Tuned!

I got some new stuff to report: first big news - I finally got 'Toast tuned. I'm putting down 275 rwhp and 280 tq.

I started working on my alignment a bit too. I need to take the passenger side tie rod off and shorten it, but in the meantime I compensated on the driver side. This means my steering wheel isn't centered and I can not turn as far to the left as I can to the right. But at least the wheels are straight.

Dyno Run

Rain

The rain today has come as unexpected and I had, in fact, counted on it NOT raining. I had left the windows down in my truck and those spungy cloth seats are SOAKED. To make things even better - I restained the deck last night and the rain is now running the stain all over my yard - SWEET...

Oil Change

17 quarts of oil to change all 3 cars, plus 20 oz for the lawnmower :-)

Shelbatop!

I drove in to Greensboro for a family lunch this Sunday. I got to see a lot of people I don't often see, including Trevor & Alisa and their lil' chitlin Morgan. Robert & Nancy were in from Colorado. All the usual fam was their too- mom, dad, grandma, justin, jamie, mac & sherry.

We were playing some yard games out in the front when I got a visit from my old childhood buddy Joey Cheek and his mom. It's always nice to see somebody that you only see occasionally so this weekend was very good for me in that regard. I've seen Joey several times since he 'went famous', but I haven't seen his brother Michael in forever - I wonder what he's up to.

We put the top back on Shelbatoast for the drive home. This was the first long, high speed drive with the top on, and it help up great. No problems at all. I do need to find a way to put the top on without scratching the crap out of the car though!

but in the end...

But what I really need to upgrade first is the transmission. Not so much upgrade, as repair. A master rebuild kit runs about $250 for the T-45 transmission and should be fairly basic to work on - especially for someone who knows the transmission. I'll probably see if I can get fastlane to rebuild it. While they have it there, I'll most likely have them dyno-tune it as well.

After the transmission and tune, next up would be the suspension upgrades and then the engine upgrades.

or an engine upgrade?

So I've ditched the idea of putting a blower on this thing. I am skeptical about how the old engine would handle it and I don't really want to rebuild it. Instead, the plan is to go with the old N/A regulars - cams intake & tune. I figure I could easily see an extra 35 horse with that, which would put me at or above 300 at the wheels. Could always delete the cats too and pick up a few more.

Still holding off on the idea of switching to 3.73s in the differential. I like the highway cruise at 2K rpm too much.

coil over rear suspension

I have been considering adjustments to the rear suspension set up. Here is the plan as it is now: going to stay with the 4 link setup, but switch to coil-overs for the shock/spring and switch to tubular links. This would allow me to get rid of the crappy ghetto mustang spring setup and the loose control arms.

Ultimately what this would do is improve handling particularly through corners. What I don't like about it is that it'll be stiffer and wont grip quite as hard on acceleration. Overall it's a much nicer setup that is way less ghetto and old. Total cost is $750 plus tax & shipping.