Full Throttle Install

In days of old Horsepower was readily available to anyone who had a screwdriver and the knowledge to rebuild a double pumper and advance the timing in their horseless carriage. Well guess what? A screwdriver and a few common hand tools are all that’s needed today in the quest for more ponies.

Full Throttle has made the horsepower game a little bit easier by giving you a small box full of parts that go together easily and best of all they make more power and at the end of the day isn’t that what its all about? During the Route 66 Rendezvous in San Bernardino, CA., I had the opportunity to spend time with Mike Smith and Frank Zaremba of Full Throttle, Maxxcool Intake Systems. The subject was horsepower and the instructors were confident they could increase our Vortech supercharged 5.4 liter Expedition.

Personally I was intent on letting the Full Throttle guys put their money where their mouth was and four days later a familiar brown truck pulled into the driveway and cheerfully (yes cheerfully, do know what these guys make an hour?) delivered our new Maxxcool Intake System. I cleared a spot in my driveway, opened the hood and rolled the toolbox near the Expedition, lets get ready to rumble!

A word of caution, the system you get may look different, our system was custom made for our supercharged SUV. In this article you will see how easy it is to boost an already pumped up grocery getter. By the time you read this, the system should be available and on the shelves of Full Throttle ready to ship.

Full Throttle Ahead

This is the view of the Vortech setup; under that silver splashguard is the Vortech supplied air filter.

While we were adding to the ever elusive horsepower factor we decided on installing a Granatelli Motorsports mass air unit, this piece is humongous, 81mm verses 40mm stock. Yeah baby!

Make sure the connector hoses are tight and free of foreign matter, the last thing you want is dirt being sucked into the supercharger.

Here is the culprit guilty of “highway robbery” a small air filter. This filter would suffice for day-to-day operation, however we wanted to be able to supply the new Granatelli mass air unit with an unrestricted supply of O₂.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The new Full Throttle K&N is roughly 60% larger than the Vortech supplied filter.

I wasn’t kidding the K&N is much bigger.

Remove the Vortech splashguard from the mass air sensor.

Before you connect the mass air unit to the Full Throttle adapter I recommend using a bit of black RTV silicone to ensure a dirt/dust free environment.

Bolt the Full Throttle adapter to the mass air sensor.

We are getting close; at this point we connected everything and left the clamps loose to check fit things like hood clearance and serpentine belt clearance.

This vent tube connects to the drivers side valve cover and must be lengthened, I took a drive over to the local steel shop and picked up some tubing to do just this.

The arrow points to the elbow joint that must be lengthened in order to bring the intake tube in line with the radiator support, this requires a 3.5 inch OD tube that is 4 inches long. This was not supplied in this kit however it will be in future systems. Remember this is the first one.

Here are the two pieces I picked up at the local steel mill to complement the kit sent by Full Throttle. The tubing on the left is the connector for the vent tube and on the right is the extension for the flex tubing that goes into the back of the supercharger. I’ve said once but I want to go on record by telling you the kit for the Vortech supercharger system will include everything you need.

Don’t forget to connect the vent tube under the elbow.

The Full Throttle kit comes with a few brackets so you can secure the end of the filter kit to keep it from flopping around.

Here are the brackets installed, this setup is very stable and keeps the filter from moving around.

Well that’s pretty much it, you still have to wipe down the chrome to remove your fingerprints and then feel free to take a lap in anger around town.

Taaa Daaa! I can tell you after driving the Full Throttle Maxxcool system the difference is amazing, the truck pulls much harder from a standing stop than it did before and now seems to have more get up and go at freeway speeds, the SUV moves from 65 MPH to 90 MPH like the jump to hyperspace. Thanks guys.

Finish Line Motorsports Marketing

Visit us on the web at www.finishlinewest.com

Installer

Full Throttle Maxxcool

POB 276

La Canada, CA. 91012

626-794-2513

fullthrottle@onemain.com

Granatelli Motorsports

5469 Oakdale Ave.

Woodland Hills, CA. 91364

818-999-1476

www.granatellimotorsports.com

Vortech Engineering

1650 Pacific Ave.

Channel Islands, CA. 93033

805-247-0226