Build Thread '83 T-top Coupe - Welding Holes in My Rear

madmike1157 said:

Let's talk serious here Dave..Call me the Ghost of Christmas Past...Speaking from practical experience..
* And this is only because you intend to drive the car like I intend to drive it......Over a distance greater than 100 Miles one way.
If you continue on the path that you're on, ( and keep the PD blower). a PD blower becomes a pain in the ass when you start trying to spin the piss out of it with a pulley change, which is a requisite of adding boost. The fact that it's tied directly to the crank means that even cruising down the road w/o putting your foot in it, it's still spinning its balls off.
You know more than me about the required pulley upgrade to get that blower to make your goal power based on what you've already read I'm sure...the good thing is you can have a "street hero" pulley combo, and a " visit Mike" pulley combo in your trunk that only takes a hour or so and a different belt to change out when you get ready for the road trip.
Big boost equals detonation. Detonation forces you to reduce the boost, or take measures to accommodate it. ( like water meth injection). Now that I've experienced it, it's the perfect solution...it's cheap, easy to find, and absolutely fixes the problem it's intended to fix.

AC. You gotta have it.
The problem is that that engine compartment is a cluttered mess when all of the factory hoses have to be accommodated. The firewall bulkhead where the hoses hub, adds to the problem, with the big, stupid AC receiver/drier adding to the clutter. That bulkhead was the reason I ditched the factory junk, and used an aftermarket AC system.

Protect your dental work.
I'd be willing to wager that for every car that gets a set of Bilsteins, Koni's, Strange, or QA-1 struts, shocks, and the requisite stiffer lowering springs....there's an owner with that combo visiting a dentist to get the fillings that just got rattled out of his head, re-done.

Let me reiterate...

A stiff "handling suspension" is the biggest contributor to dissatisfaction with your car. Having to tolerate the bone jarring chatter that comes when that car goes over a stretch of bad washboard is a come to Jesus Experience for a lot of guys here...and leaves only but the twenty somethings wishing they hadn't went so extreme with a suspension choice on a car that never sees a minute of track time going around a corner. The Monster has the equivalent of a stiff ride, just north of what the car had when it was stock. It has stock front struts, w/a c/o conversion and Strange c/o's on back set to the softest setting...point is,....I have a very modest ride quality.
But.......
The stretch of road we take BMW customers has sections of sucky road..( dips, potholes, and washboard) ..the cars I drive over it make that stretch very unpleasant to ride over...the one time I took the Monster over the same stretch......is the last time.

All this to say that I think if I was building a small engine combo in a fox mustang.....

• I'd use a turbo. It only make boost when your foots in it, and it's all adjustable with a laptop.
• I'd ditch the factory snake nest that is the AC/Heater hose menagerie in favor of aftermarket.
• I'd stiffen the piss out of the chassis, but go only moderate on the suspension.

Of course this is only my opinion,...you're gonna do what you're gonna do,..."but for those who have boldly gone where no man has gone before"

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