Correct. Both versions of exhausts are the same back to the muffler. The muffler and baffles are different if you have active exhaust. If I couldn't go E85, I would do ported TB/IM, headers, and a PBD or Lund 93oct tune.
Not really, no. It'll perform a little better on 93 vs 87 but it's not 'tuned for' 93. It's not that noticeable on the stock calibration.
So even for increased low-end you would recommend long headers and not shorties? I'm coming from turbo tuning, so I'm new to headers, but I thought the conventional wisdom was shorties for low end response and torque and long tubes for higher end increases.
I would have to agree with that being more common in general. The mentality around here is more geared towards mid-top end where these cars make their power anyway.
Would you tune your car to run on E-85 if the nearest place to get it was an hour away on the other side of a major, traffic-congested city?
All good points. I do like the idea of the high-revving V8 - I just want a little of that shove in the back off the line too. It would seem there should be some way to get a little of that without compromising the top end, which I think is what the OP and I were getting at.
This right here is it ^^^ .I had an N54 Cobb tuned 135i. It was awesome and had tons of torque down low, but just about any near-stock turbo-pressurized "performance" car is going to have more torque than an N/A car. That's partly why Diesels have turbos. Apples are being compared to garden rakes here. Most factory cars with turbos though run out of steam at higher RPM because they purposely use a smaller, quicker-spooling turbo to make the car have more down-low torque to "feel fast" around town. Is it smart? absolutely, but does it make as much power as the engine can? No. You fix that by bolting in a larger turbo, and guess what? The torque goes out the window because of spool issues.
I would argue the easiest way to gain torque on a 15-17 car is the Ford Power Pack 1 tune. Yes it's cheesy for a $450 tune, but the torque increase is substantial. And it is most definitely easy. If you want to wrench on your engine more, and really work against what it was designed for, then the F150 IM is a good idea. After that, short of running some other tune (Or e85), everything becomes "hard" or expensive. I would say the next set of mods would be shorter final drive gearing. Although it won't make more torque, it will put more torque to the ground simply due to the multiplication of engine torque, and it will make the car feel as if it has more torque.
I do feel the car is down on torque, but I would argue that it's not that the 5.0 has low torque (It doesn't), it's just that bigger engines and FI engines (are capable of) have more torque at the same RPM. It's in the laws of physics, and current understanding on how engines work. You can only get so much intake swirl/tumble out of a design at low RPM. OHV engines are typically bigger (6.2, 6.4, etc.) and because they have less valves, tend to stifle flow at just about all RPMs, so they "appear" to make more torque down low. Problem is, they feel that way because they (in stock configuration) run out of steam at higher RPMs. F1 engines don't have much total torque down low either, but they are tiny engines that have powerbands where normal engines explode. I think us "ex-turbo" owners need to shift our driving styles until we re-acclimate to N/A cars. I find myself thinking "I should be in 3rd" but I leave it in second. You can be lazier with a turbo car and lug it, and the turbo makes up for your laziness by increasing the wastegate duty cycle, then you get more boost, and then *presto* you have more torque (At the same RPM). N/A cars aren't like that, you want more torque? The only thing you can do is move the revs higher into the powerband.
I hope you do not take the "laziness" comment as an insult - I fully drove my turbo cars that way. I shirt-shifted them all day long because there was no point not to
Of course, the best way to fix it, in my opinion, is to go FI. I won't for a while, but that is in the long term plans. Although I would prefer to go with a turbo setup, I'll end up supercharging it because I have to deal with CA emissions here.
The shove is certainly exciting at low rpm, without a doubt. That said, the continuous and building pull all the way through 7500 is just as addictive. It's smooth and doesn't have as much jerk, but the acceleration is there. And the noise on the way there is so immensely satisfying. In particular, the way it pulls in 3rd-5th at high speed is the most impressive thing. 70-110+ is a thing of beauty. That's powerrrrrrr (channel your inner Jeremy Clarkson).
