[MJN]

Andrew

I had the Kenne Bell on an '89 Mustang for 50K miles before I used the Mustang as a donor for my FFR. Even on the stock 302 it was a lot of fun. The Mustang would run 113 MPH in the quarter with limited traction so in a FFR with a curb weight 1,000 lbs less it should run over 120 MPH trap speeds. That is a fun ride! I have not run my FFR at the track yet with the 331 but expect to once again be severely traction limited and hopefully closer to 130MPH. I'm still running the stock WC-T5 so I don't want to risk sticky tires to gain ET. Anyway my engine combination may be a little on the expensive side for what you are thinking but here's what I have. I bought my 331 kit from Probe in CA with a number of options including lightweight rods, steel crank and low compression forged pistons, with the machine work and me doing the assembly the short block cost me about $3000. I have TFS twisted wedge heads and the TFS stage 1 roller cam with Crane roller rockers. The Kenne Bell blower that I have is the smaller blower (1.5 liters) and will only push about 6.5 lbs of boost on my motor with the smallest pulley that Kenne Bell makes. I have been told by Jim Bell that the small blower is my limiting factor for HP at the moment and that with the 2.2 liter blower I should be able to raise the boost and tune for 100 or more HP. I have 42 lb injectors and a Pro-M 81mm mass air sensor. The throttle body is 70mm. The engine idles with a slight lope but pretty smoothly at 850 rpm and will pull from 1000 rpm in overdrive. 35 mph is comfortable in 5th gear with the slow 'blub blub blub' from the pipes. If you are going to rebuild I would recommend the lower compression pistons, I blew the head gaskets twice with the iron heads in the Mustang due to detonation but have been OK so far with the TFS. My compression worked out to 8.4:1 with a zero deck height and 61cc chambers. Overall for a 'driver' I find this set up ideal with the low weight of the FFR it really does have a lot of the feel of a much larger engine. The torque curve is fat and flat which sounds like what you're looking for but my motor is done at 5500 rpms with the small blower. So if you've made up your mind on a Kenne Bell, rebuild with dished forged pistons, beef up the bottom end with a stud girdle and go for the 2.2 liter blower set up. And, use the best head gaskets you can find. Good heads will help a bunch as always. Oh, and make sure that you have a fuel system that can keep up with the demands of the motor. The stock FF fuel lines are good enough as well as the factory fuel rails but a 255 lph pump in the tank and a second inline pump is a good idea.

Mike...