Ramping up Lethal Performance’s new project with a Nitrous Express kit
By Steve Turner
Photos by Steve Turner and courtesy of Lethal Performance
When we last left the Lethal Performance 2015 Mustang GT, the car had made some great strides with just a JLT cold-air intake and a Lund Racing custom tune. The plan was to start where most enthusiasts do and then quickly ramp things up Lethal-style.
The Nitrous Express High Output Plate System fits 2011-2015 Mustang GTs. It features an auto-learning TPS switch, which activates the nitrous at wide-open throttle. It features the company’s Lightning solenoids, which feed a billet aluminum plate that mounts behind the throttle body. The kit is available with your choice of a 10-, 12-, or 15-pound bottle (PN NX-20951-15; $911.01). Or—if you already have a nitrous bottle—you can opt for no bottle at all.
With the first round of mods completed, Lethal decided the next step would be installing a Nitrous Express high-output Coyote nitrous system. Designed for the 2011-2014 Mustangs, the kit is a carryover fitment for the 5.0-liter engine in the 2015 Mustang GT. This system includes NX’s signature, carbon-look Lightning solenoids, a billet aluminum nitrous plate, a bottle with a Lightning 45 bottle valve, bottle brackets, and all the necessary lines and wires to install the kit. Being the high-output version, it can be jetted for shots anywhere from 50 to 250 horsepower.
We were on hand at Power by the Hour in Boynton Beach, Florida, to see the kit installed and augmented with one of JMS Chip & Performance’s Progressive Nitrous Controllers. With the new hardware on board and a fresh Lund Racing custom tune, courtesy of Ken Bjonnes, the stage was set for big power gains.
“We’re super happy with the results we got from the Nitrous Express High Output Plate Kit. Those guys make a real nice kit and it makes a ton of power too,†Jared Rosen at Lethal Performance explained. “It’s crazy to be able to just bolt one of the NX kits on the car and pick up over 134 horsepower and almost 207 lb-ft of torque at the wheels.â€
When the nitrous hits, you can see the car respond. Watch for yourself in this video:
It seems like we were just putting parts on this car, but to get things started Power by the Hour’s Jake Long began the process by removing the engine cover and JLT cold air intake.
Now that the Lethal GT is spurred on by the extra urgency of nitrous, the car will soon hit the drag strip for some testing. Before the first round of testing it will get some driveline upgrades, because Team Lethal is just getting warmed up with this build.
“The next steps of our build will be to beef up the rearend with some Driveshaft Shop axles, a Driveshaft Shop driveshaft, a full American Racing Headers exhaust, and a big ol’ front-feed, 2.9-liter Whipple Supercharger kit. Of course all of the supporting mods such as a fuel system, injectors, clutch and flywheel will be part of the equation.â€
If that list of upgrades piqued your interest, be sure to point your browser to this page regularly, as we’ll be documenting the full build right here on SVTP.
After removing the stock throttle body, Jake bolts on the Nitrous Express plate behind the throttle body using the longer fasteners supplied in the kit.Jake carefully assembled the nitrous solenoids, joining the nitrous and purge solenoids and installing the required fittings. Be sure to use the supplied NX sealer on the fittings. Don’t use Teflon tape, as it can flake off a clog the solenoids.Jake mounted the nitrous solenoid on the front of the passenger-side cam cover. For symmetry, he mounted the fuel solenoid on the driver-side cam cover.With the plate and solenoids mounted, Jake reinstalled the JLT Performance inlet tube. Gotta love the paint-match to the wrap job on Lethal Performance’s 2015 Mustang GT.Part of the reason for mounting the nitrous and purge solenoids to the cam cover was making for an easy routing of the purge line to the hood vent. That way, the Lethal GT’s nostril will exhale nitrous on the purge.Looking for a stealthy, but convenient spot to mount the kit’s relays, Jake decided to remove the battery and mount the relays to the side of the stock battery box. This made it easy to route the wires to power and ground.With the electronic hard parts mounted, Jake joined the harness by soldering the wires and covering the connections with heat shrink-wrap. In addition to connecting the solenoids and switches to power and ground, it is necessary to tap into the throttle position wiring to feed a signal to the wide-open throttle switch that activates the kit.Since the Nitrous Express kit is a wet kit—one that sprays nitrous and fuel into the intake—it is necessary to tap into the stock fuel system to feed the fuel solenoid. Fortunately, NX provides this clever, plug-in adapter that fits between the fuel rail and feed line to divert fuel to the solenoid.With the NX Lightning solenoids mounted and plumbed to the plate, Jake connects the nitrous feed line.Included in the NX kit is a safety switch, which will detect an unsafe drop in fuel pressure and disengage the nitrous system if that does happen.With the underhood hardware handled, Jake feeds the nitrous feed line and wiring through the fenderwell and into the passenger compartment.Jake routed the feed line and wires under the door-sill plate, under the rear seat and into the trunk, where the bottle would be mounted.For a clean and stealthy installation, Jake removed the center console routed in the necessary wires, and drilled a hole to mount the activation switch for the NX kit.Kudos to Jake for performing such a clean install. The NX switches look factory inside the console of the Lethal GT. One switch engages the system, and the other turns on the bottle header.Dr. Lethal has a prescription for more 2015 Mustang horsepower from Nitrous Express!Jake used the bottle and mounts as a template to mark the carpet and floor for drilling. You’ll want to be sure to check underneath the trunk floor for any potential conflicts before you start drilling. Jake did just that. He drilled the floor and carpeted sections separately.For a clean install that preserved most of the trunk space, Jake mounted the bottle right behind the rear seat.Optimal pressure is key to the performance of a nitrous system, and you can manage the pressure with temperature. To do so, Jake wrapped the bottle in an NX heater and wired it to the switch in the console.Before spraying the Coyote engine, it’s a good idea to install spark plugs one heat range lower than the stock plugs. Team Lethal chose a set of Brisk’s high-performance Iridium plugs to get the job done. Jake gapped them using a handy, fixtured gapping tool.While the NX kit is ready to run with a WOT switch, the Lethal crew opted to augment the nitrous install with one of JMS Chip & Performance’s Progressive Nitrous Controllers (PN NOS-6021; $399). We’ll bring you more detail on the installation and abilities of this box in the future, but, in short, it allows you to activate the nitrous based on rpm and WOT, while independently controlling the frequency and ramp rate of the nitrous and fuel solenoids.With the system mounted, plumbed, and wired, the solenoids look right at home peeking out from under the factory engine cover.We mentioned that Jake cleverly routed the purge line to direct unused nitrous out of the stock hood vent. Well here it is in action.With the installation complete, it was time to strap the Lethal GT down to the Dynojet at Power by the Hour. Before spraying it, however, Lund Racing’s Ken Bjonnes flashed the PCM with a new, nitrous-friendly tune that set the timing at a safe level.Coyotes and nitrous have been fast friends since the beginning, and that hasn’t changed with the 2015 Mustang. Baselined with nothing more than a JLT cold-air intake, a Lund Racing custom tune, and a Lethal resonator delete, the car put down 408.45 horsepower and 389.97 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. Hitting it with a 150 shot courtesy of Nitrous Express’ high-output kit generated peak-to-peak gains of 134.02 horsepower and 206.83 lb-ft of torque.Regular readers know we like to dig into the numbers when we can. While the graphs offer all the data, narrowing it down to 100-rpm increments can help illustrate gains in the midrange. The peak gains are exciting, but that 159.69 horsepower at 4,800 rpm and the 225.22 lb-ft of torque at 3,700 rpm is something you will feel.
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