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Supporting mods?

12K views 34 replies 8 participants last post by  metroplex 
#1 ·
Folks with tunes - what else is absolutely necessary for smooth reliable function?

  • I've heard that colder re-gapped spark plugs are a must.
  • Is a new thermostat absolutely necessary? What's the downside to running the stock thermostat with a tune? Just heat soak during hard use in hot weather?
  • Same questions about the stock intercooler.

In other words, can I get just the tune and spark plugs, but skip the new thermostat and the intercooler upgrade?
 
#2 ·
You can just get a tune and skip everything else and run mid 12s. The stock plugs are the coldest plugs you can get. Mine were gapped about 0.028"-0.030". From my experience with my SHO (which came with 1 heat range hotter plugs than the Fusion Sport), colder plugs and a cold t-stat did nothing for reducing spark knock. The use of E30+ was the single most useful thing with the tune.

As for heat soak, the stock FSport intercooler isn't very effective. The IAT and MCT temp delta was 100F after a 1/4 mile run. I hear with aftermarket intercoolers, that delta is more like 30F - huge difference. With my 2014 SHO, the stock intercooler resuted in a temp delta of about 70F-80F but it would run 12.4 @ 110.9 all day long, back-to-back runs so the heat soaking wasn't that detrimental.

Aftermarket mods like the Big Mouth intake, the Steeda hot air intake, GFB bypass valve mod (or any BOV or aftermarket BPV) aren't really useful at all for performance or anything. The stock turbos are puny/whimpy and will max out with just a tune using the stock paper air filter. Let me put it another way. A fully tuned 2.7 stock turbo setup only flows about 3-4 lb/min more than the bone stock factory turbos/tune on a SHO/Explorer Sport. A fully tuned SHO/Explorer sport will flow 5-10 lb/min more than a fully tuned 2.7 turbo setup, and even the SHO/Explorer Sport would max out the stock turbos with just a tune - the stock airbox/paper filter were not restrictions nor were the charge pipes.
 
#3 ·
Level, the T-Stat is not necessary. It will not help with heat soak of the FMIC. It will keep you engine and oil temp down, so a little added protection their, but not a requirement. I changed my T-Stat for that reason.

Another note about the T-Stat. Our cars are programmed to turn on the Electric Fans for the radiator too coincide with the temp setting of the stock T-Stat. If you change the T-Stat, your tuner needs to set the "on" signal for the fan to match your T-Stat Temp. Torrie @ Unleashed does it even if you don't change the T-Stat. He wants that fan running.

On the Stock FMIC, I was getting temps close to 80+ over ambient. With my new UP FMIC, I have stayed at ambient or a few degrees below. You can still get heat soak when sitting for long periods of time with no air movement and engine running. It will take longer to get that IAT2 down when that happens.

Cooler temps will equal a few more ponies.
 
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#4 ·
There's plenty of info on this site that answers all your questions.

But to answer your questions:
1. Yes change plugs if you get a Tune...gap to .28....don't get the NGK plugs that some sites offer

2. Skip the Tstat it's not needed

3. Definitely get an intercooler - if you don't have ACC then go with CP-E...if you do have ACC then your only option is Ultimate Performance, unless you want to relocate your ACC. Intercooler will help reduce your IAT2 numbers whether you are tuned or not
 
#5 ·
The fan settings are a bit overhyped... When I ran the Reische 170F t-stat in my SHO, without the fan operating any sooner, the ECT was usually kept around 180-183F while the car was moving. I tried lowered fan settings but the fan would just keep running and it was annoying. I set the fan temp setting to 200F and never had a problem.

I thought about using a 170F t-stat on the Fusion Sport, as coolant is used for the trans oil cooler, and PTU cooler so it'd help reduce those temps. But after looking at the data, I don't think it is mandatory. Also the engine oil needs to be at a certain temp to burn off volatile compounds.

I should add that the factory spark plugs are NGK Laser Iridiums and even have the NGK part number stamped on them. You can get the Ford Racing plugs (colder plugs for 3.5 which are stock for 2.7) or the NGK laser iridiums, but these would be stock replacement plugs. There's no such thing as a colder plug for our engines. Again my factory plugs were gapped around 0.028-0.030 (I forgot the exact measurement but they were good to go) and the NGK Rutheniums came out of the box all gapped 0.028"
 
#7 ·
I'm in the camp that actually advises against the t-stat. There's an argument that it can actually be bad for the longevity and efficiency of your engine.

Until you upgrade the turbos, the fuel you're tuned for is what will make the biggest difference.
 
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#13 ·
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#15 ·
Any issues being tuned but running the stock intercooler and stock thermostat in the summer, aside from a performance decrease? Do I risk overheating it if I'm driving hard or go to a track on a 90° day, or will the computer just retard power to prevent damage?
 
#16 ·
I wouldn't go to a track on a 90 degree day other than to hang with friends and blast around. If you want to set any ET records go when it is cooler.

But I haven't had any issues with stock t-stat/stock intercooler. No risk to overheating. If you're taking it on a road course, your tires and brakes will probably fail before your engine overheats unless you get specific mods. You may have spark knock issues but running E30+ helps FAR more than plugs, t-stat, etc...
 
#25 ·
I wouldn't go to a track on a 90 degree day other than to hang with friends and blast around. If you want to set any ET records go when it is cooler.

But I haven't had any issues with stock t-stat/stock intercooler. No risk to overheating. If you're taking it on a road course, your tires and brakes will probably fail before your engine overheats unless you get specific mods. You may have spark knock issues but running E30+ helps FAR more than plugs, t-stat, etc...
Here in the south, you are not going to get very many track days that are below 90. Your lucky if you get below 95 between June and September.

But, @metroplex is correct, there is nothing wrong with stock t-stat and FMIC if you are just going use your FS as a daily driver. The heat soak on the stock FMIC is always a problem if you sit for any length of time and once you start moving, it takes a while to get temps back down. It does rob you of power and if you are getting a tune, there is only so much that will do. Hot Air just robs you of the amount of O2 in the cylinder. Torrie warned me about the heat issue as we were trying to dial in my tune.

Changing the T-stat will help keep the block cooler to help with knock/pre-det. If you change the T-Stat, to say a 170 or 160 degree, you will also need to have the electric fan "On" setting changed to match. Factory "on" is 180 degrees, I believe. I know Torrie @ Unleashed, changes that fan setting to 160 whether you get a new T-stat or not.
 
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#18 ·
FWIW - I’ve got the UP Garrett core FMIC and run 93 octane w/tune, stock t-stat. When I’m at the drag strip, if there’s less than 30-40 minutes between passes, even when ambient is ~ 65F, my car heat soaks terribly! It steadily loses nearly 4/10ths as it loads up! That’s with popping the hood every time it’s standing still. I’m assuming the transmission is contributing to that problem, considering the brake torquing that’s going on, but an intercooler is not necessarily a stand-alone solution to heat soak issues. So many times I’ve threatened to cut a hole in my hood for vents, yet I just can’t bring myself to do it. My car is my daily driver, year round, so having a hole in the hood is tough to reconcile.

 
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#20 · (Edited)
Heat soak will always be a problem - you need constant airflow through the front grille to keep temps down. I can see my heat soaked IAT2/MCT temps drop a bit as soon as I launch.
I'd avoid taking the car to the drag strip on a 90F summer night other than for fun. If you want to do back to back passes and for tuning/setting a new ET best, go for cooler dry weather.

As background I experimented with the Reische 170F t-stat and colder plugs on the SHO and they did nothing for knock reduction or power when using 93 octane. The switch to E30+ was the single biggest difference.

As for the trans mounts, I've never had an issue with wheel hop on the Fusion Sport or SHO even with hard launches and 1.8 60' times. If you want to talk wheel hop, that would be my Cobalt SS Turbo. The rear view mirror will droop down from all the hard vibration (like driving over rail road tracks repeatedly at 100 mph) due to the wrong driveline angle from its design (different story). But others have gone the aftermarket route. I've never had luck with aftermarket mounts being quiet/smooth. They always seem to transmit a bit more NVH into the cabin for me.

TL;DR
-Ambient temps should be as low as possible regardless of your intercooler/t-stat configuration for max performance/power
-E30+ fueling is almost a necessity for higher temperatures at the drag strip. If you're not on E30+ you're missing out. 93 octane is fine for daily driving
 
#23 ·
-E30+ fueling is almost a necessity for higher temperatures at the drag strip. If you're not on E30+ you're missing out. 93 octane is fine for daily driving
E30 is not for me - closest station with it is 35min away from my house and it's not even on the way to the drag strip. I'm considering a simple conservative 93 tune (LMS) for daily driving and schlepping the kids around, without doing anything else to the car. I might go to the strip once just to see if it can hit 12s but that's it.
 
#21 ·
I didn’t race four out of five weeks of July last year because it was too hot. There’s no choice when it comes to the time between runs on a competition night. You run when they send you, or you forfeit. Thankfully, as the runs get closer together due to eliminations, the sun is going down too. Eliminations usually start by 7:00pm
 
#26 ·
A nice frosty shot of NOS would have been nice when I hit the track last Friday. My first run was in the upper/mid 70s after an hour drive to the track was half a second slower than my last run in the mid 60s after an hour of cooling off with hood up and a good breeze. That's half a second in the 1/8th mile, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's closer to a full second in the 1/4.
 
#28 ·
Pre-COVID when I was driving the hour long trip from the office to the track on Thursdays, I would arrive just in time to go straight from tech to the staging lanes. I would get steadily faster through the time trials because I had time between rounds with the hood up. As much as I tried to predict it, I would often breakout in the first round! Arrgh!!

That hour of steady highway speeds really saturated the engine with heat far beyond what I expected. It also took much longer than I expected for it to bleed off. Once I started working from home, only 25 minutes from the track on rural (<60 mph) roads, ability to get to the track when the gates opened and let the car sit for 1-1.5 hours with the hood up, then I was able to get a good trend indication of where the car was going to run in the first round of eliminations by making my three time trials.
 
#29 ·
Bumping this because after over a year of sitting on the fence, researching, reading, talking to different tuners and auto engineers, etc I finally ordered from LMS, currently waiting for the delivery truck. I found spark plugs on sale several months ago so those are ready to go in if I experience any misfire issues after loading the tune. Otherwise the car will remain stock, including FMIC and t-stat. Should be fun.
 
#30 ·
Congratulations man! You'll be hooked on the power in no time. 😂 On the plugs, I think ours at stock are already the cooler plugs. I guess with it being classed as a performance vehicle Ford figured we should have the cooler plugs.

Let us know what you think after the tune!
 
#33 · (Edited)
First drive with the Livernois 93 map was a success. The car feels stock but turned up to eleven, which is to say that it retains the smooth driveability that it came with from the factory but it's sharper and faster. Acceleration is smooth, transmission shifts like butter. Speaking of shifts, they're noticeably quicker and the paddle shifters are more responsive - I'm actually impressed how much of an improvement they got out of just software changes (no, it's still not a ZF8). Definitely a noticeable difference in acceleration - I can feel the car squatting down and on the highway it has power in spades. I was ready to swap out the spark plugs but there were no misfires; might do them anyways but now I can choose when to do so. I definitely need new brake pads and tires.

I placed the order on Saturday and by Monday afternoon the tune was installed. The installation process was really simple too. So far I'm quite happy; will report back with updates as I put some more miles on the car.
 
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