ITS Ford Mustang(s) Build - Stripper Stang Part II

[Ron Earp]

Surgery was done to fuse the L2,3,4 with a bone graft from my hip, and a titanium bridge. I don't recommend it. (the situation, not the surgery...)?

Holy sheet! I'm sorry, that does not sound good at all. I wish you a very speedy recovery. I read the thread and I'm now forewarned.

The Earpcool V2.0 (V1.0 was sold with the Z, and this one is not to be confused with DR COOL, which still might go in the car depending on weight issues) is project number 7.3.h.4. Which means that it is fairly far down the list of things to complete before May.

The dry breaks did arrive though. Earpcool V2.0 has weight as the primary driver so components were selected with that in mind. I suspect this one will not have dry breaks at the cooler area. Instead the pipe will be hard plumbed into the cooler/pump and terminate with dry breaks near the driver.

[Ron Earp]

Long work session in the garage. Brakes was the word of the day, as in brake ducts.

We started with standard ABS type plastic ducts that we were going to afix to the outside of the bumper and duct in. But that didn't look that good and we were worried about airflow.



Openings in the bumper got enlarged and then we used the heat gun to deform the ducts after we'd cut the flange off of them making something like this.



These had a straight shot at the inside duct and sway bar where we wanted to attach the ductwork.



Now, while all of that looks simple it took a couple of hours. Before all of that started I got the front suspension installed, nut and bolted, and tidied up for front bumper final install. As well as did some wiring.

Once we figured out where the ducts were going we were able to run hose.

[Ron Earp]

And get everything strapped up and out of the way of the tires.



Of course we have two cars to build so everything we did today was done in tandem.



And with the heat treated duct installed in the bumper.



We used the green chassis with the red bumper for most of the fab work; Christmas came a bit early.



Fix that up with a bit of silver an bows and we might have a sleigh.

[Ron Earp]

Now the green car is dangerously close to actually doing something other than sitting around on the lift. Engine start is eminent as is running around the neighborhood as she still wears her street tag.



On the other hand, the red car came down off jack stands for the first time in weeks and that was a good sight.





Now, we did get around to one very important thing. The green car is "race prepped" in the sense that it has all of the equipment in the proper place for weighting. Thus, we scaled it. How much do you think it weighs (sans driver and zero fuel, and yes, we laid the glass into the car for proper weighting)?

[Ron Earp]

I've got the outlaws coming in today for Easter so work is limited. However, this morning I managed to complete the tune for the engine, upload it to my programmer, then use the programmer to download it to the ECU.



This was something of an accomplishment as I've not communicated with the ECU since lengthening the OBDII cable, relocating the port, and tapping some lines off the engine harness.



The download was successful so I think all is still good with the harness and ECU. Both engines will start with the same ECU program for a base file. Then we'll use the handheld tuner to make minor changes such as adding or dropping a bit of timing and fuel, or the PC based software if we need larger wholesale changes in the file for something that we're way off on. Hopefully the ECU will take care of itself mostly as the adaptive learning mode is still on, while all the silly nannies are off - nannies that want to pull timing for this and that, enrichen to save the motor, pull spark due to high oil temps, and so on. I'm optimistic that we'll be able to get it done with the stock ECU but if we can't we'll go to Megasquirt or similar.

[Ron Earp]

Got started on the wiring last night and this morning. I like wiring and my goal here is to make the system efficient and easily disconnected at all locations with Weatherpak connectors. This is the back side of the console panel that houses a number of gauges plus the Traqmate, switches, and tire pressure monitor.





The green car went off to the exhaust shop at 7am and the red one goes this afternoon at 5pm. Both need their exhaust reconfigured.

Things are moving along. I've got to have surgery tomorrow and I'm thinking I'll probably be out of action for a few days on the StangWerks. But, I hope to be back on it by the weekend.

[CRallo]

only off for few days?! don't over do it!

oh, I like that 5 round! I must have! I just have flat and square 4's... looks most excellent! Tire pressure monitors? really? damn...

[lateapex911]

Ron, first, good luck with your surgery! Hope it's kinda minor.
Second, I just saw your weight query. I can't remember your target weight. But, I have been figuring that you'll be over about 120 when you're all said and done.

[Greg Amy]

Careful with the straps Ron: if you end up in the kitty litter, they WILL simply connect their tow strap and pull you out sideways, ripping up/off a bumper cover in a heartbeat (or cut the strap).

Always assume the car will be pulled 180 degrees, not just straight on. - GA

[CRallo]

headed to the beach?!?!? get back to work!

uhoh, here come the critics...

speaking of which, where in the rules does it talk about something like the diamond plate floor? I'd like to do something like this too... Have a ghetto one in there now, in fact.

[Ron Earp]

The strap is a compromise. It is attached to the "frame" huge bolts, but, the bumper cover hangs down a foot below that attachment point. The bumper just isn't strong enough to handle towing (in my opinion), so we ended up with what we got. Tis true, it'll only work for towing straight +- 15 degrees or so, but we were hard pressed to come up with a better solution.

The front one will take side pulling in one direction pretty well, but not in the other. Mustangs do not have great structures for towing. I feel the front radiator subframe is too weak, and the suspension subframe and "frame rails" are too far away from the front to be of much use.

[SPiFF]

The front one will take side pulling in one direction pretty well, but not in the other. Mustangs do not have great structures for towing. I feel the front radiator subframe is too weak, and the suspension subframe and "frame rails" are too far away from the front to be of much use.

I am in the same boat. Honestly, sometimes I'd rather take the yelling from the geezers then mess with these stupid tow straps.

[Ron Earp]

I am in the same boat. Honestly, sometimes I'd rather take the yelling from the geezers then mess with these stupid tow straps.

Truth. Ultimately you are paying for anything that happens to your car regardless.

It is what it is. Hopefully, you'll be around if you need to tow the "SuperHondaVTECYOIntregaIGotNoLowEndHorsepowerBeas tButIBeFast"out of the trap and say "Hell no dude, don't tow my car like that".

When you in RDU for some beers?