The Sick Gut has changed hands, and now I'm the one waking up with panic attacks and stress-farts.
The car returned from the last race and was stored in my friends swank garage all winter.
A dream was born to enter the April Race at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven. A team was assembled, with Aaron and myself carrying over, and three new guys joining in.
We all banded together and began working on the car:
John installed real headlight housings and turn signals, JY sourced by crab spirits. Once the insurance quote comes in, this baby will be street legal. I can't wait to drive it into the office some morning.
This TS flasher was the winning ticket for working lights. Well, after I spent 4hrs redoing the wiring to oe spec
Crab also sourced a cooler, pushloc hose, and a filter housing from some golf-course equipment. I machined a check valve housing and bought a pump, and we threw it together onto the SHO's five speed. Redline D4 was pumped in. Maybe the trans won't smoke itself every race now?
check valve
Filter assembly
Searching for the lemons style mounting bolts...
Aaron mounted the cooler inside our rear wheel vent:
Okay, onto the brakes. Previously our brakes have been decent, but the fast guys always punish us with their aftermarket (budget exempt) setups. It turns out that the 99-04 Mustang Cobra brakes are a direct bolt on!
Correction.
Sort of bolt on:
I milled em down:
Drill+tap:
Boom, . .75" upgrade in rotor size and a full floating aluminum caliper. I paired with Hawk Blue race pads and 600f fluid. John/Jamie installed some 3" drier duct for cooling.
Some junkyard searching with crab and aaron led to some nice discoveries. A 1" MC was located in a rare Suzuki Grand Vitara. Just the ticket we needed for our big brake upgrade.
We also found these sick lincoln Mark VIII wheels for the front, allowing an upgrade from 16x6 to 16x7! Offset/bolt pattern was a match!
The washing machine was blown up later that day:
A few more fixes were implemented:
After suspension inspection we found a cracked stance mount. Luckily the knuckles "clamp mount" acted as a double safety. I went ahead and pre-heated and tig-welded back together:
The muffler exploded again! I cut it apart and TIG welded it back together again.
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Great! we all thought. Lets sign up for a open test day at Gingerman Raceway! That way we can practice and be ultra prepared. We took the car around the block for first test drive and marveled at our brake upgrade., it became evident that the SHO motor wasnt running well. A terrible misfire occured at high RPM/load. What transpired afterwards is referred to as the week from hell.
Initial diagnostics showed that the plug wells had filled up with oil (again) and killed our spark plug wires. One wire was arcing all over and another had come apart. Two nights were spent replacing the valve cover gaskets and installing new plugs and wires.. only to find the problem remained.
As the test weekend drew near, I found myself pulling some pretty late nights. OBDII scan codes showed nothing, but I swapped all kinds of sensors anyways. Fuel pressure check was attempted but gage was broken. Eventually, a new gage was purchased and fuel pressure was only 15psi! Dis-assembly of the fuel tank revealed a burst hose. Mind you, this is the hose which came with the $1200 fuel cell...
I called the company, they apologized, and sent out a new piece of Aeroquip FCM hose (which I don't think is fully submersion rated either...). I machined this adapter to go from the -8 bulkhead and hose down to the -6 fuel pump outlet. Previously a -8 hose was hastily double clamped around the -6 pump.
Then we took the car to the track day!
It went pretty smooth. Except on the drive there we found the suzuki 1" MC wasnt venting back to reservoir causing the brakes to lock up. Oh, and the CV joint started vibrating terribly. Oh and the brake proportioning was terrible. Oh and one of the tie-rods wore out.
Overall though, everyone got to drive and our new guys gained some good experience.
New tie rod, new CV shaft, good used intermediate shaft, and new ball joint...
Diagnosing the brake MC, we found that the rod length was different. John spent a lot of time under the dash, swapping these around.
We modified the 1" and got a spare 15/16" junkyard unit. We now have a 7/8", 15/16" and 1" MC, all JY sourced, for tuning.
New 215/45/16 Falken Azenis were purchased to fully exploit our junkyard Mark VIII wheels. A matching 235/40/17 pair was installed in the rear.
John cut up a windshield washer filler tank from his work. It works awesome for fueling.
Gingerman lemons is this weekend! "We are ready as shit"
Poll
