I guess I was thinking along the lines of the horror stories of the 6pt harnesses with reclining seats, but I guess a roll bar with harness bar would more or less make the seats act like fixed-backs in the event of a roll, right?

I would think that would be the case with the full cage and the bar. I would think race seats would still be more ideal but this sollution doesn't look to be as dangerous as just the harness and a stock seat.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Parts are arriving and boxes are stacking up in the living room. The shift knob for the MGW shifter showed up today along with the Speed Bleeders, Steeda camber plates, and my DBA Rotors showed up before I got the car. I'm still waiting for the Steeda Competition springs, Koni Sports and MGW shifter to show up.

The brake cooling ducts are currently out of stock and the Konis are still on backorder.

I decided to go with the XP10 front pads and XP8 rear pads instead of the XP12 front pads and XP10 rear pads like I used in the previous Mustang in an attempt to be able to modulate the brakes a little better before engaging ABS. The XP12's are pretty aggressive and on DOT approved tires I could engage the ABS easily at well over 100 MPH on a dry track.

those boss 302 seats are real nice .. i'd say get those .. sometimes it takes serious money to get exactly what youre looking for

My car was nose to nose with a Camaro outside of the America on Wheels Museum today for Don & Liz's wedding.

http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...ng/museum1.jpg
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...ng/museum4.jpg
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...ng/museum5.jpg
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...ng/museum7.jpg

I ordered the Kooks headers and high flow cats today. I decided to go with the X pipe instead of the H pipe this time. The H pipe sounds better but the X pipe makes more power. It will take about 10 days for the headers to be built and they will arrive in about 2 weeks. I'll be doing somehting a bit unusual to eliminate the exhaust drone that Mustangs with X pipes get on the highway.

I ran into a problem with the Koni shocks. I ordered them from Sam Strano when he was out of town for an AutoX event. He didn't get my order submitted in time for me to get the sale price. Now I have to decide if I want to pay more for the Konis or get the Tokico D-Spec struts and shocks. The only issue I have with the Tokico product is I hear nothing but complaints about warranty replacements if/when they do wear out/break on the Tokicos, but Koni's warranty replacement process is quick and painless.

http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...ale-weight.jpg


I also stopped by the scale last night to see how this one weighs compared to the 2008 GT I had. Weight with me in it and a full tank of gas is 3680 lbs. Subtract about 180 lbs for me with clothes and boots and 100 lbs for 16 gallons of gasoline and the empty weight of the car is about 3400 lbs. A 2005 Mustang GT with no options is 3350 lbs. Mine has the optional 500 watt factory stereo, optional power driver's seat, and a few optional interior appearance items that make up for the extra 50 lbs. The 2008 GT weighed about 3420 lbs empty. The main difference is both seats in the 2008 were power seats and the 2008 had headers which weigh less than the stock cast iron exhaust manifolds. Looks like the motors add at least 20 lbs per seat.

Loved having the Mustang out front Chris thanks again for letting me put it up there.

It was nice seeing the Camaro and Mustang and the Lancer and Impreza rivalries in front of the museum.

Yeah that ended up being pretty cool like that.

Something felt a bit off when I was driving the car a couple days after picking it up and the highway gas mileage dropped to 17 MPG. The car already had the check engine light on due to the cams. Sometimes the cams cause the idle to drop lower than expected and the light comes on due to a P0506 code which is "Idle Air Control System RPM Lower Than Expected" and that's normal normal with cams in the newer Mustangs if you don't reprogram the idle RPM range. However the temperature gauge instantly shot up to the middle of warm even though the car was sitting overnight. I knew something else was wrong. Using the SCT X-cal 3 as a code scanner, the P1290 code popped up. That is "Cylinder Head Temp Sensor Low Input."

Newer Ford cars and trucks use cylinder head temperature sensors instead of coolant temperature sensors. The actual coolant temp you see on the dashboard you see in many Fords is inferred from cylinder head temperature. The older Fords used coolant temperature as one of the parameters to determine appropriate spark timing. However that was an indirect method to determine cylinder head temperature and someone had the wise idea to measure cylinder head temperature directly. You can still add a coolant temp sensor to the car, however the engine management doesn't care what the coolant temperature is. If the coolant is too hot, so are the cylinder heads.

After researching the possible causes, I figured that either the sensor was bad or the wiring harness connector was loose where it attaches to the sensor. I let the car sit for a few hours and reached under the intake manifold from the back of the engine to see if the connector for the cylinder head temperature sensor was loose. It wasn't loose and apparently there is something pretty warm under there because I burned my arm while trying to reach for the sensor. No big deal, its healing nicely. :lol:

After determining that its probably the sensor, I picked up a new one for $14 and started the process of replacing the sensor. Its the only sensor that isn't easy to replace and requires taking many other parts off of the car.

I started by taking off the intake, fuel rails, injectors, and intake manifold.
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...ifold-off-.jpg
*note* you should cover up the ports on the cylinder head to prevent stuff from falling inside. I was working quickly and didn't cover them up, but I also looked inside each port afterwards to make sure nothign was inside that shouldn't be there. A quick and easy way to cover them is 2" wide painter's tape or some spare rags.


This is what the bottom of the intake manifold looks like
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...old-bottom.jpg


Here is the Cylinder Head Temperature Sensor after being loosened and I'm about to remove it.
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...r-location.jpg


And here is the shiny new one in its place.
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...cht-sensor.jpg


Everything is almost back together. The oil was used to lube the injector O rings.
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...reassembly.jpg


Everything is back together
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...assembeled.jpg


And I have no leftover parts!
http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...over-parts.jpg


When taking the manifold off, I noticed that I was missing one of the intake manifold bolts. Its one in the middle on the inside. Whoever put the CMCV/Butterfly delete plates on either didn't tighten it enough and it fell off or they lost it and didn't replace it. I got two new ones and replaced the missing bolt.

Yesterday I changed the transmission fluid and flushed out the old brake fluid. The old transmission fluid was purpleish. I wonder if the previous owner used that royal purple crap? Royal Purple transmission fluid seems to be a NoNo in the 2005 and up Mustangs. Everyone that uses the Royal Purple complains about it then says how wonerful the Ford recommended Mercon V or the Tremec recommended Synchromesh is after they change back.

http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...uid-change.jpg


The brake fluid was dark, even in the master cylinder, and long overdue to be changed. The brakes felt fine, but I haven't pushed the car hard yet.

http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...luid-flush.jpg

I used two bottles of Motul RBF600 to flush the entire system.

http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...brakefluid.jpg

Keeping busy i see Chris lol. I used Royal Purple in my trans until it blew and Andrewtech told me it was softening the seals in my tranny. Don't know how true it is but I haven't taken any chances by using it again.

Nice progress on the maintenance front. RP sucks on the Evo trans too.

Fixed that for ya, lol.




And I really need to pick up a mustang, lol.

The UPS man has been berry berry good to me!

http://www.zx2.org/images/sonic-blue...ooks-boxes.jpg

Kooks custom headers with 1-5/8" primaries and 2.5" X pipe with high flow cats. I ordered them on June 7th and got them today. Not bad time considerign when I ordered them there were none in stock and they had to produce a few sets.

Will they be on for the meet tomorrow? lol

I was tempted to install them today, but I don't have a garage and its been scattered rain here.

Hey a little rain never hurt nobody lol.

It feel like my stock motor mounts are starting to wear out. I'll replace then with the Prothane mounts when I install the headers.