A cold air kit for Mustangs is certainly nothing new, and even or the new 2010-later 5.0 Coyote Mustangs there are a few out there. But we recently had a chance to watch the installation and test of Granatelli Motorsports’ (GMS) new kit for the 5.0 and were highly impressed not only with the quality of manufacture, but the power it’s worth on the already stellar new Mustang V8.
In case you’re a complete newbie to our world, a cold air kit replaces the factory air filter box and intake tube, removing the restrictions presented by OE efforts at noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). In almost every case, an aftermarket setup is worth at least a few horsepower, sometimes more than a few depending on the combination, and also really cleans up the engine compartment, putting a bit of chrome flash in there.
GMS’s cold air intake kit uses a very nice, one-piece molded plastic air filter housing that draws its air from the factory intake snorkel through the grille, then like every kit greatly simplifies the path of air through the filter and into the throttle body. Installation of the kit is about as easy as it gets, and can be done by your grandmother in a half-hour. Some factory hardware is re-used and the new hardware required is supplied, so you won’t have to run to the parts store for stuff. The tubes come in either a hammer-tone gray, black, or polished finish.
The 5.0 is a good-looking engine to begin with, and even better when you get rid of ugly, stock plastic intake tube and air filter box.
The factory mass airflow sensor must be removed and reinstalled into the new GMS intake tube, using the new fasteners provided.
Here’s another great product that Granatelli Motorsports recently introduced; the Sure Start Smart Battery System connects to the positive bat- tery terminal on your car or truck. It monitors the battery output, and if the battery falls below 11.8 volts, it will automatically disconnect the battery from the vehicle to isolate it from further power drainage. That way, you’re sure to have enough juice left to start the engine.
Magazine project cars, like many dual-purpose street/strip cars, have a couple of things in common. They tend to be driven on a sporadic basis, so the battery isn’t being constantly charged by regular driving, and they also tend to have a lot of added wiring that might drain the battery. Tow rigs can also fall into this category. During the off season, they might not get driven enough to keep the battery up to the task of cranking over the engine. In many cases, time to fire up a project car means time to grab the jumper cables. However, with the Sure Start, we can rest assured knowing that our hinky wiring projects and lack of regular driving won’t kill the battery, and we won’t dread having to do the jump start boogie when we need to crank up one of our projects. If the battery voltage does fall below 11.8 volts, triggering the Sure Start to disconnect the battery to protect it from further drainage, it can easily be reconnected with a wireless remote. In fact, the wireless remote also allows you to disengage the battery, providing a good added security feature as well. There’s also a manual reset switch on the unit itself if you don’t have one of the two provided remotes handy.
Mounting the Sure Start was a snap. One end connects to the positive battery post, and the other end connects to the battery cable terminal. Mounting hardware lets you mount the Sure Start on top or on the side of the battery, or on a remote firewall or fender location. The unit is compact enough that we were able to mount ours on top of the battery and still have room inside the battery box. There is also an optional power lead to retain power to accessories like clocks and radio presets if the Sure Start disconnects the battery from the electrical system. It sells for $125.00.
We’re not going to do a bolt-by-bolt installation here, since it’s such a simple installation. The thing you really want to know the most is how much power it’s worth. On the dyno, the 2011 Mustang guinea pig put 365 hp and 339 lb-ft to the Mustang Dyno’s rollers in stock form. After the GMS cold air kit, those numbers jumped to 373 and 348, for a gain of 8 hp and 9 lb-ft.
The GMS cold air kit was worth 8 hp and 9 lb-ft of torque on this 2011 5.0 Mustang. After the run with the kit installed, Joey Granatelli put a tune in the engine, adding 2 degrees of timing and 7 percent more fuel, and the numbers jumped to 387 hp and 367 lb-ft.
Granatelli Motorsports 805.486.6644 granatellimotorsports.com
