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S197 3V Fabman's build; How did we get here? Build Thread

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Fabman

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racer47

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....My expertise is around 100% fabricated scratch built race cars...
That's kinda my point. After racing purpose built cars, I'm surprised that you would go through the frustration of building a street race car where everything is a headache.

I couldn't do it. I get frustrated just working on my street version. There's no way I'd try to race it in SCCA or NASA. I had only one street to race car and that was way back in the mid 80's (no electronics, 351C, top loader, quick change, extremely simple compared to an S197). And I could not have even built that one without my Dad and brother. But we gave up on it after 2 seasons and bought a Dillon road race chassis and I have owned 3 more tube frame cars since that one.

Racing street cars is a road race thing. The oval track guys would never do this in any of the fast classes. Even Sportsman cars are going tube frame since there are so many used cheap ones available. Thats why I think TA2 type car will just continue to expand in popularity. SCCA runs them in GT2. I guess they don't fit nicely into NASA classing but thats easily fixed.


I've looked at a couple and have seriously considered buying one but I had my heyday. Right now my son is racing 4 cyl mini stocks and that is way more fun. Last Saturday was open practice and he set fast time.

Laugh if you must but I won many SCCA GT1 Regionals in this Mustang II including its first race.
Thanks Tom.jpg

Sorry for the detour, now back to your regularly scheduled Frankenstang.....
 
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Fabman

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That's kinda my point. After racing purpose built cars, I'm surprised that you would go through the frustration of building a street race car where everything is a headache.

I couldn't do it. I get frustrated just working on my street version. There's no way I'd try to race it in SCCA or NASA. I had only one street to race car and that was way back in the mid 80's (no electronics, 351C, top loader, quick change, extremely simple compared to an S197). And I could not have even built that one without my Dad and brother. But we gave up on it after 2 seasons and bought a Dillon road race chassis and I have owned 3 more tube frame cars since that one.

Racing street cars is a road race thing. The oval track guys would never do this in any of the fast classes. Even Sportsman cars are going tube frame since there are so many used cheap ones available. Thats why I think TA2 type car will just contiue to expand in popularity. SCCA runs them in GT2. I guess they don't fit nicely into NASA classing but thats easily fixed.


I've looked at a couple and have seriously considered buying one but I had my heyday. Right now my son is racing 4 cyl mini stocks and that is way more fun. Last Saturday was open practice and he set fast time.

Laugh if you must but I won many SCCA GT1 Regionals in this Mustang II including its first race.
View attachment 65007

Sorry for the detour, now back to your regularly scheduled Frankenstang.....
I've built scores of street stock, Pro stock and mini stock cars, the difference there was I started with a bare tub, not a polished show car. This car was built backwards, from the paint in. I never intended it to go this far, it just sort of evolved. Had I to do it all over again I would build a GT1 tube car or go back to oval track which is just plain better in every category as we're discussed previously. Plus, when I was at my first track day the promoter said "its fast, I'll give you that....but you'll never be able to make a good road course car out of it".....that was all the ammo I needed.
 

racer47

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haha, yeah the "fu, don't tell me what I can't do" is always good motivation. Plus I hope you know I'm not trying to criticize or second guess you. The car is seriously very impressive in function, style and high quality fab work.
 

Fabman

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haha, yeah the "fu, don't tell me what I can't do" is always good motivation. Plus I hope you know I'm not trying to criticize or second guess you. The car is seriously very impressive in function, style and high quality fab work.
nah, as usual we are on the same wavelength.
 

Fabman

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Frank.JD.Perez

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Fabman

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And to think there was a tyme not so long ago you questioned going through it all again. In my eyes, you made the right choice. Best of luck Sal.
Thanks Tyme.
 
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You used to come to the shop and make my street car into a track car piece by piece. We’d be working on jobs and you would be adding lightness to the car. You have always been a good motivator, and I thank you for that. Hell, you still come work on the car while we’re working on job stuff. I’m serious, I never would have gotten this far without you.
Thank you for the kind words.
 

Fabman

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Fabman

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Laugh if you must but I won many SCCA GT1 Regionals in this Mustang II including its first race.
View attachment 65007

Sorry for the detour, now back to your regularly scheduled Frankenstang.....
Thanks Tom.jpg

BTW that car is super cool. Takes me way back to the good old days.
 

Fabman

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Couple more cooling mods.
Welded up the radiator return to degas bottle then drilled it 1/8” and plumbed the top of water neck back to the degas bottle and drilled an 1/8” hole in the tank for a constant air bleed while passing minimal hot water back into the block.

186541769_10159409987163535_3452606205218640889_n.jpg186073828_10159409987308535_5279384836563204733_n.jpg186472382_10159409987263535_5189606327539655565_n.jpg
 

Fabman

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Is this only for Coyote motors or will it work on 3 valve motors also?
Both, though as you know mine is a hybrid 3v/4v swap. I'm using a 3v cooling setup on a 4v and eliminated the weird thermostat bypass thingy the Coyote comes with. That being said, the radiator to degas bottle part is stock 3v.
The Coyote already has the water neck to degas bottle bypass but my 3v degas didn't. I had originally plumbed it up with my signature bleed valve in the water neck trick which works well but the Coyote has an extra hard time burping all the air out so this is a better go. My concern was that any hot water that you bypass back to the degas bottle gets sucked back into the lower radiator hose (3 valve setup) and I didn't want to do any more of that than necessary so restrictors do the job. I'm sure you remember the bleeders on both my 3v and Coyote motors.
 

Fabman

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To clarify, there is a bypass from the radiator to the degas (stock 3V) and a second bypass at the top of the water neck. Both vent back to the degas bottle and both have 1/8" restrictors.
 

Fabman

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Here we go, this shows both connections.

IMG_2164.jpg
 

Fabman

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Another benefit of an electric water pump;
The system can just sit here and auto bleed with out running the motor.
No hidden pockets overheating and turning to steam and hoping it doesn’t fry anything before every last bubble is purged.

F66E4784-A2AD-4DFC-8D35-A4E8B70F33A9.jpeg
 
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Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
Awesome.

185260997_1403806026641742_4700259428395536874_n.jpg
 

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