MuscleTang mod project thread (1971 M-Mach 1)

[Vinnie]

Cool, I'm looking at the same kit for my car. Did you block off the cowl vent as they want you to do? Outside air only comes in through the side windows then, right? Any thoughts on this matter?

Cheers,

Vincent.

 

[tony-muscle]

Cool, I'm looking at the same kit for my car. Did you block off the cowl vent as they want you to do? Outside air only comes in through the side windows then, right? Any thoughts on this matter?

Cheers,

Vincent.

Yes. Unfortunately that's how it is designed. Definitely one of the drawbacks is that it only recirculates air. At least I still have the driver's side air inlet working since my car was original non-air.

 

[tony-muscle]

Another upgrade over the winter was the front suspension. I installed Mike Maier's MOD1 suspension with single adjustable JRI coilover shocks (https://mikemaierinc.com/products/64-73-mustang/front-suspension/64-73-mustang-mod-1-front-suspension-kit/). This suspension is awesome. The car is super responsive, rides nice and stays very flat when cornering. The strut rod and LCA are mounted to the chassis with bearings. You can feel the road a lot more but not to an excessively harsh point. Definitely a sporty/racy feel. The coilovers are great to adapt the ride height. I decided to lower the front end about 1" from what it was. The springs are located further outwards in the UCA than stock making them more effective. The UCAs are non-symmetrical to allow for more caster without pushing the wheel to far forward. I am now running a 5 degree caster. The sway bar is 1 1/8" from Hellwig. Overall, I am very happy with it. Installation was straight forward.

 

[timachone]

Wow, that looks very cool and interesting! Nice to hear your whole installation pay that much out and you have a great driver feeling and street response. Not only good looking but good driving. Fits more to your other mods on the car - great  :thumb:

 

[turtle5353]

Wow. Very nice looking equipment.  

 

[tony-muscle]

Next step is thread 200 tires so i can push the suspension even more. I will keep the Magnums but switch for AutoX.

 

[tony-muscle]

And I can't forget to post my custom made cross-brace, export and Monte Carlo bar. It is based on Mike Maier's for 70s Mustang (https://mikemaierinc.com/products/64-73-mustang/chassis/64-70-mustang-mod-shock-tower-brace/). I bought his DIY kit which comes with the shock tower pads and straight tubing. I had to redo the firewall brace, bend the tubing, modify the pads and weld. I still need to paint it. I will eventually post a separate thread with more details.

PS: don't spend too much time looking at the welds :whistling:

 

[tony-muscle]

A long time without updating this thread. I typically do the major work over the winter so I can enjoy the car late spring to early fall. This winter I did work on the heads including porting, which is another long story that soon I will sit down and write about. I did a lot of noise cancelling in the interior and doors, added a fuel pump relay to my EFI, fixed some rust on the rear fender and installed new spindles. I may forgetting some other minor tweaks but these took most of my nightly winter work.
So today I want to talk about replacing the spindle. I got spindles through Maier which in reality are the CSRP (https://www.discbrakeswap.com/) ones drilled for Wilwood brakes. Replacing spindles is kind of straight forward but I got stuck in removing one of the ball joints. On the driver's side I had some difficulty with the upper one but with the use of a jaw puller and some heat it came off. However, the lower on the passenger side was a chore. I broke three different tools and ended up making it work with a modified Autozone ball joint separator. I had to grind off so the jaws can open enough to fit the ball joint. This ordeal took three trips to the hardware store in a matter of few hours. In any case, it took a lot of modifying of the joint separator in combination with a lot of heat to get it loose. But at the end I won the battle. This happened a month ago but I thought it would be interesting to share my experience.

Here is the culprit ball joint:


The war zone. A lot of tools from my arsenal were used:


The three broken tools (two jaw puller from HF, two jaw puller made in USA from the local hardware store, Ball joint puller from Autozone) that didn't work:


And finally the winner. The ball joint separator from Autozone after grinding to allow for more jaw opening and to prevent it from sliding:


I won, for now..... here is the spindle, suspension and brakes all assembled.

 

[tony-muscle]

I wanted to share here a few pictures taken of my car at the last track and AutoX events I did.
Track or HSAX:



AutoX:

 

[timachone]

Thanks for the pics, your car looks really good on the track and seems fast! I can even almost hear its sound... Do you have a roll cage in it?

Steering all good now?

 

[tony-muscle]

Thanks for the pics, your car looks really good on the track and seems fast! I can even almost hear its sound... Do you have a roll cage in it?

Steering all good now?

The pictures make it look fast with very good panning from the photographer
I have no roll cage and all is good. Steering feels great!

 

[timachone]

Well done, Tony

 

[Mjordan]

Man that thing looks fast. Watched you autox last year at Carlisle. Making great improvements day by day. Awesome job.

 

[tony-muscle]

When at the track I am having some issues with fuel starvation after a few laps. I concluded that I have two issues going on. One is that the stock mechanical pump is not keeping up with the thirsty 408 engine at high RPMs, and the other is that since I have the stock fuel tank without baffles it is starving at the turns. For my EFI I use an electric sump pump with a small tank which allows me to still run during short starvation periods, but after a long time in the track it starts to empty out. The RobBMC sump pump is fed by the stock mechanical pump. I opted to upgrade the mechanical fuel pump to a RobBMC high volume pump. The process is straight forward but it takes a long time due to the cramped space. I also had to find the right combination of fittings to keep all looking neat and smooth. It comes very close to the oil filter but it clears it out. However, I am using TMeyer's nipple adpter with the Wix 51268 filter.
https://www.robbmcperformance.com/products/ford550.html

 

[tony-muscle]

Always working on the car. I don't do a good job posting in this thread. I have other threads talking about the fiberglass hood I am installing (https://7173mustangs.com/threads/installing-a-nasa-scoop-fiberglass-hood-w-functional-ram-air.41821/), the tow hooks (https://7173mustangs.com/threads/my-front-and-rear-tow-hooks-for-racing.41855/), etc.
I recently purchased a smaller battery, a 17 lbs Brielle, which saves me close to 30 lbs from the very front of the car. This battery needs to be trickle charged often. After one week of not use I was not able to start the car. Less than that would be okay.
I also installed a battery disconnect switch just in front of the battery. This is something I have been wanting to add for a long time. I installed it so if I use the standard sized batter it will still fit. I also changed the battery cables and the one to the starter with 1 ga. wires from Custom Battery Cables (https://www.custombatterycables.com/). For battery terminal I went with boat style terminal that have a threaded post.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Man I love the stories that go along with your threads. Keep 'em coming.

 

[droptop73]

Nice upgrades sir!!

 

[tony-muscle]

I thought it is time to start updating this thread. A lot of work has happened this winter.
-A lot of effort has gone on getting the fiberglass hood working with the RAM air, adjusted, painted, etc (https://7173mustangs.com/threads/installing-a-nasa-scoop-fiberglass-hood-w-functional-ram-air.41821/)
-Readjusted valves. Had to grind some material from the back of my Scorpion rockers to allow room for the 3/8" lifters.
-New wheel/tire combo for racing. Pictures to come. Basically 18x10 and 18x9 wheels for the rear and front. It was impossible to find a matching set of wheels with these dimensions and matching the specific offset I needed so I had to purchase non-matching pairs. They are very close looking but I was not going to spend $4,000 in custom wheels. The tires are Bridgestone RE-71RS 295/35R18 and 255/35R18. No feedback on them since I have not yet driven with them.
-Removed and redid the front camber pockets that were all damaged.
-Added more functional billet tie rod sleeves from CPP.
-Added a Mike Maier Panhard bar at the rear.
-Check and realigned all pulleys and accessories, including reinforcing my modified A/C idler bracket.
-Removed fan spacer and added some shims for a total of about 3/8 backing of the fan.
-Added parking brake light (https://7173mustangs.com/threads/parking-brake-switch.41220/page-2).
-Wrapped the header section near the steering gear.
-Added an Accusump with a trick panel switch (https://7173mustangs.com/threads/accusump-oil-pressure-accumulator.41491/)

Working on and planning to complete before the first race day:
-Undercar cover from spoiler to strut rod cross-member.
-Radiator to grill cover.
-Alignment work. Shooting for -1.5 deg camber and 6 deg caster.
-Exhaust work that involves extending collectors, replacing broken muffler, routing around the Panhard bar.

 

[tony-muscle]

Here are some pictures of the Panhard bar

 

[bishoppeak]

Why the Panhard bar with leaf springs?

 

[tony-muscle]

Why the Panhard bar with leaf springs?

The goal of the Panhard is to take the lateral (side-to-side) forces off the springs. When you corner hard your car could be moving 1+ inches side-to-side which creates the effect of rear steering and can send the car spinning with no warnings - I know this for a fact since it happened to me on track. With the Panhard bar in place it takes care of these lateral forces and deflection. In this sense when cornering you should have a better feel of the rear end and should be able to sense it before an oversteer situation happens. Also, without the Panhard bar the leaf springs are taking care of the dual role of springing and lateral member. This works perfectly fine for street use but it becomes more of a challenge once you start pushing the car around corners at high speeds.
https://mikemaierinc.com/products/64-73-mustang/rear-suspension/64-73-mustang-mod-panhard-rod/