Progress Thread 2014 Gt Not Quite A Boss - Getting Through Inspection

[stpete]

I just sold my Foxbody. It was pretty much my dream car, but it was sucking away my time and money. I decided to get something a little easier to live with and picked up this 2014 GT with a little over 50K miles. The previous owner had modified it into a track/autox car then bought a Boss 302. So, he swapped most of the expensive parts over to the Boss and put the Boss parts on this car.

Exterior:
Ford racing rear spoiler
Boss 302 Wheels
Some sort of front spoiler.

Engine:
Canton (I think) racing oil pan (10 qt) - Nice looking piece
Boss radiator and extra cooler
Track Key
Boss Quad Exhaust

Interior:
Stock base GT
Boss gauge pod with temp, volts, oil press gauges

Suspension:
Boss 302 Springs/struts/shocks/sway bars/control arms
3.73/Torsen
Boss Brembos

Also has a Steeda shifter bushing that I'm not sure does much good.

The car failed the MD inspection for thin rear pads and tint that is too dark. So, waiting on parts for that.

 

[stpete]

My first mod to the car is to add the new Steeda jacking rails.

I picked the perfect day for an install, it's about 35 degrees with 20MPH wind. Once the sun came out I could stay out for more than a few minutes. Couldn't pull into the garage today, so it's in the driveway.

Here's the payoff for freezing my butt off today

Back to the start of the day. If you're lucky all you need is 18mm socket and 15mm socket. But, I also needed a breaker bar, small pry bar, a couple small blocks of wood, hammer, and a 10mmx1.5 tap.

On the drivers side I had more problems than the passenger. To get the thing to slide in on the drivers side I had to pry it down and slide it in from the side. There is a big plastic cover that gets in the way of it sliding in any other way. It took some effort, but I wound up being able to wedge my prybar in to get it done.

The rear bolts fought me. Either Ford didn't actually thread these holes, or they were very corroded. The metal shavings coming out when I tapped it indicated that they were not threaded, but the passenger side had no such problems. Whatever the case, verify you can thread the bolts into the rear holes before you get the rail into place. It's a 10mmx1.5 tap if you need to chase the threads in the hole.

On the drivers side, I had assumed I'd have to drop the Boss exhaust. But, the jack rail uses holes well forward of the exhaust. No problems there.

Here it is installed, you can see the back of the rail and can't even see the Boss exhaust behind it in this pic.

You have to look under the car to see it. It sticks down about 1/4" lower than the pinch weld.

 

[Svtpilot]

So they work with the Boss 302 side pipes? I have been hesitant to buy them since I could find out for sure. If it has not been done already remove the restricter plates from the side pipes. By steeda shifter bushing do you mean the transmission mount insert? I have the whiteline insert it does make a surprisingly big difference in shifting though I will eventually get around to getting an MGW Shifter.
Most importantly congratulations and enjoy the car

 

[stpete]

Thanks,

There are no restrictors in the pipes. The car sounds good. No issues with the jacking rails, they end about a foot from the back of the door.

It's not the transmission mount insert. Steeda calls it the shifter base bushing https://www.steeda.com/steeda-mustang-shifter-base-bushing-555-7090.html . I plan to get a MGW shifter eventually also. Not completely happy with the way it shifts.

 

[Svtpilot]

Thanks for the info on the jacking rails. The Steeda bushing does help. The factory bushing is a flimsy piece of crap. Most of the issues with the MT-82 is due to the bad design of the shifter mounting. The shifter is mounted to the car body instead of the transmission.. So when the drivetrain torques over under hard acceleration the shifter becomes misaligned with the transmission and making shifting difficult, sometimes impossible. That bushing as well as the mount insert reduces that and makes a real improvement but doesn't completely eliminate the problem. MGW as well as the new and improved Barton shifter that just came out mounts the shifter directly to the transmissions completely eliminating that issue.

 

[stpete]

For those that don't live in Maryland, the inspection process is pretty painful. But, it is a once and done ... so that's good.

My car failed for rear brake pads too thin and tint too dark. Tint is a game. MD says 35%, but if you get 35% tint on your car it'll actually measure out lower than that. So, inspection failed. I got the tint removed by a local tint guy because it was cold, I didn't feel like doing it, and he did it for a reasonable price. He will re-tint it once I pass. I've had him do other cars and he does a good job.

Next up was the rear brakes. The little cubes are too small for the size of the pistons on this car, so I had to pick up a better tool to compress the pistons. I rented the OEM 27111 kit from Autozone and it worked great. I will buy one of these kits I think, it is faster and easier than the cube anyway. Someday I'll do some good performance pads all around, but for now I threw some StopTech sport pads and Centric rotors on. Should do the job for a few autox's this year. The front brembo pads looked to have been recently replaced, so I left them alone.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Nice car. I do like those Centric rotors. I've used them on a few cars now and the painted center does hold up well, but I found them to resist "warpage" a bit better than the OEM rotors

I'm amazed MD actually measures pad thickness. Easy fix, but still a PITA when trying to get a inspection to pass.

And you are right, the cube is useless. I ended up just buying the tool kit from Ebay as even though the rental is free from parts store, I still have to drive to the store, get it, and then return it.

 

[stpete]

Yep, I bought the tool kit from Amazon. Done.

I really did buy the Centric rotors just for the looks. I'll probably disassemble the brakes again this summer, put on some braided lines and paint the calipers. Stupid inspection ... I pay to untint the car that I will now re-tint. Then I replace brake pads that I would've replaced in a few months anyway.