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SN95 Chris' 351w Swapped 1995 Build Thread Profile - SN95 Mustangs

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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,424
8,350
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Welcome from the Ozark State and I would sure look into the Apex Rims over the SVEs , but really like your idea of getting some bigger rubber. Running 315/18 BFG gforce R1Ss on my Boss and am liking their longevity compared to the Hoosiers. Love the Hoosiers, but I was going through them too quickly and though they heat up a bit slower they stay more consistent long races..............about 250-300 cheaper for a full set also.

Check out the Mustang Roundup in Hastings ,Ne. coming this October. Another Mustang Bucket List event and often a showcase of new stuff from Ford ( 3-8 Ford Engineers come down from Dearborn to run their track machines ). Go too www.racemph.com and cool mods on your SN95!!!!

PS -Apex is a site sponsor, rims are hub centric, and they have a big Sale right now!
 
Starting to get some more SN95 profiles/build threads in here... very cool! Hope to see some track day recaps and build progress from your journey. 🤘

Thanks!! I just stumbled across this site for the first time yesterday, so I figured I would join up.

I actually JUST got some videos uploaded from Hallett this weekend. I don't have a big name channel or anything, but I have started uploading my AutoX Runs and track videos from the past couple weeks.


Welcome from the Ozark State and I would sure look into the Apex Rims over the SVEs , but really like your idea of getting some bigger rubber. Running 315/18 BFG gforce R1Ss on my Boss and am liking their longevity compared to the Hoosiers. Love the Hoosiers, but I was going through them too quickly and though they heat up a bit slower they stay more consistent long races..............about 250-300 cheaper for a full set also.

The Apex wheels look really good, but they are about double the price of the S350s, which is what pushes me toward those. Ballin on a budget especially with revamping the suspension setup so much. Im hoping to have the suspension done by early next year before AutoX and track days really get going, so I will already be eating a lot of Ramen noodles with the plan I have now lol.

I also have a forged 408w with AFR heads in the plans someday. Just got to get around...ten thousand bucks set aside...ironic, isn't it? The more you spend the faster you go. The faster you go, the more you break. The more you break...the more you spend! Rinse, wash, repeat.

Check out the Mustang Roundup in Hastings ,Ne. coming this October. Another Mustang Bucket List event and often a showcase of new stuff from Ford ( 3-8 Ford Engineers come down from Dearborn to run their track machines ). Go too www.racemph.com and cool mods on your SN95!!!!

Great info! I had read about the event somewhere, but didn't know much about it. I will have to see if I can swing it. I mentioned going on a Tunica casino trip and hitting the NASCAR race at Talladega on Sunday, October 4th to my dad and brother just last weekend. They seemed interested, but you never know.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,424
8,350
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Many of us have had the S350s, but the hub centric Apex rims fit a ton better. Easy to go square with spacers up front, and then rotate those donuts ------ looking to save you money in the long run. What's wrong with Ramen, we have all eaten those noodles , just a sign of more important items gear heads spend money on ha, ha. Bring them along, or have them drive up in another Mustang , and the whole family can get some track time instead of watching some one else on track.
Did I mention the partying ---- there were some years we put the Talledega infield to shame, ha.
 
Many of us have had the S350s, but the hub centric Apex rims fit a ton better. Easy to go square with spacers up front, and then rotate those donuts ------ looking to save you money in the long run.

I'll keep that in mind...I do want wheels that can take some track abuse, so if others have been down that road before, I'll steer clear of the SVE wheels. Rather do it right than do it twice, I guess.

What's wrong with Ramen, we have all eaten those noodles , just a sign of more important items gear heads spend money on ha, ha.

Nothing wrong with Ramen whatsoever, it just gets old! And it's unhealthy! I'm only 3 years removed from living in the college dorms and a diet consisting solely of cafe food, Ramen noodles, and beer got me fat. Trying to eat my veggies now and scrub some off so I can go faster 😄

Bring them along, or have them drive up in another Mustang , and the whole family can get some track time instead of watching some one else on track.
Did I mention the partying ---- there were some years we put the Talledega infield to shame, ha.

Maybe I can convince them to come and bring the GT. In my humble and broke opinion, they ought to be taking that to every track possible.

Partying sounds pretty fun...if I show up, I'll need to know about those...
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
1,081
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
San Diego
Nothing wrong with Ramen whatsoever, it just gets old! And it's unhealthy! I'm only 3 years removed from living in the college dorms and a diet consisting solely of cafe food, Ramen noodles, and beer got me fat. Trying to eat my veggies now and scrub some off so I can go faster 😄
You don't even have that much to scrub as you're, what 3100# in that SN-95? That puts you around an E46 BMW, and toss and remove a thing here and there and you're probably down to 2800.
 
You don't even have that much to scrub as you're, what 3100# in that SN-95? That puts you around an E46 BMW, and toss and remove a thing here and there and you're probably down to 2800.

Yeah, except when I went into my senior year of high school, I weighed 197 (I wrestled and walked my weight). When I went to college, I was 220. Now I'm 372...My car might not weigh a lot, but I more than make up for it. I meant eat my veggies literally! 😂😂😂

On the car, I think SN95 from the factory was a little closer to 3300. I did put aluminum heads on, but I put a 351w in, too, so I think it's closer to a wash. Lighter wheels offset by wider tires and bigger rotors and calipers. That pretty much goes for everything on the car, too. One part came off, a new one went on. I'd say I am right at factory weight. I need to find someone with corner weights so I can check out my starting point and evaluate changes as I make them.

As far as taking weight out, I have to stay good for AutoX. Have to keep it a "street car", meaning "no race car interior". But that doesn't mean I can't pull the carpet and remove the stuff on the floor pans. I could put in ultra thin, lightweight carpet. Pull the rear seat and put in some aluminum panels covered with carpet (or just painted would be ok, I think). Removing power seat tracks. Motion Raceworks steering column. And ALL of those changes will just about make up for the roll cage 🙃 that's the way it goes for us flexible chassis owners. Light, but weak.

The MM stuff should help a bit. I'm just as interested in balancing the car out as I am total weight for AutoX purposes. They say the K Member and coilover kit will take 36# off the nose. AC is gone, condenser, compressor, lines, etc. I'm gonna set the engine back 1" on the new K. K and MM control arms put the wheels 1.5" forward. Etc.

Fun times ahead!
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
1,081
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
San Diego
The MM stuff should help a bit. I'm just as interested in balancing the car out as I am total weight for AutoX purposes. They say the K Member and coilover kit will take 36# off the nose. AC is gone, condenser, compressor, lines, etc. I'm gonna set the engine back 1" on the new K. K and MM control arms put the wheels 1.5" forward. Etc.
:)
Yeah, back in the day, the MM kits were arguably the best, or depending on what side you chose regarding Panhard Bar vs Watts Link, Griggs was equally as good. Perhaps you're right on the weight though, I remember my 'vert being like 3450. They're truly a blast though, kinda wish I didn't termy swap mine, would love to get it on the track once again. Definitely watching this one though, 95 Cobra R still my fave Cobra.
 
I picked up some Falken Azenis RT615K+ in 275/35/18 tonight. I was leaning toward the Bridgestone Potenza RE-71Rs for AutoCrossing, but then Tire Rack had to go and have a deal on the Falkens...$157 each. Versus $270ish/e for the Bridgestones. They will do for now and should be MUCH better than the Nexen N7000 All-Seasons. They will at least get me through AutoX for the rest of this season and I don't have any track days on my calendar right now. Should have them here middle of next week.

Kinda wish I had just gotten some a week ago, before I went to Hallett, but that deal wasn't offered last week when I looked...I was watching for a good deal like that. There's always next time.
 
I mentioned in the OP that I had gone to Hallett Thursday and Friday, June 18-19. The car wasn't running quite right. It was down on power, wouldn't run without bucking under 3000 RPM, didn't have any real power till 4000. At 4000, it would come alive and take off, but then wouldn't run past 5-5500. This happened suddenly, one run it felt fine, the next it didn't.

I'm not sure where the loss of power came from. I sent the guy who does my tuning datalogs from the run with my dad on the Thursday night we were at the track. He modified the tune and sent it back. We put new spark plugs in on Friday morning and uploaded the new tune. The car still felt pretty flat. Lurched and chugged in gear at anything below 3000 RPM. Even at 3000 RPM, it had no power, then around 4000 it would take off, then wouldn't rev over 5000. Not cool, car, not cool. I took some datalogs that I am planning to send back to the tuning guy tonight.

I started doing some diagnosing this weekend. Started off verifying the fuel pressure was still at 60 PSI. Looked good, at least with the car off and at idle.

Then I wanted to rule out a worn distributor gear being the issue. If the gear were worn, it may cause timing at the engine to be different than what the Sniper is programmed to command. So I set the Sniper to "static timing" at 20* and put a timing light on the engine. Timing was dead on 20* and stayed there perfectly while revving the engine up and on decel. The better thing to do would probably be pull the distributor, BUT I think the static timing check is good enough to eliminate that for now. With how bad it was running, it would've had to be REALLY off, and it wasn't even off by a degree when I was checking.

So I pulled the valve covers next. I checked the rocker arm adjustment, and everything looked ok. I'll put a feeler gauge on the rockers in the near future (since it was about time to adjust them anyway), but none of them were loose enough to have caused the breaking up I was feeling on the track. No excessive play in the pushrods that would indicate a wiped cam lobe. No wear on the valve stems.

Compression was 120 on all cylinders, which is what it was last I checked 6 months ago (That compression seems low for an 11:1 engine, but I think dynamic compression is just a lot lower because of the cam size and the 41* of overlap. I also was only letting each cylinder "hit" three times with throttle closed, mainly because that's how I had done it last time and wanted a good comparison).

That's as far as I got for now. I will do a leak down test as soon as the tester comes in (my cousin didn't have one at the shop, and wanted one anyway, so he went ahead and ordered it). Then I'll reset the rockers to .020" lash.

I have just been checking fuel pressure at the bypass regulator. I am going to try to check it while driving next. The Sniper has 3 inlets for fuel and one return port. I am going to hook a gauge up to one of the other ports on the Sniper and stick it under the windshield wiper so I can watch actual fuel pressure at the Sniper while driving.

Anyone have anything else I ought to be checking? Advice is very much welcome and appreciated!
 
I figured the engine issue out! Turns out it was the brand new AEM 50-1005 fuel pump. I installed it on Wednesday before we hit the track along with new filter elements. I also pulled the tank and inspected for rust or anything else that may have been clogging. Then pulled it onto the trailer. It had maybe two hours of run time on it when it started acting up. Never lost pressure at idle, even if I just turned the pump on and let it sit at 60 PSI while watching it. But trying to drive, it would act up and lose pressure apparently.

So now I am trying to figure out how to keep a pump alive. The A1000 died and then an AEM a couple engine hours later. So I have an email in to each company to review my system and give me an idea of anything else that could be killing them. In the meantime, I have a new AEM pump on the way to at least make it through AutoX this weekend.

I also have some sway bar end links...I checked out the front end while I had the car in the air over the weekend, and the passenger side upper bushing was GONE. Not "in bad shape". Like, no longer present. The driver side was torn on the upper one and the lower bushing was halfway pressed into the hole in the control arm.

Also got the new tires mounted up and balanced. They felt pretty nice, but I'm sure half of that feeling was just a placebo. Unfortunately, I also noticed the end link before I drove, so I don't really know how good they feel yet. The AutoCross this weekend will be the real test.

On the plus side, for this event, I will have new Falken tires, new swaybar endlinks, freshly adjusted rocker lash, a fresh tune, a fresh fuel pump, and the full knowledge that something is still gonna break on me. Fun times.
 
"On the plus side, for this event, I will have new Falken tires, new swaybar endlinks, freshly adjusted rocker lash, a fresh tune, a fresh fuel pump, and the full knowledge that something is still gonna break on me. Fun times."

Sometimes it's hard to always be right...

The ole girl did pretty well overall. I finally traced the last of my engine stuttering issue back to a loose spark plug. It was on the number 8 cylinder, which is jammed up really tight against the brake booster. I think my ratchet might have gotten wedged in and tricked me into thinking it was tight. Tightened that up right and she ran good.

But then the starter died Saturday morning on the grid. Well, I don't know if it died...it sounds like it just loosened up.

The grip was definitely much better with the new tires and sway bar endlinks. I just really struggled in the slaloms. As opposed to my first time ever AutoCrossing, where I didn’t hit a single cone in two days, I hit two cones each on my 2nd and 3rd runs. My best time in the morning was 35.530. In the afternoon, I ran a pretty good (for me) 34.877 out the gate, then murdered a cone on my next run, then DNF’d my last two. The course was a little more confusing this time around and I really struggled with remembering where the first slalom was, which was right after a pretty fast spot in the course. I would pick up a lot of speed, then make a right hand where it immediately went into a slalom, and I would forget to...slalom.

Unfortunately, I left my SD card at home, so I can’t review the runs.

Since the starter went out on the grid Saturday morning, we ran my cousin, Mike's, Trans Am Sunday. It was plenty fast, but I struggled even more because the car handled totally different than what I was used to. My car is hard to break loose, hard to get straightened back out if you do, the Trans Am is easy to break loose, but easy to straighten back out with throttle inputs. It felt like driving my car on ice. I coned every run Sunday morning, and had one single clean run in the afternoon. The car is just a handful to drive. Even with 315 BFG Rivals all the way around, which are two years old and past their life, the car just oversteers like crazy. Once you turn the wheel, you have to use the throttle if you want to turn any more. The front tires on Mike's car never even got hot.

If we had the braking and grip of my car with the sheer power and stiff chassis of my cousin’s car, we would really kick ass (well, Mike would, at least...).

The tires helped the Mustang change direction a lot quicker, but I do feel the chassis flex now. It no longer feels like the steering "connection" to the tires is slow, it just feels like the body is absorbing some of the direction change, if that makes sense. I could feel the wheels and tires turning, but the car would hesitate a second before it followed. 32 PSI seemed to be good, but the tires never changed pressure too much. Mike said it felt like he picked up a tire coming out of one of the slaloms, but he wasn't entirely sure.

Several people commented that they thought I had way too much body roll slowing me down (Mike thought that, too).

I am glad I got to drive his car this time, but I don't think I will again if I can help it. I just didn't want to saddle him with my car both days, especially having to push start and keep it idling in the grid the whole time. He was wanting to get a top ten finish this weekend, which he nearly got in his car. But I was not as good in it because it handles so drastically different from anything else I have driven.

I guess that reinforces that I should probably take any modifications I do slowly so that I can acclimate to being faster and faster along with the car.

(P.s., yes there was a run where we had the hood popped lol. I had popped it to try to get some heat out since we had to keep it running, and then we didn't end up opening it. Got busy checking tires and didn't notice till the run was over.)

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Finally have a trailer! It isn't much to look at, but I think with a good cleaning and a coat of Rustoleum, it will serve me well.

I bought it from my cousin Mike's former co-driver's widow. He passed away last October, and she is selling some of his old stuff. Picked this up for $1000, which I thought was a good deal. It has "new" tires...they have very few miles on them, but they have been sitting for a while. I'm still gonna try to run them, since our AutoX is only about an hour away.

There are a couple problems, one of which will be the fenders...they're pretty high above the deck. I likely won't be able to get out of the car with it on the trailer. Plus, the deck is really low. My cousin said when his partner had it, he was going to raise the deck and make the driver's-side fender removable. I like the sound of that, but it does sound like a lot of work, too. Open to hearing other suggestions for entry/exit if y'all have any?

I'll probably just Bo Duke it for next weekend's event.

Either way, for $1000, probably not too bad a deal. The main advantage for me is that I now have a place to store my tools. I live in an apartment on the second floor and it's a PITA to carry tools up and down, but I mostly work on my car and truck at my cousin's shop anyway. So I kind of have tools scattered in many different places and can never find them when I need them. Some are in the Mustang till race day, when I move them to the backseat of the daily or into the shop, some are in the cab of my truck (that's currently under the knife, too), and my daily's trunk is absolutely full of tools and parts right now. So it'll help declutter my cars and Mike's shop.

It also allows me a place to store spare parts for race days. There's nothing like spending $250 on a track day, just to have a $150 fuel pump die and ruin it. Obviously I can't keep an extra car there, but I can keep failure-prone parts or commonly replaced ones...fuel pump, plugs, wires, coil, rotors, pads, etc.

The winch is also a nice feature. I occasionally haul and repo cars for my dad, some of them non-running. I don't know if it works, but my cousin said it did when his partner bought it 4 years ago. And it's inside the box, so I have hope. Otherwise, I'll get a bigger Harbor Freight one and throw it in there.

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PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
I actually JUST got some videos uploaded from Hallett this weekend. I don't have a big name channel or anything, but I have started uploading my AutoX Runs and track videos from the past couple weeks.

I'm only 3 1/2 hours from Hallett, up in Missouri. Maybe we can meet up there one of these days.
 
@GimpyHSHS why are there no engine pictures in this thread?

Because my engine bay is the absolute worst you've ever seen lmao.

The previous owner did a number on the engine bay to get a supercharger on the 347 he had in there. Beat it with a hammer on the driver side. Paint knocked off everywhere. When I put the 351w in, I didn't really put a lot of effort into making it look nice. Was in a rush to get it ready for a road rally.

Then when I wanted to go EFI, I took a lot of care to run all the wiring and tuck it for the FiTech system I installed. But the unit was bad AFTER installing everything. So I had to pull wires back out to put the new unit in. THAT one was bad, too. Said "f*** it" and returned the FiTech and got a Holley Sniper. I wasn't sure it was going to work either, since I had gotten bitten twice on doing all the work, so I just wired it up for power, pretty poorly.

So, long story short, I need to remove some of the old unused wires from the bay and rerun some of the Sniper wiring, shorten wires, etc etc. I am just waiting until I go MM K-Member. At that point, I will be pulling the engine for a refresh anyway, so I will rerun the wiring (properly). That will probably be over the winter.

Here's some photos, don't judge me, I usually do better work lol.

Car had been sitting for a year is why it's so dirty.
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These photos are from 2 years ago when I first got the engine in.

Here's a more recent one with the Sniper.

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That's really all I have of the old gal. I cringe when I look under there lmao.

Here's a couple videos with it running:
First Start with Sniper 4150
Cold Idle

Just to prove I can actually make an engine look good, here's the Ford 300 inline 6 I jut put in my 1983 F-100:

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Haven't gotten everything buttoned back up on that one yet, either.
 

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