2007 Mustang GT Magnuson Blower Kit - Jailhouse Rock - Tech

When choosing which component(s) to add to your Mustang to make more power, the choices are extensive. However, with the limited amount of cubic inches that can be squeezed out of the modular engine family, any sizeable increase in power revolves around the addition of a power adder, such as nitrous oxide, a turbocharger, or a supercharger. Those who choose to go the blower route have another choice to make-whether or not to utilize a positive displacement or centrifugal setup. By the time you get done with your research, your head will likely resemble a bobble-head doll.

At Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords, we've pretty much installed every kind of blower known. When we began wrenching on S197 Mustangs, we saw an introduction of a host of both centrifugal and positive-displacement blower kits advertising ease of installation as well as offering great power, all while using stock-component engines. While each company has a blower design all its own, without a doubt one of the more interesting blowers is the Magna Charger from Magnuson. Though it features the common Roots-style design, it has a front entry, and is driven via an auxiliary shaft with the drive pulleys on the rear of the unit.

Wanting to test all of the blower types, we decided to give this little huffer a chance. We picked up the Magna Charger and cruised down to JDM Engineering in Freehold, New Jersey, where we took hold of Drew Galaydick's '07 Mustang GT for a couple of days. Galaydick is a police officer in Freehold, so we were anxious to not only see how much power the kit makes on a stock Mustang, but whether or not it could put a smile on the face of a guy who routinely see high speeds chasing down speeders.

For starters, the kit comes from Magnu-son with its (roughly 1.8L) air-to-water intercooled supercharger, a heat exchanger, and all of the wiring and plumbing needed to complete the install. When we popped open the box at MM&FF Command Central, we were elated. The kit included everything needed for the installation, and the blower itself came fully assembled. By that, we mean the blower was bolted to the lower intake manifold, and the intercooler, fuel rails, and fuel injectors were already installed! Not only was it complete, it was darn handsome. Basically, we could yank off the stock plastic intake manifold and drop the blower on with no problem. In addition, the instruction manual was highly detailed with its color photography and in-depth installation instructions. If only all manuals could be like that.

The kit is billed to add up to 125 hp and the same amount of torque. The blower features an internal bypass valve, as well as a standard 3-year limited warranty on the blower with an optional 36,000 mile/3-year warranty on the powertrain. Throw in a custom programmer that can be procured from Magnuson that is tailored to the car, and this kit is a winner all around.

In looking at the blower, you will see the unique design of the compressor. For starters, it's a front inlet blower, meaning that, unlike other superchargers where the throttle body mounts on the side and air makes its way into the blower via the rear or the top, the Magna Charger mounts the throttle body in the front of the blower, thus routing the air in that way. With the inlet being in the front, a conventional serpentine blower drivebelt can't be used. Thus, an auxiliary input shaft runs from a pulley in the front of the blower to the rear, where a pair of pulleys are connected via another blower belt. These two pulleys turn the blower. "Without a doubt, this blower gives the car an old-school look," says JDM Engineering's Jim D'Amore. "When you open the hood and see that blower sitting under there, it almost looks as if it belongs on something that runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats."