- the car has knock sensors. Anyone know how much timing they can pull once knock is sensed?
Hard to tell as it will depend on many factors (boost, temp of charge, fuel). The ECU measures the temperature of the air after the supercharger, and will pull the timing depending on the temp. The Eaton is very inefficient and produces a lot of heat, and the hotter the charge, the more chance on pre ignition. Another strategy of the ECU to keep the charge cool is to dump extra fuel.

-how does the afr look from the factory on these cars? I believe that oftentimes they leave the factory pretty rich.
It seems a common strategy feature from the Denso computers to enrich the mixture under wot. This is where the standard ECU tunes get there gains from. Mind you though, once you are starting to increase the boost level with the Eaton, the charge will be hotter so you get closer to the pre ignition border, and then it might be much safer to keep the mixture richer.

 

It's standard for most (I'm guessing not all) PCMs to richen on WOT. Plenty of articles on the net

 

This is a performance discussion about the type r so I wasn't referring to air to fuel ratios when not in boost. It's pretty common knowledge that most factory supercharged vehicles come with conservative timing, air to fuel ratios or both to keep people with a heavy foot from blowing them up while under warrantee.

By the way, my mileage on my mustang actually went up 1 mpg after adding the blower. Positive displacement blowers oftentimes add even more economy while out of boost that that. The blower increases the engine's efficiency enough to overcome the amount of hp it eats up to drive it in many situations.

Once again, I'm just trying to see if my performance ideas are inline with how the car works and what other people have done. I'd be looking to get about 500 bhp out of the car after mods.

 

do these cars have a "sport shift" where you can change the gears as you want as opposed to the car controlling the shifts?