96dreamer's Never Ending Build Thread

96dreamer

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I'm just going to forgo the factory style crossmember all together and change it to a 99+ style trans mount. Went and grabbed some brackets from the junkyard today. Once I get the Stiffler's mount in ill mock it up and weld it to the trans tunnel. That way I don't have to worry about anything exhaust related now or in the future.
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96dreamer

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Brackets separated from the donor sheet metal. Ford definitely didn't want these coming off lol.
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Held them up the pan on my car to make sure the shape was the same and it looks like they'll fit fine. Probably pull the trans after tacking them in to make welding a bit easier

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slowgreycobra

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Great build thread. I like how you solved a lot of the issues that cropped up during the build. I havent started my project as I am working on my rusty POS 1969 Mach 1 right now. I'm just trying to get it running and driving, then moving to the 01 Cobra. I wish I had the machine shop tools available you used to build your engine!
 

96dreamer

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Great build thread. I like how you solved a lot of the issues that cropped up during the build. I havent started my project as I am working on my rusty POS 1969 Mach 1 right now. I'm just trying to get it running and driving, then moving to the 01 Cobra. I wish I had the machine shop tools available you used to build your engine!
Thanks a lot. I really lucked out needing to rebuild the motor while working at Sunnen. That benefit is unfortunately long gone so I'll be forced to pay for the work if I ever have to redo it or build another motor. Sucks because I really enjoyed doing the work myself.

Having a 69 Mach to finish before moving on to an 01 cobra sounds like a good problem to have in my book. I've been told verbally by my uncle that when they downsize houses i'll be the new owner of his 66 mustang GT so if that ever happens ill be doing the reverse of you.
 

96dreamer

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Well the newer mounts are in. Burning them in was a giant pain in the ass. A soda can has to be thicker than this was in spots. Even with my welder turned all the way down it would still blow through on the perimeter welds I added. Probably didn't even need the ones around the outside though, the plug welds are all pretty solid. I over filled them with the intention of grinding them smooth.

Threw the stifflers mount on after welding them on to check fitment. Looks like they pulled in a hair. Both sets of bolts were touching the inside of the slot.i was still able to thread them all the way in by hand so I'm not to worried about it.

Going to throw some seam sealer on it before painting to cover up holes I couldn't fill back in with weld. Waiting on a new throw out bearing to get here before putting the trans back in.

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Tabres

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I've always wanted to do this but never taken the initiative, so its interesting that you landed on this solution. Think I'll con a buddy into coming over with a TIG if I ever get around to doing this because I'm a grinder not a welder...
 

96dreamer

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New brackets are in and painted. Only had gloss black on hand so that's what she got. Eventually I'll prep and paint the bottom at some point like I did the rear but it's not time for that project right now. Also cut off and ground flat the original crossmember brackets. Since I put in the t56 after I got subframe connectors I had to weld the brackets on so there was no saving them unfortunately.

So now the trans is ready to go back in. If the stars align it might come off the jack stands this weekend


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96dreamer

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Nothing major. Got the exhaust buttoned up but have only driven the car a few times this summer.

Ran into an issue with fuel boiling/pump cavitation on really hot days that I hope I addressed by running the return line further away from the pickup in the tank. I also completely wrapped all the fuel lines from the mufflers back in heat shield sleeve. I had previously wrapped a smaller sections close to the exhaust.

Currently the car is on jack stands and I am trying to align the super charger pulley as close as absolutely possible. I still have occasional issues with the belt jumping a rib. I put a piece of tape on the garage floor, leveled the car to make the crank at 90°, and dropped a blumb bob down from each side of the crank to create a reference line. I then dropped the blumb bob from every other pulley to that line. I also used the angle finder on the face of every other pulley to make sure they were also at 90°. Took a few pictures along the way i'll post when i get a chance.

I'm only getting ~30-45 minutes each night after we put our son down to work on it so progress is slow.
 

96dreamer

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Realized I never added pictures of the finished exhaust. Tucks up nicely although the midpipe doesn't like to sit centered. That is causing the joint in the middle of the x to leak a little on each side. I have some lap joint clamps to throw on that will hopefully take care of that.
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Also snagged some pictures of the fuel lines completely wrapped near the rear axle/exhaust.
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I mentioned earlier that I was trying to align the super charger to the best of my abilities. I had a laser alignment tool but I found even that wasn't fine enough to really do what I needed. So I started off by setting the car up on jack stands so that the crank was at 90° to the ground.
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The first thing I checked was if the blower was parallel to the crank vertically which checked out fine.
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Next i took a plumb bob and dropped down from the crank on both sides to a piece of tape I had on the ground to create a reference marks. You can see it hanging in the crank angle picture, it just isn't tight yet. Once I had that reference line I removed the balancer, water pump, idlers and tensioner to give room to drop the plum bob off all of the other pulleys. I stuck a magnetic light on the oil pan pointing down and used the shadow it created to line up a straight edge with the reference marks from the balancer.
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It's hard to see in the picture but the supercharger marks are just a hair off of the crank line. This was dropped down from the sc pulley to the straight edge. It was tough to measure but it came in about .065" out of alignment from the balancer. The AC and power steering were perfectly inline with the balancer and the Alternator was just a hair further out. All I did for the alternator was retorque the lower mounts and make a new set of hold down brackets for the top that should hopefully do a better job of keeping it from flexing.
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I had 1 washer behind each of the mounting bracket spacers that were about .045" thick so I went ahead and removed those and redropped the line.

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This was the result. Hard to get a good picture but it is pretty much dead nuts over the edge of the straight edge. I was pretty happy with this so I went ahead and buttoned up the front end of the car again.
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I was able to take the car out for a decent test drive last weekend and the modifications to the pulley alignment seemed to work. Belt didn't move after several wot runs as well as some decent engine decel which is where I could most frequently replicate the issue.

Unfortunately the trip wasn't without it's issues. The ambient temperature was about 88°F and although it took a little longer the fuel temp eventually got up to 115°F when the car started having erratic fuel pressure and started running rough. This was with all of the lines near the exhaust wrapped in heat sleeve and the return line ran to the opposite side of the tank as the pickup. I am thinking that the first instance of cavitation was enough to hurt the pump permanently which is now driving up my temperatures. So i am currently debating sending back to Fuelab for inspection.

On a positive note one of the pulls I did while testing appeared to show my knock sensors working correctly. The car currently has 93 in it with the waste gate set ~10lbs. I did a pull from 3k to 7k saw a peak of 11 lbs and in the middle it detected a knock event, pulled 2 degrees of timing two ignition events in a row for a total of 4 degrees. It then ramped right back up to the standard timing curve and finished the pull without issues. I had no idea during the pull any of it happened.
 

96dreamer

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Sent the pump to Fuelab and had them check it out to eliminate that from my fuel heating issue. They tested it and said nothing was wrong with it so I threw it back in the car. I reset the base fuel pressure while everything was torn apart since per Fuelab's instructions they recommend setting with the engine off and the pump running. I think I did it at idle with the vacuum reference disconnected originally. It wasn't off by much but did take some adjustment.

I also went back and looked at my pwm control table for the pump as I hadn't looked at that closely in a while. Turns out the y axis for that table is referencing map not injector duty like I had thought. So I was running the pump a ton more than I should have been for the amount of fuel I'm using. I restructured it so it is only running 25-30% load most of the time now which should greatly help with fuel temps.

This past weekend I took the car on a local cruise called "Jeffco Power tour" which is just a long single day cruise with a couple stops. I was having some issues with the tune all day where it was hitting the AFR safety and shutting the car down on pulls. I loosened up the tolerances on that and added some more fuel in a few places and finally got it figured out on the way home. Had a friend catch a flyby video and did a friendly roll race which had an outcome no one was surprised by.


His car is a healthy trick flow heads, cam, intake, full exhaust and 4.10s 351 for reference. I was running 93 so the waste gate was full open making about 10lbs. I also have no timing in the thing for safety sake.


Mechanically the car was perfect all day, belt didn't jump/slip, temps were in check fuel never got above about 95°F on the 100+ mile drive. Going to continue working on the 93 octane tune and get it 100% sorted before going back to e85 and turning up the boost.
 

96dreamer

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I took a gamble on a ebay auction and ended up getting a new set of smoked headlights/ markers for $40 shipped .
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I wasn't necessarily looking to change but the difference between the headlights and markers since I did the hid conversion has always bothered me. At the time I finished the headlights and then tried to take apart the corner lights only to find you can't take them apart without destroying them.

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Led bulbs have come a long way since I did the retrofit. I'm going to try the new housings and led's and see how the light output compares to the hids. The hid output is incredible so I'm prepared to be let down but I only have $80 invested in trying it out.

I'm also sourcing stuff to convert the center console to the newer cup holder style as well as do a double din swap with an android headunit. Hoping to get this done over the winter.
 

96dreamer

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Console and radio bezel dyed. Very happy with how it turned out. Console was originally tan and it 100% is not noticeable.
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I also pulled a full dash frame out of a newer dash to do the conversion. I plan on painting that before swapping all my stuff over to the newer frame. This will allow the unit to properly mount solidly to the frame.

Also notice the buttons. I have two traction control buttons. The spinning tire will now control the line lock, trac off will control the ms3 traction control when I get that setup and the fog light will control the factory fogs.

For the head unit I'm between an Avinusa universal double din and either an Atoto s8 premium or s8 ultra
 

ZD302GT

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I'll be interested to see how the dash frame swap goes. I ended up just cutting out the plastic inner structure from a car at the junkyard and grafting it into my dash. I didnt go full out like you. Mine turned out real well but it does seem to be a little creeky that I will need to look at over the winter.
 

96dreamer

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I'll be interested to see how the dash frame swap goes. I ended up just cutting out the plastic inner structure from a car at the junkyard and grafting it into my dash. I didnt go full out like you. Mine turned out real well but it does seem to be a little creeky that I will need to look at over the winter.
I did the same thing actually. Cut out the lower portion of the dash and plan on grafting it into mine so the bezel has 4 mounting points in addition to the solid mounted head unit in the dash. I'm very picky about interior creaks despite the fact it's impossible to hear them over the blower. No real plan on how I'm going to graft it in but ill figure something out.
 

01yellercobra

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I've been thinking about doing something similar with the buttons. I have my traction control turned on full time so I've been thinking about using the factory button to turn on launch control when I want it.
 

ZD302GT

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Dang, I'd shoot you over some pictures of how I did mine but I didnt take any lol.

I mimicked the 01+ factory brace that sits directly under the head unit and attaches to the metal back behind it. I did that with some thick aluminum flat bar that I bent and drilled to use the factory torx hardware. Then at the bottom, under the area where the back of the buttons reside there is also a factory torx attachment. I used that as well.

When cutting out my 98 dash I went slow because I wanted to cut out the least amount of material as possible. Turns out you have to cut a lot out of the bottom to get the button area to fit. You will also have to thin out the border around the sides at the top to get the double din to fit, I was not expecting that.
 

96dreamer

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Just ordered this head unit off amazon, Double DIN | Android 12 | Octa Core | 8GB RAM & 128GB ROM | IPS Display | Global 4G LTE Solution | TIX725L . They had it priced $290 on there for some reason so I decided to take the gamble even with it being "offbrand" Chinese. I actually read mostly good things about the xtron brand and it being one of the better Chinese android headunits. I also ordered a rearview camera and usb cable to hook up to the ms3 to run shadow dash.

I took the car on a road trip last weekend with some friends despite it being 32°F and slightly snowing. Forgot to take any pictures but the car made it there and back with mostly no issues. It was so cold the car wouldn't get above 170°F cruising even with some cardboard in the grill. Also the battery is shot. I had to jump it once on the trip and after getting back and testing the battery is dropping to ~6volts on cranking. Trying to decide if I'm going to just replace it with another lead acid, go lithium($$$$) or take the plunge to move it to the trunk. Leaning toward just throwing another in the factory location since I am also doing this double din project at the same time.
 
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