Long Tube Headers & Check Engine Lights Explained

[lbp]

Does anyone make a cat heater? Maybe clamp a glow plug to it

(no joke, - I will posit a reply to the above) - ...The sensors as used on my Porsche with Motec (track car, not stock setup) have a pre-heat circuit, so perhaps such sensor is available for the Boss car; it would then be a question of whether the Ford ECU has a control command for that circuit on the sensor.
Matter of fact, the above referenced Bosch (LSU 4?) has the preheat circuit, however I'm not sure what the Boss uses. (probably not the same sensor)..
- Anyone know? I'm sure there are some Ford-fluent ECU guys out there who would.
It would seem such an obvious answer to the problem & most likely does not apply.

 

[lbp]

We get the oxygenated fuels. But yall must get some
Moose piss. You would think one standard fuel
For the country would be a cheaper prospect

Guess when the government gets involved with anything
Common sense goes out the window

...be careful what you wish for - we'll all be running around on some such EPA 89 octane if WHEN that happens.

 

[06GT to 13LS]

Let the tree hugging Californians have their expensive engineered gas and leave the rest of the country alone. (I'm from SoCal originally so I can complain)

 

[regalt87]

I had a Lund tune through Evolution on my GT500 for a few weeks. It detonated badly at first (not exactly leaving a lot on the table). They did tweak the timing to eliminate thy but then had bad surging issues around 3k TPMS. It also melted my cats. Maybe this was an issue with Evolution more than Lund and maybe he has changed/improved the tuning since then. Evolution was really no help getting it resolved so I threw in the towel and went with Justin Starkey (VMP tuning) and it made more power with no drivability issues whatsoever. I road raced the Boss on Justin's tune for 3 years and another year and a half on the street now that I have the Boss. It has held up flawlessly.

Lee I know Justin has stated on another forum that he is putting a blower on his Boss and is more of a drag racer but does go to the road course. You might want to talk with him about a tune for the road course just to see what he has to say.

Justin tuned my GT 500 as well and my 2011 Procharged V6 Performance package car. No issues with either one.

 

[lbp]

I had a Lund tune through Evolution on my GT500 for a few weeks. It detonated badly at first (not exactly leaving a lot on the table). They did tweak the timing to eliminate thy but then had bad surging issues around 3k TPMS. It also melted my cats. Maybe this was an issue with Evolution more than Lund and maybe he has changed/improved the tuning since then. Evolution was really no help getting it resolved so I threw in the towel and went with Justin Starkey (VMP tuning) and it made more power with no drivability issues whatsoever. I road raced the Boss on Justin's tune for 3 years and another year and a half on the street now that I have the Boss. It has held up flawlessly.

Lee I know Justin has stated on another forum that he is putting a blower on his Boss and is more of a drag racer but does go to the road course. You might want to talk with him about a tune for the road course just to see what he has to say.

Justin tuned my GT 500 as well and my 2011 Procharged V6 Performance package car. No issues with either one.

Gary,
I am always interested in finding out what guys are doing to their cars, but tune is not anything I want to try.
As I mentioned earlier in this post I think TK is pretty good everywhere.
...What this car needs is to go on a diet. In my opinion anything else would be pointless for that fact alone.
Again, MHO, - slogging an overweight street car around the track is a waste of time & $$$. (I have made an exception for the Boss because I am very fond of it)
Battery/hood/evaporator and a few other things are on my list. Car is currently 3450 lbs. w/half tank (3600 w/driver also included) - My goal is 3200 lbs, although finding that last 150 would probably render the car unsuitable for street use...
I expect to dyno the car with Kooks/test pipes, and again with Kooks/race cats to see where it comes in power-wise.
So although it would be nice to sweeten the engine a bit, if what other have reported about Kooks gains are accurate, any long tube setup (even at my current weight) will bump me right out of NASA TTS.
Lee.

 

[lbp]

I had a Lund tune through Evolution on my GT500 for a few weeks. It detonated badly at first (not exactly leaving a lot on the table). They did tweak the timing to eliminate thy but then had bad surging issues around 3k TPMS. It also melted my cats. Maybe this was an issue with Evolution more than Lund and maybe he has changed/improved the tuning since then. Evolution was really no help getting it resolved so I threw in the towel and went with Justin Starkey (VMP tuning) and it made more power with no drivability issues whatsoever. I road raced the Boss on Justin's tune for 3 years and another year and a half on the street now that I have the Boss. It has held up flawlessly.

Lee I know Justin has stated on another forum that he is putting a blower on his Boss and is more of a drag racer but does go to the road course. You might want to talk with him about a tune for the road course just to see what he has to say.

Justin tuned my GT 500 as well and my 2011 Procharged V6 Performance package car. No issues with either one.

Interesting post:

http://stangsunited.com/content.php?165-Warning-!!-Before-you-change-that-tune-read-this!


Gary,
I am always interested in finding out what guys are doing to their cars, but tune is not anything I want to try.
As I mentioned earlier in this post I think TK is pretty good everywhere.
...What this car needs is to go on a diet which in my opinion would take precedence to adding more power.
Again, MHO, - slogging an overweight street car around the track is a waste of time & $$$. (I have made an exception for the Boss because I am very fond of it)
Battery/hood/evaporator and a few other things are on my list. Car is currently 3450 lbs. w/half tank (3600 w/driver also included) - My theoretical goal is 3200 lbs, although finding that last 150 would probably render the car unsuitable for street use...
I expect to dyno the car with Kooks/test pipes, and again with Kooks/race cats to see where it comes in power-wise.
However, although it would be nice to sweeten the engine a bit, if what other have reported about Kooks gains are accurate, any long tube setup (even at my current weight) will bump me right out of NASA TTS.
Lee.

 

[cloud9]

Gary,
I am always interested in finding out what guys are doing to their cars, but tune is not anything I want to try.
As I mentioned earlier in this post I think TK is pretty good everywhere.
...What this car needs is to go on a diet. In my opinion anything else would be pointless for that fact alone.
Again, MHO, - slogging an overweight street car around the track is a waste of time & $$$. (I have made an exception for the Boss because I am very fond of it)
Battery/hood/evaporator and a few other things are on my list. Car is currently 3450 lbs. w/half tank (3600 w/driver also included) - My goal is 3200 lbs, although finding that last 150 would probably render the car unsuitable for street use...
I expect to dyno the car with Kooks/test pipes, and again with Kooks/race cats to see where it comes in power-wise.
So although it would be nice to sweeten the engine a bit, if what other have reported about Kooks gains are accurate, any long tube setup (even at my current weight) will bump me right out of NASA TTS.
Lee.

Lee I'm not anxious to tune the car either. The only thing I'd be interested in doing is having someone crack TK so they could turn off rear O2s and eliminate the CEL with the Kooks LTHs and offroad X. I'm looking forward to your dyno results with the Kooks setup as I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on them.

I am in total agreement on losing some weight. How were you able to get down to 3450 lbs? I "think" I'm right at 3500 with the passenger seat removed and my race seat swapped on the driver side.

 

[lbp]

Gary,
I am always interested in finding out what guys are doing to their cars, but tune is not anything I want to try.
As I mentioned earlier in this post I think TK is pretty good everywhere.
...What this car needs is to go on a diet. In my opinion anything else would be pointless for that fact alone.
Again, MHO, - slogging an overweight street car around the track is a waste of time & $$$. (I have made an exception for the Boss because I am very fond of it)
Battery/hood/evaporator and a few other things are on my list. Car is currently 3450 lbs. w/half tank (3600 w/driver also included) - My goal is 3200 lbs, although finding that last 150 would probably render the car unsuitable for street use...
I expect to dyno the car with Kooks/test pipes, and again with Kooks/race cats to see where it comes in power-wise.
So although it would be nice to sweeten the engine a bit, if what other have reported about Kooks gains are accurate, any long tube setup (even at my current weight) will bump me right out of NASA TTS.
Lee.

Lee I'm not anxious to tune the car either. The only thing I'd be interested in doing is having someone crack TK so they could turn off rear O2s and eliminate the CEL with the Kooks LTHs and offroad X. I'm looking forward to your dyno results with the Kooks setup as I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on them.

I am in total agreement on losing some weight. How were you able to get down to 3450 lbs? I "think" I'm right at 3500 with the passenger seat removed and my race seat swapped on the driver side.

Driver/passenger Sparco f/glass seats; Stock suspension (& now Ohlins TTX 36/46 ) mostly gone/replaced except rear swaybar which is out & not replaced; Forgeline wheel/R100 slicks;
Kooks might also remove another 40lbs. or so..

Gary, are you going with X pipe or H on your Kooks?
I originally ordered an X pipe, but changed it to an H configuration at the last moment, purely on emotion.
- Although I think the X pipe may give a bit more scavenging at the top end.


Gary, on another note, I have an SCT tuner which I am using to replace turbo/diagnose my diesel truck. I'm not real familiar with using these things...
Do you think I should be able to use it to merely read/clear codes on the Boss without affecting TK?

Also to look for/read any codes which may reside alongside the cel codes which I expect to get from every session once the Kooks are installed.

BTW, if you have your car aligned/corner weighted, it will tell you the vehicle's exact weight (I came in at 3450).

 

[PeteInCT]

I read/clear codes all the time with my Aeroforce gauge, since it's just a OBD-II command to do so I assume any OBD-II interface device works the same way.

 

[CaliMR]

It depends how they mate the device, I don't have that tuner but I had a different one for my old car and it would not even connect to any other cars once it was mated.

 

[ford20]

What is the worst thing that would occur by running the catted H-Pipe with the CEL on?

 

[06mach1]

What is the worst thing that would occur by running the catted H-Pipe with the CEL on?

Fail an emissions inspection. That is if your state has one.

 

[CaliMR]

You also lose functionality of your CEL as a warning if something really comes up, as it is always lit. At least as I understand how it works on this car.

 

[nota4re]

You also lose functionality of your CEL as a warning if something really comes up, as it is always lit.

I agree that this is the main criticism of an "always on" CEL. Please note, however, there are different severities assigned to different faults. If there's anything that is jeopardizing engine longevity, the ECU will go into limp mode - which is immediately noticeable.

 

[CaliMR]

I had my ECU hacked on my old car to flash the CEL when it knocked over a set threshold, since it was a turbo. That was a nice feature.


Do we get a CEL with low oil or any of the overheats? It doesn't seem like we do based on reading posts with comments about how there was never any warning on the dash.

 

[seca954]

What have you herd of tunes not working in this car?

If you have the track key programmed, then if you install an aftermarket tune, the track key program (dual key) usage cannot be recovered - unless you go back to Ford.

We can open another thread to share opinions on engine management but, in brief, these new Mustangs are totally different and if you run across a tuner that says differently - then I'd go somewhere else. The difference is that the car stays in a closed-loop mode (at least partly) all of the time. Yesteryear Mustangs would go to open-loop mode and tuners could much with the tables and manipulate what the car would do. In our Mustangs, the computer is ALSO thinking for itself (can you say, HAL?) and making it's own adjustmets to a/f based on the real-time wideband feedback that it is getting. This is why all of the cars that we have installed headers/exhaust on have NOT required a tune. Ol' HAL is in there doing his own manipulations.... and so far doing a damn good job.

You have probabally answered this already. When you refer to CEL, does that mean a "check engine" light comes on? If yes, are you saying with LT's that the car will run fine except there will be a check engine light on? I can live with a check engine light on. It will seem more like a mustang to me.

 

[PeteInCT]

If you receive a subsequent code from the PCM after the CEL goes hot from the 02 sensors, how will you know? Would you plan on checking for engine codes manually after each event or track run ?

 

[nota4re]

If you receive a subsequent code from the PCM after the CEL goes hot from the 02 sensors, how will you know? Would you plan on checking for engine codes manually after each event or track run ?

Yes, but it is NOT a big deal. Any PCM code that is significant will trigger limp-mode.... a clear sign that something that is going on that needs to be checked - pronto. The presence of any other CEL can be checked for later.

 

[Sesshomurai]

So what's the bottom line in terms of parts and cost to get a Kooks exhaust rig with H-pipe (with green cats/offroad) and no CEL? Is it possible? This would reuse the existing boss side pipes, although I have seen that Kooks sells side pipes for the boss too.

 

[CaliMR]

There was a thread about someone using aftermarket sidepipes and they were a cluster**** and didn't fit. Was that the Kooks?