Improving The Breed, 2006 Mustang GT.

Improving The Breed, 2006 Mustang GT.

Author
Discussion

StangGT

3,925 posts

268 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
Great write up... How did you tend to pick your parts from the myriad of options available?

Alias218

1,485 posts

161 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
Louvres on the rear window! Love louvres.

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
StangGT said:
Great write up... How did you tend to pick your parts from the myriad of options available?
Advice, research and more research basically. Once I started getting more into RWYB (numbers chasing) and then into actual racing I began bouncing ideas of my friend Chris (TheMighty) who is also my crew chief. And then after deciding whether its a good idea or not I buy the best that I can afford. The BMR stuff is great and I am glad I went down that route (there are also not a lot of suppliers that do the whole package like BMR do). When it comes to the differential etc. I went Ford Racing because they are quality components straight from the factory and bolt right in with no fiddling (the Intake manifold for instance was a perfect fit of the bat.

Alias218 said:
Louvres on the rear window! Love louvres.
I thought about that when I first bought the car but the passenger side rear window is a god send at oblique junctions and for general blind spot checks and I would never want to block it off.

Justaredbadge

37,068 posts

187 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
Great write up. Nicely modified car too.

No point in silly power if you can't.put it down on the road efficiently.


I would like to get a Mustang in the next couple of years...

would there be any advantage to a manual over an auto for racing?

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
Justaredbadge said:
Great write up. Nicely modified car too.

No point in silly power if you can't.put it down on the road efficiently.


I would like to get a Mustang in the next couple of years...

would there be any advantage to a manual over an auto for racing?
Buy one you won't regret it smile

Depends on the racing - for drag racing (and by that I mean competition not RWYB) imho an auto is the best bet because unless you build a street eliminator car out of one you'll be bracket racing and consistency is the name of the game smile But if you want to put it on a circuit you'll want the manual.

bassett

242 posts

187 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
I do love the look of these and the colour of yours suits it well. Cant help but think it needs some stripes back on.

How easy is it to get parts for these and is there a hefty premium for them?
Adam

Remagel2507

1,456 posts

191 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
Brilliant write up OP, interesting to see the modifying route that you took as the other tuned mustangs I have seen have all been about raw power

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
bassett said:
I do love the look of these and the colour of yours suits it well. Cant help but think it needs some stripes back on.

How easy is it to get parts for these and is there a hefty premium for them?
Adam
I prefer it without - but to each his own smile

The parts are easy to get over here, you typically pay cost + shipping + duty + VAT generally the price you see in $ is what you pay in £ with the current exchange rate. If you want fast air freight you do pay far more. Big items like the hood are very expensive to send by air because you essentially get charged for one 500kg pallet even if it only contains the one item. Small stuff comes via air, big/awkward stuff by container (various shipping companies like STS Imports handle it all).

Remagel2507 said:
Brilliant write up OP, interesting to see the modifying route that you took as the other tuned mustangs I have seen have all been about raw power
Yeah most people go down the big power route and I may do in the future but as Justaredbadge said there is little point in having all that power if you can't put it to the track.

I am chomping at the bit to get on the track and test the latest parts out but sadly that will have to wait until February next year at the earliest as there are no more RWYB sessions until then (the race season starts mid April).

Justaredbadge

37,068 posts

187 months

Saturday 2nd November 2013
quotequote all
PanzerCommander said:
Justaredbadge said:
Great write up. Nicely modified car too.

No point in silly power if you can't.put it down on the road efficiently.


I would like to get a Mustang in the next couple of years...

would there be any advantage to a manual over an auto for racing?
Buy one you won't regret it smile

Depends on the racing - for drag racing (and by that I mean competition not RWYB) imho an auto is the best bet because unless you build a street eliminator car out of one you'll be bracket racing and consistency is the name of the game smile But if you want to put it on a circuit you'll want the manual.
I'm saving for it. Ideally I'd like a 4.6 manual. No fancy body kit or anything. Run it stock for a while, then introduce some choice Roush upgrades. I do like them with no stripe though, most people seem to expect a stripe on a mustang.

My only thing is that it will have to be a family car, so as long as the kids fit in the back, it's a goer.

StangGT

3,925 posts

268 months

Saturday 2nd November 2013
quotequote all
Justaredbadge said:
I'm saving for it. Ideally I'd like a 4.6 manual. No fancy body kit or anything. Run it stock for a while, then introduce some choice Roush upgrades. I do like them with no stripe though, most people seem to expect a stripe on a mustang.

My only thing is that it will have to be a family car, so as long as the kids fit in the back, it's a goer.
They're quite roomy in the back for (up to 2) kids. Mine are 8 & 6 and fit no probs. boot is roomy but not enormous. My kids love the v8 noise and are always asking if we can go out in the 'musty'

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Saturday 2nd November 2013
quotequote all
StangGT said:
They're quite roomy in the back for (up to 2) kids. Mine are 8 & 6 and fit no probs. boot is roomy but not enormous. My kids love the v8 noise and are always asking if we can go out in the 'musty'
what he said, if they are very young the car also has isofix points in the back too.

Fully grown teens might be a bit of an issue if they are tall though.

Justaredbadge

37,068 posts

187 months

Saturday 2nd November 2013
quotequote all
They're 3 and 5 at the moment. Like I say, in the next couple of years...

Camaro

1,415 posts

174 months

Sunday 3rd November 2013
quotequote all
Cracking write up Matt! Passed this onto the V8UK guys, I'm sure they'd be interested in doing a piece on it!

Also that third gen you hunted down... what a terrible start he got wink

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Sunday 3rd November 2013
quotequote all
Camaro said:
Cracking write up Matt! Passed this onto the V8UK guys, I'm sure they'd be interested in doing a piece on it!

Also that third gen you hunted down... what a terrible start he got wink
lol, indeed you did smile

Simon.b

1,230 posts

281 months

Thursday 7th November 2013
quotequote all
Only just got round to reading this Matt, good job on both fronts.

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Monday 24th March 2014
quotequote all
So here we are 2014, still no track time yet but hey ho that’s drag racing in the UK for you we had a few good weekends (albeit windy) but I was awaiting a few parts and as soon as they were fitted the rain returned, maybe I should have bought a tank and gone tearing up ATV parks and 4x4 trails instead…

Nothing performance related (in terms of actually making the car faster) but things that do relate to the vehicles general performance of the engine and drive train if that makes sense. I learned last year at the dial in day that hot lapping really makes the transmission wince and can drastically affect the times so a transmission temperature gauge was in order as was a wideband AFR gauge with data logger output to better the tunes. With gauges on the brain I also ordered an oil pressure gauge for the engine too as the engine has no stock oil pressure sensor just a pressure switch to make the idiot light and idiot gauge on the instruments “work” (the battery condition gauge is the same).

So after browsing Auto Meter I bought the following stepper motor drive gauges:
Auto Meter Cobalt transmission temperature gauge:


Auto Meter Cobalt oil pressure gauge:


Auto Meter Cobalt AFR gauge (digital):


For those wanting to fit a Wideband it has to be a proper full kit with the sensors, DO NOT be tempted by the cheaper (by 2/3 of the price) AFR gauges that connect to the stock upstream oxygen sensors, as this will not give the correct readout. Some cars do come with wideband sensors as stock, the 05-09 Mustang is not one of them, buy the full kit!

Mounting the gauges was taken care of by a company called Speed of Sound: http://www.speedofsoundllc.com/05_Radiopanels.html and their dash fascia that replaces the stock double DIN stereo with a single DIN stereo and three 2 & 1/16” gauge holes. I placed a bit of matt black vinyl on the front of the facia as their satin black wasn’t quite satin enough for me, that way it looks like the stock black plastic dash panels.

The new radio was on a half price offer in the January sale at Halfords and is a Sony CDX-GT570UI, the radio harness adaptor (Kit No: 70-5521) came from Installer.com in the US the site look a bit mad (possibly NSFW if your employer doesn’t like large breasted manga comic style women) but I can’t fault the service. I joined this harness with the radio end of the harness that came with the new radio.

Radio:


For wiring a new radio into a Mustang GT (for those thinking of doing it or are just interested) see Mole Hill Mikes instructions here:
http://www.s197.co.uk/s197/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic....

I have made good use of bullet type plugs to make it easier to remove gauges and parts of the harness if I have to.

I’ll apologise in advance for the lack of photos because the weekend I decided to do this load of modifying it was cold and wet, and I was pissed off so I just wanted to get it done so no photo heavy write up – sorry smile

The first stage of the modification was carried out by a mate of mine at A&A Motors as it requires a ramp because the downpipe and cats have to be removed to drill a hole in the driver’s side downpipe to weld the boss in place for the wideband oxygen sensor to mount in (I don’t want swarf and metal chippings in the cat!). The hole in the boss was then plugged so the car could still be driven (see Note2 later on). At the same time he also fitted the transmission temperature sender and ran its wire harness into the passenger foot well. He had to drop the transmission a bit to make it easier as there is only 2” clearance between the body and the transmission. With that done and the readies handed over I now just had to wait for the remaining part (the fascia) to arrive from the US, which was delayed due to the ship having an engine fault.

With the last of the parts now delivered, the first thing I did was all the other activities around a 70,000 mile service, because messing around with the plumbing means that having no oil in the motor and given the location having the oil filter off is a sensible idea as it gives me more room to work.

I removed the stock oil pressure switch from the hole and cut the wire, setting this aside I cleaned the threads in the hole mopping up any excess oil. Before I could mount the new sender I had to fit a 1/4 NPT to 1/8 NPT adaptor so that I could screw in the new oil pressure sender (1/8 NPT thread), with that done I fitted the new oil filter and filled the engine with 6 quarts (5.7liters) of Lucas 5w-20 oil.

I make a temporary earth from the old oil pressure switch to allow me to run the engine up (leak check) with no dash warnings; thankfully all was well (I’ll keep any eye on it for a week or so). Whilst the engine etc. was cooling off I stripped the interior and removed the old radio, these cars are built very nicely when it comes to taking things apart, it literally click fits for the most part, though I wish the HVAC wires were a tad longer to make their fitting and removal easier. I took this opportunity to test the new radio which worked nicely – this is going far too well.

Fitting the wideband AFR gauge

The first task is to remove driver’s side wheel and wheel arch boot this gives reasonable access for the wiring, you will have to be under the car to mount the oxygen sensor, this goes in the BOSS already welded into the exhaust, this was placed on the driver’s side as it was the only available place to put it. A 22mm spanner is needed to screw the sensor (you can’t get a socket or ring spanner with ratchet in) into the boss, I tightened it up to the point where I couldn’t tighten it any more.

NOTE 1: The sensor in the Autometer gauge kit already had thread sealant applied so no high temperature sealer was required, other gauge kits may require it.
NOTE 2: DO NOT under ANY circumstances start the engine to leak check at this point, the new oxygen sensor has to have a power supply to its heater otherwise it will be killed!

The next job is to run the harness in, its quite thick with a big connector on the end so it was going to be a pain to pass through the firewall grommets, I cut a small cross in the large pre-existing grommet and pushed the gauge connector through (I ran the original pressure switch earth and oil pressure sender harness in at this point too) into the cabin and got as much of the cable through as possible, you can then pull any extra you need back through.

I connected up the sender to the harness and along with the pressure sender harness zip tied it up to an original loom, being careful to leave some slack to allow the engine to move around. I then gummed up the cut out with silicone sealant so ensure no water could get through the grommet. With all the cables secured the wheel arch boot and wheel can be re fitted and the car can be taken off the jack stands.

Now you have to route the cable to your gauge location, I went with the centre console. The good thing is that there is a pre-existing loom that runs around under the dash that can be used to support the cable, zip ties are used. I chose this point to mount the phono jack I will be using to connect the signal out and signal ground to my SCT tuner. I connected the signal to the centre pin and the ground to the outside.

I pulled all the wires through into the centre console and made sure that each gauge’s loom was separate to avoid the almost inevitable rats nest caused by the mystical wire pixies that seem to be able to stealthily tangle up wires and cables that were placed neatly.

Given that the signal out and signal ground are already connected (I used bullet plugs in line with them to make the install easier) the wires remaining are:

WOT switch
Ground
+12V

There is no lighting connection because the gauge is digital (an analogue style gauge might have one though), I don’t have a mechanical throttle nor any other way of connecting the WOT switch so I tied this in with the ground connection, this just means it will monitor for peak conditions all the time rather than just at WOT.

For power I have run a mini add-a-circuit from the fuse box in the passenger foot well, I have piggy backed on the automatic gearboxes overdrive enable/disable power as it was one of the few active switched lives in that box that wasn’t already on the 10A circuit limit, this feeds through a 3A fuse into the wideband gauge.

That’s it, the gauge can now be connected and the engine started to check its operation.


Finishing the install, centre console

I pre-mounted the gauges in the new fascia panel (with thanks to Dremel here, that little tool of theirs is worth its weight in gold) with their angle plates in place to point them towards the driver, and no doubt saved me hours in slowly grinding out the holes for the gauges (and some use of a hand file to get the radio cage to fit) - $70 for this and I still have to make adjustments…

The switched live (as mentioned above) is already there as is the transmission temperature gauge harness which I ran in at the same time.

The earth was provided by drilling a hole in the pre-existing metal work (use cutting fluid or do it in stages as the metal is thick and hard) and crimp on eyelets placed on all the connections that required and earth (five in total).

This is where things (aside from frequent stops for the weather) started to go wrong The lighting feed I thought I had from the radio harness turns out to be a duff connection. The dash lighting is controlled by the CAN bus not a variable voltage supply, one saving grace is the rear fog light (not standard fit on a US car) which has a switched light supply on it. so I have to rip out the driver’s side dash panel to get at it. This allows me to remove a section of the insulation and solder (no bodge job scotch locks used here thank you very much) in a lead to provide power to the gauges (the gauges use LED backlights so the circuit won’t even notice the drain) and run in the wire under the dash to the centre console.

The next step is simply a case of connecting everything up including a 1A fuse for the pressure and temperature gauges.

The radio is fixed into the cage (already mounted in the fascia) and connected up to the wiring harness and Arial connection; a quick test (ignition on, engine off) before bolting it back together reveals no immediate issues (no escaping magic smoke and fire pixies).

Now the interior is put back together and the car taken for a drive

Install, power off:


Install, power on:


All that remains is for me to do some data logging to get the tune refined, thanks for reading the update (I realise it’s a lot of text – sorry) smile

The next update will hopefully be after I have been on the track (2/3 weeks’ time at Santa Pod weather depending).

Edited by PanzerCommander on Monday 24th March 18:28

Greg_D

6,542 posts

245 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
That's a nice neat install, well done

Shadow R1

3,798 posts

175 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
Great job with that. smile

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Sunday 27th April 2014
quotequote all
Well another small update I have installed a polished aluminium catch can on the outlet side of the engine breather (its not really a proper PCV) to catch all the oil that gets drawn out of the camshaft covers.

I went for the UPR Catch can kit because it is made to fit the car, rather than a universal kit.

The kit:


The short pipe connecting the camshaft cover to the intake in the center of this picture is the one to be replaced:


The pipe simply un-clips and as the connectors are not needed for the install I put the pipe away safely so it can be re-fitted if I ever decide I don't want the catch can on the car.

In the next picture you can see the can installed, however this was not without its problems:


As you can see the tank is bolted to the strut tower on a pre-existing bolt, now the bracket underneath carries an air conditioning component (not sure what it is (its not the high or low side of the pressure system)), I am sure somebody will tell me). THis would not allow the catch can to sit as per UPR's instructions, it basically sat on the cam cover with around 1" of space between the top of the turret bracket and the tanks mounting bracket.

So inverting the bracket for the catch tank gave me a bit of extra room but not enough. So I removed the black bracket from the tower and bent it out a bit more to give more clearance. A foam tape number plate pad should prevent it from vibrating against the shock tower. This gave me the clearance I needed to install the tank:


As you can see it only just fits with probably 5mm or so clearance between the base of it and the cam cover.

And finally the pipes installed and hooked up:


The kit did not supply the jubilee clips and didn't call for them, given its low pressure they probably aren't necessary but for a couple of quid the extra security is worth it in my opinion.

For those that are wondering the catch tank has a screw off base to collect the oil blown back into the intake. What the catch can has is a wire wool filter in the top that catches the oil vapor, once stopped by the filter it to runs down into the base of the can where it pools.

I have been back to the track and I do have some video (needs editing first and I can't find my premier pro disk), I have had a couple of data logged runs which have resulted in a tune file coming back from the US that will hopefully be tested this weekend. The car has run slower than it did in the past in light of the tune being very very safe (only the 3.73 gears making up for the apparent power loss). So we shall see what comes this weekend at York Raceway.

And for those wondering how I did at the track, well at the Big Bang at Santa Pod, I managed to qualify 5th out of seven cars and took the runners up trophy being beaten by 0.08 of a second.

Last weekend at The Festival of power I qualified 3rd of nine cars and sadly went out in the first round by being a bit too quick of the start line (0.068 seconds) but the rain came down and stopped play all together which meant that no further points were awarded (no more rounds won/lost) over and above round one so punishment for being silly was avoided.

Edited by PanzerCommander on Monday 28th April 00:01

PanzerCommander

Original Poster:

5,026 posts

217 months

Monday 28th April 2014
quotequote all
Quick update, I have a video sorted now, Qualifying run 2; Festival of Power:

13.34@103.72 Qualifying run

Sadly it was a 13.3471 on a 13.35 second dial in, break out by 0.0029 of a second...