Veeefour's build

It all started last year around February 2016 when I bought my S550 - US spec imported fro Mexico, GT Premium with AT.

I knew that as a mechanic and engineer I would eventually start some mod monkey wrenching..sooner or later but I was trying
to convince myself to let it be in stock form just for a while...it stayed like that about a month :lol:

First things first. My car came with 19" optional all season Pirelli tires. Absolutely not in my type and not really suitable for winter
conditions..I knew that I would eventually kill myself with this tires so I decided to change them.

Tires:




Rims: Barracuda Virus 20x9 front and 20x10,5 rear:



Sold the old ones with tires almost instantly for a good price:

Next part: exhaust.

Remus active system, 3" catback with resonator:


Very nice system with remote control. 4 sound stages to chose: fully closed, 10% open, 50% open and full open.
Fully stainless with chromed 4" tips:




Some sound clips:
[ame]

Sounds good and raspy.

Meanwhile painted the calipers in red:

Part 3: more juice.









GT350 mani, GT350 TB, INJEN intake, nGauge with tune:



Plus custom gauge faces in GT350 style:


Old ones out:



New ones in:

And even more powahhhh:




Decided to not use Stage 8 fasteners - OEM's works just fine.



Nice thing from Lund they revised the program for headers for free.

Installed in one day, very difficult task I might add. By the same time I sprayed the under body with some amber/clear wax
as I use it as DD also in winter any my car came with absolutely no protection - without under spray it would turn into pile
of rust in just few years:

While installing the long tubes - and I do almost everything myself - I found that it's almost impossible to get to the passenger
side front ex. mani. stud. I had to loosen the AC compressor bolts just to move it away about an inch.

This is my first Mustang so I was not aware that Ford equipped this engine with two accessory belts - one classic with tensioner
and second one just for AC called a stretchy belt. This thing is very hard to fit again while the engine is in the car - it maybe a
piece a cake when engine is outside but man...Oh boy oh boy:


I found a Ford kit with a second classic tensioner - just 60 bucks: BR3Z-8620-DA



Much better - for further mods:

Next: suspension.

Waay to soft for my taste, waay to high for my taste. This is what I removed:



Parts: Eibach lowering springs, KONI yellow adjustable shocks, Steeda jacking rails, SR sway bars, vertical links and IRS tie down kit from AM:











Plus Ford Racing oil separator by the same time because why not:


No more wheel hop, the car is planted and super stable at high speeds. Initially I started with 50% for KONI setting but reduced it later
to 25% and it's still a tad too hard for my taste(for daily). I think something around 5-10% should be OK for street driving.

Addressing the exhaust.

Kooks was a good deal from ebay - bought it cheap, really cheap. But there was one problem - all Kookers steps down to 2,5" just right
before where the OEM resonator used to be. If you want something different you need a cat-back from Kooks - that's right.
Basically Kooks tells you to use the adapters - sorry, but it clearly robs power in NA setup. Remus is all the way 3" and it does not steps
down but there are adapters included. Temporarily I ended up like this - I know, it's bloody stupid but I will fix it soon:



I really wanted to have an x-pipe but after some measurements I found that I can just forget about it - there's a very little space between Remus
resonator and Kooks headers. They only thing that came to my mind was to use a scavenger type x-pipe. It was also intended to be a temporary
solution only until I find a suitable x-pipe.

The design:




Parts:



Meanwhile my 20 years old Miller TIG finally said sayonara...had to weld it with MIG. Good that I had some stainless MIG wire on hand and it turned out just OK.

I made more then 1 set of parts fort this project so I can always make it again. I need a new TIG welder first...oh crap.

Much better:




And the dyno run. It was winter(it still is) so I had winter tires with only 270kph speed rating index. No 1:1 gear in 6R80 automatic transmission
so the best gear to use is 4th which is 1.14. But this could spin my tires too fast and the dyno guy said NO - this would work with my summer
tires because they have 300 kph speed index. So we did a pull in 3rd with 1.52 ratio which will read high no matter what dyno you have.



I know, 483 RWHP is a bit high but like I said it was not done properly. Need to do it again with summer tires.

I finally bought myself a new TIG welder - much better now:



Anyways - I need to find a better solution for my x-pipe. I also have an issue - everything runs just fine
if I leave the Remus flaps open - LOUD as hell. I like my neighbors but they might start not liking me :lol:

Remus with closed flaps is even quieter than OEM exhaust which is a good thing but not anymore. I clearly have an exhaust leak
somewhere because the whole exhaust rattles like a can of rusty bolts with closed flaps - back pressure does it's thing.
Vibes...leak...oh boy oh boy. I traced the leak down to the Kooks, that's right - Kooks. Tried to re-torque the clamps with impact,
use some exhaust liquid sealant with no effect. Those "swages" needs to go - I will replaced them with some 3" flex pipes:




Meanwhile I finally found a suitable x-pipe. Stamped stainless sheet with only 150mm in length. Great!



Plus a back-up plan if the system still turns out to be too loud. The shortest 3" mufflers in the world.
Only 10" in length and 4" in diameter - they should go just right after the resonator if necessary:

I always loved the quad exhaust in S550 - not much of a choice then to buy a Roush valance.



Back to CAD. Felx pipes, extra resonators and quad tips pictured.

Meanwhile I spent some extra time under that car and measured everything so I could sketch everything properly:



I'm going to modify my Remus mufflers - sorry but no fake quad tips for me like Corsa etc. Notice the vacuum flaps which I'm going to control together
with Remus actuators. If those flaps will be open it will basically by-pass the muffler and will turn out even louder - should I ever need it



Bought myself some cool carbon stainless 89mm tips that I'm going to use:



Everything should turn out like this:





That's it for now - more details to follow soon.

Epic thread mate....love the mods, and the effort that's gone Ito them...

Subbed for future updates

Thanks m8 :cheers:

More pics - with wifey and with second toy





Small update.
Fitted the valance and quads - just for reference. I don't have my welder with me so it's needs to wait 2 weeks for the next parts :shrug:
No time for quality pics either - that has to wait as well.

Love it!

I am running the GT 350 setup too, but am on stock headers. I also planned on making the 3" connection if I got headers as my catback system is also a true 3" system.

But my plans for future modifications on how on halt!

Those new gauges you got, how hard was the install and where did you get the dials from please?

Cheers m8 :cheers:

No biggie - you need to remove some trim, few screws, cluster cover pops out easily and you are already there.
You probably did some of that stuff already if you have the nGauge.

The biggest challenge I guess is to how to remove the pointers - some folks have some spooky moments with some serious goose bumps while doing this.
I did a few in the past so it's no biggie for me - just don't pull them like gorilla, rotate each one CCW untill it's stops, then rotate further and pull simultaneously - works every time.

I can get you those faces if you want - you probably want them in mph?

You should repost this thread in the European or U.K. Section.....it's sort of hidden away...

I only found it by accident...

Upgrading my exhaust.

Finally I was able to find the suitable x-pipe. Polished stainless stamped steel.
All required parts below:



Remus cat-back and Kooks headers - those two wont come together easily.
I had some problems with vibes and exhaust leaks - it turned out to be the problem with KOOKS - not sure that only my headers were fabricated in this way...
as for now this is my LAST purchase from KOOKS... It's not possible to fully slide the joints in - the joints itself are approx 80 mm in length but the pipes are
not long enough resulting in only 30 mm of joint and hence creating a leak...decided to remove that joints and replace them with braided 5 layer flex couplers.
I had to fabricate the jig to keep everything nice and straight - worked great:



Now that is a solid x-pipe with resonator:



Now, quad tips. First of all: vacuum flaps - they bypass the end mufflers completely when open. Welding cast stainless is always difficult but turned out good:



The place where I drilled a hole:



Carbon/stainless tips with custom Remus decals - special exhaust decals printed on alu foil - heat resistant. Everything bespoke -
I was able to buy the parts in China. Check aliexpress.