Last Update: July 28, 2008
If you're going to modify an engine, you might as well start with the biggest bang for the buck. In my case I chose a V2-SQ Supercharger from Vortech Engineering. They promise 8.5-9 psi boost for an additional 85 horsepower and 61 ft-lbs of torque. If they deliver what they promise, that translates to 278 HP and 281 ft-lbs torque. Stock GTs turn only 260 HP@5250 RPM and 302 ft-lbs torque@4000 RPM. The modified v6 will out power a v8 GT, although it will lack some of the torque you get from a larger displacement.
The modification involves significantly disassembling the engine, but step one is run down the street to your favorite AC shop or dealer and have them take the toxic stuff out of the air conditioning and leave it pumped dry. I had a dealer do it.
The next step is to take out the EEC-V computer and ship it off for a performance chip installation via FexEd Priority One.
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The EEC-V is stashed behind a kick panel inside the passenger side door. It's only held in by some plastic snap lock type things. Once the panel is off I wound up disassembling a ton of electricals to get access to the computer. Of course I remembered to disconnect the battery at the negative terminal ages ago. Once you get to it, there's actually only one screw holding the EEC-V into the car. It slides right out.
Moving right along, the entire intake manifold up the the throttle body gets yanked out and tossed aside (with the exception of the sensors which go back in later in a modified arrangement). I'll spare you the tedium here, since it all came out easy and isn't very interesting.
Next we need to take a chunk out of the EGR tube. This didn't look too bad when I started, but I quickly discovered that disconnecting the manifold end of the tube to get it out of the car was going to be impossible without removing the exhaust manifold, which might require taking the engine out of the car. So, we go to plan B: cut it where it lies.
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After a seemingly endless circling of the pipe with a tiny little pipe cutter, the EGR tube cut through and the intake end gets pulled out of the car to be cut again higher up. The cut tubes get half inch ferrules and a new armoured flex tube to bend around all the new intake piping for the supercharger (which can be seen at the right of the last photo a bit prematurely).
Following the EGR tube foolishness, the serpentine belt got removed and I tore out the air conditioning from the canister near the firewall up to the front grill. This included the compressor and it's mounting bracket.
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Diving still deeper, the next step is to replace the fuel injectors. These are of course inaccessible on a V6 without taking the distribution manifold off the top of the engine block. This required disconnecting the throttle and cruise cables, spark plug wires, an assortment of vacuum lines, hoses and electrical connectors.
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Once down there, the fuel rails get unbolted, and one snap ring must be removed from each injector. A firm tug then spills fuel all over the engine block. After sopping up the mess, and cleaning up around the injectors as much as possible to keep debris out of the cylinders, the injectors just pull out.
I wasted no time installing the new injectors with their adapter harnessing. A little engine oil on the gaskets and they slip right in. After that, reinstalling the fuel rails, distribution manifold, and all the stuff I disconnected went fairly quickly. Mostly this haste was motivated by a fear of getting something down in the cylinders and causing real trouble.
Now for the first SCARY part. Tapping a hole into the oil pan. For this I bought special tools in the form a high grade annular hole cutter and a 3/8" NPT pipe tap. Using the cutter it was possible to make a nice clean hole in the oil pan without losing chips inside or dropping the slug.
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The hole was then cleaned up carefully with a file, cleaned with alcohol, and then tapped using a heavy grease to catch the shavings. While in the process of tapping the oil pan FedEx delivered my modified EEC-V computer module.
I reinstalled the EEC-V and put all the interior panels back on. I'll need to get back in there for Episide II, but for now I just wanted to get the car back on the road since it had been spread all over the garage for 5 days already.
Now, every oil drain must be fed from somewhere. This was a breese since Ford was kind enough to put an additional port right next to the oil filter. Thus, with a little adapter and pipe fitting and some hose, the oil feed for the supercharger is installed.
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Moving on, the next step was to install the new AC compressor bracket, reinstall the AC compressor, mount the supercharger adapter plate, drop in the V2-SQ blower, and install the new serpentine belt. All of this went quick and easy.
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Before proceding to the second scary step, the new intake manifold, compression bypass valve, and cold air intake manifold were installed. The factory mass air flow sensor gets reintalled on a new bracket and relocated ahead of the passenger side wheel well with a monsterous air filter. The photo of the install isn't terribly good due to the cramped space, but the black hose disappearing into the engine compartment side wall goes down there, and that's all that's really important for now.
In addition to all this piping, a vacuum valve is added to provide a supercharger bypass at low RPMs, and a block box signal conditioner is tucked in between the MAF sensor and the computer. This signal conditioner is torn out again in Episode V and the car is better for it, but it was necessary at this point.
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Now is the time to remember that the air conditioning is still mostly out of the car. Part of the stock AC tubing has to be cut off (that was easy) then you need to bore out and tap the compressor header for a 3/8" pipe fitting. That was also pretty easy since it was all out of the car, although tapping steel without a proper tap wrench wasn't as painless as tapping aluminum. That brings us to the scary step. Between the header for the AC compressor and a muffler, there is a 4 inch stretch of steel tubing, and it is all welded together. Vortech says bend it 35-40 degrees. They don't say how. My precision tooled solution is in the photos below. After getting the part bent it was a snap to reinstall the lines and do the minor electrical extension to make the cabling reach the compressors new location.
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So, after all this work, I changed the oil, oil filter, fuel filter and put in new spark plugs. Turned the key and it started immediately. No, leaks, no mess. The completed installation is surveyed below.
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The Price of New Found Power...
Well, the pools can officially be cashed in. I got my first supercharger related ticket Thursday, September 19th, 2002. My friends at the Village of Hales Corners PD felt a burning desire to cite me for "Unauthorized Display of Power" when I squeeked the tires leaving a red light, by myself, at almost midnight. On a side note, the term "unauthorized" seems to imply you could get a permit...
After running the car for a week the engine started indicating rich mixture. Having failed to find an obvious reason for the problem on my own I called Vortech support. Over the next four weeks we went through a variety of possible causes including a bad ground in the MAF line conditioner installation (which prompted me to cut out the crimps and put in soldered connections below), a failed fuel pressure regulator (The 99 mustang doesn't have a fuel pressure regulator, this didn't inspire confidence in Vortech support's knowledge of my car), and the eventual real problem the performance chip programming.
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To facilitate a new chip program I provided the MAF voltage at idle and the long and short fuel trims. This required a trip to a dealer for their computer test set.
After this expensive side trip I did some more research and discovered that Ford was kind enough to give us an in dash diagnostic to get this information. You can get the car to display most of the critical engine and performance parameters on the odometer. With the car off, insert the key, press and hold the trip / reset button, and then turn the key to the accessory on position. Do not start the car. When the display reads test, release the trip / reset button. The display will say gauge and sweep all of the instrument cluster gauges full range. Pressing it repeatedly displays a wealth of other information. The details of which are reproduced here, courtesy of Mustangworld.
The numbers with the first Vortech chip were bad. Long trims were -24% and the short trims were wildly swinging between 0 and -6%.
After the visit to the dealer to get the computer data I made a quick search on the web and found an inexpensive serial to ODB II interface box from B Roadman. The box works with software for Windows or DOS on the site. There is also a sourceforge project with an interface driver and Linux software. My short evaluation is that the box works, but isn't as robust or reliable as the full blown $400 to $1500 diagnostic tools. It drops a lot of data.
Two days after talking to Vortech a new chip arrived FedEx. I swapped the chips and its MUCH better. For curiosity I plugged in my new ODB II interface from B Roadman and read out the fuel trims. The long trim is now solidly at -0.8% and the short rarely strays far from -3%. This type of thing is what gives Vortech a bad name for chip programming. Rerunning the dynos using the G-Tech Pro/Competition gives the curves below which validate what my butt had already told me.
The new numbers indicate 230 rear wheel horsepower and 223 ft-lbs rear wheel torque. Much better and more inline with what I expected. The maxes are similar to a GT, although the power band is completely different. The maximum seems reasonable, but there should be more in the middle RPMs. Not a lot more since the boost is low in that range, but it's almost right on the stock curve. Running premium fuel there should at least be a bonus from timing advance.
Regardless, after its all done I am extremely pleased with the Vortech kit, but I'm going to pursue an alternate chip from someone who speciallizes in programming and dyno tunes. Most likely fordchip. I don't think Vortech spends as much time as they should optimizing the programming after engineering a very clean physical upgrade to the engine. The fordchip install is detailed in episode V.