Mustang5l5's Progress Thread - Archived Progress thread '08-'20.

[Mustang5L5]

Shaft finally arrived. Hmm, I thought it would be bigger

As usual. Great build quality. Comes with good directions on install and how to center rack and clock the wheel. It is bare steel, so I'll def paint it shortly.

The above pic is how it mount to the rack.

Now, time to find a chance to install. Might need to pick a nice Friday and take the day off to do this little project. Need to get some type F fluid first.

 

[Mustang5L5]

So here's what i put together for pulling a vacuum on the power steering fluid. The mouth of the pump is a tad over 2" in diameter. So really just a rubber stopper with hole in center, and piece of stainless tubing.

Just need to find a means of hooking up to the pump. Those are A/C line type connections, as i use this pump for a/c work.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Just picked this up on a whim. $15 each at rock auto.

Even with fancy MM lower arms and steeda uppers, i still get wheel hop. Now to remember where I put the hardware.

Interestingly enough the packaging calls them steering stabilizer

 

[Mustang5L5]

Where did you get the parts from?

Really just stuff I had laying around.

Pretty sure this is the plug I used. I just drilled a hole in it and then put a tube that I plan on connecting to my vacuum pump I had.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#6448k108/=168jfni

Everything else was just some 1/4" Stainless tubing I had, and some compression fittings to connect to the 1/4" nylon tubing. I might change this up to connect to my pump since it has a refrigeration type connection on it.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Impulse buy. Mach 1 chin spoiler. $50 from LRS. It's a reproduction, but quality is fine. I've been seeing these installed on LXs and really like the look. Figure I'll give it a shot

No progress made. In the bit of a blizzard, so had to move the wife's car into the garage along with some other items I didn't want buried or blowing away. Gonna schedule a day off from work to get stuff done shortly

The view outside today. 14" forecast

 

[Mustang5L5]

Power stayed, so everything ok. Went out last night and spent an hour getting everything cleaned up so I could head to work. Got at least a foot of snow. More coming tomorrow

Mustang and wife's car in the garage. Unfortunately the Taurus has to stay outside

 

[Mustang5L5]

Still snowing...

Rd 1 of snowblowing. 12-16" forecast.

I've literally spent entire weekend tending to snow cleanup and have had to repair mine and my nieghbors snowblower at least once. Should break out the roof rake tomorrow

I'm sick of snow. More forecast Wed

 

[Mustang5L5]

So, back to Mustangs. All this snow has me browsing and thinking.

TFS twisted wedge 170 heads

TFS-51410004-M58
https://m.summitracing.com/parts/tf...-specialties&gclid=COrn2J_FjtICFUSHswodQMgLCQ

I see summit has them for $660/shipped each. I've found a couple other sites that have them for cheaper, but I trust summit more.


Anything special for these I'm not seeing with regards to install? I see this note

"Notes: Designed for hydraulic roller camshafts. Trick Flow twisted wedge pistons are required for use with these heads to allow for piston to valve clearance."

So I can't run these on a stock short block? I need TFS pistons?

Do these have thermactor ports? I plan on deleting my smog pump setup for good with these. IS the provision for the EGR valve still present?

I'll also be running a
1993 Cobra intake (lower ported by Tmoss)
65mm TB
TFS stage 1 cam

I want to stick to the Cobra intake as I love that style/look and am partial to it. If it costs me a few HP...meh. Everything else can be changed. is a 70MM TB worth it? Or stick to the 65MM I have. Opinions on Cam? Go with something else, or good enough?

I do need roller rockers as the Crane Cobra ones I have wont work. Thoughts on brand/ratio?


Goal is just a healthy ,safe combo for a weekend car. No racing, or need to max out a dyno

 

[Chuckman]

So, back to Mustangs. All this snow has me browsing and thinking.

TFS twisted wedge 170 heads

TFS-51410004-M58
https://m.summitracing.com/parts/tf...-specialties&gclid=COrn2J_FjtICFUSHswodQMgLCQ

I see summit has them for $660/shipped each. I've found a couple other sites that have them for cheaper, but I trust summit more.


Anything special for these I'm not seeing with regards to install? I see this note

"Notes: Designed for hydraulic roller camshafts. Trick Flow twisted wedge pistons are required for use with these heads to allow for piston to valve clearance."

So I can't run these on a stock short block? I need TFS pistons?

Do these have thermactor ports? I plan on deleting my smog pump setup for good with these. IS the provision for the EGR valve still present?

I'll also be running a
1993 Cobra intake (lower ported by Tmoss)
65mm TB
TFS stage 1 cam

I want to stick to the Cobra intake as I love that style/look and am partial to it. If it costs me a few HP...meh. Everything else can be changed. is a 70MM TB worth it? Or stick to the 65MM I have. Opinions on Cam? Go with something else, or good enough?

I do need roller rockers as the Crane Cobra ones I have wont work. Thoughts on brand/ratio?


Goal is just a healthy ,safe combo for a weekend car. No racing, or need to max out a dyno

those will work fine with a stock bottom with that cam, those are the same heads and cam as in the often talked about tfs kit. they are a 100% carb legal head, meaning all the smog and egr stuff is present, and other than needing stud-mounted rockers and longer pushrods, dont need anything special. most users will be at or above the 300rwhp mark with a setup like yours, but those heads are good for more with a bigger cam/intake (i was at 330rwhp with a stage 2 cam and rpm2 intake). will need a better spring package though for much more than that stage 1 as i found the hard way.

there are also the 11r 190cc heads which i think are also emissions legal, but flow better, have more valve clearance, and a better spring package, but thats a great price imo for the older 170's

btw, if you need rockers i have a set of comp golds i bought for mine before i tore it apart that i never used, pm if interested.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Thanks guys, I think I know what i'll end up doing now. Prob the 170's, ported cobra lower, 65mm TB, 70MM SN95 MAF, the TFS1 cam (I know I can prob do better, but I have it and don't mind the lumpy idle), RR's and then typical exhaust mods. Should be pretty healthy for cruising around the neighborhood.

Work bonus pays out next week, so probably start buying some parts shortly.

And yes....I STILL need to finish bleeding the brakes and install the steering rack. I've had no time, but I have some vacation days to burn.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Ok, back to the car. Dismounted two rear wheels to get some new tires this week. Going with BFG g force sport comp-2. 255/45/17

While they were off, tossed quad shocks back on. Yes, I still had wheel hop despite the aftermarket control arms.

I'll have some time this week to bleed my brakes with the pressure bleeder. So I set that up. And by setting up, I mean put the box on top of the car.

 

[Mustang5L5]

So...I keep going back to these. I dunno. What to do....hmm

 

[Mustang5L5]

Ok. Spoiler. Going with cobras. I spill the beans because I need advice

 

[Mustang5L5]

Problem is the front wheel weights. I want to run stick on weights vs hammer on. But they are close.

I prob have 1mm of clearance betweeen fins on caliper, and a 1/2" wheel weight. Do I go for it?

Caliper is fixed in place well and as pads wear will move away from weight

 

[Mustang5L5]

2-3mm at the closest point

You can see from this angle it's just the corner of a 1/2" wide stick on weight that is close. The caliper will pull inwards, away from it as it wears

 

[Mustang5L5]

Well. It's done. 12 years after I bought these wheels they are finally going on the car.

Not yet though. Quick polish up, and still gotta finish bleeding brakes.

 

[Mustang5L5]

They clean up pretty well.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Ok last pics of these wheels and I'll move on. I won't be mounting them just yet. I kinda want to wait until I wrap up the steering rack and finish bleeding the brakes. I don't want to risk scratching them up.

Anyway, an hour or so of polishing really shined all 4 up. Hard to actually show it but in person the before/after was dramatic.

The lug nuts are internal drive nuts. I copied @Ozz here as he runs(or ran) the same lugs. I think I asked him about them 10 years ago? Wow

And finally a finishing toouch

What did I use to polish them? Well, after doing some research as to the clearcoat many OEMs use, the consensus was that it was similar to a plastic. So I used plastic polish. Really did a great job or taking the haze and light hard water spots off.


Anyway, off to the corner these go.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Oh, and I went 235/45/17 up front, and 255/45/17 out back.

I think 255 is a great fit for the 17x8s and is 26.0" tall vs the stock 24.7", so not a huge difference.

Here's a good pic showing 235 vs 255 on the 17x8 rim

 

[Mustang5L5]

255 would be too big. I had issues with 245/45/17s on the bullitts. They rubbed on insider fenders at full lock, and rubbed the bottom corner near the drip location when I turned. 255s would just make it worse being wider and taller. When I ran 235/45/17s on the 97 cobras, the fit was perfect up front.

I don't really need to rotate. This cars moved less than 1000 miles since 2004. I think I like working on it more than driving it.