In an effort to see how much extra power we could get out of our 2015 Mustang 2.3L EcoBoost "EcoStang" Project Car, we grabbed the usual array of bolt-on parts, threw them on our EcoStang Pony, and went to town. After we did our initial comparison run between our 2.3L EcoBoost Mustang's factory tune and COBB's OTS 91 octane tune on their 2015 Mustang EcoBoost Accessport V3 Handheld Tuner. The end result was pretty good, despite the fact that we lost some top-end horsepower in exchange for a whole hell of a lot of torque, especially in the low and mid-range where our car needed it most. With that out of the way, we decided to throw on a 2015 Mustang EcoBoost Airaid SynthaFlow Cold Air Intake Kit onto our car and do another dyno run with COBB's tuning to see if there was any change. Well, there was, and it's good news for anyone looking to pick up an Accessport V3 and Airaid Intake.
Before we actually got to the fun stuff, first came our car's bone stock dyno run with nothing done to it but wheels, tires, and Eibach lowering springs:
You couldn't really ask for much better ambient conditions than when did our run, and our 2015 EcoStang Project Car put down 275RWHP and 290RWTQ, which translates to roughly 316 horsepower and 333lb-ft of torque at the crankshaft given a 15% drivetrain loss. We were a smidge higher than the factory's quoted figures, but temperatures were mild and humidity low during our run and Phoenix doesn't get winter blend gasoline. Despite the extra power, you can definitely see the fairly shallow power curve that's been our biggest gripe about the car so far.
We let the car cool down after doing our tune-only run, and then got the Airaid SynthaFlow Kit installed for our last run of the day:
During our run with the Airaid cold air intake and the Cobb 91 octane, our car hit 260RWHP and 350RWTQ, which is roughly 299 horsepower and 402lb-ft of torque at the crankshaft with a 15% drivetrain loss. So, we lost 15 peak horsepower at the wheel in exchange for 60lb-ft of torque when using the Airaid intake and COBB 91 octane OTS tune that comes in earlier in the power band and sticks around a heck of a lot longer. Our theory as to why we lost some peak power is heat soak, pure and simple. We got more power earlier due to an increase in boost pressure to 23psi at 2500rpm on the COBB tune versus 19psi on the factory tune. The difference in boost pressure means that the turbo and turbo system are working harder earlier in the powerband, which heat soaks the system before we get into higher RPM ranges, causing a loss in peak horsepower. Hopefully a future intercooler upgrade alleviates the issue, but until then, the COBB tune and Airaid intake is a definite improvement over stock, despite the horsepower loss.
