Well after datalogging a few days both the 96 and 98 Mark VIII, I have come to a few conclusions that are very insightful in my opinion. First let me breakdown the specs on both cars.
The 98 LSC has 85,000 miles and it has 2.5 exhaust with no mufflers and Magnaflow 3rd cat, a custom Sniper tune, Amsoil 9 inch conical, 255LPH fuel pump, NGK TR55 copper plugs with GMS 4v connecter kit.
the 96 Mark VIII base has 96,000 miles and has 100% stock exhaust with a custom smoothed intake and 9 inch K&N conical, Motorcraft platinum plugs and Motorcraft wires.
The motors in these cars are exactly the same besides the intake manifold, IMRCs, intake tube and throttle body. The 96 even has the same Beehive valve springs as the 98.
What I found was that the 98 breathes more air at idle (18 vs. 14 grams/sec) but at WOT the 96 breathes in a peak of 930 grams/sec versus a peak of 853 grams/sec for the 98. The 96 is also much more volumetric efficient, it's peak load % is 98.6% which is really efficient. Getting 100% or close to to it on an NA motor is not easy. This is definitely due to the design of the intake manifold for both the air flow and the VE. The peak VE number for the 98 LSC is 85% and is usually in the low 80 percent range. With that said, the 98 LSC seems to like to rev a lot higher and can easily be taken to 7000 rpm without it feeling like it noses over. The 96 is quite happy with going to just 6000rpm although I'm gonna guess 6500 rpm shifts would be ideal so not to fall out of the powerband. Right now it has the stock tune on it because I put it back to stock to tune my friends 97 Cobra. I am waiting to datalog his Cobra this weekend, i'm anxious to see how his VE and incoming air flow stack up to the Marks.
If anyone is interested I can send my datalogging files, they have a lot more info than what I have talked about. I must say after starting to datalog I would not want to get a chip burned blindly for any of my cars, you really need to datalog to see what is going on with it because every car is different.
The 98 LSC has 85,000 miles and it has 2.5 exhaust with no mufflers and Magnaflow 3rd cat, a custom Sniper tune, Amsoil 9 inch conical, 255LPH fuel pump, NGK TR55 copper plugs with GMS 4v connecter kit.
the 96 Mark VIII base has 96,000 miles and has 100% stock exhaust with a custom smoothed intake and 9 inch K&N conical, Motorcraft platinum plugs and Motorcraft wires.
The motors in these cars are exactly the same besides the intake manifold, IMRCs, intake tube and throttle body. The 96 even has the same Beehive valve springs as the 98.
What I found was that the 98 breathes more air at idle (18 vs. 14 grams/sec) but at WOT the 96 breathes in a peak of 930 grams/sec versus a peak of 853 grams/sec for the 98. The 96 is also much more volumetric efficient, it's peak load % is 98.6% which is really efficient. Getting 100% or close to to it on an NA motor is not easy. This is definitely due to the design of the intake manifold for both the air flow and the VE. The peak VE number for the 98 LSC is 85% and is usually in the low 80 percent range. With that said, the 98 LSC seems to like to rev a lot higher and can easily be taken to 7000 rpm without it feeling like it noses over. The 96 is quite happy with going to just 6000rpm although I'm gonna guess 6500 rpm shifts would be ideal so not to fall out of the powerband. Right now it has the stock tune on it because I put it back to stock to tune my friends 97 Cobra. I am waiting to datalog his Cobra this weekend, i'm anxious to see how his VE and incoming air flow stack up to the Marks.
If anyone is interested I can send my datalogging files, they have a lot more info than what I have talked about. I must say after starting to datalog I would not want to get a chip burned blindly for any of my cars, you really need to datalog to see what is going on with it because every car is different.
