Time to get serious
 

So I built my ride, passed inspection, and drove it around Houston. All the this time, I was not impressed with the stock Mustang GT dyno numbers I pulled (218hp). Thanks to a member here, I am the proud owner of a set of AFR 165 heads, larger injectors, and new mas air flow sensor.

I am planning a tear down, redesign and rebuild of the car.....again.

I will install the new heads, injectors, and MAF. Redesign the radiator stack in the nose to include puller fans and air flow ducting. Add an oil cooler. Replace dash with a 99 dash, and maybe finally install my flying Miata cowl hood.

Pulled my Cobra upper an lower intake today for a long day of soda blasting. Here are a few before pics of me blasting the intake and heads. Ill post after pics later, but let me tell you how awesome they are looking and how well the soda blasting rig from Harbor Freight works.

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Nice! That will add a few smiles per mile for ya...:biggthumpup:

I don't think you're going to be all that impressed. AFR makes a good head, and the 165 is a good choice for a mild 302. But, you'll be choking it down with the stock intake and cam. Your power and efficiency gains will be minimal, and pretty much limited to the increased compression.

New injectors and meter will net you exactly 0 additional HP on their own. But you'll need them when you upgrade the cam and intake.

I am using the Cobra intake and an E303 cam with the setup. It all cleaned up really nice. I only used low pressure on everything and am happy with results. Still have a little cleaning of old gasket material.

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Ah, well. That's very different. Never mind. :)

Those parts cleaned up really well. I have a sand blaster, but I'm not all that impressed with it. I might have to look in to the soda blaster kit.

Nice work on the soda blast. Turned out nice.

Soda is pretty cool. Very gentle for aluminum and not as gritty as glass bead. It is very messy and will get everywhere. It also kills grass, so find a place away from all that. I did mine on an old trailer on the side of a friends shop. Washed all parts and trailer with a water hose when done. All soda melted away. Coated heads in WD40 after to prevent corrosion.

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Monster is all stripped and ready for head removal. I only get to work at night after kids go to sleep, so it will be slow going. Still have to remove those pesky headers! boo! My military occupation requires me to be at work very early and alert, so cant stay up too late.

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Forgot to add that I'm also going to remove the crank pulley and replace it with one that has a Miata water pump pulley added to it for the power steering. Gonna be a whole different car when I'm done.

Comes apart really quick, goes back together really slow. Got old heads off, new ones on. So much to do before its ready. Gonna clean up some paint work then tackle power steering setup.

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Looking great!

I used GT40P heads with a F303 cam (.512 lift) in an old fox and it really woke up the car. I went the carb route with an air gap intake. Loved it.

I think your setup is going to be good besides it isn't anything the bottle won't cure. lol

GP, take your time and get it done right. this way you can enjoy it to the fullest. Unfortunately the 5.0's were under powered from the factory. You are headed the right way to wake it up though. Might be time for a cam soon!

Have the E303 cam, and it sounds great! Fired right up and radiator is holding strong. My only issue was an apparent exhaust leak. A little investigation and I discovered I completely forgot to install the plugs on the back of the darn heads! I apparently like to do everything the hard way. Lol. Going to get some 5/8-11 3/4 bolts tomorrow to plug those up. After that, time for oil cooler, larger fuel pump, boss frog chassis stiffeners, and fabricate an aluminum box for the radiator. I am not gonna drop it back on the wheels until she is ready to roll.

Nice sound
 

Radiator shroud
 

The beginning of my shroud. I'll add flaps to allow air to pass thru at high speeds thanks to the R&D from Jason.
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That's a great start. As for the BF floor supports, I installed them on "Nadine" my LS-1 car and also on a friend's stocker.... be careful of the bolt placement near the front seat bolts as the floor has a hollow section there. You don't want a bolt to nowhere!
As for the rest of Ric and Todd's offerings, I had their entire damn catalog in my car ad everything was built solid, easy to install, and worked as claimed. I am using their NB front subframe on the new LSx-ocet.

What Rad are you running? I found the shroud and fans for the Mishimotto on Amazon.com cheep! Might save you some fab work.

Im actually installing the "Frog Arms" under the front fenders, not the rail mounts. The bright green arms go on pretty easy and really did a good job on my NA.

Got some more wrench time tonight. Installed oil cooler (kit from JEGS). I had to switch to the smaller oil filter to clear the power steering lines. Turns out the smaller filter is the one they used on the police package 5.0.

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I will eventually install some hose holders to prevent them rubbing and getting a hole.

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I also finished the power steering connections using the Miata power steering pump and a Miata water pump pulley on the ford crank pulley.

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Lastly, I was able to install my frog arms.

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Tomorrow I will try and work on the radiator side shroud and fan mounts.

All back together and even picked up a set of wheels and tires for inspection purposes ( I normally run toyo ra1s and inspectors don't like them). Cracked a fuel connection while buttoning it all up, so it looks like another day before I can drop it on the wheels. Local speed shop in the morning and hopefully test drive by noon.

Oh, and as a side note.....thanks to everyone here with your bright ideas and your new parts post that make me spend so much money! THANK YOU! But......it is all worth it. Just got my new ebay shifter in and can't wait to install it tonight.

Glad to help! :D

In a string of bad luck....got the new shifter installed and realized the monster Miata kit adapter handle did not match up with the new short shifter stub. The kit has 2 holes and the new stub has 3 holes. No way any of them were gonna line up. Time to ship it back and look for another one. Boo. There goes a nights work down the drain.

On a side note, took it for a test drive and it is SICK (in a good way). I could feel the difference from the stock heads and new ones. Time for a dyno pull to verify. Car stayed cool with new oil cooler and radiator stack. This was only around the block for initial leak tests. I need to take it for a longer road test to verify tomorrow.

I bought this Ford Thunderbird Cosworth T5 Racing Short Throw Shifter | eBay

after some back and forth looking, it seems they forgot to include the little shifter adapter handle to make it all work.

Finally, a goal has been reached! I passed inspection. Here in Houston, we have to get on a dyno and do a sniffer test. First you have to find someone with an in ground dyno (low cars are hard to drive up on above ground dynos), get someone that overlooks full cage, removable steering wheel, and 5 point belts, then help them figure out how to sniff a Miata with a V8! LOL
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I had to do the same thing with Nadine. She didn't have a single emissions part on her. To pass the sniff test they changed the cylinder value from 4 to 8 and she was clean as a whistle!

Love to see a proper race car with AC!!

Looks great. Gonna be a while before I get my project going, but man am I itching.

Jason

Didn't know the cage would be an issue. Wifey is after me to get one put in. Evidently she thinks I'm going to end up upside down. :rofl: I promiced I would b4 I go down the boosted route...

Cage is not an emissions part and has no bearing on if the car passes or not.
I had a BF Clearview bar, Frog Arms, Frog Ribs, floor supports, basically every safety item but harnesses in Nadine. For the new car I wanted the full cage/frame of the race chassis just for the added safety and also since I was going for a windshield it was the easiest way to get one. I don't plan on flopping it on the roof but hey, I got a Terminix truck to do two rolls with a half twist once. The French Judge f'd me on the score but I guaranty that farmer will NEVER have ants!

Yearly inspection is a safety inspection along with emissions in TX. If the state deems a change not safe for public streets then it could be an issue.

Got mine inspected and registered today. 5 hour process and 120 miles of running around. Biggest issue was finding a place that could do an ASM inspection. I was happy they didn't say anything about my R1As that are well worn in the rear (ribbed slicks now).

Great looking car!

Love the under hood pic! It's very clean looking, for sure. Hope your state inspection goes as smoothly as mine went. We don't need the extra stress from Big Brother do we? :)

The station I went to last year turned me away because the modification to the car were beyond normal and effected the safety characteristics of the car. He really had trouble with removable steering wheel. Talked him into it if it passed emissions. Car was set up on machine as a 4cyl Miata and passed with flying colors. Engine was fresh rebuild and had new cats and mufflers.

My RA1s got me in trouble last time. Found a Craigslist score of rims and tires for $200 this time. I used them for inspection and then put RA1s back on.

Still have a few things to do to get it right. Mostly cosmetic stuff.

Bunch of motors heads in the place I found. I think they would have overlooked anything so long as the emissions machine was happy and basic safety was in place. ...but then that's as it should be....

More pics.
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I'm not going to bother telling you how cool that puppy is because I'm sure the next 5 posts will...

LOL, badass!

Guess I should eventually remove the rear tow sign over the exhaust, and the SM decals! I think my race class may have just changed, but I'm not sure. Lol.

Hey it's a race car inside so the outside should match! I LOVE the look and wouldn't change a thing. Well I suppose you could take the tow sticker off if there is no hook there.

Time for the new fiberglass cowl/louvered hood. Gonna look like the Bat mobile!
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Gun... is that a Simpson Designs hood? Looks great!

Nice!

Yep. Another great craigslist score added to my build. Seems pretty well built. Can't wait to get it on. Think I'm gonna pin all 4 corners to get it on and off easy.

I have been seeing a lot of nice vinyl wraps, so I decided to drop off hood and fastback top to get wrapped today. Should be done mid next week. Pictures to follow. Keeping military theme, it will be a black digital cammo design.

Plan on wrapping my car myself. Less messy than paint, and not as much downtime/prep/finish work.

Jason