FoxBody Red Fox Build Thread Profile - Fox Body Mustangs

[Peter92lx]

I went through power steering woes as well.
I found that going from traditional PS fluid to Amsoil PS fluid significantly reduced foaming which is what boils over, blows up hoses etc.
I also used a tube and fin type cooler. For reference, the FR500 PS cooler is about twice as big as the one I used, and what I should have used.
In my case (3 valve pump on a 8200 rpm coyote) the motor was able to spin much higher than the pump was designed to so ultimately I ended up with a EPAS rack and that was the end of my PS problems.

View attachment 101144

View attachment 101145.

I had a cooler like the one you had in first picture. Part of the problem was I didn't have enough air flow over it when the car was moving. I looked at something similar to the FR500 one but ended up with the Derale cooler. So far from test drives it's working really well. I'm going to put it to the test this weekend. I need to build a new box around the front air dam to direct the air into the radiator better. I had one before but damaged it a while back and haven't set it up again. I'm also thinking of moving my oil cooler to the side with it's own fan But that is a summer project when I add the splitter to the car.

The rebuilt TKX is back in the car and ready to go. Unfortunately for some reason the cam sync on the distributor in the car died so it wouldn't run. I was hoping to pick it up on Saturday but brought it home today. I just need to give it a bath and load it up on Thursday for a weekend of racing. It should be a good event. I feel like the car was working well at the end of the last event so I'm hoping to build on that this weekend.

 

[Peter92lx]

This weekend was round 2 of the 4 event Racing Byrds Autocross Challenge. I wish I could say it went perfect but that's not what happened.

Saturday

My Saturday session started out rough with a spin on my first lap. I was over driving the car on my first 2 laps of my first session then I backed off got it together and put down a solid run on my last lap of the first session. The rest of the sessions I worked on cleaning things up which I put together in my final lap of the day. I was in third going into the last session. I put down a lap in my final session that came close to taking second place but got jumped by the guy that was in 6th place. The last lap was my fastest but I can see from the videos and when I was driving the car that I made a few mistakes that was the difference between finishing 4th and not taking second place. The last section of this course was really fast I was right off the rev limiter and hit it going through the finish on my final lap. Here's the videos from my fastest run.

Sunday

Unfortunately my luck ran out on Sunday. I've been pushing the valvetrain to it's edge a lot lately. I turned the rev limiter up to the edge of the what the lifters and springs could handle and I ended up paying the price that I knew was coming. I went to fire up the car to warm it up for my first session of Sunday when I started to hear a tapping sound come from the engine that got louder raised and lowered when I hit the gas. I shut it off the team at JBA said lets look at the valvetrain and see if we just need to adjust the valves. The wind on Sunday was crazy super strong with tons of dust flying around. Randy from JBA said we should check the valves but we can't do it out here we need to put the car in the back of your trailer to protect it from the dust and wind. So with the help of a group of people we got my car in the back of the trailer. Since the passenger side valve cover is the easiest we started with that one. We didn't find any issues. We bumped the motor a bunch of times and everything looked normal. Then we removed the intake so we could look at the driver side of the car. Same thing we didn't see any issues but when we were bumping the motor we got a pop out of the upper intake. We decided at that point we probably have a bent valve. So this is where my Sunday ended before it started.



I dropped it off at JBA on Sunday night so they could look it over. We were right after JBA put a bore scope into cylinder 4 they could see the intake valve was bent. Not really bad but bent enough to keep the valve from fully closing and leak down test showed 55% leakage though the intake valve. I knew this might happen if I keep pushing on it. Luckily it's nothing major and since we will have to take it apart anyway it might be time to upgrade the AFR 185 heads to AFR 205 or 220 heads and go solid roller. I already have shaft mount rockers so I'm good on the rocker side of things.

It was a bummer to end the weekend with this issue espcially after driving over 6 hours but this is how it goes. I did drive the JBA Dominator GTC-R which was fun. The car felt really good but I didn't do it justice. It has a Coyote motor in it and it's crazy how the power comes on with those motors. It's a Gen 1 that puts out around 400hp at the tires. it comes on strong around 4000rpm and likes to be in the upper end of the RPM range.

Now it's back to getting the motor fixed and ready for a mid May event since I don't think I will make the end of the month event.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

She sounds great and sorry about the tough situation. The only good thing ( if there really is one ) is it happened at the beginning of the Season. Keep us posted on how things turn out!

 

[Peter92lx]

She sounds great and sorry about the tough situation. The only good thing ( if there really is one ) is it happened at the beginning of the Season. Keep us posted on how things turn out!

Thanks everyone comes up to me and say how much they love the sound of the car. It's definitely bummer but it happened in a window where the next event in the series isn't until June so we have time to fix it and at least test it over a couple other events. We talked yesterday and the plan is to pull the heads install AFR 205 heads and solid roller lifters. I had the camshaft built out of billet so it can handle solid roller lifters. Now we are just checking lead times on the parts. Hopefully what we need is in stock so we can get it quick and the car fixed. I still need to get the shocks pulled and sent back to MCS to have the revalve done on the shocks.

 

[Fabman]

Thanks everyone comes up to me and say how much they love the sound of the car. It's definitely bummer but it happened in a window where the next event in the series isn't until June so we have time to fix it and at least test it over a couple other events. We talked yesterday and the plan is to pull the heads install AFR 205 heads and solid roller lifters. I had the camshaft built out of billet so it can handle solid roller lifters. Now we are just checking lead times on the parts. Hopefully what we need is in stock so we can get it quick and the car fixed. I still need to get the shocks pulled and sent back to MCS to have the revalve done on the shocks.

Well, this sucks a lotta butt.

*UNLIKE*

 

[Peter92lx]

Been a while since I posted. We got the car back up and running. I ended up installing AFR 205 heads and solid roller lifters. I ended up get a 20hp and 20tq bump from the upgrades so I was happy about that. The car did pick up a bit of an idle issue that we are working on. I also noticed a couple leaks that I need to address before the next event in May.

Now with issue at the last event in Vegas I was hoping for a good event last Sunday. It turned out to be a really a good event. I ended up winning CAM-T and finishing top PAX at the event. I was completely shocked buy the top PAX. I've only done it once before when I ran DS in a WRX.



Unfortunately I don't have the video from my fastest run since I forgot to turn on the cameras. The run in the videos below was my second fastest run.

The car feeling great and handling really well. Soon as I got it home I removed the shocks and sent them off to MCS to have the valving redone for the heavier spring rates I'm running. I should have them back by May which will give me a chance to get under the car and figure out the leak or leaks is coming from. Unfortunately it won't be easy soon as the fans kick on they blow fluid everywhere.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Great choice of shocks, MCS has been my choice and many of the guys I race with for a Decade. My fabricator, when I had my Boss 302S, was a " Penske " Diehard but after doing a shock dyno on my set he now swears behind them. Keep us posted on the other items and thanks for posting.

 

[Peter92lx]

Been meaning to get an update out on the car but I've been really busy between work and life. I got the reworked shocks back and everything went back together fine. I did develop a bit of an oil leak at the front of the motor which I tried to address but turns out I didn't fix it. I need to look into it more before I take the car to Vegas at the beginning of next month. I've also have a small coolant leak from the bottom of the radiator. That I might have to get a new radiator. I was hoping to push it until after Vegas since the leak is so small but I might have to take the lower intake off to fix the oil leak since it looks like it's coming from the lifter valley between the lower intake and the block.

I had the car back out on the new shocks. The car worked great and I was able to pull off another win in CAMT which was awesome. I ended up third in PAX Jeff Kiesel in his bug eyed sprite cleaned my clock and CS Miata just got me by .044 which sucked. Still I really wanted the class win so I was happy with that. The course was short and very uneventful. There wasn't many places to gain time you had to be really on it from the start.

Here's the in car footage.

Here's the footage from the outside.

I was hoping to take my extra runs but with the oil leak I decided to skip them and put the car back in the trailer. That needs to get solved before the Vegas event. Luckily I don't have much I need to do before the Vegas event. Since the summer is the longest break we have from racing I'm starting to make plans for fixes and small updates. There's a bunch of small things I haven't completed that I'm hoping to get done this summer. I would like to work on getting data acquisition system in the car. I already have parts to it with my AEM VDM module but I need to get it mounted properly. I would also like to get a working parking brake in the car again. I have mechanical parking brake calipers but I thought about using electric parking brakes so I don't have to have a PB handle. I also want to do a spitter but I'm not sure if I want to wait until I figure out what I want to do with the front of the car. I still haven't figureed out if I want to go with Chicane 23 flares again and modify them to work on just get Maier fender flares. My hope is to not have to do any major work to the car this summer but I still have one more event.

 

[RinerAuto]

I'll mention I have sometimes been at events where I've used the park brake to hold the car to get a good launch. Don't know if that would be possible with electric brakes. This has also only been needed a handful of times. But when wins are separated by fractions of a second...

 

[Peter92lx]

I'll mention I have sometimes been at events where I've used the park brake to hold the car to get a good launch. Don't know if that would be possible with electric brakes. This has also only been needed a handful of times. But when wins are separated by fractions of a second...

That's a good point I've had to do the same thing but it's rare for me to use it. I'm starting to consider the manual more just due to the weight difference between the 2 calipers. It's not a massive difference but it is unsprung weight on the car. I just didn't feel like dealing with the cables since I will have to mount them in a way that the factory cable mounts on the spindle will not work. I have one more event then I'm on my summer break so I will have a lot of time to figure it out.

 

[Peter92lx]

It's definitely been a while since I updated my thread. I've been meaning to post up the night race in Vegas just haven't had the time. The night race at the beginning of the month went really good. The car was flying and hooking up great. I was able to push on it harder and harder and it just took it. I was in the lead on are first two sets runs on the first night but I didn't make the jump forward I need to hold on to it in the last set of runs and I ended up third. The second night played out about the same I was holding on to the lead but it my last set of runs I did lay down a lap the would have moved me to second 4 hundredths off the lead but I hit a cone. The my last lap I made a mistake and I ended up third again. My goal at the beginning of these Vegas events was to at least get on the podium so I did accomplish that. I just know I have more and the car has more I just need to put it together. I think what's been helping the most is not making any major changes to the car. I'm getting a consistent feel for the car and making small changes to make it better. Here's my fastest runs from both days. I didn't post the footage from the outside of the car since it didn't come out that great.

Friday Night / Saturday Morning

Saturday Night / Sunday Morning

At the end of the day it was nice to give the top guys a run for the money. They came over half way through the event and said we thought it was just going to be the 2 of us battling for the top spot we didn't see you coming. Hopefully on the last event in September I can do the same just finish in the top spot this time. Now it's time for my summer break until the September event.

Plans for the summer.

Engine

Before heading into this event the car has been leaking a bit of oil from the lower intake at the china wall. Under normal driving it really doesn't leak but after autocross it starts to leak we think do to the hard braking pushing oil forward in the lifter valley. I already removed the lower intake from the car. I decided the last time it was off if I had the time to do it I would clean up the ports and runners of the lower intake. Now that I have time I've started to clean the up. I now know why people charge a lot of money for this work it's a pain trying to clean out the runners.



I've just got started cleaning them up but still have a lot of work to do to make them right. I think it took me 5 hours to do 5 runners so it was slow going. I still have at least a day or two to get it finished up. I'm also going to open up the throttle body opening to match the opening on the throttle body. Right now it has a bit of a step and I figure that can't be helping.

I'm also removing the alternator bracket and installing a Speed Doctor one to remove the belt tensioner. The pulley on the tensioner is going bad plus the belt is stretching a bit and getting close to the belt touching between the water pump pulley and the power steering.

Brakes

Since the intake manifold is off the cat I was going to work on the front brake lines. Since I removed the ABS module I don't need the front lines going into the car then looping out to back outside the car. I'm going to leave the bulkhead fitting installed in the firewall and cap them for now then make new lines from the front master cylinder to the two front calipers. I'm also adding pressure sensors to the front and rear brakes for data logging which I will go over later. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is do I use a dual stack banjo fitting on the master cylinder run one line to the driver side line and then run one to the passenger side. My only thought is the driver side line would be short and the passenger side line would be long and I'm not sure how that will affect the pressure between the front calipers. Some people say not much some say it will make a difference. The computer nerd side of me says there would have to be a delay between them due to the length difference similar to a computer network for every foot of network cable you add more latency. Will the difference even be something that will even matter. I could also run a single line off the master to a tee in the middle of the firewall and have close to equal length front brake lines.

I'm also going to change the front brake pads on the car. I've never been a big fan of the DTC-60 pads. I really like the Raybestos ST43 pads on the car. I have them in the rear of the car but I could get them for the front. I ended up finding a set for the front so I got new rotors so I'm going to switch back to those pads.

Suspension
I'm not really going to mess with the suspension in the car. I do have a set of the Kenny Brown upper IRS control arms that I'm going to try and install on the car. These should give me more bump travel in the car since they have more clearance to the frame rail. The front suspension is going to stay the same I don't see a reason to change it.

Data logging

I decided to pick up a Racecapture MK4 system for the car. I'm going to use it with Solostorm to better analyze my runs and an overlay to my videos. I'm adding pressure sensors to the brakes and I found you can connect the second can bus on my Dominator to the Racecapture and it can log the data from the Dominator which will give me throttle position. It can also data log the Dominator but the the Holley does that fine so it's not really necessary but I can if I want. You can also add steering wheel position sensors but that would be for a later date.

I should have more updates over the summer with the changes to the car. I have a few more minor things I want to do with the car but those I will do if I get a chance.

 

[RinerAuto]

Data logging

I decided to pick up a Racecapture MK4 system for the car. I'm going to use it with Solostorm to better analyze my runs and an overlay to my videos. I'm adding pressure sensors to the brakes and I found you can connect the second can bus on my Dominator to the Racecapture and it can log the data from the Dominator which will give me throttle position. It can also data log the Dominator but the the Holley does that fine so it's not really necessary but I can if I want. You can also add steering wheel position sensors but that would be for a later date.

I really like the RaceCapture with Solostorm setup. Works great and gives room for expansion. The only issue I have is with using one tablet I can only record using one program at a time. The RaceCapture can record internally with a SD card, but then have to remove the SD card in order to get the data.

I also have a brake pressure sensor I want to install. I'd be interested to see your solution. I can't find a tee fitting for brake line to 1/8 NPT. I might convert to AN as there is a 1/8 NPT tee fitting for those.

As for hydraulics, yes there will be a slight delay between driver and passenger when applying the brakes, but it will be practically immeasurable. Remember the lines are full without air pockets. There will likely be a pressure drop, but again with the small line sizes it will be very small. I test haul trucks and our brake lines are -8 (1/2"), but it's also not a closed system. The brake response side to side is milliseconds.

 

[Peter92lx]

I really like the RaceCapture with Solostorm setup. Works great and gives room for expansion. The only issue I have is with using one tablet I can only record using one program at a time. The RaceCapture can record internally with a SD card, but then have to remove the SD card in order to get the data.

I also have a brake pressure sensor I want to install. I'd be interested to see your solution. I can't find a tee fitting for brake line to 1/8 NPT. I might convert to AN as there is a 1/8 NPT tee fitting for those.

As for hydraulics, yes there will be a slight delay between driver and passenger when applying the brakes, but it will be practically immeasurable. Remember the lines are full without air pockets. There will likely be a pressure drop, but again with the small line sizes it will be very small. I test haul trucks and our brake lines are -8 (1/2"), but it's also not a closed system. The brake response side to side is milliseconds.

Sorry would have responded sooner but I was on a family camping vacation with no service.

I mainly want the Racecapture for solostorm just so I can analyze my runs. The Dominator has all it's own logging plus the AEM CD7DL will datalog the Dominator so the engine management is covered. But it is nice that the Racecapture can read the Dominator. I was thinking of adding the shock sensors like you did on your car plus a steering angle sensor but I plan to do those at a later date. What do you think of the shock sensors you added to your car. Have you found the data to be helpful? I know you've been doing swaybar testing have you seen those changes in the data?

I converted all the brake lines to -3an when I did the ABS install in the car so I'm going to use this adapter from Redhorse.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hse-347-03-2

I'm going to put the pressure sensor on the front brake line running to the driver side front brake. The rear I'm going to add it to the main line just before the tee I have going to the rear brakes. I want to put one on the rear brakes to see the pressure change when I adjust the balance bar.

I'm hoping this will help me figure out what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. The car has been working really good. I think it's even faster then I've been driving it. The last run of my last event I made a mistake and honestly I don't think it was due to the car handling weird. I think that I didn't get off the brake fast enough before my steering input which caused the rear get out of shape. It would be nice to have the data to see if that is what happened.

 

[RinerAuto]

I mainly want the Racecapture for solostorm just so I can analyze my runs. The Dominator has all it's own logging plus the AEM CD7DL will datalog the Dominator so the engine management is covered. But it is nice that the Racecapture can read the Dominator. I was thinking of adding the shock sensors like you did on your car plus a steering angle sensor but I plan to do those at a later date. What do you think of the shock sensors you added to your car. Have you found the data to be helpful? I know you've been doing swaybar testing have you seen those changes in the data?

I do want to add a steering angle sensor as well. It will be helpful for comparing runs. I do like the shock sensors. There is some issue getting the data to solostorm though. It's sample rate is lower and it's scaled incorrectly. But in RaceCapture it's all good. I could see the difference between the sway bars in the data. I couldn't see shock settings, but that could also have been me not driving consistently. As far as using the data for run comparison I haven't found it useful. I think it could be useful for shock tuning with proper sample rate.

Data is very important. I know my car is faster than I can drive it. Using data especially when faster drivers upload their runs is extremely helpful. At muscle on the mountain I was able to download a couple other faster runs. I'm outgunned on power or gearing but once get into the corners I could keep up. But could also find the little mistakes where I got just slightly off line or went a little too deep. I highly recommend solostorm.

 

[Peter92lx]

I do want to add a steering angle sensor as well. It will be helpful for comparing runs. I do like the shock sensors. There is some issue getting the data to solostorm though. It's sample rate is lower and it's scaled incorrectly. But in RaceCapture it's all good. I could see the difference between the sway bars in the data. I couldn't see shock settings, but that could also have been me not driving consistently. As far as using the data for run comparison I haven't found it useful. I think it could be useful for shock tuning with proper sample rate.

Data is very important. I know my car is faster than I can drive it. Using data especially when faster drivers upload their runs is extremely helpful. At muscle on the mountain I was able to download a couple other faster runs. I'm outgunned on power or gearing but once get into the corners I could keep up. But could also find the little mistakes where I got just slightly off line or went a little too deep. I highly recommend solostorm.

What tablet are you using to look over the data? Do you leave it mounted in the car or remove it when you run?

 

[RinerAuto]

What tablet are you using to look over the data? Do you leave it mounted in the car or remove it when you run?

I have an Amazon Fire HD 10, but I don't initially recommend it. I had to root it in order to install the software and it doesn't have built in GPS which would be nice for setting up the start and finish. Luckily I have a Bluetooth GPS for that, but just extra steps and devices. But the Amazon Fires are cheap and can work for this application.

Yes I leave it mounted in the car during the runs. I have a ram mount going through the dash to the dash steel frame. I'll get a picture later.

 

[Peter92lx]

I have an Amazon Fire HD 10, but I don't initially recommend it. I had to root it in order to install the software and it doesn't have built in GPS which would be nice for setting up the start and finish. Luckily I have a Bluetooth GPS for that, but just extra steps and devices. But the Amazon Fires are cheap and can work for this application.

Yes I leave it mounted in the car during the runs. I have a ram mount going through the dash to the dash steel frame. I'll get a picture later.

I was originally looking at the Fire HD 10 due to the price but I guess it doesn't work with GoPro cameras. So I'm looking at the Samsung S9 right now which is now getting hard to find since they just released the Samsung S10. I was looking at the Ram mount. I think I can get a long enough arm so I can reach the panel I used to mount the Dominator and the EcuMasters PMU-16 modules. Then run the arm out one of the vents on the dash.

 

[RinerAuto]

Do you mind sharing your spring or wheel rate? I know you've been trying out different springs.

I started off with 400lb in the front and currently up to 900lb but I'm wondering if it's too high now. We have different rear suspensions but currently have 300 lb but have 250 and 350 lb springs.

 

[Peter92lx]

Do you mind sharing your spring or wheel rate? I know you've been trying out different springs.

I started off with 400lb in the front and currently up to 900lb but I'm wondering if it's too high now. We have different rear suspensions but currently have 300 lb but have 250 and 350 lb springs.

I started with 550lb fronts with 700lb rears and the car was awful. I'm currently running 900lb front with a 750lb rear. I've found this to be the best combination with my car right now. The wheel rates from what I understand in the front is about 450-475lb the rear is 375lb. I found with my car it likes a 150lb split between the front springs and rear springs. I'm running the front sway bar at full stiff using the Griggs racing Black sway bar which has a bar rate of 726 at the wheel. I've thought about trying 950lb front with a 800lb rear and setting the front sway bar to the middle setting which is a 588 bar rate at the wheel.

Not sure if I'm going to mess with it this year but I might try the new spring rates next year. I have a good feel for the car right now so not sure I want to mess with it.

 

[RinerAuto]

I started with 550lb fronts with 700lb rears and the car was awful. I'm currently running 900lb front with a 750lb rear. I've found this to be the best combination with my car right now. The wheel rates from what I understand in the front is about 450-475lb the rear is 375lb. I found with my car it likes a 150lb split between the front springs and rear springs. I'm running the front sway bar at full stiff using the Griggs racing Black sway bar which has a bar rate of 726 at the wheel. I've thought about trying 950lb front with a 800lb rear and setting the front sway bar to the middle setting which is a 588 bar rate at the wheel.

Not sure if I'm going to mess with it this year but I might try the new spring rates next year. I have a good feel for the car right now so not sure I want to mess with it.

Thanks for sharing. Looks like we're on similar paths. That's good to know.