2023 GT Premium - My Twin Turbo Build

[HKusp]

sorry you feel that way Jake.... take it there once and it might change your mind. You have done an incredible job building this machine. Go and enjoy it , the chase to 200 might be way more fulfilling than just going and buying a lambo.

or

take Jason up on his offer.

I didn't want to bring that up in case he had some personal stuff going on to cause his disinterest.

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[AcceptableNebula]

Well after taking the summer off from the car, I’ve gotten over the fact that it’s not going 200mph ever. Doesn’t mean an S550 isn’t capable of some amazing 50-150 fun. None of the options for the car seem viable besides just keeping it and having some fun. So the project continues, just with revised path.

Even with the tender on all summer, the tender spit out a bad battery code. I assumed it was some random bs and reset the tender. Once the battery started boiling with 14.7v and 0.9a, I quickly realized I had bad cell. The dealership said they change a lot of Mustang batteries under warranty and gave me a new one.

Bought a few things from UPR for a couple winter projects. Also did some measuring and I need to bring up the front about 5/16”. My rake is almost 1.75”. By changing the front to GT350, it tucks the wheels up front a bit more because of the different roll center. 8mm or so shouldn’t mess with the roll center enough to cause bump steer since the car is also lowered.

These UPR covers seemed like a good way to tip toe into modding again. The fit was pretty amazing and they look better than stock.

My next mission is to get the noise level inside the car down from having no backseat.

 

[davidkrocks]

Today I pressed out the LCA bushings and Toe Rod bushings out of the knuckles, then installed the new bearings. The ARP studs went in nicely too.

I got most of the rear end back together but ran into a snag with the AAD toe rods. They provide camber lock out plates, as the rods are the adjustment device. Unfortunately the M12 bolts provided don't fit into the M10 holes in the plates. They are also too small to span the distance between the stops on the cradle. So I will just make my own tomorrow night and finish up the last few components remaining.

I ended up installing the Eibach springs. After some research, all the other brands of drag springs are similar in weight, and reference the need for more control under hard launches.

I know this was from a while ago, but I'm interested in getting a set of AAD toe rods installed on my GT. Did you go with any special type of M10 bolts instead?

 

[AcceptableNebula]

I know this was from a while ago, but I'm interested in getting a set of AAD toe rods installed on my GT. Did you go with any special type of M10 bolts instead?

No I just machined my own stop plates. The owner of AAD offered to send me the correct lockouts but it was easier for me to just make them. That was just a little mess up in the packaging. Unlikely you will have an issue. Parker is very helpful at AAD

 

[AcceptableNebula]

Well the first boxes arrived today. I’ve kinda been stuck in the half pregnant space of being annoyed by the car and realizing that the suspension, brakes, fuel system, and transmission/driveline are all completely done with some solid stuff. My motor though is still a stock coyote with OPG and 800 lb valve covers. So if that’s the last thing, it could be fun to turn it up some more.

So this motor is gonna come out and I’m building a new one. It actually makes more sense to me to start from scratch instead of tearing this down and having stock 844 mile set of cams, springs, pistons, rods, oil pan, valve covers, gen 3 intake just sitting in a box until the end of time.

So the S2 GSC billet cams arrived along with their Conical springs. I must say I’m impressed with their components so far. Also the owner seems pretty impressive. I’ve dealt with most cam companies and you get the feeling here that they actually like what they do and aren’t just running legacy business. I’m huge fan of conical springs so I was excited that they had them with titanium retainers. The springs and cams should allow me to turn 8500 even with turbochargers.

 

[HKusp]

So, you have a stock 844 mile Gen 3 long block that's going to be taking up space at your house?

 

[AcceptableNebula]

So, you have a stock 844 mile Gen 3 long block that's going to be taking up space at your house?

I’ll sell it complete with all stock parts on it.

 

[NGOT8R]

What’s the power goal for the new build?

 

[AcceptableNebula]

What’s the power goal for the new build?

Nothing insane right away but I want to be able to turn it up eventually with a lower probability of it scattering and I want it to rev out further. This turbo size has been shown here to do over 1400rwhp. A part of me wants to see what efficiency changes do, as I hear a ton about people just sending relatively stock engines with 20+ PSI. So the initial Dyno testing will be at the same 14psi I used last year.

 

[NGOT8R]

Can’t wait to see it!

 

[hojo_5oh]

Love the build. Just finished mine up this year

 

[AcceptableNebula]

Well I saw this GT500 pan on eBay. The listing said used, which implies good useable condition. I swiped thru the first 7 pics and it all looked normal. No mentions of damage in the listing. Unfortunately when it arrived I realized picture 8 showed some damage to the pan. My fault but they take returns so I showed my spouse the damage that I missed and said I’d return it. She casually says “Oh you can easily fix that” and walked away. Either a challenge had been issued, or she was not even paying attention and tried to escape from a possible 20 minute conversation about car parts.

So I put it in the ultrasonic cleaner for a couple of long cycles at 150 degrees to try to extract as much of the oil from the cast aluminum and the removed the damaged portion. That definitely made a couple of cracks transform into a decent sized hole in the pan. I figured a plug was needed to make sure that it was reinforced and I had something to weld to.

After TIG welding the plug in and capping it, it was time to restore the original shape. So I matched the contour with a ball endmill so I could retain the 4 degree slant on each side. Once that was cleaned up, a little sanding got it smoothed out. Then to match the texture, I used some sheets of 40 grit sandpaper and a tack hammer to give the aluminum a cast look. I’m still experimenting with engine paints before committing but once I find a winner that will remove any evidence of it being repaired.

 

[AcceptableNebula]

I originally had picked up a new stock Coyote crankshaft and was going to use that. Once I realized the bobweight difference between factory rods/pistons and aftermarket stuff rated for serious power, there’s likely a lot of Mallory going into it. There are not a lot of offering out there but I did find this Callies Compstar crank. Listed at 46 lbs and a bobweight of 1785g, seemed better than packing a ton of Mallory in the stock crank. Although there are 2 rather large slugs in the Callies crank.

I was a bit surprised when I weighed them. The Callies came in 0.1 lbs less than the factory crank. Not sure who got the 41 lb crankshaft to bring the average down to 46…

 

[wingnutt]

The Texas Mile has always been on my bucket list and I feel like showing up there with it is a wasted trip to Texas.

fun side note…a pre-S550 won overall last year, so don’t give up, just sayin

EDIT…went DMs to not clutter thread

 

[AcceptableNebula]

fun side note…a pre-S550 won overall last year, so don’t give up, just sayin

Gonna try to find the info on this car

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