S197 First Fun Car Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

[EF1]

What do you guys prefer for a piston compressor on the front Brembo calipers. Lisle's tool?

I use one like this on the front.

Pardon Our Interruption

It beats channel locks.

 

[misterpeanut]

Well, I'm tired of the front end popping and creaking, and last time I took apart the drivers side I found the strut mount had collapsed. So I though for sure I can go with the FP M-18183-C upper strut mount (basically the GT500 version, but I think slightly harder duro meter rubber) just to find out that very easy fix only works on 2005-10 struts. So now I'm looking at Steeda and Vorschlag's very cool solutions. Does anyone have any feedback on these? I read what Billy Johnson did and there is some info, but not really in depth. Both say 1 or 1.5 deg of additional camber adjustment, but I imagine if it do the holesaw trick to my strut tower opening I can get more negative camber... ? Any daily driver or track use feedback would be appreciated.

Vorshlag Ford '05-'14 S197 Mustang Aluminum Camber/Caster Plates & Perches

Easily adjust camber track side with Vorshlag adjustable camber/caster plates. Our over-sized spherical bearings are designed to withstand the rigors of street and track abuse. All of our components are plated for maximum corrosion resistance and long life. Read more about the engineering behind...

vorshlag-store.com

Steeda Mustang Heavy Duty Upper Strut Mounts (2011-2014)

Steeda's Upper Strut Mounts for 2011+ Mustang have been tested on several popular race tracks to ensure increased suspension performance along with no increase in NVH.

www.steeda.com

 

[Tri-bar]

Well, I'm tired of the front end popping and creaking, and last time I took apart the drivers side I found the strut mount had collapsed. So I though for sure I can go with the FP M-18183-C upper strut mount (basically the GT500 version, but I think slightly harder duro meter rubber) just to find out that very easy fix only works on 2005-10 struts. So now I'm looking at Steeda and Vorschlag's very cool solutions. Does anyone have any feedback on these? I read what Billy Johnson did and there is some info, but not really in depth. Both say 1 or 1.5 deg of additional camber adjustment, but I imagine if it do the holesaw trick to my strut tower opening I can get more negative camber... ? Any daily driver or track use feedback would be appreciated.

Vorshlag Ford '05-'14 S197 Mustang Aluminum Camber/Caster Plates & Perches

Easily adjust camber track side with Vorshlag adjustable camber/caster plates. Our over-sized spherical bearings are designed to withstand the rigors of street and track abuse. All of our components are plated for maximum corrosion resistance and long life. Read more about the engineering behind...

vorshlag-store.com

Steeda Mustang Heavy Duty Upper Strut Mounts (2011-2014)

Steeda's Upper Strut Mounts for 2011+ Mustang have been tested on several popular race tracks to ensure increased suspension performance along with no increase in NVH.

www.steeda.com

Spend the extra money and get Vorshlag plates. Well worth the the price, the support is good if you need to upgrade or change parts. IMHO.

 

[EF1]

Well, I'm tired of the front end popping and creaking, and last time I took apart the drivers side I found the strut mount had collapsed. So I though for sure I can go with the FP M-18183-C upper strut mount (basically the GT500 version, but I think slightly harder duro meter rubber) just to find out that very easy fix only works on 2005-10 struts. So now I'm looking at Steeda and Vorschlag's very cool solutions. Does anyone have any feedback on these? I read what Billy Johnson did and there is some info, but not really in depth. Both say 1 or 1.5 deg of additional camber adjustment, but I imagine if it do the holesaw trick to my strut tower opening I can get more negative camber... ? Any daily driver or track use feedback would be appreciated.

Vorshlag Ford '05-'14 S197 Mustang Aluminum Camber/Caster Plates & Perches

Easily adjust camber track side with Vorshlag adjustable camber/caster plates. Our over-sized spherical bearings are designed to withstand the rigors of street and track abuse. All of our components are plated for maximum corrosion resistance and long life. Read more about the engineering behind...

vorshlag-store.com

Steeda Mustang Heavy Duty Upper Strut Mounts (2011-2014)

Steeda's Upper Strut Mounts for 2011+ Mustang have been tested on several popular race tracks to ensure increased suspension performance along with no increase in NVH.

www.steeda.com

I have run both the Steeda plates and the Vorshlag on my 2011. I started with the Steeda plates, sport sprints, and Koni oranges. Set up was a lot better than stock. I ran them for 5-6 years until the Koni oranges needed replacing. The Steeda camber plates were still fine and are in my garage somewhere. I switched to Vorshlag plates, Steeda competition springs, and Koni Yellows. I have had the current set up for a couple of years.

Both camber plates work and have held up to street and track. The advantage to the Vorshlag plate is that it allows you to adjust castor and its modular design. The Vorshlag plates can be configured to most any suspension you may go to in the future without having to replace the whole plate. Also, the machining and quality is first rate.

The Steeda plates do their job very well in my experience and the quality is excellent. They do not allow castor adjustment and they are not upgradeable in the future.

I ended up getting about the same camber adjustment out of each of them even after cutting the strut towers and installing the Vorshlag plates. The Steeda plate and Koni oranges were not limited in adjustment by the hole in the strut tower. Nothing protruded through the hole so they moved under the hole. The Vorshlag Koni yellow combination protruded through the hole(adjuster on the strut), so I cut the towers to get more adjustment. The final limiting factor wasn't the amount of adjustment in the plate. The diameter of the strut/spring contacts the strut tower limiting the amount of adjustability. I need to move to coil overs with smaller diameter springs/shock bodies to get more adjustment with the Vorshlag plates.

 

[misterpeanut]

Wow, super helpful! Thank you. I do see the Vorshlag plates don't have any rubber between the spring and the plate, did you notice any issues with that? Or is there a rubber cover you can put over the spring to keep from metal to metal contact... steel spring to aluminum plate? Or I'm over thinking it and the steel spring on the aluminum plate runs just fine?

 

[Tri-bar]

No issues at all, they will also last much longer than the Steedas

 

[misterpeanut]

OK great! Thanks guys

 

[EF1]

Used spring isolators on both set ups on the strut end with nothing between the springs and the top mount. No problems with either set up. I can’t say whether one will outlast the other. The Steeda mounts out lived the koni oranges. The Vorshlag mounts have been on the car half as long as the Steeda mounts were at this point.

 

[stevbd]

No experience with the Steeda but the Vorshlag cc plates are excellent. I installed them at 40K miles and my car now has 180K miles, it's a year round daily driver/weekend track car here in New England and they've worked great the whole way. I had them rebuilt once with new bearings and converted to fit coilovers. Durable, quiet, and easy to adjust from street to track settings in minutes. Customer service is good, quality is excellent, and it's easy and affordable to have them rebuilt or modified. Two thumbs up, well worth the extra initial cost imo.

 

[misterpeanut]

Great feedback! Thank you as my car is a year round daily as well. I'm just working through the final things I know need to be addressed before I feel comfortable pushing it on track.

 

[misterpeanut]

I've been dealing with random and odd issues happening during "spirited" driving where the Air/Fuel Ratio goes all wacky lean, the check engine light flashes, the engine misfires and is low on power, but will still pull, and then it settles down returning to normal 14/1ish A/R and drives great. It doesn't leave the check engine light on or store codes. So without codes I guessed and replaced all 4 O2 sensors hoping this would help. It didn't. While we were in the Smokies it happened again! Dang! Then after it settled down and drove normal during spirited driving the check engine light came on and I was able to check for codes which were: P0300, P0303, & P0305. Later on when I was getting into the car, I put the key in and turned on the ignition while my driver door was still open and heard the fuel pump as it normally does, but it did a weird hesitation/dip before stopping once it reached pressure. I started the car and drove like normal, but this is making me think that after 128,000 miles the fuel pump and the "lifetime" in take fuel filter are giving up the ghost. So I am going to replace it with a Deatschwerks higher flow rate pump and new filter so in the future I can run E85 without issue when I upgrade the injectors ... and port the heads with bigger valves ... and install bigger cams.

 

[misterpeanut]

That same day I decided to install the Steeda Xtended lower ball joints, the Maximum Motorsports Bump Steer kit, and adjust the front anti-roll bar so it's as close to parallel as possible to the lower control arm pivot. 3 changes at once, oh boy. I had the car professionally aligned and it drives so nice. The front sticks now, where before it'd start to push as it loaded, so mild over steer, but near 50/50 balance which is what I was always aiming for during kart racing. I have to imagine this is a mostly the geometry change in the Xtended lower ball joints and getting the anti-roll bar as close to ideal as possible. I really need links that are about 3/4" longer as I was at the limit of the threads and had to thread back in a few rotations.

The steering is way better. I want to double check the Bump Steer spacers though as I didn't do it on a perfectly flat surface. Still it's way way way better than before. It used to really steer in and just go on it's own as you would enter a corner and you'd have to steer out slightly. In sweeping fast turns it would do this odd steer itself in and I'd then steer out and then back in and it would become a completely unsettling bob in and out thing you were trying to wrestle and find this faint neutral zone, weirdest thing ever! Glad that's gone. It's faintly toe'd in to factory spec, so eventually I'd like to toe it out a titch, but honestly adding some more negative camber might just do the trick for a track day.

The rental ball joint press tools are a joke. These things are so clapped out, it's ridiculous, but the second one got the job done after monkeying with it on each side.

 

[misterpeanut]

When I was in the Smokies I heard the fuel pump hesitate when I turned on the key while my door was open. Odd that'd I'd notice this, but I guess when you hear things a thousand times it stands out when you hear it, but it's wrong. Thankfully it kept working (unlike my GMC Yukon in the middle of nowhere east Colorado) and we got it replaced with a DeatschWorks that flows more so it can easily handle E85 when I eventually get there.

 

[misterpeanut]

Put my Kooks headers and x-pipe in last weekend. Unfortunately the stock Boss 302 mufflers are too good. Gotta work on other options... but the headers are nice!

The job was way more than I thought. Figured 6hrs would be generous... nope. Breaking loose the stock stud/nut combo on the stock headers was crazy hard and most broke loose like a gun shot. I know for a fact all OE drawings say "break all edges, no burrs" ... but I'm not sure anyone double checks the suppliers or Ford checks their own metal stamping, dang there is some sharp metal on the K-member.

Just so you all know, the driver side isn't so bad to uninstall, the passenger side however is a total ... bad word. You absolutely must unbolt the engine mounts from the block, I left the lower part of the engine mount with all the squishy anti-NVH rubber mounted to the frame rail and that was fine. In order to support the engine, and lift it a little, I screwed some wood together for a wide base on the floor jack pedestal with one long piece to reach up and lift from the harmonic balancer. Once the engine mounts were out you can easily get to all the header bolts. Note; the passenger side front upper engine mount to block bolt with the ground strap is stupid hard and totally blind. Then it was a cake walk. I wish I would have started with the engine mounts from the get go, I'm sure I would have retained more of my blood had I gotten them out of the way immediately and saved hours. For sure you have to pull the battery and battery tray, it's super easy and a good reason to clean your engine compartment, gotta keep things spiffy.

Installing was completely reverse in difficulty to removing the OE components. The passenger side went right in and I had zero issues. The driver side required me to conjure every bit of Tetris mastery skills I earned back in elementary school plus my son pushing on the throttle body to get it rocked as far over to the passenger side as possible... and it still required a bit of a shove on the header to get it up into the pocket.

I thought for sure I could re-use the stock studs and nuts since they were in decent shape, but they definitely touch the primary tubes along the bottom row and in a bad way. So more wasted time, unscrewing things a second time, running to the parts store and trying to find the correct bolts (that took two parts stores). Typically the headers & x-pipe come with the hardware... while these are new headers, I'm not the first owner. The x-pipe thankfully did have the new clamps. Compared to GM exhaust fasteners, these 10mm x 1.25 bolts are legit, plus having a thick header flange, so nice.

Now I just need to replace the over axle pipes and the already mentioned too quite mufflers.

Dang those copper gaskets sure are nice (shameless plug)!

 

[302BOB]

I bet you were glad to see Fido waiting nearby to give you a hand (paw) if things got too tough.............................

 

[misterpeanut]

Ha! Yeah actually he likes being near me so he was laying in the shade of the car ... right where I needed to roll out from under the car. I love that dog, but sometimes he loves me too much and is in the way.

 

[misterpeanut]

I finally got around to installing the BMR rear axle upper control arm and bracket. Not too difficult, but you definitely have to take loose the over axle pipes to get them slid over and out of the way.

The J&M lower control arms have poly on the body and spherical on the axle. For the upper BMR does spherical on the body side and poly on the axle. Mental geometric equating and I see no issue! Actually I'm serious because these cars only have one control arm on the top. The point is, hello more grip. The rear is far more planted and predictable. The front also seems to be better. It must be from the bracket that replicates the connection point, getting things back in proper instant center for a lowered car. Road vibrations and bounce are more apparent. But horrible noise that someone can't live with... I hear none of it.

That's about it for updates. Life has been crazy with a major job change seeing me move out of the Performance Automotive Industry, but still being able to keep a toe in it. So with all of that, questions of keeping or selling the car have been frequent. It's God's grace that Ashley and I have stayed firm in as major things shook up right at the New Year and are just now looking like they are starting to settle. So, fingers crossed all ends up better and we keep the car for it and my eventual first track day.

 

[misterpeanut]

If I want to eventually install a nice front splitter, do I need to have the Boss 302 front chin/splitter first to create the mounting point?

 

[BackInBlack]

I've got a 2012 which is different but -- from what I can tell you do need another part. LMR has this kit:

https://lmr.com/item/LRS-17626MBK/2012-13-Mustang-Boss-302-Front-Chin-Spoiler-Kit

On the 2012 you need the GT/CS lower fascia...

 

[blacksheep-1]

Uuuggghhh headers.. I had to pull them off the Phoenix Boss 302R in tech once..it pretty much sucked