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S197 Boss 302 in Chile Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

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Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
Couple things to consider on this bracket. Ford made a running change on the secondary tensioners and all of the new ones are shorter in length than the originals. This MMR bracket won’t work with the new OE design. I talked to MMR about it, they confirmed it wouldn’t work and said they were working on a revised bracket. Not sure if that’s out yet - I would confirm before ordering if you have the shorter tensioners.

They offer billet aluminum tensioners that are made to the original OE length, so I bought a set so that I could use the bracket. After all of this, I couldn’t for the life of me get the cam phasers to slide onto the cams with the bracket installed. No real instructions on their site and like usual I was working well past their tech line hours. After an hour trying to get it to work, I abandoned the bracket and now have a really nice paperweight.
This is why I use all stock stuff. No big cams or stiff valve springs to break everything, no fancy parts. It just works.
 
1,289
1,113
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Philly Metro Area
This MMR bracket won’t work with the new OE design. I talked to MMR about it, they confirmed it wouldn’t work and said they were working on a revised bracket
It's covered within the description of the link

"Does Not fit 2018+ 5.0. 2018 5.0 Models please use PN#468995"

In any case Mad Hatter is using the Gen 1 timing components.

I have their billet guides and primary tensioners and had no problem during installation.
 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
It's covered within the description of the link

"Does Not fit 2018+ 5.0. 2018 5.0 Models please use PN#468995"

In any case Mad Hatter is using the Gen 1 timing components.

I have their billet guides and primary tensioners and had no problem during installation.
I wasn’t referring to the Gen 3 heads - there was a running change on the secondary tensioners for the Gen 1/Boss heads. The new design is considerably shorter:

E8AF75F6-80A7-41E2-8728-2C9DC3459213.jpeg
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Couple things to consider on this bracket. Ford made a running change on the secondary tensioners and all of the new ones are shorter in length than the originals. This MMR bracket won’t work with the new OE design. I talked to MMR about it, they confirmed it wouldn’t work and said they were working on a revised bracket. Not sure if that’s out yet - I would confirm before ordering if you have the shorter tensioners.

They offer billet aluminum tensioners that are made to the original OE length, so I bought a set so that I could use the bracket. After all of this, I couldn’t for the life of me get the cam phasers to slide onto the cams with the bracket installed. No real instructions on their site and like usual I was working well past their tech line hours. After an hour trying to get it to work, I abandoned the bracket and now have a really nice paperweight.
Your post turned out to be a prophetic!!!

Opened the engine up and found this
1656025039734.png

The longer tensioner is the one from my old boss heads. The shorter ones are not fitting right for my livernoise gen1 ported heads. Lucky I have the old ones in good shape so I can race next weekend.
 
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Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
I wasn’t referring to the Gen 3 heads - there was a running change on the secondary tensioners for the Gen 1/Boss heads. The new design is considerably shorter:

View attachment 76719
actually this is quite confusing as the longer length tensioner is used on on the gen2 heads in the shop as well.....
 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Your post turned out to be a prophetic!!!

Opened the engine up and found this
View attachment 76797

The longer tensioner is the one from my old boss heads. The shorter ones are not fitting right for my livernoise gen1 ported heads. Lucky I have the old ones in good shape so I can race next weekend.
The short one that you removed doesn’t look like it was activated - shouldn’t it be extended like the longer one? They’re shipped with a plastic clip to keep them compressed. Once installed, you have to press down and it will release.
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Hmmm.... the little black plastic cap below the tensioner does not stay fixed with the shorter tensioner, and on the side were the short tensioner seems to be working well, it fell off.

1656031641988.png
here it is in place.
1656031701993.png

When I look in TASCA, it says the part number goes from 2011 to 2020, for the Boss, Bullitt, gt350 and F150....ML3Z-6K254-A
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Well, all set for Sundays race. We are in mid winter so temps will be just above freezing in the morning with a high of 10 degrees C. Going to put socks on my slicks! Engine sounds great with no more rattling timing chains. Will be thankful for my nomex long johns!!

Not a huge turn out in general, but I will have my four GT4's and a GT3 to contend with.
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Changed my windshield again... thats number 4 If I remember right. They only cost about 250 bucks down here installed. Flying stones does the job... :mad:
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,518
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
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20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
Changed my windshield again... thats number 4 If I remember right. They only cost about 250 bucks down here installed. Flying stones does the job... :mad:
optic armor....
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,518
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
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20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,420
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Blair, Nebraska
Sounds like standard windshields it is. For the shipping you incur, plus the price of an Optic Armor windshield, you could buy 6 of those Chilean glass shields. I agree with Fab as the weight savings and protection make Optic Armor a great choice, but since they do break also, it sounds like you might as well stay the course.
 
Last edited:

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,518
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca

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