Progress Thread Interior And Go Fast Upgrades

[robertsa]

In December, I picked up an '03 GT, five speed, basically what I had in my '00 GT but the color I preferred. I then had surgery for a broken clavicle and had to watch it sit from January until April without being able to work on it. It was a major bummer.

Anyhow, I finally got healed up well enough to work again, so here goes!

I started by ripping out the cheap 12" subs, amp, and box that took up the entire trunk. I tried giving it away but after some suspicious phone calls where people were wanting to meet at my house instead of down the road at a public area, I smashed it up with a sledgehammer and trashed it all. I was successful in selling the SVE seats from LMR that were in it. Luckily, the previous owner kept the factory leather seats so threw those back in for now. We'll get back to the seating later. I suppose I should have taken pictures during the demo phase... Fast forwarding on, the steering slop made the car scary to drive so the second thing I did was replace just about all of it besides the rack, and then that bled into suspension, and then that bled into fluid swaps, etc etc. It was a lot of general, boring type wrenching. No fun stuff. I did learn that the Harbor Freight Pittsburgh inner tie rod removal tool is pretty top notch, so that's something.

I'm going to be lazy here and just quote myself from my original post on this site, "In the last month, I've replaced brakes, shocks/struts, inner/outer tie rods, sway bar links, the rear spoiler he tried to repaint himself, installed FRPP B springs, front control arms, the intake manifold (typical coolant leak from cracked plastic), a couple of gaskets to knock off some other small leaks, swapped trans/diff/coolant fluids, installed an MGW shifter, new tires, and probably a few other things that escape me at the moment."

I don't yet have a lift in my garage, though I am considering it. Sure would be a life saver. I wanted some extra space though, so got creative. It's effective, but I'll warn you, very heavy. I will probably be cutting them off behind last step up, screw a nylon strap to it, and just lift the front of the car onto them with a jack. It would save me a lot of space in my garage, allow me to roll under from the side instead of just the front or rear, and save me money from not having to have hernia surgery.

 

[robertsa]

Opened up the butt end to see what I could see. Looked good so wiped out the stuff that sprinkled in, topped it back off with Royal Purple, and sealed it back up with a gasket. I know many prefer to use RTV, but I'll never understand it. I hate scraping the old gunk off and waiting for it to cure.

At some point, I'll have a local shop here swap these out but as I'm not 100% sure how much power I'm looking for, I also am not sure what ratio I want.

 

[robertsa]

The kid I bought it from told me everything was all leak free but I found two, one minor and one relatively major. The minor one was from the seal between the oil filter adapter and engine block. I don't have pictures of that because by the time I thought to take one, I was already elbow deep in the project and didn't want to get my phone oily. I should ask my wife if she has a point and shoot I could borrow. That would probably fix a lot of that problem.

Back on track! The too major to ignore leak was coolant from the normal spot, the passenger side front end of the intake where the plastic cracks under the metal crossover. I bought the FRPP piece to replace it with (thought I can't tell a difference between the two, the dealer claims it's "improved") but regret that for reasons we will discuss shortly.

Did a little scrubbing in the valley with some degreaser so it didn't look like butt anymore. While typing the previous sentence, I also noticed something that bugged me; the PO put two screws through the top of the fuse block there to mount the fuse for his crappy amp. Most people shouldn't be allowed to play with electricity. You'll also notice the MM caster/camber plates, so I suppose I actually did this after finishing up suspension work. Ah well, we'll just pretend like I did it the other way around. I'm in too deep to change it up now!

 

[robertsa]

So once I got all this mess back together, I cranked it up only to hear that scary gravel-in-a-tin-can noise over my SLP LM, which was a bit worrying. By the time I got back to the front of the car, a pile of belt dust had already begun. A second later, my car threw it's belt at my face angrily. Luckily, I always wear PPE so safety glasses were in play.

I played around with everything that's spinnable by hand. I couldn't pinpoint anything exactly, except I thought I felt a kind of tick.tick.tick when I spun the alternator as quickly as I could. I googled the PN on the back and was surprised/not really surprised to see that it was some oddball, cheap BS for $85 or so. It's a bit suspect when you can't buy an alternator for this car for less than $140. I bought a quality unit, replaced it, and the bad noises stopped. Some peoples' kids...

Link to alternator no one should ever buy: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ALTERNA...-281-V8-XR3U-10300-AA-GLV8424RM-/110787966170

 

[robertsa]

Oh yeah, and before I was able to start it to blow up the serpentine belt I was already going to replace anyways, I had to replace the battery because it had about 1.6V on it. Should have put it on a trickle charger or disconnected the leads, but my shoulder hurt at the time. Eff it; it was junk anyways. Go Motorcraft!

 

[robertsa]

As kind of a theme here, I didn't take many pictures along the way here because I felt like I was just on a grind to get things done. That and the not wanting an oily phone thing. I promise, I'll ask my wife for her point and shoot when the interesting stuff starts happening.

I waited to post these here though, so that the next post would feel as abrupt as it felt to me. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

You can see the new brakes, controls arms, and struts from here. There are new springs all round, as well as all the other junk I have previously mentioned.

Looking back on it, I kind of regret not pulling the calipers and caliper hanger to be cleaned up and powder coated. Really, I could probably still do it because they're not on the hanger anymore.....

 

[robertsa]

Okay, so we're almost caught up to the present. My wife enjoys rumbling around in this thing so I took it down to a local shop, had a front end alignment done, picked up my woman, and took her to the best Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, which is actually in Helotes. Don't worry about that last part.

By the time we got home, we had gone mayyybe 20 miles. At that point, I remember why I supercharged my '00 GT. These things are weak. One of our local shops around here has a used D-1SC kit up for grabs for around $2500 so I said to myself, self, that's what you're going to do. It was about that time that I remembered telling guys at the drag strip when I owned that car that if I were to do it again, I would have gone turbo; it was my only regret. I then ditched the supercharger idea and ordered up a couple of exhaust driven power adders. It was about that time that I was told I would need a k member. According to a friend, it's this big, daunting task that is super hard and whatnot. To alleviate anyone's concerns out there, if you can spin a wrench, you can do it. It's really easy. The only "hard" part is getting it squared up, and that's not hard. It's just tedious. Anyways, back to the part where I had never done this job before and was intimidated, I ordered the Team Z k member with standard control arms at the suggestion of the internet community.

When I got it in from the UPS man, I excitedly opened it up expecting damage because the box was all donked up but it wasn't. What I can tell you is that I am very impressed with the quality and finish of Team Z's piece, especially the finish. I love it! There's so much room for activities without the factory piece in! The hand written labels were a nice touch too haha

Remember, air tools are your friend!

I was super excited so stayed up until 0330 in the morning uninstalling all my brand new parts and installing the k member. I didn't finish the whole procedure but didn't want to stop until bolts were in. I then got up at 0630 to go on a ride with my cycling club and now here we are. I need to eat lunch, then figure I can finish squaring everything up and put together the coil overs. I liked MM's idea of setting the wheelbase first, clamping a piece of angle iron in front of the k member on both sides to maintain that dimension, then using diagonal measurements to center it up with the rear end so I need to run down the road to pick up a chunk of angle iron to hack up.

And I promise. I'm going to ask my wife for her camera.

 

[robertsa]

Oh yeah, and this mother is stupid heavy. In hindsight, I would have done this mod to every one of my Mustangs, not just this one. There is so much room now and so easy to access everything!

 

[DannyZ]

So what's the main benefit of the K-member mod? Lighter weight + more access to engine stuff from below? I see a lot of guys doing it.

 

[robertsa]

Much lighter, much greater access, and I need room for two turbochargers and the associated plumbing.

 

[robertsa]

Alrighty, I've recovered from surgery #2 so back at it. Supposedly it worked this time, and my clavicle won't fall apart again.

I've discovered that the struts I have won't work because like the Bilstein's, the bracket on the strut that bolts to the knuckle is too wide for the coilover collars. I need to purchase those, probably Koni, KYB, or Tokiko; I haven't decided which yet.

I cut out the factory rubber steering rack bushings because they were about shot anyways. With a 1.5-2" drop, has anyone had any experience with offset vs standard bushings? I will likely replace my tie rod ends with a bumpsteer kit so don't know if offset bushings are really needed. MM says they don't recommend them on a stock k because it can cam side to side. I have never heard of anyone having that problem but if a standard bushing works, it would keep the rack aligned simply because the hole is centered.

 

[squeak93]

You don’t beee offset bushings If you run a bump steer kit.

Nice work overall.

 

[robertsa]

You don’t beee offset bushings If you run a bump steer kit.

Nice work overall.

I'm with you on the bump steer kit. I just seem to recall something about clearance with the new k member. I'll get the standard and worst case, I'm out $15.

 

[Dark04GT]

Alrighty, I've recovered from surgery #2 so back at it. Supposedly it worked this time, and my clavicle won't fall apart again.

I've discovered that the struts I have won't work because like the Bilstein's, the bracket on the strut that bolts to the knuckle is too wide for the coilover collars. I need to purchase those, probably Koni, KYB, or Tokiko; I haven't decided which yet.

I cut out the factory rubber steering rack bushings because they were about shot anyways. With a 1.5-2" drop, has anyone had any experience with offset vs standard bushings? I will likely replace my tie rod ends with a bumpsteer kit so don't know if offset bushings are really needed. MM says they don't recommend them on a stock k because it can cam side to side. I have never heard of anyone having that problem but if a standard bushing works, it would keep the rack aligned simply because the hole is centered.

I love my MM aluminum bushings. The z motorsports k member recommends offsets to allow you to move the rack so that you can adjust the rack away from neighboring structures. Bumpsteer kits make things much better on a lowered car.

If your rack seems like it would take a standard bushing with plenty of space around it - then I would consider a standard urethane or solid bushing (solid gives less deflection).

 

[robertsa]

I love my MM aluminum bushings. The z motorsports k member recommends offsets to allow you to move the rack so that you can adjust the rack away from neighboring structures. Bumpsteer kits make things much better on a lowered car.

If your rack seems like it would take a standard bushing with plenty of space around it - then I would consider a standard urethane or solid bushing (solid gives less deflection).

Where did you find that info on the Team Z k? I couldn't find help on the website nor did it speak to it in the directions unless I just missed it. I shot them an email yesterday morning but don't expect a response until Monday or Tuesday at the earliest. I don't know if people take off for Columbus day.

 

[Dark04GT]

Where did you find that info on the Team Z k? I couldn't find help on the website nor did it speak to it in the directions unless I just missed it. I shot them an email yesterday morning but don't expect a response until Monday or Tuesday at the earliest. I don't know if people take off for Columbus day.

Their install instructions recommend offsets as “needed items” but doesn’t mention why:
http://www.teamzmotorsports.net/v/Team_Z_Motorsports-K-Member.pdf

On several websites it lists the offset bushings for a number space related concerns:
https://lmr.com/item/LRS-TZMKM96200/Mustang-Team-Z-Tubular-Kmember-200lbs

Corral member install thread mentioned the offsets were required in the “up position”
http://forums.corral.net/forums/mem...er-kit-install-how-pics-unbiased-opinion.html

Review on team Z discussing steering rack work:
http://www.streetmusclemag.com/tech...ts-auto-cross-k-member-and-qa1-strut-install/

Let us know what team Z says about it! Hope these are all old references / you have no issues. It seems like everyone was still very happy with their product despite these minor issues.

 

[rlauzon]

really good write up so far in i will be following this one thanks!

 

[ace305]

hey, nice write up. did you press the ball joints in with a special tool?

 

[squeak93]

You can rent a ball joint press from parts stores. They work very well. They even work like champs to press bushings in/out of the front control arms.