Tech Talk – Under the Hood

If you are a newcomer to my Blog, the story behind my Shelby, “SoScary”, starts here.

The “Trinity” engine in the 2013/2014 Shelby is an awesome motor. Each engine is hand built by two highly experienced SVT (Special Vehicle Team) specialists whose signatures are on a plate that is attached to the engine. For those of you who want to read a great article on this motor look no further than this article on Mustang360 magazine:

2013 Ford Shelby GT500 Trinity 5.8L V8 – Power Of Three

http://www.mustangandfords.com/news/m5lp-1203-2013-ford-shelby-gt500-trinity-5-8l-v8/

Shelby 5.8L Trinity Engine

Shelby 5.8L Trinity Engine

To give you an idea of the comparison differences between the stock TVS supercharger (above) and the VMP Gen II supercharger I replaced it with, here is a photo. The VMP Gen I blower is also shown. The big difference is in the porting. The VMP Gen II can suck in a lot more air as it is much less restrictive.

VMP Gen II, VMP Gen I and the stock TVS superchargers compared

VMP Gen II, VMP Gen I and the stock TVS superchargers compared (photo courtesy of SVTPerformance.com)

To take advantage of the bigger porting on the VMP Gen II supercharger, requires a bigger throttle body. The stock throttle body is a 54mm one – this was upgraded to VMP’s enormous 67mm twin throttle body.

VMP 67mm Throttle Body

VMP 67mm Throttle Body

All upgrades require a new tune to be uploaded. VMP provided me with a complete custom Stage 4 tune and I uploaded it using my SCT4 Tuner

SCT4 Tuner

SCT4 Tuner

Next Topic: Upgrading to a 1,000HP Mantic Clutch!

Upgrading SoScary to 800 HP!

If you are a newcomer to my Blog, the story behind my Shelby, “SoScary”, starts here.

As if 662 HP wasn’t enough, SoScary was upgraded to 800 HP in March of 2016. I met Sylvain from Billet Pro Shop in Ontario, Canada at a National Mustang Racing Association event in Bowling Green, Kentucky in the fall of 2015, and loved the detailed polishing work he has done on a friend’s stock TVS supercharger. The catch was that the work took around 3 months to do and the supercharger was off the car for that time so it couldn’t be driven. My solution to all this was to simultaneously upgrade it with VMP’s new Gen II supercharger that had a much better porting and since BPS is a VMP dealer – they could take one off the shelf and polish it up while I still had my stock TVS on the car. The results, as you can see, are amazing!

VMP custom polished this new Gen II supercharger for me

VMP custom polished this new Gen II supercharger for me

The big mod day came on March 6th, 2016 when we replaced the stock supercharger with the new one complete with a new smaller 2.4″ pulley; fitted a VMP 67mm Throttle Body; new bigger JLT Cold Air Intake; BPS polished fuel rails; Gates Racing Blue Belts with new idlers; Brisk Racing spark plugs; and uploaded VMP’s Stage 4 tune.

Passenger-side view showing the new BPS polished fuel rails

Passenger-side view showing the new BPS polished fuel rails

While the supercharger was up in Canada getting polished, I got the radiator cover, oil catch can and the new JLT intake tube all carbon-fiber dipped!

Driver-side view showing the new VMP 67mm throttle body

Driver-side view showing the new VMP 67mm throttle body

Gates Racing Blue Belts added a nice enhancement to the engine bay

Gates Racing Blue Belts

Gates Racing Blue Belts

The suspension got some attention too – you can’t upgrade to 800 HP without considering the implications for handling all that extra power. The OEM Lower Control Arms have rubber bushings which flex under heavy power and that cam allow the rear axle to step out of line and causes wheel hop. I replaced these with Polished Billet LCA’s with polyurethane spherical bushings. This tightened up the back end considerably but at the expense of some ride comfort.

Billet Aluminum Lower Control Arms

Billet Aluminum Lower Control Arms

Some of the smaller touches added included updating the wings, the center-brake light mask and adding the Shelby logo to the lower Heat Exchanger.

New wing with 800 HP!

New wing with 800 HP!

Shelby logo added to the lower Heat Exchanger

Shelby logo added to the lower Heat Exchanger

Center brake light overlay

Center brake light overlay

And here is my new Poster Board designed by Peter Nikolaou…

My new display poster for 2016

My new display poster for 2016

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