So i rarely have driven this car, most of the time it's just around the block and home. This time my 6 year old was giving me a hand (in a bathing suit only), goes inside comes out fully dressed for a test drive (a drive i did not plan on). But in the interest in undoing the injustice i've done to my kids by not taking them out in the car, i did it anyway.
Turned out to be a good thing. I work on a lot of projects, but do little to no driving. There isn't a good reason for it other than i'm unhappy with something, which may just be the way it is. When i was a kid i was ok with the dumbest work, now i obsess over things that will never be perfect.
I've made quite a few changes over the last few years.
Replaced Koni fronts and qa1 rears with new bilsteins, honestly i just don't want to be bothered anymore with adjusting anything. Never really thought the qa1 lower bolt holes were tight enough around the bolts anyway.
Unfortunately it required new MM coil overs in the front (re-using my 275lb springs). This is did NOT know when i purchased the bilsteins.
Added the torque arm i was looking at for years in my garage including the necessary heavy duty torque arm springs, removed the quads.
The H&R sports i had before were definitely softer (i loved those springs). The torque arm looks like a pain to install (I chose to have a professional come to my house and weld it), but for the most part, it lines itself up. Some advice with this part, CHASE the threads on the end. I didn't (not that anyone or anything told me to) and when i put the bolt in it got jammed, forever... No amount of force would take it out
Turns out that there was slag in there and it wasn't chased from the factory. Even though it was old, i called MM, they knew the issue right away. Told me cut the arm in half (which i did) and they sent me a new one. Which is one of the reasons i buy from them.
MM bolt through tie rods. I may not have even needed these, i had a steeda set which i didn't think would adjust correctly but now i'm not sure. I removed the spindles and had my friend with a machine shop drill them out. I'd probably avoid this if possible. I still have the steeda tapered, so i can line them up and see if it were truly necessary.
I was running dual external GSS392 pumps with an in tank pick up, swapped that to a Holley 12-347 525lph pump. This piece is nicer and more solid than it looks in pics. Works well and is at least 50% quieter than the other two pumps. I have no idea how much power either supports, the gss392's are rated for 650hp each NA and supposedly the 12-347 is 1250hp NA.
Had my front wheels refurbed and new tires. Kuhmo V730 road race style tires. Now i have to put fender liners back in because these throw a lot of sand like drag radials.
Oddly a place by my house redoes the wheels and mounts and balances tires for $155 per wheel, i figured what they hell, some places charge $40 a tire just to do the tires. I switched the saleen center caps to ford ones, not sure how i feel, i may try a set of speedline center caps (these are speedline wheels). Added gorilla lug nuts, forgot what they are, but they are very small and unassuming. Key only. Tires are a 235/40/18. I lowered it about a 1/4 of an inch after this pic was taken.
I measured the fenders before and after the ride, the car did NOT drop at all. That's with quite a few new parts. So i think it's safe to get an alignment since it's way out of wack. It's surely higher than before because the X pipe no longer hits the cross bar on my lift necessitating wood planks on the ramps.
New speedo gear and sensor to get it to stop leaking. Used the LMR gear selector, but it's still off by about 5mph at 50mph. Might not be their fault, i have a saleen 170mph cluster, i did have brothers performance recalibrate it years ago, but i've never really trusted it.
Swapped out my 12:1 agr rack which was too light and fast for a car that drives this tail end happy. Used their 2000 cobra R spec rack. I feel like i went from too light to too heavy. I'll get the car aligned and see how i feel not doing it again this summer regardless.
Also fixed a hydroboost hose leak that has plagued me forever (just a tiny drip on the bottom of the rack). I love NOS parts, but when the O ring is not serviceable (it's a square block then right angle going into the rack), maybe it's better to not buy 3 original hoses that have been dry rotting for 20 years at twice the price. The eldermann $25 replacement part didn't fit as well, but doesn't leak, so...
Some driving notes. Car handled great, probably too great, what am i going to do, go around 30mph bends at 120mph?
You can feel the fact that there is almost no rubber to the rear anymore. It's not noisy per se, but you kinda just know it. The torque arm is obviously bolted to the rear and weld to the subs.
Car tracked extremely straight under full throttle with the tires loose. There was quite a bit of confidence that i wasn't going to land up in the other lane. Note that this engine easily breaks the tires loose without launching it hard.
Way less rattling and shaking sounds from the car in general. I'm guessing kilmat in the back helped, but i think i had a handful of parts moving more than i prefer.
No clearance issues period with the exhaust. My dynomax ultraflo catback, coupled with my 1996 cobra bassani x pipe cleared the torque arm and panhard bar with no modifications.
I also found the reach for the blinker stalk to be really far, i did a tilt column swap with a momo wheel years ago, i guess i just never paid attention to the reach.
I bought this car seat ( i need two, but wanted to try one first)
Amazon product ASIN B0BDRGTVV2
View: https://www.amazon.com/Graco-TurboBooster-Highback-Booster-Declan/dp/B0BDRGTVV2/ref=sxts_b2b_sx_reorder_acb_customer?content-id=amzn1.sym.44ecadb3-1930-4ae5-8e7f-c0670e7d86ce%3Aamzn1.sym.44ecadb3-1930-4ae5-8e7f-c0670e7d86ce&cv_ct_cx=graco+turbobooster&keywords=graco+turbobooster&pd_rd_i=B0BDRGTVV2&pd_rd_r=4cb4ee05-948c-4f5f-9632-e1e6d7844663&pd_rd_w=8djQ9&pd_rd_wg=Nipsd&pf_rd_p=44ecadb3-1930-4ae5-8e7f-c0670e7d86ce&pf_rd_r=DVQX4P5QW02NMD12TRB7&qid=1687221800&sr=1-1-62d64017-76a9-4f2a-8002-d7ec97456eea.
Fits easily. It's a bit tall, but a fox backseat is a kinda small, my 8 year old daughter appears to almost not even need one. But she'll be in one anyway, so i feel better.
There are some things i don't like.
My passenger side window rattles when it's down, anyone know the cause? It was driving me nuts. When it's up, it's fine. I have parts to redo the door panel, but nothing to do with the glass tracks. I like to take a part off and immediately fix it. So i'd rather order parts, then do all at once, even if it's more parts than i need.
My blaupunkt retro stereo is awesome, but i shut the battery off my car each time i park it. I've done this for the last 20 years. Not the end of the world to reprogram some stereos, but this one you need a degree for, i can't spend 10 minutes programming the stereo every time i drive the car. I don't know the solution here, other than put a whip out somewhere (in the back where the battery is) for a tender. My opinion is killing power to the car makes the battery last forever. My last battery went from like 07 to 2021. I just wish i could give the stereo a back up power, but my guess is that if i do, it will back feed the entire system draining the back up battery.
Is there a solution for this?
Also removed the gauges from my vents and install a smaller set below the stereo.
Note: Behind the tape deck door is usb and card slots.
I'm not much of a picture taking guy, if you want some pics of something so say and i'll take them.
The car exterior itself is filthy, i only cleaned the glass to drive it, lol.
I'm almost out of projects, i think this winter may be time for paint and serious pain to my wallet.
Turned out to be a good thing. I work on a lot of projects, but do little to no driving. There isn't a good reason for it other than i'm unhappy with something, which may just be the way it is. When i was a kid i was ok with the dumbest work, now i obsess over things that will never be perfect.
I've made quite a few changes over the last few years.
Replaced Koni fronts and qa1 rears with new bilsteins, honestly i just don't want to be bothered anymore with adjusting anything. Never really thought the qa1 lower bolt holes were tight enough around the bolts anyway.
Unfortunately it required new MM coil overs in the front (re-using my 275lb springs). This is did NOT know when i purchased the bilsteins.
Added the torque arm i was looking at for years in my garage including the necessary heavy duty torque arm springs, removed the quads.
The H&R sports i had before were definitely softer (i loved those springs). The torque arm looks like a pain to install (I chose to have a professional come to my house and weld it), but for the most part, it lines itself up. Some advice with this part, CHASE the threads on the end. I didn't (not that anyone or anything told me to) and when i put the bolt in it got jammed, forever... No amount of force would take it out
Turns out that there was slag in there and it wasn't chased from the factory. Even though it was old, i called MM, they knew the issue right away. Told me cut the arm in half (which i did) and they sent me a new one. Which is one of the reasons i buy from them.
MM bolt through tie rods. I may not have even needed these, i had a steeda set which i didn't think would adjust correctly but now i'm not sure. I removed the spindles and had my friend with a machine shop drill them out. I'd probably avoid this if possible. I still have the steeda tapered, so i can line them up and see if it were truly necessary.
I was running dual external GSS392 pumps with an in tank pick up, swapped that to a Holley 12-347 525lph pump. This piece is nicer and more solid than it looks in pics. Works well and is at least 50% quieter than the other two pumps. I have no idea how much power either supports, the gss392's are rated for 650hp each NA and supposedly the 12-347 is 1250hp NA.
Had my front wheels refurbed and new tires. Kuhmo V730 road race style tires. Now i have to put fender liners back in because these throw a lot of sand like drag radials.
Oddly a place by my house redoes the wheels and mounts and balances tires for $155 per wheel, i figured what they hell, some places charge $40 a tire just to do the tires. I switched the saleen center caps to ford ones, not sure how i feel, i may try a set of speedline center caps (these are speedline wheels). Added gorilla lug nuts, forgot what they are, but they are very small and unassuming. Key only. Tires are a 235/40/18. I lowered it about a 1/4 of an inch after this pic was taken.
I measured the fenders before and after the ride, the car did NOT drop at all. That's with quite a few new parts. So i think it's safe to get an alignment since it's way out of wack. It's surely higher than before because the X pipe no longer hits the cross bar on my lift necessitating wood planks on the ramps.
New speedo gear and sensor to get it to stop leaking. Used the LMR gear selector, but it's still off by about 5mph at 50mph. Might not be their fault, i have a saleen 170mph cluster, i did have brothers performance recalibrate it years ago, but i've never really trusted it.
Swapped out my 12:1 agr rack which was too light and fast for a car that drives this tail end happy. Used their 2000 cobra R spec rack. I feel like i went from too light to too heavy. I'll get the car aligned and see how i feel not doing it again this summer regardless.
Also fixed a hydroboost hose leak that has plagued me forever (just a tiny drip on the bottom of the rack). I love NOS parts, but when the O ring is not serviceable (it's a square block then right angle going into the rack), maybe it's better to not buy 3 original hoses that have been dry rotting for 20 years at twice the price. The eldermann $25 replacement part didn't fit as well, but doesn't leak, so...
Some driving notes. Car handled great, probably too great, what am i going to do, go around 30mph bends at 120mph?
You can feel the fact that there is almost no rubber to the rear anymore. It's not noisy per se, but you kinda just know it. The torque arm is obviously bolted to the rear and weld to the subs.
Car tracked extremely straight under full throttle with the tires loose. There was quite a bit of confidence that i wasn't going to land up in the other lane. Note that this engine easily breaks the tires loose without launching it hard.
Way less rattling and shaking sounds from the car in general. I'm guessing kilmat in the back helped, but i think i had a handful of parts moving more than i prefer.
No clearance issues period with the exhaust. My dynomax ultraflo catback, coupled with my 1996 cobra bassani x pipe cleared the torque arm and panhard bar with no modifications.
I also found the reach for the blinker stalk to be really far, i did a tilt column swap with a momo wheel years ago, i guess i just never paid attention to the reach.
I bought this car seat ( i need two, but wanted to try one first)
Amazon product ASIN B0BDRGTVV2
View: https://www.amazon.com/Graco-TurboBooster-Highback-Booster-Declan/dp/B0BDRGTVV2/ref=sxts_b2b_sx_reorder_acb_customer?content-id=amzn1.sym.44ecadb3-1930-4ae5-8e7f-c0670e7d86ce%3Aamzn1.sym.44ecadb3-1930-4ae5-8e7f-c0670e7d86ce&cv_ct_cx=graco+turbobooster&keywords=graco+turbobooster&pd_rd_i=B0BDRGTVV2&pd_rd_r=4cb4ee05-948c-4f5f-9632-e1e6d7844663&pd_rd_w=8djQ9&pd_rd_wg=Nipsd&pf_rd_p=44ecadb3-1930-4ae5-8e7f-c0670e7d86ce&pf_rd_r=DVQX4P5QW02NMD12TRB7&qid=1687221800&sr=1-1-62d64017-76a9-4f2a-8002-d7ec97456eea.
Fits easily. It's a bit tall, but a fox backseat is a kinda small, my 8 year old daughter appears to almost not even need one. But she'll be in one anyway, so i feel better.
There are some things i don't like.
My passenger side window rattles when it's down, anyone know the cause? It was driving me nuts. When it's up, it's fine. I have parts to redo the door panel, but nothing to do with the glass tracks. I like to take a part off and immediately fix it. So i'd rather order parts, then do all at once, even if it's more parts than i need.
My blaupunkt retro stereo is awesome, but i shut the battery off my car each time i park it. I've done this for the last 20 years. Not the end of the world to reprogram some stereos, but this one you need a degree for, i can't spend 10 minutes programming the stereo every time i drive the car. I don't know the solution here, other than put a whip out somewhere (in the back where the battery is) for a tender. My opinion is killing power to the car makes the battery last forever. My last battery went from like 07 to 2021. I just wish i could give the stereo a back up power, but my guess is that if i do, it will back feed the entire system draining the back up battery.
Is there a solution for this?
Also removed the gauges from my vents and install a smaller set below the stereo.
Note: Behind the tape deck door is usb and card slots.
I'm not much of a picture taking guy, if you want some pics of something so say and i'll take them.
The car exterior itself is filthy, i only cleaned the glass to drive it, lol.
I'm almost out of projects, i think this winter may be time for paint and serious pain to my wallet.
