S197 APEXPNY Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

[Apexpny]

After running a few more events in 2020, I started pushing the car and getting a little faster. Going into the 2021 season, it was now time to invest in safety. I decided to install a Maximum Motorsports roll bar, Sparco Evo seats, Schroth 6 point harnesses, and frpp Sparco quick release steering wheel. Since the interior was out, I also installed a Watson battery relocation kit to balance some weight off of the nose. This project was a pain in the a** but glad I did it. Being strapped into bucket seats not only helped keep me from moving around but it gave me a much better feel for what the car was doing. I was also tired of renting uhaul trailers so I picked up a 19' Sundowner open car hauler. Our next event was Thunderhill to test it all out. The guy with the Corvette is a friend I got hooked on this hobby during the prior season. He got tired of the vette overheating, so he now has a Camaro 1LE for track duty.

 

[Apexpny]

After finishing the 2021 season with a few more track weekends, I started thinking about the next round of upgrades. Although I had the MM camber plates, I couldn't max out negative camber due to the small strut tower opening. So I ordered a cut out jig from Vorshlag and made more room. Since I was taking out the struts, I decided to add a MM bumpsteer kit and Steeda extended ball joints to help dial in the front geometry. Measuring bumpsteer was a huge learning experience. Using the MM bumpsteer gauge worked pretty well but the whole process of jacking up the suspension inch by inch, measuring, then adding/subtracting spacers, measuring again, then going through this process 5 or 6 more times was extremely tedious. Once I finally got the geometry where it was acceptable, it was time to learn how to do my own alignment.

 

[Apexpny]

After researching DIY alignment, I decided the string method was the best tool for me. As seen in the pic, the basic alignment set up mostly used supplies you can buy at Home Depot. I built my own turn plates out of 2x4s and two pieces of masonite stacked with the slippery sides facing each other. Two pvc pipes with identical slots cut in each end layed across jack stands with string hanging front to back using a few bolts to weight them down. I also used small ratchet straps to lock the steering wheel in position. Squaring the car up took the most time. Once square, all I needed to do is take measurements of the front and rear of each steer wheel to determine toe. The only pricey tool purchased was the camber/caster gauge but this is necessary to make sure this measurement is spot on. The end result was negative 2.75 degrees of camber with 0 toe. I was hoping for more negative camber but the sway bar link clamps on the Eibach struts are too big and contact the tire if you lean it in at the knuckle. Overall, this was the best alignment I've had on the car and with the bumpsteer correction, the car now had sharp turn in with much improved grip.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Fun read and it has been an enjoyable journey for you it is obvious. The car looks great , and you have done some great mods, and my apologies if I missed something, but your next change that will be the most dramatic of all your upgrades to your car is lightweight wider wheels with some sticky tires. I will guarantee a minimum of 2 seconds per lap if you do that and get as wide a wheel as possible for some big rubber meats. A set of Apex 18x11s would be a perfect choice , especially since they are just down the road from you in Pleasanton !

We all look forward to seeing how far you take your Mustang over the coming years and your write up is fantastic.

 

[Apexpny]

Ah cool, I'm in Stockton, so pretty much within 3 hrs or less of all the Norcal tracks. My buddy and I just ran a one day event at Thunderhill last Friday with HOD and are looking at Sonoma Aug 19-20 with NASA. We have a few guys that meet up with us, so it's usually a good time. I'll let you know once we get registered.

 

[Apexpny]

Fun read and it has been an enjoyable journey for you it is obvious. The car looks great , and you have done some great mods, and my apologies if I missed something, but your next change that will be the most dramatic of all your upgrades to your car is lightweight wider wheels with some sticky tires. I will guarantee a minimum of 2 seconds per lap if you do that and get as wide a wheel as possible for some big rubber meats. A set of Apex 18x11s would be a perfect choice , especially since they are just down the road from you in Pleasanton !

We all look forward to seeing how far you take your Mustang over the coming years and your write up is fantastic.

Thank you, it's been an awesome project and has taught me a lot about how to set a car up for the track. I'm one step ahead of you on the wheels, just haven't posted that part of the journey yet. Currently running Apex EC-7 with Nitto NT01 305/35/18 and yes it's worth at least 2 seconds on the lap times.

 

[Apexpny]

At this point I was headed into summer of 2022 and had already run Buttonwillow and Sonoma with the new alignment set up. I also upgraded to DTC70 front DTC60 rear brake pads. The car feels as good as it ever has but of coarse I can never leave well enough alone. Over the past year I had been kicking around the idea of getting the engine custom built, so I had to make a decision.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

................Summer of 2022, or do you mean the Summer of 2023? Glad to see you have some Apex wheels and when you get really serious get a set of Hoosier R7s or used Pirelli or Michelin slicks and get another 2 seconds.

 

[Silversurfer410]

An amazing build, you completely transformed the car to a track beast.

 

[Apexpny]

Summerof 2022, or do you mean the Summer of 2023? Glad to see you have some Apex wheels and when you get really serious get a set of Hoosier R7s or used Pirelli or Michelin slicks and get another 2 seconds.

Summer of 2022. I'm posting my progress of the car from 2019 through today. So far the last post was my progress through June of 2022. Yes, once I get my current suspension set up is completely dialed in, I want to play with a set of slicks.

 

[Apexpny]

An amazing build, you completely transformed the car to a track beast.

Thanks! The car has come a long way and has more changes scheduled for the future.

 

[Apexpny]

Ok, so at this point it's June of 2022 and I just finished the weekend at Sonoma. I had talked with a couple engine shops and decided to pull the engine and put together a build plan. However, I still wanted to continue tracking the car while figuring out who is going to rebuild the motor. After a week of scouring the internet, I found a low mile junk yard engine and had it delivered. After a few weekends of thrashing, I was able to swap the engines. While I had the replacement engine on the stand I cleaned everything up and painted the cam covers ford blue which should add at least 10 hp right? I also replaced the clutch with a Mcleod street pro single disc matched with an aluminum flywheel. In addition to the engine swap, I decided on ditching the lsd for an Eaton Truetrac. Also stepped up from 3.55 to 3.73 gears and added a GT500 rear brake kit. Lastly, I swapped out the Mishimoto oil cooler with a Setrab 925. Now that I have made all these changes at once, it was time to hit the track and see if this junk yard engine would hold up or grenade itself.

 

[Apexpny]

After the engine swap and other upgrades were done, I did a weekend at Thunderhill August of 2022. The engine didn't blow up but there were a few bugs to work out. However, the clutch was a nice upgrade from stock, the Truetrac did what it was supposed to, and the GT500 brakes solved the heat issues I had with the smaller original GT rotors. The only change I made that didn't improve the car was the 3.73 gears. With a bone stock 3v, the power band falls off too quick with this gearing and I actually feel like I lost a bit at the end of straight aways. Luckily, the 3.73s were installed in preparation for the new built engine which will have a power band higher in the rev range with red line around 7k. If you plan to run a stock 3v without mods, I suggest don't go any more than 3.55 gears. I did a few more events through the fall and started thinking of what the next phase of upgrades would be over the off season.

 

[Apexpny]

Ok, we've finally made it in the journey to 2023. This years project started out just being a simple wheel and tire upgrade, so I picked up a set of Apex EC-7 18x11 wheels and Nitto NT01 305/35/18 tires. Unfortunately when I tried to fit the front wheels, the inner lip/tire was contacting the strut, even with a 25mm spacer. Eibach has what looks like an over engineered design for their sway bar link ears and the clamp sticks out almost half an inch from the front of the strut. I considered grinding down the clamp or modifying it somehow, but in the end, the best solution was to replace the coilover system. As painful as it was, I handed over 5k for an MCS 2W suspension, ouch! In the long term, this is probably a solid investment because not only do I get a much better double adjustable damper I can grow into, but I can take advantage of the opportunity to order higher spring rates that match the added grip.

 

[Apexpny]

After getting the suspension and new wheels/tires fitted, I booked an April event at Buttonwillow to test everything out. The first session of the weekend was a mess. The car was all over the place, especially in the braking zones. The steering felt darty and by the end of the session I couldn't keep the rear end under the car. I knew there was going to be a steep learning curve to adjusting a 2way damper and dialing in this set up but at the moment I felt overwhelmed with how bad everything was. I spent the whole weekend trying different adjustments logging everything I did along the way. By the last session, I got the car to slightly behave but half of it was me adjusting my driving to the car, it just didn't feel right. It was time to go home, analyze the data, and figure out how to get the car to do what I wanted it to.

 

[Apexpny]

The next weekend after Buttonwillow, I took a close look at the car and noticed some paint worn away on the bump stop brackets. This was definitely new to the rear of the car and was a clue to the handling issues. I had left the shortened bumpstops used with the Eibach kit but those still might be too tall. I also inspected the tire wear pattern and noticed a bit more inside wear on the fronts than I would like to see, another clue. When installing the suspension, Vorshlag recommended 3.5-4.5 negative camber, so I set it at 3.75 on the lower end. Even on the lower side of what they recommend, this seemed like a lot, so I decided to knock it back to 3.5. This probably would explain the darty steering and unsettled braking. I also raised the rear ride height in addition to cutting the bumpstops down to about an inch to limit contact. This could explain the unpredictable oversteer I was feeling. With the adjustments made, it was back to Buttonwillow again for an open test day.

After 10 open test day sessions and several damper adjustments, I had the car feeling a lot better. The negative camber at 3.5 felt pretty good with predictable steering response and more controlled braking. It also resulted in nice looking tire wear. Raising the rear ride height helped settle the rear end down a bit but it was still getting on the bumpstops. Overall we were heading in the right direction but not quite there yet.

 

[Apexpny]

Another month went by and Sonoma was up next, followed by a day at Thunderhill two weeks later to continue dialing things in. My focus was getting this bumpstop issue sorted out. Now I've heard a lot of different opinions about these S197s and bumpstops. Some say never let the bumpstops contact the body and others say get the car to squat down onto the bumpstops in the turns. Not sure which one is right or wrong, so I'm just going in the direction that feels good to me. If anyone wants to add their 2 cents and experiences, I welcome all opinions.

The direction I decided to go was to try and limit bumpstop contact. The more I raised the rear ride height, the better it felt. However, after a full day at Thunderhill, I'm almost out of height adjustment and it's still making contact. The car is definitely the best it's felt all season but I'm thinking a slight increase in spring rate from 250 to 275 might be the missing link? Although a higher spring rate might solve the bumpstop issue, it may lead to less rear grip. Do I just through parts at it and see? I guess this is the race car life...

 

[Apexpny]

The one upgrade I did that seemed to improve the car slightly was a GT500 cooling fan. Coolant temps stayed below 210 but not sure if this was due to the less restrictive shroud design or more likely the unseasonably cooler mid July temperature. Seems like I could have just cut out slots in the original shroud and it would have a similar affect. I guess the redesigned fan blades make a difference? Not sure if anyone here has some legit before and after results of the GT500 fan.

Tip for anyone doing this on a hydraulic power steering car. You will need to trim out a half circle shape in the plastic bracing where the reservoir mounts. I'm assuming ford removed the provision because they went to an electric steering rack.

 

[67GTA]

However, after a full day at Thunderhill, I'm almost out of height adjustment and it's still making contact.

I may have missed it, did you cut the bump stops down? Really common on the S197’s to take about an inch off.

 

[Apexpny]

I may have missed it, did you cut the bump stops down? Really common on the S197’s to take about an inch off.

I should have added that in the post but yes, I have them cut down as far as possible to not have the uca crash into the body. I think they are about an inch tall maybe slightly less. I removed the springs and jacked the axle all the way up until there is just enough clearance to absorb an impact. I would assume anyone who cuts them down lower or removes the bs completely is running higher spring rates.