SUPERCHARGING YOUR MUSTANG GT

11th July 2024

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Motorsport & Performance

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Here at Motorsport and Performance, we can do anything you want to do to make more power out of your Mustang. If you are looking for NA power, Turbo or any type of supercharger build we can supply, install and tune for any parts you will need to achieve your personal goals and preferences.

Saying that, there are easy ways to make power and none come close to being as effective and clean as a well designed and manufactured twin-screw supercharger system.

If Supercharging your Mustang is something you are thinking of doing and are here looking for some ‘conversation starter’ pricing you can find Kits in our online store and fitted packages in our FI power stage collection. If what you are looking for isn’t specifically listed please contact us for more information.

THERE ARE MULTIPLE BRAND OPTIONS OF SUPERCHARGER AVAILABLE FOR THE MUSTANG GT.

To name a few that we can supply:

  • Whipple Superchargers 
  • VMP Performance
  • Roush 
  • Ford Performance
  • Edelbrock
  • Kenny Bell
  • Saleen
  • Procharger
  • Vortek
  • Paxton

THEN THERE ARE THE TYPES. 

Superchargers come in 3 different types:

  • Roots
  • Centrifugal
  • Twin-screw.

Roots and Twin Screw chargers both use meshing lobes to compress air, though the design of them differs completely. Roots chargers have been in use since the first world war, in some cases the lobes touch, both each other and in some designs the supercharger casing too, this generates friction and heat, reducing their overall efficiency. Twin Screw superchargers on the other hand work on much tighter tolerances and the lobes do not touch ever (unless something has gone terribly wrong) and the only heat generated in them is from the compression of the air.

Centrifugal chargers use an impeller to compress air in the same way that a turbo does; they differ to a turbo in that the engine spins the impeller directly where a turbo utilises the normally wasted energy in the exhaust gases to spin the impeller wheel. 

Centrifugal chargers, like turbos, can be quite ‘laggy’ where Roots and Twin Screw superchargers produce boost as soon as you start the engine.

Mustang Supercharger UK

WHICH IS BEST?

They have been arguing that out since the beginning of time. In reality, across all markets ‘which is best’ will depend on your application. For us though the Twin Screw systems built by brands like Whipple Supercharger offer the best performance with the fewest drawbacks, if you feel differently that is fine, we can still help get you on the road with your preferred type.

WHAT’S THE POINT?

So now you know there are options of charger to use on your Mustang, what do they do? 

Everyone knows, if you have a turbo or supercharger on any engine, you will have more power than someone that does not (provided whoever designed, installed and tuned your setup knew what they were doing of course). You know that because to make more power out of an engine is the very reason turbos and superchargers exist.

SO, HOW DO THEY MAKE MY CAR HAVE MORE POWER?

To answer that properly, I would need to write a book.

In short, though, I mean as short as I can effectively.

First, we need to quickly go over where ‘power’ comes from.

Right back to basics…

  1. The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another but can be neither created nor destroyed. 
  2. Energy is power; the controlled release of it is what you experience when you accelerate in a car.
  3. Engines, be that internal combustion or any other type, harvest energy from a fuel source (in our case petrol) by igniting and burning said fuel and converting some of the released energy into mechanical energy (the rest, 70+% is lost as heat and noise)
  4. You know that to have fire you need oxygen + a type of fuel (which can be wood, coal, alcohol, butane, petrol, diesel etc.) + an ignition source.
  5. If you run out of oxygen, your fire goes out. If you have too little oxygen and too much fuel your fire goes out. Throw in as much fuel as you like in either instance, it will make no difference.
  6. The air we and our engines breath contain 20.95% oxygen.

So if fuel contains energy, then the more fuel you burn, the more power you make. But you need oxygen to burn fuel, and there is a limited amount of oxygen in the air we breathe, which limits the amount of fuel an engine can burn per revolution.

How does a supercharger fix this? Simple, it compresses air. If you squeeze twice as much air into a given volume, that volume will contain twice as much oxygen as it did before. Twice as much oxygen means you can burn twice as much fuel and so in theory extract twice as much energy and produce twice as much power.

whipple Mustang UK

An NA engine sucks air in but only has so much time between revolutions to fill its cylinder capacity whilst been hampered by its intake and throttle body; few factory NA engines achieve 100% VE. You can achieve higher than 100% VE on some DOHC 4VPC and Rotary NA engines by properly tuning the intake runners and exhaust extractors … this is called inertial supercharging and utilises resonance and air mass to achieve a positive pressure at the point of combustion chamber induction. We use this on NA Mustang GT builds but the maximum ever reported is around 130% VE, and that was in a laboratory … 110% would be remarkable in the real world.

Forced induction engines, however, have their cylinder capacity force filled (forced induction) and so properly designed exhaust collectors and intakes become much less important for achieving a higher engine VE … though the best way to make more power is to waste less, so quality collectors are still vital if you are serious about power and efficiency! Force-feeding an engine can result in VE percentages as high as you like.

Superchargers themselves also have volumetric efficiency and adiabatic efficiency … but I’m trying to keep this short, so I’m stopping at engine VE.Mustang Supercharger UK

In short, then, a supercharger ‘shoves’ compressed air and so more oxygen molecules into your engine, allowing you to inject and burn more fuel per revolution resulting in more power. Easy!

NOW YOU KNOW THAT LET’S GET BACK ONTO SUPERCHARGING YOUR MUSTANG.

We have installed and tuned various brands and types of superchargers on Mustangs in the UK here at Motorsport and Performance. If you are looking to have an install supplied and carried out by us, just contact us to discuss your preferred brand or if you are undecided we can discuss your requirements and make suggestions.

How much power you can achieve when supercharging your Mustang is limited only by the depth of your pockets. 650hp is entry-level in the supercharged coyote world, a good number of our builds have achieved over 700hp and more than a few between 800 and 900bhp. If you dream of 1000bhp before you die or 1000whp before it kills you, then that’s fine, get in touch, and we can talk about your options.

If you found this blog useful but aren’t looking for a supercharger, remember we are as passionate about building NA Mustangs and Turbocharged Mustangs as we are about supercharging them so if you are looking for more power but don’t want a supercharger that’s no problem. Get in touch, and we’ll help you decide on a plan of action to get to where you imagine yourself going with your car.

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