What did you do to your S550 Mustang today?!

[NeedForGreen]

Thought about hood struts, after having the car. Realized the prop rod offered more room under the hood.

The unknown biggest advantage of the hood prop, is closing it. Can drop the hood too close.

With struts, the effort use to lift the hood, is now shifted to closing it. Count on the struts to fail over time, a reason Ford uses the prop rod.

Ford only uses the prop rods to save money. They use struts on other vehicles.
They also shouldn't fail for many, many years if manufactured and installed properly.

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[ORRadtech]

Thought about hood struts, after having the car. Realized the prop rod offered more room under the hood.

The unknown biggest advantage of the hood prop, is closing it. Can drop the hood too close.

With struts, the effort use to lift the hood, is now shifted to closing it. Count on the struts to fail over time, a reason Ford uses the prop rod.

My hood now opens 3 to 5 inches higher than with the prop rod. I haven't measured it yet but it's a nice difference.
It does take a bit of pressure to start lowering it but no more than the trunk takes and there is no hood flex that I can see. Also, once it's 12 to 18 inches from being closed you no longer need to exert any pressure, just release it and it latches. I was pleasantly surprised that it latches just like using the prop rod, only much more controlled. I don't fear for my fingers any more.
I did think they might be in the way when working up near the windshield but I replaced the battery and felt absolutely no interference from them.
As to them failing, yes I expect the might, some day. But so might the ones on the trunk, or the hatch on my edge or the trunk on my fusion, pneumatic struts weaken and fail over time. I've had to replace factory struts on other cars over the years and when/if these fail, I'll replace them to - if I still have it then. But I don't believe fear of failure is why Ford doesn't use them, I believe that a prop rod is less expensive so they save a few dollars per car, I'm sure that adds up to a tidy sum over 60 - 80 thousand units.

 

[Rapid Red]

My hood now opens 3 to 5 inches higher than with the prop rod. I haven't measured it yet but it's a nice difference.
It does take a bit of pressure to start lowering it but no more than the trunk takes and there is no hood flex that I can see. Also, once it's 12 to 18 inches from being closed you no longer need to exert any pressure, just release it and it latches. I was pleasantly surprised that it latches just like using the prop rod, only much more controlled. I don't fear for my fingers any more.
I did think they might be in the way when working up near the windshield but I replaced the battery and felt absolutely no interference from them.
As to them failing, yes I expect the might, some day. But so might the ones on the trunk, or the hatch on my edge or the trunk on my fusion, pneumatic struts weaken and fail over time. I've had to replace factory struts on other cars over the years and when/if these fail, I'll replace them to - if I still have it then. But I don't believe fear of failure is why Ford doesn't use them, I believe that a prop rod is less expensive so they save a few dollars per car, I'm sure that adds up to a tidy sum over 60 - 80 thousand units.

"latches just like using the prop rod," OF course, the latch was not changed DUH
Dropping the hood is a more effective & positive latch.

"I don't fear for my fingers any more." LOL that's rich, may want to avoid using hammers.

"when/ if these fail.. " No if about it, can take that to the bank.

I stand by what I wrote. The arguments put forth fail, nice try no cigar.

 

[TicTocTach]

Swapped my front wheel bearings for GT350R units with the long studs. Had to do this before going to 19x11 square on the wheels, but now I can get the spacers ordered and be another step closer. Those GT350R studs are Loooooong...

Long Wheel Stud Conversion 01 by clair_davis, on Flickr

 

[PKs]

"latches just like using the prop rod," OF course, the latch was not changed DUH
Dropping the hood is a more effective & positive latch.

"I don't fear for my fingers any more." LOL that's rich, may want to avoid using hammers.

"when/ if these fail.. " No if about it, can take that to the bank.

I stand by what I wrote. The arguments put forth fail, nice try no cigar.

At the recommended hood drop height my Steeda struts give no resistance and the closing is just the same as when I had no struts. In Australia Ford could not fit struts due to their supposed interference with the active hood pedestrian safety system.

 

[Elp_jc]

Thought about hood struts, after having the car.

I bought the crappy MRT ones, and it was money down the drain. Ended up removing them. And yes, the hood opened quite a bit less than with the rod, so not going to mess with struts anymore. Besides, the hood absolutely flexes. And every strut kit I saw attaches from the same place, which is the front hood bolt, so all are going to flex. If you don't see it, you're not looking careful enough . I even installed rubber spacers right where the strut attached, which was a few inches ahead of the hood bolt, and the hood still flexed. Not a lot, but over time it might cause issues. Besides, my only complaint of the rod is it burned me, so solved that by installing a piece of fuel hose that fit perfectly without having to cut it open, so it looks factory. And no more burns. Finally, I didn't want to modify anything, and you can't completely remove the rod like if it was never there, so no strut kit would never look OEM anyway, so why bother. Ha ha.

Nope, it is same as stock..literally no drone..it all comes out the back.

Thanks a lot for doing that; greatly appreciated. It sounds almost like stock. The Bullitt linked below sounds raspy to me, so don't know what to make of that. Ha ha. By the way, did you weigh by any chance both the resonator and your X-pipe? Curious if there are any weight benefits. Thx.

On the Aust. forum I posted mine

Thank you too. Heard the Bullitt, and like I commented above, it definitely sounds raspy to me, and that's what I have, so kind of conflicted. Ha ha. Borla should have added the 'H' to the straight pipes, to have both. Now I'm curious of that experiment. Ha ha. Oh, and are those X-pipes really insulated? They don't appear to, but the video a linked, they're supposedly are. I could swear they're not. Could one of you verify that? Thx.

 

[2morrow]

Installed my APR splitter and ordered a lightweight battery for the 4th.

I'll prep some small things here and there for my track day on the 7th tomorrow too.

 

[Mr. Met]

I'd call that some pretty substantial modding, congratulations!

Its amazing what a couple of hours spent in the garage can do

 

[Mr. Met]

Paint job?

And a new set of wheels.

 

[Mr. Met]

Nice job on the wrap. You forgot to toggle the mudguards and hood vents though to blue. Details man, details!



yes, I know...

See, I knew I forgot something.

 

[DFB5.0]

Took it shopping.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

And a new set of wheels.

Hahaha, seriously though, congrats. I was floored when I went from my '16 to my '19, both were PP cars, both convertibles, but the '19 with the Gen 3 motor + the A10 (my '16 as you could figure, was a manual ...), is just crazy.

 

[Rapid Red]

Interestingly, mine opens higher with the hood struts and the other thing I wasn't expecting was now I don't have any hood flutter at all. Before, when I would be traveling at high speed the hood moved so much that my wife said, this can't be right.

Ok I'll bite, convince me how a lift assist stops, LMAO"hood flutter" when the hood latch was not changed ?

I get some hood flutter @ a buck 50, @ 200 down force takes over holding it in place.

Actually don't care, but it's getting fun reading these stories. Curing severed fingers and hood flutter top two so far.

 

[Rover]

I disconnected the battery maintainer. Backed her out of the garage and headed out. Fueled her, washed her, drove her 75 miles of twisty back roads like it was designed for.
Put her in the garage and reconnected the battery maintainer....

 

[lacanteen]

Storms in the area, had to tell her "no play today"

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