September journal

9/2-9/4/00	Finished tidying up the brake lines, adding more insulated clamps here and there. Routed and secured the fuel supply and return lines. When I removed the stock Mustang fuel lines from the tank, I cut them several inches into the metal lines. To connect to the new lines, I simply cut the old ones, flared them, and used high pressure fuel line and two clamps to secure. This allowed me to re-use the stock Mustang fuel line quick-connectors. Installed the "U" shaped panel that ties the sides of both footboxes to the firewall and sides of the transmission tunnel. Some builders have had to do a considerable amount of trimming on this piece, but with a little finesse, a chunk of 2x4, and some carefully chosen words, I was able to get it in with no trimming. Fits great once everything is in place. Kevin Moses stopped by to help me for a little while. He has an FFR on order and is due to pick it up in a couple weeks!! Gosh, I remember that wait oh so well. We installed the upper trunk floor aluminum. This particular piece is a bear to put in place, so it was nice to have an extra pair of hands. We drilled the lower floor, but decided not to mount it until the wiring is done. I secured the negative battery cable and ran positive battery cable up through the transmission tunnel, under the footbox to the starter solenoid (under master cylinder). I also installed a battery disconnect switch through the rear bulkhead, between the seats. Looks cool, adds a nice safety feature, and can be used for theft prevention. I ran the battery cables up through the upper trunk floor to get to the switch. I drilled 3/4" holes and used Toyota PCV valve grommets (3/8" I.D.) to protect the battery cable. You can find the grommets in the "HELP" parts section of most any auto parts store.
9/9-9/15/00	Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned................. Spent the entire week cleaning and painting the engine and transmission. I highly recommend Castrol Superclean for removing 12 years of caked on oil, grease, and road grime! I installed new gaskets in the engine and a new tail-shaft seal in the transmission. The donor had a Centerforce dual friction clutch, but the flywheel and pressure plate were both badly blued and heat checked. I decided to replace them both. Both new pieces are Ford Motorsports parts from Fortes Parts. Also installed a new pilot bearing and throwout bearing. One of my pet peeves regarding these cars is the fact that the sidepipes move around when the engine rocks under hard acceleration. I elected to use Moroso solid motor mounts to counter this. They may transmit a little more vibration to the chassis, but several other builders have used them with great success.
9/16/00	Big step today!!! Buttoned up the engine and transmission and dropped them in place! Perfect fit on the FFR mounts, and took me all of 5 minutes by myself to lower them into place as a unit. Almost too anti-climactic!
9/17/00	Took the family to Virginia International Raceway (VIR) to watch the FFR spec-racers. These are relatively low budget Cobra kit cars that use bone-stock drivetrains and run on roadcourses. FFR had a big tent set up and provided a catered lunch. It was awesome getting to meet so many FFR owners and future owners. What a great group of people. We got to see many beautiful cars too. Check out some snapshots here.
9/18-9/22/00	Bolted up the FFR four-into-four headers. Big OOPS!!! The driver side header runs smack through the middle of my brake proportioning valve and brake lines. Crap! The brake lines were perfect too. Luckily I had left a little service loop at the ends of the lines and was able to move the proportioning valve forward 2" and re-route the brake lines around the header. The FFR headers use VERY large diameter primary tubes for a 5.0 engine. That, combined with the tight confines of the footboxes make for some tight bends on the last tubes. I found it impossible to get all the header bolts started. Also, I could not get a wrench on most of the bolts!! My solution was to use a big hammer and a 3/4" piece of bar stock to dimple the primary tubes enough to get a closed end wrench on all but one of the 16 bolts. During this "re-engineering" I found a 3/16" hole in one of FFR's welds!!! Not cool for a $480 set of headers. It took me about 2.5 minutes to weld it up good as new. The other modification that I HIGHLY recommend to anybody using these headers is to drill out all the mounting holes to 7/16". This step makes it pretty easy to get all the bolts started, and allows a wee bit of adjustability for aligning the sidepipes.
9/23-9/24/00	Not much to report this weekend. My buddy Ron and I spent most of the weekend installing a KILLER stereo system in OL'YELR (my other project). Alpine CD head unit, Alpine 4x75W,1x180W amp, (2) JL Audio 10" subs, and (2) Infinity Kappa Series 6.5" three way door speakers. The sound quality is incredible. Most definitely the best system I've ever owned. Thanks Ron! Sunday afternoon, I finally got a little work done. I cut a BIG hole in the firewall to install a small heater from Tri-States Motorsports. It's a simple, cheap, compact little two speed heater. Should help to keep the chill off on those spring and fall days that are my favorite time of year.
9/25-9/29/00	Cleaned and painted headers and bolted them in permanently (hopefully). They look good. Painted them with flat black barbecue grill paint at the recommendation of many people. We'll see how it holds up. Cleaned and painted radiator and shroud. Installed FFR-supplied 16" electric fan into radiator shroud. Installed radiator into chassis. I'm reworking the Tri-States heater to allow me to duct the air wherever I want. I welded up the flapper door on the two sides. I'll also weld up the 2" holes on either side. Finally, I'll cut two 2" holes closer to the edge of the box, toward the passenger compartment. I'll weld a couple short pieces of 2" tubing and clamp 2" duct to them. My idea is to let the front flapper door distribute heat to the passenger and then run one or both ducts to the driver side. I may use one for defrost. We'll see. More cleaning and painting of various engine components. I'm trying to get things at least thrown together enough so I can start this bad boy this weekend!!!
9/30-10/1/00	What a busy weekend. I literally spent the entire weekend in the garage working toward the big event -- first fire!! I got a lot of work done. I installed the radiator hoses and FFR-supplied aluminum hose extensions. Polished the alternator and thermostat housing. Painted the idler pulley bracket, alternator fan, alternator bracket, heater lines, intake, throttle body, egr spacer, and throttle bracket. Cleaned and installed injectors, fuel rails, heater lines, intake, throttle body, and EGR stuff. Installed throttle and clutch cables. Installed Cobra valve covers and intake plate. The FFR-recommended fuel line routing does not work well with the 4-into-4 header option. I re-bent the fuel lines from the original position in front of the footbox, and followed the 4" tube frame right up to where the factory fuel lines come off the block. Much cleaner and safer install this way. I also worked a little on the heater box. The 2" ports are added now. It just needs to be painted to be complete. I "draped" the wire harness over the chassis and plugged everything in for the purposes of first start-up. God, I can't believe how much wire is in a Mustang!! The main harness is as big as my wrist! After attaching several overlooked ground wires, and one or two missed connectors, I finally got the fuel pump to run, and the engine would crank over. It took several minutes of "cranking" before the first sounds of cylinders firing. FINALLY, it came alive with a mighty roar! This is one LOUD car. I know my neighbors will hate me even more now! I set the timing to help smooth it out a little and it runs great with the exception of running extremely rich. I think this is due to the fact that I've not yet installed the oxygen sensors and the computer is still running in "open-loop" mode. We'll see. What a weekend. This is one of the highpoints of the project! Now, the beast has a soul!