'17 V6 Build - I bought a Mustang?!?!?!

Got the drag radials on this morning and hit the 1/4 mile track down the road.
I have now personally experienced 'clutch protection / torque management' and it sucks.

14.3 was the best I could do.

3.55 Gears go in this week, along with MPT Tune. Hopefully weather holds for next Saturday test and tune.

Wonder if the tune will manage the torque management...

D24112 said:

Wonder if the tune will manage the torque management...

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That's part of the tune as I understand it. We shall see soon enough.

I lost access to the spray booth I could use during the Winter. So base coat / clear coat isn't going to happen on the used 18" GT wheels I picked up until Spring. Decided to try Plastidip and a one good coat of Glossifier.

They should do until spring. Also got the 3.55 rear end painted (cast iron is good for many things - appearance ain't one of 'em). Oil based paint with foam brushes / pads will soak right into the cast iron. Dries to a flat almost matte black. Still easy to see leaks / problems etc.

Hope to install the pumpkin in the next day or two.

MPT tunes came today. Also found a local station with 93 octane. Loaded the 93 PRX tune.

Worth every penny

Throttle is crisp. Car has a cleaner bottom end and pulls harder in the mid range.

Looking to swap in the 3.55 gears tomorrow.

Funny thing is - the FSM says toss both the pinion / driveshaft bolt pairs when removed, as well as front and rear carrier mount bolts. Was able to get 2 new axle nuts but no one stocks the bolts. That's weird. Will reuse my 1.5k mile hardware for now. I will likely replace them when I get under there again.

You're getting in and updating everything right away! Exciting changes for sure and I'm excited for 2.5-3 years from now when I stop worrying about the warranty and throw a tune on.

I haven't seen anyone comment on the gear swap, so I figured I'd ask here. Does it make a big (or any) change on an auto? I'm not quite sure on how that part all works together.

And you're not rocking base wheels, those are the optional Foundry ones.

Nagare said:

You're getting in and updating everything right away! Exciting changes for sure and I'm excited for 2.5-3 years from now when I stop worrying about the warranty and throw a tune on.

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I'm not worried about warranty. Ford has to prove my modifications caused any issue. And I'd flash back to stock before any warranty work (the only way anyone but me is touching me car).

Nagare said:

I haven't seen anyone comment on the gear swap, so I figured I'd ask here. Does it make a big (or any) change on an auto? I'm not quite sure on how that part all works together.

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Manual / Auto doesn't matter. Ever rode a 10 speed? Try 1st gear - then try 10th..... Gears are a purely mathematical mod.

Nagare said:

And you're not rocking base wheels, those are the optional Foundry ones.

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Base GT Wheels in '15 - unless I'm mistaken.

Isn't the whole burden of proof thing cumbersome for powertrain warranty though? You're pushing it harder than it was "designed" for so that could cause the issue. I haven't seen any V6 guys have a hard time with it, but quite a few turbos (admittedly pushing the engine/turbos hard or with E85) have.

Sounds good on the gears, just was curious since everyone seemed to have the 6-speed that I've seen swap. Looking forward to your thoughts on the upgrade there too!

And nope, even back then these were the base wheels. Just semantics but don't want you selling em short as "base" wheels is all haha

Nagare said:

Isn't the whole burden of proof thing cumbersome for powertrain warranty though? You're pushing it harder than it was "designed" for so that could cause the issue. I haven't seen any V6 guys have a hard time with it, but quite a few turbos (admittedly pushing the engine/turbos hard or with E85) have.

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Depends on the dealership as well. Kind of like insurance. Their first answer is no - to see if you'll go away. The engine was designed with a rev limiter. Any RPM under that is what the thing is designed for. For engine - the big thing is proving maintenance. Had a friend with a 4th Gen F Body w/ LS1 / T56. Aftermarket intake,header and exhaust. Engine fractured a rod where it bolts up. Odds are it was a bad casting and had been there since new. Dealership warrantied the short block. They asked about maintenance. He showed him his records with date / mileage / oil used etc. They replaced it.

Nagare said:

Sounds good on the gears, just was curious since everyone seemed to have the 6-speed that I've seen swap. Looking forward to your thoughts on the upgrade there too!

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The V6 cars SHOULD have come with 3.55 gears - it used to be an option. It's a torque multiplication deal. Worth it on any V6 saddled with 3.15 gears.

Even without the tune the 3.55 makes a big improvement. Throw the tune on top and its as fast as I want to go. Giant step up from my 00 GT.

Might end up doing a "How to swap your rear differential" thread if anyone thinks it would be worthwhile.

Regardless - pulled it in the garage this morning and took my time. Coffee breaks, smoke breaks, watching some TV etc. I figure if I was on labor rate I could do it in 3 hours easy now that I know a few tricks.

And don't try to use a 32mm 12 point on the rear axle nuts. The actual socket is a 1 1/4" 6 point. RH axle nut I doubt was at torque spec when I broke it loose.

Also - BUY NEW driveshaft to pinion bolts. The FSM advises to throw the old bolts away, but with less than 2K miles on mine I reused 'em. The reason to get new ones? Not only are they full of loctite but also some other thread sealer. I ended up using a thread cleaner on all 6.

Added 1.5 quarts of Mobil 1 synthetic gear oil and a bottle of the Ford friction modifier. Worst part was getting the MBRP Catback installed back on the car straight. The first time was cake - this time it fought me. But I won.

Updated the PRX 93 tune with the 3.55 gear change. Went for a test drive. HEY 6TH GEAR IS NOW USABLE without going 80mph.

Got one decent blast in it before I had to come back to the house. No more clutch protection / torque management for the win. Barked the 2-3 shift right at redline. Very nice.

Literally it drives like an entirely different car. Anyone on the fence about MPT Tune and / or gears - DON'T BE. DO IT. You will NOT regret it.

Also my GT upgrade brake calipers came in. $130 for the pair, they look new. New rotors and pads are here. Brake lines on the way. May go ahead and paint the calipers tomorrow.

I'd be interested in the writeup for the future. Are you doing everything on jack stands or do you have a lift in your garage?

Which do you think did more to liven up the car between the tune and the 3.55 gears?

Are you planning on upgrading the drive shaft too?

Looking at your first post again, it's crazy how much you've changed/upgraded the car in less than 3 weeks! What other big upgrades do you have in mind?

sub'd

Nagare said:

I'd be interested in the writeup for the future. Are you doing everything on jack stands or do you have a lift in your garage?

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4 jackstands in my garage. A small 1.5 car too Jacking rails make it REALLY fast to get up on jackstands. I had PLENTY of room to get in and out with no problem and I'm no spring chicken.

Nagare said:

Which do you think did more to liven up the car between the tune and the 3.55 gears?

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The tune VASTLY improves throttle response (I'm going to assume MPT modifies the drive by wire OEM Ford programming - I've done it in the past on other cars). They also of course clean the fueling / timing up.

The tune made the car much more responsive, more engaging to drive, and I feel like it picked up on the bottom end (lower mid range) where this package needed a lot of help.

The gears just ADD to that. 4th gear tooling along at 40mph speed limits? I no longer feel like I'm lugging the engine and need to shift to 3rd. 70mph on the Interstate in 6th gear is now a bit above 2K RPM, which I like A LOT - since it was basically lugging along before.

It just pulls much harder - lower (higher numerically) gears are all about torque multiplication. You don't add power - you just get the engine into it's power band faster and it tends to stay there in normal driving a lot more.

Nagare said:

Are you planning on upgrading the drive shaft too?

Looking at your first post again, it's crazy how much you've changed/upgraded the car in less than 3 weeks! What other big upgrades do you have in mind?

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Driveshaft - not sure yet. Driveshaft loop - before I start regularly hitting the 1/4 mile track in the Spring - most definitely. I am tempted to try and see if GT axle (halfshafts) are thicker / stronger than V6 axles - since I can get a low mile pair CHEAP.

Well I sold most of the mods I did to my last car, after it was totaled because of an idiot driver making a left in front of me. So I knew going in what I wanted to upgrade on this one.

I actually have the GT brake upgrade ready to go except for brakes lines (on the way) and painting the calipers. Tempted to upgrade the rear to GT brakes, if I can get them cheap - simply so I can take my time and take apart / paint the calipers without having downtime on my car.

Tempted to install the stainless headers I ordered off Ebay tomorrow.

Performance Pack front and rear swaybars are next (cheap buying brand new OEM stuff) and I'm waiting on feedback on the newly released Bilstein struts / shocks. I have always loved Bilstein for daily drivers.

Add some tint, and repaint the currently black Plastidip wheels with basecoat /clearcoat (in the Spring) and I'm likely done with everything but a modest sound system upgrade (replace 6 speakers, 5 channel amp and a small sub).

Quick overview on replacing the differential.

- Get the car in the air on 4 jack stands as high as you can. More room makes it easier.
- Remove the rear wheels
- Parking brake ON - break loose the rear axle nuts with a 1 1/4" 6 point socket and a breaker bar
- Parking brake OFF. Remove rear calipers - 2 14mm bolts on the back of the caliper - hang the caliper out of the way with zipties
- Remove the 8mm bolt holding the ABS sensor in the knuckle. Then pull the rubber bracket that hold the ABS sensor line onto the parking brake line bracket. Zip tie the ABS sensor / wire out of your way
- Remove the 10mm bolt that holds the parking brake cable bracket. Zip tie / arrange it out of your way as well
- I thread one lug on snug so the rotor stays when moving the knuckle around
- Remove the bolt where the knuckle mounts to the arm on top. 15mm if i remember - the nut you need to hold is 18mm. You might have to knock the bolt out -if so thread the nut back on flush and use a dead blow hammer so you don't screw up the end of the bolt
- Remove the TOP bolt from the vertical link (15mm)
- Remove the bottom lower front (faces to front of the car) bolt that holds the lower part of the knuckel / arm to the toe link. 18mm bolt.
- Remove the axle nut all the way. You can hold the axle still with a praybar looped into the wheel studs if needed.
- Whack the end of the axle with a DEAD BLOW hammer if needed to get it loose from the hub

TOSS The axle nuts - new ones are $3-4 a the dealer and come with loctite already applied

- Use a pray bar to get the top of the vertical link (you already removed the bolt) so the knuckle can clear and pull down / out on the knuckle while working the axle so you can get it out of the hub - it will come out - don't force it.

- Repeat all this on the other side

- Remove the exhaust. Stock comes out as one assembly, if you have a catback etc remove it. You'll need the h-pipe gone for easy driveshaft access

- Put the car in GEAR and crawl under and remove the 3 driveshaft to pinion bolts you can get too - 10mm - and I used a gear wrench with a hollow pipe on it for leverage - they are only torqued to 41 ft/lbs supposedly but thread locker AND Sealer make them fun to get out
- Put the car in neutral, move the driveshaft by hand so you can reach the other 3 bolts, put it back in gear and loosen remove the last 3 bolts.
- Rig up HEAVY zip ties / bungie or use a flipped over 5 gallon bucket to hold the end up the driveshaft so it doesn't fall. Push in a bit and it will disengage from the rear end pinion

NOTE THE ORIENTATION of your driveshaft. Mine had a factory yellow x / mark and it lined up with an indent on the pinion of the rear differential. I noted that and installed the new differential lined up the same way. Might have gotten lucky, but I seem to have NO vibration even at higher speeds

- Use a pry bar to pry against the differential to pop the axles loose. They will come out. There is a circlip that holds them in the rear end.

I didn't even remove my axles all the way, I fed them out until the rear differential had room to clear and left them propped on the suspension / top of the rotor / knuckle

- At the top of the differential remove the vent tube. It just a hose elbow that slips on a pipe nipple, but it can fight you

- Remove the lower pipe plug from the differential cover and drain the rear into a drain pan.

- Use a floor jack under the differential to hold it and take a bit of pressure off the (4) mounting bolts. They are 18mm - two towards front two towards rear.

- Remove the (4) bolts (the rear is heavy and awkward be ready). And lower the jack to remove the differential

- Install is literally the reverse.

- When seating the axles they will clunk / snap into place (when the clip engages) lube the ends with clear gear oil and hold them from outside the rotor area with two hands. Don't be afraid to push with some pressure.

- Loosely install all the suspension bolts you loosened until you are sure they are all in there. Don't be surprised if you have to jack up the rotor / knuckle with the floor jack to get it all lined up

- Reinstall caliper, parking brake bracket, ABS sensor etc.

- Install the new axle nuts snug - I wait until last to torque them.
- Make sure the suspension is loaded (jacking it up from the lower arm) before torquing all suspension bolts to spec. If I remember correctly the lower front (Facing to front of car) knuckle / arm to toe link is 129 ft/lbs. The upper bolt is 79 ft/lbs as is the TOP Vertical link bolt
- Rear end mounting bolts are 129 ft/lbs

- Fill the differential (don't forget Ford Friction modifier)
- Don't forget the vent tube / hose

- Clean the threads / replace the (6) driveshaft to pinion bolts. Reinstall into the the two retaining clips (3 bolts per clip). Use blue loctite. Car in GEAR when installing 3, neural move driveshaft with hand to line up last 3, then back in gear.

- Torque to 41 ft/lbs in star pattern (like lug nuts) I had my son in the car for this step. Told him NEUTRAL, torqued one, had him shift to neutral, spun shaft, in gear, torque bolt - rinse repeat until all our torqued. Keep your helper in the car for the next step
- Tell them to hold the brake
- Tighten axle nut to 98 ft/lbs then add 45 degrees - Repeat on the other axle
- Install exhaust
- Install rear wheels
- Get off stands

ENJOY