Lethal Performance fuels a 551-horsepower, stock-engine EcoBoost ’Stang
By Steve Turner
Photos by Steve Turner and courtesy of Lethal Performance
With all the excitement surrounding Lethal Performance’s new, 10-second Shelby GT350 project, you might have forgotten that the company is also developing a potent EcoBoost Mustang as well. In our last installment on the car, we covered the installation and testing of a Lethal/Rarefab turbo upgrade kit that raised the car’s output to over 427 horsepower at the wheels.
When we last checked in on Lethal Performance’s EcoBoost Mustang project, the car had put down over 427 horsepower at the rear wheels courtesy of a Lethal/Rarefab turbo upgrade. At that point, the only thing holding the car back was the stock fuel system.
As impressive as that was, the car was teetering on the edge of what the stock direct-injection system can support. You can only take this system so far with bigger injectors and fuel pump voltage boosters. The next frontier is a true aftermarket pump upgrade. However, that has yet to come to fruition, so Lethal opted augment the factory fuel delivery with a secondary fuel system.
The company turned to Power by the Hour in Boynton Beach, Florida, for an auxiliary fuel system to feed Custom Performance Engineering’s FuelBar setup. This combination of an intake manifold spacer and a fuel rail allows for the installation of four additional fuel injectors in the factory air path. By plumbing this system to a custom tank in the trunk fitted with a Walbro 465-lph fuel pump the CP-E rail is able to support much higher levels of boost than the stock system alone.
To augment the factory fuel system, Lethal turned to Power by the Hour to assemble a secondary fuel system to support Custom Performance Engineering’s 2015-2016 Mustang 2.3-liter EcoBoost FuelBar Fuel Rail (PN CPE-FDFB00001B; $713.44).
“We decided to upgrade the fuel system as the stock system was pretty much tapped at the power level we were at before,†Lethal Performance’s Jared Rosen explained. “So by adding in the additional fuel rail, injectors and pump, we’re now able to support higher horsepower levels safely.â€
To do so, the PBH team fitted the CP-E FuelBar (PN CPE-FDFB00001B; $713.44) with four 2013-2014 Shelby GT350 injectors controlled by a Microburst standalone EFI system that activates the extra injectors under boost. This extra fuel capacity allowed Lund Racing’s Ken Bjonnes to dial up a potent custom calibration that resulted in one of the most powerful stock-engine EcoBoost Mustangs around.
The CP-E FuelBar allows you to install four fuel injectors in the inlet stream to add additional fuel to the EcoBoost engine. The Power by the Hour crew removed the stock intake manifold to allow sandwiching the CP-E adapter between the intake and cylinder head.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to see 550-plus rear-wheel horsepower. That’s some serious power for a four-cylinder with the stock block,†Jared said. “I can’t wait to see this thing go down the track. Tens on a full-weight Performance Pack car with the factory motor and manual transmission seem like a pretty good goal to me. Let’s see if we can pull it off.â€
That certainly does seem like a great goal, but it’s only one target on the path of this turbocharged Mustang. The Lethal crew has bigger plans for this combination.
“We’ve got a motor being built by Tim Eichorn at MPR Racing Engines. I’d say we can turn it up when we get it but we’ve already got it turned up,†Jared added. “I think it’s time to start looking at an even larger turbo.â€
The PBH team fit four 2013-2014 Shelby GT500 fuel injectors into the adapter plate and topped them off with the CP-E rail. Lethal may eventually offer a complete supplementary system, but for now you’ll have to create your own supplementary system like PBH did.Here’s a look at the finished install of the adapter plate. The installation is pretty stealthy save for the classy engraving in the adapter plate. Of course you can cover it with the factory engine cover if you don’t want people to know the full capabilities of your EcoBoost Mustang.The PBH team plumbed the CP-E fuel bar with custom braided lines run to a custom fuel tank in the trunk fitted with a Walbro 465-lph fuel pump. Both this system and the factory DI system supply the EcoBoost engine with VP Racing’s 101-octane MS109 fuel. They wired up a Microsquirt controller to engage the extra injectors when the boost hits.With the auxiliary fuel system installed, it was time to unlock the full potential of the Lethal EcoBoost Mustang. Lund Racing’s Ken Bjonnes created a new custom calibration and flashed it to the PCM with an nGauge tuner gauge.With the increased boost available from the Lethal/Rarefab turbo upgrade, the only thing holding this EcoBoost Mustang back from its full potential was the factory fuel system. Adding more fuel and a new Lund Racing calibration clearly unlocked that potential. The 2.3-liter Mustang picked up peak-to-peak gains of 123.74 horsepower and 123.52 lb-ft of torque. Considering that in stock form this car only produced 227 horsepower and 282 lb-ft of torque, its new peak output is quite astounding.So we know the peak output of the Lethal EcoBoost Mustang is more than double what it produced in stock form. However, we also like to examine a sampling of the data to get some insight on those under-the-curve gains. With big boost and ample fuel, you can see the car picked up over 150 horsepower and 150 lb-ft at 5,200 rpm, and the car pulls much harder from 4,200 rpm on up.UPDATE: With the addition of a MAP sensor with more capacity the Lethal EcoBoost picked up a lot more torque, topping out at 611 at the wheels.
