Another full day in the garage.
Items complete:
1. Fire suppression complete
2. Brakes bled
3. Clutch bled
4. Exhaust complete
5. Power steering filled and bled
6. Mocked up V2 of the center console. Will cut and bend on break for better final product.
7. Blocked all the holes in floor in the driver compartment with metal tape (heat and fire protection)
8. Sorted all the remaining nuts and bolts (there is ALLOT)
Things remaining:
1. Have to change the radiator. Bought an eBay aluminum one and the fit and finish is horrible. Replacing with a Mishimoto.
2. Fabricate and weld a oil cooler mount
3. Complete the center console and have it powder coated
4. Alignment and corner balance
5. Dyno check for NASA classing
6. Go over the car again with a torque wrench.
7. Installed ABS light isn't coming on - need to back research that and see what's up
8. Configure the Dash2Pro for my sensors and customize display to my liking
Got a few more hours of work done but got frustrated and feel like I took five steps backwards:
1. I realized that I wired the fuel pumps to run all the time. Bad move from a safety standpoint. Trying to re-wire them so that the ECU controls the power, but I still have them on a switch as well. Just got frustrated trying to figure out the wiring.
2. For some reason, the start button lights up when I put the kill switch on, but goes out when I turn the ignition on. Have not researched that any.
3. When I correctly wired the kill switch, the start button stopped working. Got frustrated and quit for the day before really thinking through why that happened.
4. I did get the CANBUS connection from the ECU to the DASH2PRO wired up.
5. I got the ECU mounted in the ECU compartment
6. Switched out the radiator from a poorly-fitting eBay one to a Mishimito product. Fits correctly now.
7. Mounted up the adjustable splitter mounts. I think they are going to need some reinforcement before a shakedown.
8. Treated all the grounds with NO-OX-ID.
Got all the punch list completed today and started a new punch list. This weekend we:
1. Re-wired the fuel pumps to return ECU control to them. I had wired them incorrectly previously.
2. Re-wired the excited wire on the alternator to get it working right.
3. Re-wired the ABS light after some research and now have a functioning ABS warning light in the dash
4. Installed splitter, bumper, hood, hood pins, diffuser.
5. Weighed her and took her for a drive around the block.
Have a little work to do with the cross-weights and ballast. Need to add about 200# for classing. This is with me in the car and about 1/4 tank of gas.
New punch list includes:
1. Fabricate radiator cowl to direct all bumper air to the radiator/oil cooler and out the hood
2. Re-check all fluids
3. Alignment
4. Repair steering column bushings (too much play)
5. Finish center console and mount kill switch, fire pull and fire nozzles in the new panel
6. Had to send the DASH2PRO back to Race Technology as it wasn't communicating with my laptop. Re-install upon return
7. Lower rear spring perches about 2". Rake is WAY off.
8. Mount headlight deletes more securely.
Tried to take her for an alignment at the shop that painted the car for me but it's too low to fit on their older alignment machine. BUT, while I was there, they buffed out the paint, correct a couple of scratches and washed it for me. .
Got the usual questions of "What will it do in the 1/4?" and "What's it's top speed?".
Looking good!
What headlight deletes are those? I like the integrated turn signal delete.
Funny story, I nearly bought this car in stock form back in 2012 or 2013. I knew the seller through a mutual acquaintance, and he ended up selling to one of his friends for a "V8 track car project". I then saw it come up for sale again locally last fall in the condition you bought it. Looks like it had a HARD 4-5 years but love where you've brought it to and given it new life!
I got them from S2R Composites. The quality is outstanding. I ordered mine in carbon fiber and it took longer than I thought it should to get them. I think he keep FRP ones in stock.
The guy I bought it from was a super nice guy. He started the project and i think his enthusiasm for completing it wained after he bought a C5 Z06. I stay in touch with him about the progress of the car.
Another few days of setbacks.
First, headed off to the dyno for my NASA classing pulls. Car was running rich but I figured it would be fine. After two pulls on the dyno, she was only making 265WHP, so we just quit. Decided to take the car home and look at it some more before getting the official dyno.
Got the car home and did some digging with no luck on finding the loss of power and rich condition. Looked at it so long, I ran the car out of gas. Once I put some fresh 93 octane in it, it woke up. Turns out, the gas in the tank was 18-24 months old. Duh.
Still working on bleeding the cooling system and few other punch list items before heading off on Sunday for a track day shakedown.
Also got an alignment this week.
Had a shakedown lapping day today at New Orleans Motorsport Park. Since my DASH2PRO is back in the UK for repairs, I was without any gauges so I would do two laps, come in, check everything over with the infrared and look for leaks, etc. Never pushed the car hard, but it was a successful shakedown.
Issues found:
(1) ABS is not working. Not a huge issue as I know how to diagnose it, but it is a tedious process.
(2) The splitter failed. I tried to make the splitter separate from the bumper but I need to engineer some sort of attachment to the front of the bumper. Easy fix.
(3) The oil dip stick wasn't seated or sealing. Fixed on site
(4) It was a very windy day. The wind caught my hood and flipped it back in paddock, cracking the windshield pretty bad and very slightly bending the hood. Nothing tragic, but a severe curse word moment.
Other than these small issues, the car performed very well in the conditions. The new spring rates feel as right as they could in this type of testing. The new steering rack is a major improvement over the previous one. No noises, no rubbing, no shakes or vibrations.
Obligatory pics.
Subscribed. Found this thread while looking for oil cooler mount ideas. I recognized a few tracks on that window RIP TWS
Got the dash finished up with a MKAH glovebox delete and custom center console, both powder coated satin black.
Had another shakedown track day at NOLA Motorsport park. This time everything went pretty darn good. Had a few issues still but overall the car is running great and turning well. The ABS is still an issue, but I believe I have it narrowed down to a wheel sensor. The car also needs another alignment as I had to change the steering rack out and messed up the previous alignment.
Headed to my fabricator tomorrow to re-engineer all the front aero, finish the driver's side window net, fabricate a radiator cowl and get the alignment right.
Obligatory track day pic
Looks great.
99 M3 STU/ GTS3 Project
This car has the best sounding straight 6 that I've ever heard. She'll be a real beast once you get her completely dialed in.
Thanks Felix. Felix's car is the yellow one in the pic above with mine.
Finished up the front splitter and radiator cowl today. Also fine tuned the alignment and installed a new set of rims/tires. Still have a few things left, the biggest of which is programming the DASH2PRO (it's kicking my ass).
Starting applying the vinyl today
So sick!
I saw you mention on FB that your are running 18’s, why those vs 17s? Tire you wanna run? Brake clearance?
I have 18s and 17s. The 18s are FL5s (shown) and I also have a set of ARC8 17X9 and a set of Breyton 17X9.
I have both so I can purchase take offs in multiple sizes to play on.
Picked it up today.
Outstanding! Looks and sounds very BA, with an engine to back it up.
Went to the dyno today and it sounded flat on the first pull. Did some diagnostics and found that cylinder one was cold. Swapped around coil pack and plugs to find that the spark plug in C1 was dead. Put a new plug in and the cylinder started getting hot, but not as hot as the rest. Looks like C1 and C2 are both about 150-200 degrees cooler than the rest. The dyno results also showed a rich condition across the board (11.5-12s).
I am thinking that the throttle bodies on C1 and C2 must have got out of sync during the install somehow. Will have to re-sync them and see if that clears up the rich condition.
I was expecting a peak HP reading north of 300 after the last dyno of 304WHP on the Mustang Dyno.
The good news is the lower HP puts me right in TT/ST4 without having to add any ballast. Latest dyno will be 247.5 average WHP with a race weight of 2900lbs.
I am not going to try and fix anything before this weekend's event. Going to send it. We have a summer break until September after this weekend and I plan to work through the tuning, the DASH2PRO and the ABS during that period.
Last edited by darbyfam; 05-15-2018 at 08:42 PM.
Follow up. This car was passed on to a new owner this weekend. Before it moved on, it received a MK60 ABS upgrade.
After the upgrade, the car still experienced ABS issues. Turned out to be the ABS ring on the passenger rear axle that was giving me the problems for the last year or so. Check your axles .
This thread can be closed.
damn. You worked hard on that car. Curious why you sold. New platform?
99 M3 STU/ GTS3 Project
It was time to move on. I have given up the racing game - sold my trailer as well. Going to stick with fun street cars.
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