ReplicaR's Time Trial Mustang build *Refactoring begins Page 3*

[ReplicaR]

Car:

1994 Mustang GT

T5 Transmission

238,000+ Miles

Crystal White

Engine & Exhaust:

Edelbrock Performer Intake Manifold

BBK 75mm Throttle Body

TrickFlow 75mm Elbow

BBK Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator

ProForm 1.7 Roller Rockers

Ebay Cold Air Intake (replaced all silicone couplers, AEM Dry Flow filter)

Bassani High Flow Catted X Pipe

Bassani Catback

Custom-built Aluminum Radiator

Setrab 920 Oil Cooler

Drivetrain:

ACT Sport Clutch

Steeda Quadrant

Steeda Adjustable clutch cable

Pro 5.0 Shifter / Roush Shifter Arm

Rear End:

All stock

Suspension & Steering:

Koni Single Adjustable Shocks and Struts

Maximum Motorsports Camber Caster Plates

Maximum Motorsports Front CoilOver Kit (350 lbs)

Maximum Motorsports Rear CoilOver Kit (250 lbs)

Maximum Motorsports Strut Tower Brace

Maximum Motorsports Front Control Arms

Maximum Motorsports K-member

Maximum Motorsports Subframe Connectors

Maximum Motorsports Lower Control Arms

Maximum Motorsports Torque Arm

Maximum Motorsports Panhard Rod

Griggs Racing Bumpsteer Kit

Eibach / HyperCo coilover Helper springs

2003 Cobra Steering Rack

2000 Cobra R Brembo Brake kit

Maximum Motorsports Solid Steering Shaft

Maximum Motorsports SS brake lines

Wheels & Tires:

Cobra R wheels (Street set: 17x9 / 275/40/17)

Enkei RPF1 (Race set: 17x10 / 275/40/17)

Exterior:

OEM Cobra Bumper

Removed Rear Wing

Interior:

Sparco Torino II Seats

Momo Pedal Covers

Autometer GS Water / Oil Temperature gauges.

Goal:

A daily driver that will turn into a weekend car for me. I'm looking into cars such as Porsche GT3 RS for inspiration, when it comes to this project. This means that while the car is still a street car, it has be to be a very capable track car as well. This will mean having a great suspension setup, a motor with wide range of torque for corner exit speed, and begin to shave weight in smart and less obvious ways. Eventually, I'd like to be competitive with it in NASA TT class.

[ReplicaR]

Decided to clean up the look of the car a little bit. There were a few things I needed to catch up on, such as retinting the windows, fixing the sunbleach on the seats, stuff like that. One of the more obvious and visible things would be repainting the Brembo logo back onto the calipers. When I first got them, the finish was trashed, so I rattle canned them gloss black

The finish came out alright, but something was missing, and it bugged me that Brembo logos are not there. I've done some searching, found some logo stencils, and painted them on.

Took a lot of coats of white, but at the end, it came out pretty good.

Also, I've been working on my cooling situation. I got around to installing the new oil cooler. Setrab 920 with fan pack replaced the weak Ford Racing setup. The fan pack was wired in to be activated by the foglight switch in the dashboard.

I've also ordered a 21lbs. radiator cap, to help out with cooling during summer.

More track updates. Toyo RA1s were finally corded at the last event, so it was time to order up new stock. This time I decided to go with Nitto NT-01, mainly because I wanted to try something different. I've heard many people saying that they stand up to heat a lot more than Toyos, and grip more. Sounds like a win win to me.

Rear Coil Overs... I has them!

And this is BTW, how you run MM rear coil over kit on the street. You purchase a Hypercoil helper spring, and a spring spacer from Eibach.

As you can see at full droop shock length is longer than the spring that came with the kit. What the helper does, is keeping the spring in place, by putting a very slight tension on it. When the car is at normal ride height the helper is fully collapsed, and has no effect on how the car handles. Backing out of my very steep driveway, I've had no problems with spring coming loose at all

While I was there I also bumped the front spring rate as well, so the new rates are 350 front and 250 rear. One thing I can tell immediately, is how much smoother the car rides now, even though that the conventionally located MM track springs (415-515 progressive which turns to 188-233 coilover rate) is technically softer than the new 250 coil over spring. Hoping to see some improvements at the track this weekend.

Edited July 30, 2012 by ReplicaR

[ReplicaR]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "My 70 dollar Heat Extractor Hood" #2

[ReplicaR]

Decided to snap some pictures of the K-member before installing it.

This is everything that came in the box. What you see in the picture is K-member, support bar, install hardware, including the low profile bolts to allow the rack to be installed closer to K-member, and the solid rack bushings required for install as well.

Check out all the supports and triangulation on the side of the k-member, and the beefy welds. This is what makes a good road race k-member.

The two holes designed to improve the front roll center. The lowest hole is one inch higher than standard location, and the upper hole, is two inches higher.

The two slots for motor mounts. This k-member allows me to select either standard location of the engine, or to push the engine back one inch for better weight distribution.

Solid rack bushings are a must, to take full advantage of the k-member and better location of the rack and pinion. Moving it closer to the k-member gives you a better ackermann angle, and reduces understeer.

[ReplicaR]

Pictures as promised.

Here is the car before the ride height adjustment

And here it is after

lol, see if you can spot the difference.

Here is the hardware for the bolt through style bumpsteer kit. Those are probably the fattest beefiest bolts I have anywhere on the car. Seriously, the picture does not do the justice

And finally the 03 Cobra rack and pinion. It came to me disassembled, so I figured that it would be just easier to undo the inner tie rod ends on mine and swap the rack like that.

This is how you identify the racks on SN95 mustangs. They have dot matrix code on the side, which never lies. I've had people try to push a different rack on me, claiming that its a cobra rack, because "it was color coded by factory". Thank god I'm not stupid. SPR-ZM clearly marks it as the 2003-2004 Cobra rack

[ReplicaR]

Got the car corner-weight balanced today. All measurements are done with the driver inside. After it was done, the weights looked like this.

Left Front: 1024 lbs

Right Front: 981 lbs

Left Rear: 752 lbs

Right Rear: 709 lbs

Cross weight was a perfect 1733.

Total weight with me in it was 3466. Weight distribution front to rear is still pretty shitty, especially with me in it, but weight distribution left to right is actually pretty close. If I move the battery in the trunk on the right, I will get 50/50 left to right distribution.

[ReplicaR]

So, I think I may have found the slop in the steering wheel finally

What's funny is that I've examined the rag joint many times on the car itself, and it never looked cracked. Today I was changing the motor mount, and I figured that since I'm down there, might as well try to swap the steering shaft. I've got two spares anyway, so why not. Sure enough, slightly used steering shaft was exactly what the doctor prescribed. I only found the cracks in the old one when I took a look at it off the car. I'll probably get a solid MM piece later, since it's not a pressing issue.

[ReplicaR]

Installed the mounts this morning. When I opened the box, first thing I saw was this

Finest components available you say? We'll see I thought to my self.

The motor mounts themselves. Pretty nice quality. Nuts are all nylon locked, which leaves out the possibility of it getting loose and splitting apart. The metal is coated, the urethane fills the entire mount, rather than just the middle, and this is the whole reason why I decided to go this route in the first place. More on this in the following the pictures.

Here is what stock mounts look like compared to Energy Suspension

Note something very different. The stock mounts or stock style replacements are not filled all the way. They are just filled in the middle, and I guess manufacturers just expect them to stay there. For mustangs that are performance driven, or have no more soft bushings in the back, like my torque arm mustang, it's especially important. All the motion gets transferred through drive line, which puts a lot of load on the mounts. Stock style mounts can't handle it and break away from their central location. They are not completely separated, so you don't get that motor crashing down sound, but motor still moves around quite a bit, which does result in awful drivability. It's even more worse when the pinion angle changes on a torque arm car, because then you get a nasty vibration which feeds right into the cabin, making the car down right unpleasant to drive.

If you look carefully, so you can see that stock mount already sagged, which means that it moves freely with in the confine of the stock mount. With Energy Suspension mount being completely filled, this failure becomes an impossibility. I was tired of changing mounts more often than I change oil. I don't care that Autozone replacements are free, I just don't have an hour and a half to spend every month, and motor mounts should not be a part of monthly maintenance. I'll get some driving impressions, and post soon. So far I've only taken the car around the block, and they feel great, much better than blown mounts I've replaced.

[ReplicaR]

New wheels test fit

Decided to order one Enkei RPF1 in 17x10 just to test fit. The common belief is that Mustangs with Cobra R brakes (Brembo 13 inch kit) do not clear those. Well, I'm happy to report that they do in fact clear the wheels, and the suspension. It does stick out just a tiny little bit in the front, at full droop. I'm thinking that I'll have the fenders pulled just an inch, and at ride height it will probably be perfect. Best part is the wheel takes 8 lbs a corner off my current track wheel setup (Cobra R 17x9 = 25lbs, Enkei RPF1 17x10 = 17lbs), and I should get better sidewall action, as well as better contact patch, since I'm going away from 17x9 wheel on a 275 NT-01

[ReplicaR]

Rich, the answer to your question is below.

I have taken some pictures of the pulled fenders and mounted the wheel for another test fit. Fenders were pulled about an inch so it left me covering exactly the same amount as it did with the Cobra R wheels I had (smaller offset, 1 inch narrower) Here are some pictures of how the wheel fits on the car at ride height.

Now, onto the difference between the wheels themselves. Obvious difference is the weight. Original Japanese made Cobra R is tipping the scale at 22 lbs, while RPF1 being one inch wider is actually 5 lbs lighter at 17 lbs.

The way the tire sits on the wheel is different as well. Talking to a few of my friends who do time attack, and most tire experts, they are all convinced that your contact patch has be just a little bit smaller than the width of the actual wheel to get the most out of the tire, and make it more responsive under fast corners. You can really see that a 9 inch wheel is not an optimal choice for a 275 R comp from pictures below.

You can see in the picture that the sidewall on the 9 inch wheel is bulging quite a bit, while on a 10 inch wheel same tire sits perfectly flat. Note another thing from the picture below, how the contact patch looks like. The closer wheel is the 9 inch one. You can just tell by the contour of the surface, that it's bowing out, curves around the edges. The contact patch on the 10 inch wheel by contrast is a lot flatter, and might actually be able to put more tire on the ground. I know that some will say, oh but the tire is not under load. That is true that the tire will flatten out under the load and create the necessary contact patch, but it will not bring down the edges which are still rolling over due to sidewall being deflected.

[Shifty]

Damn you for having an amazing machine.. I will have to look into putting 17x10s instead of the 17x9s I have now.. I guess I could always widen them! lol.. but I need to get mine all finished first.

Ima have to PM you back and forth sooner than later for some info

[Brian]

I am very glad to have you here and wish I lived closer to you so I can pick your brain & get into the sport with you.

Subscribing for updates!

[ReplicaR]

Built motor on it's way. Stay tuned folks.

[Brian]

What are the specs on your engine build?

Would you be able to post a full listing of your mods, etc? (maybe similar to how mine is setup)

Also could you possible post a write up of your hood setup?

[ReplicaR]

I've posted the mod list, and I will disclose the engine specs once the build begins. So far the block is off to machine shop. Rotating assembly will ship around next monday.

[Black Brad]

Any more pics of the enkei wheels on the car?

[95riosnake]

I always loved how purpose-built this car is, very nice and good luck with the new power plant!

[Brian]

X2 Dan. I'm trying to do something similar now. This is apart of the inspiration for me.

[Slykin]

ReplicaR, if you remember and don't mind doing it, could you measure your ride height to the top of the fender arc? I'm trying to find the sweet spot with my coil-overs and yours looks about right... I had it pretty low, but obviously that affected the ride quality significantly. Then I raised it up 1-1.5" and it feels great.. but is basically at stock height.

[iRoush]

Dmitry, what were the part #'s and where did you buy the helper springs w/ everything needed to put them on? definitely going to invest in those shortly. The roush is getting a make-over for suspension shortly and want to make sure I got everything i need

[Slykin]

Dmitry, what were the part #'s and where did you buy the helper springs w/ everything needed to put them on? definitely going to invest in those shortly. The roush is getting a make-over for suspension shortly and want to make sure I got everything i need

I know this isn't my thread, and pardon me for intruding, but do you have issues with your rear coil-overs unseating? I've yet to have issues with mine... I do really like the idea though.

[iRoush]

I know this isn't my thread, and pardon me for intruding, but do you have issues with your rear coil-overs unseating? I've yet to have issues with mine... I do really like the idea though.

not really, because the car bottoms out before it's able to. but preventative maintenance is always a good thing.

[ReplicaR]

Any more pics of the enkei wheels on the car?

I don't have a full set yet. I just bought one wheel for test fit, and thankfully it cleared the brake kit. The easy part was getting the front fenders pulled to clear the tires.

ReplicaR, if you remember and don't mind doing it, could you measure your ride height to the top of the fender arc? I'm trying to find the sweet spot with my coil-overs and yours looks about right... I had it pretty low, but obviously that affected the ride quality significantly. Then I raised it up 1-1.5" and it feels great.. but is basically at stock height.

I would love to give you my settings, but the thing is though, I have altered bump stops front and rear, MM k-member and torque arm. Our suspension is drastically different. My front control arms are actually in the upper holes of the K-member (most optimum setting for lowered car), and they are pretty much parallel to the ground, which means that I can't lower it a hell lot more than where it sits right now. My rear shocks have just an inch and a half of travel before they hit bump stops, and that's with shortened bumpstops. I would almost recommend keeping it where it is right now. If you want more for the looks, go down about half inch. I know it will not tuck like an M3, but it will grip. That's more important in my book.

Dmitry, what were the part #'s and where did you buy the helper springs w/ everything needed to put them on? definitely going to invest in those shortly. The roush is getting a make-over for suspension shortly and want to make sure I got everything i need

The spring spacer is Eibach part # Spacer 225

The helper spring is HyperCoil part # HELPERSPRG-2.25

My helper spring setup works every time I pull in and out of my driveway. It's a bit steep, so when I'm pulling out, one side is fully compressed, while the other side is at full droop. It's a no hassle solution.

[ReplicaR]

Well, some of the parts came in already. Here is the lot of parts that came in so far

For bottom end I went with Eagle 331 internally balanced rotating assembly. I really wanted to do an internally balanced engine, so it could be more rev happy. I'm probably not going to rev it too far, since this is a street engine using hydraulic roller cam. Probably going for a 6500 rpm redline. Everything is forged, including the Mahle pistons and H-beam rods.

Top end parts so far are Comp 1.6 roller rockers and hardened pushrods

And since factory engine is a 50oz externally balanced, I can't reuse stock flywheel or balancer. So I ordered one of ACT ProLite flywheel. What's cool about this piece is that most of the material has been removed from outside of the flywheel, in effort to keep the rotating mass down. And it's also one piece, which means that it will be as reliable as stock flywheel.

Other stuff that's not in pictures are just gaskets, and Ford Racing high volume oil pump. Stay tuned for more.

[Brian]

So jealous. Can't wait to see more.

[ReplicaR]

So, yet another rag joint went bad on the steering shaft. So I ordered a Maximum Motorsport solid one. Got it yesterday, painted it this morning to prevent rust, probably will install tomorrow morning. Hope it will feel as good as all the people make it out to be

Edited August 18, 2012 by ReplicaR

[Slykin]

I like mine, but I think I still have play in my rack.

[ReplicaR]

So, got around to installing the steering shaft today. The shaft went in with out any issues. As a matter of fact not having a giant rubber rag joint in place made installation a lot simpler, because usually oil dipstick gets in the way. I've painted it black to prevent rust. Once it was installed, I took the car around for a quick spin. Couple of things I've noticed right away is that steering is more direct, but what was surprising to me is that it also became smoother. A nice upgrade overall, especially knowing that I don't have to worry about another rag joint going bad.

[Venom351R]

awesome build thread! Nice to see one that is not just engine upgrades. That MM K Member is beefy as hell! Looks awesome :thumbsup:

[ReplicaR]

Yeah, I really think it made a big difference in terms of front end grip. I just need to optimise the front end somehow, get a little more grip. Perhaps a smaller front sway bar will help me shift the balance a little bit

[WildWillyWalker]

I love build threads centering around suspension. Sweet car. You have no idea how bad I've always wanted RPF1s. I wouldn't put them on my Saleen but if I got a 94-98 I would be getting those in a heart beat. As a matter of fact, we got my buddy some 2x3 .120 tubing for thru floor subframe connectors. Once the IRS goes in, he'll get started on that then an 8 point will probably be installed. The car is really just driven on the street... but who cares. It has the stiffest MM struts/shocks as well as coilover springs.

Edited August 22, 2012 by WildWillyWalker

[ReplicaR]

And the car hits 240k miles.

[Brian]

The steering shaft was one of the best mods I bought. Glad your loving the upgrade.

Sent from my Xoom

[ReplicaR]

Few more parts. Say hello to:

Machined block with filed rings

Shorty Headers

In Tank Fuel Pump

Camshaft

Harmonic Balancer

Oil Pan

Roller Lifters (a little blurry)

Edited September 7, 2012 by ReplicaR

[iRoush]

Things just got serious! Lookin good Dmitry!

[Slykin]

I sure hope you decide to put on some Stage 8 header bolts on there. I have the same headers and the bolts won't stay in.. though i'm sure that's not specific to those headers.

[ReplicaR]

Good advice. I'll definitely consider it.

[MMR]

Progress looks good, keep it up!

[Brian]

I also recommend Stage 8 locking header bolts. I have them on my BBK headers.

[Mikey94gt]

Dude, badass! I'm glad I finally got time to read your build, the new engine is gonna be badass! Thanks for the info on the wheels, I know what my final direction is for my cars wheel setup now. Haha