Progress Thread Nicholase "lights out" build-

AeroCoupe · Aug 29, 2024

You will find them right after you get the car back down on the ground.

Mac131 · Aug 29, 2024

nicholase said:
I also had to grab new hangers for the mufflers. The old Magnaflow system came with different body mount hangers so I needed the original style. Somewhere I have the originals. Somewhere....

Hopefully you can find the originals. Man, that is one beautiful car. Curious how it will sound as well. Those mufflers look very well made too.

gkomo · Aug 30, 2024

I've always been a fan of Bassani exhaust on Mustangs, great choice.

Which MM LCAs do you have? I'm thinking of picking up some 'heavy duty' adjustable ones this weekend, as well as a Panhard bar.

gkomo · Aug 30, 2024

For a second i thought you had like Cobra style cheese graters but its just a reflection. Now that i think about it, that would be a pretty cool idea.

nicholase · Aug 30, 2024

gkomo said:
I've always been a fan of Bassani exhaust on Mustangs, great choice.

Which MM LCAs do you have? I'm thinking of picking up some 'heavy duty' adjustable ones this weekend, as well as a Panhard bar.

Actually I have both the HD and the Sport models. Both have the adjustable perch which is an awesome feature if you're not going w/ rear coil overs. The adjustable perch is why I went with them.

The HD has the spherical bearing on the body side and poly at the axle side. I guess it's more for hard launches and Maximum power. I noticed quite a bit of added NVH with them. It transmitted alot of road noise. Bumps could be a little jarring sometimes.

So I tried the sport model which is the same LCA, but has poly bushings on both sides. It rides much more like stock and I like them way better. Much smoother. I think they are better geared to me as I don't do any serious track days or hard launches with slicks or anything like that.

Lesson learned there for me. I like bushings lol.

nicholase · Aug 30, 2024

I started with the rear upper control arms and axle side bushings. As I mentioned I'm replacing the originals with MM upper control arms and axle bushings. I also bought the MM bushing removal / install tool and I'm glad I did. It made it almost effortless. Gotta love a tool that works so good! I would imagine it totally sucks without it.

The old bushings weren't horrible. But I noticed them starting to crack and with the exhaust off they were right there.

What was worn out were the control arm bushings. I noticed on both of them the bushing was deformed and the crush collar was permanently quite a bit off center. I'd say they were used up. Looked like googly eyes.

They went in pretty easy. If anyone is thinking about doing this and haven't before a good tip is to jack up the axle and take all the weight off the jack stands so the control arms are at ride angle before you tighten them down.

nicholase · Aug 30, 2024

Then I tackled the exhaust. One thing I like to do with stainless exhausts it to give it a brushed finish. I started doing this on motorcycle exhausts, stainless or titanium. It really looks good and keeps them looking nice longer. They will age to a even straw color. It makes the heat marks from welding disappear. Just some WD40 and scotchbrite pads. Go in one direction. Just takes a few minutes.

Here is a done one

I test fit the new exhaust but saw I was going to have to adjust the X pipe some. So I removed it and used my pipe expander on all the old connections. Then I could assemble the new portion to it and freely rotate and spin everything to get it all adjusted nice.

One tool that I put off buying for way to long is an exhaust pipe expander. It makes it all so much easier.

I was able to get the new Bassani exhaust mounted up with the mufflers level even with the larger diameter aluminum driveshaft. This pic is with the axle at full droop. A solid inch between the muffler and shaft.

From the back. If I used the Magnaflows I would have had to angle them excessively to clear the driveshaft. I like this look better.

I did have to bend the gas tank lip up over the tail pipe. Other than that it was a really nice fit. Really happy wth it.

Mac131 · Aug 30, 2024

Wow man! That looks incredible. Love the muffler polishing too. I still can't believe how clean the bottom of that car is.

nicholase · Aug 30, 2024

Thanks man!

nicholase · Aug 31, 2024

After a test drive I can say the 70 MPH vibration is completely gone. It was definitely the old driveshaft. It's actually much smoother feeling at all speeds. Which is awesome.

It also used to have this weird sort of wobble feeling right after fully releasing the clutch in first gear. It's been like this since I got it. It would go away at 3-4 mph. It wasn't anything extreme, very subtle, but it was there. I guess it was a driveshaft vibration too, but because it was spinning so slow at that speed it didn't really vibrate, just had a wobbling feeling. That's totally gone too. So definitely worth the $$$. Super excited about all this.

The new Bassani exhaust sounds great! I'm really happy with it. It's quite a unique sound and really seems to work perfectly with the Bassani X pipe. It sounds glorious.

When I was in the garage working on the car the UPS guy dropped off some packages. He said "nice car, there isn't anything on the street that sounds like those things".

Yup. Correct sir.

Mac131 · Aug 31, 2024

nicholase said:
After a test drive I can say the 70 MPH vibration is completely gone. It was definitely the old driveshaft. It's actually much smoother feeling at all speeds. Which is awesome.

It also used to have this weird sort of wobble feeling right after fully releasing the clutch in first gear. It's been like this since I got it. It would go away at 3-4 mph. It wasn't anything extreme, very subtle, but it was there. I guess it was a driveshaft vibration too, but because it was spinning so slow at that speed it didn't really vibrate, just had a wobbling feeling. That's totally gone too. So definitely worth the $$$. Super excited about all this.

The new Bassani exhaust sounds great! I'm really happy with it. It's quite a unique sound and really seems to work perfectly with the Bassani X pipe. It sounds glorious.

When I was in the garage working on the car the UPS guy dropped off some packages. He said "nice car, there isn't anything on the street that sounds like those things".

Yup. Correct sir.

That's awesome!

nicholase · Sep 7, 2024

This winter I'll be doing a 5 lug conversion. I'll also be upgrading to big brakes front and rear. I'm still in the planning stages. I am going with Baer but haven't decided on exactly which package. I like the design of the radial mount fronts and the e-brake setup of the rear.

I don't have a computer or printer so I contacted Baer and they mailed me out some paper clearance templates. I glued them to some foam poster board I got at Walmart with super 77 spray adhesive.

Then I measured the hub diameter of the wheels and cut them out with a razor blade

I test fit the templates to my 17" pony's. These templates are for the 6 piston caliper / 13" rotor (front) and 4 piston caliper/ 12" rotor (rear). These would be the largest front I'd use and they fit with plenty of room to spare.

Front:

Rear:

nicholase · Sep 7, 2024

One thing I'll need for the 5 lug conversion I'm planning is spindles. I grabbed some 94 spindles about 3 months ago. Finally got around to looking them over and giving them a clean up.

After a degrease and wire brush they look pretty good.

Then I dipped them in Evaporust for two days. I pulled them out and cleaned them up with a nylon brush and warm water. They looked pretty good but still had some discoloration in a few spots. I let them soak for another 2 days. This is fresh out of the solution after letting drip dry.

When I get some time I'm going to scrub them once more and spray with some clear POR15 direct to metal top coat.

Mac131 · Sep 7, 2024

nicholase said:
One thing I'll need for the 5 lug conversion I'm planning is spindles. I grabbed some 94 spindles about 3 months ago. Finally got around to looking them over and giving them a clean up.

After a degrease and wire brush they look pretty good.

Then I dipped them in Evaporust for two days. I pulled them out and cleaned them up with a nylon brush and warm water. They looked pretty good but still had some discoloration in a few spots. I let them soak for another 2 days. This is fresh out of the solution after letting drip dry.

When I get some time I'm going to scrub them once more and spray with some clear POR15 direct to metal top coat.

That's gonna be a nice setup! I love evapo-rust...makes just about any steel piece look new again. I sure love ponies on GTs, you gonna get some 17" 5 lugs?

nicholase · Sep 8, 2024

Mac131 said:
That's gonna be a nice setup! I sure love ponies on GTs, you gonna get some 17" 5 lugs?

Yeah, that's the plan. I got a little figuring to do. LMR says the 17" 5 lug pony's fit fox or sn95 spindles. So I'm assuming they have a 70.5 mm hub bore to match the sn95 hubs. I'll need to call them and confirm. Oddly they don't list them on the sn95 wheel selection page.

I'll also need to figure out which rear axle flange fits them. I'm assuming if they fit a '94 front 70.5mm hub then the fox length w/ '94 flange axle would work in the rear for the wheel. So I'll need to confirm that and also make sure Baer can accommodate that with the rotor hub diameter because the kit is for drum axles. It does look to contain a hub centric spacer. So it's possible the rotors fit either. I'd just skip the hub centric which would be ideal.

I don't really have any interest in wheels other than the Pony's. Just a peference thing. Sometimes the manufacturers get it right and I feel they did with those. Same with the GM rally wheels for the 60's vette's, Camaros and Chevelles. They just look right on those cars and even better in more modern sizes.

nicholase · Sep 8, 2024

Mac131 said:
I love evapo-rust...makes just about any steel piece look new again.

Yeah, it's amazing stuff. Works great for nuts and bolts and stuff too.

Mac131 · Sep 8, 2024

nicholase said:
Yeah, that's the plan. I got a little figuring to do. LMR says the 17" 5 lug pony's fit fox or sn95 spindles. So I'm assuming they have a 70.5 mm hub bore to match the sn95 hubs. I'll need to call them and confirm. Oddly they don't list them on the sn95 wheel selection page.

I'll also need to figure out which rear axle flange fits them. I'm assuming if they fit a '94 front 70.5mm hub then the fox length w/ '94 flange axle would work in the rear for the wheel. So I'll need to confirm that and also make sure Baer can accommodate that with the rotor hub diameter because the kit is for drum axles. It does look to contain a hub centric spacer. So it's possible the rotors fit either. I'd just skip the hub centric which would be ideal.

I don't really have any interest in wheels other than the Pony's. Just a peference thing. Sometimes the manufacturers get it right and I feel they did with those. Same with the GM rally wheels for the 60's vette's, Camaros and Chevelles. They just look right on those cars and even better in more modern sizes.

Please let me know what you find out on the ponies. I have the SVE 5 lug conversion on mine...atleast the brakes are SVE. I'll need to look into it more to see which axles they used.

Just a note, my 5 lug disc conversion still has the stock booster installed and the brake pedal is really stiff. I have the 93 cobra style booster here waiting to be installed.

nicholase · Sep 19, 2024

There are two things I want to fine tune a bit. First I'm wondering if the small factory 55mm MAF is causing a restriction on the super charger inlet.

Second I want to take the edge off the fuel pressure a little by being able to use smaller disc's in the FMU.

Currently these are the boost #'s I've had:

Starting out with the entry level kit Vortech, then upgraded.
-Stock engine.
-Stock MAF
-Stock injectors
-3.55's
-shorty's, catted X pipe, cat back exhaust
-255lph gs340
-T-rex inline
*A UPR power pipe was added and MAF moved to behind fender when I converted to 8 rib.

6 rib - 6" crank / 3.31 charger = 4.5 psi
8 rib - 6.87" crank / 3.31 charger = 6.5 psi
8 rib - 6.87" crank / 3.12 charger = 8.5 psi

nicholase · Sep 19, 2024

To see if the 55mm MAF is causing a restriction I decided to go with a Pro M 80mm MAF. I sent them a detailed list of all the modifications and they sent out a calibrated MAF for 24lb injectors.

It's considerably larger than the old factory MAF and Vortech supplied filter. So I'm sure there will be some fabrication involved. I'll take some pics as I go and post them.

I also ordered some fuel injectors. This is where it got a little interesting. I decided to get them flow tested. I read a few posts from Noobz about getting new injectors flow tested and the more I thought about it the more it seemed like a really good idea. I felt knowing what they are actually flowing would allow me to organize them in the fuel rails so the left and right bank have even flow. That way the AFR reading I'm seeing from my wideband in the left bank should be very similar to right which is not monitored. It would also let me catch any defect.

This quote is what really got me thinking about it.

Noobz347 said:
On a side note: The 19 lb injectors used in this setup are being pushed way beyond spec and it is a [really] good idea to have them all flow tested and adjusted so that they all squirt the same.

It only takes one weak injector to throw the whole damned thing off.

Chances are if I went lean it wouldn't be all the cylinders evenly lean and destroyed together. It just takes one lean cylinder to stop the party.

I found a local fuel injector cleaner and flow test shop. He's a racer and was really great to work with and super fast turn around time. 7 bucks per injector to flow test.

I'm using a FMU which raises the fuel pressure under boost. So I had him flow them at the standard 43.5 psi and also 90 psi so I can see how consistent they are when being pushed.

The first set of injectors I got from LMR. They are the pink 24lb injector. This pic taken after getting them back from flowtesting. (They shipped from LMR loose in a ziplock bag.)

I wasn't thrilled with the results.

The flows were pretty inconsistent with each other and one of them had a higher resistance. Had I not got them flow tested I would have never know. I definitely didn't have the warm and fuzzies about using them.

I asked the owner of the shop if he knew of a place where I could order a set of new, not re manufactured OEM quality injectors. He recommended Fuel Injector Connection. I gave them a call and I ordered a set of flow matched, new, authentic Bosch 24lb injectors. Again I took them to be flow tested.

This time the results were great. This is what I expected to see from a quality injector. They flow nearly identical.

I should be able to get this wrapped up this weekend. Then I'll do a little "tuning" with the FMU. I'm having a local machine shop make me some calibration disc sets in sizes Vortech doesn't make.

Noobz347 · Sep 19, 2024

I am tickled effin pink that you did all that and posted the results here.

I am going to steal your post and make it a sticky someplace. The last time I had injectors flow tested was 2000-something and [wished] I had thought to keep all the documentation.

That matched set is pretty sweet. I am 100% convinced that, that is the way to go.

Progress Thread Nicholase "lights out" build-

lube between the nut and the face. I know my lubes

Active Member

now i can hopefully expect to receive the shaft

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

Active Member

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

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

Active Member

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

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

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

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