SN95 LS3 Pony Build Thread Profile - SN95 Mustangs

[PatientZero]

I got the new caliper in yesterday and replaced. I put the wife's legs to work pushing some fresh Motul 600 through the system.


I took the car out today to see how everything felt and get the new pads bed in. My initial impression is very good. I can actually brake hard without the tires locking up instantly. That was my biggest gripe with the Hawks. This is the first pad I've used other than the Hawks in over 10 years. I'm excited to get the car out this weekend for Kansas City Region event #2 and #3 which is also a Midiv event. So far over 130 people signed up for Saturday and 150 for Sunday!

 

[EBC Brakes]

This weekend I've been working on tackling the brake upgrade/replacement. As a refresher I won a set of @EBC Brakes pads last year during their givaway here on TMO. I went with a set of the RP-1 pads for my front Roush/Alcon calipers. The problem is my rotors were past thier prime and I didn't want to put the new pads on the old rotors. A new set of rotors to fit the Alcon calipers is only sold by Baer and they're about $800 a set. I decided to modify my caliper brackets so I can use GT500 rotors instead.

To start I ordered a set of the Centric C-tek rotors for a 2010 GT500.
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Then I had to mock them up to check the difference in the centerline.
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I measured .168" difference to the inner surface from the caliper bracket. I also had to take into account the difference in thickness. The GT500 rotors were .020" thicker. I don't know if this is just from wear or if my rotors had been turned at one point in time. Taking the thickness into account I came up with .178" for what I needed to machine off of my brackets.
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If you follow Optima Ultimate Streetcar at all then you know who Nick Angell is. He drives a badass '68 C10 with a turbo LS. He's local here in KC and came through in the clutch to machine my brackets on a Saturday night. After a 3 hour drive roundtrip to meet Nick up at the KU campus I was able to verify the brackets fit of check it off the list.
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The EBC RP-1 pads do look pretty serious. It looks to have just a stainless backing plate without any crappy coating to flake off.
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With the rotor fitment squared away I decided to take the time and repack the wheel bearings before the season. These hubs are about 2 years old with 2 trackdays and probably 20 days of autocross and they're already crusty. I tore them apart, cleaned up the bearings with kerosene and then repacked them with some better grease.
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I also picked up a set of EBC Blue's to pair with the RP-1's on the front. This will be the first time in 10 plus years I've used anything other than Hawk HP+.
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I got the rear passenger side done and had about 10 minutes to go to finish up the driver side but when I pulled the rear driver caliper off it has a noticeable leak around the seal. Luckily this is the 3rd or 4th new set of rear calipers I've put on this car so it's still under warranty form Oreilly's. I just have to wait a couple days for the replacement to come in.
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Great work! let us know how you get on with the pads we'd love some feedback

 

[RinerAuto]

Are you still using stock rear calipers? I think I'm on my 3rd or 4th set since I bought the car. They are practically wear items.

Yes I am still using stock rear. What is failing for you? I've rebuilt my Cobra fronts once, but I don't think I've done anything for the rears.

 

[PatientZero]

Yes I am still using stock rear. What is failing for you? I've rebuilt my Cobra fronts once, but I don't think I've done anything for the rears.

I've had 2 or 3 seize up and now this one was leaking around the seal, all rears.

 

[RinerAuto]

I've had 2 or 3 seize up and now this one was leaking around the seal, all rears.

To seize up I would think that is rust related? Might be best to rebuild yourself then you know it's good. I've never taken apart a rear with integrated park brake

 

[PatientZero]

To seize up I would think that is rust related? Might be best to rebuild yourself then you know it's good. I've never taken apart a rear with integrated park brake

I wouldn't think so. New(reman) calipers only a couple years old and always kept inside. I really have no idea but they have a lifetime warranty from Oreilly's so I guess I'll just keep swapping them out, lol.

 

[PatientZero]

Great weekend of racing. Two top 10 finishes at a divisional event, can't ask for much more than that. I also got to give the new brake pads a thorough workout. Both days were a little cooler than we hoped for especially in heat 1 but we made due.

I switched from Hawk HP+ on both axles to EBC RP-1 on the front and Bluestuff on the back. There is a huge difference in the initial bite between the EBC's and the Hawk's. So many times with the Hawk's I'd come into a corner a little too hot and jump on the brakes and they'd just lock up every time wasting the run. My last run Sunday I needed to catch @DaveW so I was getting more and more aggressive with the brakes. I had a couple mini lock-ups but I was able to recover without wasting the run and it ended up being my fastest run of the day. I went faster every singe run all weekend just learning how far I can actually push these brakes. I never caught Dave though, the guy is an alien.

Saturday
8th of 128 in PAX
1st in CAM-T

Sunday
9th of 151 in PAX
1st in CAM-T

 

[Dave_W]

Congratulations, awesome job. Good to hear feedback on the EBCs - I think the ability to modulate and the release characteristics of a compound are often more important than the raw friction level number.

One thing I noticed in the videos is that you're pretty aggressive with the wheel in the slaloms. The inputs you're doing are more for a "triangle wave" than a "sine wave" path through the cones. I think if you smoothed that out you'll find a bit more time. Also, try to "back side" the slalom cones - get the turning done a bit earlier between cones so if you hit a cone it's with a back wheel hitting the back corner of the cone.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

As Dave_W noted good info in the EBCs as I have become a big fan of them of late also. Though I am on a set of SR11 Sintered pads the bite and longevity are surprising to me as I go through most pads pretty quickly. I will admit the initial bite is so dramatic that it is almost disconcerting, because it is immediate - you swear the hand of God came down and touched your brakes for you just because you thought of stopping. As noted after a few sessions they become more manageable and not quite as stunningly quick to bite, but what has been even more impressive is that they have become more progressive and slower in their clamping bite with usage. I actually love them now and though the ones you are using ( RP1s and blues in the rear ) are not quite as stout on initial chomping on the rotors, I will go to them at the next juncture. Years ago we at Woodhouse Chrysler, Dodge , Jeep, Ram and Woodhouse Ford recommended EBCs for those wanting low dust, but those pads never were recommended for heavy track use. I can now say I would recommend the EBCs in the SR11, SR21, RP1s for track use any day , as they are serious contenders imho!

One other note , both you and DaveW won your Classes and scored solidly in the PAX index, so Kudos for representing TMO exceptionally well. Do you also know if DaveW is still running the small 295 Bridgestone RE71RSs, or was he back on the 315 Yo-mammas?

 

[PatientZero]

Do you also know if DaveW is still running the small 295 Bridgestone RE71RSs, or was he back on the 315 Yo-mammas?

I think he was on 295 Yok's stretched to the max. Pretty incredible.

I'll work on my slaloms some more. I think the last run I was getting sloppy trying to catch Dave. I need to go back and look at my other runs to see if they were that bad.

 

[EBC Brakes]

Great weekend of racing. Two top 10 finishes at a divisional event, can't ask for much more than that. I also got to give the new brake pads a thorough workout. Both days were a little cooler than we hoped for especially in heat 1 but we made due.

I switched from Hawk HP+ on both axles to EBC RP-1 on the front and Bluestuff on the back. There is a huge difference in the initial bite between the EBC's and the Hawk's. So many times with the Hawk's I'd come into a corner a little too hot and jump on the brakes and they'd just lock up every time wasting the run. My last run Sunday I needed to catch @DaveW so I was getting more and more aggressive with the brakes. I had a couple mini lock-ups but I was able to recover without wasting the run and it ended up being my fastest run of the day. I went faster every singe run all weekend just learning how far I can actually push these brakes. I never caught Dave though, the guy is an alien.

Saturday
8th of 128 in PAX
1st in CAM-T

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Sunday
9th of 151 in PAX
1st in CAM-T
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Great work positioning 8th overall and first in class! Glad to hear the pads served you well

 

[PatientZero]

I have a few things to get caught up on over the past month or so.

First things first. I noticed at the last autocross that my gas tank vent was pushing a little fuel out on long left turns so I needed to get this fixed asap.


The solution I came up with was to make a catch can with a rollover valve built in and then vent it to the factory position inside the fuel door assembly. I made the catch can out of some aluminum scraps I had on hand.






I then used an Earls rollover valve in the top of the can and welded a -6 an bung to the bottom for the vent hose to hook up. I had to install the rollover valve before I welded the bottom on. I had to weld in very short sections and then cool the aluminum back down so I didn't mess up the PTFE gaskets.




I mounted it in the trunk next to the filler neck behind the taillight. The vent is then routed back to the factory exit which is inside the filler assembly. Nothing vents inside the car. After running 4 days in the last two weeks I can confidently say this solved my problem.

 

[PatientZero]

Two weekends ago I went down to Oklahoma to run with the NeOk SCCA for another Midiv 2 day event. I have to say the competition down here is STOUT, much more top heavy than Kansas City Region.


Acres and acres of WWII concrete. This is the location where they filled parts of the movie Tuskegee Airmen.







On day 1 I finished 3rd of 5 in CAM-T behind Sean Aldinger in a beautiful '69 Camaro and Mark Foley in his Trans Am. I was a full second behind their pace and all the way down in 16th of 64 in PAX

On Sunday I felt like I drove MUCH better but the results didn't really reflect that. The concrete was super grippy and literally shredded my tires. I finished only .3 behind Mark which was good for 2nd in CAM-T but 18th of 58 in PAX. Like I said, this region is top heavy.

As I was loading the car on the trailer I noticed this. I thought it was the concrete at first but later realized it was probably rubbing on the inner fender. It seems odd to just not manifest itself now that I have a 30 sidewall instead of 35's.



I noticed this after I got home and was washing the car. Same spot on both sides and corresponds to the same spot on the tires. Weird. Expensive oops.

 

[PatientZero]

With the Yokohama's trashed I was forced to put on the baby 275 Kumho's and head down to Texas for LS Fest. For the second year in a row we stayed right across from the track.



This is how you know you're in Texas.


For the kickoff party on Thursday we got to take a few laps around the oval of Texas Motor Speedway. This was really cool. The track feels WAY smaller when you're driving on it. We got up to about 85mph. I have way more respect for Nascar doing 180mph now, really impressive.


Friday was pretty much a waste. We got 1 autocross run in before we got put on lighting hold for 4+ hours. We finally got to start running again about 7 but the course was only about 30 seconds long and they went through all 150 cars each run so it was impossible to get heat in the tires and the track was SLICK. We also didn't get to do any drag race runs Friday.




Saturday is when all the action started. We were supposed to run Track X on Friday evening but because of the lighting they rescheduled to Saturday morning. I finished 8th.



My best Track X run.

After Track X we got in another 4 autocross runs. I was able to snag 7th place in Late Model class on the little Kumho's. This is my best run of the weekend. I'm not sure why I'm hanging onto the shifter so much.

After autocross we went straight over to start drag race runs. Once again I had no traction. This is my best run and also losing to one of the 4 Corvettes Summit Racing was sponsoring. I finished 10th in the drag race.

The last event in the Grand Champion competition is the 3S Challenge(Start, Steer, Stop). This is where not having ABS and little baby tires probably handicaps me the most but I was still able to finish 9th.

Overall I finished 8th out of 33 cars in Late Model class which is one spot higher than last year on smaller tires. I'm really happy with it. The event is awesome and I love the format with different events but the organizers and schedule leave ALOT to be desired. This year was better than last year so hopefully they will keep working out the bugs and make next year even better.

 

[PatientZero]

As a bonus, I had these waiting on me when I got home. TireRack rocks.

 

[PatientZero]

So after looking at some pictures and driving a friends car with different spring rates I decided I wanted to try out a little more spring rate on the front of the car to help brake dive and see what effect it will have on corner grip.





I currently have 425lb springs so I bought a set of 450's to try.


To throw a wrench in things. While taking the front struts off I realized that the driver side has a nasty leak. These are Koni Single Adjustables, It just happens that Koni is having their annual sale so I ordered a pair of Foxbody lenth double adjustables. I really wanted to get
away from Koni's and go to something better but I just don't have $4k to drop on coilovers. The DA's should at least handle my spring rates better until I can move on to something else.

Unfortunately Maximum Motorsports said they aren't going to ship for "a few weeks" so I'm stuck putting the old ones back on to run the solo school and next KC Region event. I did volunteer to instruct at the Solo School so this will be my first time. I'm far from being the authority on Autocross driving but I'm hoping someone slow shows up so I can try to make them faster. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Fabman]

So after looking at some pictures and driving a friends car with different spring rates I decided I wanted to try out a little more spring rate on the front of the car to help brake dive and see what effect it will have on corner grip.
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I currently have 425lb springs so I bought a set of 450's to try.
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To throw a wrench in things. While taking the front struts off I realized that the driver side has a nasty leak. These are Koni Single Adjustables, It just happens that Koni is having their annual sale so I ordered a pair of Foxbody lenth double adjustables. I really wanted to get
away from Koni's and go to something better but I just don't have $4k to drop on coilovers. The DA's should at least handle my spring rates better until I can move on to something else.

Unfortunately Maximum Motorsports said they aren't going to ship for "a few weeks" so I'm stuck putting the old ones back on to run the solo school and next KC Region event. I did volunteer to instruct at the Solo School so this will be my first time. I'm far from being the authority on Autocross driving but I'm hoping someone slow shows up so I can try to make them faster. I'm looking forward to i

25# is a tiny change, usually you go at least 50# at a time.
My front spring changes are 100# to 150# at a time. (SLA) then fine tune in smaller increments once you are close.

 

[PatientZero]

25# is a tiny change, usually you go at least 50# at a time.
My front spring changes are 100# to 150# at a time. (SLA) then fine tune in smaller increments once you are close.

Good to know. I was hesitant to make a change at all. At least if it helps I know I'm going the right way.

 

[Dave_W]

If you're the original purchaser of the strut, you have the receipt, and the car is registered for the street, you should be able to get a warranty replacement from Koni.

 

[PatientZero]

If you're the original purchaser of the strut, you have the receipt, and the car is registered for the street, you should be able to get a warranty replacement from Koni.

I think all that checks out. Would it be a problem that it's used for competition?