WindyMustang

OK - so it's been a while since I could get some more quality time in the garage...but at long last a 3-day weekend and a bit of budget to spend! This time Indigo has been updated with:

• BBK Long Tube Headers (I went with the ceramic-coated version.)
• BBK catted mid-pipe
• Magnaflow 3" cat-back exhaust
• 91P Tune from Bama Performance

I didn't take a lot of pictures this time, as working under the car is a bit harder to photograph well and there's LOTS of good pics and videos of how to do the job on-line (including at BBK's website). There are a few tricks and tips I can pass along though...

1. If you're replacing the entire exhaust system, work from back to front. It will get a lot of pieces out of the way when things get crowded from the cats forward.
2. The exhaust hangars are a combination of rubber and steel. They are meant to be "one way" assemblies, so naturally they are NOT going to cooperate going the other way. A little soap on the holes in the rubber parts helps with both disassembly and assembly.
3. If you have a big enough air compressor, an air ratchet really helps the back of the car go much more quickly. It's tougher to use up front or under the hood though.
4. The wiring harness plugs for the O2 sensors were either located by a blind person or in a world with no gravity. Each of them has a little clip that keeps the male and female plugs together. They can be lifted up GENTLY with a small flat bladed screwdriver - but be gentle! They break very easily.
5. The exhaust manifolds are held on with nuts and head studs. The object is to remove the NUT and not the STUD. Lots o' Liquid Wrench helps loosen things up, but odds are good that you will back one of the studs out rather than get the nut off the stud. DO NOT PANIC! The studs have very small hex ends on them and are pretty easy to re-install. Don't go gorilla on them or you'll strip the heads. My impression is that the hex drive on the end of the studs is sized and heat treated to twist off before you strip the threads in the heads, but I wouldn't recommend testing this theory.
6. Take your time! I think if you crashed though it you could probably bust this job out in 8-10 hours by yourself and with a set of ramps. There's nothing too terribly difficult about it, but there's lots of "fiddly bits" to deal with. Having a friend pitch in helps with the under-the-hood part helps, and even better if they have a lift you can borrow.

WindyMustang

So, how are the results? Well first off, the car does SOUNDS a lot different. Much deeper tone until you wind it up, and then OH YEAH!

Here's just a short rev sample in the driveway...hopefully this link will work! Going with the 3" version of the Magnaflow system seems to give it a lower tone than the 2.5" I had heard online. There's very little drone in the cockpit, and for the little bit that is there a small change in speed makes it go away immediately.

Power and torque changes will have to wait for another day since my tablet's dyno app wasn't cooperating well today. Depending on which run I review, I either gained a measly 7 HP and 0 lb-ft of torque , or gained more like 27 HP and 14 lb-ft of torque over the CAT/TB/Tune combo. I did figure out that the traction control was mucking with the throttle even when there was no wheelspin evident to me, so the higher number was with the t/c off. The biggest change is in the SPREAD of torque...Looking at the "raw", uncorrected data here's what I see:

RPM WITHIN 10 LB-FT of PEAK TORQUE
Stock baseline: 2500 - 5000 RPM
CAI/TB/Tune: 3200 - 4500 RPM
Full system: 3300 - 6000 RPM

Yes, that's odd that the CAI/TB/Tune combo was more peaky than the stock, but it's overall torque level was higher than stock too so I didn't really mind that much. Now with the exhaust opened up there's a LOT more usable torque band in every gear. Indigo is still a car that wants to be wound up before it goes, but once it's up "on the cam" it REALLY digs in now, with no feeling of a "hole" in the upper end of the power band. Given how unbelievably poor the stock cast iron exhaust manifolds are, that matches up with my seat-of-the-pants experience so far. (Whoever at Ford designed those stock manifolds shoulda been take out back of the woodshed... My thumb won't even fit down one of those exhaust ports! Unbelievable...)

So overall, pretty happy with the upgrade so far. Need to live with it for a bit to see how it does with everyday use, but so far, so good!

AMWill

Very solid review WindyMustang! Especially sharing the installation tips with other members. I'm sure it will help a lot of those guys in the future. I'm glad you're happy with the upgrade too. Your Mustang sounds much better than a stock 11-14 v6!

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Shane

WindyMustang

Well, if progress is measured by trading one problem for another, I've made a lot of progress.

Beautiful evening here...55F and warm pavement from a sunny day. Now instead of not enough power, we have copious amount of wheelspin in first...

And second.

And third.

And fourth...

Best 0-60 I could coax out was a 5.4s run. I know the car mags and online references say they get something faster (like a 5.1), but I've never seen it on this car using the Track Apps - this is the best so far by a long shot! If I can figure out how to keep the wheels under it there's another 0.5s in there at least...

So how wide a tire can one fit on the back....

Jande063

I would recommend looking at the Vorschlag build blog for how much tire you can get on the back. At one point they were playing with 345mm under stock sheet metal out back on their NASA road racer, not sue if they got it ironed out though...

WindyMustang

Great lead Jande063 - thanks!

For others interested, look here...

modernbeat

Yeah...the 345 didn't fit under the fender. But the 315 is an easy fit and we have people daily driving them under stock fenders.

WindyMustang

Interesting! What kind of wheel offset does one need to get that to go?

There's something kinda crazy about a V6 with a 315 on the back...but it darn well outta stick!