Progress Thread Nicholase "lights out" build-

limp · Jun 8, 2026

This is what happens when some Jealous assholes at UPS don't like that your getting something that they want... Must of played basketball with my TKX during shipment... This is what my input shaft did to some very thick cardboard.. Why I am thinking of driving to Pennsylvania to pickup my next TKX for my restomod project... As said above I do believe some Tremec dealers re pack the transmission in the box now... Still should be a wood box with the transmission bolted down inside it......
The Jacksonville FL UPS terminal, of which EVERYTHING coming into Florida is the worst. I get alot of damaged item. .. Some unhappy demographics working there is my guess.. I try to get things shipped Fed Ex here because of it....

nicholase · Jun 14, 2026

I think I'm going to do the trans swap late July. Just having too much fun driving the car right now. I do have a few smaller projects that can be done anytime. First is a new shift boot. I got this one from Redline Industries. It's the nappa leather option with red stitching.

I attached it to the trim ring with some RTV. Clamped overnight.

With the RTV cured I reinstalled the staples. "The Right Stuff" holds really well. Probably didn't need the staples, but why not.

Little test fit in the bezel. I need to give it a quick sand down and a few more coats of Trim Black.

One thing that bugged me a little is the opening by where the shift ball will reside.

So I took a little extra time and fixed that. I removed the original rubber grommet from the factory shift boot.

Then installed it in the new leather boot with some RTV.

Put the shift handle in and added a few zipties to round out the joint.

I'll let that set up overnight and then flip it inside out and give it a little Right Stuff on the inside.

Also have the e-brake boot.

Gonna get started on that when I get a chance.

Mac131 · Jun 14, 2026

nicholase said:
So, this was my first time on a dyno with something I built. Just to walk you guys through it that are waiting for that day, or dreaming of when your project gets to that point.... it's worth it. Keep going.

It was an awesome feeling so I wanted to share my experience. I had butterfly's all morning. I got up at 5am and was pre gapping plugs nervously. When I showed up and was watching them strap it down it was an awesome , yet fearful experience. In one way I was super stoked. Another I worried something I did would fail and it would all be destroyed. So yeah. Nervous as hell.

Doug was totally awesome. He let me do all the computer work as far as pulling up info for data logging, and editing, saving and what not. It was awesome to have that experience in my ear, but yet also actively participating. He was just spewing knowledge and I was trying to soak it all up. After the first few passes he said it was the smoothest pulling lower power Fox he's come across. Keep in mind he's used to 1300 hp - 2000 hp rockets. The shop owner kept saying how efficient it sounded. Doug mentioned how hard it hit the dyno, he said some lower powered cars take forever to get up to RPM under dyno load, I think "spicy" was the word he used. Overall we were all pretty impressed with the little 302 from my garage Frankenshop.

Put on your headphones.

That's just music. If you don't like that you just ain't right lol. That pull was was one of the last ones, and was after Doug added some spark and we started working up from my conservative (non professional) tune. I think it was to 6,000 rpm. I'm not gonna lie, I was really, really nervous after seeing the numbers we were working with. Inside I was excited, and also half expecting a bang and rush of oil from under the car.

This is what we got for the final tune.

Then we let it cool a touch, checked the plugs, and did a quick follow up pull. He said if it's consistent then he'll he happy and call it a day. This is the overlay of the last to back to back runs. Just about perfectly repeatable.

I saw 10.7 PSI on the data log. I listed my combo above. Its really basic setup with quality supporting mods and a good tune. He said he could add more, but didn't want to break it lol. So if anyone wants to build a block breaker, I have the recipe lol.

(I edited and added a few more details to Post #507 about my combo so all the info is in the same spot.)

Before someone mentions "stock block" fear mongering.... I'm aware. If it breaks it will be built better and badder

Here's a pretty awesome video the shop did.

Those are fantastic numbers. Such a beautiful car. You've worked your ass off and it shows.

nicholase · Jul 4, 2026

Mac131 said:
Those are fantastic numbers. Such a beautiful car. You've worked your ass off and it shows.

Thanks man! It was worth it!

nicholase · Jul 4, 2026

Looks like rain the next few days so I'm going to do the e-brake cover. The rubber one is deformed

I'm using the same technique as the shift boot becasue it worked great. I put some masking tape on the trim so my clamps don't mess it up.

This one's a little more complex so I'm doing it half / half. I'll let this half set up overnight. Then do the same on the other side.

nicholase · Jul 5, 2026

Got the e brake boot all finished up. This winter I'm going to re-upholster the seats. The shift / brake boot should match real well.

gkomo · Jul 5, 2026

Looks clean and factory+

nicholase · Jul 6, 2026

gkomo said:
Looks clean and factory+

Thanks man. That's pretty much what I'm going for with everything on the car.

They make each peice by order and there are tons of material colors / stitch colors / stitch styles / design options. Pretty much whatever one would want can be done.

nicholase · Jul 10, 2026

Well, this is the week I took off work for some get together time with family and was thinking I'd also do the TKX swap. I think I'm gonna skip the install this summer. It will be a nice winter project. Then there's no feel of rushing to get it back up and running.

So I goofed around with the tune a little. The only issue I've experienced is a bit of idle stumble when returning to idle with the A/C on. It never stalled, but felt like it might sometimes. In the IAC calibration there is a section for its behavior. There are 4 maps. Neural and in gear. A/C on or off for both. I played around with that a little until the idle with the A/C on matched with it off. Pretty easy.

Other than that, I really don't have anything to do to it other than preference stuff. It's running spot on. I can't believe how well it does for every situation I've had it in. From the low 30's first few rides in the spring to this past 90° humid weekend. It's spot on. All I've really done was pull a few degrees timing in boosted areas and added a bit if fuel in the same spots. The everyday drivability low load, no boot tune is out of the box stock. I actually can't get it to buck or jerk anywhere. Even 5th gear at 30 mph throttle tip in, or floor it. I've tried to make it misbehave becasue it learns from these situations. But I can't get it to do anything but purr like a kitten, or go like hell when I step on it.

Anyhow, there are several variables to personalize it. This is an idle RPM adder for start up. Last weekend I added 100 rpm and played around with the slope here.

Then I noticed in my new truck the high idle lasts for about 20 seconds, which seems right. So I increased the time from 16 sec - 20 seconds.

There's also an ECT based idle speed adjustmemt I can make.

That one seems fine so I left it alone. I just like the high idle for a start up even if its warm. It sounds nice as it tapers off. While I was digging through this I found a "TITO" feature which seems cool. Maybe if I mess with the ECT based RPM table I'll add the TITO. Kinda cool to kick it down manually. Old school / new school i guess.

There are load adders where I can increase idle RPM in different situations. Like when a cooling fan comes on. I'm still using the factory clutch fan, but if I ever get away from that it's gonna be super easy as its already wired to power one and I just have to hook it up and enable in the software. Then I can adjust my idle RPM for whem it comes on. So I'll probably do that some day.

nicholase · 2026-07-26T15:59:45-0500

On this episode of "how many times can Nick remove his inner fenders before he loses his mind"....

Ahh, it's not that bad. But I've had the passenger inner fender off several times since I "finished". A while back I relocated the carbon canister behind the inner fender in the little area between the fender and body. It sits pretty much right behind the 5.0 emblem. Since the weather has warmed up I've been getting evaporating fuel smells inside the car. It's coming from the canister. If I open the passenger door and look through the door jam with a flashlight I can see it. I can also smell it strongly.

Today I took out the fender liner and the canister bracket I made. I replaced it with a new one. Instead of keeping the mushroom caps on I made a little manifold to pipe the fumes out of the door jam area.

I mounted the new assemble back in its cubby hole and ran 5/8" fuel line from it over the the wheel liner and to the front of the fender behind the bumper. There's an oval stamped hole in the core support that passes through to the engine bay. So I ran the hose through there.

I'm gonna drive it to work tomorrow and see if the smell is gone. I imagine it will be. That old canister was really heavy and stinky. I drove it to work all last week except for one thunderstorm day. It's running awesome. Love this car. Been really putting some miles on it this season.

Noobz347 · 2026-07-27T01:00:30-0500

How much time (in all your digikal widard stuff) does the vapor cannister spend in vac with the valve open?

nicholase · 2026-07-27T09:14:48-0500

Noobz347 said:
How much time (in all your digikal widard stuff) does the vapor cannister spend in vac with the valve open?

Good question. I haven't been able to find any strategy for that in the software. I'll keep digging around. I remember having fuel smells around the canister even back when I was on the Ford EEC and it was under the hood. I should have changed it when I relocated it.

I think that little bit of smell is just getting into the cabin. I noticed the hole where the radio antenna passes through into that space isn't sealed in any way and its right next to the mushroom cap on the charcoal canister. I noticed the smell mostly when I had the A/C on max (recirc). It was likely sucking air right through there because the recirculation inlet isn't far from there.

We'll see. Unfortunately it looks like rain and t-storms most of the week.

Noobz347 · 2026-07-27T12:34:18-0500

My thought is that the cannister should not be saturated like you describe.

Progress Thread Nicholase "lights out" build-

limp

wrap a little cheese around it and its a done

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Mac131

Active Member

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Attachments

gkomo

now i can hopefully expect to receive the shaft

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

nicholase

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Similar threads

Progress Thread Nicholase "lights out" build-

wrap a little cheese around it and its a done

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Active Member

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Attachments

now i can hopefully expect to receive the shaft

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

I lubed and pushed, until it was all the way in

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Similar threads

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