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Need advice on my upgrade list

3K views 22 replies 9 participants last post by  jonthewick 
#1 ·
What is every ones experience with the following parts? What else will I need to get the mods to work as best they can?

Ford Racing Adjustable Handling Pack
Ford Racing Boss 302R Lower Control Arms
FR500S Long Tube Headers from Borla (will they work with stock H pipe?)

Also Ford Racing CNC Heads vs their High Flow Heads?

I currently have the Ford Racing Throttle, Intake manifold, and Hot Rod Cams.

Any other Ford Racing parts that I am missing that will help? Trying to stay with Ford parts and keep it naturally aspirated.

Also any ford racing big brake kits what work with the stock wheels?
 
#3 ·
Not sure I have the money for a new block and forged internals. Would be fun to make a modern 390CI engine though but that's probably a bigger project than I am ready to undergo.
 
#5 ·
Unless you go forced induction you won't get anywhere near 450hp, so stock internals will be fine with heads, cams and exhaust. Long tube headers will not work with the stock H pipe, but there are plenty of aftermarket mid-pipes with high flow cats are out there. Shorty headers will allow you to keep the stock H pipe, but the power gains are negligible.

I went with Steeda suspension parts and Koni dampners, so I have not experience with FRPP suspension parts, but I am sure they are good.
 
#7 ·
I wouldn't write off 450+hp NA, but I think above that is out of my price range for now. In college I worked on designing a 400hp 2L V6 the main sacrifice is torque. But at that point we were going to titanium valves, custom cams, heads, pistons and the rest of the bottom end along with a blueprinted block. So quite far from my bolt on budget. Also its not hp but torque that would require a transmission upgrade, and yes typically those go hand in hand. It all depends on how high you can rev, look at sport bikes (high hp low tq) and large displacement engines (high tq low hp).

This might be a stupid question I know a lot about engines but almost nothing about suspensions. For the upgraded and lowered suspension will I need an upper control arm and lower control arm relocation brackets? I don't want to spend the money on an adjustable suspension and not be able to get the right suspension geometry. Also what about caster camber plates?
 
#9 ·
I completely agree but I don't want to change the stock rims, has anyone found a big brake kit that works with the stock rims? I'm willing to add in spacers to be able to keep the stock rims.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I was just using 450hp as a ball park figure. I guess I should have said forged crank & rods were not needed for a NA engine.
Ford Racing says they got 425-440hp from the 4.6L motor with the top end power package and long tube headers.
I may be wrong but to me it seems like a heck of lot more work to install a forged bottom than just replacing the heads. For someone like me who only has their home garage and a floor jack. I would have to pay a shop to do it and at that point I'd be better off just buying a crate engine.
 
#12 · (Edited)
425+ hp must be CRANK HP, not rear wheel HP.
i have ford racing CNC ported heads with detroit rocker cams, biggest you can use and still have the variable cam timing, ford racing high rise intake with a bigger L&m throttle body and american racing long tube headers. i only have 380 at the rear wheels with 93 octane gas.


you can safely do 500 rear wheel HP with a stock 4.6 bottom end if you keep the rpm's below 6K. higher than that and the rods give up .
 
#13 ·
I went with Powerslot rotors, Hawk pads, and steel lines, nice improvement on track days over stock. My next step will probably be brake cooling ducts. But I am looking at the Stop Tech set up. They suggest measuring your stock wheels to ensure that their brakes will work, and if they fit I am seriously considering them. I plan on keeping the Bullitt wheels on the street, so if these fit, and considering the relatively low price, I'll probably go this route.


http://www.latemodelrestoration.com...ang-Stop-Tech-Front-Big-Brake-Kit-Black-05-14
 
#14 ·
Here is my 2 cents, Jon.

I believe the Ford Racing adjustable dampers are Tokicos. If they are the same as the Tokicos I had on my Bullitt, they are simply excellent. I would probably cherry pick the parts: Ford Racing dampers, P springs. When you lower you should get an adjustable panhard bar to re-center the axle. The Panhard bar centers the axle.

I have used several different LCAs and my personal belief (for the money), J & M LCAs. The cheapies for about 100$ from Latemodel restoration or American Muscle. They are fairly low NVH, do not squeak, and significantly improve handling.

I personally would not do the UCA. I have had different ones and my experience is they add too much NVH. If you end up with wheel hop, use relocation brackets: Whiteline or the newly designed UPRs which I just bought for my 2011 GT. Excellent products.

On HP/TQ, I personally would save for a blower. My Bullitt had a Vortech HO kit making 488hp and 426tq at the wheels. I called and had several conversations with Ford Racing a few years back and they reiterated what Brenspeed has said: keep HP under 500 at the wheels and tq under 450 at the wheels and the stock engine will hold up well.

My Bullitt ran excellent, quiet, fast, and handled like it was on rails. Ride quality was quite decent.

My 2011 Brembo was a sow compared to it in both HP and handling. Though the 2011 is a quieter car.

Do the suspension first. These cars handle really good with about $1,500 worth of parts. I would not feel compelled to use Ford Racing parts for everything. Some of their stuff is re-badged aftermarket stuff that's cheaper in the orig. company's name.

On my '11 I have stock bars with prothane bushings, UPR relocation brackets, J & M LCAs, and Koni yellow adjustables for the few times I want the suspension really tight.

Good luck with your selections. Great info on this site with really good folks.
 
#15 ·
Oh, and for brakes, a cheap, better brake are the 2011s I learned about on this site. I bought a set of 2012 new oem take-off rotors, pads, calipers and caliper brackets from Roush for $150. They use the 13.2 inch rotor. These bolt right up to the bullitts.

AND, let me know if you are interested as I still have them in the Roush box and will sell them for what I paid: $150 complete.

My daughter is putting them on ebay soon so if any is interested, just PM me.
 
#16 ·
For starters thank you very much for the advice and I'm very interested in the brakes expect to hear from me shortly via PM.
 
#17 ·
I figure I should keep this thread better updated in case others are interested. So installed parts so far, the 2012 rotors and brackets went on great, didn't do the new calipers because I didn't have time to bleed the brakes at the time. Install took almost no time at all and if you already have the wheels off like I did the whole thing can be done in less than 20 min.

I also did long tube headers, the FR500S long tubes from Borla, they did not go an nearly as quickly or as easily or painlessly for that matter. Took a saturday sunday and part of monday afternoon to finally get them installed with the car on jack stands. Performance gains were noticeable thankfully and sounds awesome. Stock Bullitt mufflers stayed and the car sounds great under throttle but quiets up nicely for highway cruising.
More recently I have purchased a set of 18x10 American Racing Torque Thrust M rims with 295 rivals all around. Did require spacers to clear the brakes but the clearance looked ok everywhere else without them. Haven't had enough time to really get a feel for them because the last autocross course was very dusty and even the Subi STi guys couldn't find traction.
The next step is suspension as the panhard bar apparently had taken quite the hit in an off at an earlier event, only noticed with the new wheels so I went overboard with new suspension upgrades. More to come on that hopefully soon.
 
#20 ·
Terry,

Thanks, my plans aren't quite as extensive as yours but so far no complaints.

Ron,
I am using 5/16 spacers, they just clear in the front so might be looking to go to 3/8 but i will have to start looking at longer studs to do it I think. They are the 45 offsets if that influences its clearance. Thoughts?
 
#22 ·
Ron,
I am using 5/16 spacers, they just clear in the front so might be looking to go to 3/8 but i will have to start looking at longer studs to do it I think. They are the 45 offsets if that influences its clearance. Thoughts?
Jon,
If you have 'enough' clearance that the wheels don't touch the calipers, even in severe maneuvers, (wheels do deflect under load) then be sure you have long enough stud length for proper thread engagement.
Personally, I would not be comfortable with thread engagement length less than 1.5 x the bolt diameter.


.
 
#23 ·
I want to do one on the ford racing heads and then get a dyno tune, for now the bama tune seems to be working ok. Only one autox event with the new setup and no issues except for the driver adjusting to the new setup. And longer wheel studs are on the list for this winter along with slightly thicker spacers to get a little more clearance. So far I'm pretty happy with the setup.
 
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