So, I managed to get my 2018+ intake manifold installed.    It's a little too close to the brace in a few areas, so I'll mark those and clearance it by about 1/4 (just make a little scallop) in those areas this week.   Here's the intake on:



It did move the throttle body forward about 3/4" which goofed up my charge pipe:



So I hacked it up and redid it.   I had to reclock on area and add in a little piece of pie cut in another, but she fits up better than before now:



I'll repaint it shortly.    The car does seem to pull a little better from 5500-6500 with this intake (which it is supposed to) but I can feel it run out of oomph at 6500 RPM pretty abruptly.   I'm going to look for an F150 dyno graph, but I assume it's my intake cams (which are truck parts).    I'll see if I can't swap to Mustang GT intake cams this winter, and if I do, I'll do the Boss 302R exhaust cams while I'm in there.

In the meantime, now that the cams work, I've been working on tuning it a lot.   I'm chasing the duty cycles for the VVT actuation a bit, it seems to be too mild or too aggressive with a fairly fine line between, and the PIDs are tough to really dial in, but it's getting better.   

I found the cause of my surge issues at low load;  it was going into idle control loops at 1700 RPM and <7% throttle, which I would get into on the highway occasionally and on slow speed surface streets constantly (and sometimes when leaving a stop).   I dropped that to 2.5% throttle (it measures the APP1 or DBW pedal input).   That completely cleared that up, as before it was going super wacky on the timing.   Nice and smooth now.

VE table is getting closer and closer as well, though I need to get the VVT dialed before I can really sort it in the 2500-3500 RPM range in particular, as 10-15* of cam timing is worth a half a point in lambda or more, so dialing the VE without the cam control proper in those areas is basically impossible.

I still can't get >3.9 psi of positive pressure (I have 4 psi springs in the gates, so that makes sense).   That said, I have my boost control active and I've validated that the output does activate the solenoid, so I need to figure out if it's a gate problem (diaphragm), a tubing issue (I don't think that's the case, as I just replaced them all) or a solenoid issue (maybe a bad sintered metal filter or internal issue).    Anyway, worst case scenario I'll swap to 10 psi springs, but I'd really rather have the controller working so that I can have boost controlled by gear/knob/etc.

My ECU goes out to AEM tomorrow for re-repair.   They covered shipping and RMA costs, so that's good, and were at least somewhat apologetic about the issue.   Hopefully this is the last time I have to deal with taking the car down for ECU issues.   As i said before, if this one has another issue, it'll be getting an MS3Pro Ultimate with the DBW addon, but honestly, I'd like to use the AEM as I'm getting at least somewhat comfortable using it.

Beyond that, I added some more wiring today;  new leads from the ECU to the trunk to run staged fuel pumps (trying to cool down my fuel by running less pump).   I ran some extra wires for future use;   I may try a PWM pump controller as well if need be, as that seems like a nice idea.   I also added a 12 gauge lead from the front ground bus to the rear battery lug.   I've not had any potential/offset issues with ground, but I figure it can't hurt to give it a better path.

A new handle is about $30.

Not to me it's not.

fair point about making a new one though.

Yep those will work well.

3 hours or so total.

Soo.... Ronin Speedworks' own FD LSX mount kit in a few months? Never mind just saw the other thread.