750HP Whipple 2.9L S/C Kit early impressions...
11-17-2010, 12:07 PM
#1
3rd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: NC
Posts: 971
750HP Whipple 2.9L S/C Kit early impressions...
As some of you have probably already read in some of my other posts, I wasn't thrilled with the numbers I was getting on the dyno after installing this kit. After icing down the blower for a few minutes, it only produced a peak of 690HP at the wheels. >>>>>The more real world/consistent numbers are in the 620HP range at the wheels.<<<<< To me, that is an unacceptable deficit in HP considering it was making a consistent 505 - 510 HP bone stock. It had a peak of 517HP stock. I'm convinced my tune isn't up to par based on advertised HP for the kit. I'm not sure how to even approach that argument with Ford Racing. I was expecting a consistent 680HP at the wheels.
Anyway, whether it be 620HP or 680HP at the wheels, it's all academic for now. Going full-throttle is nothing but a pipe dream at this point with the stock tires. I have to feed in the throttle and try to feather it right on the edge of the stock tires' adhesion limit. I went on a trip last weekend to lower elevation and the denser air definitely made a difference in the "feel" of power. There were a couple of long, straight stretches of road where I opened it up. It felt like a jet heading for takeoff. The nose raised some and I was really pushed back in the seat. I could feel the tires giving up traction. The traction and stability control lights were on until I let up. I gotta say, I'm impressed that the nannies really didn't kill performance all that much (as far as I know.) But with the lights coming on despite my still heading in a perfectly straight line (no steering corrections needed) makes me think I should probably never turn it off if I'm gonna be playing in the throttle!
One odd occurrence during one of those blasts; I disengaged the clutch to coast back down to normal speeds and the engine shut off. Tachometer read 0. The only light that came on was the battery light. That one would be expected since the charging system was basically shutdown. Other than that, no other warning lights were on and everything was functioning perfectly normal; steering, brakes, etc. As soon as I engaged the clutch, the engine went right back to working like nothing ever happened. No hiccups, sputters, nothing. Maybe that's something programmed in the tune to protect the engine from overboost off throttle?
I'd be lying if I said installation was a breeze. It was straight forward, but frustrating at times. To be fair, this was my very first time doing this. If I knew then what I know now, would I still do it myself? Probably not. Knowing what I know now about the installation, would I do it myself again? Yes. As daunting as it may seem, it really only takes literally a handful of common hand tools that most mild gearheads would have in their toolboxes. I really like the kit. It looks good under my hood.
I was fortunate enough not to have any firewall clearance issues; it's a tight fit, but it's not touching.
The programming with the (separately) supplied FRPP Procal tuner was very straight forward and took maybe 20 minutes from beginning to end. Which brings me back to my point about the canned tune. When I had it dynoed at one of the local performance shops, the owner guesses they went super conservative on the timing and that it might even be more conservative than the stock timing table considering the numbers it made bone stock at the same shop a week or so earlier. There's more torque all over the curve, but it's not as flat as stock. And the HP is definitely more on the peaky side, but again, there's more of it all over the curve. Down low, there's not significantly more than stock to make much of a difference, if I recall (don't have the dyno sheet in front of me right now.) I'd like to have it tuned so that the graph looks just like stock, only higher. I still don't feel like Ford Racing gave me the correct tune for the claimed power level of this kit, though. Seems more like they gave me a 725HP tune, which if I recall, that's what comes for the 2007 - 2010 GT500 kit.
Does anyone else here have or know someone who has the same kit on a 2011 GT500? What kind of numbers did you/they put down? According to Ford Racing, this kit supposedly produces 750HP @ 6100 RPM and 719lb-ft @ 4200 RPM @ 17psi. I was making nearly 20psi and it doesn't seem like I was making those kinds of numbers!
Anyway, whether it be 620HP or 680HP at the wheels, it's all academic for now. Going full-throttle is nothing but a pipe dream at this point with the stock tires. I have to feed in the throttle and try to feather it right on the edge of the stock tires' adhesion limit. I went on a trip last weekend to lower elevation and the denser air definitely made a difference in the "feel" of power. There were a couple of long, straight stretches of road where I opened it up. It felt like a jet heading for takeoff. The nose raised some and I was really pushed back in the seat. I could feel the tires giving up traction. The traction and stability control lights were on until I let up. I gotta say, I'm impressed that the nannies really didn't kill performance all that much (as far as I know.) But with the lights coming on despite my still heading in a perfectly straight line (no steering corrections needed) makes me think I should probably never turn it off if I'm gonna be playing in the throttle!
One odd occurrence during one of those blasts; I disengaged the clutch to coast back down to normal speeds and the engine shut off. Tachometer read 0. The only light that came on was the battery light. That one would be expected since the charging system was basically shutdown. Other than that, no other warning lights were on and everything was functioning perfectly normal; steering, brakes, etc. As soon as I engaged the clutch, the engine went right back to working like nothing ever happened. No hiccups, sputters, nothing. Maybe that's something programmed in the tune to protect the engine from overboost off throttle?
I'd be lying if I said installation was a breeze. It was straight forward, but frustrating at times. To be fair, this was my very first time doing this. If I knew then what I know now, would I still do it myself? Probably not. Knowing what I know now about the installation, would I do it myself again? Yes. As daunting as it may seem, it really only takes literally a handful of common hand tools that most mild gearheads would have in their toolboxes. I really like the kit. It looks good under my hood.
I was fortunate enough not to have any firewall clearance issues; it's a tight fit, but it's not touching. The programming with the (separately) supplied FRPP Procal tuner was very straight forward and took maybe 20 minutes from beginning to end. Which brings me back to my point about the canned tune. When I had it dynoed at one of the local performance shops, the owner guesses they went super conservative on the timing and that it might even be more conservative than the stock timing table considering the numbers it made bone stock at the same shop a week or so earlier. There's more torque all over the curve, but it's not as flat as stock. And the HP is definitely more on the peaky side, but again, there's more of it all over the curve. Down low, there's not significantly more than stock to make much of a difference, if I recall (don't have the dyno sheet in front of me right now.) I'd like to have it tuned so that the graph looks just like stock, only higher. I still don't feel like Ford Racing gave me the correct tune for the claimed power level of this kit, though. Seems more like they gave me a 725HP tune, which if I recall, that's what comes for the 2007 - 2010 GT500 kit.
Does anyone else here have or know someone who has the same kit on a 2011 GT500? What kind of numbers did you/they put down? According to Ford Racing, this kit supposedly produces 750HP @ 6100 RPM and 719lb-ft @ 4200 RPM @ 17psi. I was making nearly 20psi and it doesn't seem like I was making those kinds of numbers!
Last edited by GT Premi; 11-23-2010 at 04:42 PM. Reason: People are conveniently overlooking what I posted for REAL WORLD/NORMAL horsepower level.
11-17-2010, 08:08 PM
#2
1st Gear Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Nevada
Posts: 102
Like you said they most likely went with an extremly conservative tune. Im guessing you could get the advertised numbers if a local tuner takes the time to do it right. You may even get a few more horses out of it by going that route. Its most likely because they dont wish to have people blowing engines and calling them up asking for compensation because they caused a rod to go through the block with a very wild tune.
11-17-2010, 08:27 PM
#3
3rd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: NC
Posts: 971
If that's true, then they're false advertising. The kit doesn't say "up to 750HP," it explicitly states 750HP is what you get. So I'm expecting at least that much, not "up to" that much. I'm figuring the tune to be conservative as far as the shape of the power curve, not for cheating me out of HP I paid big bucks to get. I guess I'm just gonna have to call Ford Racing and see what they have to say about my concerns.
11-18-2010, 06:30 PM
#9
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location:
Posts: 310
As some of you have probably already read in some of my other posts, I wasn't thrilled with the numbers I was getting on the dyno after installing this kit. After icing down the blower for a few minutes, it only produced a peak of 690HP at the wheels. The more real world/consistent numbers are in the 620HP range at the wheels. To me, that is an unacceptable deficit in HP considering it was making a consistent 505 - 510 HP bone stock. It had a peak of 517HP stock. I'm convinced my tune isn't up to par based on advertised HP for the kit. I'm not sure how to even approach that argument with Ford Racing. I was expecting a consistent 680HP at the wheels.
Anyway, whether it be 620HP or 680HP at the wheels, it's all academic for now. Going full-throttle is nothing but a pipe dream at this point with the stock tires. I have to feed in the throttle and try to feather it right on the edge of the stock tires' adhesion limit. I went on a trip last weekend to lower elevation and the denser air definitely made a difference in the "feel" of power. There were a couple of long, straight stretches of road where I opened it up. It felt like a jet heading for takeoff. The nose raised some and I was really pushed back in the seat. I could feel the tires giving up traction. The traction and stability control lights were on until I let up. I gotta say, I'm impressed that the nannies really didn't kill performance all that much (as far as I know.) But with the lights coming on despite my still heading in a perfectly straight line (no steering corrections needed) makes me think I should probably never turn it off if I'm gonna be playing in the throttle!
One odd occurrence during one of those blasts; I disengaged the clutch to coast back down to normal speeds and the engine shut off. Tachometer read 0. The only light that came on was the battery light. That one would be expected since the charging system was basically shutdown. Other than that, no other warning lights were on and everything was functioning perfectly normal; steering, brakes, etc. As soon as I engaged the clutch, the engine went right back to working like nothing ever happened. No hiccups, sputters, nothing. Maybe that's something programmed in the tune to protect the engine from overboost off throttle?
I'd be lying if I said installation was a breeze. It was straight forward, but frustrating at times. To be fair, this was my very first time doing this. If I knew then what I know now, would I still do it myself? Probably not. Knowing what I know now about the installation, would I do it myself again? Yes. As daunting as it may seem, it really only takes literally a handful of common hand tools that most mild gearheads would have in their toolboxes. I really like the kit. It looks good under my hood. I was fortunate enough not to have any firewall clearance issues; it's a tight fit, but it's not touching.
The programming with the (separately) supplied FRPP Procal tuner was very straight forward and took maybe 20 minutes from beginning to end. Which brings me back to my point about the canned tune. When I had it dynoed at one of the local performance shops, the owner guesses they went super conservative on the timing and that it might even be more conservative than the stock timing table considering the numbers it made bone stock at the same shop a week or so earlier. There's more torque all over the curve, but it's not as flat as stock. And the HP is definitely more on the peaky side, but again, there's more of it all over the curve. Down low, there's not significantly more than stock to make much of a difference, if I recall (don't have the dyno sheet in front of me right now.) I'd like to have it tuned so that the graph looks just like stock, only higher. I still don't feel like Ford Racing gave me the correct tune for the claimed power level of this kit, though. Seems more like they gave me a 725HP tune, which if I recall, that's what comes for the 2007 - 2010 GT500 kit. Does anyone else here have or know someone who has the same kit on a 2011 GT500? What kind of numbers did you/they put down? According to Ford Racing, this kit supposedly produces 750HP @ 6100 RPM and 719lb-ft @ 4200 RPM @ 17psi. I was making nearly 20psi and it doesn't seem like I was making those kinds of numbers!
Anyway, whether it be 620HP or 680HP at the wheels, it's all academic for now. Going full-throttle is nothing but a pipe dream at this point with the stock tires. I have to feed in the throttle and try to feather it right on the edge of the stock tires' adhesion limit. I went on a trip last weekend to lower elevation and the denser air definitely made a difference in the "feel" of power. There were a couple of long, straight stretches of road where I opened it up. It felt like a jet heading for takeoff. The nose raised some and I was really pushed back in the seat. I could feel the tires giving up traction. The traction and stability control lights were on until I let up. I gotta say, I'm impressed that the nannies really didn't kill performance all that much (as far as I know.) But with the lights coming on despite my still heading in a perfectly straight line (no steering corrections needed) makes me think I should probably never turn it off if I'm gonna be playing in the throttle!
One odd occurrence during one of those blasts; I disengaged the clutch to coast back down to normal speeds and the engine shut off. Tachometer read 0. The only light that came on was the battery light. That one would be expected since the charging system was basically shutdown. Other than that, no other warning lights were on and everything was functioning perfectly normal; steering, brakes, etc. As soon as I engaged the clutch, the engine went right back to working like nothing ever happened. No hiccups, sputters, nothing. Maybe that's something programmed in the tune to protect the engine from overboost off throttle?
I'd be lying if I said installation was a breeze. It was straight forward, but frustrating at times. To be fair, this was my very first time doing this. If I knew then what I know now, would I still do it myself? Probably not. Knowing what I know now about the installation, would I do it myself again? Yes. As daunting as it may seem, it really only takes literally a handful of common hand tools that most mild gearheads would have in their toolboxes. I really like the kit. It looks good under my hood.
I was fortunate enough not to have any firewall clearance issues; it's a tight fit, but it's not touching. The programming with the (separately) supplied FRPP Procal tuner was very straight forward and took maybe 20 minutes from beginning to end. Which brings me back to my point about the canned tune. When I had it dynoed at one of the local performance shops, the owner guesses they went super conservative on the timing and that it might even be more conservative than the stock timing table considering the numbers it made bone stock at the same shop a week or so earlier. There's more torque all over the curve, but it's not as flat as stock. And the HP is definitely more on the peaky side, but again, there's more of it all over the curve. Down low, there's not significantly more than stock to make much of a difference, if I recall (don't have the dyno sheet in front of me right now.) I'd like to have it tuned so that the graph looks just like stock, only higher. I still don't feel like Ford Racing gave me the correct tune for the claimed power level of this kit, though. Seems more like they gave me a 725HP tune, which if I recall, that's what comes for the 2007 - 2010 GT500 kit.
Does anyone else here have or know someone who has the same kit on a 2011 GT500? What kind of numbers did you/they put down? According to Ford Racing, this kit supposedly produces 750HP @ 6100 RPM and 719lb-ft @ 4200 RPM @ 17psi. I was making nearly 20psi and it doesn't seem like I was making those kinds of numbers!