V8 intake

[Josef86]

What options out there do I have the a intake for the 03? KN is more then I want to spend. Does it have to be for the explorer, do any of the mustang intakes fit.

I did see a build your own at pepboys. Any luck with one of these? I am looking for the intake, but don't want to spend the money to pay for the brand name.

I have had however, that I am better off spending the money on 75mm TB and a upper plenum to start with. If I go down this path what are my options. I know the later is going to cost, but may be a better starting point.

 

[zerodevil]

if your looking to start modding that 03, start off with the K&N (or mac) and a magnaflow catback system, and see where you want to go. i got my intake + exhaust off ebay for less than 550 shipped to my door in alaska. The 75mm would be a huge mistake untill you have some more mods + tune. stick with the 70mm unless your planning on doing heads + cams or a blower. the k&N may cost a little more, but its a purpose built product, the do it yourself kits are a joke and can actualy cost you power... i dont know much about the mac intake, but i got my K&N for 130 bucks.. im not sure you could build a kit as well for less than 130.

 

[Limited02]

Another option would be to drill a few holes on the front of the airbox(the side where the air comes in) and holes on the inlet tube inside the airbox the air travels in from. This is what I did and I don't know if it helped much, but it shouldn't hurt either. Then top it off with a K&N replacement filter(I still have the paper one). This route would be easiest/cheapest and net a small gain, but probably not quite as much as the full K&N system.

That money you saved could then go towards the 70mm throttle body/plenum combo Zerodevil mentioned. Then efan, UDP, tune, etc.

The exhaust would be another area to consider first. I removed the third cat, got 2.5" exhaust with a flowmaster 70. Sounds good and made a noticable change in power throughout the rev range. The theory is to get air in easier and out easier which equals more power

 

[Josef86]

Thanks,

There are other mods coming down the road. UDP will be one of the first. My plan is to work on anything to help bring air into the engine first. After UDP (maybe e-fan) and intake work is done then it will be exhaust. Then finished off with a tune. My tune is dead last since I plan to add a little at a time.

I do run a couple of amps so E-fan is just a maybe. Its not really an off roader but I like to keep the options open so thats the other reason efan is out.

I think I will need to look on ebay. 150 is not a bad price. Its the when it costs more then that I just say no.

 

[1_v8_merc]

If you want straight up power without supercharging, your best bet is a Camset and a 75mm throttlebody/intake elbow from Accufab....i have a book where they test all the major brands on the 4.6L 2v engines, and Accufab always gives several more HP than the cheaper brands.


Cams will give you 20-50hp, depending on the setup.
(the dyno i saw, i believe they netted 40hp, but also ran without a MAF and ran longtubes.....basically a raw dyno motor from a 4.6L 2v.)

You could also buy some larger coils, i believe mustangmagazine did a dyno test and got 27hp out of some 65k coils.......alot of people STILL doubt it, but the dyno's don't lie......so alot of people are 50/50 on the truth of that 27HP.


a 75mm accufab TB and intake elbow will net around 15-18hp on a 4.6L with CNC ported heads.....so on NON-ported heads, maybe around 10hp.....give or take.

 

[zerodevil]

my biggest power adders have been this

GMS 65,000 volt coil packs
JBA shorty headers
Tune via henson performance. 93 octane.

the exhaust + K&N

75mm throttle body
GMS Shark plenum + polish
Professional products manfild + polish.

the 75mm gives no more advantage than the 70 unless your going to run cams or forced induction. You would be wasting an extra 120 bucks that you didnt have to.

 

[1_v8_merc]

my biggest power adders have been this

GMS 65,000 volt coil packs
JBA shorty headers
Tune via henson performance. 93 octane.

the exhaust + K&N

75mm throttle body
GMS Shark plenum + polish
Professional products manfild + polish.

the 75mm gives no more advantage than the 70 unless your going to run cams or forced induction. You would be wasting an extra 120 bucks that you didnt have to.

That's a nice setup man, im assuming you didn't dyno it yet?
I'd really like to see the numbers on that!

Did it feel like a big difference after all that?

 

[zerodevil]

lol big difference, ive clocked my trucks 0-60 in 6.6 seconds, i have video on youtube to prove it. good stuff. id like to dyno it, but there is only one in town, and the guy wants 300+ a run.

 

[macknos94]

lol big difference, ive clocked my trucks 0-60 in 6.6 seconds, i have video on youtube to prove it. good stuff. id like to dyno it, but there is only one in town, and the guy wants 300+ a run.

god that murder. we have a shop in york that has an awd dyno. they mainly work on evos and stis but when they have there open dyno days its 30 bucks per run. they run the dyno all day long usually 9am till 8 at night. when i get home i wanna get the mountaineer and h1 on the dyno to see what they are putting down for a baseline. i bet i'll be the only one there with a mounty and a hummer lol.

did you see a pretty good gain from the TB/ plenum upgrade? i have been looking at them then a tune. so far i have intake, true dual exhaust, and an efan. what do you think i should get next?

 

[Josef86]

my biggest power adders have been this

GMS 65,000 volt coil packs
JBA shorty headers
Tune via henson performance. 93 octane.

the exhaust + K&N

75mm throttle body
GMS Shark plenum + polish
Professional products manfild + polish.

the 75mm gives no more advantage than the 70 unless your going to run cams or forced induction. You would be wasting an extra 120 bucks that you didnt have to.

Wow, thats some set up you have there! Thanks for warning me about the 70 vs 75mm. I did not plan on cams, but I may not push it off the list either.

 

[zerodevil]

i was going to do a crazy engine build for my rig, and i still might years from now. was thinking a 5.3L short block, trick flow heads, crower stage 2 cams, 6r60 trans with 2000+ stall converter, and a kenne bell supercharger. i was looking for a stable 550 rwhp lol. now im just going to leave it at the bolt on phase. I forgot to put UDP's and the E-fan on that list, those realy helped the high end power band.

 

[Limited02]

lol big difference, ive clocked my trucks 0-60 in 6.6 seconds, i have video on youtube to prove it. good stuff. id like to dyno it, but there is only one in town, and the guy wants 300+ a run.

Still waiting to hear what you run I will run as soon as my new wheel bearing comes in, damn thing in SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a guy here that has a dyno and he charges like, 45 bucks for 3 runs, and 300 bucks to tune it. You should make sure that he knows you want to do some pulls, not actually tune it.

 

[zerodevil]

i did, he has a monopoly so he just rips everyone off. my buddys WRX cost 660 to tune...granted that tune got 63 hp out of the car. a run just isnt worth 300 bucks to me.

 

[Josef86]

Do you a link to the youtube video? I would like to see that.

Seems like you pretty much have what I plan on going by the end of the build. Of course this build is over the course of a long time.

Intake and UDP just happen to be near the top of the list. I think for starters UDP. Intake will be a stage and TB/plenum upgrade will be a stage.
There GMS 65,000 volt coil packs where did you get them? I think this is what I have planned for this year. Next spring maybe some bigger projects.

 

[zerodevil]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfsG-_hAA0I
this was on my old engine, i bet i can do a little better with the new one.

the gms coil packs came from jegs, they are the set from the 2v mustang, they are called prostreet or prostreetX i think.

 

[Josef86]

Thats impressive.

 

[Josef86]

Edit,

Is this worth looking into? I am hoping the Mustang Parts work. http://www.accufabracing.com/mustang_gt.htm

I see for this set up the 70mm and 75mm is about 10 doller difference. Of course 70mm may still be the better option who knows.

Question on the coils. Did you need to get the tune when you tossed those in? Like I noted before, I am trying to set up a long term plan for whats going to get done. I am staying away from the tune long as I can. Other wise I would have to update when I want to include the mods added in. Thanks for the help.

 

[zerodevil]

the mustang throttle bodys will work for you, go with the 70mm as the 75 will cause drivability issues unless your pushing some mods. I went with a BBK 70mm to start, and upgraded to a 75mm for my plans to supercharge. The coils didnt need a retune, but benefitted from it. Just make sure your running motorcraft spark plugs, and that they are propperly torqued.. or you will start shooting them, those 65,000 volt coils realy make a bang.

also, you will have to modify the intake plenum from a mustang. because mustang plenums dont hve the propper attachment points to attach the break booster... its as simple as welding in a piece of pipe. there is a place that does custom port + polish on the explorer ones... decently cheep though.

 

[Josef86]

Thanks, that pretty much answers my questions.

I decided to go the Mac intake route and got the UDP at the same time.

Not sure what I want to go next its either going to be exhaust or TB/Penlum.

My other planned mods much further down the line would be headers, coils, and the tune.

 

[Josef86]

I received my Mac intake thursday night and the UDP earlier today.

I installed the MAC the moment it came in. I am very impressed and pleased with it. While I don't feel HP numbers have gone up much it does feel faster.
UDP will be installed when I get the time.