As of this writing, we're just getting into early October, and the Pepper hasn't been to the dragstrip since the Garden State Fun Ford Weekend event in May, where our elapsed times were about half a second off due to the insanely hot weather. With the temps continuing to soar throughout the summer, we saw no reason to punish the sport compact until better weather came.
When we finally get a chance to go back to E-town, we plan to have a whole gaggle of extra horsepower. That additional power will come from, among other things, a ported cylinder head from Focus Central (FC) and a pair of camshafts from Crane Cams.
Based on a stock casting, the FC head we chose was a Stage 1 piece that featured ported intake and exhaust runners while utilizing the stock valves. This would keep the cost down.
To take advantage of our increased airflow potential, we ordered a set of Crane Cams bumpsticks for our DOHC engine. Part number 223-0010 fits '00-'04 Ford Foci and features an advertised duration of 232 intake/228 exhaust (duration at 0.050 210/206). The lobe separation comes in at 110 degrees and gross lift is 0.374/0.366 inch.
Focus central uses a stock...
Focus central uses a stock casting and hand ports the runners to suit the customer.
These Crane Stage 1 cams offer good low-end and strong midrange power and have an operating range of idle to 6,500 rpm. In order to dial them in, we used Crane's adjustable cam gears as well.
Cylinder-head R&R on a Focus is com-plex and better left to the pros if you are among the ranks of the inexperienced.
We dropped by Crazy Horse Racing in South Amboy, New Jersey, to have Glenn and Chris swap out the head and cams.
As a precautionary measure,...
As a precautionary measure, we picked up a new set of head bolts from Downs Ford in Toms River, New Jersey, which is where we also sourced all the necessary gaskets to make this swap a snap.
Downs Ford Motorsport in Toms River, New Jersey, is known nationwide for its first-rate high-performance parts division, which is headed up by Joe Amato. While they often supply us with many parts for various tech articles, we contacted them this time for all the necessary genuine Ford gaskets to complete the install, as well as a new set of head bolts. ARP bolts would also be a good idea, and Focus Central has them, but our stock bolts have done well thus far at our low boost level, hence we stuck with them.
Once the wrenches were set down and the Pepper was strapped to the Crazy Horse Dynojet dynamometer, we saw an impressive gain of 18 hp and 32 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. On the road, we noticed the Focus was far easier to drive, especially when in high gear. The extra low-end that the cylinder head and cams gave us was easily evident through the seat of the pants. It now requires less throttle to get where you want to go.
Be sure to check back with us as we take the Red Hot Chili Pepper down the track for some real elapsed times. You'll also want to go to www.musclemustangfastfords.com to see this installation and story in its entirety.
The Focus Central Stage 1...
The Focus Central Stage 1 head retails for $900 and can be purchased as a package with Crower cams and Focus Central timing gears for $1,699.
Crane Cams PN 223-0010 retails...
Crane Cams PN 223-0010 retails for $365.99 for the pair. Focus Central recommends checking the lash between the cams and buckets as they have seen a few out of tolerance. This can be easily fixed by ordering new buckets through your Ford dealer.
Focus Central sent us a set...
Focus Central sent us a set of its trick, adjustable cam gears as we intended to use Crower camshafts, which are what FC primarily sells. However, we went with a set of Crane cams in order to meet the story's deadline. Crower camshafts use a dowel pin to prevent the cam gears from spinning on the cam, while neither the stock nor the Crane shafts use these. Assuming that the FC gears were cam specific, we used these Crane adjustable gears ($157.99). FC later informed us that its timing gears work with all camshafts. FC also includes ARP bolts that replace the timing gears' stock T-55 Torx bolts.
Crazy Horse Racing found the...
Crazy Horse Racing found the optimal timing settings for our engine to be one degree advanced on the intake cam and dead center at zero on the exhaust cam. With these set-tings, the Pepper gained 18.5 hp and 31.8 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. Driving the Pepper afterward offered a definite improvement in the seat-of-the-pants feel.