1998 Mustang GT Coupe - It's here, so let the fun begin
 

The good news - the car arrived today. :banana:

The bad news - the clutch is toast, the shocks/struts bounce around like a 70's model Lincoln, and it's slow as molasses. At least it was cheap. :jester: Seriously though, even though it's one of the least desirable modern Mustangs, the car is special to me.

I think I know what I want to do with the suspension and chassis bracing (MM Maximum Grip Package), and that's next on "the list". Brakes aren't as bad as I remembered from driving it back in July, but I already have Bullitt stuff to put on the front courtesy of Craigslist. Also have Hawk HPS pads and a set of Speedbleeders for the front and rear. I've already hit Coupe up for a clutch, aluminum flywheel, quadrant, cable, etc. :eric:

So, once I've recovered from all of THAT, here's what I'm wanting to do:
- Full exhaust (since the K member is coming out, it'll be "easy" to do long tubes)
- Aftermarket head unit w/ Bluetooth
- Upgrade speakers, add a small sub and amp
- 4.10s
- PI heads (if I get the guts, I may give porting them a shot) and intake, some sort of aftermarket cams
- What options do I have for tuning it myself? I don't mind datalogging and playing around with it (I dare say I might even enjoy it), but if it doesn't make sense money-wise on such a simple setup I'd consider just ordering a chip or having someone else tune it.
- Eventually I'd like some different wheels, a Cobra bumper, an S281 wing, and some kind of small cowl hood (Cervinis regular cowl or '95 R most likely).

It didn't get here until after dark, so I'll get some pictures soon. I need to clean it up first, too - it got FILTHY on the way here. Besides, it looks just like every other Mustang GT with chrome Cobra Rs. :jester:

Moates quarterhorse for tuning software and a good wideband is all thats needed!

SCT use to sell software for the self tuner. Can't remember what it was called though. Instead of doing the pi swap, what about throwing a turbo or kenne bell on it? :shrug:

:nice: :nice: on the cosmetic plan.

1) Money
2) Temptation to go too far with it and "snowball" into a 600 rwhp car that I don't want to drive to work. :D

The sct is the pro racers package

I was thinking a power adder would be cheaper than HCI
yeah, I could see that

Glad to see you back in the car game. Can't wait to see it

PI heads and cams can be found for $350 or so from what I've seen on Craigslist lately. The Bullitt intake will be pricey ($500+), but I may just go with a PI intake ($100-150) instead. If I end up doing aftermarket cams I'll try to find a used set. We'll see how it goes. I'll have my hands full getting the suspension stuff sorted out for a while anyway. :eric:

I'll check on the SCT stuff too. I know a couple guys down there.

:pics:

Oh, and :wave:

Damn..I sold my SCT Pro Racer software a year or so ago...dirt cheap too...lol

Cleaned the car up last night and discovered that what I thought was roasted clutch smell was most likely roasted rear bumper smell. The exhaust on the right side got pushed in far enough that the rear bumper caught on the end of the tail pipe, and the exhaust was roasting the bumper. Good thing I didn't drive it further than about 7-8 miles before I found it. :huh:

Other than that, it cleaned up OK. :jester: Body/paint-wise it's in good shape for a 15 year old car, honestly. Of course, the hood, bumper, and right fender were painted a few years ago after Mom ran off the road and hit a snow marker. :doh:

Hurry up Joseph.

http://www.streetstangs.net/showthread.php?t=18155

Haha, no way it'll be ready by then. I'll be shocked if the suspension stuff is done by March.

Fixed the clutch engagement issue. It was just way out of adjustment. Still going to replace it in the relatively near future, but for now at least it's driveable. :nice:

Also put a coat of wax on it. Paint is a little rough and has a lot of fine scratches/swirls. Quite a few chips and scratches. A few places that were touched up are yellowed and stand out pretty bad. It's a decent "20 foot" car, though. :D

Look, it really does exist. :D

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps7bd3b386.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps86308ce4.jpg

White always looks good cleaned up

Wow! It still has paint!

Is that original paint?

Other than the front end, yes.

I agree.

Project ODB?

Great looking car

As in Old Dirty Bastard? This isn't Lee's car. :slap: :jester: Or did you mean something off the wall like Oblong DingleBerry? Or Opinionated Dung Beetle?

I have jokingly call it Project White Power since it would appear I have a thing for white vehicles...my 4Runner is white, Ducati has white stripes and wheels. :doh:

Race ist

That car would do well at twiggs lmao

Or Phenix city :D

nice!!:chug:

There ain't nuthin' wrong with WHITE!!!!

that's an awesome stang there!!!!

Picked up more parts today. :banana:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...126_094022.jpg

May not use the cams. Probably going to go with something aftermarket.

Congrats! I was kind of wondering what made you pick that particular year to get back into Mustangs. But now that I read it was your Mom's, it makes sense.

Did you buy it from her or did she sell it and you tracked it down?

It was MY car first, then I traded it to her when I bought the Cobra. I kept her Thunderbird to daily drive and traded her F150 on the Cobra. She's had it since, and I bought it back. :nice:

Good deal! :chug:

um... not always. :hiding:

Looks really good, Joseph. Good to see it back in your possession.

I don't believe yours ever was white :jester:

Ouch! :(

:D

You never saw it after it was washed with a 1500 grit washcloth. :D

:rofl:

In all seriousness, I always thought the coupe looked a lot better white than it would look any other color with the paint in the same condition. With no factory clear coat, any other color would look pretty bad after 25 years and 300,000+ miles.

Sort of the same story with this one - it looks way better in pictures or from 10-20 feet away than it does up close. The white paint hides a lot of flaws. :yup: It isn't in "bad" shape by any means, though.

Very good point. Any other color would've made it a 200-foot car instead of a 100-foot car. :D

I'll keep my eyes open for cams on LR and the corral. :nice:

Thanks. :chug: Leaning toward CMS/Bullet stage 2s. I sent them an email to make sure they shouldn't have any PTV clearance issues, but I think they'll work OK. I've seen a few other guys running them. I would probably still be interested in some Comp Cams XE262AH's for the right price though.

I don't *think* you'll have PTV issues, but I'm pretty certain you'll need to beef up the valve springs.

I got an email back from them today. The clearance is fine with the stage 2s, and stage 2.5s will work with modified valves and no modifications to the pistons. May look into what it'd cost to do the valves too.

Friday evening Nathan and I start tearing into the GT. We worked until after 1 am, slept a few hours, got back up at 6 am, and started again. Now installed:

MM Panhard Bar
MM Rear Lower Control Arms
Rear springs
Bilstein shocks
MM front coil over conversion with Bilstein shocks and Hypercoil springs
MM Caster/Camber Plates

Still a pile of parts left to install, but I'm beat. The car drives dramatically different, and I can't wait to get the rest of it finished.

:pics:

MM Full Length SFCs and Torque Arm installed this week. The ride is stiff, but manageable. Getting the front end aligned and daily driving it like this for a little while, but I've still got several more things sitting in the garage. :D

Looks great! :D

Yeah, not bad considering the knuckle head I let work on it. :D

Very nice! I'm sure it feels like a totally different car! :nice:

Dropping a K member is not as bad as I expected. Once that's done, the exhaust manifolds weren't too bad either.

Putting the long tubes, MM K member, MM control arms, Bullitt brakes, and all of the supporting parts on might be a different story. We'll see. :D

You should be done by midnight

I'm probably not going to mess with it any more tonight. Can't finish this weekend anyway - I have to take the spindles to work and use the drill press to drill out one of the holes.

keep up the good work !:chug:

Spindles are drilled out and ready to go back on. :banana:

Anyone have any suggestions for getting out the 3 header studs that won't come out of the heads? I'm hesitant to put too much torque on them since the heads are aluminum...

Are the threads ok on the studs?

The exposed threads are fine. I assume the part that's in the head is OK too - they've been in there for 15 years and never removed as far as I know. I believe they're just seized up from being in there for so long.

You can spray some penetrating oil on em and let it sit over night. Just try and work the studs out slowly. Probably gonna break though

Well, when they break what is the best way to get them out?

4V swap.

LoL 4v swap is nice. Only way to get them out is to drill them out. I would leave them alone personally and just keep a check on them

:stupid:

:jester:

No money for that. If I was going to spend that much I'd spend it on a blower or turbo anyway.

Studs are out and one exhaust header is part of the way installed thanks to help from Coupe. :chug: Making progress, slowly but surely.

:nice:

Fought with it for over an hour tonight and got 3 more header bolts in. :banghead: I think I might've bitten off more than I can chew here.

In other news, the 2 toilets I worked on Monday and Tuesday are leaking all over the place, too. Wish I was capable of doing something ****ing right. :darwin:

3 in an hour, not really to bad for your first time lol

where are they leaking from?

tank to bowl.....bowl to floor.....water supply to tank?


:metal:

Tank to the floor. I fixed them today though.

As for the headers, driver's side is on now. Have to run a tap in the threads on 1 hole on the passenger's side, then we should be back in business.

I don't know that shorty headers would be any better... the angle of the heads and the confined space makes for a tough job either way. Run it without headers. LOL.

I did shorty headers...ONCE.

Now that I know the "trick" to get to each bolt (from putting them on and taking them back off 3 times), I believe I can get it finished up in a couple hours. I may try to finish them up tonight if I'm still motivated after doing yard work.

I've put on a couple of sets on 4.6 cars in the past, and yeah, it's like performing open heart surgery.


























On yourself.

That being said, the Lightnings aren't too bad with shorty headers. Put the front end on jackstands, yank the wheels and splash shields, and they come out through the fenders. With as many sets of header gaskets as I've blown, I have pulling the headers on one down to an art form. :D

Wanna put on one more set? :D

If I wasn't working 2 jobs right now, I'd be happy to help. :nice:

Good news: the headers are on.

Bad news: the threads stripped in one of the holes. :banghead: I'm just going to put it together and run it until mid-July. It has to be driveable when Mom is here July 4th-14th, then I'll start on the head/intake/cams.

Friend of the family came over today and insisted that he could helicoil the botched hole with the head still in the car. Pulled the header back off, fixed it, bolted the header back up, put a few other parts back in, and got the new K member in. It isn't squared up and ready to torque down yet, but we're making progress. :metal:

ya I also have a buggered hole on one of my exhaust manifolds....SOB!!! It's leaking slightly but enough to perhaps throw the tune off...we'll see once I get some of these 87 OTHER projects out of the way...

K member squared up and torqued down, motor back into the motor mounts, and the engine support beam is out of there. :banana: Dare I say it? I might actually get to drive it this weekend. :huh:

I think you might be the only one actually working on a project right now... many (including a couple of mine) are keeping dust off the floor and jackstands in the garages.

It's moving along pretty well compared to a lot of projects, but I've never undertaken anything like this so it feels like it's taken forever. I understand now how people lose interest in projects or at the very least lose motivation to work on them. Mine has been on jack stands for 3 1/2 weeks, and for a while there I just didn't want to screw with it anymore. If it weren't for you and a couple other friends, I'd have probably just given up and paid someone...or thrown in the towel completely and sold the parts.

I worked on mine last weekend :jester:

If anybody wants to cone finish welding this frame I've built I'd appreciate it. 14-16 hour workdays leave me little desire to weld anything at home.

It's the very reason I sold the turbo mustang stuff and bought a running driving car to enjoy... and even that damn thing has been on jackstands for weeks or months at a time lately. :tlash:

Well, it is a Dodge... :jester:

Dang....so is mine.

Nice! Gotta love progress....and family friends with expertise!! :jester:

Well, my "racecar" is finally off the jackstands. Took it for a test drive, and it has NO brakes. Hopefully I just didn't get them bled as well as I thought I did... :D

Lol racecars don't need brakes. Get you a parachute

I just yanked the e brake like I was in Tokyo Drift. Worked like a charm. :metal:

Almost as good as a $H!T handle? Haha, imagine your surprise with no brakes..

Ha! :dragon:

Got the brakes bled properly and took it for a drive through the subdivision. It feels much lighter on its feet with the new front suspension, and it rides way better than I expected. Going to need a tune soon. I don't think it likes the plenum, throttle body, and MAF swap. Or maybe it's the EGR delete. Either way, the throttle response seems a little sluggish.

Did you check the tps voltage when you swapped the throttle body?

You assume I own a voltmeter. :jester:

No, I didn't check it. It drives fine other than the sluggish throttle response and wanting to die when you come to a stop (sort of like the problem some of the '03 Cobras had).

Lol I can't remember the voltage but it will affect the throttle response some. It may be 0.98 volts iirc

Cleaned up and ready to take the trip to the alignment shop tomorrow. That's a glare on the window, not ugly ass mirrored window tint. :jester:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...psa3c673a0.jpg

Current mods:
MM K member
MM front control arms
MM front coil overs w/ Bilstein struts
MM spherical steering rack bushings
MM caster camber plates
New sway bar end links (don't remember what brand, part of the MM kit)
Bullitt front brakes
MM stainless front brake lines
MM solid steering shaft
MM oil filter relocation kit
MM full length subframe connectors
MM torque arm
MM panhard bar
MM rear lower control arms
Bilstein shocks
Hypercoil rear springs
K&N FIPK
Pro-M Mass Air
BBK 75mm throttle body
C&L intake plenum
MAC ProChamber
Flowmaster 2-chambers welded into stock catback

Still to be installed:
MM strut tower brace

Looking good!! and that is a lot of suspension and brake work you have accomplished, keep up the good job

Went to get it from the alignment shop yesterday, and it pulled pretty hard to the left. Took it back, and they said they'd get it right this morning. Might ride over at lunch to pick it up. With the SS lines properly bled, pushing the brake pedal is like stepping on a rock. :metal: Other than pulling to the left, it drives great. The steering has an extremely solid and sharp feel (thanks to a solid steering shaft and brand new steering rack). Can't wait to get it back and put some miles on it. :hyper: