. When I have passengers it's lower, not sure if due to loading they are pulling a bit of power for safety or if they are running more timing and less boost? What ever the case, it's not a big deal, I'm not going to break records with a full passenger load and it still has tons of power when being used as a daily driver ;-). But I REALLY love that short 3.73 rear end when I have a full passenger load, the car still moves well, I just utilize the low end torque more like I would a truck and it cruises really nice. It's an excellent balance of practical low end torque for daily use and higher end power for more sport driving (plus gets you out of a dig real quick).

A ford fusion or a Focus ST was only a few thousand less than the base Mustang EB, so as a car guy the mustang was a no-brainer on the cost perspective. Technically the mustang EB even stock is quite a bit faster than the Focus ST (13.9 vs. 14.5ish), but I did a bunch of research and realized there was a huge power potential still in the car even going the warranty safe route, I figured minimum it would running in the mid 13's with a few simple bolt on's and I was right. None of the other cars on the market offered such a jump in performance for such a low cost and the ecoboost is known as one of the more durable TDI engine's on the market. I wasn't too impressed by what subaru offered in terms of reliability. Seems as soon as you start pushing more power half of them were failing pistons. Even with the insane amounts of power people are pushing through the stock blocks, there's far fewer failures here than there. The Camaro V6 doesn't really have any additional potential that's worth while as it's a tapped out NA engine, not without voiding the warranty and going FI which is expensive (mine as well buy the V8).

But for a daily driver the level of testing, the warranty and the fact that you can't make E30 in a lot of places (there is no E85 at the majority of stations here in Ohio nor Wisconsin where I go visit family) and the fact that mixing fuels and proportions isn't really practical. The reason I started this thread was to work on the most optimal way to make power with the FP Calibration so we could have fast, fun and reasonably fuel efficient daily drivers. More of my modifications are focused on utilizing power efficiently rather than pushing more power.

There's no doubt E30 has benefits, but not for the majority of us. I'd say those modifications are better suited to weekend toys than daily drivers unless your a big gear head (yes I am, I did the GT diff swap in my garage, but on a regular basis I need practical transport). At that point though, in my opinion, I think stepping up to a GT makes sense, especially since the current generation of GT's will be super cheap now that the next iteration is out, but I'm generally pretty satisfied with my EB with the ATM inter cooler, FP Calibration (the fixed -CJB revision) and the 3.73 torsen diff. Or one could do what I plan to do, buy an engine and 10A from a wrecked one in 7 years once my 2.3L is worn out and turn it into a project car.

I would have no problem however, even now, edging out a much more expensive STi or RS. I'm putting down a hair over 302 hp to the wheels while the STi puts out only 305 hp to the crank with a narrower and peaky power band. Although a FP tuned RS with inter cooler might have the advantage, especially with AWD, but it also costs half of an EB more or as much as a GT which would spank any of the above with a stage 3 power back (they are running low 12's with that).

It's a good car for what it is, just gotta be careful what modifications one does as turbo engines are more sensitive to changes. Even if ineffective modifications may not hurt the engine's reliability, they can negatively affect performance like I found out with the top end and the Levels FMIC. I absolutely love this ATM unit though, I had originally wanted to get the ATM unit when I first bought the car, but they went out of production right at that time (Adam at T+ had recommended it as the best unit on the market).

I especially like that it's powder coated, salt eats up radiators like a like a V8 does gas! That will help it maintain it's performance over the life of the car.

You lost top end power with the Levels FMIC?

 

[Regs]

I got to drive around with my FP tuned and CP-e intercooler last night and this morning. Power delivery feels a lot more smooth and it feels more responsive. Hard to say it pulls harder, but it likely is more consistent especially now in the summer days.

I really wish Ford Performance came out with a inter cooler tune. Something tells me FP tunes are leaving 25-50 hp off the table because of the stocker.

 

[Spykexx]

Curious. has anyone seen any deals on the FP tune lately? Tasca has it on sale, but the shipping pretty much negate the price savings -.- $69 to ship a tune and a CAI? Come on now...My exhaust cost less to ship.

 

[TheLion]

I got to drive around with my FP tuned and CP-e intercooler last night and this morning. Power delivery feels a lot more smooth and it feels more responsive. Hard to say it pulls harder, but it likely is more consistent especially now in the summer days.

I really wish Ford Performance came out with a inter cooler tune. Something tells me FP tunes are leaving 25-50 hp off the table because of the stocker.

If your calibration is freshly flashed and you haven't driven about 200 miles your no where near full power...you might actually be making less than the stock tune after it learns the octane.

The octane learn function takes time, but to speed up the process do a bunch of 4th gear pulls from 50 to 75 mph at about 50% throttle.

 

[Glenn G]

Nothing wrong with shop tunes and exotic fuels if your going for power, problem is that some of us depend on these cars for daily driving. I think you just have a different set of requirements than most of us. Regarding boost, yes I've seen 22PSI at 6500 RPM with the ATM inter cooler as well on the FP calibration. But, I see it vary quite a bit, just today I saw down to 18 PSI, but the top end felt the same, I could not detect any difference in power. I notice that when the car is empty, I see boost in the 20~24 PSI range. When I have passengers it's lower, not sure if due to loading they are pulling a bit of power for safety or if they are running more timing and less boost? What ever the case, it's not a big deal, I'm not going to break records with a full passenger load and it still has tons of power when being used as a daily driver ;-). But I REALLY love that short 3.73 rear end when I have a full passenger load, the car still moves well, I just utilize the low end torque more like I would a truck and it cruises really nice. It's an excellent balance of practical low end torque for daily use and higher end power for more sport driving (plus gets you out of a dig real quick).

A ford fusion or a Focus ST was only a few thousand less than the base Mustang EB, so as a car guy the mustang was a no-brainer on the cost perspective. Technically the mustang EB even stock is quite a bit faster than the Focus ST (13.9 vs. 14.5ish), but I did a bunch of research and realized there was a huge power potential still in the car even going the warranty safe route, I figured minimum it would running in the mid 13's with a few simple bolt on's and I was right. None of the other cars on the market offered such a jump in performance for such a low cost and the ecoboost is known as one of the more durable TDI engine's on the market. I wasn't too impressed by what subaru offered in terms of reliability. Seems as soon as you start pushing more power half of them were failing pistons. Even with the insane amounts of power people are pushing through the stock blocks, there's far fewer failures here than there. The Camaro V6 doesn't really have any additional potential that's worth while as it's a tapped out NA engine, not without voiding the warranty and going FI which is expensive (mine as well buy the V8).

But for a daily driver the level of testing, the warranty and the fact that you can't make E30 in a lot of places (there is no E85 at the majority of stations here in Ohio nor Wisconsin where I go visit family) and the fact that mixing fuels and proportions isn't really practical. The reason I started this thread was to work on the most optimal way to make power with the FP Calibration so we could have fast, fun and reasonably fuel efficient daily drivers. More of my modifications are focused on utilizing power efficiently rather than pushing more power.

There's no doubt E30 has benefits, but not for the majority of us. I'd say those modifications are better suited to weekend toys than daily drivers unless your a big gear head (yes I am, I did the GT diff swap in my garage, but on a regular basis I need practical transport). At that point though, in my opinion, I think stepping up to a GT makes sense, especially since the current generation of GT's will be super cheap now that the next iteration is out, but I'm generally pretty satisfied with my EB with the ATM inter cooler, FP Calibration (the fixed -CJB revision) and the 3.73 torsen diff. Or one could do what I plan to do, buy an engine and 10A from a wrecked one in 7 years once my 2.3L is worn out and turn it into a project car.

I would have no problem however, even now, edging out a much more expensive STi or RS. I'm putting down a hair over 302 hp to the wheels while the STi puts out only 305 hp to the crank with a narrower and peaky power band. Although a FP tuned RS with inter cooler might have the advantage, especially with AWD, but it also costs half of an EB more or as much as a GT which would spank any of the above with a stage 3 power back (they are running low 12's with that).

It's a good car for what it is, just gotta be careful what modifications one does as turbo engines are more sensitive to changes. Even if ineffective modifications may not hurt the engine's reliability, they can negatively affect performance like I found out with the top end and the Levels FMIC. I absolutely love this ATM unit though, I had originally wanted to get the ATM unit when I first bought the car, but they went out of production right at that time (Adam at T+ had recommended it as the best unit on the market).

I especially like that it's powder coated, salt eats up radiators like a like a V8 does gas! That will help it maintain it's performance over the life of the car. At any rate however, I think we've found a really good "go to" combination for anyone with an Ecoboost Mustang looking to turn it from Zero to Hero that won't add any substantial risk of failing the engine over a long service life. I assume my cars should last a minimum of 150k in the worst conditions (assuming regular maintenance, which is how OE's spec engine life). I usually get 200k ~ 250k out of most of my cars.

So all of my modifications are keeping that in mind.

I tend to agree with you, While mine is a Daily driver, I have a few vehicles for backup if needs be. I run straight pump 93 (98 ron Here in Germany) 99% of the time as Ethanol is much harder to come by then in the US.

The only thing I disagree with you on is stepping up to a GT engine, If your goal is over 600+ WHP, then Yes GT is the way to go, Having a 600 WHP car is fun, no doubt, I've been there, but what I do want is a comfortable daily driver, that I can rip into when the opportunity arises. I am looking for 550 reliable whp and 30+mpg when I'm not booting it. My VS2+ just arrived today so I am just aux fuel and Built engine away from, I am still under $29K right now. When I bought my EB back in 2015, The Cheapest GT I could get was $34K and that was the MAS no haggle price.

Once all is said and done I will be in the car for around ~$35k Even less if I decide to just order the pistons and rods and have my local shop build my engine. Once you get rid of the rods, this motor is very stout and I will have my 550 whp 30+MPG daily driver that I am only paying EBM insurance premiums for.

I don't really like NA engines or big V8s or any V engines, I think superchargers are a compromise, especially in efficiency. I respect the shit out of them, no doubt but all my cars were japaneese Turbo I4s and I6s with a few German and Japanese NA I6s in the mix and I can tell you that it is unlikely I will ever own a V8, it's not in my DNA.

 

[TheLion]

You lost top end power with the Levels FMIC?

Unless there was something funky going on the FP calibration at the top end, I'm still not 100% sure the top end was directly related to the Levels, but the lag was. It is possible the same issue that caused the power drop out in the mid range on the -CJA revision was also causing power drop out in the top end (maybe for the same reason). At both points (5000-5300 and 5800 to 6500) power dropped to 250 whp, it may be coincidence or it may be related to their glitch.

Yes, power still fades as you near 6500 with -CJB, but it's far less discernible and far more gradual more like a taper than a wall where it suddenly goes flat (like their engine dyno they post on their side would indicate) that VERY perceivable. I should have left the -CJA revision on to see what would happen at the top end with the -CJA instead changing to the -CJB but I was told by FP reps the only change was a fix for the mid-range so I didn't think anything of it and expected any differences at the top end to be attributed to the FMIC change.

From a cooling standpoint, yes the Levels performs VERY well. I have yet to log the ATM to see if it does as well as the levels or similar except for one or two 3rd gear pulls, so far it seems close to the same as the levels in terms of cooling, maybe a tad worse by a couple of degrees. But I do to have much better overall response with the ATM probably due to the smaller end tanks and rounded bar design giving it better flow.

A few degrees in temp aren't going to make a whole lot of difference, but 20+ degrees will start to matter, so as long as it's close to the Levels in terms of cooling, the increased responsiveness is well worth it. I seem to be able to hit 75 by my known distance consistently now where before I would usually not make it quite to 75 by then.

I also managed a nice long screech with the tires from a 30 mph moving start in 2nd gear. I was quite surprised since there wasn't a shift involved (no clutch dumping), I just hammered it moving at about 30 in 2nd. I'm running Pilot Sport AS3+ 275 tires which have done very well with traction compared to the stockers.

The car just seems markedly improved response and more linear power instead of laggy and more surgey like it was before. BTW, I go the 2nd dyno run schedule for today with about 300 miles on the car since the re-flash to -CJB, so we'll get some good data on the ATM + FP Calibration combo.

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