2023 GT Premium - My Twin Turbo Build

[AcceptableNebula]

April 7th, I took delivery of this 2023 Rapid Red GT Premium. This is my first Mustang after 25 years of buying GM vehicles. I recently sold my 2016 Corvette Z06 after nearly 5 years and was looking at a new Camaro ZL1. Although I am not interested in road style racing, the ZL1 is the only viable option to hit the ground running with. The Camaro SS, even in a 2SS form, is not primed for any reasonable power without drop-ins piston/rods and a complete DI fuel system. While reading some news, I read a news article regarding General Motors funding a program that I strongly disagree with. Clearly I was aligned with the wrong manufacturer. So I called my local Ford Dealer to see what they had. After driving the Mustang, although lacking in power and adjustable suspension, it was everything I was looking for. It has everything I want, and nothing that I don't (except the wheels). The decision was easy so I bought.




Current Mods Documented (in no particular order)
-Bumper Bracket Holes
-Steeda Front/Rear Bumper Supports
-Custom Ghosted Marker Lights
-Custom Titanium Motor Mounts
-Shifter Knob Change
-Front Pony Delete
-Rear Seat Delete 1
-Rear Seat Delete 1.5
-Front ARP Wheel Studs
-Seat Delete Again
-MMR Timing Stuff/ ATI Balancer
-Shitty MMR Billet Valve Covers
-MMR Rear Differential Cover
-BMR Front Subframe
-On3 Twin Turbo Kit
-BMR Billet Rear UCA
-BMR Billet Tie Bars
-AAD Toe Rods
-Eibach Drag Springs
-Viking DA Rear Shocks
-DSS 2000hp Axles/ DSS CF Driveshaft
-Kooks 3" Cat Back w/custom Active Exhaust Valves
-RSR R901 Forged Wheels
-Whiteline Cradle/Differential Bushings
-Cortex Boost Controller
-BMR Driveshaft Safety Loop
-Carbon Fiber Radiator Cover
-Performance Pack Radiator
-Thermostat Relocation

Items being installed shortly:
- Steeda Differential Mount (Kinda)
- Fore Triple Pump
- Radium Stuff
- GT350 Front Knuckles/Brakes/Control Arms
-IMRC Lockouts

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[AcceptableNebula]

Front Plate Mount Holes

The first project was decided for me. After signing some paperwork, I went back home while they prepared the car. I called later on and left a message for the salesman to not install the front license plate. I would be installing a Sho n Go plate bracket for easy removal at the track, and didn't want the holes in the bumper.

Unfortunately, they started the new car prep immediately upon my departure and it was before they got the message. The dealership offered to have the bumper repaired and resprayed. I didn't like any options they presented so I figured I would think about it. Within a couple minutes I had an idea to use OEM parking sensors in the 2 license plate holes.

So I ordered some factory Rapid Red rear parking sensors. Measured the silicone gasket diameter and ordered a carbide precision hole saw. Utilizing the 2 holes from the plate bracket installation, I cut them at the highest speed my M18 drill would do. The cut was clean and precise. I used a set of pipe shears to cut off about 2/3 of the sensor meat. Since they would not be functional, there is no need to have the full weight trying to pull them out of the bumper. After scuffing the back side of the bumper, I attached them utilizing some urethane bumper epoxy. Very happy with the results.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

Steeda Bumper Bars

While the bumper was off, I decided to install the Steeda front and rear bumper supports. This car will not be driven a whole lot on the street, and when it does, it will not be a highway speeds. Getting this car on a diet is paramount.

After removing the 6.2 lb set of air louvers and the 11.5 lb front bumper support, I saw a module I did not recognize. Well I don't recognize most of this car after playing around for 25 years with GM vehicles. I Google'd the module and it turned out to be the front Radar module for the self driving cruise control. There are also adjusters on it to keep it level and aimed. There was no mention of this bracket with the Steeda brace, so I machined my own out of 6061 aluminum. The crash bar is at an angle to that had to be put into the mount as well. There are 3 bolts on the bracket so the 3rd rear bolt kept things in a natural position, so I just ran with it. Thankfully I don't have any codes and the car drives, stops, and resumed driving without issue. Although I must admit I was a little nervous testing it as I approached a slow moving car at 45mph. The new Steeda brace weighed in at 5.625 lbs, and changing to titanium bolts and washers saved an additional 0.28 lbs.

Removing the rear bumper and bumper bar went without finding any new modules. The factory rear mount is 16.125 lbs and the replacement Steeda bar weighs in 5.125 lbs! Changing to titanium hardware saved 0.13 lbs on the rear bar.

In all, the change outs definitely reduce the safety of the car if street driven all the time, but saved almost 28 lbs between the pair.

Update: I think I read the BMR bumper bars are even lighter, by almost 2 lbs? I will have to research how they achieved this as the Steeda bars are definitely light and a huge reduction from the factory braces.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

On my C7 Z06, I had a set of 'Ghosted' marker lights from Oracle. Unfortunately no one seems to make them for the Mustang. So I decided to make my own using a set of Diode Dynamic clear marker lights. Only the rears are available, and I am unsure how much I want to mess with turn signal lens on the car. Liability/Safety issues come to mind.

First I had to mask off the LEDs with a cnc vinyl cutter. After scuffing with a 3M red pad, I primered with SEM plastic primer. Put on 2 base coats of Sherwin Williams Ultra 7000 base coat. After flashing off for about 15 minutes, I removed the masking strip and closed the needle in the gun in a few turns. After a mist coat that looked to just BARELY cover the lens, I let that coat flash off also. Next was the Pearl coat that is required for Rapid Red. Since that is translucent but colored, I figured that would finish the color process. I allowed that to cure for 2 hours. Then scuffed and followed up with 3 coats of Urethane Clear Coat.

Base coat

Ghost Coat

Pearl Coat

Installed Off and then On

 

[AcceptableNebula]

I made a set of Titanium Motor/Transaxle Mounts for my C7 Z06 but ended up reversing course on the build before actually using them. They have been sitting in the basement for about a year now, just collecting dust. I started looking for Mustang motor mounts and stumbled across a set of used Steeda mounts on eBay. So I bought them because they looked extremely close to the C7 design I used. Also, I wanted them because with some abuse, they would show any weaknesses that I could improve upon.

So with a little measuring, I drew up replacement center section in CAD so I could use a vast majority of the parts from the C7Z mounts. The C7 had a 1/2" offset on the center line, so that plate was not viable because of the shape. The Steeda design is far from original, but the adjustable feature is a good idea, but I don't see a need to drop my motor.

My C7Z Titanium set came in at 2.75 lbs. The Steeda mounts are very light at 2lbs 6oz because they use a steel pin that is double threaded, and aluminum caps and spacers. In my original mount design, I left all unnecessary bushing height and padded with materials like Carbon Fiber. The OEM C7Z mounts were about 5 lbs each, so at 2.75 I was happy. This time around, the mount height is a lot shorter so material had to be removed, and spacers rethought.

Upon disassembly of the Steeda mounts, the aluminum showed no signs of fatigue or damage. Threads were still tight. Well engineered. The only thing I saw that I personally would change was the concave design of the bushing filled by the aluminum top/bottom plate. In thoery, each time the mount is pulled or pushed, it tries to squeeze the bushing out. That was apparent by the 0.125" inset flange portion of the bushing. It was pulling away and detaching. There is no way of knowing the former life of these used motor mounts. They could've been on a 1500hp blower car with headers inches from the mounts, so in no way should this reflect poorly on the design. I actually hope it was a 3000hp for science purposes.

The other aspect I would change is although the aluminum was plenty strong, it is also a fantastic conductor of heat. Those bushings have little mass, and are bushings from what I can gather, either Whiteline or Energy Suspensions. A reasonable durometer and quality product but still operating temps around 200F (my understanding from my research). My assumption is being any exhaust heat the mount sees goes directly to the thin bushing via the aluminum. I selected a special engine bushing material rated for 300F service temperature, and I like titanium for this job for many reasons. First, titanium is very difficult to corrode or discolor. With heat, Titanium will self anodize. With time, it will also self harden. Second, its strength to weight ratio is fantastic. Usually it is about 45% of the weight of steel, but with the strength of a grade 8 bolt. Lastly, Titanium is the poorest conductor of heat in the commonly used metals segment.

I used the 0.3" material for the C7Z plates to make a spacer for under the now 0.25" titanium plate. Machined an arbor to get them to the new diameter of 3.2". This allowed me to have 0.55" of bushing inset split between 2 bushings. The inset diameter is also larger in circumference. Between the larger mass and slower heat conducting outer material, it should curb internal damage to the inset bushing material. After assembly, my mounts came in at 2lb 0.2oz, just missing my "under 2lbs" goal. The upper and lower washers are laser cut 0.125" grade 5 titanium also. The center one piece pin falls short of the lower washer outer face by 0.062" which allows for variable compression on the mounts. If I feel the are too harsh, I can back them out. If they are too soft, tighten them down. There is a noticable amount of stiffening with just a turn.

I put the newly added titanium spacers back on the arbor and removed a 0.25" channel, 0.2" thick from the center section. Since the mount plate is more than strong enough to handle the job, the spacer only needs to keep the lower bushing centered, and deal with the crush load of the bushing. This left me with a 0.125" inner and outer support stand, with a roof of 0.100". I initially thought of doing 10 holes equally spaced, but thought the urethane may want to go up into the holes where it could damage it. The inner channel allows the bushing to see a flat surface, and plenty of material to do an inner fusion weld on the ID and a few stitches on the OD with grade 1 rod.

These will go in once my BMR Subframe arrives, hopefully around 6/1 as they are backordered. In no way am I bashing the Steeda products. I continue to purchase stuff from them as they are well engineered, quality products. The titanium version is quite expensive, as the materials alone were more than most aftermarket motor mounts before machining time.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

The following content may be offensive to some, viewer discretion is advised.

I absolutely hate the stock automatic shifter. Its like a combination of a lollipop with a faux billet aluminum stick. Its one of the few things I dislike about the car. The only option is a billet aluminum pistol grip style that I just cannot get into. While looking online for a T handle style shifter, the correct one was sitting right in front of me. I have a new Dodge Durango that I use for a daily driver and I have become quite comfortable with the shifter handle in it. So I bought a Challenger shifter to mess around with.

Immediately disassembled it to find the Dodge shift indicator probably wasn't going to work in the Ford, and considering its on the cluster, and on the shift bezel, a 3rd shift indicator is really unnecessary. Actually more than 1 is unnecessary. I attempted to separate the black portion from the white backing. I figured I could paint behind it and cover the letters. Since the 2 pieces appeared to be sonically welded, I had to pivot. I used some gloss black 3M vehicle wrap to cover things up. Threw the indicator circuit board and harness in the trash. I replaced the leather with a carbon fiber cover secured with urethane epoxy.

Next I had to add 2 additional slots to the shifter shaft. Ford uses East and West alignment slots and of course, Dodge had to be North and South. Clearly this is sacrilege and they are trying to stop it. So I milled 2 slots in the shaft and shortened the push rod. Unfortunately, I cut it from the bottom, which destroys the gear interlocking tab functionality by doing so. So I machined a new pushrod from 6061 aluminum, with the weight penalty of 8 grams. There are also 2 pins in the shifter assembly. One holds the 2 pieces together. To separate it would have to shear the pin. The other is the lower pivot for the shifter. Neither of these roles are difficult. It's not like someone is rowing gears at the drag strip with an automatic. I recreated the 2 pins out of 2024 aluminum. I use this stuff to make shock mounts for dirt track cars, so it will be fine holding a plastic shifter together. This effort yielded a combined weight savings of 44 grams. I had to mill a small flat area on the shaft to accept the set screw that holds the shifter tight.

I am very happy with the finished product. I think a T handle fits the car better.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

While a mass of parts have arrived, the Turbochargers and a few other key items are still not in yet. However, I still want to check things off the list when I can. Getting rid of the front Pony on the grille is higher on my list than I'd like to admit. Your eyes are drawn to it right away, and I will need as much airflow as possible with a front mount intercooler.

For a second time in the 4 weeks of owning the car, the bumper has been off the car. Removing the bumper and grille is straight forward. No need for a how-to as there are millions of videos out there showing how it is done. I picked up a replacement grille from Advance Tuning. I liked the open sea of grille space. Also, there is a 10oz difference between this one and the factory hex grille.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

This billet piece is very well constructed. I like how it blends in better than the massive vat of greenish yellow coolant.

I used a suction gun to remove all the coolant from the stock tank, and from the hose attached to the bottom. This made for a very simple change out. The directions are straight forward and everything fits exactly like it says.

Stock tank w/cap weighs 1lb 15oz.
Radium tank w/cap weighs 2lb 6oz

However, the 7 oz gain is negated by 2lbs 12oz of coolant that does not return to the car.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

I looked around for the lightest seat delete kit to install before my CMS Rollbar goes in. Coverking seems to take the 'crown' in the weight category. With mixed reviews I decided to take a chance with it.

I see most 19+ cars leaving the rear buckles wrapped in bubble wrap but I figured this was low hanging fruit to shed a couple lbs. Surely easier than the treadmill for 2 weeks.

I figured the units had an internal shunt in a switch indicating it was connected. So I pulled the covers off the buckles and extracted the microswitch. With that connected, no lights or messages have come up even with the rest of the buckles removed from the car. I covered the existing bolt holes with vinyl like Ford did but I may revisit these with plastic bolts to fill the threaded holes when I install the roll bar. Depends on how light I can make them.

All items weighed in my adventures are with a 250lb capacity refrigerant scale that measures very accurately down to 1/2 oz.

Overall the Coverking sucks. The fit of the upper section was perfect but I ended up tucking it behind the plastic panel to flatten it out more. I may try to reinforce a few sections with corregated plastic board but it's tempting to just install the Steeda unit. I'm waiting on them to get me the weight on their kit.


Coverking rear seat carpet: 2lbs
Rear upper seats: 9lbs 12oz ea
Lower seat: 10lbs 0oz
Rear seat belts: 1lb 3oz ea
Rear seat belt buckles: 13oz ea
Rear seat bolts/brackets unused 3lb 5oz

 

[Ramairetransam]

keep it up man , i like posts like this .

 

[AcceptableNebula]

In preparation for the front GT350 front knuckle change going in next month, I figured it was a good time to put the ARP studs in, since the hub only fits the GT350 knuckles. I have always used these in every car build as I have always trusted ARP hardware.

I am changing the front to get the better hub assembly, but also the aluminum knuckles/brakes *should* be a drop in weight.

First was to press out the factory studs. Pretty straight forward.

For the first time in my experience, the factory bore was exactly what ARP specified, 0.906". Generally they require a quick boring to a larger size. However, that's as far as luck would go. I have seen the byproduct of people using drills on them. Loose studs are a ticking time bomb with a sticking lug nut.

When I lined up the press, I noticed the stud was not parallel with the bore. Turns out the head of the ARP Studs are 0.070" wider in diameter. Stuffing it in misaligned could cause stretching of the bore.

I picked an easily accessible spot to do a small relief in the case. This allowed for proper alignment and an easy installation.

 

[NGOT8R]

Nicely done! Looking forward to seeing more of your creativity as your build progresses.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

I decided to pick off some low hanging fruit. I'm not 100% sure why considering I will be pulling the oil pump out soon.

First I ordered the Steeda Water Pump pulley and their idler set. Unsure of the actual weight change, I figured I'd try them. I then stumbled upon the MMR Pulley already being anodized and looking extra lean. So I bought that one too.

Stock pulley: 1lb 10oz
Steeda Pulley: 1lb 2oz
MMR Pulley: 12oz
Stock idler: 9.1oz
Stock tensioner pulley: 7.6oz
Steeda idler/Tensioner: 5.5oz

The anodizing and better weight made the MMR the choice for me. The Steeda is a nice piece, blocking the OEM water pump shaft that will for sure rust, and ticks off the billet bling category if that's your thing. Replacing the idler bolt with a titanium replacement saves you 21g. The water pump pulley bolts will save you 30g if you replace all 3 with titanium. I had to order them as they were extremely short, and I didn't have any.

The Tensioner is a reverse threaded bolt. Since I don't have any titanium RT style bolts, I had to reuse it (for now). However, the bolt barely covers about half of the inner race. Not a fan of cutting it that close. So I machined a small self-centering washer out of titanium. I doubt this makes things any safer but I like knowing the entire bearing has to make it thru that to come off.

Install is easy and straight forward. Just make sure the clips are facing out so the pulley can't accidentally come off the bearing if the clip rusts out.

 

[NGOT8R]

MMR Water Pump Pulley
Steeda Idler Pulleys
Odometer: 534 miles

I decided to pick off some low hanging fruit. I'm not 100% sure why considering I will be pulling the oil pump out soon.

First I ordered the Steeda Water Pump pulley and their idler set. Unsure of the actual weight change, I figured I'd try them. I then stumbled upon the MMR Pulley already being anodized and looking extra lean. So I bought that one too.

Stock pulley: 1lb 10oz
Steeda Pulley: 1lb 2oz
MMR Pulley: 12oz
Stock idler: 9.1oz
Stock tensioner pulley: 7.6oz
Steeda idler/Tensioner: 5.5oz

The anodizing and better weight made the MMR the choice for me. The Steeda is a nice piece, blocking the OEM water pump shaft that will for sure rust, and ticks off the billet bling category if that's your thing. Replacing the idler bolt with a titanium replacement saves you 21g. The water pump pulley bolts will save you 30g if you replace all 3 with titanium. I had to order them as they were extremely short, and I didn't have any.

The Tensioner is a reverse threaded bolt. Since I don't have any titanium RT style bolts, I had to reuse it (for now). However, the bolt barely covers about half of the inner race. Not a fan of cutting it that close. So I machined a small self-centering washer out of titanium. I doubt this makes things any safer but I like knowing the entire bearing has to make it thru that to come off.

Install is easy and straight forward. Just make sure the clips are facing out so the pulley can't accidentally come off the bearing if the clip rusts out.

I just installed those same parts on my car recently. I like the looks of the MMR pulley much better than the Steeda pulley.

Great idea on the machined spacer too for the Steeda tensioner btw.

 

[NGOT8R]

Any more MMR goodies? I thought about buying their electric water pump, but was concerned about long term reliability. I also wasn’t sure if the juice was worth the squeeze.

I did buy their engine block/bellhousing braces, head cooling mod and rear seal plate with trigger wheel and new crank sensor.

I see you’re upgrading your fuel system in preparation for turbos. Which tranny do you have?

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