1800 Mile Review

[CougarGT]

Well 1800 miles on the 3L now.
All is running most excellent. I do have a few small issues, though.

1) PS pump is leaking, and has an extreme amount of end play. This is causing a little pulley wobble, which in turn
is causing my serpentine belt to be shreaded. New pump is ordered, about $60 + $50 core. (And black rubber powder everywhere:()

2) 2nd revision chip has some idling issues. It surges very bad, in talks with Chris it appears that it is a bit lean down low.

3) My trans is suffering from "gear rollover". Just a cosmetic noise according to Terry, nothing to be worried about.

The car pulls very hard, is MUCH more drivable, and just a blast to drive.
The Quiafe LSD/Fidanza/Centerforce combo is a match made in heaven.
I launched the car from a metered on-ramp yesterday, and was amazed at how well the car hooks up!
Not an ounce of wheel hop (ES front mount, Poly Filled rear).

To do:
1) I am on my 3rd oil change now, after this one Mobil 1 will be used. (Conventional oil was used for break in of seals)

2) Redline MTL.

3) High-flow cat/flex pipe in exhaust from MSDS to Trubendz.

4) Detail engine.

5) 180 F thermostat.

All in all, this was a great project. I am very happy with the result's.
Now comes the fine tuning for some great HP numbers!


Matt

PS....
Jesse can you get me the flow data from my heads?
Thanks!

[DanG]

Just turned 300 miles in my 3L hybrid... All is great- The other side of 4k feels like it's going to be a LOT of fun... I too concur that the Fidanza/Centerforce/Quiafe combo is perfect for the car. I haven't gone more than 1/2 throttle on her yet (Centerforce says 500 till more than half throttle), but it does all kinds of hooking up... Clutch feels like butter, hook-ups are clean, no hop, even with bald Kumhos.

Idling (though just a slight variance, remember, this is a stock SVT ECU), heat production (may reduce with time, and an SVT rad), and fuel economy are my three concerns right now. I don't expect 35MPG like I used to get, but at would hope for more than 20... :ugh:

[Kinger]

What is gear rollover? I might be experiencing the same thing.

Sorry about that flow sheet, Steve still has it and I will get it from him when I ship out a set of heads tonight and drop another set off.

*EDIT* Quick search on FCO revealed the awnser :
The MTX75 is designed with large gear-to-gear clearences, as the engine runs some of the harmonics of the crank cause the gears to chatter,it stops when you depress the clutch as no part in the trans is rotating.It is normal in a MTX to have this noise in varying degrees...if you have a perfomance clutch with a solid Vs sprung disc-hub it will be worse as the sprung clutch disc damps out some of the rattle.

I think the CF DF has a sprung hub but I still hear a chat-chat-chat when cruising under very light loads (ie going down a hill and touching the gas very lightly) I'm going to do some neutral tests today to see if I can replicate the sound at idle.

[Blackcoog]

My tranny has a few noises coming from it also. Nothing terribly bad. Terry Haines assembled it so I'm sure its fine. I have my SVT radiator on order and I'll post my reviews on how much the temp goes down. Right now the car is running at about 200 degrees F with out AC and about 220 degrees F with AC on an both of these are on the highway going 70mph.

I popped a CEL yesterday when I floored it and the car didn't want to go and then just surged and opened up at 4.5k. This was right in the morning after it was sitting all day. Car ran fine the rest of the day and the CEL was gone this morning. I'm guessing it is that upper O2. Its probably about gone by now so I might look into a new one.

As for exhaust I'm getting a 2.5" exhaust all the way back either from CTA motorsports or from Yodude depending on who has a better design. CTA looks like it has a better design right now. I'm then going to get rid of the stock cat section and get a custom stainless steel straight pipe made with a 3'' hook up at the MSDS y pipe and a 2.5'' hook up at the Cat-back flange.

I'll have a new cold air intake coming very soon. CTA pipe, GMK cold air intake, and the biggest K&N filter that will fit be hind the fog light. Should be here in a week. I'm also going to try out my new porting kit I got last christmas on my SVT upper and probably the 3.0L upper in my garage. My girl friend got me a kit with every kid of air tool and all the grinding stones.

Oh CougarGT my powersteering pully wabbles a bit to. I'm not sure why I was just thinking I must have not tightened it in the correct sequence. Belt seems fine though so it must not be that bad. I'm still working on fixing a small oil leak that drains a quart every month.

Chris

[Faboo]

Originally posted by: Blackcoog
I'll have a new cold air intake coming very soon. CTA pipe, GMK cold air intake, and the biggest K&N filter that will fit be hind the fog light. Should be here in a week. I'm also going to try out my new porting kit I got last christmas on my SVT upper and probably the 3.0L upper in my garage. My girl friend got me a kit with every kid of air tool and all the grinding stones.
Chris




SHE'S A KEEPER

[Blackcoog]

She bought me my massive rear strut (S200 rear brace) brace for my last birthday also. Definately a keeper.

[Kinger]

Originally posted by: Blackcoog
She bought me my massive rear strut (S200 rear brace) brace for my last birthday also. Definately a keeper.

Yeah and when I was there she was promoting the car show! Dammit if I wasn't married I would have stole her to Iowa! ha ha

[Blackcoog]

Yeah and when I was there she was promoting the car show! Dammit if I wasn't married I would have stole her to Iowa! ha ha
:biggrin:

Ok FYI for Dan and CougarGT. I checked my engine temps this weekend when I finally fixed my oil leak and after driving about 30mph for a bit and stopping at a gas station they were up to 240 degrees F. Definately get a SVT radiator or a better oil cooler then the SVT one. I'm picking up a 4.6L mustang thermosat to keep the coolant running through. I'm going to see how this SVT radiator works out but 240 F is way to high and that wasn't even sitting for a while like it was on the dyno. I'm sure that killed the dyno numbers. The temp guage in the car still reads dead center though at 240F so that doesn't make sense. :confused:

[Kinger]

Originally posted by: Blackcoog
Ok FYI for Dan and CougarGT. I checked my engine temps this weekend when I finally fixed my oil leak and after driving about 30mph for a bit and stopping at a gas station they were up to 240 degrees F. Definately get a SVT radiator or a better oil cooler then the SVT one. I'm picking up a 4.6L mustang thermosat to keep the coolant running through. I'm going to see how this SVT radiator works out but 240 F is way to high and that wasn't even sitting for a while like it was on the dyno. I'm sure that killed the dyno numbers. The temp guage in the car still reads dead center though at 240F so that doesn't make sense. :confused:


Oh wow 240 is waaaaay to hot, the eec probably pulled a few degrees of timing back to compensate. I'll be interested to see qhat it runs with just the SVT rad, then go to the 160 t-stat, that the ceg guys are running. That will help you out alot in the summer. Hopefully it wouldn't run cold in the winter.

[DanG]

My engine never gets above 225*... The fans kick in and it goes down almost instantly to 216* where the fans shut down. Stock rad, 180* T-stat, 3L oil cooler.

With the A/C on, I never get to 205*... This is sitting in stand-still traffic in 95* heat on 66... I have the chamber work which takes some compression off, but I have .020" overbore... So 11.08:1 compression and none of these problems you're speaking of? Seems odd- And yes, regardless of the digital temp gauge's reading (between 170* and 225*), I still show straight up on the analog gauge. :shrug:

*Edit*: I'm almost certain that I am running very rich- This would serve to lower the overall temp of the motor- The S-AFC will bring stoich back to sanity... When I can afford another $300 into this tarbaby... :banghead:

[Blackcoog]

What is the stock rating on our thermostat? I brought it home to cool down and then checked it again. When the car got up to 220 F this time the fan kicked in and pushed it below 200 F. I wonder if the fan isn't working some times. :confused:

[CougarGT]

Originally posted by: Blackcoog
What is the stock rating on our thermostat? I brought it home to cool down and then checked it again. When the car got up to 220 F this time the fan kicked in and pushed it below 200 F. I wonder if the fan isn't working some times. :confused:

I beleive its a 195 unit

[Blackcoog]

SVT radiator is in and the car stays exactly at 195 at a stop and gets up to 198 max with air on and me flooring it. I'll be getting the 160 F thermostat next week and I'll see how that helps.

Chris

[Kinger]

You must have had a clogged/bad rad then uhh? Glad to hear it works good now. That is the temp mine runs at 190-196 MAX. Course we haven't seen 90 yet so I'll see if that gets any worse. Now your dyno will be in line :) I bet you probably lost about 5-6 degrees advance timing running at 240+ temps. Get a cold air and with your new RAD your money.


PS Is there a noticeable physical difference in the SVT rad compared to the stock unit?