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Picked up some new wheels. 19x11 square like all the cool guys, although I just put the tires I already had on them for now (275/35/19) so a bit more stretch and less rubber than they will eventually have.

They don't look that great from the side on account of the lack of contour/shape of the wheel face, though I think they look pretty good at oblique angles where the concavity shows.

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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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Blair, Nebraska
You got the killer bronze rims, and popping on some 305 or 315s and she will Scoot to Boot!!! Love the change and bet you can't wait to put some serious rubber on the 19x 11 heaven , on wheels!
 
Going to buttonwillow for black Friday so doing some prep on the car.

Few things to do:

Brake ducting
Wrap exhaust near diff
Fire extinguisher
Drain coolant and refill with 20/80 coolant/water and water wetter
Oil temp gauge


For the brake cooling I was inspired by @JeffV8, but wanted to leave my windshield washer tank in for now so executed a bit differently.

Used 3” ABS male adapter in the fog light housing, fit perfectly and captured by the fog light bracket. 3.5” neoprene ducting fits perfectly on the ABS fittings. Used a 90* elbow pointing at vorshlag deflectors. Made a bracket that’s riveted to the 90, hung from a nutsert. Nice and solid, hopefully it flows well.

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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,352
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Nice, sanitary job on the brake ducting, and am sure many folks appreciated the posting. Assume you are doing a blend of distilled water and antifreeze as it can even getting chilly where you are in California during the winter evenings , but if you are doing it in the idea it will run cooler I would just buy a couple of bottles of Water Wetter. Have had super good luck using that for engine heat and I know plenty of racers who use it religiously at the high altitude tracks in Colorado. Just a thought, in case that was your idea with the coolant? Have fun, and post some more pics from the track.
 
Thanks Bill, yeah still want some freeze protection. I don’t ever see temps below freezing but figured I’d better have a ~10* buffer which 15-20% antifreeze will provide. So hoping the higher concentration of distilled water plus a bottle of water wetter will help to help bring down temps.

If I read your post right it sounds like multiple bottles helps more than one? Any idea the effect of water wetter on freeze points by chance?
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,352
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Never heard any issues on freeze points with Water Wetter, just know some of my fellow trackrats out in the Rockies tell me they use a couple of bottles for altitude. Who knows, easily could be an old wive's tale, but I have done it for years in hot Knee-brass-key in both my Vipers and Mustangs. When I ran my Viper out at Miller Motorsports Park ( sounds so much better to me that Utah Motorsports Campus ) years back I was the only one of the ones hitting it hard on the West Course who did not overheat. Got hot , but not enough and it seems my Mustang runs really cool. Ran under 200 degrees in two races in Pueblo , Co., and hit only 201 during the other race at this 5000+ ft. altitude track.

Again, who knows, it has just worked for me, so out of habit I continue to do, and as noted the double hit of product was a suggestion from racers in high altitudes --- where thin air means about everyone will run a bit warmer.
 
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Water wetter does not provide freeze protection. Even in Cali we have sub freezing temps and sometimes forced to use anti-freeze on track. I'll add about 15% antifreeze and that does the trick for me. But if only running water you want the water wetter in there. It lubes the pump and improves heat transfer and restores some positive additive package for the metals it contacts in your motor.
 
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sfo
Hey scots noticed the bearing on the front LCA. I hear that is a real pain to replace where some people break 10ton presses! How hard is it to get the OE rubber bushing out of the arm? Any tips?
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,352
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Thanks Bob, that states things better than I did, as I just mentioned I never heard any freeze points and I knew it was not a protection against water freezing, but was responding about it's point of freezing and that just confused the issue. Thanks for dropping a short and concise answer to his question ( that I kind of misinterpreted ).
 
Hey Bob yeah my brother in law has a 20ton press and it was sketchy. And for some reason once we got the bushing out my OEM arm was oversized by ~.015" so the bearing slid right into the arm, no interference fit. Luckily Steeda took care of me and swapped the bearings out for a set of completed arms for a good deal. RLCA bearings were much easier. More work to get the lower control arm off, but the pressing was much easier.
 
Fire extinguisher.

Wasn’t really excited about mounting in either the driver or passenger floor at the base of the seat, and wanted an easily/quickly removable installation when daily driving.

So decided on the passenger trans tunnel:
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Nutserts because I’m in love with them. Did I mount it this way just to use more nutserts? Perhaps.
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Some spacers to make sure the release handle is not too close to the center console, and can drill holes and slip through the plastic panel that normally goes here if I decide to make this install permanent.
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Quick release base installed:
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Finished:
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Less than 5 minutes to unbolt and snap the plastic trim back on when desired.
 
Additional camber.

I have J&M camber plates and they maxed out at 2.6* and 2.8*. As many have found this is not enough camber on track. So I decided to slot the upper strut-to-knuckle bolt hole in the strut ear. By my calculation 2mm will give 1.48* additional camber so that’s what I went with. Should give me enough range now, thinking of going with 3.5* on the new alignment. The load path should help keep the strut from moving but put some indicator paint on it anyways.

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Also wrapped the exhaust around the diff and put on a temp sticker to see how hot it’s getting.

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My biggest gripe with the Ecoboost is the rev hang associated with rotating mass. so decided to pull out the balance shaft. 18lbs of weight reduction and hopefully Quicker revving too. Should be, considering the balance shafts rotate at 2x engine speed. There’s also a hypothesis that the balance shaft drive contributes to thrown rods since most all of the thrown rods are #3. The drive gear for the balance shafts is pressed onto the crank adjacent to the #3 rod. Who knows if it’s true but good not to have in the back of my mind anymore as a potential culprit.

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Will do the flywheel one day but this is cheap and also increases oil capacity by a quart which is nice too.
 
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sfo
My biggest gripe with the Ecoboost is the rev hang associated with rotating mass. so decided to pull out the balance shaft. 18lbs of weight reduction and hopefully Quicker revving too. Should be, considering the balance shafts rotate at 2x engine speed. There’s also a hypothesis that the balance shaft drive contributes to thrown rods since most all of the thrown rods are #3. The drive gear for the balance shafts is pressed onto the crank adjacent to the #3 rod. Who knows if it’s true but good not to have in the back of my mind anymore as a potential culprit.

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Will do the flywheel one day but this is cheap and also increases oil capacity by a quart which is nice too.

This is a cool idea! Has anyone else raced this idea? Keep us posted on how this delete works. I race a V8 but have interest in the Eco. I had a hard time deciding which mustang to race and ultimately when with what I know which are dumb old V8's. I often think about what it would be like racing the Eco. I would love to have less weight and better chassis balance and longer lasting disposables.
 

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