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Log of living with my Turbo Mustang:

To get up to speed at how I arrived here please read the tech article pages.

Here I will attempt to keep a log of all the crap I go through with my car. Keep in mind that my car is cursed, so the stuff I have written and probably will write about is a worst case scenario. 

3-30-06: It has been a long time since I updated this page.  A lot has happened and I will summarize here.  The engine has continued to get more and more tired but I still entered the FFW in November in Phoenix and I won the DR class.  MM&FF just ran their coverage of the event and they put my info under a picture of the runner-ups car.  Here is a scan of the article. 

I have continued to have timing errors with the AEM system.  I have tried a custom crank trigger wheel and sensor and I converted the distributor to be a cam sync only.  On the dyno all was well but I still had misfires on the street.  So in January 2006 I towed the car to LA and dropped it off at AEM so they could look at it.  They were unable to reproduce a single timing error but they did find a lot of "noise" on my crank trigger sensor wire which made the car run like complete crap.  I picked the car up from them at the end of February and I immediately pulled the engine out because it was time to be refreshed.  I was tired of the oil smoke and I knew the engine was just tired since it was down about 50hp on the dyno.  Even with the tired engine I was still racing and beating hayabusas so I can't complain.

Most everything in the engine appears to be fine, bearing, rings etc.  However the pistons have been slapping around in the bores a bit so I have to buy new pistons.  The reason is because the shop that originally did my machine work in 2003 did a sloppy job on the bore.  Back in 03 I took my parts and block from them and I took it to the the new shop that built the engine (1st Performance).  They had to redo all of the machine work and at that time told me about the sloppy bore but I already had pistons and I didn't have time to wait another 2 months for custom pistons so the engine was put together with a sloppy bore, I am just happy it lasted this long and made good power.  Right now I am just waiting for the engine to be completed.  The new pistons were ordered in late February and they are here now so everything is going back together.

"To-Do" List for the engine rebuild. 
I thought someone might find this interesting, this is my to do list for shit to get done while the engine is being rebuilt.

Send turbo out to be checked and possibly rebuilt: Limit Engineering, ended up costing $400.
Get new gaugepanels designed and installed from www.gaugeplates.com  This is done and pics are in the pics section.
Take alternator to Genco for rebuild
Fix dipstick, possibly place it on the rear passenger side. (Lokar dipstick tube)
Fix bellhousing bolts from hitting oil pan.
Weld core support crack
Check Tranny
Check motor mounts (motor mounts were destroyed so I got some new stock ones from Muscle Motors)
Check heads (heads were ok, 2 holes needed a valve job, springs were ok.)
Fix threads on belt tensioner
Fix threads for dizzy bolt
Wire fan better so it isn't on max all the time.
Sell old cam
Sell old gauges
Clevitte H bearings
Sealed Power- Hellfire rings

6-22-05: The car has been back running for a few weeks now.  This 115 degree heat really kills the hp, oh well at least I can drive the car all year round.

4-7-05: The cost of horsepower: I just blew up 3rd gear in my new Tremec TKO900.  The McLeod twin disk clutch looks pretty well shot too, it has about 18 months or 10,000 miles on it.  I also mysteriously broke the dowel pin on my cam, only took a few days to figure out why the car wouldn't start, LMAO.  Luckily no valves were bent.  So far I have been unsuccesful at getting the Accel Dual Sync distributor to work properly with the AEM.  But Scott Armish at AEM is still working hard with me to get it all figured out.

3-1-05: I swapped out my MSD 6AL for the AEM CDI ignition box.  It wires in just as simply as the MSD unit.  It has quite a bit more firepower and I will probably be able to open up the gap on my plugs if I wish.

2-4-05: Now that I have a lot more miles on the TKO900 it shifts a lot better than my old TKO.  This past Sunday I placed 2nd in the Quick Street class at the Arizona Quickest Street Car Challenge: www.realstreetcars.com  The new tranny took the abuse just fine.  The car still runs fine although I am getting a lot of timing errors, which act like misfires, so I might be switching to a new type of distributor in hopes of curing that.  It also seems I have stretched out yet another clutch cable, this was an OEM 95 Ford unit, so I am pissed because those aren't cheap.

12-7-04: After blowing up my old standard TKO I installed a Modular Mustang Racing TKO900.  It shifts slightly better than my old one and it is holding the power just fine.  I also finished 4th in the FFW Drag Radial class in Phoenix in November.  It was my street car vs a bunch of really fast 8 second race cars.  I had fun even though I didn't stand a chance.

8-11-04: The car is still running good.  I had some weird misfires at idle which turned out to be a dirty injector or two.  I also added an article about all the wheels I have tried fitting on the car.

6-30-04: I just updated my software and firmware to AEM v1.11  The car now starts like a stock mustang.  No more long cranking.

6-15-04: Still no problems with the car.  I just had Mental Addiction Motorsports make a me a custom fan shroud, it is pretty bitchin!  I love driving the car.  I still can't say enough good things about the AEM, I love it.

5-12-04: Still driving the car to work quite a bit.  Although with gas prices shooting up it is driving me insane.  I am glad I have the Honda F4i motorcycle.  The car is making great power and it is a lot of fun on a day to day basis.  I pulled out my NGK -9 plugs after about 3000 miles and they looked good, a little dark from some blowby but other than that ok.  I swapped in some Iridium equivalents and the car is running just as good with them.  It is around 100^ during the day here now but the car never gets over 190 so I am happy.

4-21-04: I have been driving the car fairly regularly lately and haven't had any problems.  The car is lots of fun and it puts a smile on my face everytime I mash the throttle.  My AEM UEGO display gauge is working well and you can see the installation article by clicking on tech articles above.

2-9-04: Put about 500 miles on the car over the past 4 days.  I only had one problem, the power wire to my Mark VIII blew its inline fuse which was old and ugly.  It was cold out and the car got me home no problem.  I also got the 2 step and anti-lag all figured out.  I have posted the changes in the AEM installation document.

2-4-04: The car has been running ok for the past 2 months.  I hope it stays that way for the shootout in 2 weeks.  My powersteering pulley is out of alignment and I have thrown the belt a few times, that is frustrating.  I also tried out the AEM 2 step last night without much success.  But Scott Armish has already replied to my thread on the aem forums and I plan to try some new settings tonight.

Mental Addiction Motorsports also made an all new intake pipe for the car.  It is really nice, check the photos area for pics..

12-10-03: All through November I had the car tuned in pretty well and I planned on running Drag Radial at the Fun Ford Weekend.  I felt I had a really good shot at second place because I knew Steve Short would show up with his PSCA 8 second Mustang and other than that it would be wide open with a lot of slower cars.  So, 3 days before FFW Phoenix, I pulled out the 2 year old Spec 3 clutch which I pushed to the limit on the dyno.  It lasted right up to the advertising holding amount!  Based on Dave Norton at Spec's recommendation I purchased a Spec 3i from him rated for 850rwtq.  He told me to put 100 easy break in miles on it to get as many engagements on it as I could.  So I drove around all day on Thursday-Friday breaking it in.  Saturday I hop in the car and drive to Firebird with my helmet and firejacket.  I get through tech put in some C16 and pull up to the staging lanes for a test pass at 10psi of boost.  I do a weak-ass burnout and then notice the track lights flashing.  The starter backs us off the line because the track is having electrical problems.  After about 5 minutes we are good to go so I backup and do another burnout.  This time the tires don't really spin and I hear a thunk and the car dies.  I try to start it with the clutch depressed and the car is still lurching forward so I knew the clutch was locked up.  Some friends help me push start the car and I go down the return road.  Halfway down the return road I smell gas and the car dies.  Look behind me and I see a large trail of fuel.  I think that my fuel rail has lifted again.
So we get the car back to the pits on a tow truck and I start messing with the clutch and fuel rail.  To make a long story short I had the help of everybody I know at the track that day and we try everything with the clutch, new cable, adjusting the firewall adjuster, playing with the mounting points on the quadrant and nothing helps.  After a few hours I finally give up. 
As it turns out all I had to do was make a single qualifying pass at 1pm or 4pm and I would have won $50 in the drag radial class.  I also had a very good chance at taking second overall.  My friend Mike Byrd took second with an 11.90 car to Steve Short's 8 second DR monster.  I was glad to see a friend win the $800 in prize in contigency that I had planned on taking home.  Thanks to everyone who helped me that day!  I really appreciate it.
I spoke with Dave Norton at Spec the other day and he says he never told me the clutch only needed 100 miles and that all spec clutches require 300 miles.  He agrees to resurface my flywheel and pressure plate for free and inspect the clutch disk.  If there is something wrong with the disk he will fix it and I will pay his cost on it.  I also have to pay shipping back to spec. 
As of today I have ordered a McLeod twin disk setup.  I believe it will work awesome and have near stock pedal feel, the only problem is it costs a lot of money.  Hopefully I will be able to sell the reburbished brand new Spec clutch once Spec fixes it.  Once the car is back together I will head to the track and hopefully get some good numbers.

11-17-03: I have been really slacking with this page lately.  Hopefully the car will run good this coming weekend at the Fun Ford Weekend.  In the meantime you can check out the AEM Install and the Fuel System Install from the project car main area.

9-12-03:  The car is back together with all the new stuff and I drove it to work today.

1-27-03:  The car ran great for a while and never gave me any problems.  I ran it once at the track a few days after the dyno with 110 leaded gasoline and 15 pounds of boost.  On my first pass I decided to short shift it to get re-acquainted with the slicks.  I launched at 5,000 rpm with 0 boost and the car bogged so badly it almost died!!  Then the boost came on hard and I ran an 11.9 @ 121mph and I was kicked off the track for no rollbar.

A few weeks later I started noticing it felt down on power.  Then one night I went to add some racegas to up the boost to 15psi for the first time since the week after the dyno.  At 15psi the car felt nothing like it did after I had it tuned, so I knew something was wrong.  Around December 10th I did a leakdown test and cylinders 1-4 were perfect at 3-5%.  I can't test #6 and #7 because the turbo header is in the way but #8 was at 80% and #5 was 98%  We triple checked just to make sure I really had that much leakdown.  So that was pretty depressing, I really only got to experience 15 psi and 600hp for the few days following the dyno.  So the car sat until last week when we pulled the engine for inspection.
Inspection showed that the rings were all broken in #5-8 and the ring lands seems to have grown and the rings have shrunk, you can move the rings up and down in the ring land a LOT.  All of the pistons are in tact, some of them showed some hot spots and the bearings also showed some hot spots.  Apparently the stock style rings and pistons were unable to hold up to the extreme heat of the turbo, turbo header and all that hp.  Keep in mind this engine NEVER audibly detonated or pinged and I never ran over 9 psi without some type of 100 octane or 110 leaded gasoline mixed in.
At this point I was planning on letting the car sit for quite a while while I save up for a Dart based shortblock to handle anything I throw at it.  But now I am searching for a stock 302/306 to throw in there just to get the car running again, only this time it will never see more than 450rwhp and about 10psi.  Hopefully that will still be enough power to get my heavyweight in the 11.5 range.

11-13-02:  Ok, where do I start, lots of crap has happened.  If you follow the turbomustangs board then you know about most of it.  I re-ringed 3 cylinders, put in the new cam, heads, and intake and finally got the car running.  During the downtime the tweecer also took a dump and is no longer working so I am borrowing a friends EEC tuner.  Once it was running I was having the same boost problems as before.  So I changed the reference point for the wastegate from the turbo to the intake manifold.  Problem solved.  Picked up 100 rwhp too.  :)  At the same time I also had the flowmasters cut off and I put on the dynomax ultra flow catback.  I dyno'd it before and after the same day at the same boost level.  The muffler swap netted a gain of 25-30 rwhp and torque across the entire curve and it spooled a bit sooner too!!  The car makes peak boost at 3200 rpm and it holds all the way to redline in case you were wondering. 

I also had Mental Addiction Motorsports redo my intercooler piping from the IC to the throttle body.  They did 3" all the way up and it looks really nice.  With the better piping I think I picked up some boost.  I had to turn the controller down to lower the boost from when I dropped the car off.  I had some problems blowing IC hoses apart, but I found if the pipes are lined up straight and you get the clamps tight they won't blow.  They held 15psi on the dyno as you will see below.

From there I ran into a lot of strange problems with the car.  Click here for the thread.  I was also having problems with it smoking really badly under acceleration and decel.  Turns out I was blowing the dipstick tube from the block causing oil to spray the headers.  I installed a 98 Cobra electric smog pump and used it as a crankcase evac pump.  But I was still blowing the dipstick tube out and not only that but there was so much crankcase pressure it was preventing the turbo oil drain line from draining into the oil pan.  So I swapped it back to a breather on the valve cover and the problem is solved, although I am still blowing the dipstick out so I believe I am getting a lot of blowby on this engine.  I think the best solution for relieve crankcase pressure is a mechanical pump, but that setup is more costly.  The car made 400rwhp and 440rwtq on the dyno last weekend on 9 psi and pump gas.  On race gas and 15 psi it made 525rwhp and 600rwtq.  Not bad for stock block, stock rails and stock lines.  The car was tuned in by Jerry at www.fordchip.com  I can not say enough about how great of a tuner he is.  The car is 100x better than before.  It is smoother, drives better and starts easier.  The AF ratio is also much more solid and predictable.  Now I can finally get rid of the piggyback tuners that were causing all of the problems from the thread above.

So as of right now I am very happy with the car.  I just hope it doesn't break.  So far living with the turbo hasn't been too bad, it is just regular car crap that has been giving me fits.  Spark plug changes on the driver's side are more of a PITA.  But if you have swivel sockets and a swivel head ratchet it goes by very quickly.  The car still runs nice and cool thanks to the Mark VIII fan.  The car is still my only car and it did strand me a few times thanks to that POS EEC tuner.  It is very cool to be able to gain 125rwhp by turning a little plastic knob.  You can also pull the turbo off and swap turbos in under an hour.  It is really easy, just 8 bolts and 2 hose clamps and you are done.

9-5-02:  My last entry on the Cartech install page was 6-17-02, I was pretty sure I had damaged something in the engine and I was still trying to figure out why the car was detonating at low boost and low timing.  Since then the following has occured.  I figured out that my 306 is zero deck, so instead of 9.25:1 compression I have about 9.8:1.  So that is part of the problem.  I also did a leakdown and compression test.  #5 was down on compression and also had 40% leakdown while all others were 3-6%.  The air on the poor leakdown cylinder was also coming out of the exhaust pipe, so I figured it was just a bent valve.  At this point I decided to order some heads with a large combustion chamber to lower my compression ratio.   I wanted to get some AFR185's but they just don't have the combustion chamber size I need.  So I ordered the TFS heads from Total Engine Airflow with their 185cc CNC port work.  This gives me a 67cc chamber and it will lower my compression to about 9.0:1.  I also ordered a custom turbo cam from Cam Motion because a lot of people felt my problems were partly due to the TFS Stage I cam I was using.  This new cam is much smaller than the TFS cam, in fact it isn't much bigger than stock.

So I tore my old AFR heads off and sure enough I found a bent exhaust valve.  That is good news, at least the piston and rings are ok... Right?  So I waited 6 weeks for the new heads and bolted them on about 10 days ago.  I immediately did another leakdown test right after torquing the heads down.  Shit, I still have 20% leakdown.  An improvement but not good enough.  Now I think I have broken a ring or something because all the air is going into the crankcase and that would help explain how I bent an exhaust valve with that tiny TFS cam.  I could just put it back together as is, but I don't want to risk that with a broken ring in there.

A week ago I also bought a house so I have been really busy with that.  This weekend I plan on towing the car to the house from my condo and pulling the engine.  At that point I hope to re-ring #5 and throw this stupid thing back together so I can have my own ride to work!  Yes, this POS car is still my only means of tranportation.  :-(