Codeman's Spring BUILD

[Codeman_V6Online]

Well I figured I would start off by giving some history on the car. The car is a 02 v6 with a 5 speed. It is mineral grey. I have had car for almost 5 years. I have the following mods on the car and will post up a list of what is going in the car.

ENGINE:
Windstar Upper
Ported Lower with IMRCs and EGR removed
UDP
CAI
LTs
True duals w/h hi flow cats
GT TB

DRIVETRAIN AND SUSPENSION:
3.73s and Tlok
Tokico Blue shocks and struts
J&M LCAs
J&M subframe connectors
FRPP C springs
Short throw shifter

VISUAL:
Mach 1 chin spoiler
Black rear decklid
Tinted Taillights
"Mustang" lettered 3rd brake light
Black mustang rocker stripes
Black center hood stripe that fits in hood groove
GT hood scoop
02 GT side scoops
17" anthracite bullits DD in rear
Dual gauge pod w/h autometer pro comp gauges and raptor shift light
Pioneer CD DVD touch screen
Scorpion shift knob
Shorty Antannea
Window Tint
Cobra headlights
Mach 1 grill
GT rear bumper with 3.5" stainless tips
BLACK MUSTANG LETTERS IN BUMPER
Tinted side marker lights
HIDS
Fogligths


Ok well the vehicle used to have a comp max street strip cam 218/226 .500" lift cam along with comp springs and retainers from old motor. I blew that motor up. I removed cam and found it good still.

The build for the spring is as follows.

I will be reinstalling the camshaft. I will be adding some home ported heads that are going to have valves cut, and a multi angle valve job. I will be adding 24lb Mach 1 injectors and a SVT focus fuel pump. I am also thinking of adding J&M upper control arms and a black fuel door. I will be rewiring my CD/DVD player because I did not have the right harness for the mach stereo in the car. I am also going to paint the lower intake and polish or paint the heads silver aluminum. I am going to paint the front cover also. I want to redo some of my windstar stuff because I did a crappy job as you can see in the picture to make it look cleaner. I also want to rewire my HIDs and hide the wiring for a cleaner look.

I will update and hopefully take pictures along the way.


AND IF ANYONE IS AWESOME AND WANTS TO MAKE ME A SWEET NEW SIG PIC FOR THIS FORUM I WOULD APPRECIATE

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Painted my lower intake already and really like the way it turned out. The lower intake has IMRCs and EGR removed. I just got to clean paint off gasket surface and ports with just a light sanding. Too lazy to tape figured nothing a sanding block and a used sanding roll for porting cant fix in 5 minutes. I am also going to remove paint from anywhere where the hose is physically touching just to be safe. 3 coats of engine enamel 2000 degree primer and 4 coats of engine enamel silver 2000 degree paint. I still have to bake the intake like the can tells me to do. Hope it stays on, I cleaned with brake clean and a wire brush and wiped with a rag.

 

[greensteeda]

Looking good so far. That high temp paint was a little overkill for the temps that intake will see. I think the standard high temp enamel (500-600 degrees) may have been enough and doesn't require a bake on period. However, if you have a spare oven to cook it in then it should last a lifetime. My wife just doesn't approve of car parts in our oven so I'm out of luck there. Best of luck to you though on the progress.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

I figured it was a bit overkill but that way I never have to worry. haha. And we will see how it goes with my oven. My wife will hopefully not care, we are getting a new stove/oven in a couple months so I will play that card.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Update well I just about got 1 head done. I have been working hard at them in hopes to have them done soon so I can get them off to the machine shop to have my multi angle seat cut and my valve faces cleaned up. I am starting to get the hang of it. I have done a bunch of porting on lower intakes and done multiple lower intakes. I have read tons of hours worth of info on porting. I decided without a flow bench I could not prove results but I decided to take a somewhat scientific approach and use tested means that work for almost every head out there and just do that.

Here is what I came up with.

Intake ports: I gasket matched both intake ports. I went about 1" into the port. I know about not removing a ton of material to keep air velocity up. I also know you cant a venturi effect. I found that there were 2 bumps in the long runners ports. I have a spare head that I practiced cutting on and checked to make sure I would not cut through. I removed the 2 bumps and smoothed them out. I removed a tiny bit of metal from the headbolt curve in the port. I did not get carried away just used a 80 grit sanding disc and removed some to give a straighter shot to the air. I went through rest of port with 80 grit sanding bit. This gave me a nice smooth port but still rough enough to allow air fuel atomization and prevent puddling. I simply ran sanding bit down short runner port since this port is pretty straight and almost matches gasket. I went into the bowl to do some work on the intake. I read everywhere that the short turn radius into the port is a huge area to gain power and that from the factory they cut down to insert seats on aluminum heads leaving air to shoot at the opposite side of the bowl instead of roll up the valve into the combustion chamber. I rounded these into the bottom of the seats. I went to work smoothing out and dimples or bumps in the bowl. I next thinned the wall between the 2 ports and taperd it into the port. I went to work on the guide boss and rounded and smoothed that.

EXHAUST: I have probably taken the longest time on the exhaust for simple fact it needs the most work. I did not hog out the ports like most people do. I just feel like hogging them out huge is going to reduce velocity. I simply went for smoothing out the short turn radius and and imperfections such as the v shaped rising that goes entire length of port from valve guide. I was worried that this would cut through but did not on the test ports. I smoothed out and flattened the v shaped ridge and smoothed out valve guide boss and beveled guide end to give a smooth transition. I ran sanding roll through port knocking off high spots. I then smoothed out bowl and rounded and removed some material on short turn radius to give straighter shot. I ended up enlarging port slightly just from smoothing everything out. Without having my headers off and knowing if it makes a difference cutting larger to the header I left alone and figured this should be a improvement over factory.

VALVES: I will be running factory valves after finding out that the only larger valves are sold by SSMS and are either 250 or 450 for the set. That is insane when you can get a small block ford valve for 8 bucks. I am going to clean the carbon off the valves and have the valve face resurfaced and cut. I am going to have the valve seats be cut with a 3 angle valve job to get added performance.

Ok so now some pictures. I apologize for poor quality but you can really see the intake bowl nicely. The lighting is difficult and I was using my phone which has no flash. I was bummed because I got all my intakes done today they were rough cut in and got 1 exhaust port done and snapped my carbide burr so now I need to find one locally or order one offline monday.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Update just got some more goodies for my birthday.

Got some J&M Upper control arms and a sweet silverhorse racing black gas lid. I am very impressed with the gas lid, it is very heavy duty aluminum.

 

[JpL4K3]

Nice man, happy birthday.

 

[spaseghost]

Happy birthday man, keep up with the work!

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Thanks.

I am hoping to start on the build 2 weeks from now. Wife is going to be out of town for a week so I figured perfect time for me to spend my nights in the garage after work.

I am hoping to finish up the heads next week and send off to get valve seats and valves done.

 

[236Mustang_V6Online]

Very nice

 

[greensteeda]

Looking forward to seeing those heads finished. Kudos for doing it yourself.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Thanks so I got my ball gauges in the mail a couple days ago so I could measure my guides. The unfortunate thing is my guides are worn over .003" so I need to have bronze liners put it. Anyone have a rough idea how much they cost? I will be calling the machine shop monday to get a estimate. I will be waiting on the porting for now until I find out that.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Well got the car out of storage today. Man I forgot how much I love driving my car. Still right around 40 degrees outside but snow is melting and roads are clearing. Hopefully in 2 weeks snow will be completely gone. I installed my billet fuel door tonight and it looks awesome. Man this thing is beefy it is the silverhorse one it is really well built. I think it really sets of the exterior especially since my mustang rocker stripes are black. I also rewired my Pioneer DVD/CD deck to have the mach 460 amps to work after finding I had the wrong harness. WOW is all I can say. The car bumps pretty good now and is significantly louder it is crazy, I disconnect the RCA wires for the amps on the stereo and holy cow my car sounded weak before it is 100 times better now.

Hoping to finish up heads this week. I need to get the porting done. I will then be sending to machine shop to have new factory guides installed, valve seats cut, and valves faced. I am hoping maybe saturday to install my UCA and possibly my SVT focus fuel pump while my wife is at work. That is if my heads are done. I want to start on the build next week. I got some wiring to tiddy up as well but will likely do that after I get the motor done or in the process of doing it.

Need some opinions. I painted my lower intake silver looks like brushed aluminum color. It is high temp engine enamel. Now I got my black windstar and my intake tube is black. I am thinking of painting power steering/alternator bracket the silver color as well. What about front cover should I paint black or silver to set it off. The heads are going to get painted silver as well tried polishing them but took too much time.

 

[SlowSix01]

fuel door looks really good. what front cover are you referring to painting ? the timing cover ?

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

yeah I was referring to timing cover. and thanks

EDIT: Well was trying to finish up some porting today. I was fixing an exhaust port I over enlarged before I knew what I was doing and I ended up punching into water jacket so one head is shot. Luckily I have 1 head done and 2 other heads laying around. I actually go everything roughed in on the new head and am just taking a break for supper hoping to get the sanding wheel through it today and finish up the porting. then tomorrow I just got to clean them up and sand the deck surface.

Then hopefully thursday I will be dropping off at the machine shop so I can get them back next week sometime so I can start the build.

Finally got my heads done. My hands and arms feel like I have been using a jack hammer from the dremel vibrating haha. I just got to clean the heads and clean the gasket surfaces. Then I will be bringing to machine shop and painting when I get back from them.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Update on the build. I got my J&M upper control arms installed. They were pretty easy to install. I also dropped off my heads at machine shop. They are checking them for cracks and if not cracked they are going to check guides, I checked them and the edge by the bowl is worn a little. If they are worn they are going to install new guides. They are going to cut the seats with a 3 angle valve job and face the valves. They are then going to mill .010" on the heads to make sure they are flat and smooth also will get a tiny bump in compression.

I noticed a small spot of oil on the garage floor now though and looked and was wondering did the 99-04 3.8s have issues with oil pans leaking out the back or any rear main problems? I did not look closely at it but not sure if they had issues with rear mains otherwise it looks like it could be oil pan.

 

[Markstang]

rear mains tend to leak

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Ok thanks, I will have to look at it closer when I get some time to look at the car. I want to make sure it is the rear main. If it is I will likely be adding a performance clutch in there as well since I have the trans and stuff out.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Update:
Well I got all of the outside wiring fixed. I never took before pics which I wish I would have but when I was doing it back in high school I was in a hurry and did a terrible job. I had a bundle of wires that ran over the battery next to fender. It looked like crap. I had exposed wires everywhere. I had the HID boxes out in the open. It was not done nice at all. Well I got all the wires ran and hidden outside. Ran from the grommet on driverside and wrapped and taped in loom and ran next to break line 1 piece of loom and ran it under battery tray. Put my relay thing for HIDs on fender kind of hidden behind headlight and battery. I ran the HID boxes under the grill cover piece. You cant see them with the cover on. Will post up a picture. Took me 3 days after work to fix all my bad wiring. It looks much nicer now and you really have to look to tell it is not stock.

Started tackling the inside wiring. Man I had made a mess. I had some wires grounded like 3 times haha. I had multiple grounds. It is much nicer now am in process of running neatly and keeping it all inside the vehicle. Had some issues with my illumination wire for gauge pod on a pillar that I had ran so it would only turn on when I had headlights on well now I am tapping into the Illumination for my stereo so it should come on when I turn on the driving lights also or whenever the gauge lights come on.



EDIT: Found an old picture of engine bay. I will snap a picture of it tonight when I work on interior and post up. I will be fixing the mess of stuff I did with the windstar swap when I put my ported heads and cam back in.

 

[Codeman_V6Online]

Well finally got done with the car today. I finished up the inside wiring and put everything back together. I learned a valuable lesson. Just do things right the first time. I spent probably 16-20 hours fixing all the crappy wiring I did and hiding my HIDs. I took some breaks in there but wow. I feel much better though now. The wiring is done correctly, routed neatly and correct. The wiring is hidden and my HID ballasts are also hidden.

Here is the engine bay pics. The wiring runs through drivers grommet and is wrapped in loom and runs next to brake line until it goes under battery tray. I hid the HID relay box thing behind there as well. The pic above shows what it was before. You can't even see the worst of it near the drivers headlight before there was wiring everywhere.



Another update on the build. I am going to be getting my heads from the machine shop next week. They pressure checked them and found no leaks or cracks. I am going to have all new guides. The valve seats will have a 3 angle valve job along with valves being faced. I will also be having the heads milled to smooth them out.

I found that the rear main is leaking on the car. I am going to just pull the motor since it is the motor mount bolts and starter to pull it vs doing the rear main and heads, and cam in car. I figured the time on the stand will be much nicer and much easier than doing it all in car and will probably be quicker. Considering swapping a 4.2 short block in if I can find a good deal on one. Made another thread on here with some more questiosn about that.