FoxBody 89STANG Build Thread Profile - Fox Body Mustangs

[jchady]

This is the Build Thread for 89STANG. Reply below.

 

[autotec]

Welcome! It's good to see another Fox Body and it looks like since you have run at RA, you must be in the Midwest. Good to have both of those here. I'll be watching your thread.

Justin

 

[jchady]

Welcome! It's good to see another Fox Body and it looks like since you have run at RA, you must be in the Midwest. Good to have both of those here. I'll be watching your thread.

Justin

Yes, I'm over in Johnson Creek.

I acquired this car almost 20 years ago with the sole purpose of driving it at Road America. Unfortunately that has only happened twice. The good news is the last time was just 2 weeks ago and things are looking good to run a couple times next year. I am hoping to also venture to Blackhawk Farms once. I am on a tight budget so the car won't be an all out build but I have plans for this winter for a few modifications. I will post here as I progress.

 

[jchady]

Here's a couple of my quicker laps at Road America from a couple weeks ago. My average on the day was in the 2:54s. The app calculated my best theoretical lap to be a 2:47. The two segments I was working on were the Kink and Turn 6-7. As the day went I really started to nail the kink, barely lifting. On the last lap of the day I managed a great Turn 7 hitting a top speed of 98 mph in the Hurry Downs. But that's when my car overheated and dumped all the water down the drivers side. I spun halfway through the Carousel and my day was over. I always focus on one or two corners or segments until I feel I got them down then I move on to another. One day maybe I can put down a good all around lap. My goal for next year, with a couple tweaks, car issues to fix and some more seat time in, is to get to 2:40.

 

[Frank.JD.Perez]

sik

looks like you got a little crazy in turn 3 over there

 

[jchady]

sik

looks like you got a little crazy in turn 3 over there

The GPS wasn't being the most accurate. And its actually turn 5. Road America considers the soft curve between 1-3 and 3-5 to be "turns". Lol

 

[jchady]

Got two of the components for my future modifications. Picked up a used hood and front bumper. Now to see if my crazy ideas will work.

 

[jchady]

Newest piece of the puzzle. Despite having my limited slip rebuilt professionally, it slipped more than limitedly coming out of right hand corners. Lefts, the car would hook and go. Rights were like rolling the dice at Vegas. I couldn't get on the power until the car had completely settled. Hopefully this takes care of this issue.

As I am planning the replacement, making lists of parts etc so I don't have to do this again, I am wondering if I should change gears. I am running 3.15s currently and was hoping to hit 130 on the straights but I fell short. I initially had 3.73s and the car would max out at 122. So the 3.15s helped. Would 3.27s help get out of the corner better and increase top speed at end of straights? Or should I keep the current gears and plan on better traction coming out of the corners to propel to higher top speed?

 

[jchady]

The locker worked as advertised and with some light weighting on the car over the summer, I was able to run a 2:48 at Road America. Top speed attained was 133.3 vs 124 last year.

Time to start saving for some brakes. Factory ones with Hawk pads aren't cutting it anymore.

 

[jchady]

Here's some videos from my last weekend. Road America, Dells Raceway Park and Autocross at Ho-Chunk parking lot. This was all part of the Cruise for a Cause, 2022.

 

[jchady]

Finally getting around to some of my projects. Some minor, common things like moving the battery to the back. Others slightly more time consuming. I found some brake ducts that fit in the factory fog light holes with only a 2.5" outlet and tubes so I can stop cooking my brakes.
I'm also switching to an aluminum radiator and will be adding a splitter so I had to enlarge the lower opening as I will be losing the radiator airdam. The picture of the red cover is how I will be finalizing the white one. I don't want it to just look all chopped up.
The last part of the plan will be to stub the front end, just forward of the strut towers and sway bar mount. It should save a little weight but the main reason is for space to build a radiator airbox and place the radiator where I want it to make sure I get enough cooling.
If I can save enough money, I found some lighter weight wheels but they are narrower so I wont be able to run my 275's. However the size and tire I'd go to will make the wheel/tire package 19# per corner less than what I'm running now. Factor in rotational losses and the difference could be huge.

 

[jchady]

Becoming happy with the results of my inlet openng project. I was planning on getting the pieces plasti-welded in but when I took the front bumper cover off something hit me. The white bumper cover is aftermarket and it felt heavier than the red, stock one I had cut up for the project. I dragged oit the scale and weighed them both. The aftermarket one was 11 pounds heavier than stock. So now I'm on the hunt for another stock cover.

In the meantime I finally did a battery relocation.

 

[jchady]

Becoming happy with the results of my inlet openng project. I was planning on getting the pieces plasti-welded in but when I took the front bumper cover off something hit me. The white bumper cover is aftermarket and it felt heavier than the red, stock one I had cut up for the project. I dragged oit the scale and weighed them both. The aftermarket one was 11 pounds heavier than stock. So now I'm on the hunt for another stock cover.

In the meantime I finally did a battery relocation.
View attachment 85771View attachment 85770

Hood pins done, hood vent sorta done (its in the wrong place for the stock radiator location but should be spot on for the new aluminum location), brake ducting done, Hawk Blues installed.

Stock front bumper cover found and modified, header panel cut and modified, equals a total of 15 pounds off the nose of the car.

 

[blacksheep-1]

double post

 

[blacksheep-1]

check this out for some more ideas

Johnny Cash Mustang project - Tampa Racing

The Projects - Johnny Cash Mustang project - OK do any of you remember JC's old song about his 1959-60=61 Cadillac, where he steals the car from the factory a piece at a time? Well here's the Fox version of it. I race in the FAST series autocross in central Florida, the rules are fairly simple...

www.tamparacing.com

 

[jchady]

This years time at Road America. Still had issue with brakes even after adding ducting.

 

[TMSBOSS]

What problems are you having with your brakes?

 

[jchady]

I cracked 2 rotors in 2 sessions even with the cooling. The brakes performed flawlessly on track. The cracking is occuring (or at least drastically increasing) while the car is cooling in the pits. I have had conversation with both Hawk and Centric and they both feel the mass of the hub is not allowing even heat transfer throughout. And then I magnified the difference of temp in hat vs swept area by blowing the air directly into the hat.

 

[Vettel-ish]

After the car stops to do you push it every 10 min or so like a foot? It helps the super hot pads not sit on the same spot.

We do this and it might help

 

[jchady]

I didn't but could see how that would help. The crack location was exact opposite of the caliper while sitting.

In building my ducts, I went with 2.5 inch tubing so I could fit it all into the hat. I think if I go with some larger tubing I could possibly put some of the air onto the swept area of the rotor as well. I was also planning to build a splitter (which didn't happen this year). That should create a greater high pressure area at the duct inlets.

I wish I could've gotten brake temperatures. In the photo above there appears to be some pad smear. At Road America, the rims stayed absolutely clean. No brake dust at all on them. However, at Dells Raceway and Autocrossing topping out at 65-70 mph, the rims were almost black from all the dust. Were the pads so hot they smeared instead of dusting or did the airflow at Road America blow the dust out of the wheel cavity?