The reason for this update is that in 2008 Ford Racing released an awesome sounding, and “rumpy” idling pair of camshafts for the newer 3-valve Engines. They are simply called the “HotRod” cams. We’ve used these on a couple of customer cars -- combined with other parts, bolt-ons and tuning…. and found the cams to be a pretty viable upgrade in conjunction with other items as well on the new 3-valve 4.6L Mustangs. I personally couldn’t pass up how great these 3-valve cams sound idling along with the Header pinging & tinging while idling with the big cams. Plus potentially more power too.

So with that being said; in January 2009 we started doing the cam change to the black ’08 GT, and also decided to make as much of a difference at once as we could since the ’08 GT already had a forged motor in it. The decision was also made to install BBK long-tube 1-5/8’s headers and their matching 2.5” X-pipe that as two Hi-Flo cats in addition to the FRP HotRod cams. Till now the Whipple equipped ’08 GT had all stock exhaust except for the mufflers.

In a nut shell, we thought the results were pretty awesome. On average before the Cams, BBK long tubes & hi-flo cats we’re installed, the car would produce right at 500 RWHP thru the automatic transmission and heavy 20” wheels & tires, at about 16 psi of boost. Once we got the idle, and a bunch of other drivability, and tuning aspects straightened out, we began to sneak up on the Wide-Open-Throttle pulls.

The results ended up at 540rwhp with the overall boost now showing only 13psi !! Because of the better more efficient breathing of the now installed cams, headers and Hi-Flow cats, this caused the available boost to drop to about 13psi. So a 40 hp gain to the rear wheels along with the boost drop, we thought was pretty darn good for the cam and header upgrade.

But in an effort to see what more it could do, and to compare “Apples to Apples” we changed the pulley to one that was a ¼” smaller, and that brought the boost back up to only 14.5psi, (still not the original 16-17 it had before) and she picked up 22 more to the wheels. The ’08 GT is now sitting at 562 RWHP @ 14.7psi of boost with 93 octane and Alky injection.

We’re hoping that for the 2009 season this additional 60+ more hp at the wheels in cool weather should bring in some mid 10 second ETs at nearly 130+ MPH.