2015-17 Mustang GT Ford Performance Power Packs

[Humphammer]

Did you guys notice more pops/crackles/burbles in the exhaust with the PP2? Mainly with decel

I have not......although other than an H pipe I'm still stock on my exhaust. The only sound difference in my case is the extra sound from the intake from 3,500 RPM's and up. That may change as I am about to install a Ford Racing by Borla touring axle back exhaust in the next couple of days.

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[TheLion]

Just wanted to update, I'm at a little over 2,150 miles since the install and no issues. Got my Corsa Sport muffles swapped out for their Touring mufflers for the intermediate volume "Sport Exhaust" (I know a bit confusing, but their touring mufflers + x-pipe is their sport exhaust while their Sport Mufflers with their X-pip is their Extreme exhaust). Traded my sport mufflers for his Touring mufflers with a local GT owner I found on this forum who happened to live just 2 miles down the road!

Still has some burble and pops, deeper over all tone and a substantial, but not too great reduction in volume. Still pretty loud on cold starts.

Here's something I noticed however, when you push the car hard for extended periods of time I noticed it started to pull timing. It lost it's edge as things started to get pretty hot.

I ran the car at WOT whenever the roads allowed and with as much throttle as was safe with myself, my wife and two teenage children on some very winding and twisty foot hill roads with the AC on in 90F+ heat. With the weight and AC load, I'd imagine that's pretty darn close to track. This went on for about 20 minutes straight.

Nothing was over temp, coolant was fine, oil was about about 3/4 up on the green in the idiot gauge. No nanies kicked in but it was pulling several degrees of timing as the motor lost a noticeable amount of edge. Yes it still made good power, but it was not making full power even on 93.

I spoke to Ford Performance and they said it's a common issue due to oil vaporization especially when your consistently above 4k RPM on hot days and they suggested any of the after market oil separators would keep the oil vapor from diluting the octane.

I asked about theirs and they noted it can work with their Power Pack 2 but it won't mount up correctly because of the GT350 intake ducting and throttle body, so they suggested to just buy an after market one from a reputable manufacturer.

I went with the JLT 3.0, nice simple design, using OE fittings and the filter design works without excessive moisture accumulation. I used UPR on my Ecoboost but it also caught way too much moisture. Moisture isn't going to cause knock, in fact small moisture vapor has a mild cooling effect. What I want is oil vapor and JLT's seemed to catch mostly just oil without a bunch of condensation (same with the FP design).

Right now I'm just running MC 5W-20 semi-syn (btw for those that poo poo the factory oil, it's actually very good at wear protection with an excellent viscosity index, cold pour point of -42F and has a good additive package for a decent base number, but where it falls a bit short is boil off resistance so there is a higher vaporization rate with it, in fact it's right at the limit of 15%! and that's it's big flaw). Due for a change in about 500 miles here and I"ll be giving Mobil 1's new Advanced Synthetic formula a try. Viscosity index is 160 (MC's was 164 on their data sheet) so nearly identicle temperature stability. Cold pour is -40F, nearly the same. It is also LSPI rated and while LSPI isn't an issue with NA 5.0's, LSPI resistant oils also reduce knock frequency as their formula is designed to resist carbon buildup and fuel dilution when entering the combustion chamber.

Hopefully combing the separator with a higher quality oil that is less prone to boil off and a knock resistant formula will resolve the fuel dilution issue during extended heavy throttle / high rpm / high load conditions. I did NOT hear any pinging btw, the ECU pulled timing in a safe manner, but yes I did notice it lost some of it's edge after things started to heat up. Even after I merged onto the highway I noticed it was running less timing, but after about 20~30 minutes of highway driving when things cooled off and the bulk of the puddled oil was consumed it re-adjusted and got its edge back. The ECU program did what it was supposed to do, pulled timing as needed to keep things safe when conditions were less than ideal but put it back in once things cooled off. I'd agree with Ford Performance at this point as this is the second time I've noticed this under these types of extreme driving conditions and I'd prefer to be able to make maximum power even when things are hot. Making good safe power is one thing, making it under sustained near or near full power operation is a whole new ball game. Setups that work for Drag racing will quickly fail on the track, the ultimate test of durability. While I'm not dissing drag racing, it's just not interesting to me. I like twists, turns, straights, slaloms and all manner of driving challenges and to do it over and over again!

If your limited to just a 2-3 on-ramp pull for an occasional 4th gear pull on the highway a good synthetic oil should be enough, but for any type of track use or similar extended high RPM operation or even frequent stop and go traffic in hot climates I would suggest an oil separator and good synthetic oil. FP reps also suggested using a seperator for stop and go traffic in hot climates as you get a decent amount of boil off then as well. It seems these high compression NA engines are somewhat sensitive to octane dilution and I suppose when your squeezing every last HP out of an NA engine your going to have increased sensitivity.

Other cases I noted was a 2014 GT review that noted the same thing. They were running the Ford Performance power pack (for 2014's there is only one and it's gains are mild, about 7 hp average). He noted his trap speed went up from 111 to 113 with no other changes and was able to run a consistent 12.5 where he wasn't before. That would be an example of octane sensitivity. A few others have also reported using an oil separator with the Power Pack 2 resolved their knock issues so there's plenty of evidence to suggest there is a benefit to using one due to octane dilution. Some cars may benefit more than others depending on climate and how the car is used, fuel quality etc.

It is a maintenance item, so I would only suggest it for those who see "track like" use or heavy stop and go traffic in hot weather.

Mobil 1, Valvoline and AMSOIL are just a few suppliers that now have Dexos 1 Gen 2 certified oils. ILSAC GF-5 Plus spec is the more "standardized" spec for LSPI resistant oils, but it won't be finalized until mid 2019 so GM's Dexos 1 Gen 2 is the only actual LSPI spec currently out on the market for oil manufacturers to use, but it's fairly thorough and good enough to help with knock on NA applications.

 

[TheLion]

There is one thing I didn't think of when I purchased the JLT, it's not baffled. Neither is UPR's or other similar can style. Mishimoto seems to have the only baffled unit out there...hummm...I need to find a 5mm aluminum disk and drill a bunch of holes in it, then I can make a baffle for the JLT.

I'm not a fan of Mishimoto's filter element, they used a sintered element in there good for down to 50 microns. Problem I have with that is flow. That element is going to be fairly restrictive to flow where a fine mesh and honeycomb structure is not. But they have a baffle to prevent slosh from getting up into the intake when the can gets near full and you start pulling 1 g corners....sounds like a home hack job is needed to get the best of both worlds.

BTW I weighed the JLT 3.0 can, with fittings it's only 12.2 oz. Very lightweight unit.

Regarding the slosh baffle in the catch can, I'm thinking something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/184446962/aluminum-stamping-blank-circle-2-inch?show_sold_out_detail=1

Drill a hole in the center, drill a hole in the bottom side of the top of the JLT catch can, use a 6-32 or M4 screw and cheap tap with a nylon or aluminum spacer. Then drill a bunch of holes in a pattern on the disk (it's a soft stamping blank, so not hard to drill into). It's more or less a copy of Mishimoto's design which should do a nice job of controlling slosh, kind of like a windage tray in your oil pan.

During high g corners, that fluid is going to want too ride up the wall of the can and while we don't care if it goes back down into the crank case, we do care if goes to the intake side. And we don't want to add more restriction to the intake side.

So this will hang off the bottom of the top of the catch can by 5 mm, allowing air to flow easily through the gap. But the fluid, now in droplets, will seep down through the weep holes into the can and any pool of fluid sloshing around cannot easily get past the high surface area once it builds up. If JLT included a baffle it would be one of the best units on the market in terms of balancing flow, filtering, cost and simplicity.

I think with the Ford Performance version, their screen stretches all the way across the entire unit, so their screen acts like a baffle. JLT's has no baffle and I'd say it's a design oversight for anyone who might do auto x or track. Some one might be driving down the track and they didn't empty their JLT catch can right before they tracked it, it's half full and they pull a high g corner and wamo, a huge plume of black smoke goes out their tail pipe because a bunch of oil in the can just walked up the side for can and into the vacuum side right into the intake and combustion chamber.

Now your knock sensors are going to be going crazy and ECU will pull timing and it's going to take a while before it slowly adds timing back in. That's no good!

Here's an example of Mishimoto's baffle design, elegantly simple yet effective: https://www.mishimoto.com/compact-baffled-oil-catch-can-2-port.html?fee=1&fep=7216&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2rzjj6Cr3AIVVFuGCh2XhARTEAQYAiABEgJR3vD_BwE

You see that large aluminum disk with all the holes in it? That's the slosh baffle and it more or less is a windage tray like in your oil pan.

 

[Humphammer]

[MENTION=25093]TheLion[/MENTION] you seem to know a lot about our Mustang, and you put a lot of effort into sharing your knowledge. I have used yours as well as some others knowledge to make my 2015 limited edition near perfect for my tastes. I have the PP2, a lethal performance H pipe and the Ford Performance by Borla axle back touring exhaust. My car now has much improved throttle response and useful for my taste between 1,500 and 4,000 RPM torque. The exhaust is deep and mellow with zero rasp and drone at any speed. Many thanks to you sir.

 

[TheLion]

[MENTION=25093]TheLion[/MENTION] you seem to know a lot about our Mustang, and you put a lot of effort into sharing your knowledge. I have used yours as well as some others knowledge to make my 2015 limited edition near perfect for my tastes. I have the PP2, a lethal performance H pipe and the Ford Performance by Borla axle back touring exhaust. My car now has much improved throttle response and useful for my taste between 1,500 and 4,000 RPM torque. The exhaust is deep and mellow with zero rasp and drone at any speed. Many thanks to you sir.

Your welcome. Yah, I post massively long and excessively detailed posts, which annoyed some people at first, but many seem to appreciate the detail. I try to cover EVERYTHING that I can conceive of without being overly detailed on any particular area.

Ford left a huge amount of petential in the GT and even Ecoboost mustang's locked away under a Touring setup. Even the Performance Package is not a true track setup, it more or less a starting point for track that gives you the most expensive and costly bits:

1. Larger radiator
2. Water to Oil cooler (which also works well for daily to minimize boil off and extend oil life without taking forever to heat up, heats up as fast as your radiator)
3. Larger Brebo Brakes, a very costly upgrade if it wasn't from the factory!
4. Torsel LSD, another very costly and difficult component to upgrade if it wasn't a factory option.

Suspension tuning is meh, its certainly sporty stock, but not "track worthy", at least not compared to the gold standard of track focused factory setups from Chevy in their latest SS.

Engine Tuning is the same exact thing. There's a huge amount of potential built right into the factory setup for the 5.0 on the most important, costly and difficult components to upgrade. Most people aren't willing to gut the internals and throw the coin in for new pistons, rods, crank, valves / springs, port their heads etc. to gain higher RPM operation.

Thankfully Ford Engineering was sly and while they couldn't convince management to give us a Power Pack 2 option from the factory, they built into the car the capabilities of doing so in the most expensive, timely and difficult components most aren't willing to replace and offered a easy assortment of parts to upgrade externally to take advantage of it combined with a new ECU calibration.

Heck the GT350 comes tuned for 91 or higher only from the factory. There is no running low octane on the Voodoo 5.2 variant.

I think they would have been wise to offer the Power Pack 2 with the standard Performance Package. It's not abnormal to offer "hot tuned" versions of the same car as special performance packages. Nissan does that with the Nismo edition of the 370z's that put out 30 hp more on the same engine but require premium only. Your trading power for versatility on the standard variants while the more performance focused customer can get more power and willing to use premium only.

I know some dealerships have offered their own custom "Ford Performance" editions. Heck even my local Ford dealership offered some "Ford Performance" tuned Focus RS's and GT's right off the showroom floor. They had the Ford Performance street handling packs and Ford Performance Power Packs installed and then jacked up the price.

 

[TheLion]

By the way the 3rd generation 5.0 is simply AMAZING. It makes over 400 WHP from 5,500 RPM to 7,500 RPM.

The 5th gen LT1 and 2nd Gen 5.0 can only dream of such things (even with Power Packs on the 2nd Gen 5.0).

https://www.fordnxt.com/tech-stories/electronics-efi/just-how-good-is-a-tuned-2018-mustang-gt/

Stock 2015 5.0 vs. stock 2018 5.0:

and a better look at just the 2018 (below graph is 2018 GT stock vs. just a tune). Note there's not nearly as much left in it as the 2nd gen 5.0. Factory tuning is definitely more aggressive, but the power output is quite a bit more than the 5th Gen LT1 OR a Power Pack 2 2nd gen 5.0.

Stock 2018 5.0 vs. Tuned 2018 5.0 going all the way out, just as I suspected it holds power ALL the way out, now those are some LONG legs!!! Look at all that usable power:

Power Pack 3 equipped 2nd Gen 5.0 comes somewhat close, but doesn't have as much area under the curve in the mid-range as even a stock 3rd gen 5.0. But it goes to show how Ford planned ahead on their dream NA engine, designed by auto enthusiasts themselves!

It's impressive considering how much R&D GM put into their 5th gen LT1 and it simply can't compete against the 3rd gen 5.0 in terms of power to weight or peak power. But the 5th gen LT1 does have an excellent and easy to use power band even if it makes less power and is a tad heavier, it's also tough as nails. All 3 are great engines.

For reference, a Power Pack 2 2nd Gen 5.0 WITH a full Cat Back exhaust manages to hold above 400 whp for only 750 RPM of bandwidth, from about 6,000 to 6750 while a stock 3rd gen holds over 400 whp from 5,500 to 7,500. That's almost tripple the RPM bandwidth. I could only imagine a 3.73 in the 2018's. 3.55 is pretty well matched, but I think 3.73 especially with the much longer legs would work amazing well with drag radials and on a road course.

But I digress, my Power Pack 2 2nd Gen 5.0 is still pretty good even if it doesn't have wire arc transfer cylinder liners (slight increase in bore size = more power) and direct injection. It's good enough. But if I ever need a new engine and I"m out of warranty...a 3rd gen sounds like a good transplant project :-).

 

[TheLion]

In a fair fight, the 5.0 should be equipped with Direct Injection and the 5th Gen LT1 vs. a stock 2nd Gen 5.0 isn't really a fair fight. First he stock 2nd gen 5.0 isn't really being tapped into even from the factory and two Di buys you a nice strong mid-range that Port Injection just can't offer, at least not on the same fuel grade.

The 2nd gen 5.0 has to give up low octane fuel to make the power of DI and Variable Valve Timing offered in the latest and greatest 5th Gen LT1 6.2L from GM, make that power it can, just 500 RPM later.

But what do we get when we combine the extremely high efficiency flow of the the standard 5.0 with wire arc plasma transfer cylinder liners and finally DI?

Tada:

That would be why the 2018 Mustang GT beat the 2018 SS by 4 car lengths in a top speed drag race 30x in a row. The Mustang's 3rd iteration of the coyote 5.0 is now using all of it's designed potential.

RPM range ultimately doesn't matter because you can gear the car to take advantage of the motor's RPM range. Higher RPM engines are generally geared lower due to their top end power bias where big bore lower RPM engiens are generally geared higher like the LT1 6.2 or Dodge 6.4.

A stock 2018 is basically a Power Pack 2 + 3. You get the mid-range of the Power Pack 2 but with the top end of the Power Pack 3. Best of both worlds AND you can still scale back timing to run 87.

The 3rd Gen 5.0 is as big of a leap in power delivery as the 2nd Gen 5.0 was from the 1st Gen 5.0. Each iteration is substantially better but I will say the 2nd Gen 5.0 was far too conservatively tuned from the factory. It should have been much more aggressive, hence why it gains so much in these power packs.

I'm sorry SS fan's but in terms of power, the 3rd Gen 5.0 walks all over the LT1 in terms of power. Here's a break down of the average wheel horse power all on DynoJet dynoes, SAE corrected numbers, 93 pump gas for each engine. The averages are obtained by averaging the power over 4,000 RPM rev range where each engine makes most of it's power:

5th Gen LT1 6.2L: 323 WHP average from 2500 RPM to 6500 RPM

Stock 2nd Generation 5.0: 300 WHP average from 2750 RPM to 6750 RPM

Cat Back Exhaust + Power Pack 2 2nd Generation 5.0: 337 WHP average from 3000 RPM to 7000 RPM

Cat Back Exhaust + Power Pack 3 2nd Generation 5.0: 352 WHP average from 3500 RPM to 7500 RPM

Stock 3rd Generation 5.0: 370 WHP average from 3500 RPM to 7500 RPM

Power Pack 3 isn't far behind a stock 2018 5.0 and with slightly shorter 3.73 gearing and a little less weight should be about on par but with rev range advantage going to the 2018 GT. 2nd gear will get you to 70 mph on a 2018 running 3.55's where on a 2015-2017 running Power Pack 3 and 3.73's you'll get to 67 mph with similar acceleration.

 

[TheLion]

And finally an Area compare of the meat of the power bands of each variant of the 5.0 compared to the venerable 5th Gen LT1 6.2 from GM (the 5.0's area graphs were shifted back relative to the LT1's rev range, the purpose is compare area under the curve of each engine's power band), the bottom graph is why a stock 5.0 with a 10 spd can run 11.8's on street tires...:

Ok, ok, I'll stop posting now.

 

[Meatball]

Nice analysis. Definitely shows how the 3rd gen Coyote is really a fantastic engine. I wish Ford would have bolted it to a 6M with better ratios, however. All of the attention is on the (awesome) 10A, I'd like to see your avg power for that, since its rev range is smaller and stays near the power peak. The 6M is improved in noise and smoothness but with the revised ratios they aimed to deliver the higher power but maintain gas mileage, so now it has a direct 4th instead of 5th as in the previous tranny, with other ratios changed commensurately. I think this is why some reliable sources that post numbers that are standardized and atmospheric condition-corrected (Car and Driver, Motor Trend) give about the same 0-60 for the 18 6M as the 15-17, and the same quarter mile as the LT1 SS (time and trap speed). Even Motorweek shows this exact pattern. Motor trend showed that the 18 kills the SS after the quarter mile, but that's an unusually long drag race where aerodynamics begin to play an important part. Up to a quarter mile, that big area under the curve advantage is hampered by too-tall gearing. How could Ford do that? I'd give up a few mpg to take full advantage of that awesome engine and not have to resort to an auto, no matter how much faster it is. I'm with you...if I ever swap engines the 3rd gen sounds great.

The only weird thing about the stock vs stock dynos results you show is that the peak torque of the 3rd gen is almost 40 ft.-lbs. more (at the wheels) than the 2nd gen, which should be 20 (at the crank). So although there's no doubt the 3rd is considerably stronger hp-wise, this may not be a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, as is difficult on dynos from separate days.

BTW I'm glad you pointed out that the 2nd gen may have been designed with the power packs in mind. It didn't make sense that the rods, springs and (cast versions of the) heads from the Boss, and a revised cam, were part of the 2nd gen upgrade but a redline increase from the 1st gen wasn't. I'm hoping the only reason they kept it that way was to accommodate 87 octane gas and not some wear & tear reason.

 

[Freedom]

@TheLion really good info but I just want to bump in to correct a small mistake regarding Performance Pack. The oil cooler comes with all Gts.The ecoboost dont get them though.

 

[TheLion]

Thanks, I did not know that. I thought the regular GT's did not have an oil cooler and used a smaller radiator. But at least Ford didn't cheap out on cooling for the base models that much!

 

[PFogle05]

So I talked to Ford Performance tech support on the phone today. Asked about them offering a kit with the 18 manifold. Guy on the phone said they playing around with it but had no answer if they would sale a kit.

But they did say I could install pack 2 and keep my warranty if I sent in my ASE info.

 

[TheLion]

Nice analysis. Definitely shows how the 3rd gen Coyote is really a fantastic engine. I wish Ford would have bolted it to a 6M with better ratios, however. All of the attention is on the (awesome) 10A, I'd like to see your avg power for that, since its rev range is smaller and stays near the power peak. The 6M is improved in noise and smoothness but with the revised ratios they aimed to deliver the higher power but maintain gas mileage, so now it has a direct 4th instead of 5th as in the previous tranny, with other ratios changed commensurately. I think this is why some reliable sources that post numbers that are standardized and atmospheric condition-corrected (Car and Driver, Motor Trend) give about the same 0-60 for the 18 6M as the 15-17, and the same quarter mile as the LT1 SS (time and trap speed). Even Motorweek shows this exact pattern. Motor trend showed that the 18 kills the SS after the quarter mile, but that's an unusually long drag race where aerodynamics begin to play an important part. Up to a quarter mile, that big area under the curve advantage is hampered by too-tall gearing. How could Ford do that? I'd give up a few mpg to take full advantage of that awesome engine and not have to resort to an auto, no matter how much faster it is. I'm with you...if I ever swap engines the 3rd gen sounds great.

The only weird thing about the stock vs stock dynos results you show is that the peak torque of the 3rd gen is almost 40 ft.-lbs. more (at the wheels) than the 2nd gen, which should be 20 (at the crank). So although there's no doubt the 3rd is considerably stronger hp-wise, this may not be a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, as is difficult on dynos from separate days.

BTW I'm glad you pointed out that the 2nd gen may have been designed with the power packs in mind. It didn't make sense that the rods, springs and (cast versions of the) heads from the Boss, and a revised cam, were part of the 2nd gen upgrade but a redline increase from the 1st gen wasn't. I'm hoping the only reason they kept it that way was to accommodate 87 octane gas and not some wear & tear reason.

Right, neither the 2016+ SS 6M nor the 2018+ GT 6M use all of their power in 4th gear by the time they cross the 1/4 mile mark. The 2018 GT's are around 6,600 RPM (trap around 115~117 range) and SS's are around 5250 RPM (also in the 115~117 range). So both cars have nearly 1,000 RPM more to rev out (GT slightly less, SS slightly more left). 2018 GT's top out 4th gear at 131, SS's top out 4th gear at 142.

The 2018 GT consistently won by 4 car lengths every time by the end of their top speed drag race however, which they repeated 30x in a row because they couldn't understand why a car making only 5 hp more peak could out drag the LT1 based SS by that much in their 1 mile long "cowboy science test" as they called it. Even the much weaker stock 2015 GT's 0-150 time's were about 25~25.5 seconds and the SS's were about 24~25 seconds. Only 1 second difference despite the substantial power advantage of the 5th Gen LT1 over a stock 2nd Gen 5.0, this is due to the more aggressive gearing in the 2015-2017 GT's. The 2018's they tried to balance drag gearing with track gearing, giving you a nice intermediate gearing while still running a comparable 1/4 mile time as the LT1 based SS's and Charger / Challenger RT Scat Packs.

Also don't forget that the Power Pack 3 on a 2nd Gen 5.0 makes a higher average power than the 5th gen LT1 or a Power Pack 2 2nd Gen 5.0. It's right in between the LT1 / PP 2 5.0 and the 3rd Gen 5.0 in terms of average power but it won't help you on the 1/4 mile because of gearing. It will help on a high speed track however if your able to keep the average rev range up by 300 RPM over what you would typically run with a Power Pack 2 5.0, which you can do by running smaller diameter, lighter weight tires and wheels. The net effect will be substantial without loosing rev range.

I think the real magic in the SS however isn't it's power. The differences even stock aren't massive. The real magic is in the suspension tuning. The GT's gain so much from a few simple modifications because they are set up like street cars you can drive on the track vs. track cars you can drive on the street. I think if every GT Performance Package had come equipped from Ford with the following, they would have performed MUCH better than they did and the race would have been very close between the SS and GT PP cars instead of a butt whooping.

1. Power Pack 2 from the factory
2. Cradle Lock out or stiffer cradle bushings (maybe solid rubber)
3. 1/2~1 inch lower factory ride height
4. Toe link spherical bearings on BOTH the inner and outer ends
5. Slightly stiffer PP springs and sway bars
6. Stiffer differential bushings

Those changes aren't dramatic, but would have given the GT quite a bit better handling and a much tighter rear end that is in sync with the front end instead if waiting for the car to "take a set". That's mostly due to IRS play in the cradle bushings and toe links. The diff bushings combined with IRS bushings would have dramatically reduced wheel hop and allowed for more optimal drag launch. Braski knocked off about .2 seconds on his PP GT just by an IRS re-work, everything else the same.

But the GT is cheaper on average, so for those that care, it's not prohibitively expensive to bring the Grand Tourer up to Super Sport performance levels. 2018's are still set up like Grand Tourers and the Performance Pack 2 option is still a street car you can drive on the track, not a track car you can drive on the street. The real track car you can drive on the street is the GT350 and it beats all NA variants of the SS, only trounced by super charged variants making 130 HP more and it's getting even faster for 2019 through more suspension and aero tuning.

I think people become disappointed with the GT when they think it will be the "in between" that the SS 1LE is, a cheap track car stock when it's not. The SS 1LE may not perform at GT350 levels, but it's priced much closer to a fully loaded PP GT and it's not miles behind the GT350 either as it's suspension tuning is just as good, but it's at a power disadvantage.

I'm not trying to build a dedicated track car (yet, maybe once it's paid off). But I do want to be able to push the chassis a little on the track and the modifications I have chosen are designed to capitalize on what's already there but hidden under Grand Touring oriented compliance and overly conservative factory engine tuning. Just a few key modifications can really bring the stock PP GT to life (while keeping the most expensive and complex component emissions legal and under warranty) and I would recommend this as the golden street performance setup that you can have fun with on the track:

1. Ford Performance Power Pack 2
2. Cradle Lockout kit (I used BMR's CB005)
3. Differential Bushings (I used Steeda's Red Poly)
4. Lowering Springs (I used BMR's SP080)
5. Outer Toe Link Spherical Bearings (Ford Performance)
6. Cat back exhaust of your choice (I have the Corsa Sport cat back as that's what my car came with)

Those 5 changes make a world of difference. The GT still has 95% of it's Grand Touring comfort, yes there is a little more clunk from the drive train in certain situations and a little more diff noise transmitted (there was none stock), but it's fairly muted and the performance benefits are immense. The car no longer wallows. It's razor sharp, very predictable and even somewhat toss able despite it's weight. Power delivery through the IRS is now fantastic instead of mushy, vague and as hoppy as a jack rabbit.

Power delivery from the 5.0 is impressively smooth, immediate and strong everywhere, but most notably at 4k and beyond where the majority of the power band is and the power gains are right in character with the higher revving 5.0's nature, which loves to be revved out even more. The rev range is now just right instead of always just a "little to short" with the 3.73 gearing with the new higher rev limit of 7,150 vs. the stock limit of 6,800.

Drive ability is actually better with less rev hang when cold than stock. The revised calibration they released mid 2017 has 0 drive ability issues (which were actually just issues with the 6M, the 6A guys have been good from day 1), it's just better than stock in every way and it's the whole package, not just "more power".

There's an immense amount of precision and power buried under just those 6 modifications. Sure, you can take it a lot further with a set of stiffer sway bars, springs and higher damping rate struts, a tire and wheel package and added cooling (diff and oil) for street legal track car setup, but it's also 2x the cost in parts and those benefits are mostly oriented at competitive track usage which 99% of us are not doing.

2015-2017's equipped as above are incredible performance bargains and I don't think there's many cars that can come even close at that price point. The SS is the car you get if you either a Chevy fan boy OR if you want a factory track car that's street legal and you don't want to do your own modifications. It's an out of the box package deal and it's a great one, but it does carry a higher price tag, especially 1LE's and a modified GT will get you there for less but you have to do the work yourself. The great part is that you can call it your own instead of being the guy who bought some one elses sweat equity.

The 1LE isn't perfect either and people are making changes to it even as good as it is. So if your careful maybe you can make you GT just right from the start through careful selections or change things as the car ages. For example use up the factory struts by using "street" lowering springs then upgrade to track springs and struts once the factory struts wear out which is what I plan on doing. That way you can get a really good idea of where the handling deficiencies are through several years of use before changing critical components that under go a lot of testing and refinement.

 

[2morrow]

So I talked to Ford Performance tech support on the phone today. Asked about them offering a kit with the 18 manifold. Guy on the phone said they playing around with it but had no answer if they would sale a kit.

But they did say I could install pack 2 and keep my warranty if I sent in my ASE info.

That's great! When I called in they flat out said no and said to buy the PP3 if I wanted an upgraded IM. I'll definitely keep an eye in this, thanks!

 

[TheLion]

My ONLY gripe about the Power Pack 2 is the stupid No Lift Shift. I know, I know, it's all about technique, but I've become so accustomed to slightly pre-loading the clutch pedal that I constantly engage it and get that awful stutter during my 1-2 which then carries into each gear after. If I'm doing a 2-3 or a 3-4 it NEVER happens because NLS won't engage for that kind of use as that's something that only occurs in daily or on track. Anyone got any habbit building tricks to avoid it? That's the one thing I wish I could do is disable it in pro-cal. Alas!

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