My Turn @ Pulling the Trigger on a Twin Turbo

[89FoxSC4.3]

I’ve started reading your whole build and some great information so far and I’m only on page 4. I wished the photos would work but no big deal very informative. I know you said you would be real busy til October but have u had any chances to actually test the car at the track or dyno even on your street tune? I see you are from Dallas what track do you usually run at? I have been to Texas Motorplex a few times when I use to travel for a racing company I did some NHRA events and some NOPI events there. Never got lucky enough to draw the Ford events though.

 

[6 Shooter]

Am disappointed to say that I have not taken the car to the track as yet. There is an 8th mile track within 25 miles of me called Redline. But, it has been closed down for the last 2-3 years. So, that left me with the Texas Motorplex in Ennis. It is greater than 50 miles from me. And as you continue reading, the car experienced numerous mechanical and quirky issues that taught me to not trust the car driving any kind of distance for several years. Will say now those issues have been fixed and in the past, thank goodness. Also of late, twice I was about to go to to Ennis with some friends, but the 40 mph crosswinds those days caused me to opt out. Did not want to go 130 mph with 90 degree crosswinds. Recently, another 1/8 mile track has opened up that is not too far of a drive. Xtreme Raceway is about 35 miles away which will be my next choice near the end of October. As for the dyno, the car has been on the dyno more that 20 times over the years due to steadily increasing performance mods and fuel injectors. Years ago with a ProCharger, trailered the car to Alabama for a V-6 Mustang shootout. Came in 2nd due to breaking out under 12.0 in the bracket race finals. A lot of mods subsequently. Finally realized that the ProCharger D-1 sucks up almost 100 hp due to the belt driven blower. Thus, the reason for switching to turbos. Knew a guy in NY that blazed the twin turbo trail, and contacted the guy he used who built that kit. In the end, used 10 gauge stainless steel tubes and elbows because there was NO room to build support brackets for the turbos.

Used a bunch of experts in certain areas for advise along the way. As a side note, the car was built mostly in my garage with occasional trips to muffler shops, the dyno, and I also used a number of welding guys and a professional engine builder. The end product is 400 whp for the street tune using 10 psi of boost. The eboost controller has multiple settings and with the click of a button, the next step up is 500 whp with 15 psi of boost. The highest step up is 620 whp on 21 psi of boost. All three steps use the same tune using 93 octane and 18 degrees max of timing. Will say that there is NO turbo lag with this setup. Just hit the gas and hold on and head in a straight line. One of the last mods was going to 10 1/2 inch rear wheels for more rubber on the ground. Am using the Nitto drag radials which are pretty good on the street, but still loose traction on the street tune. The two steps above that will only work out safely on a preped track.

There are a number of photos showing up along the way. But, Photobucket is now coming back and I have signed up. However still too many missing photos which I have emailed them about, but no fix as yet. Towards the end of the thread, the number of photos increases with regularity.

 

[89FoxSC4.3]

Hey I use to be the same way I would get a car done and it would be awhile before I could get it to the track or dyno myself, work and life will do it to you. Yeah it stinks I’m in the same boat. We had a track 5mi away that closed down that had be around for years surprised us all and now the closest one for me is 40mi away and they both are 1/8mi tracks. The closest 1/4mi is over 1hr and 1/2. Those crosswinds would have strayed me also. 100hp loss is crazy insane. Yeah I read some of your build in reverse today and I can say if I can get anywhere close to 3/4 of where you are on yours one day that I will be satisfied for awhile. I think I’m going to start back over and take some notes as I read your build throughout.

 

[6 Shooter]

Will say that you will hit the wall (so to speak) in a number of areas as the Ford engineers did not design that car for 600 whp. The returnless fuel system with twin supercar pumps is good for up to 500 whp. The motor will have to be built up with forged internals. I cracked a shot-peened crank from Super 6 Motorsports, and ultimately had to go with a Crower billet crankshaft and rods. The stock rear end will blow up easily before 300 whp and only a built 8.8 will hold up under higher HP numbers. The stock upper intake is a poor design for a blown motor. The 45 degree air entry has a tendency to force air to the outside of the curve and makes the driver's side cylinders more lean then the passenger side. The suspension needs serious stiffening and the automatic transmission needs strengthening as well. I am using 98lb injectors and 3 in-fuel-tank return style fuel pumps. Thus, the need for 1/2" fuel line and 1/2" custom fuel rails. Also went with Cobra front brakes and tubular K-member in front. The rear has a Tri-link suspension. Tuning will be critical and I learned to do that for the bottom 85% of the throttle range. Bottom line, not simple, and not cheap. Plus, will take a number of years and lots of tuning, testing, and data logging. The end result is an OMG fun car to drive ans show off.

I do have lots of photos stored in my computer and can share them if you will send a private message with your email address. IMHO, you will have to choose a section of the car at a time to work on, get it done, test it out, then proceed to the next section.

 

[89FoxSC4.3]

Yeah I know it’s gonna take doing it all right the first time if it’s going to live at those horsepower levels for any amount of time. That’s why I have this other 94 that I am on the fence of just “playing” with while I do build my other car at a snails pace. And I have read about your crank but I didn’t know that it was a actual SSM shot-peened done up crank, even know they are cast, that’s crazy man. I had already had it in my mind I was doing a 8.8 like I did in my Super Coupe mustang but actually build this one with more spline axles, c-clip eliminations, and all the good guts and weld the axle tubs like I did on the last one. On the intake and heads I am undecided. I kinda want to stay single port even though I have this splitport stuff but either way I will be doing some port work over the winter. The suspension I will strengthen the torque boxes, weld some subframe connectors in, do adjustable uppers and lowers like I always do and a 6 point cage to start out. I will stay return style and probably go with the same A1000 pump and weld in a sump like I always do with a big feed and little smaller return. And I know I will have to do the custom rails and at that point is why I really just want to port the single port lower and do a box upper for the ease of being able to do the rails and stuff and it ain’t like I would be worried about the torque loss because it will be turbo. It will be tubular k just like my others. And the tuning is another thing that I want to learn to do myself, every build I have been saying I was going to learn and just end up leaving it to someone else but this one I want to do. I would love to see the photos of your car man . “IMHO, you will have to choose a section of a car at a time to work on, get it done, test it out, then proceed to the next section.” I will definitely have to do this for sure. Thank you for taking the time to respond sorry if my message is ran together I just woke up we switched to nights this week at work.

 

[6 Shooter]

OMG! Fuel line failure! The weather in Dallas has been rainy a lot in August, Sept, and in Oct, 27 inches of rain. But, I did get one nice day and pulled the car out for a drive, maybe 5-10 miles. Heading home, after a stoplight and a little heavier gas pedal, noticed that the fuel pressure began to drop from 40, to 35, to 30, then 20, then the motor died. With a dead motor, pulled into a corner strip mall. Gas fumes were extensive, and I had lost 1/2 fuel tank of gas in about 100 yards. Turned the key off and saw a 4 foot diameter puddle of gas on the ground under the firewall. With everything shut off, now including the fuel pump bypass switch in the glove box, stepped away from the car in case of explosion. Took about 10+ minutes for the fuel vapors and puddle under the car to evaporate. Slid under the passenger side of the car to see if any leaking fuel line was visible. No. Called my neighbor and had him help toe the car home and push into the garage were the car sat for about a month. Finally last week, had 3 days in a row to look for the root cause. Began to realize that the most likely place to start looking was under the hood, with no results. Next up was pulling the passenger front wheel and then the plastic wheel well liner. Nothing visible until turning the key for about 3-4 seconds till fuel pressure began to show on the interior fuel pressure gauge. Turned off the key and took a look in the wheel well. Yep, fuel was leaking from at least 1 location, the splice section on the return hose which was a rubber hose with hand pressed on fittings with clamps. Supposedly, this hose was rated for 300 psi. Also looked like some of my steel braided hose was maybe leaking or dripping from the rubber supply hose. So, the photo shows the original setup. Well, it shows up on editing changes, but not after saving.

Made the decision to redo both the supply fuel line plus the return line. Also decided on steel braided lines for both the supply and return, not wanting a repeat of the poring out of fuel on the ground. So, got some 1/2 inch steel braided fuel line locally along with the necessary connectors, jacked up the car, and pulled the return line from the regulator all the way to the fuel tank. Also decided that a hose connection was a bad idea, particularly so close to the firewall and the hot headers. So, first rerouted the fuel return line, and then cut the supply line under the passenger seat which was beyond where the dripping was visible. After the return line was routed and semi in place, then ran the new supply line from the fuel rail down to the splice location under the passenger seat.

Liked the tidy corner to place the fuel lines so the fender well liner would fit back in with out having to hack it up due to bulges. Small red line is the meth/water injection supply line.

Note the fuel regulator in black and the space away from the header and wastegate, both of which get pretty hot.

Spliced connection under the passenger seat on the supply fuel line.

Test run went fine without any drips or leaks. Some how or another, the cap on the PS oil pump came loose and some small amount of oil oozed out and dripped on the driver's side header, but quickly burned off. This is my first post with photos after Photobucket quasi came back on line.

 

[JTsStang]

Glad to hear you're still chipping away at it. I also have mine spliced on the return line using push lock fittings and heavy duty zip ties. The zip ties and tool I use come from Volvo trucks and are rated to hold the rear truck harness and lines into place. Very heavy duty and long life rating.

 

[JTsStang]

Phil, have you completed any of the epa compliance bullcrap for sct advantage yet?

 

[6 Shooter]

Phil, have you completed any of the epa compliance bullcrap for sct advantage yet?

Not sure what you mean. Not gotten anything from SCT about EPA Compliance yet. My car will be ready for next emissions test in Feb in Texas. Have passed every year with a little switch-erooo, and reinstalling the EGR.

 

[JTsStang]

Not sure what you mean. Not gotten anything from SCT about EPA Compliance yet. My car will be ready for next emissions test in Feb in Texas. Have passed every year with a little switch-erooo, and reinstalling the EGR.

I'd advise you get in contact with sct otherwise you will be unable to use your sct software after jan 2nd 2019. Look through your emails that your dongle is registered to for an email that was sent on or around decemebr 7. If you haven't received the email you have to contact [email protected] and tell them you did not receive the epa compliance invite. You did post on a thread on the sct forums but don't think you understood exactly what the guy was asking.

 

[6 Shooter]

Got no email thus far.

 

[38stang]

You might want to make a call or e-mail sct. I had to go through the sct training course as well. If you don't the epa can come after you for violations as well. Sct has had to pay $300,000 in fines already

 

[6 Shooter]

It's that time of the year again. Passed my emissions test yesterday.

BTW, have passed the SCT EPA emissions course on the first attempt which requires a 100% correct score. It has been a struggle trying to click on all website drop down lists to view all the courses that could be taken and/or are mandatory. Its been several months since I checked the website to see if that has been fixed or modified. SCT sent me an email acknowledging passing the course. My SCT license is still good as my software is still working and I can review and change tunes. Will experiment with revising my tune later in the weekend.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

Congratulations Phil and Thanks for the link to the test. It told me I passed but is it just ten questions? I guess it takes sometime before SCT gives me access because my program still shows the basic tune modifications.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

Yeah I missed the part in your post about the drop downs they sent me another test to take. So far I'm doing ok.

 

[6 Shooter]

Sloppy Steering Solved, Maybe
I have had sloppy steering for 3-4 years now, maybe longer. My first attempt to solve this problem was to purchase a new rack and pinion for the power steering setup. It did not help and I assumed the new rack and pinion was faulty. Exchanged it for a second new one with same results. My steering wheel will rotate to the left and right about 1 inch travel without affecting the steering direction. Finally got serious and did some real investigation. There are 2 U-joints in the steering linkage and maybe a third at the rack and pinion, but that would have required jacking up the car to have a look underside. Anyway, finally located the issue which was a sloppy drive shaft boot mounted on the inside of the firewall. The stock unit is no longer available from Ford and not even listed at RockAuto. I got my hand down between the driver's fender and the spark plug wires and grabbed the shaft at the firewall. Was able to move it up and down and to the right and left. Ah-ha, found it. Before pulling it, spoke to several persons and purchased what was supposed to be replacement parts from Ford (think there were 8 pieces). Found out later that those parts were all wrong and returned them to Ford. Also checked out a YouTube video on pulling the driveshaft to refresh my memory. Pulled down the plastic under the steering column, then pulled the two separate pieces of metal. Next up was loosening the U-joint set screws on the driveshaft in the engine bay and removed the U-joint. Then, removed 3 of the 4 nuts that hold the entire steering shaft and steering wheel in place. Just loosened the 4th rear nut about half way to help support the hanging steering wheel and steering shaft. Nest up was removing the bolt on the steering shaft U-joint under the dash. This allowed for the 1 foot length of steel steering shaft to be pulled back out of the firewall and retrieved under the dash.

First photo shows the removed shaft. Notice the black plastic sleeve around the shaft.

The black plastic sleeve was not a tight fit around the shaft and allowed for up and down plus left and right shifts at the firewall. Now for the replacement. This is the part number for a 2008 Mustang which I found on a Mustang blog somewhere on the Internet.

The replacement has needle bearings and a much more sturdy ball and socket mounting around the metal plate. The holes for mounting on the inside of the firewall are a perfect fit. Only one problem, the steel shaft is too small for the needle bearings and has even much more play. However, the black plastic sleeve OD at 28mm was a perfect fit inside the needle bearing. Ah, half the problem solved. But, the plastic sleeve was too sloppy on the Inside Diameter. I looked on ebay and found a replacement shaft from a 2008 Mustang, but Ford also used a plastic sleeve and I could not guarantee that the 2008 shaft was the same size as the 2000-2003 shaft (and probably earlier models going back to the mid 90s. But, I always seem to come up with a plan B when confronted with these kind of issues. Did an internet search and found some metric, seamless, stainless steel tubing with 28mm OD and 24mm ID. But, do not know if it will be a perfect fit until the tubing arrives next week. But, my machinist says he can ream the ID if necessary and will drill a hole through the shaft and sleeve and use a drive pin to hold them together without the sleeve sliding down the shaft. Ford's plastic sleeve uses a molded mushroom head on their 2008 sleeve. Will post more on this subject next week.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

When I switched to a manual steering I notice the samething. After removing the rag joints and installing steel U-joints it wasn't as bad. One thing I almost did when sitting behind my steering wheel moving it around not hooked to anything I forgot about my clock spring so I tried to remember how many times I turned it to the right I guess I got it close enough because It didn't break it.

 

[Spdricer]

Sloppy Steering Solved

I hate sloppy steering so much I am battling some issues of this sort as well. Even though my car is tracking straight and true now that I towed in a little bit more after my drive from boca. I'm definitely in need of a bumpsteer kit because I lowered it more than russel had it originally.. I know you dont really approve of that and I understand because the geometry is way off now lol but I'm still young and immature and it looks so dam cool when its extra low lol especially when the top is down! ..Anyways as soon as you get it all buttoned up and together working properly and I'm to the point of enough progress that I can dabble in such amenities. I will follow in you're footsteps and tighten up my steering as well. Great finds and engineering man you're still such a resource for all of us here its incredible. thank you for you're contributions.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

I'll second that!!! Phil helped me with tunes. Why he did'ent give up on my dumb a$$ I'll never know but we got though it. I don't know what hp I'm at as the car was never been on a dyno but she ran 12.8 the last time at the track. And I give Phil the credit for that.

 

[6 Shooter]

Depending on the machining of the steel sleeve tubing, I told the guy I needed only 6 inches. He laughed and said that they only sold the tubing in 20 feet lengths. And such it is as the tubing was actually cheaper than a new 2008 steering shaft a $350 from Ford that included the plastic sleeve. So, with 20 feet coming to the house, there will be plenty of tubing to make more than one sleeve. By the way, the Ford part is $50. Ebay had a new one for $22 and called it a steering shaft firewall mount bearing seal. Someone ought to pick that up and I'll send a sleeve.