S197 A Canadian Mustang in Texas Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

[8bitmime]

Supercharger install is finally in progress. I spent about six hours today pulling out the old intake and all the hoses and wires. Tomorrow, it starts going back together. So far the worst parts:
- The secret hidden stud on the back of the passenger side head that holds the hard lines for the coolant lines that run under the well. For anyone trying this, it's a 13mm stud and you really can only find it by feeling up the backside of the engine with the battery tray removed.
- Removing the 90 degree push lock heater core connections at the firewall. Those things are clearly designed to never come out. The secret to those seems to be to bring a friend and tag team them by having someone push the tab from each side.

 

[302BOB]

8bitmime, Once you start a mission like this, there's NO turning back!!!!!!!!!!!!!.........Good luck on the completion and your rewards that you enjoy afterwards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[8bitmime]

2 months later and I'm almost finished (with this phase at least). I finally found and squashed all the electrical gremlins and am just doing some final tuning, cleanup and wire routing. This was a lot harder than I expected but still managed to get everything in and working correctly. I got some new tires and will be back on track the 16th.

 

[8bitmime]

First track day in May was a disaster - we had heavy rain, it was cold, and no grip could be found anywhere. After my second spin and a near miss, I headed home and parked it for the summer. I cancelled my registration for COTA in July (that's an expensive place to take an untested car) and spent some time cleaning up some wiring and other odds and ends.

Last weekend was my first real opportunity to get back out on track and I had a blast. The advanced group was pretty full so lots of traffic management to deal with as I got used to the additional power and weight changes. By the afternoon session I was running ~4 seconds faster than my personal best and keeping pace with Porsches in the straightaways. Top speed didn't really move up but I got there much quicker until towards the end of the fourth session, I boiled my coolant and couldn't get the car to cool down again. Looks like it's time to add some hood vents and an oil cooler.

Here are my temps for the last (overheated) session: 
All the new cooling for the intercooler worked fantastically but engine cooling needs some help. I did some checks to make sure I didn't blow a headgasket and now I'm digging through threads and looking for cooling options. I think I'm down to three:
1. Mishimoto's Universal kit - lowest cost, easy to source and widely used. The main downside is that the lines are 10AN and it's not going to fit anywhere easily.
2. Improved racing Oil relocation adapter, thermostat remote filter mount and MHX-530. Downside is that it's spendy, hard to fit, and I can't find any reviews or recommendations.
3. Setrab Proline Competition 12 row cooler with either Setrab's Sandwich and remote filter or someone else's. Setrab's highly recommended, middle priced and will fit directly above my intercooler. The main downside is that the Setrab sandwich plate doesn't support 12-and lines.

I'll add some video later so you can hear that supercharger (and sometimes the driver) whine.

 

[Mike_FL]

If you can find a cast aluminum Setrab sandwich adapter then it will fit an12 lines as that’s what I use. They do seem to be hard to find so maybe discontinued??
Part number is SET-SPT76-22-180-22
(Amazon has a few)
I originally had the billet adapter but that didn’t fit the an12 so I bought the cast one

 

[8bitmime]

If you can find a cast aluminum Setrab sandwich adapter then it will fit an12 lines as that’s what I use. They do seem to be hard to find so maybe discontinued??
Part number is SET-SPT76-22-180-22
(Amazon has a few)
I originally had the billet adapter but that didn’t fit the an12 so I bought the cast one

Thanks - found it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FXWGP8V
I'll see what actually shows up.

 

[Dave_W]

[Edit - For some reason, I'm replying to a year-old post from the previous page. Link on main page didn't drop me at last-read post for some reason, and a long day meant the year in the post didn't register. May still help you, so I'll leave it. Good luck and have fun! ]

One thing I noticed in your video was that you weren't using all the track on entry to the uphill hairpin on the short course section. I drove the short course with DriveXotic (birthday gift) a few years ago. At the last ess before the uphill hairpin, I was driving a straighter line (green) while you are turning left a bit (yellow).



You're in the middle of the track when you turn in for the hairpin, where I would be at the outside curb. The wider entry opens up your steering angle, letting you carry more speed. Also, the turn is steeply uphill, so gravity is helping your traction, and you can carry even more speed and possibly get on the the throttle sooner than if it was flat.


You did better on the lap where you followed the Miata through there (about 15:40), because he took the wide entry.

But the next lap you were in the middle of the track at turn-in again.

In addition to staying wide / right on entry, it's a very late apex (look where the cones are set as a suggestion) which means your turn-in is later than normal. When I approached that section i would repeat in my head "stay out, stay out, stay out, then turn."

So that's something you can work on mext time you're there. It's one of the slowest parts of the course, so getting through it better can give big time gains.

 

[302BOB]

WOW!!!!! Two December babies turning 73 this year............I gotta dust off my accordion in the cellar so we can rock n roll at the dual birthday celebration!!!...........

 

[8bitmime]

[Edit - For some reason, I'm replying to a year-old post from the previous page. Link on main page didn't drop me at last-read post for some reason, and a long day meant the year in the post didn't register. May still help you, so I'll leave it. Good luck and have fun! ]

One thing I noticed in your video was that you weren't using all the track on entry to the uphill hairpin on the short course section. I drove the short course with DriveXotic (birthday gift) a few years ago. At the last ess before the uphill hairpin, I was driving a straighter line (green) while you are turning left a bit (yellow).

View attachment 98618

You're in the middle of the track when you turn in for the hairpin, where I would be at the outside curb. The wider entry opens up your steering angle, letting you carry more speed. Also, the turn is steeply uphill, so gravity is helping your traction, and you can carry even more speed and possibly get on the the throttle sooner than if it was flat.
View attachment 98620

You did better on the lap where you followed the Miata through there (about 15:40), because he took the wide entry.
View attachment 98621
But the next lap you were in the middle of the track at turn-in again.

In addition to staying wide / right on entry, it's a very late apex (look where the cones are set as a suggestion) which means your turn-in is later than normal. When I approached that section i would repeat in my head "stay out, stay out, stay out, then turn."

So that's something you can work on mext time you're there. It's one of the slowest parts of the course, so getting through it better can give big time gains.

Thanks, great suggestion and definitely a place I struggle with. Quick build updates:
1. I found a junkyard hood ($60 at pick-a-part!) and some Race Louvers. I just got the Louvers on Friday so I didn't have time to get this installed.
2. I bought a bunch of Setrab oil cooling stuff and almost got it all installed. The Amazon sandwich plate was the right one and it does support 12AN lines but I can't fit an oil filter between the sandwich plate and the front sway bar. Also found there's much more room in the front so I have an easier place to mount the oil cooler (I originally had it placed in the passenger wheel well. Time to rework it all with a remote filter relocation bracket.
3. Air is flowing outside of the various heat exchangers - I need to box in the rads and probably make them closer to each other.
4. Something is wrong with the cooling fans - they aren't running when I come off track unless I turn the AC on high. I know there's a bunch of weak links in the fan wiring.
5. I don't think the coolant temperature sensor in the ECU is actually tied to the coolant temperature. My crappy IR thermometer put the temperatures on the rads and hoses much higher than what the ECU saw.

I went out this weekend to ECR after just setting the temps down in the ECU and got two sessions in before boiling over. Once it got hot, nothing would cool it down - driving easy, sitting parked with the fan running, nothing helped until the water cooled down on its own.

Updated Plan:
New hood and louvers
Flush out the rad and block
Improved Research filter relocation based on this post from CSM in facebook
Install a real coolant temperature and oil temperature gauge
Box in the heat exchangers all the way to the bumper and grill openings
Rewire fans, water pumps, etc to make it easier to check, wire in status lights, switches and heavier gauge leads.
Kenny Browne radiator - I'm running a Mishimoto 3 pass but it's definitely not up to the job.
Remove the fan shroud based on this article


If I was to do this all over again, I'd probably have not gone with a supercharger. The quality and implementation on the Dept of Boost kit is great and the intercooler works flawlessly and would be great for drag racing but getting that much heat under control is a challenge. Sure, I'm seeing higher top speeds and will probably ultimately see slightly faster lap times, I've taken a car that's historically been a rock solid tank that was cheap to operate and turned it into a fragile, tempermental, science project that requires constant monitoring. I'll keep working it but I might need to go back the drawing board.

 

[8bitmime]

Quick update - cooling is significantly better. This weekend was damp and cool but temps never broke 190 and mostly hovered around 180 (thermostat's at 170). The big fix for this setup seems to be either the new radiator or the thermostat bypass. This Fluidyne Radiator cools measurably better than the Mishimoto radiator I was using. I made some other changes (oil cooler, some ducting, replaced the resister in the fan) but you can immediately see the difference from the new rad - the car takes longer to get up to temp and cools down much quicker. With temp sensors at the inlet and exit of the rad I saw significant differences between the two rads at idle with no forced air flowing through them using the same water pump (the plumbing is different because they have different lower inlet sizes). 190 degree water would be 175 or less coming out of the Fluidyne where it would still be in the low 180s coming out of the Mishimoto.

I'll put up a more detailed walkthrough of the oil cooler and ducting next week - I don't love my install and I'm going to replumb and remount it. I had a pretty aggressive off in the wet and opened up one of the oil cooler lines so I've got to take care of that. I don't think I damaged anything internally but won't be sure until I get it in the garage and take a look. Blooper reel to follow as well.

 

[8bitmime]

A little setback - after getting everything "fixed" and almost getting a full track day without issue, my headgasket finally gave up and I ended up limping home. I'm going to take some time and replace some of the plastics in the timing system and upgrade the oiling system since I'll have it all apart. I'm on the fence about replacing the rotating assembly - I've gotten some quotes and it sort of pushes it into the "Coyote swap" range. For about 1500, I can replace all the plastics and put high quality replacements from ARP and Cometic. Either way, it looks like I'll have a busy spring.