Scott's Garage

That Grey 86

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:09:00 +0000

There was a grey 86 that was in a few magazines and all over the internet about 7-8 years ago. It was awesome. A thread on another board was talking about it the other day and most of the online pictures of it had gone away. I had saved off the ebay ad from when it was for sale, so to keep such an awesome car from being forgotten, I'm reposting what I have here.

Mustang spring rates

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:59:00 +0000

Here's a great site that lists spring rates for popular mustang springs:

http://www.miracerros.com/mustang/springs_calcs.htm

Activated charcoal (activated carbon)

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Ok guys, just wanted to post put my results here.

My 83 has a combo of just old car smell, and gas (from a seeping carb that will be rebuilt soon.) It isn't horrible, but it's enough that once I get to work (25 min drive) I can smell it on my clothes and stuff, so I figured I'd start trying to do something about it. I started reading a lot online and came across some folks raving about activated charcoal (activated carbon.) I looked around, and the local parts store sells small air fresheners with the stuff for around 5 bux. I'm usually not a total tightwad, but that seemed like a lot to me for this teeny amount of charcoal in a fancy package, so I started looking around for cheaper places. Anyway, Pet's Mart (or any aquarium store) sells the stuff for use in aquariums, and for $3, you can get a 3-pack of mesh baggies full of the stuff (easily 6x the volume as the auto-parts store one, for less $.) At Pets mart, they had a lot of choices, but the one I got was the Fluval brand. You can actually get it a lot cheaper if you buy in larger volumes and bag it yourself in something permeable. (I did it this way, because it was already in nice mesh baggies.)

So I picked up a box and threw all of the baggies in my car on Friday night. On Sunday, I opened the door and took a big whiff... (usually, the smell was pretty strong at that point after being closed up) Nada!!! The smell was GONE! I drove around for a 1/2 hour or so, and you could catch whiffs of it occasionally, and it smelled a bit afterwards (must be in the cushions/carpet a bit and got stirred up) but again, this morning it smelled great!

So anyway, that stuff does an awesome job of dealing with odor! Now I just need to freshen up the carb to cut down the smell from the seeping gaskets, seeping valve covers and check the exhaust for leaks... then do a thorough cleaning of the carpet and seats to gt it out and it should be good!

Posting the 79

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:47:00 +0000

Edit: Well, I sold it. It went to a nice home in Houston.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?p=827948#post827948

http://centraltexasstangs.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=91383#Post91383

http://www.austinareastangs.com/forums/showthread.php?p=257750#post257750

03 Cobra belt routing

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:31:00 +0000

A while back, I posted the 03 cobra supercharger belt routing but not the main accessory belt. Anyway, here it is:

Selling the Cobra

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:45:00 +0000

Yup, it's time for something different. I think I'm going to pick up a truck again and start working on one of my crazy fox body projects again. :D

UPDATE: Sold it in Jan.

Here's a link to the ad: 2003 Mustang Cobra for sale

Here are the sites I've posted it for sale on:
SVT Performance
Austin Area Stangs
Texas Racing Scene
The Corral
DWF Stangs

100mpg 400 horse mustang?

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:32:00 +0000

kmc news story

autoblog article

By implementing his own lean burn system, Doug Pelmar's 1987 Ford Mustang LX Coupe is reported to get over 100MPG and still make over 400HP and do 0-60 in 3 seconds.

He is entering his vehicle in the ten million dollar X Prize competition, so it seems pretty legit!

I'll take two please!

Cobra Brake Install - Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:50:00 +0000

Wow, I posted a while back about installing/replacing Cobra brakes on a mustang. Well anyway, I finally got around to installing them this past weekend on my 03 Cobra, and all I can say is "Wow!" I installed Hawk HPS pads on Brembo Rotors and it made a DRAMATIC improvement all the way around! The pedal feels much more firm and you have much more positive feedback and control over the brakes.

Before (with as-delivered Cobra brakes) the pedal feel felt pretty linear, and when you really mashed on them, you didn't get much feedback until the ABS kicked in (which was pretty hard to do.) With the new Hawk pads, they are noticeably more "grabby" and when you have the pedal mashed at the bottom of its travel, it will lock them up. No more mashing them, sitting there for a sec and then maybe locking them up, maybe not. As I said, they are much more predictable.

While I don't have the equipment (nor inclination) to do official 60 or 70-0 pulls to quantify my results, I do have an interesting driving scenario I have to hit every day on my way to work that works as a pretty good gauge of braking effectiveness. I have to merge onto a 4 lane highway approaching the crest of a long hill, quickly get over into the left lane, and then duck off into a short turn lane on the left at the bottom of this hill. So in the span of about a quarter mile, I have to accelerate to highway speed, merge, and then dive on the brakes in a small turn lane on a steep downhill. Anyway, before, it was a hairy ride if I was going a little too fast. There was noticeable "fade" and the brakes felt pretty vague. Now, it is hauled down much faster and there is no drama whatsoever.

Easily one of the best mods I've done!

Custom craigslist searches

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Want to run an automotive query across several Craigslist sites at once? Enter the following into a Google search window:

"mustang 5.0" site:austin.craigslist.org/car OR site:houston.craigslist.org/car OR site:dallas.craigslist.org/car OR site:sanantonio.craigslist.org/car

That will return all "mustang 5.0" ads for Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. A more appropriate search would be:

"Prius" site:austin.craigslist.org/car OR site:houston.craigslist.org/car OR site:dallas.craigslist.org/car OR site:sanantonio.craigslist.org/car

(Change the "/car" to "/pts" of you want to search for parts.)

Cobra brake job

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Ok, so it's time to finally put on the brakes I've had sitting on the shelf for my 03 Cobra for the better part of a year. I've found in the past that the pictures and/or explanations in the how-to books aren't usually as good as they could be, so I started looking online for some how-to write-ups. (If a good one didn't exist, I'd create one as I went.) Anyway, that's when I stumbled across this post on the Mach1registry.org site from member 006. It doesn't get any more clear or straightforward than that!

Fusion intercooler

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:07:00 +0000

Now this idea: fusion intercooler has a lot of merit!

This would be a great solution for say, a rear-mount turbo where airflow limitations or stealth concerns would limit the efficiency an air:air intercooler or packaging or weight concerns would rule out a water:air charge cooler.

It would be really cool to use this as hybrid system too, where it could buffer a small capacity air:water IC or use an air:water IC to return it back to solid while off-boost.

It's got the gears turning... :D

An "oh $hi7" moment!

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:31:00 +0000

:D

Last week, one of the catalytic converters in my Bassani x-pipe on my 03 Cobra came apart. (I'd had it happen before in an old Mac pipe, so I recognized the symptoms... way down on power, 1/2 of the car sounds like an old broke-a$$ truck with a leaking glasspack exhaust, rattling in the exhaust when you tap the throttle, intense heat radiating from the mid-pipe, etc.) So I parked the car and ordered some replacement cats (w/o even tearing it apart.)

While I'm sitting at work the other day (waiting for the new cats) I was talking to a gear-head friend of mine, and he said, "Are you sure it's a cat? I mean could an exhaust valve have let go, or a piston and that's what we were hearing? (He heard it rattle, etc.) So anyway, he had me 2nd guessing myself a bit on my diagnosis (it was wayyy down on power) and so tonight I got out there and anxiously yanked the pipes off (behind the cats.) I took the light and shined it up in the left side cat (where the noise was coming from) and OH #$%$!!! The substrate inside looked perfect!!! Oh no, I thought, there's a ton of engine parts rattling around in front of the cat. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!! I mean I let out a stream of obscenities that woulda made Gunnery Sgt. Hartman from Full Metal Jacket blush...

Anyway, so I climb out from under there, pound my beer and start thinking about starting to cry (ok, kidding.) Then, I thought, just for grins, let's look at the other one... Ok, I climb back under there, shine the light in... Whew! The substrate was completely broken off and turned sideways and I could reach in and jiggle it with my finger... just what I expected to find! I guess since the "X" is downstream of the cats, the sound with the rattle was coming out of the opposite side tailpipe!

Talk about scary!!! :D Man.... Whew!

Another uplifting turn of events happened when I came back in from turning wrenches...

My wife said, "What was that pounding noise I heard?"

Me: "Me knocking the cats off of my car."

Her: "Really, with what?"

Me: "A big f***ing hammer."

Her (with alarm) : "OMG, did you hit them!?"

Me: "Oh yeah, a couple of good whacks and that did it."

Her: "OMG! Did you hurt them?"

Me: "No, I had a clear shot to get a good swing, so just one good pop each was all it took, they didn't get mangled at all."

Her: "Are they dead!?"

Me: "Well, one is. The other one is probably fine."

Her (with a stare of shock and disbelief): "Awww, OMG I wonder whose cats they were?"

Bwahahahaha, it was at that point, I realized she thought I had just murdered two neighborhood felines with a sledgehammer. We both got a good chuckle about that! :D I mean my wife is a vegetarian because she's such an animal lover, so to see the look on her face when she thought I'd turned axe-murderer was priceless... Hahaha

Thinning the herd

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:51:00 +0000

Well, I'm selling off a bunch of stuff. I'm going to use this post to keep track of all of the places I've posted things for sale.

My 30/31 Model A RPU project:
Austin Area Stangs
Craig's List
The HAMB

My 83 GT:
Craig's List
Austin Area Stangs

My 79 Mustang pace car:
My Site
Austin Area Stangs
Four Eyed Pride

03 Cobra Supercharger Belt tensioner

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:51:00 +0000

I had the pulley bearing go out on the supercharger belt tensioner on my 03 Cobra. No biggie I thought, so I pulled the old one off and called Ford for a replacement. Each of the three dealerships I called told me that you could not buy just the tensioner and pulley, but rather you had to buy the entire assembly for $385 that consists of a large bracket, the tensioner assembly, and a couple of idler pulleys!

Anyway, I went down to the nearest one, and one of the guys cross referenced the part # (1L3Z-6B209-BA) on the side of the tensioner arm and found that the tensioner was re-used in another application and in that application was available separately, so he got me one for around $75! It's Ford Part # 1LZ 6B209 BA.

I hope this helps someone in the future!

5.0 belt lengths

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 04:13:00 +0000

While I'm on the topic of belts... One of the frequently asked questions I see online is, "If I want to bypass the on my 5.0, what length belt should I use?" This chart answers that. (Given stock pulley diameters.)

If you are running a non-standard accessory arrangement, or are using a configuration not shown above, here's how to get the right belt:

1) Take a string and wrap it around the pulleys using the same routing the belt would follow.

2) Mark the string with a marker where it finishes a loop.

3) Remove string and measure from end to mark. Add 1" to allow some play for tensioner.

4) Take that measurement to parts store. Buy 3 belts, one the length you measured, one .5" longer, and one .5" shorter. Ask for a "K6" (6 ribs) in xxx length.

5) Try the belts, keep the one that fits, return the other two.

6) Write the length down so you don't forget!

Done!

I saved this image long ago and forget where I got it now :-/. If it is yours, please let me know and I'll take it down, an/or give you credit for it!

03 Cobra supercharger belt routing

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:07:00 +0000

03 Cobra supercharger belt routing diagram:

I had an idler pulley go out on the supercharger belt on my 03 Cobra, and it took me a while to find a diagram for how to get it back on there, so I figured I'd post this one to help anyone else out in the same situation.

Edit: I uploaded the main belt routing here

320 horse model T 4-banger!?

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:09:00 +0000

Holy smokes! I would agree with Kirk Wright, the creator of this monster, Henry Ford would "Shit his pants" if he saw what they were doing with this engine! These things made about 20 horsepower in stock form!

Here's the
write up on it.

Holley Carb Baselining/Tuning

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:25:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've been asked a carburetor-related question, but this one came up this week so I figured I'd do a little writeup. This is how I baseline a Holley 4150 Double Pumper carburetor. I'm not going to go into great detail, there are many sites and books do that, but by following these steps, you should get the car running fairly well with a double pumper Holley and then you can take it from there.

Before you get started, I recommend that you buy a new set of spark plugs (or two) a Holley Jet Assortment kit, a set of reusable bowl gaskets (so you don't have to replace gaskets every time you change jets) and once it's baselined, an accelerator pump cam assortment and a few power valves in various sizes will come in handy! That stuff will set you back about $100, but once your carb is dialed in, replace the two sets of jets you used, along with the pump cam and power valve, and you can resell the rest as complete kits!

Step 1: Set/check the fuel pressure. Make sure you have 5-6 psi of pressure or you will force the needle/seats open and it will dribble fuel into the air horn from the bowl vents. This will foul plugs and the car won't idle.

Step 2: Set the floats. Turn your fuel pump on, or crank the engine over enough to fill the bowls with fuel. (I don't like to let the engine start in case the floats are so far off the carb won't work correctly.) Remove the sight plug (the round plug on the side of each bowl up towards the top) and see if fuel pours out. If so, the fuel level is set too high. If no fuel comes out, bump the car with your hip slightly (just a little bump) and see if any sloshes out of the hole. If not, it is too low and needs to be raised. Ideally you want the fuel level to be right at the base of that hole, so a tiny bit will seep out (not pour) when you remove the plug. The floats are adjusted by loosening the large screw on the top of the front and rear bowls. (Just back the screw off enough to allow you to turn the nut.) You raise or lower the float level by turning the nut up or down. Lock the screw back down when you are done. If you have an electric pump, you can do this with the pump running and engine off, but on a mechanical pump, the car has to be running to do it that way, so with a big lumpy cam, it can be hard to tell when it's right on due to vibration. In that case, I think it's easier to crank it a few times to pump the fuel and then check it, and repeat until it's right.

Step 3: Set the timing. If you're just replacing the carb and it was previously running well, leave it alone. If not, start the engine baseline it to the recommended base timing for your engine.

Step 4: Install new spark plugs. This makes it much easier to "read" them and tune your carb. Do this after you get the fuel pressure, floats and timing right to keep from fouling them.

Step 5: Set the idle mixture. There are two screws (one on each side) towards the bottom of the front metering block. Turn each one in until the screw is seated, then turn each one out 1.5-2 complete turns. Hook a vacuum gauge to the intake manifold and start the car. One at a time, slowly turn the screws in until the vacuum starts to drop off, and then back the screw out a quarter turn and it should be good.

Step 6: Jet the primaries. Other how-tos have much more scientific ways to do this, but this method will get you really close. Hold the throttle part-way open for about 15 seconds (2500 or so RPMs.) You want it running fast enough that it is no longer running on just the idle circuit, but not hard enough to open the secondaries/power valve. Immediately shut the engine off and remove a spark plug. If the insulation (white part) around the electrode on the plug is white (like it came when new) the mixture is too lean. If it's black and sooty (or wet with fuel in extreme cases) it's too rich. If it is lean, go up two jet sizes and try again. You're looking for a nice gray color. If it's rich, go down two at a time until you get a nice color. (You go up or down two sizes at a time to make the changes more noticeable and to save time, if you overshoot it, just go up or down one size then and you're done.) Here's a picture of what the plugs should look like. The 2nd picture down on the left is a rich plug, and lean isn't pictured there, but it'll be white like a new plug.

Step 7: Jet the secondaries. This one is a little trickier because you can't do it in your driveway but can be approached the same way as the primaries. A good starting point is 5-6 jet sizes bigger than the primaries, but each combo is very different, so actually test it, that's just a baseline! (I've seen some the same size as the primaries, and some 12-14 sizes bigger!) Ideally, you should put the car on a chassis dyno and jet the secondaries based on wide-open-throttle (WOT) horsepower and wideband air/fuel ratios. If that's not an option, the second best way is to take the car to the dragstrip and make a bunch of test passes and look at max MPH. If that's not an option, as I mentioned before, you can approach it the same way as the primaries. Take the car to a deserted stretch of road and make a WOT pull in 3rd gear. As fast as is safely possible, pull over, shut the engine off and read the plugs. (Shut it off as fast as possible to get a good reading, so the plugs don't start showing the idle and cruise mixtures again.) I shouldn't need to say this, but DO NOT shut it off if you have power steering and brakes until you have pulled over and stopped since you will lose them if you turn it off, and DO NOT turn the key to the "off" position, because that will lock the steering wheel, just turn it to "acc" (one click back from the "run" position) to kill the engine. Read the plugs and adjust the secondary jets in the same manner as the primaries. This is much less precise, since at WOT the power valve and accelerator pump(s) will be squirting fuel too, but again, the point of this writeup is just to get you close, and this method will do that.

Step 8: Set your final idle speed. Once you have the rest of your carb baselined, you can set the final idle speed. I set the idle as low as it will smoothly idle when the engine is warm and not stumble and stall when you let off of the throttle. (If you give it some gas and it wants to die when you let off, raise the speed slightly.) It will take some experimenting to get perfect and will vary with your combo. You may have to set the speed roughly immediately after you get the car started for the first time if it's way too high or low, but you should revisit it after you have the rest of the carb ironed out. The idle is simply adjusted by turning the large screw that makes contact with the throttle linkage at the base of the carb. You can see how it works by looking at it. To speed it up, turn it in the direction that opens the throttle. To slow it down, turn it the other way.

That should do it. Your idle, floats, primaries and secondaries will be pretty close. (Close enough that if it's a new combo, you can go chase the other gremlins down and then come back to the carb for fine tuning later.) The car should be drivable as is. I used this method to baseline the 650DP on my old 83 mustang. A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to put it on the rollers with a wideband 02 sensor (IM240 smog checker, not a dyno, but hey, it worked!) I gained a little by fine tuning idle mixture and one jet size on the secondaries, but I was pretty close! (With the timing optimized and the carb tuned on the wideband, it passed the IM240 smog test with flying colors! Not bad for a dart-headed 306 with a Comp Cams 270h cam, offroad exhaust and Holley double pumper!)

Here's a great write-up that goes into a lot more detail than I have. It's a lot to digest, but that article will help you get it totally dialed in. I just wanted to give you the quick and dirty, shadetree version of baselining a double pumper... I hope it helps!

Road & Track Supercar Shootout

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:07:00 +0000

This month's Road & Track has an awesome 0-200 supercar shootout and they were kind enough to post the article on their site. Sweet!

Here's a video of the overall shootout, and here's an in-car view as driver Steve Millen pilots the Hennessey Twin Turbo Viper down the 15,500 foot runway. It looks like a hairy ride!

SBFTech.com

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:31:00 +0000

Hey gang, sorry for the week off, I got shipped to Oklahoma for work unexpectedly.

Here's a site I love to lurk on when I get the chance: http://sbftech.com/. There are a bunch of no-nonsense blue oval freaks on there that really know their stuff! Want to know if a 5.4" rod is better for your 347" stroker than a 5.315" rod? This is the site for you!

When I was blueprinting the bottom end of the 347 for my 79 Pace car, I had some very specific questions, and there were guys there that knew the answers right away.

Jay Allen from Camshaft Innovations is their resident cam expert and will custom grind you a cam based on the entire combination of your car and what you expect to get out of it, not just look at one or two aspects of your motor and give you a generic cam. I didn't realize it until I'd been lurking on the board for a while, but Jay is the guy that designed a cam for me a few years ago. I had never spoken with him directly, but he and Kelly Cansler (my cylinder head guy) spend a lot of time talking on the phone with one another discussing camshafts and head flow and port design and all that good stuff. At the time, I had a Honda S2000, and I wanted to build a 5-liter Ford derivative that would have the similar rev characteristics and horsepower per liter! (Roughly 125hp/liter or well over 600hp in a naturally aspirated 5.0 that would rev to 8500rpms!) To me, that sounded like a tall order, but Jay didn't bat an eye and a few weeks later we had the part in-hand that would do it. (With the right supporting cast, of course.)

Unfortunately, the car that engine was slated for came back to me from the body shop in a bunch of boxes. The outfit that was painting it for me fell on some hard times and got evicted from their shop. Many small parts were lost in their move, and the box containing every nut and bolt needed to reassemble the car got rained in and all of the hardware was completely ruined! So anyway, that turned it into a little more of a project than I had time to tackle, so it got put on indefinite hold. :-/ Once my kiddos get a little older, I'll pick it up again. It'll be a fun jigsaw puzzle to solve, and you still don't see too many 600+ hp naturally aspirated 5-liter cars, so it'll still be cool (to me anyway!) :D

Missing at High RPMs

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 03:59:00 +0000

I was reading a tech post on Austin Area Stangs where a guy had just installed a 6psi blower kit on 95 Mustang GT, and it was pulling hard until 5000 rpms, but then it fell on its face and acted like it was missing. I had a very similar issue on the 1990 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD I had back in the day. If I would run around at the stock 8psi of boost, it ran great, but if I would turn it up even a pound or two, it would fall on its face around 4500rpms.

I nearly pulled my hair out over that one! I was checking sensor voltages, looking for codes, checking boost and fuel pressures, reading plugs etc. and everything I checked was coming up fine. I spent hours scouring the web and reading through the archives of the old Talon Digest mailing list. (an incredibly invaluable resource for DSM owners that went the way of the dinosaur about six or seven years ago.) I was looking into high-dollar boost controllers and fuel-cut defencers, etc. I had just about exhausted every high-tech diagnostic trick I could think of, and then I remembered a piece of advice my friend/automotive mentor Dan Finn gave me when I was 17 or so. He said, "Scotty, it's gotta have air, fuel and spark. It's as simple as that." Now I know that sounds basic and obvious, but breaking it down to those basics made the reason for my elusive miss become suddenly apparent. I had air, I had fuel, must be spark... A $60 set of Magnacore wires and some NGK plugs, and I was pulling 14psi all day long! I spent DAYS hunting that down and it just needed a tune up!

I guess where I'm going with this is before you mod any vehicle, take care of the basics first. Give it a good complete tune up, brake job, check your tires, change your fluids, etc. before you go adding a bunch of speed parts (especially nitrous or boost!) Also, when you get stumped trying to track down a problem, go back to the basics... Does it have fuel? Does it have air? Does it have spark? Answer those basic questions first before you start tearing it apart!

Inspirational Video

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:39:00 +0000

If I ever need inspiration to drag myself out to the garage, or ever feel myself get stuck in a rut, I just crank up the speakers, fire up this video, and feel the blues just melt away!

It's Jimmy White from Circle City Hot Rods in his Hemi Coupe. In my book, Jimmy is one of the most talented builders out there today! When this video first hit the net a couple of years ago, Jimmy was building a wicked, low 27 pickup (Some pics and story of the build from the HAMB's 'Bass' here). Every piece on it is a work of art! It instantly became my favorite hot rod and gave me lots of good ideas for the Hemi roadster pickup I've been collecting parts for for years.

Anyway, a few months ago, I was cruising through the LoneStar Roundup and this beautiful Model A caught my eye... perfect mirror-like black paint, loads of chrome, vintage blue vented Plexiglas windows, etc. It was perfect! I looped around the front of the car and looked up and that's when I saw the Circle City banner flying above it. I wasn't the least bit surprised. Jimmy and crew had done it again! It was called the Murrell Coupe and it just may have passed up his 27 as my favorite! :D Here's a video of it pulling into the show. Awesome!

I can't wait to see what they bring next year!

Cooler thermostats

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:20:00 +0000

Pretty much every hop-up guide for every car out there lists switching to a cooler thermostat as one of the first mods you should do to increase performance. The reasoning behind it is that engine will run cooler, and the cooler the engine the more power it will make. This is true to a certain extent, but it's not as simple as that. In modern cars I think it's a bad idea to run a cooler thermostat without doing a little homework first.

First of all, most new cars have a much more sophisticated method for regulating heat than they did back in the day when engine temperature was solely controlled by the thermostat and and engine-turned fan. Most modern cars are cooled by electric fans regulated by a thermostatically controlled switch, or by the engine's management computer (or quite often both.) In a switched system, the fans will only come on when the coolant reaches a certain preset temperature, so even if you open the thermostat earlier, there will be no fan-driven airflow to cool the hot coolant in the radiator until it gets hot enough to trigger the fan (well over 200 degrees usually.) So in effect, your cooler t-stat is doing nothing unless you add an adjustable switch to bring the engagement point down. In computer controlled system, there is a "fan on" and "fan off" setting, where the "fan on" setting may be 210 degrees, meaning that the computer will turn the fan on when it sees 210 degrees and then turn it off again when it sees it drop back below say, 190. In this type of system, you would have to have to reprogram your vehicle's computer to lower that range or again, it would have no effect. Auto manufacturers spend a lot of time getting the balance just right on that, so you will have to as well. If you set it too low (too close to the t-stat opening point) your fan will be on constantly, which can be annoying and it takes away some margin of control(more on that later.)

Secondly, modern engines are designed to run optimally at a pre-set temperature. Most cars will have basically a "warm-up" mode where it runs a certain tune until it reaches a pre-determined operating temperature, and then it switches to another tune (fuel tables) or will switch from "open-loop" mode (running on a pre-defined set of parameters) to a "closed loop" mode (taking real-time feedback from o2 sensors, etc. and using that info to adjust the tune). (Here's a great article by Mike Wesley that goes into more detail on this specifically on the EEC-IV Ford computer.) If you do not allow the engine to reach the temperature required to make that switch, you will never leave that "warm-up" mode and your car will not run efficiently. One of the nice things about modern EFI setups is their adaptability. You can make all sorts of mods, and they will adapt (to a certain extent) to keep the desired A/F ratio even though you have increased the airflow into your engine. If your car never reaches the closed-loop (adaptive) mode and relies on the pre-programmed fuel tables, your A/F could be way off and you nullify your gains unless you've reprogrammed your ECU. Additionally, without the engine running optimally, you will get worse fuel economy. The engine's emission systems are designed to operate at those pre-set temps, so your car will potentially put out a lot more emissions at lower temps, which will make it much harder to pass a smog test. Some folks don't care too much about emissions (yet) but for them, this problem will manifest itself by giving the car that "fat" or "rich" smell that stings the eyes a little bit. That's no good either. I had a 454SS pickup that I was told had a 160 degree t-stat when I bought it. It was sluggish, the exhaust smell was terrible and the truck got around 8MPG. Luckily, a month or two later, the thermostat stuck on me and the truck started to overheat. I swapped in a stock t-stat (195, IIRC) and it ran like a different truck! It smelled better, ran more smoothly and got almost 10MPG! (I know that still sucks, but that's almost a 25% gain!)

Earlier I mentioned control. The thermostat, fans and radiator work in conjunction to keep your coolant in a certain temperature range. If you lower your thermostat (so it's basically always open at normal running temps) and always have your fan on, the only thing controlling your temperature is the efficiency of your radiator. If it's a hot day, or you're climbing a lot of hills with the A/C on in summertime, additional demands are placed on your cooling system. The open t-stat might start letting the water flow through the system so fast that the radiator does not get a chance to cool it down below 160 degrees and so "hot" coolant starts getting re-introduced into the engine where more heat is added. This creates a heat-soak situation and the system will lose its ability to control the temperature. A stock higher-rated t-stat combined with a longer-range window of fan operation (computer controlled) will hold the coolant in the radiator longer and cool more efficiently. I had this happen on my 83 Mustang GT, and later again on a 95 Mustang GTS that came with a 160 degree t-stat. Both times the problem was solved by switching to a warmer t-stat.

So will a cooler thermostat make more power? Maybe. If done correctly and tweaked to match your combo, sure, but it's not a simple "plug-and-play" operation anymore!

The Plastic Spoon

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:18:00 +0000

One of my favorite sites on the web to lurk is Corner Carvers. The CC users are a bunch of non-nonsense hardcore racers. They can be somewhat abrasive (the page motto is "Suck it!") but as long as you follow the rules and most importantly, use the "search button" before asking a question, you'll be fine. Corner Carvers has a wealth of information about track-proven chassis and suspension setups for every manner of vehicle.

I was perusing the site a while back looking for suspension ideas for a fox body mustang I had just aquired, and stumbled across a wiki article entitled "The Plastic Spoon" written by Wes (aka "Wangstang.") I had just hit the mother load! The Plastic Spoon (whose name implies its contents are cheap, functional and commonly available, as opposed to 'silver spoon' money-is-no-object items) is a step-by-step guide to build a world-class handling and braking fox body mustang relatively inexpensively using mixed-and-matched components from different vendors. Each piece is looked at with an "what's the best bang for the buck here" approach, so the final product should perform with the best of them, for much less! It also has a clear upgrade path for when you (or your budget) get more serious and you want to take it to the next level.

I used many of the Plastic Spoon's suggestions when building my '79 Pace Car. The car still isn't running, so unfortunately, I can't report on its performance, but by using the guide for a reference all of the parts seem to play nicely together. (There were many changes in the geometry of various suspension parts over the years, so if you just throw things together haphazardly, there's a good chance it won't fit without customization or spending more money on the correct parts to make it work.) It all bolted on effortlessly and the wheel/tire clearances and ride height look great!

The only downside is that the 'Fork is a little outdated. Many of the links no longer work, however, in most cases he was kind enough to list a part number, so looking them up on the web will be easy enough.

Thanks Wes!!

Edit: Looks like the link moved, not sure if this is the permanent home, but here's the link

Vintage Drag Racing Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Scott) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:02:00 +0000

I love the Internet! It lets us see stuff that before might have ended up in a dusty box somewhere or in the five cent bin at a garage sale. Several great vintage drag racing videos have surfaced lately, here are a few:

Island Dragway, 1962.

Pacific Raceways, 1963

1963 Drag Racing Nationals in Indianapolis

Here's a great one featuring some early front-engine dragsters (AKA "diggers" or "slingshots")

Great stuff! Keep posting them people!