Another Mustang, LS3 power

In reply to KSScotton :

For sure.  I'd love to come drool over those Moton coilovers.  I REALLY want some MCS's, I'm trying to make that a reality before next season.

Nothing earth shattering over the last week but I was able to work on the car a little in between all the Christmas activities.

I usually buy my metal through the company where my brother works because they have a fabrication shop and I can basically get everything at cost.  I tried to order a sheet of .032" aluminum to box in the radiator.  Well, they went back and forth for about 3 weeks before they finally refused to deliver it because they were concerned it would get damaged.  So I went down to Menards and picked up some .025" decorative aluminum sheets.  It has some kind of pattern pressed into it so it is actually more rigid and being .025" vs .032" it's lighter too.  It looks a little goofy but I don't care a great deal.  It won't be that visible once everything it together.

This whole front piece is removable with 4 bolts to access the oil and power steering coolers if needed.

Fits like a glove to the back of the bumper.

The upper grill will no longer feed the radiator, it will get a blocked off completely.

On my trip to Menard's I also picked stopped in the speed shop in the back to pick up some of the latest bumper to splitter sealing material.

Mounting holes drilled every 3".  The screws are getting replaced with #6 machine screws and nylocs but it was much easier to get it lined up and mounted with the screws.

I also got a trim ring 3D printed for the tow hook to match the trim rings around the splitter support rods and clean it up a little.

My new K-member is ordered from Maximum Motorsports.  Unfortunately I got an email from them today saying it's on backorder until the end of January. 

The wife got a vinyl cutter for Christmas, free horsepower!

In reply to Patientzero :

I HATE the word "pornography" when used with cars or food etc but there's not many other better words to describe your photographs 

Thank you for sharing. This has been great. 

We put the Maximum Motorsports K member in our '01 Cobra too. Be aware that if you opt to push the front wheels ahead in their setup, it will cost you at least an inch of clearance on the front side of the fender well. I like the improvement in handling that gives but it does mean we can't go larger than 275 tires without doing some cutting on the fender. Since our splitter attaches to our fender, I either need to live with the 275s (most likely) or build out a better splitter attachment like you've done.  

Here's a pic of how our tires look now after installation of the K member. 

In reply to Cobra86 :

I did get the forward offset control arms too.  I was unsure if I would have to do any cutting but I'm betting it will be worth it.  I may even try to get a 315 on the front at some point, running 295's now.

What size and offset wheels are you using?

All the ducting for the radiator is finished up.  It will have to be pulled back apart to get all the brackets powder coated or painted then it can go together for good.

I need to get coolant hoses figured out with the new radiator position.  Luckily it looks like the top hose can be reused.  The bottom hose however is going to be a little tricky.  I have a few options; 1. A shorter flex hose will maybe work but I think the angles are too tight.  2. Make a hard hose out of aluminum or stainless with rubber hoses on the ends. 3. Get an adjustable thermostat housing and use a combination of the previous two options.  I don't really like this option because the these things always seem to leak.  4. Modify the out on the radiator to make it a more favorable angle.

Can anyone recommend one of these that doesn't leak?

With the slight position change of the top radiator hose my intake no longer fits so a new one will have to be made.  This time out of aluminum.  When I made this back in 2017 I was on a time crunch, I couldn't weld Aluminum at the time, and I already had stainless, so that's what it got made out of.

I ordered up a few 4" bends and a fresh filter.

Mocking up with the bends taped together.

I ordered a 90, a 60, and a 45.  The 60 ended up being too much so I cut it back to 45 degrees.

Started welding it together.

Together and mocked up on the car.  Still need to add a bracket where it goes through the fender.

Plenty of clearance to the hood.

It basically matched the old intake just tweaked slightly.

The aluminum is 6lbs lighter than the stainless which is a bonus.

I also got a weight on the splitter while I had the scales out.  24lbs.  This is 1/2" birch plywood.  It could probably be cut down a little more.

The support rods are 1lb on their own.  Switching to alumunium could save some weight here.

I'm still waiting on the new k-member but I do know it uses a stock style Mustang motor mount.  The AJE k-member is a bolt through bushing style.  I can't find anyone who makes an adapter mount for this application only adapter plates for a stock mount.  I picked up a set of solid 4.6 mounts and some adapters from Trans Dapt.  

I'm not thrilled with the fitment of these mounts or adapters.  All the holes had to be drilled out to give enough wiggle for them to bolt up.  One bolt whole in the block was halfway covered with the other three bolts in.  Not to mention it really looks like these mounts are going to push the motor forward which I don't want.  I may end up making own mounts.  I will have to wait and see how everything lines up once the new k-member gets here.

About a year and a half ago I decided to drive the car to work one day.  About 1hr 20min one direction.  On the way home I got caught in a DOWNPOUR.  Like doing 40mph and still couldn't see the car in front of you.  I almost drowned my car.  Since then I've been meaning to make a shield for the air filter since it's directly in front of the tire.  Finally got around to it, lol.

I don't have a bead roller so I put a bead down the middle of it by hammering it into one of the slots in my welding table.  It's not the prettiest thing in the world but it definetly stiffened it up.  I put some rubber edge trim around the edge to clean it up and help seal it to the fender.

I wanted larger vents than than what are currently available for my hood.  I bought some of the Trackspec Motorsports vents but they werent really as big as I want and I'm not a fan of the two piece design or having to spend another $220 on the smaller vents to replace the factory ones.

Solution, make my own vents.  These are just a prototype to check fitment and make corrections if I need to.  The final vents will be made out of aluminum.

This is how they compare to the Trackspec vents.  These vents are MASSIVE. 

Has anyone ever cut this big of a hole in your car?  Wait, I forgot where I am for second.  Of course someone on here has.

Fitment is great.  One small revision to make and then I plan on cutting out a whole batch of these.

Can you clock the adjustable housing for the water neck, and then weld it to one piece to skip the whole leaking debacle? Your skills look up to the task from what I see.

this is awesome, Workmanship and attention to detail is unbelievable

captainawesome said:

Can you clock the adjustable housing for the water neck, and then weld it to one piece to skip the whole leaking debacle? Your skills look up to the task from what I see.

That's a pretty good idea that I hadn't thought of.  I may need to get one of those and see if I can make it work.

In reply to Rushcanuck :

Thank you sir.

Sorry to be slow to respond.  We are running 275/40/17s all around right now but I bought a set of 315s hoping I could stuff them in the fenders and get away with it.  The 315s will work on the rear but not the front without some work.  I’ll check on the rim sizes and get back to you on those.

We also did hood louvers from RunCool Hood Louvers.  Just added vents to top of our front fenders too to try to help get heat away from brakes and tires during our endurance road races (mostly World Racing League).  Your louvers are definitely bigger!

Sorry I haven't updated this thread lately.  I've been held up waiting on parts and time.  I will update as soon as I have time to do so.

Since my last update, I have cut another hole in the hood, I had a batch of hood louvers laser cut, the new K-member is in the car, I cut a primary off the header, and the splitter is done.  Pictures to come soon.

It's been awhile since I updated this partly because I've been lazy and partly because I've been waiting on parts.  I'll try to pick up about where I left off.

This is what I ultimately decided on for the lower radiator hose.  I'm not 100% happy with this solution but it should be functional until I come up with something else.  I'm using -16an Push-lok hose.

I had to weld a bung on the radiator.

I like putting a stainless clamp on this hose, sometimes I'll also use one of the Gates Powergrip heat shrink clamps but I didn't have any on hand.

This is how it turned out.  Again, I'm not happy with it but it should work until I have time to make a better solution.

I got all my parts I've made over the last couple months painted with some Rustoleum PROFESSIONAL.  Only the best Walmart has to offer.

I coated the splitter with some polyurethane to waterproof it.

Then I got some more Vivvid vinyl and transformed it into carbon fiber.  I'm pretty sure it even weighs less with the vinyl on it.

I made a block-off plate for the upper grille.  The radiator will only be fed from the lower grill.

I had some carbon wrap left over so this got the treatment too.

There is a little slot on the back side of the grille that this fits into to keep it pushed against the back.

Here is what it looks like with the front end back together.

I had a batch of hood vents laser cut out of aluminum.  Then I finally got around to cutting other other hole in the hood.

The aluminum louver weighs a full pound less than the fiberglass.  I rechecked on a more precise scale.

Here is both louvers temporarily installed in the hood.  I'm still undecided on if I want to powdercoat them or leave them bare to match the spoiler brackets.

I used a DA on the one on the left and not the right one.  If I leave them bare they will both be DA'ed.

The new K-member finally showed up after 2 1/2 months so I got a cheap engine lift bar from Amazon.

Compared to the AJE k-member, the Maximum Motorsports piece is BEEFY.  Don't forget that I added the diagonal braces to the AJE.  It's laughable how flimsy it is in comparison. Drag racers don't care.

On the scale.  18lbs vs 35lbs.  Much more metal there.

Unfortunately all that extra metal didn't leave room for headers.  I was able to cut off one of the primaries on the driver side and get it in with a little bit of Hammer Time.  It likely wouldn't be too difficult to rebuild and make work.

The passeger side however.  berkeley, I cut one tube off, and used my 4lb hammer in 3 different spots.  I then had to remove the starter, lift the engine as high as possible and then pry it toward the driver side to get the mangled header in the car.  It's not going to work.  I REALLY want to keep the long tubes but it's going to be a pain.  Then it's going to suck anytime I have to work on it.  Maximum Motorsports recommends the Hooker Blackheart headers to fit but they are $1000+, that's not gonna happen.  I orded a set of shorty's and I'll keep my fingers crossed they fit.  Then I'll have to remake or add to the front portion of my exhaust.  Oh yea, I have 2 weekends until Kansas City Event #1.

The car is done.... APRIL FOOLS...

Quarantine started for me yesterday so I've been making some steady progress on the car.

After I got the K-member in and squared to the car I started getting the front suspension put back together.

First I did new ARP wheel studs that have been sitting on the shelf for AT LEAST 3 years.

While the spindles were off I took them to a local old guy that does a lot of machine work for dirt track cars.  I had to have the holes for the tie rods drilled to 5/8" so I could swap over to a bolt-through style tie rod rather than the tapered style.

Spindles bolted up on the car.  I left the spring off the coilover so I could measure and set bumpsteer.

I ended up using many many more spacers than this.  The wheel is pushed forward 1 1/2" inches from stock so I have gratuitous amounts of caster.  And the lower control arm mounts higher on the k-member than stock.

This is what I came up with to check bumpsteer.  I'm sure someone will tell me how it's wrong.  The pencil line is "ideal".  I adjusted it to give me the best curve from -2" to +2" from ride height.

With bumpsteer set I got the rest of the front end bolted together and torqued to spec with all new hardware.

Next on the list was getting the sway bars done.  I started with the rear because it was (mostly) bolt in.

I say "mostly" because I still had to weld the tabs on the frame that the endlinks bolt to.  Welding on these frames is one of the worth things I've ever tried to weld.

The front sway bar was not nearly as straight forward.  The mounts had to be relocated because of the new control arm location.  Maximum Motorsports sells brackets to relocate it but they are ugly, still use the factory carriage bolts, and I wanted to keep my Steeda billet mounts.

My solution.  I made these plates to weld to the bottom of the frame.

My billet mounts will bolt to these.

For reference, this is how the factory mounts bolt up.

I mocked everything up with the sway bar and tacked the new mounts into place.  The sharpie marks show how far forward the sway bar had to move from the factory position.  It ended up being about 1 1/4".

Finish welded before the coat of Rustoleum.  I left the sway bar off at this point to make it easier to work on the headers...

The berkeleying headers.  What a nightmare.  At this point I've bought two new sets of headers in hopes I could just bolt something on.  Nope.

These are the first set of headers I bought.  I could have made these work without too much trouble.  However, they are only 1 5/8" primaries, this was going to choke the engine too much in my opinion especially if I go to a bigger cam in the future or possibly more cubic inches.  They look really nice though and can't be beat for the price.  I will likely hold on to these to use on my C10.

The floor could have been clearance with a hammer to make these fit but that isn't my style.

The second set of headers I bought cost twice as much as the first set and looked like absolute garbage.  The welds were horrible.  The ports were filled with welding slag that wasn't even attempted to clean up, and they were steel instead of stainless.  I didn't get a picture because I unboxed them, did a test fit, and sent them right back for a refund.  The passenger side actually fit PERFECT but the driver side was directly in the way of the steering shaft.

This gets us back to modifying my original headers.

On the driver side only one tube was really an issue.  The front primary was hitting the motor mount.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a good way to remake the #1 primary without also moving the #2 primary to make room.

I had to make this thing to get around the steering shaft and the motor mount.

It was a pain but I got it back together.

Here is the peep hole for the steering shaft to sneak through.

Installed back on the car.  I plan to get these Cerakote'd again once they are finished.

Clearance around the motor mount.

Plenty of room for the steering shaft.  I have installed the steering shaft to confirm this but didn't take a picture.

The driver side was the easy one.  The passenger side is not going to be easy.  The headers basically stick out from the motor too far.  It interferes with the k-member, the motor mount, the strut tower and bell housing while you're trying to get it in the car.  And, I also have the starter to contend with on this side. I'm pretty sure I will have to move at least 3 of the 4 primaries if not all of them.

So far I have it jigged up on my table and I think I have a plan of attack.

I moved a couple of the primaries at the collector to get it away from the k-member.  I think I can keep the last primary tucked in on the front side to clear the motor mount.

i love what you're doing here and i hate to find fault but i believe you've got the RF rotor on the LF, if they are indeed directional.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

Good call, honestly not even something I was paying attention to.  Thanks.