The testing began with a stock 1986 SVO Mustang motor with fairly high mileage on it. All testing was done on a chassis dyno, and quarter mile testing was done in an early Fox chassis notchback Mustang that weighed a little over 3000 lbs. All tests were also done with the knock sensor disconnected, due to problems that are experienced any time you try to run consistently on one of these motors with it connected.

Initial quarter mile runs averaged about 15.5 seconds at about 90 mph.

Initial Testing

These modifications produced a run of 14.15@98mph in this vehicle.

At this point the stock intake and exhaust manifolds were put on the flow bench. After testing, they were extrude honed and tested again for comparison. The stock throttle body was also tested alone, and while attached to the extrude honed intake manifold.

Manifold Flow Testing

Testing done with the stock throttle body attached to the extrude honed intake manifold resulted in no reduction in flow through the manifold. These modifications produced a total of 241.5rwhp at 5000rpm.

Head Flow Testing

For reference purposes I've also included numbers from the Esslinger aluminum head, which seems to be the best flowing head available for the 2.3L Ford motor. Graphs of this data can be viewed by clicking on intake or exhaust.

Results with Extrude Honed head and A237 roller cam: 248rwhp @ 5100rpm. Note the gain of less than 7hp for both. In the article this was blamed on oil control problems, I suspect that the cam may have been a poor choice for the flow level available.

Intercooler testing

All runs with the Tbird intercooler installed used compressed air through the intercooler to simulate actual running conditions. In reality, this probably yeilded better efficiency performance than would be expected on the street. All runs with the Vortech aftercooler installed used ice water through the unit for maximum performance.

Some efficiency data was obtained, but it's difficult to use this data in the real world, since air to air ICs don't have a steady source of compressed air, and air to water ICs don't have a steady source of icewater ;-). That being said, the data observed looked like this:

The pressure drop data is of particular interest, because it shows the Tbird IC as being adequate even with ported manifolds and heads. Of course, it's nowhere near the flow of the Vortech, which is extreme overkill for this motor.

They decided to do a couple more back to back comparisons of the Tbird IC versus the Vortech, using the T04 and header and saw these results:,

For one last test, they removed the muffler (that same 2.5" muffler had been used through all of this testing), and added cold air intake. Results were 318hp at "only" 26.3psi. They had to turn the boost down from their previous tests because at this point the 45lb/hr injectors they were using were finally maxed out.

The data from some of these runs was provided at various RPM points that you might find useful. I've graphed the data in case you're interested. Click to see horsepower or torque graphs.