• Hello there guest and Welcome to The #1 Classic Mustang forum!
    To gain full access you must Register. Registration is free and it takes only a few moments to complete.
    Already a member? Login here then!

I got my new 331 and it is installed..........

Update....... I have about 900 miles on the engine now so it is time to have it tuned. I put almost 400 on it this past weekend. Everyting went very smoothly. I am getting about 18 mpg on the hwy and about 14 in town. Not to bad but we'll see how far that drops once I can drop the pedal without worring about detonation. My Ford plug wires were a bit long and the #5 cylinder wire fell over and the boot touched the headers. I have a new set of MSD plug wires that I am putting ends on now. I will be able to run them a bit tighter than the Ford wires.

I drop the car off on Friday to spend the week, or a few days with the tuner. I hope to have it back mid week and see how she feels. I'll post up the results when it is done. I have considered sending the blower over to Vortech to have a new/improved impeller designed. It is supposed to build boost earlier, be more efficient and build a cuple more lbs of boost overall. I doubt I will though. There has to be an end to this project and I need to learn how to say no to my Mustang urges.
 
Did you figure out your hot start issues?

What V-2 trim do you have?

I know what you mean by restraining the urges. Mines finally going to be back on the road after a year of down time and theres a ton of things I have going through my head that I can do, except I have a little baby arriving in a few weeks
 
I am running a V2SQ and from what I can tell a 2.85" pulley whick is the smallest I can run without overspinning the blower. I'll find out how much boost it is making with the new engine soon. The old engine only produced 10 lbs and this engine should be more effecient. I anticipate to drop a couple pounds but we'll see soon enough. The old engine produced that at 5,000 rpm though. I should be able to take the new engine up to 6000 without worries. Beyond that the blower starts spinning pretty fast.
 
I wonder if they can bump it up to the V2SQ Si-trim?

Going past 10psi you may have to get a bigger bypass valve, from what little I know about superchargers.
 
IIRC the upgrade to the impeller would bring it to SI status but I am not sure. One last cool thing about the car. This past weekend I went up to the MCA show in Bellevue. While there a guy was taking video of my car but mostly the engine. He was a guy for Vortech and plans to put up a video of some cars that were using their products on their website. I'll post a link to it once he emails me with the details. Pretty cool to see it on some commercal site. Once it shows up maybe I can ask them for a discount on an impeller upgrade. :)
 
"buening" said:
Did you figure out your hot start issues?

I think so. I replaced the distributor with an MSD unit and had the same problem. Can you say waste of money. :$$$ I was reading about guys who move the battery to the trunk having the same problem so I figured I would start from the back of the car and work forward. I took off the (-) battery cable from the attachment point on the body and something weird happened. It sparked when my wrench touched it. I took it off and all I did was add a star washer between the cable and body and a nut with attached star washer to secure the bolt from under the car. I ran the car for about 400 miles this weekend. During that time I turned it off and on while hot about 10 times. It started fine each time. Only time will tell if that was the problem but I will keep my fingers crossed. It is not very often I run into solutions that only cost me $.67. :ecit
 
I think I mentioned on the VMF that it sounded like a intermittant ground issue. Hopefully that was the fix!! :)
 
The tuner finally got to the car today and ran into a problem. The engine was pulling really hard until I ran out of fuel. It looks like I need to step up to 60/65 lb injectors and a different MAF meter. He gave me an option to put some sort of add on to my current Lightening MAF but it was only another $70 to get a new meter. I'll just sell the old meter and end up being ahead of the game. Anyone looking for some 42 lb injectors and a matching meter?

The early numbers are 454 to the wheels before the starvation issue. It was building about 11.2 lbs of boost. He said that there is a lot left in it and felt that there should be at least 520 rwhp but likely over 550 when it is all dialed in. I hope to have everything done by tomorrow since my club is putting on its annual show this Saturday.

At this point I am having a hard time realizing what this thing is going to feel like. I know when it was a little over 400 hp it was pretty damn fast. On a side note I increased my insurance coverage on the car today. The appraisal came in a bit higher than I expected. Now I don't feel bad to put more money in the car. LOL!
 
Wow I can't imagine 550 at the wheels. Is this a stock block? I can't remember. Geez, 60/65lb injectors thats nuts! I can see where its needed though. You may check some 03/04 Cobra forums for injectors unless you are buying new.
 
Have you been checking out Corral.net for used injectors? There's always a bunch of injectors and MAF's for sale. I know that I've been lurking there for awhile trying to find a set of 30's.
 
I am running the new Boss block. I hoped to have enough power to crack a stock block in half and it looks like I will do have plenty to do that. It looks like the block was a good investment.

I have purchased quite a bit of parts over on Corral and even had an eye out for some 60 lb injectors when I was at the end of the build of this engine. I just did not see that many used sets come up. Many that did had the wrong impedence (however you spell it). My tuner also has a parts house for internet sales and is hooking me up. I just don't think I have enough time to search for used injectors. I figure that I can sell my 42's for at least 1/2 of the cost of the 60/65's. The MAF meter is the same story. That is unless I decide to give them to Dave. :lol

I will have to take some video of the car when it is all done. It is amazing how mild the engine sounds. When the hood is shut and you listen to the idle you would not think it packs much of a punch. I don't know if I would go so far to call it a sleeper though. Maybe that is why all the M3 bimmer guys always want a crack at me when I am cruizing around.

I love the new avatrar buening!
 
1999 called, they want their calibrated MAF back. :lol

Seriously, there's no reason you can't edit the MAF transfer curve in the tune and use the Lightning MAF with the new injectors. Especially if it's the larger Lightning MAF, there likely to be a lot of excess capacity left in the MAF (your tuner should be able to read the MAF voltage and tell you if you're in danger of max'ing it out)
 
He did tell me that the voltage on the MAF was hitting 5 volts(IIRC) and after that the readings were going all over the place. He did tell me that there wss something I could buy ($180) to adapt my current meter but it was danm near as much money as getting a new meter ($250). I figure that by the time I sell my Lightning meter I will actually save some money and then have a meter that has more capacity for tuning. Hopefully I relayed what he said to me properly and don't soundl like a dumb bass. When I first started talking with the tuner last fall about my build he did say that I should be fine with the Lightning meter but I think he was expecting an engine that was about 100 ponies less than it is.

The good thing about my engine is that the blower is putting out plenty of boost. I was thinking that I was going to be a little small to get the 10 lbs of boost I wasnted but that won't be a problem. I had been contimplating doing an impeller upgrade from Vortech. I met a guy form Vortech at the MCA show a couple weeks ago and he took a little video of the car for an on-line ad. I asked them if they were interested in using it for marketing of what the new impeller design can do on a before and after. If they offered me a discount on the impeller I wouldn't turn it down. :ecit After looking at the preliminary numbers I will leave it as it is.
 
I got the numbers. 554.52 rwhp @ about 6200 rpm and 486.64 ftlb. It had over 400 tq from 3000 till we cut it off at 6200. Max torque is in the 4300 rpm range. I am pretty happy with the results. I did some quick math and if I loose 15-20% power then I would have between 650-700 hp at the crank. Not too bad for 333 cubic inches.
 
Yep. 65 lb injectors and an SCT mass air meter. I have to take it back to the tuner next week for a driveability adjustment to the tune. It has a little idle surge after you are driving and slow to a stop light. The only reason I got it from him today was to take it to a show my club is putting on tomorrow. If it wasn't for that I would have left it there until he was done.

The car rips your head off starting about 3,000 and doesn't stop until the tires break loose. :ecit It is a pretty fun car to drive.

I will also need to get another blower belt. My current one lost a rib during tuning. They must have made 25 pulls to get it where he wanted it. He said he has more pulls on my car than any other he has done. I can tell because I had to pay for 2 extra hours of dyno time. My computer/engine has been pretty tempermental getting it where he wanted it.
 
"68EFIvert" said:
He did tell me that the voltage on the MAF was hitting 5 volts(IIRC) and after that the readings were going all over the place.
Well then, I eat my words with ketchup on top...and DAAAYUMM! 550rwhp? DAAAYUMM! No wonder the MAF is maxed out!

Have they already put in the larger injectors and MAF? If not, it *really* ought to fly then. Heck, 380rwhp is enough to give me the heebie jeebies...I can't imagine 200hp more in a street car. :craz
 
The new injectors are in. The tuner said that that the tune is slightly more than moderate. If I want to take it back a little I can adjust the timing with my BTM box. I have a know in my glove box that will allow me to retard the timing up to 3 degrees. He gave me the example if I have 4 200 lb guys in the car and it starts to ping a little then retard the timing. Of course bad gas or lower then 92 octane and I will also have to pull some timing out to keep it well within the safe range.

He also told me my narrow band air fuel gauge pretty much doesn't work. It is there mostly to fill an extra hole in my console. Eventually I'll have to get a wide band unit and do it the right way.

SCAN0002.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top