Let The Modding Begin

I Bleed Ford Blue

5 Year Member
Feb 13, 2017
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North Olmsted OH
Well I just bought the mustang on Monday, and that night I ordered a Ford Racing short throw shifter, a sound tube delete kit, and a blue tint overlay for the pony puddle lights. Today I ordered a Ford racing resonator delete/x-pipe and Ford racing by Borla sport muffler axle back kit. And I also ordered a blowfish racing shifter support kit.
 
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Today the puddle light overlay and the sound tube delete showed up. The overlay stickers are easy to put on, the sound delete on the other hand was a pain. Turns out I had to leave the back half of the sound tube on the car because I couldn't get my big bear paw hands behind the engine to take the nut off holding the tube to the firewall.
 
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I couldn't get my big bear paw hands behind the engine to take the nut off holding the tube to the firewall.

That was a total PITA for me too... I had come to that same conclusion as you did and left the back half. Then, the wife accepted the challenge and spent about a 1/2 hour laying face first on the engine block slowly unscrewing the nut. That was kind of hot...
 
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With the sound tube intact, the engine sound was a little louder than it should be and sounded a little fake. After removal, the engine sound was more in line with the way it should be, like the old school engine sounds from the sixties was. I never did get that nut off, but if you twist the back half of the tube up and over the engine it pops out. Turns out the firewall end has a rubber grommet that goes over the stud and the nut actually holds the grommet in place, and the grommet holds the tube on. So by twisting it, you pop it off the grommet and can now get the whole tube out.

I tried a 87mm GT350 throttle body after I got the correct adapter plate to mount it to the stock intake, but the tuner I chose could not get the car to run correctly. So I put the stock 80mm back on and I'm waiting for approval from the third party seller on amazon to return it. If it gets approved, I'm going to get the ford racing power pack #2. It comes with the GT350 cold air intake, 87mm TB, the adapter plate, and a 50 state legal tune direct from the ford engineers so it will run correctly. The going rate for the #2 power pack is 800, I tried to go cheaper by getting everything separately, but I ended up spending 550 and it didn't run right. So, you live you learn. Also Late model restoration did an install and test of the ford kit and got 26 hp at the wheels on a manual car, ford only claims 21 rwhp, so 800 is not bad for approx 30 crank hp. The general rule is a 12-15% drivetrain loss with a manual and 15-20% with an auto.
 
I received the stage 2 kit today, took about an hour for the install, and another 45 minutes to download the ford tune and install that. It's a like driving a different car under 2000 rpm, it can light up the tires at will in first and second from a roll. Before it could barely do it in first. I did not install the air oil separator, I have to decide if I want to modify it or send it back. Ford rotates the 87 mm TB 15 degrees counter clockwise and it interferes with the separator. I have to take a good look and see if I can shave it on the corner, If that don't work, it's going back.
 
Your post made me want to immediately drop what I was doing and order Ford's Power Pack. Instead my time went into the vertical links... That job started around 330pm and ended around 1030pm. For 2 bolts (4 bolts total), getting that bottom bolt to line up was the biggest pain I have ever encountered. With the IRS Bushings and Vertical Links from Steeda I feel like 60% of the wheel hop is gone under hard acceleration. The rear feels very planted coming off corners, or even when hitting little potholes during a turn you can feel a difference (for the better). I have punched it, before the vertical links the car somewhat threw me sideways and then it felt like I couldn't get traction in 2nd. After the Vertical Links, it felt like I was a lot straighter (and yes road conditions were different so that could have been why), but 2nd gear felt like it was all traction this time.
Reading the reviews of the Vertical Links: Will get rid of wheel hop (Did not for me). *Does help a little*
 
Well I took a good look at the oil separator and tried to install it again. Turns out the separator pushes against the wiring on the connector to the 87 mm throttle body. So to avoid any future problems with pinched or broken wires, it's going back. I think I'm going to try the JDM breathers that eliminate the pcv system entirely, no need for a separator at all with those.

http://www.teamjdm.com/2011-2015-mustang-gt-boss-coyote-engine-breather-kit-by-jdm/
 
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Reading the reviews of the Vertical Links: Will get rid of wheel hop (Did not for me). *Does help a little*

What you want is BMR's IRS cradle bushing lockout kit http://www.americanmuscle.com/bmr-irs-lockoutk-kit-black-1516.html. Since I got it installed at the same time as the Steeda progressive springs, I can't know exactly how much credit to assign to each one in getting rid of the wheel hop (or very nearly: hardly any in hard acceleration from stop, none when shifting into 2nd gear) but I'd say the lockout kit did it.
 
I've had them sitting in my garage for a while now.. I just don't want to put them on unless I'm completely unhappy with the wheel hop. Subframe support brace will be put on after the Barton short throw shifter.. I'm hoping in the next two weeks or so.