Little Fighter
ProCharger turns the latest six-cylinder Mustang into a real performer
By Steve Turner
Photos by Erik Radzins/ProCharger
We live in wonderful times. The Ford world is brimming with performance options from the sharp Fiesta ST to the superstar Ford GT. In the world of Mustangs, the GT and GT350 grab the headlines while the EcoBoost option has already proven itself as a mod-friendly performer. Lost in that wonderful mix is the base Mustang and its six-cylinder engine. This combination brings much of the S550 goodness in a budget-friendly package.
Just because the base Mustang is more affordable doesn’t mean it can’t have a performance upside like its four- and eight-cylinder brethren. Thanks to the clever crew at ProCharger you can now bolt on boost to your base S550’s 3.7-liter six-banger.
“ProCharger has always supported the V6 community, since we have systems all the way back to the 1996 V6. We did a match race back at one of the World Ford Challenge events with at that time the current body style V6 vs. the earlier V6. People really liked seeing the performance these cars can put out,” ProCharger’s tuning mastermind, social media guru and photographer extraordinaire, Erik explained. “The cars can be bought for a good price, and the gas mileage is good, and insurance is less. Adding a simple, bolt-on blower that creates V8 power is in a couple of hours is almost too much fun.”
Better yet you can do it in your own garage in just a few hours and to show us how it’s done, Erik documented the installation in his garage, which took just a little over six hours even though he slowed down to take photos.
“Honestly nothing is really challenging about the install at all, other than not wanting to skip ahead on the instructions,” Erik said. “The whole install can be done by one person, although having someone with you just makes it go that much faster.”
After installing the supercharger in his garage, Erik drove the newly blown, manual-trans 2015 Mustang to the ProCharger facilities where he tuned it using DiabloSport software and an inTune handheld programmer.
“You obviously know I am a total horsepower junkie, but I was so impressed by how these cars feel after the blower, I am thinking about getting one as a daily driver. I just can't imagine the look on a GT owner’s face, the first time you have a little ‘spirited’ driving next to each other,” Erik said. “… It’s just awesome to have a total sleeper, that can get great gas mileage, and is far, far cheaper starting at around $24,000 versus $32,000 for a GT.”
Tested on a notoriously stingy Mustang chassis dyno the six-cylinder ’Stang spun the rollers to the tune of 266 horsepower and 267 lb-ft of torque to the wheels. With the intercooled ProCharger in place and fitted with a 4.1-inch pulley in place this Mustang put down 415 horsepower and 351 lb-ft of torque.
If you have the proper hand tools and several hours you can bolt on over 150 rear wheel horsepower with a ProCharger intercooler supercharger system for the 2015 and newer 3.7-liter Mustang (PN PMFT1A-002; $6,198 list). Before you start removing parts you’ll want to purge the fuel system by removing the #49 fuse from the underhood fuse box and cranking the engine for 5-10 seconds to flush the fuel out of the rails. Then you can disconnect the battery.
Erik gets the process started by removing the factory airbox, inlet tubing, throttle body and upper intake manifold to gain access to the fuel rails.
There may be some residual fuel in the rails, so keep a towel handy to soak up any spillage. Then you can remove the rails and swap out the stock injectors in favor of the high-flow, 58 lb/hr units provided in the ProCharger kit, which are good for over 600 horsepower. Before you install the new injectors in the rail be sure none of the O-rings from the stock injectors are stuck in the rail. Be sure to also lube the O-ring on the new injectors before pushing them into the rails and manifold.
Next you can remove the front fascia and drain the coolant into a pan. Then you’ll have plenty of room to access the crank pulley. Remove the crank bolt but don’t pop off the damper. Simply install the ProCharger crank pulley, which utilizes cam-locks that grab onto the crank pulley, and lock it in place. The process of installing this pulley requires several steps and requires drilling the damper to install a dowel pin, but it is covered in detail in ProCharger’s voluminous instruction manual.
The sub bracket mounts to the factory timing cover using longer bolts and spacers. Not is this bracket the home for the blower belt idler it serves as the mount for the main blower bracket. For this silver S550, Erik chose the optional flat-black coating on the blower and bracket.
With the bracketry in place, Erik bolts down the P-1SC-1 supercharger using the supplied Allen bolts for a clean presentation. This blower can produce of 800 horsepower, so it has plenty of upside on the little 3.7-liter V-6 should you decide to push the envelope with a built motor and the necessary supporting mods.
The P-1SC-1 is a self-contained supercharger, so there’s no need to tap into the factory oiling system for lubrication. However, the head unit is shipped dry so you will need to fill its gear case with a bottle of the supplied lube. This oil should be changed every other time you change your engine oil, and the kit includes three extra bottles to get you through the first few blower-oil changes.
To ensure the lowest possible inlet temps for this combo, Erik opted for the optional Stage 2 intercooler, which has proven itself worthy on 1,000-horsepower Coyote Mustangs. Since the six-banger doesn’t use a mass air sensor, install the mass-air slot block-off plate on the intercooler and bolt it up. Even the huge Stage 2 intercooler bolts on with no mods. If you spray a little glass cleaner in the ends of the hoses connecting the blower to the intercooler they will slide on the discharge tubes and intercooler easier and the cleaner will harmlessly evaporate without leaving a residue.
It is necessary to cut and modify the cooling hoses so that you can relocate the coolant reservoir to make way for the blower inlet tubing. It’s a pretty simple process an is covered in detail in the instruction manual.
A small spacer must be installed between the factory intake manifold and throttle body. This allows the throttle body to clear the blower bracketry.
After modding the coolant hoses you can mount the new ProCharger coolant reservoir in the space once occupied by the stock airbox.
Now you are free to install the rest of the piping that supplies boost to the throttle body and inlet air to the supercharger. The rubber elbow that joins the piping to the supercharger inlet can fit a bit snug, so put your hand inside the elbow and work the edge around the circumference of the blower inducer.
Now you are on the home stretch, but it is necessary to tap into the factory vacuum lines to plumb in this vacuum manifold, which supplies suction to the bypass valve and provides additional ports to add a boost gauge.
Here’s a look at the completed install. You are almost ready to surprise your buddy with the Mustang GT, but there’s one last step...
ProCharger provides a calibration that is delivered via a DiabloSport InTune flash tuner. Simply follow the onscreen instruction to stow your stock calibration for safe keeping and flash in the new supercharger calibration that will sync up the larger fuel injectors and boost to work with your 3.7-liter Mustang.
ProCharger uses a Mustang Dynamometer, which loads the dyno rollers to simulate vehicle weight. That means the numbers it records are typically not as high as you will see on an inertia-style dyno. In stock form, the manual-trans 3.7 Mustang produced 266 horsepower and 267 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels.
With only 8 pounds of boost the ProCharger P-1SC raised the rear-wheel output of the 3.7-liter V-6 by 149 horsepower and 84 lb-ft of torque.
