This 2011 Mustang GT is about to meet The Boss, in the form of a new intake manifold designed specifically for more power in the 5000-7000 rpm range. Both road race and 1320 stormers can benefit from more high-rpm power.

The recently announced Boss 302 Mustang is responsible for a high degree of anticipation among enthusiasts, and – why not? With its 444 hp, naturally aspirated 5.0-liter engine and enough other goodies to cut your mods list to almost nothing, the only problem with the car these days is waiting for it to arrive.

Well, actually, for Joseph Jones, owner of Woodbine Motorsports, a little bit of the Boss has already arrived and been put to work. The Maryland-based tuner recently scored a Boss 302 intake manifold and installed it on their 2011 Mustang GT to document both the process and the results for us.

Now, what is so special about the intake, anyway? According to Ford, the engine design gurus were tasked with a rather different objective for the Boss than had been seen on other Mustangs. Specifically, high power production between 5,000 rpm and 7,000 rpm was requested for credible track performance. To accomplish this, the team had to look at intake manifold design, as part of a larger engine “breathing” review.

Significant differences between the production GT intake (left) and that of the Boss 302 (right) are evident in this photo.

Because of the company’s extensive involvement in motorsports, they didn’t have to look far. Similar requirements for engines used in the Grand Am Daytona Prototype series resulted in the development of a “short runners in the box” design that meets several objectives, including high-rpm power, minimal throttle lag at the high end and even distribution of intake air to all cylinders.

According to Mike Harrison, Ford V8 engine program manager, “The effect of the new intake design is dramatic. When I took the prototype car to Mustang Chief Engineer David Pericak, he took a short drive, tossed me the keys and said ‘Book it…it’s in the program.”

Compared to the production Mustang GT intake manifold, you can see two dominant changes. First is a rather large plenum box that sits under the Boss 302 logo. By having the intake runners feed from this box, the air arriving at individual cylinders is more equally distributed. Feeding the cylinders with short length runners also provides advantages in the higher rpm ranges. Without variable valve timing, though, the effect of Helmholtz tuning via runner length would result in a rather peaky increase in power, however valve timing adjustments can be used to broaden the range over which the benefits are seen.

Ford continued to optimize the Boss 302 engine design with cylinder head porting, lightweight valve train components and forged rotating components. However, Woodbine Motorsports’ Joseph Jones wanted to see what the manifold would bring to a regular production 5.0-liter, perhaps with some tuning as well.

Get It On…

Under the hood, you'll find what is now a familiar layout. Once upon a time, we were joyous to see these components. Now, we can't wait to replace them. Preparation for the new intake first requires removal of the engine cover and strut tower brace.

After this, the throttle body needs to come off. We'll be using it with the new manifold... at least for the time being.

As well, the regular fuel rails have to come off.

Carry on and remove the original intake manifold from the engine. Note that the insulation shown here is not factory stock, but a tweak that Joseph put in place.

With the fuel rails back in place, the new intake can take its rightful place on top of this modern 5.0-liter engine.

Buttoning everything up from here is pretty easy. Just reverse the removal steps. As mentioned, the change in position of the throttle body may cause issues with aftermarket CAI kits, as well as the original GT piece. It just takes a little patience and ingenuity to find the right adapter.

From here, it's on to the dyno. In addition to the JLT cold air kit, the car already has Dynatech long tube headers, with an offroad X-pipe installed. The change actually has little impact on the power curve until the 6500 rpm range is hit, and then the difference becomes significant - almost 50 horsepower.

According to Jones, “The extended RPM range is where the most power is felt and the car feels totally different and much stronger. We are in the infancy of tuning this intake and are continuing to experiment with the tune to gain more peak numbers. I’ve actually had to ask SCT if they could remove the hard coded rev limit of 7800 on the car so I can see if it will still make power at 8000. To gain almost 50hp at 7200 is something you really feel.”

There sure looks like a lot of potential to be tapped here. Keeping in mind the additional changes that were put in place by Ford, you may want to be careful about blindly increasing the rev limiter until the bottom end is looked after. Still, there’s little doubt that this  particular pony is going to be ripping some asphalt this spring.

For sure, the Boss is back and we doubt that this is the last of the upgrade articles that you’ll see based on its components. Stay tuned!