Number Tew's Number Two Build

[Number Tew]

Well, I suppose I have been neglectful of this forum for quite some time.   Due to of recent events, that should change.  I brought over most of my buold thread.

 

Small back story for those who do not know me:

 

Back story:

 

I had a 1999 V6 that I fully rebuilt, 4.3 Stroker, Cam, Ported Heads and Intakes, etc.  Fairly thorough suspension rebuild, bad ass paint job.  See signature for reference.  The car was gorgeous.

 

May 25, 2013 – some chick runs a red light, and totals the car.  I have other threads with this if you are interested, I do not feel like dragging that over here again.

 

Anyhow, I bought a shell of a car, an ugly as sin 2000 V6 with a blown headgasket.

 

I transferred my motor and all over to this new body, as well as some body panels that were salvageable or in better shape than the ones on the black car.

 

Motor has never been the same; there is a healthy vac leak between the block and the lower.  I have changed the gasket several times and nothing ever seems to work.  I will be looking in the new Ford manual I bought to see if there are any steps I may have missed during those changes.

 

The black car got a pretty immediate Maximum Motorsports update.  The K-Member, A-Arms, cobra rack, so on and so forth.

 

I just recently fitted it with a T/A and PHB setup in the rear with a built 8.8 with Ford 9” housings on the ends – the proper way to eliminate C-Clips.

 

Basically, car is a big ugly pile with a bus load of suspension underneath with some nice parts on the outside.

 

 

 

[Number Tew]

The old car:

 

And, earlier the day of the accident:


And Afterwards




Well, it was time to find a new car, unfortunately. In short, insurance barely gave me anything (as expected) but I managed to find a beater shell for $700. I expected it to run and drive, boy was I wrong. Anyhow, here's some pictures:

 

So, it was time to get to work:

 

My motor and trans out



Stock stuff in the black car (it looks exactly the same when it's my stuff, buuut, whatever haha)



Swapping Fuel tanks (I had just replaced my pump with an SVT Focus pump a few weeks prior)


 

 

Looking at the positives....in some ways, this black car is better than the red one, it's a year newer, so it might Bluebook a little higher (not that I care), and it was a fully optioned out car, so it has cruise control and leather, etc. Things I never had before. Anyhow, it started out as an auto, but has since received my drive train, as well as some other fun stuff, because to down grade this much in looks, I had to upgrade elsewhere.

So, I will let these pictures do the talking, then get onto the future final plans.



Terminator Steering Rack

 

Some of the good stuff in the car




Well, got the car home, and decided I needed to swap the interior over, and get the rest of the red panels on. Not yet on the car are the doors, they are sitting in the shop. Also not pictures, this car had one of those billet grilles inside it when I got it. Went ahead and polished it and stuck one of my 35th anniversary badges to it just for giggles. Yes, it's ugly, and yes, it's temporary, but it's better than no pony at all to me lol!

 

Anyhow:
My dad and I, out working on the car. Just got it back from the shop, so we are pulling all the spare parts from the trunk and interior ha!




Disassembling the charcoal interior.










Those headlights polished up quite nicely though


 

[Number Tew]

Unsure if I had ever displayed these ramps before. They are awesome, made from 2x12's, I have no issues lifting up lowered cars anymore, and they are short enough to fit in the bed of a truck, sturdy enough to drive a tank onto. Love them.



Lot more room to work up under there now.



Bare SFCs



Nicely undercoated sfcs

 

A long time went by, and most of the interim pics are not available, so, yea.

 

I installed the hood and aero catch latches as well as put on the cobra bumper. I don't have the hardware for the bezels, so they aren't on, but that will come in the future.

 

 

Car sat at a friends lot outside from November of 2014 to January of 2016.

Right after jumping, I turned the key twice and she fired right up!

I was shocked. Drove it around, through a car wash, filled up the tires (they were all at like 13 pounds), wiped down the interior, added some oil and topped off the tank then parked again. Should be ready to get some more love here soon, now that I know it runs and drives fine.

Big vacuum leak, I think I have a spare upper and lower, so I might go ahead and get them both machined to make sure the surfaces are true, and install those. Should kill that huge leak I have had forever. That should get the idle to calm down.

 

On the road

 

Car stayed in storage until June of 2016.  My friend since moved it to an aircraft hangar, much better.

 

That said, I know you guys came here to see this:



I drove the car about 30 miles to get to my side of town. I stopped in to the part store because the battery was obviously causing me a bunch of issues. They replaced it for free because it was under warranty (AWESOME!!)

 

While doing some deep cleaning, I noticed one of the plug wires looked like this:



So, it was time to change those out. I went ahead and used Paul’s old wire tie trick to make up some wire separators, I think they came out pretty nice.

 

 

I ordered these brakes for the rear

 

https://www.amazon.com/Ford-Racing-M.../dp/B009XRPBGY

 

 

Cobra Mirrors

 

 

 

[Number Tew]

Ordered all of this stuff in July of 2016:
 Two pieces of unbent 308MMOE from the MMBAK-3 kit
Heavy Duty Torque Arm - MMTA-3
Weld in rear sway bar - 1.25x0.125 - MMRSB-9.1
Road Race Lower Control Arms - MMRLCA-51
99-04 Panhard Bar - MMPB99A
Front 375 Pound 10" x 2.5" Springs - HYP37510250
Adjustable brake proportioning valve - BPV-3
Brake Proportioning Valve Plug - MM-2450-A
Coil Over Spanner Wrench - MMT-2
Coil Over Spring Clearance Tool - MMT-9
Steering Shaft Assembly - MMST-14

 

Got my rear end from TRZ on August 5, 2016.

They did an awesome job. They said it was bent pretty bad, but they got it all straightened up. The 9" housings welded on. Their welds look incredible.
It's got strange 31 spline axles. Hardened studs. Rebuilt T-Lok. Here's pics:















Then I got it all painted up. I will snap a few pics when I have some daylight and I touch up any ugly spots.

 

October 2016

 

 

Out with the old

 

Got the Maximum Motorsports Road Race Lowers. Hoping they're beefy enough. Per MM, they should be just fine with my setup.



Spent a fair amount of time installing these things. Torque box reinforcements. It took some, uh, adjusting of the vehicle to get it all right.



Plasma cutter definitely helped get things taken care of under there.

 

Update November 2016:
The Panhard bar is in, and the axle is centered. I do need 2 5/8" washers to add that I think were used elsewhere in this process but it's not the end of the world.
The weld in sway bar is in. This may need some adjustment, but overall it is not bad.
The heavy duty torque arm is in.
My exhaust has been cut after the mufflers. I need an exhaust shop to see if it's possible to still have exhaust out the back of the car.
The new stainless lines are installed in the rear, with an exception. The passenger side line has a hard line from the body with an angled T that has one line from the front, one line teeing off into the passenger rear caliper, the other line running along the body to the driver side. I need to find an adapter to go here because my new rear brake line is not set up like that.

Shot of the Torque arm crossmember facing the rear.









The reinforcement plates welded in for the torque boxes. Looks like factory IMO.



Not sure what I'm doing here lol



If you want to do this, get ready to buy some expensive drill bits (albeit this one is only 3/8 and not too much $$.



Almost put back together. You can see the sway bar arm hanging back there.

 

February 2017

 

Well, she's home for now:

I still have to do the new booster and mastery cylinder with the proportioning valve. I've been meaning to paint the new booster, so I got that done today. I forgot to take a shot of it painted, but I'm not exactly thrilled with how it came out. Below is pics of it bare and then primed.







Girlfriend got me these bad boys. She helped me install them



Installed! They were not terribly difficult, just a little more measuring to do on an aftermarket hood, and some typos in the instructions but hey, they work lol. Really happy with not needing the prop rod!



Then I did one of the most absolutely ghetto things I've ever done. While burping the coolant system, I sprayed the intake manifold black. It was looking really bad, and I just wanted it to be a little more presentable. Of course this is no show winning paint job, but it looks worlds better.
 

 

I love my side scoops. So:



Anyhow, finally got around to installing the Maximum Motorsports steering shaft. I will give a quick "walk through" just so people know what they are getting into.

Instructions say to do the job on jack stands, I personally disagree. You want to limit the movement of the tires as much as possible once steering is disengaged. To do so, I drove up on my ramps. Obviously if you have a drive on lift, life would be easier. I hadn't used these bad boys in a while, so it was nice to break them out.



The next step is also pretty important. Stabilize the steering wheel. If you are at a shop you might have one of those fancy tools to do so. If not, I show you how to do it as a normal person with regular garage tools.

Once steering is disengaged, the steering wheel has the ability to spin, if it spins too much, you could sever the wires in the clock spring, which would make for a bad day. Taking 2 minutes to secure the wheel can prevent that.



I do not have pictures of the removal. Instructions are not exactly super useful on this portion either, they basically say, remove the shaft.

There is a bolt on the steering rack that pinches the end of the shaft. Remove this bolt and use your big boy hands to separate the shaft from the rack.

Under the dash, remove the pinch bolt on the steering shaft closest to the firewall. Then remove the shaft from the column. Then you will need to slide the shaft out of the firewall and figure out how to maneuver it out of the car. Luckily, I have tubular front suspension so it glided right out.

Below I have a pic of the old shaft with the new one side by side. Bear in mind I painted the shaft prior to installation. It is bare metal, without paint it will get a lot of surface rust. Essentially, collapse the ends halfway on either side, and tape the ends approximately 1" from the end then paint.



The big problem with this is the rubber.



The next step is to slip off this plastic bushing and the rubber dust boot from the new shaft. Be very careful, the plastic piece is no longer available. If you damage it, you will have to hit the junk yard. The plastic sleeve I found to come off very easily, while the dust boot took a bit more effort, probably because it was painted over per the instructions provided.





Clean the area on the new shaft where the plastic sleeve will slide onto, as well as the plastic sleeve. I used rubbing alcohol and a paper towel to clean both. I did not want to risk using a more aggressive solvent on the plastic sleeve because of its unavailability.
The next picture shows the area where the plastic sleeve will slip over. As I mentioned earlier, you need to remove the rubber dust boot before you can put the new sleeve on. In this picture that boot is not removed. Do not follow by example. Do as I say! If you do not remove the boot now, you will have a lot of headache on the next step.



The next step is arguably the most time consuming and messiest part of the install. You will need to cover the shaft where the plastic sleeve sits in black RTV silicone. This sleeve fits into a bushing in the firewall, by sealing this area you are preventing noise and fumes from entering the cabin.

The area of focus is the welded bead and approximately 2 inches up the shaft. See the picture for an example. I used an entire small tube of silicone. I find it easier to apply more then remove as necessary to get a good seal. The instructions say to focus more on the flat areas of the shaft because the rounded edges seal quite well with the sleeve.



Once you have applied the silicone, go ahead and seat the sleeve. Then proceed by smoothing the silicone out, making sure to push into the sleeve a bit to seal up any air holes. Make sure to do so at both ends. Do your best to fill all the gaps with silicone.

If you manage to make it look pretty, my hat is off to you. Mine came out ugly as sin, but I know it is sealed!



Then you just let the shaft sit for about an hour before you start handling it. The install is fairly simple. Remove the new pinch bolt from the steering rack side of the shaft. Prior to attempting the install, I recommend collapsing and extending both ends a few times, just in case they got a little bound up from sitting for a while. This will be easier while outside of the car than underneath.

Go ahead and install the shaft onto the steering rack and slide it into position. Make sure the shaft is inserted into the firewall. If the shaft is not in the proper orientation or if it is not fully slid on, the pinch bolt cannot be installed.

Once the shaft is fully seated, and you are sure the other end is through the firewall, go ahead and install the new pinch bolt and tighten it to 23 foot pounds.

Relocate yourself to under the dash and find the shaft. Extend it to reinstall it to the steering column. Once you seat it in the original location, go ahead and reinstall the original bolt and tighten it to 23 foot pounds.

That’s it!

Of course undo however you held the steering wheel, and then get the car safely on the ground. I noticed an immediate difference in steering response and had a lot less play in the wheel. This is a huge improvement over the stock unit and I highly recommend it.

If you are like me, and you have some other little projects to take care of while the silicone dries, I would do it. While I was waiting I went ahead and reinstalled my back seat, as well as my trunk mat because I had a car show. Since the car will be stored indoors from now on, I am not too worried about the seats getting messed up. Anyhow, pics of that stuff!





I also made a quick little mod list for the car show. It was not all inclusive but hit on most of the good things. In the future I will obviously make up a nicer one. This was just a quick and dirty.


 

 

[Number Tew]

 

March 2017

Pulled the headers to wrap them, since I've been wanting to do that for a while.

But, to get the driver's side header off, it was easier with all the brake stuff out of the way. So, of course, may as well replace the booster and master cylinder. They're 17 years old, so it's not a bad idea. With all this stuff out of the way, we put some di-electric grease on all of plug wires to help conduct. I have been experiencing a bit of an intermittent miss, and I believe it's spark related. So, I was hoping this would help.

I painted the headers first, more for rust prevention than anything, not to mention I had white header paint I got a bargain on that I needed to get rid of.

With all the brake stuff out, we installed the Willwood proportioning valve since I have the larger rear brakes now. I would never have been able to make that install look so smooth without my neighbors help.

I would like to point out for any V6 or 5.0 guys who are trying to do the brake booster without pulling the motor, do yourself a favor, grab a drill, and wallow the holes out just a bit. We fought with the booster for more than an hour. Spent 17 seconds wallowing the holes out, and had the booster in about a minute later. It's the little things.

Got everything back together and I heard a tick. I was a bit furious because I bought some high dollar Percy's header gaskets, and used a sealant as recommended by my usual exhaust guy, but I thought there was a tick. Come to find, the tick was just the dip stick tube not being totally seated. Phew!

So, first impressions of the wrap. Very neat. I cannot tell a heat difference yet because I have not driven the car and felt it yet. It did take away a lot of the "metallic" sort of noise in the exhaust, and it overall sounds cleaner. Sort of hard to explain.



Bare header



Friends all bundled up!



So much more room without that pesky brake stuff!



The Percy's header gasket



We had to totally remove the factory distribution block to get to the stock proportioning valve (a spring and pin with a nut) because it was in there "real good." Was good to flush this piece out with brake parts cleaner. Funny, I never use brake parts cleaner on brake parts





So I've been hearing this awful pinging and ponging ever since getting the coil overs on this car. After speaking with Maximum Motorsports about this, they said there was a special tool that they sell to bend a protruding lip on the frame rail out of the way. I guess when my buddy helped install the K-member and such, he never read the instructions about doing that, so I've been dealing with the noise for a great while.



Everything all taken out. About the protruding frame rail: we found the Maximum Motorsports tool to be a little cumbersome and mostly ineffective. I believe this may be because the spring had been rubbing there so much for so long. We went ahead and used and angle grinder, cut off wheel and hammer to massage it out of the way. No pics of these steps though because we were busy. Painted it with rust preventative satin after all of that. So far, seems to have totally done the trick



Old spindle (dust shields) next to my nice new powder coated ones. Knocked off all of that surface rust before reassembling. This part of the project has been many years in the making. My powder coater had these on his shelf for a long time waiting for me to pick them up!



All back together. You can see the heim joint tie rod ends.

 

I have decided on going with 17x10 Enkei RPF1s. I will probably start out with some less than stellar tires, and then work my way up to some R-Compounds. But first step is getting the wheels.

 

Last night I installed a new header panel up front, then finally got around to putting the bezels and fog lights in for the cobra bumper. I could not find an exploded view for the hardware, however I did find that 1" wood screws seem to work perfectly for this. That has been the delay the whole time for installing the bezels. Now I am just waiting for my light harness adapters to come in and that will be all wrapped up.

April 2017

Got the car aligned and bumpsteer mostly set.

Then went and dropped it off at an exhaust shop. Hopefully I will have pipes out the back again soon. I also asked him to see if he could fix the brake cable since it is going to need a few tac welds.

I just took some pics of everything. I am not good at getting pics of all of these components, but I know some people are interested in how it all goes together. So, here goes:





Up on the rack.



PHB and Sway bar on the passenger side



PHB and Sway Bar on the driver's side



The torque arm. You can see where it scrapes a little bit on bumps, or from jacking, who knows.
The black bar you see here is the sway bar, the aluminum one is the PHB.



Hello Heim joints



Header wrap seems to be working. I was able to touch the collectors shortly after the car was shut off. WOO!



Went to visit the exhaust shop  to see if he needed any clarification with the brake cables. Decided to snap some pics of the exhaust. Only way I am getting this exhaust out is to cut it off....again lol!

We modified the bracket the brake cable goes through with a welded castle nut on either side, this acts as the collar.

 

Then we had to pull the center console because something was not working correctly in the mechanism, but we got that sorted out too.

Anyhow, pics:



Coming around the tank, passenger side



He put nice new tips on!



Driver's side



He had to do some creative bending and welding



This is the tightest clearance in the system. From the upper mount of the PHB to the pipe.



I LOVE IT!



Here's how we modified the brackets. Should be good!

 

Got the fog lights wired up. I feel like real people now. Correct bezels and fogs





Look, they're hugging

 

[Number Tew]

Update from June 10, 2017

 

I got off of work around 0630 on June 9.  I decided I should go ahead and get the car ready for Autocross on Sunday (hopefully).  The day started out intending to do an oil change and installing a Fumoto oil drain valve.

 

Well, I was basically done with the oil change in no time, had that valve all installed then I thought to myself: “I’ve had a brand new tensioner on my shelf for years.  I would really like to replace it.”

 

Some of you may remember some may not; years ago I was trying to swap the tensioner, but was never able to find the right size Allen/Torx head for the bolt, because the factory bolt was all stripped out.  I never could get anything to work, and shops told me they couldn’t do anything about it.  Perfect.

 

So, I got to work, drilling out the bolt to use an ease-out sort of tool.  But that bolt was so stuck in place; it refused to move, until one of my extractors broke inside.  Great.  In case you did not know, those extractors are typically made of very strong hardened metals, and I was not able to get in the area with anything else.  So, that led to the next logical step.  Cut the entire tensioner off around the bolt, then grab the bolt with vice-grips or similar and remove it.

 

Long story short, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, great success!

 

Then I decided: “Well, I already have the belt off, maybe I should replace it.  But, I think it’s leaking from the front main seal, better go ahead and do that.”

 

So I ended up pulling the harmonic balancer (barely, found out the pulling holes were stripped, I re-tapped those later), pulling the seal and replacing it.

 

I have done that seal a few times, but now that I have a Ford service manual, I see I was leaving out a critical step.  I never put silicone in the key-way slot on the pulley.  This time, I loaded it up and it seems to have worked great.

 

I let it run in the driveway for about 40 mins, and I did not see any leaking from the Fumoto valve, or from the front main seal, so I am hoping that fixed that major leak I’ve been dealing with for years!

 

While I was idling to check for leaks, I decided to investigate why the A/C went out.  The system just ended up being so low the compressor would not cycle well enough to suck up refrigerant.  My neighbor brought over a full set of gauges and we were able to get some juice into the system.  I am proud to say this thing is blowing cold enough to make me chilly in the summer in Florida!  Has not been able to do that for quite some time!

 

But alright, I know this is a bunch of words, and Forum people don’t read.  So, pics as promised:

 

 

Fumoto valve installed.  For those who don’t know, I thought I may have been leaking from my drain bolt.  Factory recommends that the bolt be changed on every oil change, but we all know that does not happen.  I also don’t like having to undo the bolt all the time from the aluminum pan.  This should preserve the threads for years to come and make oil changes that much easier.

 

 

Using the Sawzall to cut the tensioner to pieces, hell yeah!

 

 

 

 

In case you were wondering, your tensioner looks like this inside.  We spent a great deal of time sawing, chiseling, prying and hammering to get to this point.

 

 

 

This is the culprit.  Hard to tell in the pic but it was slightly bent.  You can clearly see how messed up the head of the bolt was. 

 

 

I was able to find an exact replacement at Ace with a nice new 10mm Allen key head.  Made the replacement of the tensioner quite easy!

 

 

Balancer out of the way.

 

 

 

After running for about 40 mins it still looked like this.  Woo!

 

Anyhow, it’s been a while since I did a walk-around video.  So here one is.  You can all hear the ol’ V6 so I can get made fun of.

 

 

 

 

On the same note.  I have been getting a very bad vibration between about 30-45.  Very symptomatic of being a wheel out of balance.  Took the car to Wally World (it was late!) and they tried to check the balance, but told me the tires were worn so they couldn't......

 

So, I will be trying to get that sorted out later today.  Then a little more prepping for hopefully Autocross on Sunday.  Cleaning the inside of the windshield really well, and making sure all of the suspension is locked down.   I might try to get my brake proportioning valve all set too.

[Number Tew]

Alright so I managed to get quite a bit squared away today, so I should be all good to go for Autox in the morning.  Going in as CAM-C so I'll probably get smoked.  No big!

 

Took the car to get the front tires balanced.  They were both pretty far off.  It seemed to take care of most of the vibration on the ride home.  I did notice it around 45mph once on the way home, but I may just be over analyzing it.

 

Got home, got the windshield really clean.

"Fixed" the upholstery on my seat with some nice gaffing tape.  Obviously this is temporary until I can swing some racing seats.

Got the inside vacuumed out.

Emptied the trunk - I forgot I was still carrying exhaust around.  This may be where some of my rattling sound has been coming from LOL!

Tied a wire up that I noticed hanging down - nice and neat.

Got all the tires properly/evenly inflated.

 

Still not seeing any leaks underneath!  Finally!

 

The car keeps throwing the P0174 lean code, but this should just be related to the major vacuum leak.  Hopefully.  To be safe I used a different tune I got from VMP that just adds a little extra fuel.  I need to get a gauge so I can really know for sure.

 

Topped off the power steering, made sure all of the suspension stuff was nice and tight.  Basically should be all ready for racing!  I'm excited!

 

 

Good shot of my upholstery work!

[OLD H2S]

NICE CAR, this is the ideal autoX setup. Back at the other site I am helping Shelby (PGFDV6) to do the same set up. For your intake leak I can not say enough good things about "Right Stuff" sealant.

[Number Tew]

9 hours ago, OLD H2S said:

NICE CAR, this is the ideal autoX setup. Back at the other site I am helping Shelby (PGFDV6) to do the same set up. For your intake leak I can not say enough good things about "Right Stuff" sealant.

 

Right stuff?  I may need to look into that.  Do I need to disassemble everything for that?  I'm not scared to, I've just done it so many times lol!

 

Edit:  I looked it up.  More or less a better version of RTV, use that to make up the entire gasket.  I bet that might actually work quite well.

 

Did some Autox with it today.  I was very happy with it after sorting out some of the kinks.  I will post that in a bit.

[Number Tew]

Alright so today's autocross:

 

This is the first time I have really pushed the car since it's been out, so I was expecting issues!  Anyhow, we drove to Tavares this morning (30-45 mins) to the Lake County Sheriff's Office driving range/shooting range - they let the Martin Sports Car Club use their facility for track days!

 

Interesting course design that I thought would let the Mustang stretch its' legs a bit.  Thanks to the help of Brett, I knew to register as CAM-C.

 

Anyhow, I went out, and got my first run in.  I pushed a little too hard and ran out of front end grip (too much too soon!).  They flagged me at the end and said "they keep saying something is wrong with your car, something bad, loose wheel or something."

 

Well, that guy didn't know me, so he probably just didn't realize how I Hulk smash items into place, and I knew the wheels were definitely tight.  (remember I just had them balanced yesterday)

 

So, I looked everything over, and it all seemed alright.  So I went out a second time.  Had similar grip issues, definitely need new tires, these are 420 treadwear all seasons up front.  Nice!

 

Anyhow, once again they come running and saying I need to fix whatever is wrong.  F-me.

 

So, I start asking around for tools, because I was really smart and said "I don't need no stinkin' tools!" when I was loading everything this morning.

 

Lifted the car up using a scissor jack, and got in there.  I found the top nut on the passenger side tie-rod end was a little loose.  I snugged it down, and generally went over everything else.  I didn't think the tie-rod would be causing such a wiggle, but it's possible because it does hang onto the spindle.

 

Anyhow, I even popped the caps off the hubs to see if they needed to be tightened, but all of that seemed good.

 

Did my once over on both sides, took it for a test run down the block and all seemed to be much better.

 

This once over takes  a long time with a scissor jack, in a parking lot with limited tools!

 

Anyhow, they let me run in the third heat (I was originally in the first) to get my last 3 runs in.

 

So, 1 and 2 were terrible because I pushed too hard, and I had that vibration issue.  3 I took it really easy, think - Sunday stroll.  But, I didn't lose traction and I stayed on course!  4 was my fastest time of the day, and 5 was just slightly slower than 4.  In comparison, I was faster than some Porsche's, some Miatas, etc. but of course the fastest Miata of the day blew me away by 10 seconds.  I definitely need tires, seats, and seat time!  All in all, I had a blast!  

 

Anyhow, pics and video of my first and third runs.  Also, don't make fun of the ol' V6 note!:

 

 

First run.  Complete with "Uh-oh" commentary by my lovely girlfriend

 

 

Third run.  Complete with "Who knows what the hell was wrong with that thing" commentary from the announcer guy

 

 

The thirst.

 

 

 

First thing

 

 

The Shelby is part of our local club, he is friends with the Vette.  Both did really well!

 

 

 

The anguish in my face.

 

 

 

 

 

I am the Cam-C car (if you didn't know) - So I went from a 55.287 (with cones hit) down to a 47.728.  Not bad!  However, in that pic you see all the cars that smoked me!

 

All in all, fun day.  Glad I got that vibration issue figured out!

 

 

[OLD H2S]

Yes, you should take the intake off to get to the heads sealing surface and clean it well, Right Stuff is sticky goo and gets every where and to clean it off your fingers use alcohol.  What gets impressive is when you go to take things apart, thinner is stronger. 

[Number Tew]

41 minutes ago, OLD H2S said:

Yes, you should take the intake off to get to the heads sealing surface and clean it well, Right Stuff is sticky goo and gets every where and to clean it off your fingers use alcohol.  What gets impressive is when you go to take things apart, thinner is stronger. 

 

Alright so pull the intakes off, clean as usual but instead of using a usual gasket kit, use this stuff as a thin layer?  I'm interested to try it!

[Blackmage]

nice to see you back at it man!  That interior looked like hell when you pulled it from your buddies hah.  nice to see it come back to life

[Number Tew]

5 hours ago, Blackmage said:

nice to see you back at it man!  That interior looked like hell when you pulled it from your buddies hah.  nice to see it come back to life

 

I almost forgot how bad it was until I just saw those pics.  Makes me appreciate it that much more.  The old beast!

[Number Tew]

Busted my oil pan today.  Jack slipped.  I'm pissed.

[Prokiller]

like a hole through it or just dented?

[Number Tew]

12 minutes ago, Prokiller said:

like a hole through it or just dented?

 

This pic should tell the story.  Note little chunks of aluminum.

 

Ugh

 

 

[Prokiller]

at least your driveway will be a pretty color when it rains for a long while.  really really sucks though

[Number Tew]

23 minutes ago, Prokiller said:

at least your driveway will be a pretty color when it rains for a long while.  really really sucks though

 

 

We got it mostly squared away outside.  Now I am trying to figure out if I want to do it myself on my back, or just take it to someone with a lift.  It will be so much easier.  Luckily with the K I think it can be done without raising the motor.  Ugh.

[Blackmage]

damn that blows, always my fear is the jack slipping and htiting a brake line, fuel line, putting a hole into the car lol  at least no one got hurt man

[96blackgt54]

4 hours ago, Number Tew said:

 

 

We got it mostly squared away outside.  Now I am trying to figure out if I want to do it myself on my back, or just take it to someone with a lift.  It will be so much easier.  Luckily with the K I think it can be done without raising the motor.  Ugh.

Just bring it over to my shop. We knock it out quick on the lift! Plenty junkyards around here too. We find something

[OLD H2S]

I did the same thing with my new jack from Harbor Fright, slipped off the subframe and punched up the passenger foot well bad. I did the oil pan too,  so I epoxied 36 grit sand paper to the lift plate.

[Number Tew]

13 hours ago, Blackmage said:

damn that blows, always my fear is the jack slipping and htiting a brake line, fuel line, putting a hole into the car lol  at least no one got hurt man

 

Yea luckily I was not under it.  It just torques me because I was all done and the last step was literally lowering it to the ground!  Ugh.

 

12 hours ago, 96blackgt54 said:

Just bring it over to my shop. We knock it out quick on the lift! Plenty junkyards around here too. We find something

 

You're  a little too far away lol

 

10 hours ago, OLD H2S said:

I did the same thing with my new jack from Harbor Fright, slipped off the subframe and punched up the passenger foot well bad. I did the oil pan too,  so I epoxied 36 grit sand paper to the lift plate.

 

This is a really good idea.

[Dkblue98gt]

Well bummer! Sorry about the pan but at least you are ok. I always worry about that happening. It would be awesome to have a lift to change out the pan.

 

I changed my oil pan gasket a while back and had to pull the K...

[Number Tew]

7 hours ago, Dkblue98gt said:

Well bummer! Sorry about the pan but at least you are ok. I always worry about that happening. It would be awesome to have a lift to change out the pan.

 

I changed my oil pan gasket a while back and had to pull the K...

 

A lift would make it so much easier, which is why I am leaning to letting a shop do it.  I imagine sub $500 is a reasonable estimate because with the tube K I don't think the engine will need to be hoisted up or anything.  I might be wrong.

 

I've jacked/lowered the car a thousand times from that same spot and never had an issue.  Just my luck I guess.

[RedTwilight]

Dude!   Sucks to hear about the oil pan.  

I have a fear of the same thing happening on the '93 since I've swapped to a tubular K.  That's why I'm thinking of making a plate to slip over the jack pad similar to what Dan(@95riosnake ) did.

[seijirou]

That sucks man.

 

I have the kenny brown matrix brace with the jacking rails for that reason.  You can jack from the outside edge of the car at the pinch seam for the rocker and the whole damn car will come up.  Just a thought.

[Number Tew]

I will look into both of those things.  I need to get this done asap before the whole motor starts rusting up from being exposed.  Ugh!

[D3vst8r96gt]

That matrix brace is not cheap.... most say it does nothing ....

 

Do a Before and after test if you get em

[RedTwilight]

3 hours ago, D3vst8r96gt said:

That matrix brace is not cheap.... most say it does nothing ....

 

Do a Before and after test if you get em

 

Stifflers also has a brace and jacking rail design for the SFC's.  They should fit most any SFC with no to little modification.

[Number Tew]

On 6/23/2017 at 11:13 AM, D3vst8r96gt said:

That matrix brace is not cheap.... most say it does nothing ....

 

Do a Before and after test if you get em

 

On 6/23/2017 at 2:42 PM, RedTwilight said:

 

Stifflers also has a brace and jacking rail design for the SFC's.  They should fit most any SFC with no to little modification.

 

 

Think all this stuff will fit with the torque arm and everything in the way??

[D3vst8r96gt]

It looks like it just goes from the sfc to the pinch welds (somewhere near there)

 

[seijirou]

 

12 hours ago, Number Tew said:

 

 

 

Think all this stuff will fit with the torque arm and everything in the way??

 

44 minutes ago, D3vst8r96gt said:

It looks like it just goes from the sfc to the pinch welds (somewhere near there)

 

 

Devastator is right, the "matrix" brace is all outside the frame rails, torque arm stuff is all inside the frame rails so they shouldn't affect each other.

 

As far as what the matrix actually does I can't say, I didn't install things in stages so I went from none of it to all of it.  Anecdotally, jacking the car from the rails after installing with a group of friends and mustang owners who have "standard" FLSFC's all noticed how much less twist occurs compared to jacking their own cars.  But whether or not that translates to anything that matters when the car is on its tires I can't say, nor do any of us have experience with through-floor subframes to make any questionable comparisons to those.

 

I would guess you can install the jacking rails without the matrix piece at all.  The jacking rails were really the focus of my recommendation anyway.  Being able to lift and place jack stands at nearly anywhere on the outer edge is something I'll never go without again, and it keeps those things away from vital components so if you do have a slip (and I have) there's a good chance it won't cost you more than a few bucks in the swear jar.

[95opal]

14 hours ago, Number Tew said:

 

 

 

Think all this stuff will fit with the torque arm and everything in the way??

go with the stifflers stuff no worries about fitment with torque arm. first time I put a jack under it  3 weels came off the stands ..scared the crap out of me but you know its doing something. Heck I would throw the entire stifflers catalog at if if you plan on auto xing it.

[Number Tew]

Ay yi yi, I need more money!  I still haven't had a chance to fix/get fixed this issue

[97_281GT]

hello mr tew also good job

 

[Number Tew]

22 hours ago, 97_281GT said:

hello mr tew also good job

 

Helllooooooo

[Number Tew]

 

Finally got around to doing this.  Going to get a new oil pan and hopefully officially diagnose the big vacuum leak.  Then I can just enjoy it.

[Blackmage]

Woot woot!  An update!   

[Number Tew]

1 hour ago, Blackmage said:

Woot woot!  An update!   

 

That's how I feel lol