Buying a dream car with an underlying, serious issue — it’s every gearhead’s worse fear. And sadly, that’s the situation James found himself in with his newly acquired VMP 2.3L supercharged 2010 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. When this occurs, there are generally three options: 1) cut your losses. 2) repair as cost-effectively as possible. 3) take it as an opportunity to improve, building it stronger, and making it better. What path did James choose? Well, option 3, of course!
After diagnosing the piston failure, Archer removed & disassembled the engine to determine the extent of the damage, and inventory reusable components. From there, the piston-shrapnel damaged cylinder heads went to our friends at Ballos Precision Machine for casting repair & a full refresh. Then, we weighed the options, and with his future power goals in mind, James opted to go with Modular Motorsports Racing – MMR 5.4L Street Mod 1,000 built short block for the core of his build. Once the short block arrived, Archer got to reassembling the new engine with ARP fasteners, all new OEM Ford gaskets, seals, timing components, pumps, along with all the OEM & aftermarket odds-and-ends to bring it together, topped off with Stainless Works long-tube headers & X-pipe.
Once the mechanical work wrapped in the shop, Charlie strapped her down to the rollers for Vlad to perform a custom calibration via HP Tuners. With 93 octane in the tank, Vlad increased this Condor’s output to 692.77whp & 671.19lbft! And with that, James had his baby back, better than ever, and ready to be enjoyed (read: thrashed) for years to come!
