NightParades' Shadow black ecoboost build****

[NightParade]

Hi Guys, i purchased my 2016 ecoboost s550 a few months back towards the beginning of June and have been doing some work on the car and felt like it would be a good time to share the progress so far. I winded up choosing the premium trim with performance pack in shadow black because i have been wanting a black car for a while a feel it looks really good on the new s550, also my last car was white so wanted a drastic change ;) Goals for the car are to make an overall well balanced vehicle including style, performance, and overall drive-ability. Its not my daily driver but will be mainly a street car that could be and will be used for many different motor sports as well, drag, time attack, drifting etc...

First a little background...
Im not really a big V8 guy sorry not meaning that in a negative way at all the new coyote motors are beast just not my cup of tea. Also never really have considered ever owning a mustang thats for sure haha, but that all changed though when i saw the new mustang ford had made and introduced it would be available with a smaller turbocharged engine. Wow a turbocharged rwd sports coupe with IRS and 6 speed transmission, that sounds pretty spectacular on paper and delivers in real life.

Over the past 15 years i have been involved in the motor sport of drifting in one way or another, and have built a few different cars and chassis which were all Nissan. I was in the market for a new car and after always working on and messing with 4cyl turbo motors seeing the new ecoboost option made me choose the stang. I have always been a loyal nissan enthusiast for many years due to mainly their cars from the late 90s and being involved in the japanese drift culture. I waited for them to release a new rwd turbocharged sports coupe for years but with no luck as they just have kept putting efforts into the Z chassis instead as their affordable sports coupe. I thought of purchasing a Toyota FR-S when they first came out into the market and as they are great cars it just lacked in power and was a little too small for me. So i find myself in the new mustang and for the past few months i have been loving the car. Most of my friends have come close to disowning me and i can understand why, i turned to the dark side literally! haha, but now i think they are starting to come around and see the potential of these cars and that they are absolutely different than any other mustang that has been available and why i have chosen it as my new car.

Id like to post a few pics of my other rides from before. I have been blessed by the good Lord with an automotive passion and the people and close friends i have met through it is one of the best parts as im sure many here can attest to as well in their own ways. I hope you guys enjoy and can join in on the build progress of my mustang as it takes shape, Thanks for looking!

97 red S14




















2006 350z











Latest car 95 s14 and all its different looks over past 4 years...






















Whew! that was a lot of pics, but actually its just a small glimpse. If you would like to see more from the white car please check out my Instagram [MENTION=24596]NightParade[/MENTION]

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[NightParade]

Now onto that Mustang !
Here is when i first picked the car up June 11th 2016 after negotiating price with the salesman i winded up paying 32,000 with free tint and was able to finance for 5 years at 0%. I was also trading in a 2011 nissan Titan pick up that i got 15k for so not bad at all imo.


First time in the driveway

I was impressed by the large 4 pot calipers and huge rotors.

Forgot to mention this isn't my first ecoboost, i also drive around an Escape that is my work issued vehicle haha so i had a little taste of ford turbo power previous to my car.


My Buddy had just picked up a new 2016 FR-S also in black about a week ahead of me, so he drove over to check out the new ride.



This was about a week after i had gotten the car and i think the last picture of it being stock haha.

Let the mods commence, first thing i did was purchase some cool rear diffuser fins another member on here (Dennis.P) was making, i liked the look and thought i would try them out. They just screw or bolt on to the PP rear bumper. I lined them up and measured then screwed on with some self tapping screws and carefully painted the button heads black on the screws.
Next was the anchor room headlight corner tinting film. I liked this because it got rid of the orange in the headlights. This was my first time doing any kind of tint film so i went with the lighter shade and it looks good but i think since i do have a black car i will be getting the complete blackout reflector tint soon to try and see how it looks.







My next thing was i test fitted some checkered floor mats from my old white 240sx into the S550 and to my surprise fit very well and kind of gave it extra cool points so decided not to sell them and keep em instead. These are from a company called d-max in Japan, they make suspension, aero parts, and accessories for several different cars.

 

[NightParade]

By this time a few other little cosmetic goodies started showing up from CJponyparts. Got home from work and started installing the following:
Ford performance blank rear deck panel
Diode Dynamics clear LED side marker rear lights
Diode Dynamics front switchback led turn signal bulbs
Rear LED backup light
Interior LED white light kit
GT350r shift knob
GT350r start button
Black pony for the front grille








Tried test fitting my TE37 18x9.5 +22 on the front but it wasn't going to happen since the holes on the wheels were 12mm and the mustang has 14mm studs :(

Next up was a little more exterior mods as I installed the RTR side and rear splitters. Also got some 25mm spacers at this time to give the car a little more aggressive look until the suspension was addressed.





Our All black crew is quickly forming, we actually have 7 black cars in our group which is called Essence Garage btw. Our car club/group was formed back in 2009 by me and a couple other close friends that i have met through drifting. We have a few newer younger members that have joined the ranks and trying to teach them the ways hahaha.


Engine work started to happen at this point as i installed:
Map CAI intake
Mishimoto chargepipes
Turbosmart BOV
3" Catless downpipe
MBRP race catback exhaust
Map street core intercooler
Denso 1 step colder plugs
Tune + wastegate actuator
Cobb access port with a tune by Adam Tune +
The car really came alive now as i did data log pulls over the course of about a week receiving e tune file updates from Adam. The sound of the car changed as well, i was super surprised and happy with the cool turbo noises that could now be hear along with a very nice exhaust tone that wasn't overbearing but deep and sporty. The car felt great and was what i knew it could be and saw the potential coming into focus.


















Completed 5 speed swap on my friend's 95 S14

Then we all went for a night drive through some nice twisties

 

[NightParade]

Now with momentum building i wanted to start on getting some suspension on the car. I turned to my buddies at Touge Factory in Illinois for some coilovers. They are the #1 distributor for Stance suspension in the US. Some might not be familiar with stance products but they make really nice stuff for many drift and road race cars. I have used stance coilovers on all my previous cars so got very excited when i saw they had offerings for the new s550 mustang. Ordered and received them a few days later, with a little special engraving on top just for kicks ;)






My buddy with the FR-S had just ordered a set of Stance coilovers for his car also, so we had a little install party at his garage.
First up was the Frs, they are so tiny haha.





Then it was my turn...




Finished product

Went way too low and was scraping exhaust all the way home on the freeway, looked sweet though but raised it up a little during the following week.






Before putting the coilovers on i forgot i did get the Steeda street fighter wing. Also i had changed the stock front fascia from the ecoboost to the GtPP lip spoiler so i could add the steeda front splitter to finish off the exterior aero.







Had to go back by the dealership i purchased my car from to pick up a refund check and saw they had this beauty in the showroom.



In the past 2 years or so a lot of stations that carry E85 have been popping up around town which is great. In my last car i was running full E85 fuel and really love the benefits it offers especially for turbo cars, more power, cooler temps and added protection. I started mixing 93 with E85 to get E30 fuel mix and had Adam send me a new tune for the mustang. Testing the E content at my local station closest to my house i was happy to see it was pure and actually E90, potent !

 

[NightParade]

Took my car to Mercedes dealership where my friend works. They had a super nice shop with an in ground alignment rack. Previously i installed SR performance adjustable toe arms and billet vertical links to get everything back into spec and help out with wheel hop.






Picked up a set of GT grilles from my local homie that upgraded to RTR grille set. I decided to cut the mesh out of the stock grilles and got some abs plastic honeycomb mesh off ebay and cut it out to fit behind the upper grille.


Applied adhesive and zipties to hold it in place. Let it cure over night.



Very pleased with the finished product




Goodbye grille shutters, sorry i can't keep you and have a clean looking install.


Left the lower grille open to show off the intercooler.




Helping the next generation of drifters out installing bolt in cage that came from my old car.

My friend with the FRS sporting his new wheels and tires and coming along nicely as well.


Next up i wanted to finish up the suspension with some bracing goodness.
Added the BMR front k member brace
BMR rear cradle subframe lockout kit
Steeda black poly diff bushings
These few things made a big difference and made the overall feel of the car much better and sharper feeling on turn in and launching the car has improved greatly with almost any wheel hop that was left now gone.

 

[NightParade]

Next thing i wanted to do was address the weight issues of the ecoboost. It comes in a few hundred lbs lighter than the GT and I've been able to shave some weight from the exhaust and other pieces that have been changed out, but needed to make a big dent in this girl. I looked to the interior since i know the stock premium heated/cooled seats are so dang heavy. So a friend of mine was interested in my old turbo setup from my previous car. He had some Corbeau FX1 wide seats that were just sitting around since his car is down getting an engine overhaul. I asked him about them and he winded up trading me the seats plus cash for my old turbo, score. I quickly ordered some corbeau seat rails with sliders along with rear seat delete panel from American Muscle.











The stock seats were about 60lbs each and 35 for the rear stuff with seatbelts, new seats were 28lbs each with rails so saved close to 100lbs total, wow!

The new seats are ohhhh sooo much more comfortable and sit a lot lower. The overall driving experience leveled up and i wouldn't even blink making a long trip in these seats.
Went out and drove around some and went to a few car meets.






More recently i swapped the map cai out for a mishimoto unit that i found used on the cheap. The map was great but just wanted to change it so everything was matching and a little more discreet looking under the hood. At the same time i replaced the stock coolant overflow tank with nice black mishi.



Fast forward to just this past week...
Some of the last pieces to the puzzle showed up, my wheels!








After studying countless wheel setups, different sizes, offsets, and tire sizes i decided on these Rays 57transcends in 19x10 +30 squared. I knew i wanted to run a square set up and thought of running 18s at first for weight savings but figured 19s look the best on these cars and didn't want the tire size to be to short with the 18s. I got these from a contact in Japan and they were ordered up straight from Rays wheels, i was told they were the last 4 in stock and very excited to be able and get my hands on them. I weighed them and they came out being way lighter than i thought at 22.6lbs a piece.

Next were tires, i went with the newer Nexan Nfera Sur 4 which is kind of a weird name haha. I got a good deal on them and have seen a few pro drifters running them with good results, even though i don't plan on drifting on them i know they are a good grippy 200 tread-ware tire so ordered up a set of 275 35 19s and got them mounted this past Friday night.





Got the cool carbon center caps yay!


Test fitting




So currently my car is on jackstands, i just installed a new speed factory front mount intercooler. The heat in Texas is too real this time of year and im getting ready for the next step of modifications which i should be updating in here some time this week ;) So for now i don't have any pics of the car back on the ground with the new wheels but will hopefully soon!

 

[cgreen5150]

That's some serious stuff going on there bud. Awesome! Looking forward to seeing it with the new tire and wheel set-up. Love what you've done so far!

 

[Rebellion]

WOW...those wheels are the loveliest I've seen! Cheers...

 

[NightParade]

That's some serious stuff going on there bud. Awesome! Looking forward to seeing it with the new tire and wheel set-up. Love what you've done so far!

WOW...those wheels are the loveliest I've seen! Cheers...

Thanks very much i appreciate it. Hope to have the car back on the ground shortly.

 

[Chris796]

Damn, awesome build!!

 

[e2blade]

Lit AF

 

[NightParade]

So i got home from work earlier and this happend...




Yup the reason my car has been on jackstands is because im in the process of swapping out the stock turbo.
Hey there little guy! :^)



A few weeks ago i made a trip out the Waco Tx from Houston which is a few hours away. I went and met up with another member from the forums (Scott Wilson) where he sold me his MAP turbo kit from his car. The kit was totally complete minus the actual turbo and he even threw in the MAP catback exhaust for a little extra denaro. Scott is a great guy and i really enjoyed meeting him and chatting with him about our mustangs and cars in general. He was one of the first people to run the Garrett Gtx2867r turbo with the map kit instead of the slower spooling journal bearing precision turbo that originally comes with the kit. This is the same turbo i was running on my previous built 2.0 liter sr20det motor and it was amazing. These turbos are great at making power and have really good transient response bettween shifts to come back into boost quickly which is good especially for a manual car. As i stated in one of my previous posts in this thread i had traded my old gtx turbo to my friend for the corbeaus plus some cash a little while back. So i went ahead and purchased a new Gtx2867r and awaiting its arrival. The tracking said in should have been here today but it didnt show up :^/ so hopefully tomorrow, but now im all ready for what should be pretty straight forward install so i can be back on the road soon!

 

[SoCalTim]

Sweet build, love what you've done so far. Those wheels are especially tasty...first time I've seen them on an S550!

 

[NightParade]

The turbo showed up yesterday, so pretty haha.



I started installing the lines and getting everything situated and noticed i didn't have a oil feed fitting that fit the line supplied with the kit, i had a -3 male fitting sitting around but needed -4an size. I got the turbo installed on the head and the coolant lines ran, and put the charge pipes/couplers back on along with installing the downpipe.






I just left the speed shop on the other side of town and they had the oil feed fitting i needed The opening is pretty large but that all they had with -4 size. The GTX turbos have a built in oil restrictor so should be no issues there. Now that i have what i needed im aiming to have everything finished up tonight, wish me luck!

 

[NightParade]

Hey guys, just a little update. I finished up installing the new turbo last Thursday night and it all went pretty smoothly once i had the right oil fitting. I've been driving around the past few days data logging and getting tune revisions from Adam. Its starting to feel very nice. Pulls way harder than stock turbo and all the way to redline, also boost builds super quick still.


My GT350 wheel came in also and i had to swap it over right away. The new wheel is buttery smooth and feels so comfy in your hands along with looking killer. Now the interior is all finished up.




Spent the past weekend hanging out with my buddies at our local drift event. It was a fun time even though i was just watching this time and not partaking in the action. It was nice to just be able to hang out without the stress of driving in the event even though i did have to make some repairs to my friends car after he hit a wall and blew his radiator haha. This was the first time being out in the day with the new wheel and tires on as well and got a few cool pictures. Super happy with how they turned out, couldn't ask for more ;^)

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