2015-17 Mustang GT Ford Performance Power Packs

[Pongo23]

This is what puts me on the fence with this. Some people say that there is no change in driving style but others say that you HAVE to do no lift shift.

There will always be alot of different information shared on forums. However, I've had experience with both PP2 and PP3; the no lift shift feature is NOT a must. I never liked the ford performance canned tunes and would highly recommend getting proper aftermarket tuning. I was initially trying to keep my car with oem stuff and was initially planning on sttaying N/A and this is why i tried both PP2 and PP3. Honestly, for an N/A car, unless you're racing on a track, PP2 will give you better gains. The other thing I can share about those tunes is that the car would rev hang quite a bit when it was cold. The user above talking about stuttering with his car probably needs to have installation re-checked and also reach out to ford performance as that is not normal at all.

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[poncho@home]

I've put a couple hundred KMs on my PP1 install and I can say so far so nice! Car runs flawlessly, no rev hang, no hiccups, no sputters.

Only issue I've discovered is that I feel the need to drive it everywhere now

 

[Pongo23]

I've put a couple hundred KMs on my PP1 install and I can say so far so nice! Car runs flawlessly, no rev hang, no hiccups, no sputters.

Only issue I've discovered is that I feel the need to drive it everywhere now

Good to hear. PP1 is just a k&n filter and a tune revision. It's the introduction of the gt350 throttle body with PP2 and the GT350 intake manifold and GT350 throttle body with PP3 that really screw around with the fueling etc that can cause issues. However I've heard of automatic pp2 users and automatic pp3 users having no issues. My car is manual and when I had those, the tune wasn't smooth at all.

 

[LucaGT]

PP2 here and I had more rev hang before the tune when cold than now. I feel it's smoother now than before, the only issue was on the first 50 miles that at wot when shifting I had some hiccups but that's gone (I guess the system adapted to the new tune???).

The car is so much more fun to drive now.

 

[poncho@home]

Yeah PP1 is tune and filter.

I was debating getting the PP2, but after reading through the results of MotoIQ testing of all the power packs, I couldn't justify the added cost for the PP2 over the PP1 considering the results were so close.

PP1 should have been the factory tune.

+plus I love the stealthiness, car still looks bone stock, but it benefits from a small bump of power nonetheless.

I have no doubt an aftermarket tune would be more powerful, but I prefer retaining my warranty

 

[TexasRebel]

Keep in mind the PP2 tune was revised to address the Rev-hang issue last summer. Make sure you have the latest version of the tune.

 

[Rustang]

There is nothing -- NOTHING -- forcing you to use the no-lift-shift feature. I've only played around with it a couple of times -- It's a cool feature, but I don't use it.

^^^This ^^^
Not forced to use it however the clutch pedal switch is very sensitive to pressure and it you touch it early right before a shift or are slow to release you can have your engine stutter and its embarrassing. I disliked it a lot at first but find if used correctly make the shifts faster and smoother but I would agree an aftermarket tune is better.

 

[w3rkn]

^^^This ^^^
Not forced to use it however the clutch pedal switch is very sensitive to pressure and it you touch it early right before a shift or are slow to release you can have your engine stutter and its embarrassing. I disliked it a lot at first but find if used correctly make the shifts faster and smoother but I would agree an aftermarket tune is better.

Explain this more.

What stutters..? Are you in, or out of gear. What rpms, etc.. ?

 

[Braski]

^^^This ^^^
Not forced to use it however the clutch pedal switch is very sensitive to pressure and it you touch it early right before a shift or are slow to release you can have your engine stutter and its embarrassing. I disliked it a lot at first but find if used correctly make the shifts faster and smoother but I would agree an aftermarket tune is better.

I have never had that happen.:shrug:

 

[r00tbeer]

There is nothing -- NOTHING -- forcing you to use the no-lift-shift feature. I've only played around with it a couple of times -- It's a cool feature, but I don't use it.

Were you shifting above 7k? It would stutter every damn time.

 

[Rustang]

With no lift shift you keep the gas mashed to the floor and it will keep you from over revving the engine between gears by cutting power. It engages when it senses the clutch is pressed, so if you just push the clutch a little from say preparing to shift you can trip the no lift to engage early and it will cut power causing the engine to stutter or stumble whatever you want to call it.

 

[r00tbeer]

Yup i get that. Problem is you can't turn it off. It simply doesn't work for me. If it works for others, awesome.

 

[TheLion]

Yup i get that. Problem is you can't turn it off. It simply doesn't work for me. If it works for others, awesome.

Have you tried adjusting the pedal plunger travel? Most of the plungers are "self adjusting" with little ratchet teeth on them. There are usually two, one to detect (NC) when the pedal is out (engaged) and one towards the floor to detect when it's fully depressed.

I'm wondering if the plunger that detects when the pedal is fully engaged (out) is pushed in a little bit too far, so it's breaking the contacts sooner than on the average GT. Most of them are adjustable plungers, you can pull them back out or push them back in and the "engagement point" of the sensor contacts changes.

I'll bet due to mechanical tolerances (very high on the clutch pedal frame / stamping as it doesn't need to be super precise), that's why some work and others are overly sensitive. I don't think it's a FP software issue, it's a sensor and tolerance issue that some cars have. A little adjustment would likely fix that. You could also add a spacer on the contact pad where the plunger hits, that would allow the plunger contacts to stay closed longer and require you push the pedal in more before they break.

That would prevent the ECU from seeing a "No Lift Shift" condition. It's just a set of code doing exactly what it's supposed to, but if you give it garbage inputs, you'll get garbage responses from it.

 

[TheLion]

By the way, I realized there was an error on my part regarding the stock Gen 2 5.0. It's actual red line stock is only 6800 RPM, not 7,000. Many of the review magazines mistakenly thought it was 7,000 because that's how it appears on the tac, but the mark is for 6800. I thought that too until I data logged the RPM to see where the actual cut off is.

Every stock 2015-2017 dyno ends at 6800 and my data logger also confirms it cuts at 6800. So yes, the stock Gen 2 5.0 is down on average power by about 20 HP at the peaks compared to the latest LT1 6.2 in the SS but up to 50 HP down in the mid range compared to the latest LT1 6.2 in the SS or the new Gen 3 5.0 in the 2018+ GT's. If it revved out higher stock, that difference would be markedly smaller and the car would be about .1 to .2 seconds quicker just from a higher rev range.

Ford set up the Gen 2 5.0's very conservatively however. The rotating assembly was designed for 7,400 RPM red line and shares many parts directly from the BOSS 302. Mostly the intake manifold and intake ducting however is not set up for that kind of high RPM operation, hence why PP3 replaces the intake manifold. The stock manifold flows pretty well up to about 7,000 RPM.

PP2 makes the same power at 7100 RPM (well after peak power has been reached at 6500) as a stock Gen 2 5.0 makes at 6500 RPM. So while power falls off after 6500 RPM even with PP2, there's still a ton of VERY usable power up to reline and the power curve is actually slightly better than the LT1 6.2, which drops about 30 HP from 6,000 to it's 6,600 RPM red line.

Average power for a stock LT1 6.2 is about 323 WHP from 2500 to 6500. For a PP2 5.0 it's 330 WHP from 3,100 to 7,100, just shifted 500 RPM higher than the LT1 and 350 RPM higher than stock.

So PP2 buys you another 350 RPM, allowing you rev out to 7100 with out hitting the rev limiter (the purpose of that last 50 RPM, it's a buffer window allowing you ring out that full 500 RPM more than the LT1 6.2).

The short gearing allows the a FP PP2 GT to take advantage of PP2 to the max if paired with drag radials. The SS doesn't really pick up hardly anything on the 1/4 mile with DR's unless there are power adders because of it's very tall 1st gear. It's already able to apply most of it's available power where a GT is not because the gearing results in such a massive wheel torque in 1st that takes big traction to handle.

Braski's 1/4 mile times are a perfect example of what a FP PP2 GT can do with DR's and a little IRS work. Auto's should be a little faster yet.

 

[arfabe16]

I'm like 95% sure I'm pulling the trigger on a PP2, but some of the comments here have me hesitating.

FWIW: I have a stock 2017 Mustang GT with 3.55 gears. I don't track my car at all, and don't really intend to. However, I *allegedly* do play a bit from a dig on stoplights and from a roll on highways. I'm not trying to get this car to fly, but it'd be nice to at least be competitive vs. stock Camaro SS, and not to get destroyed off the line by freaking modded Subarus (though I always blow right past them soon after).

A couple of questions:
- Do I *need* an oil separator if I'm installing a PP2?
- Did you notice any sound differences based *just* on the addition of a PP2? I've seen mixed reviews on this (some saying the car becomes a bit louder, some say there's no difference).
- Would you recommend pairing the PP2 with an aftermarket exhaust system, or does it really not matter?
- Anything else I should know before I pull the trigger?

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