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How far should we upgrade?

datadatum

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There is a reason my username is "oldbmwfan." The BMWs are old; not me! Best car I ever owned was an E28 535is (and yes, I had an E28 M5 too but the 535is was a better all-around car). Drove an E34 touring with an engine and manual trans swap for years; my wife cried the day I sold that one. Now down to an E36 race car and a 1600-2 ... oh and I accidentally bought an E39 M5 a few weeks ago. Oops. The E39 may be the last great BMW, and even it has its flaws.

There is also a reason I now own 2 Fords after 20+ years of nothing but BMW. Fiesta ST and GT350R are the best BMWs you can buy today.
LOL - I cross shopped the M3. Before I finished the test drives, the M3 was the car I thought I'd end up with. GT350 was just a more engaging drive.

Oh- and the E28 M5 is my all time favorite car. I almost bought one used in 1996 from a UAL executive who had a house inside the Chicago loop. It was perfect, but I decided $22k on a 8 y/o car was a stretch for a newly employed engineer...
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blueghost

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ust hoping to learn a little
I've been racing Fords since the early '60s and there is one common denominator that has held true through the decades -

"Money buys speed, how fast do you want to go?"

Grace and Peace,
 

CobraO

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@858GT350

I was at Hennessy's shop a few years ago when he was working on a few GT350s. They commented that they wouldn't run FI without first upgrading the internals. They must of gone away from that practice, I see the 850 kit is stock internals.

Which supercharger did they use on your car? Whipple? How long did the build take? I figure he must be doing some better business practices to still be operational. There must of been 25-30 cars there when I took the tour.
 

nastang87xx

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@858GT350

I was at Hennessy's shop a few years ago when he was working on a few GT350s. They commented that they wouldn't run FI without first upgrading the internals. They must of gone away from that practice, I see the 850 kit is stock internals.
Kinda sorta along these lines, I find it funny that if you ask someone "why won't the GT350 PISTONS AND RODS take boost?" The answer will always seem to be "because of the flat plane crank." How in the fawking hell does the crank configuration have anything to do with the strength and integrity of the piston and con rod combo...:headbang:

Current McLarens are ALL twin turbocharged. Every single one of them. And they run a *GASP!* fawking phlat playn kraynk as well for chrissake. :facepalm:
 

Kurac

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@858GT350
Which supercharger did they use on your car? Whipple? How long did the build take? I figure he must be doing some better business practices to still be operational. There must of been 25-30 cars there when I took the tour.
I’m also curious. OP, How long did your build take at Hennessy? Did he deliver within the allotted time frame?
 

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GrapeApe

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@858GT350

I was at Hennessy's shop a few years ago when he was working on a few GT350s. They commented that they wouldn't run FI without first upgrading the internals. They must of gone away from that practice, I see the 850 kit is stock internals.
His lead Ford calibrator is who put together my Whippled GT350. When we were making a plan of attack for the build his response to all my questions about supporting mods (Built motor, Clutch, Billet OPGs, Fuel Hat, bigger badder driveline, take my money for something shiny please.) was "Nope, don't need it"
 
OP
OP

858GT350

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I bought this directly from John Hennessey already built. So I didn’t have a wait time. I know a couple that have gone this route where they sent their car over and it seemed like a few months. That’s totally anecdotal on my part. Could have been shorter or longer. I’m neutral on Hennessey. Some good and some not so good. Can discuss in detail at a later time if there is interest.

The stats on my build is a 2.9L Whipple. The Hennessey teams markets the HPE 850 package for this as having a “fully forged bottom end.” That just sounds like stock to me. They keep the FPC. They did lower compression slightly. And I’m running about 8lbs of boost. The RW HP is just around 740 - 750 if I remember the last dyno correctly.

The tune is Lund Performance through DBR High Performance in TN. Hennessey, in my opinion, had too generic of a tune on the car and it was throwing codes. I had the tune re-done by DBR and Lund. No more codes. There is a little lag in it that DRIVE ME NUTS. I can’t figure if it is a tune issue or a bypass value issue. I ran tail of dragon recently...no lag at all. Get it home, some lag. Mind boggling annoying.

I don’t know what it is about the reliability that just puts me at an uneasy feeling. The oil consumption is higher than I’d like it to be. I am going to start tracking the amount of qts I’m going through to see how big the issue really is. I don’t think it’s as bad as some of the folks that have these cars and had to do full engine replacements. One guy was 2 qts per 500 miles. I’m not that bad I don’t think. But curious to what it’s going to be when I track it more closely.

Since my original post, I’ve moved on from the GTR. Too heavy. Too overpriced. For that money, the Turbo S is in range. And I do like that. This might be blasphemy here, but for the money, the ZL1 is serious bang for buck. I have been toying with the idea of the new 500 coming out. Curious as to what configurations they will have. Seems like it’ll be a drag car that can go on a track whereas the 350 is a track car that can kinda drag (but not great). I feel like the latter is better. Personal preference.

And btw...I love the car. When I ran it at the Foothills Pkwy and TOG, it just came to life. I felt one with the car. Sounds odd probably. On flip side, just want to trust the car. Someone asked “how fast” do I want it. It’s not how fast. It’s how responsive, how instant, and really importantly, how predictable I can get the car. I’m not a smart enough car guy to articulate what I want, but I think I can feel what I want and that’s how I can best characterize that. Suppose that’s a problem :). And of course, reliability w/in reason. As to why I’m doing this. Stressful job, honestly. Feel I need an outlet. The build sometimes takes my mind off of those things and now that I just turned 40, I need my midlife crisis directed somewhere and what better place than cars.

What I’m leaning towards doing thus far:

1. E85 conversion kit and flex tune.
2. McLeod Clutch to handle the increased torque and HP. Someone said the car may not need it. Maybe...I’m not sure. I don’t run the car very hard. Hit over 8K RPM once and have never launched it. It’s a 2016 with 7000 miles on it.
3. Carbon Fiber Drive Shaft
4. I have tech pack, so will put the cooling systems on the trans and rear dif.
5. Performance lower springs and torsion kit.

Sorry for long reply. Been out of country and wanted to answer the questions. VERY much appreciate the feedback. You all are so much farther along than I am. So it is very helpful and appreciated.

I do have instagram that I update every now and then.
Instagram: @858GT350
 

A_Bau3

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I bought this directly from John Hennessey already built. So I didn’t have a wait time. I know a couple that have gone this route where they sent their car over and it seemed like a few months. That’s totally anecdotal on my part. Could have been shorter or longer. I’m neutral on Hennessey. Some good and some not so good. Can discuss in detail at a later time if there is interest.

The stats on my build is a 2.9L Whipple. The Hennessey teams markets the HPE 850 package for this as having a “fully forged bottom end.” That just sounds like stock to me. They keep the FPC. They did lower compression slightly. And I’m running about 8lbs of boost. The RW HP is just around 740 - 750 if I remember the last dyno correctly.

The tune is Lund Performance through DBR High Performance in TN. Hennessey, in my opinion, had too generic of a tune on the car and it was throwing codes. I had the tune re-done by DBR and Lund. No more codes. There is a little lag in it that DRIVE ME NUTS. I can’t figure if it is a tune issue or a bypass value issue. I ran tail of dragon recently...no lag at all. Get it home, some lag. Mind boggling annoying.

I don’t know what it is about the reliability that just puts me at an uneasy feeling. The oil consumption is higher than I’d like it to be. I am going to start tracking the amount of qts I’m going through to see how big the issue really is. I don’t think it’s as bad as some of the folks that have these cars and had to do full engine replacements. One guy was 2 qts per 500 miles. I’m not that bad I don’t think. But curious to what it’s going to be when I track it more closely.

Since my original post, I’ve moved on from the GTR. Too heavy. Too overpriced. For that money, the Turbo S is in range. And I do like that. This might be blasphemy here, but for the money, the ZL1 is serious bang for buck. I have been toying with the idea of the new 500 coming out. Curious as to what configurations they will have. Seems like it’ll be a drag car that can go on a track whereas the 350 is a track car that can kinda drag (but not great). I feel like the latter is better. Personal preference.

And btw...I love the car. When I ran it at the Foothills Pkwy and TOG, it just came to life. I felt one with the car. Sounds odd probably. On flip side, just want to trust the car. Someone asked “how fast” do I want it. It’s not how fast. It’s how responsive, how instant, and really importantly, how predictable I can get the car. I’m not a smart enough car guy to articulate what I want, but I think I can feel what I want and that’s how I can best characterize that. Suppose that’s a problem :). And of course, reliability w/in reason. As to why I’m doing this. Stressful job, honestly. Feel I need an outlet. The build sometimes takes my mind off of those things and now that I just turned 40, I need my midlife crisis directed somewhere and what better place than cars.

What I’m leaning towards doing thus far:

1. E85 conversion kit and flex tune.
2. McLeod Clutch to handle the increased torque and HP. Someone said the car may not need it. Maybe...I’m not sure. I don’t run the car very hard. Hit over 8K RPM once and have never launched it. It’s a 2016 with 7000 miles on it.
3. Carbon Fiber Drive Shaft
4. I have tech pack, so will put the cooling systems on the trans and rear dif.
5. Performance lower springs and torsion kit.

Sorry for long reply. Been out of country and wanted to answer the questions. VERY much appreciate the feedback. You all are so much farther along than I am. So it is very helpful and appreciated.

I do have instagram that I update every now and then.
Instagram: @858GT350
Go with Mantic instead, frequent issues with McLeod on this tranny
 

Frank.Herbst

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Talked with a 2017 GT350 owner that installed a Hellion twin turbo setup. He has ~20k miles on his Shelby and loves the turbos. He drives it long distances and has tracked the car and did say stock tires require turning the boost way down do control tire spin coming off a corner. I think he said the system builds a max of 8 psi and maybe that is good for a stock engine including the high compression. Another interesting comment he had was his Shelby uses less oil with the turbo setup. Does this fall in line with what others have reported about less oil use under track conditions than driving around in easy mode?
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