By Chirag Asaravala

Is the 2V Worthy?
When Ford debuted the 260 HP 4.6L 2V in the '99 Mustang GT it was the highest horsepower levels ever offered in the pony car since Detroit began reporting real engine horsepower. Yet the terrible power to weight ratio due to the 600 extra pounds carried by the new body style left enthusiasts longing for the 5.0L glory era of EFI Fords. Achieving 300 horsepower to the wheels with a 5.0L has been a simple matter of bolting on one of many cookie-cutter combinations of aftermarket heads, cam, and intake manifold. After all the 5.0L crowd benefited from decades of preexisting aftermarket product development for Ford's small block

The motor in this article will go into Project 01 'cus we spun a rod bearing in the stock motor last month.

pushrod engine family. The overhead cam guys had no such lineage. What limited speed parts that were available for mod motors were expensive and included a degree of difficulty beyond the capabilities of most garage enthusiasts.

Fortunately things have changed over the past several years. Thanks to a host of aftermarket companies and engine builders dedicated to climbing the steep learning curve of the mod motor, that crowd now has its own set of high-power recipes. Companies such as Comp Cams have developed a nice lineup of overhead cams and upgraded springs. And while we don't yet have a true aftermarket modular cylinder head we have several companies offering CNC ported versions of the stock castings. Other products are quickly emerging too; a couple companies are finishing development of an aftermarket intake manifold. Fidanza Engineering has produced adjustable cam gears which open up the realm of degreeing and dialing in the powerband.

So the question that has to be asked is whether or not the 4.6L 2V, despite it's 21 fewer cubes, is now capable of achieving the 300-plus rear-wheel power levels from bolt-on modifications? Moreover, can the average 400-piece Craftsman tool set owning weekend enthusiast overcome the mod-motor modification fears and perform a head an cam swap himself? We think so. In this article we've teamed up with HCI Motorsports to show you how to install a set of Patriot Heads and Comp Cams in your 2V motor. In the next issue we'll drop the motor in our 2001 Mustang GT and reveal the dyno results.

CNC Ported Cylinder Heads
If you want to improve upon the flow of the PI heads you have to port the stockers. (PI means "Power-Improved" referring to the revised casting introduced by Ford in 1999. The PI heads are a significant improvement over the '96-'98 castings.) While hand porting is possible for the highly-skilled, it is undoubted more cost effective to purchase a set of CNC ported PI heads from Patriot Performance. They offer three stages of their 5-axis CNC porting program. Patriot's Gunnar Bowlin tells us, "We no longer mention the Stage 1 as it is priced so close to the Stage II and on any level motor the Stage II is a good fit." The Stage III head is only recommended when the bore is oversized at least 0.020" as the larger valve will otherwise be shrouded. Of course the Stage III also means high-rpm power band and/or power adder is a prerequisite. Patriot's heads feature larger valves, new springs and best of all do not require sending in a core. The Stage II's sell for $1295 outright and that is what we selected.
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The intake port on the Patriot stage II head measured 1.700" wide by 2.050" tall (we measured at the center horizontal and vertical axis' of the port. Note that the port is opened up to the stock gasket dimensions. On the Stage III head the increased flow is a result of a larger valve and hand blending in the bowl area.	The stock intake port on our PI (performance improved) head measured 1.510" wide by 1.870" tall, significantly smaller than the intake gasket.
The Patriot Stage II heads feature exhaust ports opened up .080" over stock to 1.420" diameter. The result is a 30% improvement in flow.	The stock exhaust port diameter is 1.350".
Patriot upgrades the valves to 1.78" x 1.45" (45.2mm x 36.8mm). The swirl dams in the combustion chamber are ground down and the chamber is polished. This brings the chamber volume up slightly to 46cc from 42cc stock. This will reduce compression ratio by less than half a point.	The stock valve sizes are 1.75" x 1.42" (44.5mm x 36mm). The cupped valves make up for the volume consumed by the swirl dam above the intake valve and the raised pad between the two valves adjacent the spark plug hole. Both are factory attempts to promote combustion mixture and reduce emissions. The swirl dam however shrouds the intake valve significantly and is removed by Patriot and other CNC porting companies.

4.6L 2V PI Cylinder Head Flow Data Patriot Performance Stage II vs. Stock
	CFM (28" H20)*   Stock Patriot Lift" Int Exh Int Exh .100 53 49 63 57 .200 105 84 114 100 .300 140 107 160 132 .400 155 123 189 158 .500 159 133 211 177 .550 162 135 216 181 .600 164 138 220 185 *Flowed with 3.55" diameter bore fixture.