The mustang aftermarket has to be huge...

they're still catching up to my 6 year old car

 

You have posted this time and time again, and I think it is one of the most ridiculous statements I have seen made on this forum. Just because there is not a huge LS1 section in Jegs or Summit, means there is no aftermarket? How do you quantify a good aftermarket then? There is absolutely no shortage on aftermarket LS series parts, unless you are looking at only GM for your performance pieces. There is so much more aftermarket selection for an LS engine than a 4.6, it is unreal. Maybe not the old 5.0s, there is is still alot of catching up to do there, but the aftermarket is surely not even close to terrible.

 

Agree completely. And it is only growing faster and faster. There are already so many different varieties of aftermarket blocks and heads you can buy for an LS motor. Hell, they have an individual throttle body intake for the LS series engines, if the need suits the buyer. Ford has how many intakes for their 4.6? How much does the Bullitt intake still cost a 4.6 2v Mustang owner these days? Probably way too much still.

 

The Mustang aftermarket is huge, but by the same token you could say the Camaro aftermarket is huge as well, since you could stick whatever SBC you want into a Camaro and call it a day. This was about engine aftermarkets themselves, and although the 4.6 aftermarket is certainly not small, it is not near the size of the 5.0 aftermarket, and one of the reasons I started losing interest in the 4.6 many years ago is because 1: I feel there are too many design compromises in the engine itself (but that is another story), 2: the aftermarket and engine pontential was definelty not where I wanted it to be. I will give the 4.6 credit, it has many supercharging options going for it. But then again, the only way to make decent affordable power on a 4.6 is supercharge it, so I guess that aftermarket was forced to develop.

 

It doesn't matter what the name of the performance division is, it's the fact that Ford has pushed on with a performance arm for the Mustang beyond the V-6 and standard GT.

There needs to be a halo car. I'm telling you people will buy V-6 cars and standard V-8 cars based on a superior V-8 option car. Plus you will sell the upper V-8 option car, and all the car magazines will talk about how badass it is, that is as long as it stacks up with the 500hp Shelby. A 400hp LS2 car won't be able to do that unless it weighs next to nothing.


Really?
I believe most V-8 people will change thier exhaust within the first few months of ownership. People will install an intake, aka filter on a stick, without thinking twice while still under warranty. Your hardcore performance base will do it all, intake, headers, exhaust, underdrive pulley's etc because they did it on their F-body. I know I did, with no thought to the warranty.

Look around at all the applications the LS engines have been used in. All the latest hotrods have the LS engine, the Ultima GTR uses the LS engine, look at the support at PRI this year. True the Ford camp will support a Briggs & Straton 5hp motor if Ford Motor Company put it in the Mustang, but the LS engines are widely regarded in the aftermarket. The problem is they make so much hp in stock form not as many people mod them, a problem the non FI 4.6 Ford camp can't relate too

Yes, everyone is buying a 4-door Hemi Charger, because they use to own one 30 years ago Neither of those cars have the linage that the Camaro or Mustang have. No doubt DC is selling a lot of cars on the "hemi" concept, but the cars themselves have no real huge following. The DC boys are just happy to have anything RWD with a Hemi that isn't a truck.

 

Gen III engines follow along right next to the Gen I SBC's that have probably the largest aftermarket support known to man.

As for people not modding there warranty car, Im sure that the MAJORITY of the owners wont, but there will most deffinatly be people with LT's, 3 inch stainless cat backs with high flows, 02 delete kits, 6/4 piston brakes, adjustable suspension, etc.

Hell, when I got my Maxx, first thing was to search the internet. Found they make a supercharger for the 3.5 already, as well as Eibac make a lowering kit for it. Hell, within a year, I already took off the tires and put on better gripping V rated tires.

 

I don't think the LSx has near the aftermarket that the now old 5.0 has, but I bet it has the Mod motor aftermarket beat - at least in terms of the number of individual products available (actual inventory sold might be another matter, for the simple reason that there are far, far more 4.6 modulars out there in Mustangs than there are LS1/2s in the F-body twins and GTOs).

Speaking of the Mustang aftermarket (specifically the V8 aftermarket)...there are indeed a lot of folks that void their warranty within days, weeks, or months of the purchase of their GT with things like superchargers, N2O, computer chips, etc. Probably not a majority, but a significant number.

 

WHAT????

Have you been living under a rock the last 2-3 years? I agree the LS motor aftermarket was slim...slimmer than the bastard child LT1 for several years.

But now we have LS1 aftermarket blocks...at least 3 different companies making aftermarket heads completely new castings (not ported stockers)...there are dozens upon dozens of cam profiles to choose from by several manufacturers, there's 6 different kinds of headers at least, FAST intakes, aftermarket throttle bodies...there are even carb intake adapters and coilpack drivers so you can ditch the PCM. Cranks, pistons, stroker kits, etc. have all been out for a while even. Literally ANYTHING you might want for an LS1 motor is available.

Just flip through an issue of GMHTP. I will agree with Bob Cosby the LS series motors have the Ford Mod motors beat by miles in terms of the aftermarket following.

There is literally any part you want out there available for the LS1. Is there the same variety available as the Gen 1 SBC? No, but the LS1 has had far fewer variants and has only been in production for 9 years.

Sorry to come off so histerical Guy, but I just do not know how you can make that statement with a straight face. The LS1 has been an aftermarket boon. Tuner shops have opened up JUST for the LS1 business. That should tell you something.

 

There's a guy in Flint, Michigan who can get your F-body LSx in the 6's...

Which oughta be fast enough for just about everybody...

The aftermarket is there. All you have to do is hit a site like LS1tech.com to be bombarded with folks who'll drown you in parts.

The big hitters like AFR, Holley and Edelbrock are also making hay with the LSx motor.

That's why I just can't figure out the idea that there is not a large aftermarket following for the motor.

If anything, the place where the aftermarket is slim is the T-56 (not a huge amount of support) and 10-bolt since the only solution to the drivetrain issues with the 10-bolt is getting rid of it altogether and swapping in an 8.8, 9 inch or 12-bolt.

The facts are in. The LSx is just flat-out a superior performance motor across the entire spectrum (very much including aftermarket support) when compared to the 4.6 - which is the ONLY competition it really has in late-model performance platforms.

 

I think everybody adequately put you in your place for the first part. What I really found ironic is how you mention the Chrysler Hemis in the very next sentence...yes, they have "a following"...but their aftermarket is dry as a bone. Unless I just haven't been keeping up, there is virtually nothing out for the DCX Hemi yet, and it has been on the market since when? The 2001 or 2002 Ram? So what "competition" are you speaking of when you mention the LSx motors? Because honestly, in terms of current-age Domestic "hotrodability", your only two real choices are GM LSx powered cars or the Ford 4.6. I would even put the old SRT-4's potential above a Hemi in terms of the aftermarket.

 

The aftermarket support really isn't out there yet for the Hemi. It seems to suffer from some of the same problems as the LS1, a lot of stock hp. With engines rated at 425, really making 450+, there won't initially be as many people looking to mod them. Besides the hardcore hp junkies of courese. The 4.6, well people haven't had that problem since day one, and look at all the superchargers out for that engine
Sometimes having a great engine works against you.

 

Also the Hemi engine hasn't yet found a suitable vehicle for the die hard go-fast crowd. Not many drag racers are drawn to a 4000+ lb 4-door sedan as the platform of choice for a quarter mile monster.

 

I think this plays a large reason in why the Hemi does not have a decent aftermarket yet. How much smaller might the LS aftermarket be if the LS1 F-Bodies never came to be?

 

cant believe i didnt see this before.

umm...

 

The other reason, as I understand it, is the fact that the PCM was not easily "cracked" by the aftermarket to allow for tuning modifications.

The thing that really threw the LSx into the first rank in the aftermarket was a little piece of software known as "LS1Edit". Once the PCM became a thing to be understood and modified accordingly, instead of jury-rigged around with things like MAF Translators, the LSx took off.

Lesson to GM:
Locking down your PCM's is bad business. Don't do it.