Speedboosted's Build Thread!

Speedboosted

Found missing cylinders
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I figured this would be a good way to organize all of the progress I’ve made on the car throughout the 4 years that I have had it. Picked it up August 18th back in 2012. Only reason I remember the date is because it was my Mom’s birthday as well haha. It is a 2006 Deluxe model manual 6 cylinder, had 45k on the clock and completely stock save a horrendous bug and window guard. So why does anyone care about a base model V6? It will get a little better, don’t worry :) I was 16 at the time and a GT was just not reasonable in multiple ways. Here it is a few days after bringing it home. I immediately removed the guards and then added a GT500 spoiler.
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I took it drag racing a lot the following year and at the time it was kind of fun. First mods to the car were an AFE cold air intake and Magnaflow single axle back. Also did the GT500 rear LCA’s off my dads car (2011 GT500). After a little bit I was a dumb kid and painted my wheels black. Looked meh, but whatever.
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Quickly realizing how boring drag racing a 14/15 second car is, I lost interest. Best pass with the previous mods was 14.8 at 94 mph. I had started drag racing my dads car as well so it was even more depressing to hop into the car with a roaring 200 ponies. I kind of always had a thing for corners and enjoyed backroads, so I figured that since the car will never be fast in a straight line, lets try to make it fast in a curved line. Takeoff 2011 wheels and tires went on along with matte black hash marks, GT500 leather seats, Boss 302 steering wheel, and Ford Racing shifter. First set of handling mods came by the way of some Steeda Sport springs, Steeda Pro-Action shocks and struts, GT500 strut mounts, and takeoff GT sway bars. Ran that setup for about a year and while that was better than stock, the springs didn't lower it enough for my taste and I found some new in box H&R Race springs locally so I toss those on. Big time improvement in looks and handling as they are linear rate and more rate overall too.
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At this point, I was pleased with the car and began thinking about doing some real track days. I joined a few track focused forums and Facebook groups where I kept seeing people on really nice tires and that made me want some as well. Bought a set of ’08 GT500 wheels and had 275/35/18 BFG Rival’s mounted. I had also bought a Lakewood watts link and BMR rear LCA’s from a friend. Didn’t know any better and added Hawk HP+ pads for the track day and off I went. Being my first time out I didn't stress the base model brakes too much so they weren't an issue and I had a blast. My boss came out there with me in his Chump car and also helped out with some lines through some of the tricky corners.
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I had a blast and was hooked for good. Over this past winter, I started to get a little more serious and began doing more research on what parts were better than others. Began stock piling a lot of nice parts to install. Wanting to rid myself of this horribly noisy watts link, I looked at a few different options before finally deciding on Whiteline. To use this, I picked up an 8.8 rear axle locally. Also installed Bilstein shocks and struts, BMR 35mm adjustable front sway bar, J&M camber plates, dual exhaust with H pipe, Ford Racing Stingers (way lighter than previous exhaust), ditched the AFE intake for a Ford Racing one with a custom email tune, adjustable rod end BMR LCA’s with relocation brackets, Aeroforce Interceptor mounted in the vent, GT500 strut tower brace, and 20% window tint. Took all of this out to the first track day of the season up at The Ridge Motorsports Park in March. Took a little bit to get used to how the car drove with all the new parts, but by the third session I was really starting to get a feel for the car and it’s capabilities were definitely above mine. Drove it home after 6 good sessions with a plan for what to improve on next time.
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Exactly a month later I had another track day out at Oregon Raceway Park. No changes to the car, other than some more seat time for the nut behind the wheel. ORP is a fantastic track for a car with good balance and doesn't require a lot of power. I really fell in love with it all over again during this track day.
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With 3 track days under my belt, I signed up for my first performance driving school along with some other members of the local mustang club. I had also fell into some takeoff continental slicks and mounted them onto the GT500 wheels. The Rivals went onto a set of 18x9.5 F14’s that I bought a few weeks prior. Also added GT500 Brembos with the Ford Racing 3” cooling ducts and backing plate along with Porterfield R4 pads and a Whiteline rear adjustable sway bar and end links. I knew it was probably a bit early to go out on slicks but I figured it would be best to test them out with a superb instructor in there with me. The instructor has a ’67 coupe that is a trans am replica car according to him. He was very impressed with the car and gave me a near perfect score for the school section! Afterwards he shook my hand and said he hadn't had that much fun in a car in a long time, I thought that was pretty cool. With a vacation to Hawaii coming up, that was the last of my track days for the year.
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I had periodically been checking insurance auctions for a wrecked 05-06 mustang gt in the hopes of finding a decent one to swap into my car for a few months. I loved everything about my car, except the engine and trans. I would always tell people it’s about 150 horsepower away from being a pretty respectable car. While in Hawaii I was bored one night (yes, I know…but it was while the Hurricane was hitting so I wasn't going outside) and cruised Craigslist back home. That’s when I found it…a wrecked 2005 manual gt with 70k on it. Once I got back, I immediately talked to the guy and pulled the trigger. Damage wasn't as bad as it looks because the guy had already started taking it apart. Brought it home and got to tearing it apart as soon as I pulled into the driveway. I lack patience with certain things. Lol

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Speedboosted

Found missing cylinders
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Slowly been accumulating parts for the swap over the last 3 months. Here’s what it will look like drivetrain wise.

Steeda air intake
Roush Underdrive pulleys
Comp 127400 cams
PAC valve springs
Comp phaser limiters
Pypes longtubes w/ offroad H. I had these ceramic coated for heat reduction
Ford blue valve covers
New timing chains, guides, and iron tensioners
Braided SS brake lines
TR-6060 trans
Exedy 26 spline clutch
MGW Gen2 shifter
Microblue coated gears & bearings (still deciding between 3.90 or 4.10)
Torsen Boss differential

Hoping to put down 340 whp with the stock intake and leaving the charge motion plates in tact for more low end/mid range. I chose the 127400 cams for this reason as well.

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Picked up 18x10 F14's to mount the Conti slicks on. Also swapped over the premium MyColor cluster.

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Just did the cams, springs, timing comments, and fresh head gaskets last night with a friend from work. If all goes well, the drivetrain will be going into the car next weekend. Fingers crossed!

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BMR Tech 2

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I would get those metal tensioners out of there and use plastic instead. I've seen a few people break timing chain guides over the years and they all had one thing in common... Metal ratcheting tensioners.
 

Speedboosted

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I don't want to look too far ahead yet. Biggest goal is to just finish up the swap and get it driving. And Dylan, Lito mentioned something similar. It does make sense for a car with VCT still operation to not use the metal ones.
 

46addict

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Microblue coated gears & bearings (still deciding between 3.90 or 4.10)
Torsen Boss differential

I would go with 4.10s as long as you aren't having to use a OD gear at the end of the straights. Steeper gears will help turn the 2.97 first gear in the 6060 for street driving. To put it in perspective, T5s and 3650s have a first gear ratio in the 3.35-3.38 range.
 

Speedboosted

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I would go with 4.10s as long as you aren't having to use a OD gear at the end of the straights. Steeper gears will help turn the 2.97 first gear in the 6060 for street driving. To put it in perspective, T5s and 3650s have a first gear ratio in the 3.35-3.38 range.

Trust me, I've compared all the ratios for all the different transmissions. I'm setting up the ratios to do about 120 mph at 6200 rpm, but I use a short tire out on the track, 275/35/18. I get conflicting answers when trying to find tire revs for the size. All the online calculators are different from what Tire Rack lists. Either ratio will cause me to need to use 5th for a little bit on a couple of the tracks, and I'm fine with that. I would rather use all of 3rd and 4th gear most of the time than to only use the upper end of 4th down the long straights.
 

eighty6gt

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2nd on the tensioners

How did the machine shop find your valves and guides? I have a little more mileage and the engine is coming apart, I kind of don't want to go into the heads.
 

Gabe

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Cool build, looking forward to updates!
 

GTAmuscle

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Trust me, I've compared all the ratios for all the different transmissions. I'm setting up the ratios to do about 120 mph at 6200 rpm, but I use a short tire out on the track, 275/35/18. I get conflicting answers when trying to find tire revs for the size. All the online calculators are different from what Tire Rack lists. Either ratio will cause me to need to use 5th for a little bit on a couple of the tracks, and I'm fine with that. I would rather use all of 3rd and 4th gear most of the time than to only use the upper end of 4th down the long straights.



When using tire revs use what the manufacturer says, not the online calculators. The online calculators always assume a perfect circle, but they're not.
 

Speedboosted

Found missing cylinders
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Did the heads myself with my friend, we're a performance shop so no need to outsource work like that.

The revs from the manufacture are so much different from the calculators though. For example, Tire Rack lists the 275/35/18 BFG Rival at 814 revs per mile while the online calculator that Lito uses says 788. That's a fairly significant difference.
 

GTAmuscle

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Yeah, the one Lito is using is definitely using a perfect circle.
So... Let's do some math.

275mm * .35 * 2 (for each sidewall) = 192.5mm of sidewall
192.5 / 25.4mm/inch =7.5787 inches of sidewall
Sidewall + Wheel = 25.5787inches

25.5785 * pi = circumference of 80.3572 inches
80.3572 / 12 inches per foot = 6.6964 feet per revolution
5280 feet per mile / 6.6964 = 788.47 revs/mile

In conclusion, a tire isn't a perfect circle, go look at your tire sitting on the ground right now. That's why I always say use your manufacturers specs.

Albeit, 814/788 = 103% So it's only off by 3%
 

Speedboosted

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Well at 814 revs, it's going to be cutting it close for what I want with 4.10s. Might have to do the 3.90s. Trying to set the car up for a few different tracks around here. They've got a common top speed of about 115 mph. I want to do 120 or so in 4th, which the 3.90s would allow for.
 

o2sys

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I always used a tire calculator but it was pretty off after checking on my 295/35/20 Michelins.

Calculator said 714, Michelins states 740. That's a big difference.
 

Gabe

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I've used several different tire-size rev calculators, I found American Muscle's to be the closest. I check the speed via GPS and it's dead-on-balls accurate.

http://www.americanmuscle.com/tire-size-calculator.html

They come up with 739.6 revs/mile for a 295/35/20, so that's almost exactly Michelin's number
 

Speedboosted

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Thanks Gabe, that one is really accurate when comparing what the manufacture lists. Now off to look at the graphs again lol.
 

MechE

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Nice project man! Diggin' those shocks I bet?

What's the green thing in the background of one of the pictures of a head?
 

Speedboosted

Found missing cylinders
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Nice project man! Diggin' those shocks I bet?

What's the green thing in the background of one of the pictures of a head?

The Bilsteins are awesome. And are you talking about the car? It's a T-Bird with a 289 in it. I think we're doing brakes and cleaning up some wiring and lines in the engine bay.
 

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