James was referred to us by another one of our happy customers from Southwest Florida. With a new 2010 Evo X MR straight off the showroom floor, he wasn't wasting any time getting down to business. By the time he clocked 1500 miles on the odometer he had already met with us to plan out Stage 1 of his new build and bump up the power and torque in his new car.
First order of business to discuss was the intake system for the 4b11. We recommended the lightweight aluminum intake and upper intercooler piping system in gloss black for his ride. The INJEN intake consisted of a hardpipe intake, conical intake filter and new MAF housing. INJEN intake systems are dyno tested at the factory.
Next up was how the intake charge was going to be cooled down before entering the engine. Taking into consideration the time constraints he had us working with (as he works out of town on the road much), he decided on the Perrin Performance front mount intercooler in black anodized finish for that stealth look. Measuring at 20.75" x 12.375" x 3.625, the FMIC fit in place with some breathing room to spare. I would have like to have used the ETS 4" core, however their turn times did not meet his objectives. Michael@ETS was however able to get us out their LICP kit in gloss black powdercoated which got to us just in time for the installations.
Along with the Perrin Performance FMIC, James also opted for the Megan tubular O2 housing as well as the Perrin downpipe and integrated catalytic converter which came all in one piece. This unit replaced both the stock cat as well as the oem downpipe. The finish was very nice. It came with provisions for both front and rear O2 sensors. We tig welded in a third ss bung for use with the DASHDAQ + ZEITRONIX wideband we integrated into the car complete with touchscreen LCD display. When we were adding the third 02 and welding the pipe, the tig puddle was very nice, clean and controllable which represented the high quality of the metal and superb finish of the downpipe. The catback selected was a twin exit stealth black vband unit from Perrin also.
The catback pictured above did not include tailpipe silencers like some of the others, however we didn't really see a need for them in this case. The fitment of the catback system was nice with the vband clamps which allows for adjustibility. The downpipe flanges could have been aligned better as the front O2 sensor was a bit close to the undercarriage and heat shield.
With the stealth FMIC on the car, one would really need to know what they were looking for to even see the blacked out charge cooler. This was one of his goals from the start though.
One of the things strange about many of these upper intercooler pipe and/or intake kits is the lack of a matching pipe from the upper intercooler pipe to the fmic inlet itself. Many of these kits leave the last 90 degree bend stock which from a performance standpoint means nothing as its already a mandrel bent lightweight aluminum pipe, however when you have a polished or glass black upper intercooler pipe and a plain Jane elbow there is looks like something is missing. In this case we took it upon ourselves to paint that last elbow to give the kit a completed and flowing look.
I regret not taking more pics of the DashDaq+Zeitronix wideband which was a killer setup. It will read AFR, TPS, RPM. Boost, Ignition Timing, and about 40 other parameters all through an LCD touchscreen interface. What I did take a pic of was the EGT probe we installed in runner number two. This EGT probe feeds the zeitronix wideband computer to give it the exhaust gas temperature reading to display and datalog.
Finally we got done. Lastly after everything was said and done, we threw a tactrix 3port boost solenoid into the mix so we could more precisely control boost and threw it on the dyno. Turning down the boost on the new solenoid programming to get a makeshift baseline at 17psi with the new mods (mainly as not to overboost on the first pull with the new solenoid), the 2010 MR put down about 208whp/205tq @ 1.00%CF uncorrected MD numbers. With the MIVEC intake and exhaust cam timing programmed, AFR and boost optimized, new redline set, performance hampering code disabled from the ECU, the MR sprung to life with a peak of 317.5whp/310tq @ 1.00CF% uncorrected Mustang Dyno numbers.