Daily Driving A Boosted GT?

[Hammerhead13579]

I daily'd two boosted gen 3's that had a Roush P2 kit on it. First car melted the cats at 6,000 miles. The blower was on for 4,000 of those miles. Traded the car at 14k.

Second car had blower installed at 900 miles and headers with no cats were installed immediately after blower install. Ran them with no tune for 2 years. Blew up the motor at 22,000 miles and the cats were put back on by the dealer. Melted them within two weeks of getting the car back so the dealer cut the cats out and replaced them. 4,000 miles later one was on it's way out (verified visually and by shaking it). Headers went back on. New engine from Ford was a POS so I traded the car.

I will say, I loved the headers with a Borla exhaust but damn was it LOUD.. I moved after they came off and it was still loud but sooooo much quieter... When I put the headers back on I hated it. The noise was awful and even louder because of our car port.. Cold starts probably woke the dead at the cemetery 10 miles away.

Tires? Ran 20" Nitto R2's year round because the MP4s could NOT get traction and it scared the shit out of me to drive it hard. Car was an A10 and I had the MP4's on it for a road trip. I punched it at 40 or so getting on an onramp and when it shifted into 4th or 5th it went sideways, and then backwards and then jumped over a drainage swale and up an embankment... And then onto the freeway across 3 lanes of traffic. Thank god it was in the middle of Arkansas where there was barely any traffic that day. Yup... I was THAT Mustang driver. Car was fine... My fruit of the looms were not.

Even with the R2's on it could break the tires free on the dragstrip shifting into 6th gear at 100+ mph.

What indication did you get when the catalytic converters were going bad? Codes? What do you mean "visually and by shaking it" to know the cat was bad?

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[Hammerhead13579]

Also, to answer OPs question:
1. Cats are fine as long as it is tuned for it.
2. Get some damn drag radials if you go supercharged or you won't have as much fun. Spinning isn't winning. Nitto's are great for a daily and will be good for your power level for at least 10k miles. I drove with them in the rain (not going above 45)...they are definitely versatile. They also aren't as soft as a Mickey Thompson so you can still corner just fine too

 

[f30foxcat]

Pretty good answer's here. But I'll add to it.

I daily my boosted GT on 93, and it's fine. Sometimes it feels like over kill for a morning shit traffic commute to work.

I really only hate when I get off work and want a quiet ride home to relax. But instead my car sounds like its waging war on every minivan I come across at the stoplight.

Even when I take off super slowly....it still sounds like its trying to race the living snot out of everyone.

-Still on my stock cats. No issues from what I can tell.

Are you gonna destroy your cats doing daily driving? Probably not. Long pulls or frequent pulls could definitely shorten their life. But the casual pull from time to time your probably fine. Tuners can add some "cat protection" to help cool the cats down some. (I think the method essentially is adding more fuel to reduce cat temps or something)

Hey man, I'm interested in a similar setup. Looking at grabbing a G3 with a 120 on 93 octane. I also daily my car, and it seems most here do not drive their Mustangs frequently, so it's difficult to get an actual sense of long term reliability. How has your car held up in the time it's been boosted? Should I be worried about long term use on a gen 3? From what I've read here, it looks like 650whp is pretty comfortable, but want to verify.

 

[SnowFox]

Hey man, I'm interested in a similar setup. Looking at grabbing a G3 with a 120 on 93 octane. I also daily my car, and it seems most here do not drive their Mustangs frequently, so it's difficult to get an actual sense of long term reliability. How has your car held up in the time it's been boosted? Should I be worried about long term use on a gen 3? From what I've read here, it looks like 650whp is pretty comfortable, but want to verify.

Car has held up absolutely perfectly and has given me zero reason to worry. I do alot of mixed driving freeway and dreadful traffic.

Realistically when thought about youre rarely under boost when driving normally/DD. Though the car does feel significantly better and more powerful. Unless youre kinda getting on it, it's not a profound change to DD.

Other than chasing down a few gremlins related to the BOV early on, everything has been smooth.

Change my oil a bit more frequently. I add about 2-3oz of octance boost to every 5-6 gallons of gas just for a little added protection and peace of mind in case I get bad gas.

But yeah, in short I've had no issues with driving or reliability.

 

[Wolfys11]

Personally i have the same setup for now, manual, with drag springs and stock 20” rims with stock all season tires. I dont have a performance pack so my diff gearing is longer. I hardly spin 2nd gear, never 3rd. Winter and summer.

Ess doesnt have the low end torque to make you spin, so long as you have good tires (not necessarily drag packs or semi slicks) and long gears, 680whp top end isnt enough to really kill traction. You will spin just enough to not notice it at straight line

This is my personal experience though, as many have and probably will again tell me its not possible etc etc

Ive driven for 2 years like this now, the drag rear springs help alot, i have bmr but steeda also makes basically the same spring. You wont need front springs to be drag springs, but i bought the set of 4

 

[Zrussian13]

Hey man, I'm interested in a similar setup. Looking at grabbing a G3 with a 120 on 93 octane. I also daily my car, and it seems most here do not drive their Mustangs frequently, so it's difficult to get an actual sense of long term reliability. How has your car held up in the time it's been boosted? Should I be worried about long term use on a gen 3? From what I've read here, it looks like 650whp is pretty comfortable, but want to verify.

Reliable daily driving a boosted gen 3 is going to come down to good fuel and tuning. We have crap fuel in az so I run boostane and meth injection with our 91oct and my gt lives a happy life at 800wheel. I put over 20k miles on it a year and it's been boosted for over 4 years now.

 

[HKusp]

Reliable daily driving a boosted gen 3 is going to come down to good fuel and tuning. We have crap fuel in az so I run boostane and meth injection with our 91oct and my gt lives a happy life at 800wheel. I put over 20k miles on it a year and it's been boosted for over 4 years now.

Chris, are you still on your original engine?

 

[Zrussian13]

Chris, are you still on your original engine?

Unfortunately no. but I got 96.5k miles out of it. 40k of that boosted. The turbos didn't take out my engine though. I broke a spark plug during a change out and ceramic took out cylinder 3. The rest of the engine still looked good upon tear down. New engine has 18k miles on it with the boost turned up to 12lbs running strong. I ran 10.5lbs on the first engine.

 

[schmeky]

My 2018 Gen 3 with A10 has been boosted for 21K now. Has been stone cold reliable. Mine seems to get stronger with the miles. Only issue was a toasted A10 but I have one built for boost now.

I have a P1X centri and in normal driving the car feels really healthy and has plenty of in town power.

The A10 with a 3.55 rear gear makes for an incredible street experience. I estimate I'm at about 680 rear wheel.

I've had a total of 24 highway rolls from 50 - 70 mph with all kinds of different cars and have a 24/0 win loss ratio, so far. This car murders Hellcats with ease.

 

[wingnutt]

I've had a total of 24 highway rolls from 50 - 70 mph…

 

[Wolfys11]

Starting mph is what i think he meant LOL

 

[Zrussian13]

Starting mph is what i think he meant LOL

I hope so. I cough on the gas pedal and hit triple digits!

 

[Andy13186]

I hope so. I cough on the gas pedal and hit triple digits!

Hopefully he missed a 1 on the 2nd number. 50-70 would be less than 1 second in a supercharged gt if you hook lol.

 

[russd32]

I think the answer to all of your questions is that it depends on the build level of said boosted car, the tuning, and the operator.

I will say, I drive an '18 GT with the Phase 2 Roush blower and it's a manual. My car has a 305 summer tire on 20" wheels and it's very daily drivable. In fact, with my kids in the car driving more or less the speed limit it's no different than a normal GT.

Cats vs. no-cats on a daily is a tough call for me. If you keep the cats you have to be mindful of keeping exhaust temp down of you'll cook them. Even if you do...you may end up cooking them. On the flipside, if you go catless you'll smell exhaust all the time. Not a big deal on a play car but on a car you actually daily it gets pretty annoying real fast. The same can be said for a lot of mods that make sense on a weekend car.

As for tires - you're going to have to be able to drive no matter what tires you buy. Cold roads, dirty roads, different asphalt can all be pretty slick at 600-800 hp.

 

[schmeky]

You guys are incredibly literal.

The rolls started from 50 - 70, and went from there !!!

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