Comp Cams 127300 Cam Test by Brenspeed

2005 MUSTANG GT COMP CAMS TEST?

Comp Cams 3V Cam / C&L Intake / BBK Throttle Body Test

When we picked up our 2005 Mustang GT back in late 2004 we knew it had tons of potential. Only through the detailed and intense R&D that we perform do you really find out what works and what does not. We have tested about every part on the market and not often is it worth writing about. With the introduction of Comp Cams 3 valve camshafts we knew it was time to put yet another part to the test. We opted for what Comp calls Stage 3 cams. These cams are VERY mild as far as we are concerned and should be called Stage 1. For various reason that we won't go into here this is the largest cam you will find Comp selling for a while. They idle mild, drive like stock, yet add a TON of power. The actual specs of the cams are�

Advertised Duration: 261 Intake / 278 Exhaust
Lift : .490 Intake / .480 Exhaust
Lobe Separation: 115.5 Degree

The test vehicle in our shop represented the common Mustang GT that would be subjected to a cam install. It was modified with a C&L Street Intake, Pulleys, Delete Plates, Kooks Long Tubes, Catted X-Pipe, Mac Axleback, 3.73 gears, Brenspeed Tune, and a 5 speed manual transmission. In this form the car put down an average of 309 rwhp 324 ft. lbs. of torque on our Dynojet Chassis Dyno.

We won't expand in great detail here how to install the cams. What we can say is an experienced technician is recommended. The special tools for the install are available from Ford for around $300. We performed the swap in house with the cylinder heads on the car. This was accomplished without removing the front covers from the engine. This did speed up the process. The cams, springs, and retainers fit perfectly without any special modification. Once the cams were installed we started the car and all sounded well.

About 10 minutes later the car was on the dyno to see just how good these cams really were. With no other modification to the tune or the car and simply installing our Comp Cams Kit that includes Cams, Valve Springs, and Rockers power jumped to 335 rwhp and 318 ft. lbs of torque. Although torque did decrease a few foot pounds down low the upper RPM�s torque increased approximately 25 ft. lbs. and power jumped 25 rwhp! Don�t worry this is not where we stopped. This is where we have been wanting to test our theory on the C&L 95mm Racer intake being a better option for cars with ported heads or aftermarket camshafts. We have always felt the Racer intake held no advantage over the C&L Street on a stock engine when being used with your average bolt ons. We have felt the larger racer intake although extremely better than no intake at all was at a slight disadvantage to its 83mm street brother on mild engines. What we wanted to find out was did the cams demand more airflow than the C&L Street could supply? By only removing the C&L Street intake and adding our C&L Racer intake power jumped to 340 rwhp and 322 foot pounds of torque. Just to confirm our results we put the Street intake back on to find power fell off and then re-installed the Racer intake to find power increase again. This clearly showed us the new cammed engine did benefit from the 95mm Racer intake. The graph below displays�
Run 4: Test car with stock cams and 83mm C&L Street Intake
Run 11: Test car with cams and 83mm C&L Street Intake
Run 14: Test car with cams and change to 95mm Racer Intake

Now that our new cams were helping the GT pump out 340 rwhp we decided it was time to employ the help of the new BBK Twin Blade 62mm throttle body. Usually the stock throttle body is plenty to support a stock engine but considering the new cams responded well to the 95mm C&L Racer intake we couldn�t think of a reason to not try out the BBK throttle body. The install of the BBK throttle body only takes about 25 minutes. With no other change except the addition of the BBK Throttle Body our GT jumped to 347 rwhp and 326 ft. lbs. of torque. Just to confirm the gain we put the stock throttle body back on and power fell back to 340 then reinstalled the BBK to see power jump again to 347 rwhp.

Although the air to fuel ratio after the camshaft install did not change at higher RPM we did notice it leaned out below 4600 rpm's. On a car without a tune we don't feel the engine leaning out at low RPM would be an issue because of how rich the engines run stock. If you are running an aggressive custom tune we would suggest checking your air fuel after purchasing the cam package. As with other bolt on parts purchased from Brenspeed existing customers are not charged for the tune modification.

Our 2005 GT jumped from 309 rwhp to an amazing 347 rwhp with the addition of our Comp Cams Kit, An air intake that can support the power, and a BBK Twin 62mm throttle body. Click on the graph below to see the comparison of where the 05 GT started and where it was at the completion of our test.

Run 4: Baseline with stock cams, bolt on parts listed above, and C&L street intake
Run 24: Addition of cams, C&L racer intake, and BBK throttle body

We feel once you have added all of the easy bolt on parts to your Mustang these cams are a good option. We wouldn't even consider it unless you already have an air intake and tune. We also suggest the use of headers although that would not be required. Another awesome fact is 347 rwhp is over 400 flywheel horsepower! That is over 100 more than the car was rated from the factory all with parts available on brenspeed.com.