'03 Head TSB and Tuning Info

[Joe D]

I recently had the pleasure of talking to some of the SVT guys at a show, and found out some interesting things.

1. The blue stripe on the drivers head is an assembly marking to help the assemblers ID the heads. (And they are supposedly still using the stripe)

2. The heads ARE the identical castings, until they are machined. Then they are a left and right assembly.

3. The TSB head, and all after 11/02 have a different casting and machining program to eliminate the "hot spot" that causes the "tic"

4. For everyone who is worried about developing the tic, the problem supposedly only affects about 4-5 cars per thousand.

5. The TSB head is really just a public relations thing...... they dyno tested a bunch of the motors that came back with the tic, and couldn't find any issues either with durability, or performance..... just the added tic noise.

6. For those guys who overspin the blower, the eec pulls timing when the post blower inlet temp exceeds 170 degrees, so if your intercooler temps get that high, your timing is being pulled to protect the motor. Also, after the temp is exceeded, I think I understood that the eec will eventually use the boost bypass to reduce the boost after the post supercharger inlet air temp exceeds the 170 temp and it has exhausted it's ability to pull timing. The sensor for this is the TMAP located on the back drivers side of the intake manifold. It's a little rectangular 4 pin sensor that sits flat on the intake.

Just thought I pass along some interesting info.

Joe

 

[JMD0346]

I wonder if that can be controlled in a chip? That could be the reason pulley and chip cars fall off at about 5700. Anyone have an idea?

 

[Joe D]

I'm sure the parameters are in the chip.... The temperature part of the TMAP gauge is analog and very similar to the IAT, so if they chose 170 as a setpoint, it should be able to be changed. (But I'm not sure I'd be willing to risk that though) It should be just a matter of someone finding out where in the code the control is setup.

Does anyone know if there are still legal issues with some chip manufacturers being able to only work in one bank on the newer eecs? Because if so, it may be that they can locate the memory locations, but not be able to change them.

Joe

 

[p3pete]

Joe,
Great info! Thanks for passing it along. Makes me feel a little better about my 'ticker'
Cheers,
Pete

 

[Joe D]

One more thing I forgot to mention, the dual fuel pump in the '03 is a pair of 133 L/H pumps. I don't know what I thought, but they only provide a bit more capacity than a 255 in tank, although they said the reliability goes way up because each pump isn't working very hard.

Joe

 

[Joe D]

one more time ttt

 

[davidmax]

The twin pump problem is solved easily with a 225 per litre pump and a K.Bell boost-a-pump,and a fuel system with return line off a 99/00 or you can easily fabricate one in the garage.By adding this additional non sence the EPA uses to lower emmisions,higher gas mileage stuff they've limited the stock Eaton to support no more than 500 ponnies.
By doing the fuel return line conveersion with pump,liness etc...takes but a few hours and allows a 475 HP,Eaton package to produce in the area of 550 hp,for minimal cost.
I strongly suggest this mod,I have done a few and when ever a system shows up for 200.00 I always buy it and slap it on a Cobra.I havent done 1 on a lightning yet but I drove one with 615 rrwhp and it was quite a beast.I j just did an Accufab,Cai,pulleys,diablo chip,SHM (Sean Hylaand) Header back 3" system with built in cat back(nicest sounding system in Ford land)and a chip got 588 rrwhp.Also had a Mafter Burner and the CAI was the same as my car a custom 4" system
hole cut through fender with 12" massive K&N conical aa true bottom feeder good for 25+ rrwhp and the F/A was a 11.6 on the nose straight through the rev band from idle to 7900 rpm,rev limiter set to 8300 but shift points were at 78-7900 rpm,massive tach with shift light from Autometer..(going past 8000 revs creates valve float with stock springs and retainers,my heads are good for about 10500 but the C-4 will shift at 9000+ and rev ltr approx.10,000+)
When your racing it you definatley need the boost-a-pump on,controlled by a single toggle switch,system holds 40 psi on fuel pump and with out boost-a-punp you will cut out with 50 lb. injectors with the boost-a-pump its good for 60psi and it goes to maybe 65-70 tops,but no starvation problems at all.
I hope my mistakes(R&D fancy word for test and back to the drawing board)help open up some ideas for you,Dave Smilovic

 

[n0xlf]

Originally posted by Joe D

4. For everyone who is worried about developing the tic, the problem supposedly only affects about 4-5 cars per thousand.

This is where I would like more info...If the hot spot is a machining problem, one would think it would affect all of the heads (over time at least, depending on driving style), unless it was a problem with one of the machining machines or some other factor...

 

[Joe D]

Re: Re: '03 Head TSB and Tuning Info

Originally posted by n0xlf
This is where I would like more info...If the hot spot is a machining problem, one would think it would affect all of the heads (over time at least, depending on driving style), unless it was a problem with one of the machining machines or some other factor...

From talking to him, I got the impression that there is a significant varience in the size of the cooling passages in the raw casting. (I'm reasonably sure casting heads isn't an exact science)

As I'm sure you are aware, there are manufacturing tolerences associated with everything that's built, and I guess if you take the absolute maximum tolerence for the size of the cooling passages, and machine those, they will develop the tic.

This is purely my interpretation of what the SVT guy said, he didn't come right out and say this, but it was the impression he left on me after we discussed the subject of the head TSB for about 5-10 minutes.

Joe

 

[Joe D]

Originally posted by davidmax
The twin pump problem is solved easily with a 225 per litre pump and a K.Bell boost-a-pump,and a fuel system with return line off a 99/00 or you can easily fabricate one in the garage.By adding this additional non sence the EPA uses to lower emmisions,higher gas mileage stuff they've limited the stock Eaton to support no more than 500 ponnies.
By doing the fuel return line conveersion with pump,liness etc...takes but a few hours and allows a 475 HP,Eaton package to produce in the area of 550 hp,for minimal cost.
<snip>

I can back up this part.... I'm running the '03 motor stock pullied with a single in tank 255L pump and a set of 42# injectors. I actually bought a KB Boost-A-Pump, but it turned out I didn't need it. With a return style fuel system, the 255L pump can easily handle the fuel demands. I also still retained the 2 speed fuel pump relay that's stock in the 96-98 Cobras.

Joe