Hey Everyone this is Grant from Spectro Racing. LOOONG time Mustang track & autocross guy. Below is the build thread with some goals and objectives.

Car was a 3v with R2300 for most of its life however June of 2025 the oil pump failed at Gingerman and seized the motor.

I had been running Gridlife Track Battle Street Mod Class for the last 2 years. I have about 10 years of track experience and 12 years of autocross.

The goal for the new setup is to reach top 5 in Street Mod, this is whats called the Podium Sprint. Beyond that i know this car is not super competitive but its a hoot to drive and the Time Attack series gives me a good framework.

spectrogrant said:

This is the Build Thread for Grant's gridlife mustang. Reply below.

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The 321 Coyote long block from Make it Modular has arrived. Working on fitting it out. Tremec Magnum to go on next followed by Gen6 Whipple! Suggestions welcome!

Good luck with the swap, been following your YouTube channel for years now

Welcome! Glad to see you made it here!

Update: Motor is in the car. Whipple is mostly assembled. Waiting on some more gen 5 whipple parts as they never put a gen6 in an s197. Anywho lots of outfitting to do with intercooler lines and hooking up all the harnesses and stuff.

Lots of connections and stuff. One more big bulk buy and a few more weekends and i should be ready to start it. The 11-14 airbox for the whipple does not fit great on a 05-09. I had to chop it up a bit and bend some of the ABS lines out of the way. It does look pretty stock though. It does smush a bit when you close the hood, but it does close. I think ill eventually get a CF hood as i think those have a bit more clearance.

Did hit a setback though. My pinion flange is different than what it should be. I think when i had a shop install the Ford Racing driveshaft 13 years ago they put in the Cobra flange as it was a 4 bolt. So ill have to redo that which means like a solid weekend checking the splotch patterns and stuff if i cant get the pinion bolt exactly where it was.

Get a 07-09 GT-500 hood or like me the entire front end.
Clearance, heat extraction and much improved aerodynamics

race4food said:

Get a 07-09 GT-500 hood or like me the entire front end.
Clearance, heat extraction and much improved aerodynamics

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Thanks! So i have the stock hood but gt4 track spec vents and I made my own custom grill. I will need a new bumper at some point though so thats a good idea though. Here is a pic from cmp earlier this year.

OK so lots of work later I got it running. Fwiw you cannot use SCT hardware/software on a pats delete swap. It gives you error 110d8. Which is voltage but is bogus. That took 2 weeks to figure out. We had to use hp tuners. Something with the new sct firmware and sct does not like you rolling it back due to epa laws.

Had the tuner come to the house. We got it about 95% perfect but according to him it has a small vacuum leak or something that is acting like one somewhere. Did a smoke test but could not find anything except im a moron and forgot to put the dip stick back in after topping off oil after first start since it has the oil cooler. Any ideas if its passing leak test?

Still need to test under boost with the tuner next week. But changed the oil and now that it runs, solidifying a few things like wiring and such. After the next running session will go to a dyno for final testing. That will likely be the new year.

In the mean time im installing a haltech ic7 obd2 and verifying a few more things. I had to swap out the diff pinion as my old one was slightly to short and from an f150 not s197. Happy to report though the tremec magnum xl swap went well and installing the bleeder screw on the throwout line meant no pumping endlessly. I did also finally separate the reservoirs too.

spectrogrant said:

OK so lots of work later I got it running. Fwiw you cannot use SCT hardware/software on a pats delete swap. It gives you error 110d8. Which is voltage but is bogus. That took 2 weeks to figure out. We had to use hp tuners. Something with the new sct firmware and sct does not like you rolling it back due to epa laws.

Had the tuner come to the house. We got it about 95% perfect but according to him it has a small vacuum leak or something that is acting like one somewhere. Did a smoke test but could not find anything except im a moron and forgot to put the dip stick back in after topping off oil after first start since it has the oil cooler. Any ideas if its passing leak test?

Still need to test under boost with the tuner next week. But changed the oil and now that it runs, solidifying a few things like wiring and such. After the next running session will go to a dyno for final testing. That will likely be the new year.

In the mean time im installing a haltech ic7 obd2 and verifying a few more things. I had to swap out the diff pinion as my old one was slightly to short and from an f150 not s197. Happy to report though the tremec magnum xl swap went well and installing the bleeder screw on the throwout line meant no pumping endlessly. I did also finally separate the reservoirs too.

View attachment 106951

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Looking good!
I'd be interested to see what you used to install a bleeder screw on the T/O bearing....

Fabman said:

Looking good!
I'd be interested to see what you used to install a bleeder screw on the T/O bearing....

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Thanks. I used this kit from mcleod. You need baby hands and the tiniest wrench once its in the car but was able to put my vacuum bleeder on the clutch mc hose and the bleed reservoir under the car. I dont know what size cap you would need to not have a tiny bubble when disconnecting everything but it didnt seem to get sucked in anyway.

spectrogrant said:

Thanks. I used this kit from mcleod. You need baby hands and the tiniest wrench once its in the car but was able to put my vacuum bleeder on the clutch mc hose and the bleed reservoir under the car. I dont know what size cap you would need to not have a tiny bubble when disconnecting everything but it didnt seem to get sucked in anyway.

https://lmr.com/item/MCL-139252/Mcleod-Hydraulic-Clutch-Line-Mustang-05-14

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You know what they should do?
Do away with that stupid "Jesus clip" thing and have a flexible line go up to the master as well as another flexible line for the bleeder screw.
Put everything up top where you can reach it. Hooking up that stupid clutch line is the part I hate most about installing the trans.

Manufacturers are you listening?

Fabman said:

You know what they should do?
Do away with that stupid "Jesus clip" thing and have a flexible line go up to the master as well as another flexible line for the bleeder screw.
Put everything up top where you can reach it. Hooking up that stupid clutch line is the part I hate most about installing the trans.

Manufacturers are you listening?

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Haha indeed, here is my adhoc tool I made. Aka just cut a wrench

spectrogrant said:

Haha indeed, here is my adhoc tool I made. Aka just cut a wrench

View attachment 106955

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Send them a bill for it.

Love the build and the car !!! Stupid question, is this still a 12:1 compression engine??

2012Boss302 said:

Love the build and the car !!! Stupid question, is this still a 12:1 compression engine??

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It is. Its a stock gen 3 short block. The theory was anything over 750whp would be impossible to cool even with this setup (it has a giant triple pass ducted in the rear) or it would be a one lap hero which isn't fun. I guess will see if I should have done the aluminator shortblock. Maybe the next build.

Found your YouTube channel. Awesome stuff there.....

Ok so after many issues later i hope i am on the up and up. I did get it dyno'd and set the car at 750whp/604wtq at 14psi on a 3.75 griptech. Which is 1 psi less than my 4.6 and 120 more HP. One run it did make 775whp. This is on VP X85, which is just really pure e85.

I then loaded the car on the trailer and went to an autoX to test stuff. Then my fan wiring melted in the paddock and got no runs, i never knew that was a problem on these cars as i never really drove it much on the street so the wiring survived like 18 years, 9 of which on the GT500 fan. It did nearly overheat so hopefully no damage done. I got the wire everything kit with the new connector and dedicated ground.

Also then had to remove the supercharger for the 2nd time as i smelled fuel vapor. Nothing was leaking but didnt chance it and ordered professionally made lines from Raceflux vs the ones i made since now i knew the exact length i needed. Vapor smell went away and Fuel regulator seems to like the new lines better and acts more normal.

Also was chasing the master cylinder brake lines leaking as i replaced it when the motor was out. Had to use the trick of loosening and tightening 4 times for it to stop leaking. Or at least it doesnt just driving it around. To test it though i left a pry bar with the brake pedal depressed of 20mins. I initially found this issue when i was getting the car corner balanced as you have to be in the car and hold the brake.

Speaking of the car weighs in at 3698 with me in it. I am 180ish. Full tank, 2 heat exchangers, 19's flow formed wheels. Half cage, minimal audio equipment and race seats. The 3V was 3619. with the same ish setup. I have Forged Apex 18s ill switch to once testing is over. They are almost 40lbs lighter total if you add in tire weight savings.

While waiting on the custom wiring i built a removable splitter from Professional Awesome(removable brackets), AJ Hartman(the splitter, which i had but the spring loaded rods) and Racebred components (the dam). After talking to @AJ Hartman who both of us go to Gridlife together he mentioned getting his splitter as low as possible. I have a Futura trailer but i still think ill have to remove it. With the 19s its 3.1 inches off the ground. The 18s will sit an inch lower due to the tire being less relative sidewall too 35vs30.

One open problem i still have is the Whipple belt tensioner seems to oscilate up and down alot more than normal when idling. I need to have someone look at it under load to see if its a problem.

Lastly i ordered a Haltech IC7 as they are on sale. I still have a stock 11-14 ecu but you can run these off of OBD2 and also add in oil pressure gauges and what not. The dash insert i ordered from Australia though from makomotorsport tho was terrible. it bolted up but the haltech didnt fit in it with out custom spacers. It also looked shitty with the retro removed as it sat really far back. I didnt take any photos as i was filled with rage i waited 2 months for that lol. There is another one from a different company that sells 11-14 that just replaces the entire left side of the dash so may do that swap.

I did then move it to the center console as the real purpose is just alerts for IAT2/Coolant/etc. I made my own digital gauges based on my cars real gauges in photoshop and will sell this eventually on our website.

spectrogrant said:

It is. Its a stock gen 3 short block. The theory was anything over 750whp would be impossible to cool even with this setup (it has a giant triple pass ducted in the rear) or it would be a one lap hero which isn't fun. I guess will see if I should have done the aluminator shortblock. Maybe the next build.

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This is an exciting build.

I don't understand the highlighted comment. Are you building it knowing you won't be able to keep it cool, or are you saying screw the theory, I am going to make it work?

In post #9, I see the intercooler at the bottom, a bronze colored oil cooler, and the radiator. Where do you get a triple pass radiator? What does "ducted in the rear" mean?

Great work! Hope I get to see this car at an event, would love a nose around