You say quick acceleration is bad for the engine, transmission, etc. I have a 2007 Mustang GT convertible with Ram cold air intake, Ford racing headers, X pipes, high flow cat back sytem, 4 inch pipes and Steeda exhaust. I also have a 3.73 rear end and custom dyno tuned at 93 octane for 307 horsepower at the axle. I do not love to drive exceptionally fast… just the first guy to the speed limit. I therefore am jumping on it all the time (no smoking of tires, just throwing you back in your seat). I feel like my car runs much better when it is being pushed. Am I just rationalizing my need for acceleration and am I really damaging my car?
engines and transmissions are designed to take all sorts of diffrent loads,sure if you were to floor the accelerator at every opportunity,then things will wear out more quickly.but occasionally putting your foot down will do no harm whatsoever!and i bet your mustang sounds awesome!
Yes, and yes, but so what? You built a car for acceleration, and if you’re willing to feed it 93 octane gas and maintain it correctly, don’t worry about it. Certain components will probably wear out sooner than they would on a stock Mustang driven in a different manner, but that’s the price you pay.
Perhaps you should consider drag racing, where you can enjoy the rush of acceleration without endangering others on the public road, and you won’t have to worry about a speed limit. I’m sure they have a class for your Mustang.
Don’t worry about the car, you bought it to please you are not supposed to please it. You will likely tire of this all before the car really hits any real issues and move onto something else.
You do realize that aside from the gears and the intake. You basically spent a grand or so to simply make your car sound different. It’s common knowledge in Mustang circles that the stock exhaust on the SN197 GT’s doesn’t become a liability until you’re around 500 HP or so. Had you forgone the headers and cat-back. And just went with a tune and a CAI, you’d likely have the same amount of RWHP. Furthermore, why did you go with 3.73s? You have either 3.31s or 3.55’s stock. Going to 3.73’s doesn’t seem like enough of a difference to warrant the gear swap. IMHO you should’ve put the money you spend on gears and exhaust into a supercharger. I have a Kenne Bell on my 03 GT, worth every penny. As for your question, you are not hurting anything.
Actually, I say that putting a heavy demand on ANY stone-cold engine will shorten its life. When the engine has reached operating temperature, put as much demand on it as you wish…just don’t expect to get 200,000 trouble free miles from it.
I’ll second hellokit.
Ford uses very good engines, transmissions, and rear ends in these cars. If you have a failure on any of them at a 100k miles then you’ll know the reason.
Of course it’s not good to put stress on machinery, but until we get over the need for power, we all do it. When I had power in my E-150 van, I did the same thing. Now that I drive a 4WD pickup, I don’t want to do that. Don’t do it until the engine has been running for about five minutes or your plugs could develop high speed glazing. You might speed up the wear on the exhaust valves. A bad water pump will give out. Your computer learns how you drive and will adjust for hard acceleration and will help you waste gasoline, which probably doesn’t bother you so much. Older passengers don’t like it either.