2005 Sonic Blue Mustang GT - New Parts Installed

[Ender81]

What makes you think they are wearing out? Just curious not doubting.

[Chris B.]

Originally Posted by Ender81

What makes you think they are wearing out? Just curious not doubting.

When I shift when I'm accelerating at part throttle, the car shifts fine. It also shifts fine when the car isn't moving. When I floor it and try to shift fast, I have trouble getting into gear until I'm off the gas long enough for the engine to line back up to a normal position. It shift fine at high RPM at part throttle, but not at full throttle. I replaced the transmission fluid. I didn't have that issue with the two other Mustangs I had with the stock or MGW shifter. I replaced the shifter with the MGW shifter which replaces the shift linkage and all of the bushings. At this point, I'm thinking its either the engine mounts or the transmission mount.

[Chris B.]

Now that the Koni Sports(Yellows as some people call them) arrived, I can get started on the suspension.



I might replace the front lower control arms later depending on how the stock ones look.

[BIGPHIL]

Hey...new member hear. I read your other topic about what happened to your last car, but glad to see you weren't hurt in the crash...great job on getting another Mustang!

I do have some thoughts about your new build. I'm a fellow Mustang guy and track junkie. If you haven't installed your struts yet, I would highly recommend getting a set of the gt500 strut mounts to put on at the same time. They will serve you good on the track and are good for a dd car also. Your current and planned mod list seems to be pretty decent so far. The prothane mounts will definitely help out the shifting issues. oh yeah...and next time you change your brake fluid...up it to the DOT5.1...wont hurt and will only do you good as well as some ss brake lines. also...if you get that 1-piece aluminum drive shaft make sure to get an adjustable rear upper control link because you will get some vibrations at speed because your pinion angle will be off with lowering the car (the one from hotpart.com is pretty sweet). well, good luck with the continued build and happy track days!

[Chris B.]

Originally Posted by BIGPHIL

Hey...new member hear. I read your other topic about what happened to your last car, but glad to see you weren't hurt in the crash...great job on getting another Mustang!

I do have some thoughts about your new build. I'm a fellow Mustang guy and track junkie. If you haven't installed your struts yet, I would highly recommend getting a set of the gt500 strut mounts to put on at the same time. They will serve you good on the track and are good for a dd car also.

I skipped them on my previous car and this car for several reasons. First, they don't offer any more camber adjustment over the stock strut mounts. Second, they don't last much longer than the stock strut mounts. They have basically the same internal construction with the plastic parts that wear down and work loose. Third, the Steeda Camber plates replace the strut mounts and offer 2 additional degrees of adjustment over the stock and GT500 strut mounts.

Originally Posted by BIGPHIL

Your current and planned mod list seems to be pretty decent so far. The prothane mounts will definitely help out the shifting issues. oh yeah...and next time you change your brake fluid...up it to the DOT5.1...wont hurt and will only do you good as well as some ss brake lines.

DOT 5.1 brake fluid has a dry boiling poit of 518 F and the Motul fluid I use has a dry boiling point of 598 F. The only advantage to 5.1 fluid is that its cheaper than Motul RBF 600, but the tradeoff is the much lower boiling point of the 5.1 fluid. I change the brake fluid often enough that the wet boiling point isn't much of a concern.

I plan to change the brake lines when I put in new calipers.

Originally Posted by BIGPHIL

also...if you get that 1-piece aluminum drive shaft make sure to get an adjustable rear upper control link because you will get some vibrations at speed because your pinion angle will be off with lowering the car (the one from hotpart.com is pretty sweet). well, good luck with the continued build and happy track days!

I had the Steeda adjustable rear upper control arm on the previous car. I'm familiar with J&M's parts, but I prefer the UMI roto joints on a daily driver. They aren't as loud as rod end, but offer more movement than a urethane bushing.

[Chris B.]

I noticed one of the stock over axle pipes was cut a few inches back form the stock H pipe and a small piece fo 2.5" pipe was clamped in place. I guess the end of the stock pipe got bent or damaged somehow and instead of replacing it, they replaced a few inches of the front of the pipe. It looked liek it could be a problem in the future, so when I found a great deal on some new stainess steel mandrel bent over axle pipes, I bought them. They arrived this week.

My weekend plans are to put in the motor mounts and suspension bits.

Hopefully the brake cooling ducts arrive in time for Pocono later this month.

[Ender81]

Are the headers on at this point?

[Chris B.]

Originally Posted by Ender81

Are the headers on at this point?

Not yet. I might do a before and after dyno of the headers. Probably next weekend they will be installed.

One of the reasons I want to do a before and after dyno is there is some disagreement in the S197 community on if headers actually give more of a power gain than just adding a good X pipe. No one has ever done a dyno of an X pipe and stock manifolds then headers with an X pipe on the same car to see the actual difference in power. I'm curious too. I really believe that the headers will give me more power than the X pipe does based on my previous results and other S197 owners results before and after headers.

[Ender81]

That'd be really cool to do since you are in a position to do it already.

[Chris B.]

Because I'll be installing the headers this weekend, I decided to get some before and after dyno results. I wasn't expecting much more power out of the 2005 Mustang GT than my 2008 Mustang GT had with just an intake and a tune. The 2008 Mustang GT with an intake and a tune made 295 HP and 312 lb-ft at the wheels. I figured the stock exhaust manifolds would be enough of a restriction that the cams and CMCV delete plates wouldn't give much of a power gain and the car would put down 305-310 HP at the wheels at most.

I guess I was wrong about the stock exhaust manifolds causing that severe of a restriction even though they look like this.



Obviously not a very good flowing design. They are designed more to take up less space and heat up the cats quicker to impreove cold start emissions and not for performance.

The dyno results were 329 HP and 312 lb-ft. on the same dyno that I used to dyno my 2008 Mustang GT.


Full size screen capture here.
*note: the printout I posted earlier was a different correction factor than my previous dynos on my previous 08 Mustang so the results were updated for comparison purposes.

Other 4.6 3V Mustang owners with mods similar to mine and the long tube headers are getting 330-360 HP at the wheels depending on the cams they used, who tuned the car, if they have an X pipe or H pipe, and the rear end gear ratio. I can't wait to see the results after the headers are installed.

The rear end gear ratio makes a difference because the higher the ratio(numerically) the quicker the rear tires and the rest of the drietrain is accelerated and the lower the dyno numbers are. People that switched from 3.55 to 4.10 gears have noticed a 5-10 HP reduction in power on the dyno with no other changes to the car. Even though the cars with higher(numercially) gears may dyno at less power, they do accelerate faster becaUse they put down more torque to the wheels through gear multiplication.

[DaveSTi]

haha, the Ford log manifolds...oh how I remember thee.

[Honest_Bob]

Damn!

[Ender81]

That's awesome Chris.

[Chris B.]

Last weekend I went to upstate NY and installed the Kooks Custom headers with the help of a friend. We installed the headers on my previous Dark Candy Apple Metallic Red Mustang, so the install went faster this time sicne we knew what we were doing and knew all the tricks to cut down the install time. Including the lunch break, it was under 8 hours to take off all the old parts, remove the battery and battery tray, remove all four O2 sensors, unbolt the engine mounts, jack up the engine, take off the starter and remove more engine mount parts, take off the stock manifolds, then installation was reverse of removal.

Due to the tight spaces in the engine bay and around the headers, some of the bolts could only be turned about 1/6 of a turn at a time and we couldn't fit a gear wrench or socket in there.



This time I went with an X pipe instead of an H pipe. After having both, I think the H pipe deffinitely sounds better, but the X pipe supposedly gives more power. The way I've heard it described before when talking about the S197 Mustang is that the H pipe gives more of the classic muscle car sound(like in the chase scene of Bullitt) while the X pipe is higher pitched and sounds more "exotic."

With the SLP Loudmouth mufflers, the car is earsplittingly loud under bridges and in tunnels. I thought my ears were going to bleed when I went through the Lehigh Tunnel on the Northeast extension of the turnpike with my windows down.

[Chris B.]

It was a busy day today for me and the car. This morning I dropped off the 18x10 Shelby Redline wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires to get mounted and balanced. I bought them for the previous mustang, but never used them due to the car being totaled. I picked them up a little before 1 PM then got started on a few other things.

First, I have to get rid of the stock springs and HP Blue struts. They just won't do thiss weekend at Pocono's road course.


The were replaced with Koni Yellows and Steeda Competition springs. Back in June, I got the last full set of Koni Sport Yellows for the S197 Mustang left in the country. Everyone else had to wait for Koni to produce more, but I didn't want to wait and not have them for the TST track day at Pocono.


I did run into one issue. My spring compressor broke after I did one front spring and strut, then had to drive out to a local auto parts store to buy another spring compressor. The previous one lasted me for a few installs and reinstalls, but I stripped the threads on one bolt and it became useless. The new spring compressor I bought looks like its built better and hopefully it will last longer.

Next, I put on the DBA 4000 series front rotors. The rotors on the car didn't look bad, but I couldn't tell if they were the cheap made in China replacement rotors that warp easily on the track or something better.


I replaced the stock, six year old brake lines with Goodridge stainless lines. They were actually dated with a production date in 2005, so I knew they were original.


Now the front is almost done. The Carbotec XP-10 pads are installed, brakes are bled, and everything is put back together.


Here is the car with the stock rear springs and Steeda Competition front springs.


It was getting dark and I didn't have time to put on all the other suspension goodies I have tonight, so I just instaleld the rear Steeda Competition springs and the rear Koni Sports, upper control arm, and panhard bar will go on tomorrow. Here is the car with the Steeda Competition springs on the front and rear.


The tires on the car are shorter in diameter than the stock tires and make the wheel wells look big. Not only does the car have a 4.10 ring & pinion, but the tires are about 6% smaller than stock. They look a bit tiny in those wheel wells and make the 4.10 rear act more like a 4.35 rear.

More parts will be installed tomorrow!

[Chris B.]

I uploaded a video of the exhaust from after the header install. It sounds so aggressive for having one of the mildest cams available for the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swg0Zlv_FRY

[Fenka]

i love this model!!! Would love to here this thing someday!!!

[Chris B.]

Today was another busy day I installing some more parts on the car.

First, the rear Koni Sports went on the car.



The jack is udner the rear diff to lift the rear axle up to the position its in when the car is off the jackstands. This is so that the bolts are torqued to spec in the position they are in when the car is on all four wheels.

Then I installed the rear stainless Goodridge lines and XP-8 pads on the car.


It was a bit messier than I expected changing out the brake lines because I didn't drain the brake system first. The brakes were then bled to get all the air out.

Next, it was time to put on the 18x10" Shelby Redline wheels with 265/35-18 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires.


These tires are also smaller diameter than stock tires and look small in the wheel wells.

I'm glad I got the 265 width Pilot Sport Cups instead of the 285 width Pilot Sport Cups. They tend to run wide. Here one 265/35-18 Pilot Sport Cup is next to a 275/40-17 Nitto NT555R.


Here it is on the car. I;m glad I went with the "skinny" tires. I'm not sure if the wider ones would fit.

[jesse096]

Car is coming along nicely! Sounds mean for such a mild cam.

-Jesse

[Chris B.]

I'd like to thank Khellen and Rob(Tensen on another forum) for the great pics of my car at Pocono this past weekend.







The car worked great at Pocono. Im getting use to the new track tires, but haven't found the limit of their grip too often. They are much stickier than the AD-08's on the last car.