Suppose it is about time to post some updates. Making some decent progress lately.
Keeping in the theme of used parts.. picked up some more of them. Found a set of nearly new Energy Suspension 4.6L motor mounts and also a Wilwood proportioning valve. Had to buy the oil filter adater new though – the one from Ford Racing is a nice piece (M-6881-C). Planning on running a remote oil filter w/t-stat and also an oil cooler in front of the cooling module. This part also increase the block inlet hose to 2″ to further reduce the possibility of water pump cavitation.
We made up custom radiator and condensor mounts which allow us to get them both between the frame rails to keep them as low as possible. This way the degas bottle can be mounted where it was intended to go and remain the highest point in the cooling system, but at the same time being low enough to clear the hood which is does nicely. All these parts are from a 2004 Cobra which uses a 36mm all aluminum radiator. All other Mustangs except the Mach 1 have plastic end tanks. A/C compressor is now in and the new Mustang heater box also fits on the firewall. Just need to run the lines and the A/C system will be complete.
The firewall has been completed and is ready to install along with the floor pans. Rear suspension is nearing completion and just needs to be final welded. The only thing missing in the pic is the upper coil spring retainer. ABS wiring is now in place. Last thing to do is run the hard lines which will come next.
As an aside – I had never used the wet toilet paper trick to remove a pilot bearing so I figured I would give it a try. I am used to the messy grease trick. Surprisiningly this worked like a charm and clean-up is a breeze. You sure can fit a lot of paper in there! Installed a resurfaced 2004 Cobra aluminum flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing and clutch cable. Trans side of things is ready to go. Just need to get the mounts in.
We put the car on the scales and put every part and piece we planned on putting on the car. Looks like the car will come in at around 3450lb curb weight (56%ft/44%rr). With driver and gear we are looking at around 3650lb track weight. We put the car in the air and measured all of the corner weights and using the motion ratios front and rear figured out what spring rates to use. We are using 2.5″ ID front springs and 60mm rear springs from Hypercoil. The target is to run a front ride frequency of ~1.55Hz and 1.7Hz in the rear for the street. For the track the ride frequencies will be similar front to rear.
