TicTocTach's 2018 EB Premium PP "Build" Thread

[TicTocTach]

That's pretty funny, I bought this car after searching nationwide on Cars.com and through Ford's website looking for the A10/EBPP/MR/Safe-Smart unicorn and finding like two in the nation. This one, and a Lightning Blue one in the Seattle area after I ditched the color restriction. This one really had more options than I needed (digital dash, Shaker, security, premium leather), but it was available way ahead of the order I was about to make. It was someone else's ordered car, but they backed out before it was delivered - hopefully not yours...

I'm in the mid-cities area just west of DFW airport, but I get over your way from time to time. I'll holler at you next time I'm out that way.

Update on my "build" - I went in to Discount Tire today to get my Pirelli's balanced for running around in the hot weather, but ended up trading them in for credit towards some dedicated autoX tires. Some Bridgestone RE-71R's are on the way and I'll run them on the EBPP wheels if/when I make it out to an autoX again. One step closer to the goal and no more guilt about having "extra" tires sitting around...

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[lostlocalhost]

1FA6P8TH3J5239703 look familiar?
if so, then you have my one that got away.

 

[TicTocTach]

I promise I’ve been treating her well...

 

[Cardude99]

That's pretty funny, I bought this car after searching nationwide on Cars.com and through Ford's website looking for the A10/EBPP/MR/Safe-Smart unicorn and finding like two in the nation. This one, and a Lightning Blue one in the Seattle area after I ditched the color restriction. This one really had more options than I needed (digital dash, Shaker, security, premium leather), but it was available way ahead of the order I was about to make. It was someone else's ordered car, but they backed out before it was delivered - hopefully not yours...

I'm in the mid-cities area just west of DFW airport, but I get over your way from time to time. I'll holler at you next time I'm out that way.

Update on my "build" - I went in to Discount Tire today to get my Pirelli's balanced for running around in the hot weather, but ended up trading them in for credit towards some dedicated autoX tires. Some Bridgestone RE-71R's are on the way and I'll run them on the EBPP wheels if/when I make it out to an autoX again. One step closer to the goal and no more guilt about having "extra" tires sitting around...

Wait discount let's you trade in tires? Wtf seriously?

Btw congrats on the re71's. I'm a little jealous.

 

[TicTocTach]

Wait discount let's you trade in tires? Wtf seriously?

Btw congrats on the re71's. I'm a little jealous.

I knew that they sold some used tires and figured I'd ask - they offered $50-ish per tire for the OE PZero's that have like 5K miles on them before i swapped them out for the Cooper all-seasons. I took that, plus a $70 rebate on all Bridgestones going on until May 18. Mounted, balanced, tax, out the door for around $1200. Ouch. But less ouch than $319/ea and then all the fees... Could have gotten more on CL, but then I'd have to deal with CL people...

 

[lostlocalhost]

I promise I’ve been treating her well...

...wow.

 

[TicTocTach]

Wait discount let's you trade in tires? Wtf seriously?

Btw congrats on the re71's. I'm a little jealous.

Last Saturday I was able to get down to Discount Tire to get the new tires installed - right before I was out of town on work for a week... They look like a proper stack of tires sitting there waiting to be installed:

RE-71R Summer AutoX Tires by clair_davis, on Flickr

Of course it also started to rain a bit while I was waiting, so I was not very excited to drive fresh autoX tires home on wet roads. They behaved fine for the 2 mile trip. The 275/35 fits the 9" EBPP wheel pretty well - could perhaps use a smidge more width, but 9" was the smallest of the recommended wheel widths per the Bridgestone site. No bulge to speak of, but the sidewalls weren't as straight as the 285's I have on 10" wheels.

RE-71R Summer AutoX Tires by clair_davis, on Flickr

RE-71R Summer AutoX Tires by clair_davis, on Flickr

I gotta say, these tires are like none I've ever driven on before. Steering response is DRAMATICALLY improved. Turn the wheel and the car starts to move. These sidewalls are really stiff so there's none of this "take a set then turn" stuff going on that even the Pirelli's had. This performance comes at a price though... ride is noticeably more harsh now in every drive mode, and the tires are noisy. In-town speeds you can clearly hear a wowowowowowo sound on concrete streets. At highway speeds it's more of a constant hum that is still quite noticeable. And then there are the tar patches used to seal cracks... these sound for all the world like packing tape being peeled off the roll. I had read a review that stated the same thing and I thought that was a little extreme - until I heard it for myself. Wow, these are sticky tires. Is it a problem? Not really, unless you're bound and determined to daily drive these tires. That's not my plan, so no biggie. I drove them down to my folk's place and back on Sunday with no issues other than the noise. They're now stored in the corner waiting on my first autoX in about 12 years, and the Coopers/GT-7's are back on the car again.

 

[BmacIL]

Last Saturday I was able to get down to Discount Tire to get the new tires installed - right before I was out of town on work for a week... They look like a proper stack of tires sitting there waiting to be installed:

RE-71R Summer AutoX Tires by clair_davis, on Flickr

Of course it also started to rain a bit while I was waiting, so I was not very excited to drive fresh autoX tires home on wet roads. They behaved fine for the 2 mile trip. The 275/35 fits the 9" EBPP wheel pretty well - could perhaps use a smidge more width, but 9" was the smallest of the recommended wheel widths per the Bridgestone site. No bulge to speak of, but the sidewalls weren't as straight as the 285's I have on 10" wheels.

RE-71R Summer AutoX Tires by clair_davis, on Flickr

RE-71R Summer AutoX Tires by clair_davis, on Flickr

I gotta say, these tires are like none I've ever driven on before. Steering response is DRAMATICALLY improved. Turn the wheel and the car starts to move. These sidewalls are really stiff so there's none of this "take a set then turn" stuff going on that even the Pirelli's had. This performance comes at a price though... ride is noticeably more harsh now in every drive mode, and the tires are noisy. In-town speeds you can clearly hear a wowowowowowo sound on concrete streets. At highway speeds it's more of a constant hum that is still quite noticeable. And then there are the tar patches used to seal cracks... these sound for all the world like packing tape being peeled off the roll. I had read a review that stated the same thing and I thought that was a little extreme - until I heard it for myself. Wow, these are sticky tires. Is it a problem? Not really, unless you're bound and determined to daily drive these tires. That's not my plan, so no biggie. I drove them down to my folk's place and back on Sunday with no issues other than the noise. They're now stored in the corner waiting on my first autoX in about 12 years, and the Coopers/GT-7's are back on the car again.

RE71Rs are the bees knees!

@Bluemustang

 

[Bluemustang]

I HAVE to try these RE71Rs! It sounds amazing.

 

[Cardude99]

It's good to know that the 275's fit the Eco pp wheels. I may pick up a set in the future when funds allow. Beats having to buy more wheels lol. Did u hook up the tpms to them also or no? What camber r u running?

 

[TicTocTach]

It's good to know that the 275's fit the Eco pp wheels. I may pick up a set in the future when funds allow. Beats having to buy more wheels lol. Did u hook up the tpms to them also or no? What camber r u running?

The OEM TPMS are still in the wheels, they just did the rebuild kit thing that they seem to do with all TPMS wheels. Camber is just as she left Flatrock 17 months ago... I really need to get her on an alignment rack to see what I have and get a smidge more performance oriented alignment on the old girl.

 

[TicTocTach]

Working towards eliminating anything that could leave any performance on the table, I changed my spark plugs out for some NGK Iridium IX units that are one heat range cooler than OEM. PN LTR7IX-11 / 6510 are the ones that I saw most frequently here when I searched. I went with the Tune+ recommended gap of 0.0275" (snug 0.028"), which appears to be the lower end of the gap range shown in the owner's manual. All of the plugs I removed were right around 0.032", or the upper end of the range. The NGK's came gapped at about 0.040", so some adjustment was needed.

Spark plug change by clair_davis, on Flickr

The install wasn't bad, my biggest concern was being able to remove the engine cover without moving the strut tower brace - it works fine if you hold your mouth just right. At worst, you might have to remove the oil filler cap and dipstick, but it wasn't an issue for me.

Spark plug change by clair_davis, on Flickr

There was a ton of dust and sand under the engine cover, so I vacuumed up everything that I could get to, including the spark plug wells. Fortunately they were squeaky clean:

Spark plug change by clair_davis, on Flickr

The plugs on either side of the strut tower brace are the hardest to get to, but a short extension with a wobble end does the trick.

Spark plug change by clair_davis, on Flickr

All of the plugs that came out looked OK, I guess as you'd expect for a 12K mile engine. Now we'll see how they do long term.

OEM Plugs Cylinders 1-4 Right to Left by clair_davis, on Flickr

 

[TicTocTach]

I started a thread in the EB Performance Upgrades section to track changes specific to power output.

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/2018-ebpp-upgrades-a-slow-read.127413/

First installment was a trip to the local chassis dyno:

First and last runs were in 7th gear, or 1:1 in the A10. The middle test was in 6th, and also about a minute after the first run, so hotter than hell. Density altitude was also miserable at nearly 4100 feet... actual was around 600.

Results
Best WHP = 261 @ 5000
Best WTQ = 311 @ 3700

The test is a little unusual because the pulls really start around 3500 rpm, so I’ll have to consider that as I install upgrades. Road speeds started around 65mph and ended about 145mph.

So that’s the start. Will take me a while to make progress the way my work schedule has been, but I had to start somewhere.

Thanks for reading along, and more to follow...

 

[TicTocTach]

Holy crap, it's been almost a year since I updated my "build" thread. I'm not a lot faster in real life, but getting some things done. COVID has slowed down the driving a bunch, but working from home saved me the time I used to waste on my commute. Let's see if I can recall what I've done since the last update:

1) Installed red-stitch emergency brake handle boot in September 2019
2) Installed an ATM intercooler in December 2019
3) Installed FP Tune in May 2020
4) Made / installed Terlingua Racing Team tribute badge and FP trunk trim in May 2020
5) Installed GT350R wheel bearings with long wheel studs in July 2020
6) Re-installed summer / autoX tires in July 2020

So, I've gotten some stuff done and I'll add photos to those as soon as I can. Next on the to-do list is the UPR catch can that I'll hopefully install in the next few weeks. That's probably going to max out most of the mechanical changes I need to make before finishing out the 19x11 upgrade. That's going to take wheel spacers and as much camber as I can muster up front - hopefully I can get there with the service bolts I bought for the struts. If not, I'll have to go with plates to get that last bit of camber I need to tuck everything under the fenders. Fingers crossed.

 

[TicTocTach]

Here's the red stitch E-brake boot dropped in next to the original - pre-install. You get the picture... but I haven't actually TAKEN a picture of the installed piece yet. The texture of the boot matches the console better, but the leather is a little stiffer than stock so you have to be careful when you install to make sure the brake handle will go all the way down.

E-Brake Boot by clair_davis, on Flickr

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