The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

1st trackday now a bunch of questions

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

HI Guys

I ran my first trackday with the Boss yesterday and i have some questions about the car now.

Please bear in mind i also own a 2011 GT which i tracked 4 or 5 times before i had the Boss.

Here's a picture out on the F1 circuit in Belgium called Spa FrancochampsIMG_1245.jpg


Anyway, here's my questions. please note when answering that i cant have the car checked under warranty as im in UK so any trip to a dealer is at my cost.

Most important is the first one!

1. Noise from the engine under heavy acceleration:- I made all the runs with the trackey active and noticed that when i reached high rev limits like 6500-7500 ish (cant be exact i was focused on the road) i noticed a sound that was a lot like an exhaust manifold vibrating, now im no mechanic so i could be completely wrong but it didnt sound right at all its very loud reminds me of a racecar with no sound proofing. I got worried so much so that i only ran two sessions and decided to drive home as i was worried that if it was going to fail i was 400miles from home. On the way home i tried similar rev speeds with the normal key in but didnt hear the same noise.

So is this a feature of the trackey a bit like the lopey idel so that when your in high revs it sounds like a race engine, ive listened to some videos on you tube of bosses on track and think i can hear a similar noise

2. Acceleration is brisk but once you get over a hundred it seems to take an age to get up to say 120mph any one else feel the same?

3. I think im not carrying enough speed through the corners which wont be helped by the fact that the adjuster on one of the back dampers is broken! so the whole car is still on setting 2, how much better is the cornering is setting 5 than on 2?

4. I have removed the restrictor pipes (rear boxes are standard) and the car sounds like a motorboat when idling driving slowly nothing like the rapsy sound of my Roush axlebacks on the 5.0 GT any one else finding the same?

Cheers for any help, point 1 is really worrying me, ive purchased the car just for trackday so that the GT can do all my roadtrips and finding that i didnt enjoy it has left me $ 45000 disappointed

ian
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
Moderator
2,848
14
Connecticut
1. Noise from the engine under heavy acceleration:- I made all the runs with the trackey active and noticed that when i reached high rev limits like 6500-7500 ish (cant be exact i was focused on the road) i noticed a sound that was a lot like an exhaust manifold vibrating, now im no mechanic so i could be completely wrong but it didnt sound right at all its very loud reminds me of a racecar with no sound proofing. I got worried so much so that i only ran two sessions and decided to drive home as i was worried that if it was going to fail i was 400miles from home. On the way home i tried similar rev speeds with the normal key in but didnt hear the same noise.

So is this a feature of the trackey a bit like the lopey idel so that when your in high revs it sounds like a race engine, ive listened to some videos on you tube of bosses on track and think i can hear a similar noise

Check your side pipes for clearance, many of us including myself had to readjust them a bit so they don't vibrate onto any other point of the car.

2. Acceleration is brisk but once you get over a hundred it seems to take an age to get up to say 120mph any one else feel the same?

Not at all. What gears are you in when in the 100 - 120 MPH range? How many miles on the car so far ?


3. I think im not carrying enough speed through the corners which wont be helped by the fact that the adjuster on one of the back dampers is broken! so the whole car is still on setting 2, how much better is the cornering is setting 5 than on 2?

I run 5 up front and 4 in the rears. Those low settings are not appropriate for track driving. If you find a way for them to replace the adjuster on your shock please PM me, I need a replacement on one of my front shocks. Supposedly I need to replace the whole shock :mad:


4. I have removed the restrictor pipes (rear boxes are standard) and the car sounds like a motorboat when idling driving slowly nothing like the rapsy sound of my Roush axlebacks on the 5.0 GT any one else finding the same?

Do you mean the restrictor plates?
 
PeteInCT said:
1. Noise from the engine under heavy acceleration:- I made all the runs with the trackey active and noticed that when i reached high rev limits like 6500-7500 ish (cant be exact i was focused on the road) i noticed a sound that was a lot like an exhaust manifold vibrating, now im no mechanic so i could be completely wrong but it didnt sound right at all its very loud reminds me of a racecar with no sound proofing. I got worried so much so that i only ran two sessions and decided to drive home as i was worried that if it was going to fail i was 400miles from home. On the way home i tried similar rev speeds with the normal key in but didnt hear the same noise.

So is this a feature of the trackey a bit like the lopey idel so that when your in high revs it sounds like a race engine, ive listened to some videos on you tube of bosses on track and think i can hear a similar noise

Check your side pipes for clearance, many of us including myself had to readjust them a bit so they don't vibrate onto any other point of the car.

I would have thought that, that type of vibration would be evident all the time?

2. Acceleration is brisk but once you get over a hundred it seems to take an age to get up to say 120mph any one else feel the same?

Not at all. What gears are you in when in the 100 - 120 MPH range? How many miles on the car so far ?

Im changing up from 4th to 5th around 110 ish


3. I think im not carrying enough speed through the corners which wont be helped by the fact that the adjuster on one of the back dampers is broken! so the whole car is still on setting 2, how much better is the cornering is setting 5 than on 2?

I run 5 up front and 4 in the rears. Those low settings are not appropriate for track driving. If you find a way for them to replace the adjuster on your shock please PM me, I need a replacement on one of my front shocks. Supposedly I need to replace the whole shock :mad:


4. I have removed the restrictor pipes (rear boxes are standard) and the car sounds like a motorboat when idling driving slowly nothing like the rapsy sound of my Roush axlebacks on the 5.0 GT any one else finding the same?

Do you mean the restrictor plates? yeah My bad
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
Moderator
2,848
14
Connecticut
1: It could, if you visually check the side pipes and try to rattle them by hand you may hear 'clanking'. In my car the sound appeared to come from directly under the passeneger side floorboards.

2: That sounds about right. I can'r say exactly how long it takes me to hit 140+ on a straight, but it's not that long. It takes a fast 'vette or a GT3RS/GT2/GT Cup to go faster...

4: The sound of the Boss is a bit more 'burbley' than you other car I think. Lows of low frequency sounds, not many higher 'raspy' tones.
 
Like Pete suggested check the side exhaust, especially since yours have had some damage.

Not sure why you're short shifting into 5th but 120 in 4th up to redline happens pretty fast. ;D

In for photos at Silverstone. ;)
 
Thanks for the Input guys

The sound that im describing sounds to me like its coming from high up, like the dash height, ill try a test at the weekend with and without trackey and ill video it so you can hear the sound.

I did run a video yesterday but it was using the internal mic and its not that good, i can hear the noise but you might miss it, ill post it on here for you to listen

i think im hitting 5th to get along to 120MPH i did manage 140MPh on a runway last week before i ran out of room but it was pulling slowly at that point

ian
 
5 DOT 0 said:
Sometimes I get a weird sound from my passenger side rear shoulder belt area between 80 and 100. Above 100 it goes away so it's possible something is vibrating in your dash.

I was hearing something simular except I found it was the top seat belt clip was pointing towards the front of the car instead of down and was vibrating against the seat.
 

Sesshomurai

big red one said:
snipped

2. Acceleration is brisk but once you get over a hundred it seems to take an age to get up to say 120mph any one else feel the same?

snipped

I had my first track day last weekend in my 2012. I noticed this as well, but I don't have anything (or experience) to compare it to,
so I'm not sure if its good or bad. But when I watched the speedometer at 100mph, getting to 120 seemed to take a quarter mile. That's not right, is it?
I was in 4th gear.
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
First track day at Spa, holy shiznit.

And this car pulls very hard from 100 to 140, so you might have some sort of problem. Did the car throw any check engine lights?
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Regarding point #1...What gas, er, petrol are you using? Maybe you're hearing the engine knock. TracKey does require 91 or better octane rating. You are more likely to hear it in higher gears as the load on the engine is greater.

I hope we can tell from the video.
 
Grant 302 said:
Regarding point #1...What gas, er, petrol are you using? Maybe you're hearing the engine knock. TracKey does require 91 or better octane rating. You are more likely to hear it in higher gears as the load on the engine is greater.

I hope we can tell from the video.

Maybe this is the issue, I had no engine lights come up, being in the Uk we have a different fuel type to you guys

Ive been using the Shell V-Power 98, standard here is 95, please note the chart here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating which explains the difference

Here's the link to the video if you wait for a straight or a long curve you can hear the noise when the revs are high http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE2tRtG86Qs&feature=g-upl
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
Moderator
2,848
14
Connecticut
What is the R+M/2 (US) equivalent of 98? We need at least 91 (US) octane, although a lot of us use 93 and still see misfires at times becuase of poor fuel quality. If you are seeing no codes then you have no misfires so it's not probable that the fuel is your issue. The only thing I can think of is a) what is the ethanol content of your fuel, and b) Is it possible that the cars sold in Europe have a less aggressive tune than the US versions?
 
PeteInCT said:
What is the R+M/2 (US) equivalent of 98? We need at least 91 (US) octane, although a lot of us use 93 and still see misfires at times becuase of poor fuel quality. If you are seeing no codes then you have no misfires so it's not probable that the fuel is your issue. The only thing I can think of is a) what is the ethanol content of your fuel, and b) Is it possible that the cars sold in Europe have a less aggressive tune than the US versions?

Im not sure on the Ethanol part of this fuel question, it seems that it varies from country to country, for example i have heard that southern France has a higher Ethanol then norther France.

However, Shell V-Power has little or no Ethanol so I dont think thats the issue

Regarding the tune, Mustangs are not officially sold in Europe so we all have to buy them from USA with your tunes.

I have a 2011GT runs fine on our lower grade fuel and i have tracked it a lot.

Mustang owners in the Uk who have had superchargers and CAI fitted often, have to get one of the tuning companies in the USA to create a tune and keep tweaking it till its right, I didnt think this would be an issue having no supercharger but Im thinking that when using the Trackey, it changes the valve timing and wide open fuel mixture that this could be an issue, which may mean i have to get a custom tune or forget the trackey
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
Moderator
2,848
14
Connecticut
The use of TK does create a leaner air/fuel mixture, but since you are getting no codes (assuming the heads ping sensors are working which I'm sure they are) it can't be from misfires.

How many miles on the engine so far ?
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
Moderator
2,848
14
Connecticut
By 1500 miles the engine on my LS pretty much opened up fully, but it took that long. If you had access to a dragstrip and did about a 12.5 to a 12.8 in the 1/4 mile you'd know it's doing well. If you're that concerned maybe you can have it dyno'ed and compare the power graphs to others here on the forum. I have one from mine when the engine was still shaking itself out that was done on a Mustang Dyno (very conservative):

2012Boss302LS.jpg
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top