If only the budget would allow LOLINB4 "so with the engine out and all the upgrades incoming I decided if we're going racecar we're going racecar. Here you can see where the car is now gutted, pneumatic jacks added at four corners, all seams welded,etc...."
Can't wait to see how the engine build turns out!
As someone who spent half the weekend last weekend under the car at the track, those air jacks are so bloody useful. I’ll be honest, they were like 90% swag at first - but they’re AT least 50% useful now. HahaINB4 "so with the engine out and all the upgrades incoming I decided if we're going racecar we're going racecar. Here you can see where the car is now gutted, pneumatic jacks added at four corners, all seams welded,etc...."
Can't wait to see how the engine build turns out!
Was super bummed to hear about your bad luck when we chatted. Rough weekend for your crew.After CotA, my hood vents showed up. Since it's the last thing I wanted to do to help with cooling, I knocked them out. The result is, the car lost the last of it's sweeping lines that I really enjoyed, but certainly looks massively more agressive. Day 1 I was not happy with the change, and disappointed I didn't buy a new hood.
But by day 2, I had come around, and am pretty happy with how it looks. I plan to do fender vents at some point, but admittedly, I haven't done much research on the airflow around the canards and how it affects the airflow out of the fender vents. I do have AJ's video queued for when I get back to it.
Part of the reason I stopped digging into aero was because of the oil change post CotA. I changed the oil, and found the sparkles no one ever wants to see.
The engine held pressure, had no power loss, no lights, but it is a clear sign to me that the motor doesn't have long. This led to multiple conversations, making connections, learning about the weaknesses of the Voodoo, and ultimately, the conclusion that the motor will be swapped to CPC. I had always leaned that way, but was hoping I could get more than 13,000 miles out of the motor, considering I was religious about no more than 6 hours on an oil change.
The rest of this post is the thought process I had with regard to rebuilding. Hopefully it helps others who run into the same issue make their own decisions.
The process of figuring out what to do has been eye opening to say the least. First, my constraints:
1. My wife
2. Two kids under 5
3. Money
4. Time
5. Inability to focus for short periods of time.
After two weeks of weighing whether it would be better to spend my money on a lift and all the tools necessary, vs pay someone to do the work, I realized I wasn't going to get 8-10 hours a day of un-interrupted free time to work on the car for several weeks on each end of the motor going to a builder for 6 (ish) weeks. With the way my brain works, 1-2 hours at a time just doesn't work for me, when I start something, I need to finish it.
The result was, I found a local shop willing to do the work, would ship the engine for me, was capable of doing the work, and had a past history of doing similar projects.
This weekend I will be pulling all my front aero on the car, and taking it in next week. The shop will pull the motor, ship it off to RPG, store my car, order the headers and slave cylinder, install the new clutch, reinstall the motor and repin the harness for CPC, and dyno tune the car.
As for the engine build. I've talked with the gambit of builders, from local guys who said "we've never head of Voodoo's having engine failure issues" (those phone calls were very short) to shops that have done dozens and dozens of CPC conversions across the country, who were a wealth of information. MPR, H Squared, RPG, Fast Forward, Capaldi, LME are the ones I remember off the top of my head, but there were 5-6 more on top of that list. Tim at MPR gave me so much information, I filled up several pages in a notebook on items to research. If money was no object, the motor would absolutely be going to MPR.
Where I ended up, I am going to have a completely new Gen III block with the Predator crank, forged internals, with the only carried over parts being heads, intake valves, intake, injectors, and oil pan. On top of that, I am adding LTH's, the braided clutch line, new slave cylinder, and the Spec Racing mini twin, which should shave about 20 lbs off the car if the numbers I found check out.
I am going to get my old block back, and plan to mothball everything, and eventually rebuild it as a Voodoo, so when track days are done, I can have a more robust Voodoo ready to go back into the car, and that sound can come back to life.
There is another variable here. It's entirely possible they get the block apart, and there are more parts to be thrown at it. I have reserve funds waiting for those costs which I hope I never have to use.
With LTH, I plan to use the stock cat back. There is an issue that stock is 2.75, where the LTH are 3". Assuming no internals need replacing, I will be jumping to the Stainless Works Legend catback exhaust. If valves/springs need to be replaced, I will suck it up and run stock exhaust until funds are replenished.
I always wanted the car to look "stockish", which includes running an exhaust that is not obnoxious, and a car that still feels like it's built solid, retains the classic blue strips on white, but with cool bits bolted on. I am also retaining the magride because I've gotten to a point where it is incredibly functional on track. Doing this doesn't lead to the fastest lap times, nor does my own driving skill. But the car at least can remain a testament to what Ford built, albeit with some functional tweaks to take it to the next level.
Finally, I have reached out to several folks on this forum (thanks for the guidance and contacts @honeybadger, and the build list @Biggsy), and there are others I have missed here. But thank you all for the guidance, and your own thought processes, it has been immeasurably helpful.
If you all have read all this, thank you for reading!
It's not the worst idea....although I was looking more at the FP350S pan. The other thing here is, the plan is 3-5 years, rebuild the motor again, and go to dry sump. It's a calculated risk I suppose.
Oh I'm not knocking them by any means. I get pissed even having to run up on the RaceRamps to swap out the splitter strut screws so those jacks would be straight butter for bigger jobs. It's all just time and money right?!?!
Unfortunately equal parts money and time it seems. I need to find a way to make it more time and less moneyOh I'm not knocking them by any means. I get pissed even having to run up on the RaceRamps to swap out the splitter strut screws so those jacks would be straight butter for bigger jobs. It's all just time and money right?!?!
So shocker, I called a couple of the builders I mentioned, and asked their opinion on the 500 pan. Turns out the 500 pan runs a larger gear set, and pushes more oil.
That tracks. I wasn’t sure but being that the 500 pan is newer and made for a 800hp car I figured there must be some additional benefit.
