Project Midnight Sun, a saved project

I’m not engine swap literate. I find it interesting that you have a functioning OBD port to pull codes after a swap.

Perhaps the engine needed to re-learn/recalibrate following the exhaust work? 

OHSCrifle said:

I’m not engine swap literate. I find it interesting that you have a functioning OBD port to pull codes after a swap.

Perhaps the engine needed to re-learn/recalibrate following the exhaust work? 

I'd love to take credit for the engine swap but that's all on the PO and any help he had with it. It is integrated nicely, even though he removed the vacuum line for the vent doors when he did it. 

It was nice, it just start revving like it used to. I think it was a software thing because it behaved fine before so long as I stayed below it's RPM limit. It is a pleasant surprise for it to have worked out on its own, it gives me a lot more confidence taking it to the track with the extra rev room. 4200 (buffer revs) was just to early to shift comfortably. 

Lots of dirty work the last few days; I completely pulled the dash out of the car and I have started cleaning up the wiring. I also pulled out the clutch pedal and gas pedal for some rework. 

This is pre-wire cutting, it got dirtier after that. 

I still have to do the heater and evap cores on the passenger side as well as putting in a vacuum line so that my vent actuators work.

With the dash out I started looking at radio options again. The current plan is to put a single DIN innthe stock location and run Skar 6x9s in a removable panel in the old backseat area. I also want to put a charging station in that panel with an amplified aux line for phone streaming. 

I am going to prototype that panel with plywood but I am thinking about asking a fab shop to whip up either a metal panel or some good channels for the permanent version. The purpose of this panel is to protect the electronics from cargo shifting. 

I am also weighing my roll bar options, Axiom has a good price and can have it done, custom, inside a week. They could potentially do the panel work as well. 

WildRides got back to me and said they got other orders so the issue must be on my end. Their price is very competitive but, by the time the work is done, I think the cost will be comparable to having Axiom do it.

Wire wrap and loom came in today so I had a little fun with that this evening. No pictures because it's not really worth showing off, yet. I think I'm nearing the point where I will need to cut the zipties holding the bundle up so I can pull out the rest of the wiring for the Ford ECU. That should give me a little more room to work with to neaten things up which should give me more room to work on fab'ing the new clutch pedal mounting. I'm not looking forward to the work on that but it will be well worth it. I also need bigger wire wrap if I want it to have any chance of holding those bundles together.

Once that is done, I have some work to do in the floorboards to clean up surface rust and just generally get things looking a little more put together. There's no reason a project track car has to look like a heap, after all. This might be one case where I don't liberally apply Rustoleum to the problem. Long, long term I want to do a good coating of LizardSkin but in the short term I might get a couple cans of BoomMat spray to go on top of, you guessed it, Rustoleum.

My goal for the month (the 1 remaining week of it) is to get the electrical, vacuum, and passenger side of the dash ready to install. The go pedal should be ready to go back into position. The clutch pedal and radio are the 2 things likely to still be work in progress. I also plan on making a stop by Lowe's for Peel 'n Stick insulation and the brass fittings I need to be able to finally get the coolant system closed up properly. (That means time to test my prototype 0psi radiator cap!)

I believe the metal bracket visible forward of my shifter should be the radio mounting bracket but I am pretty sure it's missing a piece or 2. I have yet to figure out how I am going to securely mount a radio to that bracket. I'm open to suggestions and/or wisdom.

Stereo and charging station parts are ordered. There isn't a better time to do this work than when the dash is out, like now. The next radio problems are how to deal with the old/new wire integration and how to mount the radio without a console. I have few ideas and it will be interesting to see if they hold up. 

Some goodies have arrived. Small stuff that doesn't show as well as:

The radio and other Crutchfield goodies should be in tomorrow. Plan is to get the wiring sorted and proceed with dash reinstall with actual stereo work to wait a bit. 

Radio is in as well, Crutchfield threw in some mounting stuff and some pigtail connectors that will be very useful. The plan for the days is to get the stiffened gas pedal remounted and do an initial fab pass on the clutch mount. If I can get the pigtails integrated and ziptied for later use, I'll be happy with that. Then, it's back to the important stuff. 

Does anyone know anything about fooling GM auto trans sensors in a manual? I have found what I think is the TCU and I see a couple wires with resistors but, I am having trouble finding how to fool it to clear my codes

Been a while with no update, so here it is. I have random pictures but I'll probably add them in later and maybe break this up if I do.

The clutch pedal wound up being the original one with an improved mount, so I need to send the Wilwood pedal back to Summit. The gas pedal took a couple rounds but, it was stiffened with a cross brace to prevent flexing. The pedal box, overall, is tight but feels good. With the exception of needing to rebuild the brakes, that is, but that's not a pedal problem so it gets a pass for this section.

My heater core went in with little problem after I removed the old disgusting foam that was on the vent doors. That stuff was crumbling off and looked like it might be a carrier for some kind of early 90's JNCO virus or something, it had to go. The evaporator core did not go in, I elected to cut it out in the future and spend time now on other things.

I cut back a bunch of dead wiring and got the radio wiring harness spliced into the old ones. I also found out just yesterday when fixing the hatch release that the switched 12V line for the radio only carries 1.3V, so that will need some kind of fixing if I want radio. Unfortunately, the dash is back in so I can't really get that troubleshot too easily. The speedo bounces at low speed, which it didn't do before, and apparently has a fairly high % error such that it reads 70MPH when I am doing approx. 60MPH. Not a big deal but something I need to keep in mind. A new cluster would be great but time is short and it's not that big of a deal. The aftermarket gauges the PO installed (on the passenger side of the dash) were the last thing to go in and I didn't notice in time to fix it yesterday that my water temp gauge isn't working. The car doesn't have overheating problems but a functional water temp gauge is generally a good thing so I have to look and see what I forgot when I put that back in the car.

I dropped the car off with Axiom Race Fabrication yesterday and Jonah is going to build the 4-pt I'm looking for with 1-3/4" mild steel. He likes to build his cages tight (his words) and there was concern about additions in the future if the cage was built too tight to the car but, with the curvature of this car he can build it as tight as he wants and will still have plenty of room to do a full weld for door bars if I want them in the future. (Anything beyond a 6-pt would be more difficult) We mocked up door bars while I was there and I just don't see how anyone would get out of that car with them, short of having a few grab handles and maybe kicking a few things. Door bars are excess to my expected needs for a while so I'm putting that on the back burner until I figure out how it will work. (The entire roll bar is technically excess for track days, I want it for my peace of mind along with harnesses.)

My seat situation was both simplified and complicated, the green seats with integral harnesses sit weird in the car and have a low headrest. Somehow, test-sitting in them with a few people, we never noticed any of this until SWMBO asked about it yesterday. She made a good point and we think that the green seats would probably not be as safe as the Neon seats, with the low headrest. They also, oddly, sit very close to the door and helmets might smack against the top of the door frame. The Neon seats will require some modification, we're skipping the expensive plastic harness pass-throughs for these seats and SWMBO will fab a fabric sleeve to keep things neat and tidy when we cut the pass-through holes. I am looking at the Rallye Cross harnesses from Schroth for this application. Schroth was recommended heavily by my group, their pricing is very reasonable, and I feel better about their ASM harness dealio than I do about a 5th nylon strap for reasons. The Rallye 3 and 4 don't appear to have the option for harness wrap ends, they appear to be built to work with factory mounting locations instead. Not a problem there as the pricing is all the same.

Jonah was willing to fab a seat mount solution for the Neon seats but suggested that, with the availability of aftermarket solutions compared to what he charges hourly, I might be better off finding an adapter plate that offers bolt-in installation. We were so deep into the "we can build this" mindset by the time we got to the seat planning stage that we neglected to realize this, along with the low headrest on the green seats. So I just need to shop around and find a plate that I like and my seats will be mountable. The good news is that I can put the green seats up for sale along with the OEM Mustang seats. Does anyone know a reasonable price for original seats in good shape? I figure they're probably only going to interest someone going for a stock look, a small market, and shipping would be prohibitive for something that's not likely to sell for a lot so that means local buyers. Before anyone asks, I am not in the market for aftermarket seats right now. We currently drive 5hrs, one-way, to the track and when the Neon seats have harnesses they should satisfy my needs for both a comfortable seat as well as an effective track seat.

The only known things remaining are:

Finish the coolant system (heater core hooked up + overflow bottle + reroute some lines)

Potentially test my 0PSI radiator cap

Rebuild the brakes

Figure out how I broke my water temp readout

Hopefully get the radio working and the speakers installed

Do another alignment pass on the car, it is still a bit twitchy and darty and sometimes pulls one way or the other.

*There might be a new set of wheels, depending on budget, with Falkens but that's a lot of up-front. I might just run on the Firehawks the first time out and bum so street wheels if the worst happens and I shred the Firehawks.

With the track next weekend I got to thinking about my rpm-based fuel cutoff throttle issue, as described previously. I thought about the fuel pump but it wouldn't make sense for that to cut out at the same rpm every time. Then I thought about the injectors and I think that gummed up injectors (and the fuel filter that someone mentioned) sounds like the most likely culprit. While I figure out which year of Mustang or Silverado I need to buy a fuel filter for, what is the recommended fuel injector cleaner assuming I want a fuel additive? Pulling the injectors is probably more than I want to do the weekend before a track weekend. 

I'm also ditching my radio plans, my switched 12V line only has 1.3V at the radio wire and I don't have the time in the budget to dig into that. I could go straight to constant 12V but I have more important things. I will be putting in my 12V charging station for phones and headphones. Current plan is to modify a divider-top toolbox with holes for the posts, velcro, and a 2-pin connector with the panel screwed to the top. I'll throw some basic electrical tools in the bottom and call it an electrical tool box. 

I also forgot about my cooling system woes for a bit, the brass fittings I need are $25 on amazonia and are prime eligible, so that should be done this weekend. That will get uphill routing for my steam line and and actual overflow for my radiator. After looking at 0PSI radiator caps, our homemade will work just fine so I don't plan on buying one special. I do need to bolt-in the non-pressurized overflow tank, though. 

It will be a busy weekend....

Harnesses might be overkill if the dude can't get the rollbar done this weekend. Will make the new seats even more important. He initially quote me 3 days but didn't start until late this week, after 1.5 weeks of working on a better paying job over-cambering a Corolla. It might be ready for pickup sunday, he says. I says, I'm picking it up Sunday either way and not recommending anyone in anything resembling a hurry use him for low budget jobs.

And yes, I clearly communicated my deadline and he said it would be no problem. I am a bit frustrated.

Week of update!!!

Brakes are bled, after a little funny business. 

My replacement fuel filter was a bust, it did not fit with the all-new, full LS style fuel lines. We did wind up purging the fuel rails, the gas that initially came out of the Schrader was rancid and almost orange in color. 

My heater core and overflow are plumbed in with no leaks, the surge tank is currently bypassed until I find a special brass fitting. 

The drivers side seat bracket did not initially work, it took some adjusting. With a hammer. And vice. And no one taller than me will be driving the car, at least comfortably, until I get a welder to modify it. The exception to that is probably the Miata gang who is used to driving with their knees in their chest. The passenger seat bracket will go in tonight and harness pass-thru's will get done tomorrow.

Some light electrical work, headlight adjustment, and fine tuning of the alignment will also take place over the next 2 days. 

I'm also picking up a set of black RPF1s local for a steal, 2 good tires and 2 bad on them so they're my spares which is better than my current "no spare" system.

All in all, the car feels a lot more like a car than a pile of parts & plans. Pictures to follow with better lighting and after some clean-up with the shop vac and some rattle cans. 

Car felt real good on the track, even with the software problems giving me a 4200rpm effective red line. Until 5th gear started kicking out and grinding. I popped a couple rivets on the cover we made for the 3rd link for the rear but the car feels real solid. The lack of real revs or 20% of my forward gears is quite telling and annoying. Combined with the loss of lap times from RaceChrono acting up I am a frustrated. 

I'm done for the weekend but I have list to fix. A long list. 

It's been too long since my last update from the track, frustrated and tired.

That was Saturday night after driving back to the ABnB house for the night with a grindy 5th gear. I did go back out Sunday morning, 5th still didn't like to take (only shifted into it going up the hill after 7) and was a little grindy. The Flyin' Wrench trailer had 3qts of Liqui Moly high quality ATF so I changed the fluid on the lifts and missed a session. It was a cool morning and that Liqui Moly was really thick, did not want to flow through the 3/8" hose and funnel system we rigged. The stuff that came out was real thin street car stuff, still cherry red, though, so not terrible even if it was a bit low. 5th felt a lot less grindy after that but still didn't like to take. My day ended when I strung together real nice corners in 3, 4, and 5. If you've been to Roebling then you know that that means that my 6 and 7 were hot. The back kicked loose on me, I was on skates with no chance for recovery, and if you slow down the video you can see the part where the back of the car lands on top of the tire wall. No major damage was done to person or car and a quick trip to Wally World got my passenger side tires reseated on cleaned beads. Leaving Roebling I knew:

-I need better brakes, the AutoX brakes that the PO put in when he built the car didn't cut it on a road course. I was using all and more of the braking zone to come down at the end of the straight and they were spongy

-My back end was too stiff, this was a more recent realization after we took a good long look at the rear suspension. I softened the rear shocks and I'll be playing around with them more before March

-I really need to get my full rev range back, the loss of the upper end was not a cozy feeling

-Without dropping and opening the trans my current suspicion is that I bent a shift fork and that is causing my 5th gear woes

-My harness bar performed as advertised in our little jaunt off-track over the grass and through the sand to the tire wall we went...

-My seating position needs works, I was off-center by a couple inches, a couple inches too far back for comfort, and the angle had the back of my clutch knee a bit raw by sunday night (it was very impromptu with the shortened schedule necessitated by Axiom taking an extra week to install the 4-pt)

-My electronic go pedal could use a little tuning. It's more sensitive than the throttle in my GTI and it's not all that fun on track

In the last month, I haven't done a lot on the car. I've been putting in the hours at the new job, dealing with the holidays, and overall just getting through. I talked with the PO and he told me that the '07 TCU (auto) can cause a safety limit condition if it is not powered and in the CANBUS loop. I lost my upper revs before pulling that dash, so at least I didn't royally screw that up, but it's more than possible with the wonky wiring in the car that something shorted and blew the TCU. From the research I have done (4L60E) these TCU's are not very robust and don't take much work to fry. I haven't pulled it, yet, for resistance checks but it does have power and I never messed with the CANBUS wires. I also found that from '04 to '08 GM was transitioning from good 'ole OBDII to GMLAN for communication. I think there's some kind of consumer protection regulation involved with this but I'm not gonna work myself up by researching it. The way I see it, the TCU is either live or dead. If it is live, I have a really weird problem and will either need to buy a $300 license to tune my ECU, take it someone and pay them, or Megasquirt swap. If it is dead I can either replace the TCU (possibly as little as $65) and pull the dash to put it on dedicated wiring to make sure it doesn't fry again or rip it out, burn it, and ship it to GM before I Megasquirt swap. I am an Electronics Tech by day so I am looking at the Megasquirt2 DIY system, I'm not worried about a little soldering and assembly. I'm getting some justified pressure to replace the TCU and keep running with a fortified GM system, this would save me about $300 but, I know me and I would always worry about pissing off a fragile paperweight that can take away 30%+ of my rev range.

While under the car taking replacing the diff oil I realized the extent of the rear axle travel; it dented the cover we installed over the gaping hole in the former back seat area. (4-5" of vertical travel) I'm more concered, relatively speaking, about the popped rivets than I am about the dents. The piece of sheet metal is not going to influence my rear axle at all, the popped rivets just make my work look shoddy and I don't like that.

I did some very preliminary research on aero and found both a more effective bolt-on spoiler and a company that makes a selection of splitters and diffusers. I also looked at the underside of the car and I see the potential for making an underbody tray that connects to the sub-frame connectors, smoothing the underside. This is all a long way out, I still have much more basic stuff to worry about that aero but, it was fun to research and picture.

All in all, it was an eventful track weekend and I will need to put in some real weekend hours to be ready to do it again in March.  My big hit list is:

-Get my rev range back (new TCU or Megasquirt)

-New brakes and rotors (rotors are just old)

-Fix my seating position and get the matching Neon seat mounted on the passenger side

-Fix 5th gear, I think this will mean a partial rebuild of the trans

*Bonus- I would really like to clean up the wiring and put in some extra 12V lines for radio/speakers, phone charging, and general utility

*Ongoing little stuff- Cuz this E36 M3 adds up. The goal is to slowly make the car look a little more presentable than a 30yr old track car

*Long-term- Gauges and instruments need to be sorted out. Going up to Roebling I used my phone+Torque for accurate speedo and gauges. I would love to do some real sweet analog gauges but I think that the easier solution might be to put up with some modern "convenience" and figure out a tablet instrument cluster running Android+Torque

Pictures will be another post, this wall o' text is already long enough. I'm open to both questions and suggestions. (For making it to the end, or scrolling straight to the bottom in lazy fashion, here is a barely edited video of my last session on Sunday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5g0GZpfOpE)

Edit: The SFI bellhousing has a nice cutout hole on the drivers side that enables a visual look at the clutchy finger-y bits, the backspacing looked good there but I should probably find a cover for that hole. There is definitely a LSD in the rear, which is really nice. A previous owner of that rear end also welded a drain plug on the diff, which was a nice touch. It left about a cup of gear oil in the bottom but I didn't have to pop the cover off so I'll take that.

Sitting pretty Sunday morning, I think.

Pre-track, working to get this seat mounted. The bolsters beat the snot out of the OEM seats and I was very happy with the lack of sliding and shifting that I experienced. The passenger side was not mountable with the time and materials we had available and the drivers side needs to be revisited to get it centered.

Not a whole lot to look at here but, I got a chuckle out of this. Those shiny spots are where the axle-mount for the 3-link hit against the cover we put on the floor. This neccesitated at least 5" of vertical travel and happened the 2nd day at the track, possibly during the spin I described in my last post. You can also see most of the LS-style fuel filter on the left, part of the full LS fuel system that I discovered the PO installed. 

JustTrackIt is going to The FIRM in February. Naturally, I decided that I need to move up my timetable for getting the Mustang revamped. While pricing out parts last night I learned that R1Concept is no longer selling Hawk brake pads, they are pushing their own line that stops at Performance Sport. This is unfortunate. I am attempting to acquire actual hard data on their performance but I do not have high hopes. I also learned that Hawk has their own line of performance rotors but they don't sell them on their website and they do not compete on price with R1Concept. I almost bought a set of new calipers from R1, dual piston and shiny new, due to the sale they have going but couldn't justify the cost alongside parts I actuay need. My current plan is to rebuild/repaint some junkyard calipers or just rebuild the ones on the car. 

I've contacted Bruce over at TheGearbox to figure out what I need to properly replace the 5th gear shift fork and get 5th gear back. (I didn't know anyone still used aol) I have watched a couple videos and it looks like  I might be able to do the repairs without pulling the main shaft. That should simplify things a bit. 

I foresee a couple weekends of fab work to get my seating position worked out, we plan to cut the feet off a couple seat brackets and make them work with some additional angle iron. 

The last remaining big question is tires and I will have to choose between the R888Rs and RT615K+s

Today's project is dropping the trans to get parts on order to get 5th gear back. LMR has a good video on this, very concise and informative. We'll see how well I do...

I know the jack stands are close, the car is very nose heavy and that's as far back as they'll go without having a gap or lowering the front. It's not tippy and I have a jack bracing the K-member just in case. 

Error404 said:

JustTrackIt is going to The FIRM in February. Naturally, I decided that I need to move up my timetable for getting the Mustang revamped. While pricing out parts last night I learned that R1Concept is no longer selling Hawk brake pads, they are pushing their own line that stops at Performance Sport. This is unfortunate. I am attempting to acquire actual hard data on their performance but I do not have high hopes. I also learned that Hawk has their own line of performance rotors but they don't sell them on their website and they do not compete on price with R1Concept. I almost bought a set of new calipers from R1, dual piston and shiny new, due to the sale they have going but couldn't justify the cost alongside parts I actuay need. My current plan is to rebuild/repaint some junkyard calipers or just rebuild the ones on the car. 

I've contacted Bruce over at TheGearbox to figure out what I need to properly replace the 5th gear shift fork and get 5th gear back. (I didn't know anyone still used aol) I have watched a couple videos and it looks like  I might be able to do the repairs without pulling the main shaft. That should simplify things a bit. 

I foresee a couple weekends of fab work to get my seating position worked out, we plan to cut the feet off a couple seat brackets and make them work with some additional angle iron. 

The last remaining big question is tires and I will have to choose between the R888Rs and RT615K+s

I still use Outlook so that's showing my age a little bit haha

Success!!

Trans is out and apart enough to assess 5th gear. The teeth are a bit chewed up and there is a LOT of play in the shaft for the fork that probably isn't helping. Fork appears fine but not sure how to fix the play. 

Looks like I'm going to be buying a new 5th gear, synchro to be safe, and a main seal while I have it apart. Anyone know how to fix/what causes play in that shaft? I'll load up a video shortly. 

Edited with a video showing the play in the fork linkage https://youtu.be/Ws4oST6k7EM

And a shot showing the state of 5th gear:

Getting an answer about why that rail is moving around has proved difficult. I'm not gonna spend time and money on parts if I can't fix that, so I might wind up putting the trans back in the car this weekend and call it a 4 speed with a self-destruct gear. Thank you Borg-Warner. 

MegaSquirts ain't cheap! And the customer service at diyautotune is.... lacking in service. So, to all my readers, (lol) does anyone have a reason I shouldn't get a Microsquirt and call it done? The price is more palatable and, for my needs, they seem to do the same thing. 

In reply to Error404 :

I ran a micro all summer from efi source on my turbo 4.8. Other than my frying it with a battery charger I've been very happy with it.

In reply to 1SlowVW :

That is good to know. I'm looking at the one from diyautotune, as much as their customer service is lacking I like their price. I also don't think I need everything that comes with the kit from efisource, since it runs with the oem ecu. I should just be able to splice in the micro, right?

In reply to Error404 :

You just want the micro to handle fuel and ignition, almost like a piggy back?

If you like customer service I will say that the back and forth I have had with EFI Source has been pretty positive. My micro is actual back there now for a second repair ( secondary damage that wasn't repaired the first time). While I did have to eat a little shipping (I'm in Canada) they are doing a goodwill repair. Also they have answered every email I've ever sent them in a timely manor, and mike there always picks up the phone. Just my two cents, it impressed me enough that despite the hiccups I bought a second system from them for an upcoming project.

In reply to 1SlowVW :

With a recommendation like that, I will definitely be taking another look at efisource. Thank you. 

I am looking for full replacement of the factory ecu/tcu combo since the tcu is giving me headaches and can't be cut out. I only need the ecu to run the engine and fan. Be nice if it would work with Torque Pro but I don't believe the squirts are OBD compatible.

The first half of my brake pad order came in today. Rear brake pads for a mustang are almost comically small. I actually chuckled a bit when I opened the box. 

On the plus side, HP+ pads come in a box that says Racing Disc Brake Pads, so that's cool. (Emphasis mine)

The goal for today, after taking yesterday to recover from a work function that ran very late is to get the new 5th gear assembly onto the transmission. It all came in on Thursday and I really needed to take yesterday off so this is the first chance I've had. Running short on weekends now but my Must Do list isn't too long either. The fun one is going to be making better seat brackets, that's going to be something.

I'll post a couple pics as I go, if I get anything worth snapping a pic of, that is. Bruce shipped me a used 5th, he disclosed that up front, so I think I'll give it a dunk in some Simple Green before rinsing clean and hosing with brake cleaner. I also need to filter my trans fluid (LiquiMoly ATF) since it's only a couple hundred miles old and I need to get some larger crud out of it from the draining process. Cheesecloth and a jug to the rescue!