1965 Mustang Coupe Build...

[digitalsolo]

For the purpose of showing gauge data, it'll work. ;) I have to have an Android setup, so I figured I'd rather a (sorta) cheap unit vs. 1000 dollar nice unit that will be outdated just as quickly. :D It's hilariously light, though, haha.

[Z06killinSBF]

Looking good! I like that layout for the console, came out clean.

[Project Bike Truck]

Wired up the glovebox mounted fuseboxes. The one on the left is power windows (2 relays per window) and the one on the right is the ancillary systems like HVAC, stereo, IGN+ controlled enablement of the power windows (runs the other fusebox), power door lock ECU power, CANbus ECU power, etc.):

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And the center console wiring, mostly done. There is a ton of stuff here. The center console contains:

1. Stereo, which has a USB CANbus adapter to read and display ECU information from my AEM Infinity using an AVR compatible microcontroller assembly and code I authored.
2. BMW E36/E39 window switches for all power windows, including an "all down" window switch.
3. BMW E36/E39 power door lock "unlock" button
4. AEM Trim Pot for fuel/boost map control.
5. "Billet Buttons" hazard button (lights up surround when active)
6. "Billet Buttons" traction control button (lights up when pressed, which disabled 3 channel traction control in the AEM)
7. A few spare connections for future use if needed (like signal when parking brake is set).

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And the center console progress. It's now fiberglassed, finished out and wrapped in leather-look vinyl. The top plate is aluminum and attaches with neodymium magnets. I don't have the armrest in place yet, but it will be shortly. The top plate will get painted black texture finish to match the dash/door panels/etc. The shifter boot isn't quite finished out yet and I still need to make one for the parking brake lever (as well as a handle for that).

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Looking at this E-brake set up I might go and put a handle in. I was thinking of doing the hidden electric one. Any reason why you went with the handle over the hidden one?

[digitalsolo]

I can modulate a manual e-brake handle as needed, and by feel. I can't get that with an electric unit. In my eyes, that makes the electric worse, while costing something like 20x the price this setup cost (20 dollars). If I was building a show car or something, I'd probably be fine with an electric, but I think for something I plan to track and use for who knows what, having the ability to use it as an e-brake, and not just a parking brake, seemed beneficial.

[1bad68cat]

Wired up the glovebox mounted fuseboxes. The one on the left is power windows (2 relays per window) and the one on the right is the ancillary systems like HVAC, stereo, IGN+ controlled enablement of the power windows (runs the other fusebox), power door lock ECU power, CANbus ECU power, etc.):

160365

And the center console wiring, mostly done. There is a ton of stuff here. The center console contains:

1. Stereo, which has a USB CANbus adapter to read and display ECU information from my AEM Infinity using an AVR compatible microcontroller assembly and code I authored.
2. BMW E36/E39 window switches for all power windows, including an "all down" window switch.
3. BMW E36/E39 power door lock "unlock" button
4. AEM Trim Pot for fuel/boost map control.
5. "Billet Buttons" hazard button (lights up surround when active)
6. "Billet Buttons" traction control button (lights up when pressed, which disabled 3 channel traction control in the AEM)
7. A few spare connections for future use if needed (like signal when parking brake is set).

160359

And the center console progress. It's now fiberglassed, finished out and wrapped in leather-look vinyl. The top plate is aluminum and attaches with neodymium magnets. I don't have the armrest in place yet, but it will be shortly. The top plate will get painted black texture finish to match the dash/door panels/etc. The shifter boot isn't quite finished out yet and I still need to make one for the parking brake lever (as well as a handle for that).

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Would you mind sharing where you got the glove box mounted fuse blocks from. I need a set for my power windows and auxiliaries as well.

[digitalsolo]

They are Littelfuse HWB60-W units, I bought from Waytek wire. :)

[1bad68cat]

They are Littelfuse HWB60-W units, I bought from Waytek wire. :)

Thank you digitalsolo.

[JayinMI]

And started building a center console! This is just construction foam and hot glue. I am going to wrap it in fiberglass, then sand/finish it and wrap it in vinyl/leather upholstery.

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I can modulate a manual e-brake handle as needed, and by feel.

It looks like the arm rest would make it hard to use the parking brake other than for parking. If you were trying to control a drift or something, it seems like the arm rest would in the way. But you can't really (or comfortably) go without an arm rest nowadays. Interesting idea about the center console, using foam as a base. Looks like it's coming out nice.


They are Littelfuse HWB60-W units, I bought from Waytek wire. :)

These are among the units I'm considering for my build when I get that far.

Jay

[sodak65]

looking great, whats that arm rest from??

[andrewb70]

.... whats that arm rest from??

Presumably so that he doesn't tip over and capsize.

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

looking great, whats that arm rest from??

Late model Mazda CX-3. I needed it because of the length + hinged so that it can move out of way of parking brake handle.

[andrewb70]

I totally misread that...LOL

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

I totally misread that...LOL

Andrew

I figured as much, haha!

[nitroracer]

I really like the way you are building that console. Its different than most of the attempts I've seen online. The foam would even be good for a template since it is so easy to shape.

[digitalsolo]

Thanks! I kinda thought it seemed an easy way to do it compared to most methods I'd seen.

Made a bit more progress on it this weekend:

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[MSTSFabbed]

I've been drooling over those seats for my 67 for a while now. They look awesome! Excellent work my friend!

[digitalsolo]

Thanks! I'm super pleased with the seats!

Also, good news, I have 100% of existing functionality working on a new integrated CANbus relay/fuse center. For those interested, I'm now using these:

https://www.waytekwire.com/item/46066/EATON-31M-000-2-Mulitplex-Vehicle-Electrical/

This replaces the old (similar) Eaton/Bussman fuse/relay center I had, but now utilizes an integrated J1939 CANbus 2.0B controller to fire the relays, a high side external relay controller and actively monitor all relays/fuses for faults, which is both badass and less failure prone than using an external box with a high side relay controller in it. It also gets rid of quite a bit of wiring. I'll eventually add the relay/fuse monitoring to a custom dash display in my RealDash/Arduino setup. Now I need to rip apart a bit of the wiring I'd already finished (phooey) and get this box mounted up and finished. Good news is it's not really all that much work, so I'll get it sorted out and ready shortly. This means that the old box I was using for control of the relays will get repurposed as the HVAC controller once I write that (I'll just hang the HVAC controls under the dash for now until I write that code/design that PCB).

Anywho, back to finishing the last of the wiring work and assembling the interior...

[jetmech442]

Thanks! I'm super pleased with the seats!

Also, good news, I have 100% of existing functionality working on a new integrated CANbus relay/fuse center. For those interested, I'm now using these:

https://www.waytekwire.com/item/46066/EATON-31M-000-2-Mulitplex-Vehicle-Electrical/

This replaces the old (similar) Eaton/Bussman fuse/relay center I had, but now utilizes an integrated J1939 CANbus 2.0B controller to fire the relays, a high side external relay controller and actively monitor all relays/fuses for faults, which is both badass and less failure prone than using an external box with a high side relay controller in it. It also gets rid of quite a bit of wiring. I'll eventually add the relay/fuse monitoring to a custom dash display in my RealDash/Arduino setup.

Hey Digital, I love how this car has come together, big fan. I checked out the Canbus relay center, thats a really solid piece. Being a thermal nerd, I just wanted to bring up that 185F max temp can be a little under target for underhood environments. I'm sure you've got a plan already, but would suggest keeping it out of fan blast and mostly off the firewall because during hot-shutdown cycles the thermal plume will envelop the component and cause issues.

On the other side, how does it work? I mean, do you train it to respond to a certain can message or do you have to send specific messages? Just curious as I'm digging into CANBus systems myself.

[digitalsolo]

Hey Digital, I love how this car has come together, big fan. I checked out the Canbus relay center, thats a really solid piece. Being a thermal nerd, I just wanted to bring up that 185F max temp can be a little under target for underhood environments. I'm sure you've got a plan already, but would suggest keeping it out of fan blast and mostly off the firewall because during hot-shutdown cycles the thermal plume will envelop the component and cause issues.

On the other side, how does it work? I mean, do you train it to respond to a certain can message or do you have to send specific messages? Just curious as I'm digging into CANBus systems myself.

Hey, I appreciate the concerns, I'm glad the forum is here to help make sure everything is thought of. :)

The boxes are located in the trunk and under the glovebox, aft of the HVAC system. If either of those places hit 185* F, I figure I've got other issues, LOL. The front stuff runs through a Deutsch DTM bulkhead in the wheel well area and run forward of the engine bay to the lights/horn/etc.

It is mostly preprogrammed. You can use pins to set a CANbus ID offset (so you can run multiple boxes with the same "base" ID for CANbus) or you can reprogram the "base" to a new value (or both if you want). Beyond that, you tell it which fuses/relays are populated (for warning/monitoring features) and then you use pre-programmed CAN messages (J1939-11 bus, Proprietary A for transmit/control/ack, B for monitoring) to control everything. It sounds worse than it is, I literally learned how to do deal with J1939 and control all of this crap, and write the code, in about 6-8 hours last weekend, and I'm not a developer by ANY means (I'm a Network Architect/Linux Systems Engineer with a EE/ECE background), haha. If you can write code it's pretty easy to deal with, and I'll put my code up on GitHub if you want to poke around at it.

[digitalsolo]

So... lots of changes/updates, I've been working on the car a ton, but haven't updated, my bad.

The neato Eaton boxes... are sitting in storage. I had an issue writing a configuration to it, and they lost their minds and Eaton wasn't super helpful, so whatever, they're on the shelf now, maybe I'll resurrect them sometime for a 3D printer or CNC machine, they're not going in a racecar. At least not the CANbus units anyway.

So, I ordered an ECUMaster PMU16 power distribution unit. All solid state, 16 channels, CANbus support, it's pretty sweet. That's installed, programmed and working and all chassis electronics, other than the horn, are working properly. The horn is being weird, something in the wiring for the button. Anyway, I'll sort that out later.

I've been upholstering and otherwise finishing interior panels. I wrapped the wheel tubs in marine grade vinyl upholstery (similar to stock Sierra grain vinyl) and the interior rear quarter trim pieces as well. Those are done now (not super fun I must say) and I'm working on installing them this week, along with finishing the glovebox (had to re-make that for HVAC tube clearance...) and the center console (painted the top cover).

I also finished the hood and installed it, and did an alignment. I put insurance on the car today, so it's (mostly) legal to drive! Need to get plates/registration, but the BMV is closed today. Next up is finishing the rest of the interior work (at least what I can finish without my seat from the upholsterer and my headliner), painting/installing side view mirrors and finishing the front bumper so that I can put it on. Hoping to start working on a street tune this week! Pretty excited as this has been... 4.5 years in the making.

[craigF]

Hi,
I've just finished reading you thread and all i can say is amazing. Would love to see how it finished up. I've been slowly doing mine over the last few years and i have certainly grabbed some ideas from your project.
how was the roof clearance with the Corbeau seat or did you use a one piece solid hoodlining?
Great build look forward to another post

[digitalsolo]

Since I'm not exactly concerned with historical accuracy, I did "pony" door handles on standard panels. Since the wood grain doesn't match anything else, I redid it in leather look vinyl instead:

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Comparing original and recovered:

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I've moved on to version.. I don't know, 5 or 6, of my chassis power management. ECUMaster PMU 16. This thing is SWEET. CANbus input and output, and relay/fuseless control of 16 circuits. It's great, and very easy to setup/use/wire up:

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Finally got around to cut/buffing the hood:

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And got most of the engine bay and front end put together:

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[digitalsolo]

And drove it outside for a few shots in some nice light:

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- - - Updated - - -


Hi,
I've just finished reading you thread and all i can say is amazing. Would love to see how it finished up. I've been slowly doing mine over the last few years and i have certainly grabbed some ideas from your project.
how was the roof clearance with the Corbeau seat or did you use a one piece solid hoodlining?
Great build look forward to another post

Thanks!

I lowered the seat brackets about 1.5" vs. stock, ran slim sliders (about 3/4" thick total) and I'm going to use a one piece headliner (don't have it yet). I have a ton of head clearance, I can put a helmet on and still clear by a couple inches (clear the metal roof panel I mean).

[JayinMI]

And got most of the engine bay and front end put together:

163344

Did you misspell Coyote on purpose?

Jay

[andrewb70]

TT...twin turbo...I get it.

[digitalsolo]

That’s not how you spell Coyote? ;)

Andrew has it. My plate is COYOTT, also (couldn’t do the E).

[JayinMI]

That makes sense. Didn't get it at first but I figured there was a reason for it.

Jay

[pinebox]

Looks great, nice work!

[digitalsolo]

TMI Headliner installed:

164423

Rear seat custom upholstered to match the front:

164427

Front interior mostly completed:

164425

Front/rear seats for comparison:

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[wfo guy]

Gettin' close. :)

[Billf67]

Man this thing is sweet and I'm digging all the little details on it! Where'd you found those flush mount hex bolts at?

[digitalsolo]

Thanks!

They're just generic hex bolts with aluminum countersink washers. I think I got the washers from Allstar Performance and the bolts are from McMaster-Carr.

[nmcqueen469]

Well hello there...

[MSTSFabbed]

This is just so good...
That back seat turned out killer!!

I think I may have missed it, but what did you do for blacking out exterior trim? Powdercoat, vinyl, paint? It looks fantastic.

[digitalsolo]

Thanks!

Exterior trim is scuffed/primed/painted. :)

[windsor]

You, sir, are a savage!

[jaybee]

That is one REALLY sweet early Mustang!

[digitalsolo]

Out at the local cruise in spot:

165524

I've been working on tuning and such, and troubleshooting the "fresh build" issues. So far here's been the biggest problems:

1. Suspension was set a little too low after my tire change (as in above picture). I kissed the skid plate (glad I made that!) on a big/fast dip in the road, though just BARELY. It's now been raised 1/2" up front and 3/4" out back.
2. That low suspension in the rear combined with the sway bar end links disagreed heavily with my fuel lines. End links exactly lined up and on that same dip, flatted both fuel lines. I honestly have no idea how it was even running! Going to relocate them slightly to resolve.
3. Same issue as above, I didn't have axle bumps on the rear to control movement. Ordered a set of poly bumps to put in and resolve the issue.
4. Electric power steering has been acting wonky. It "yanked" to the left once, and was harder to turn one way vs. the other. I'm pretty sure that I had a wire loose/unhappy in it. I tore it down and rebuilt it yesterday with much better quality work on the wiring extensions. Hopefully that clears up the issue. I'll test it this week and see.

Beyond that, it's been pretty well behaved. Tuning has been fun; I chased my tail on a few things with the VE that I couldn't explain, primarily an oscillating AFR between 1 point rich/1 point lean at low load which caused a little bit of temperature creep. Turned out to be VVT activation at that point, so I adjusted/smoothed the roll up of the cam and that cleared that right up. Once I get the fuel lines replaced and the EPAS fixed, I'll get back to tuning. :)

[digitalsolo]

A little more work on the car:

I got a good deal on a 2018+ intake manifold, which is quite a bit better than my '13 truck piece, so I snagged that and installed it. Charge pipes needed a little rework as it moves the throttle body a bit, so I cut 'em up and redid them some. They'll get re-coated this winter. Strut brace is a little close for comfort on the taller '18+ unit as well, so I'll make some scallops for clearance this winter on that also.

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I decided I didn't like my fuel system, so I built a new one. Fuel Safe fuel cell (22 gallon) with a Nuke Performance Fuel Cell Surge Tank (FCST). If you're not familiar it's a surge tank with two pumps in it (and a 3rd lift pump) that's integrated into the fuel cell cover. Pretty trick.

I had some small issues when I got it, with having WAY too much pump. I had a 450lph lift pump and 2x 380lph pumps in the surge, all running at once, and it as heating up my fuel once it got down to 1/2 tank or less. Now I have a 190lph lift pump and I staged the 380lph pumps in the surge tank so that one only turns on at WOT or >3000 RPM. I plan on redoing the hard lines to teflon soft lines in the future as I don't care for the fragility of the hard lines now that I've already made them. Oh well.

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[andrewb70]

Blake, remind me again, is this a stock internals engine?

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

Blake, remind me again, is this a stock internals engine?

Andrew

Andrew,

For the moment, yes. I plan on doing a forged bottom end and Boss cams eventually.

[andrewb70]

Thanks!

[digitalsolo]

So, long time no post, but mostly because of other projects.

The car is in storage for the winter at a friend's house, because his car is in my garage (his car being a 1995 Z28 that I'm putting a Toyota 2JZ into, aiming for 1100 RWHP...).

While the car is sleeping, I'm preparing some projects:

1. 3" dual exhaust, car has dual 2.5" right now. This will be all TIG welded stainless with 4x Magnaflow (style) straight through mufflers on it. The current 2.5" setup has 2x resonators, so I'm hoping to quiet it down -AND- improve flow.
2. Faster steering rack. The current rack is a manual rack (since I have EPAS), and I'm going to put a faster power ratio rack in it to reduce the required steering wheel movement.
3. New engine management. I'm going away from the AEM Infinity and moving to a Haltech Elite 2500. This step has a few details related...

Regarding the new engine management:

The Haltech will move me to LSU 4.9 sensors (minor thing) and some (IMHO) improved ECU functions. One of the nice things is it outputs OBDII CAN data, so I can simply send that directly to my RealDash gauges instead of having to custom code a translation application for it. It's a minor thing, but it saves me some effort, which is nice. Along with this, I'm going to be building a brand new engine harness with a full race-spec build. So all Tefzel wiring, concentric twist, potting all the OE sensors and moving to Deutsch DTM for those, DR25, yada yada. I'll break out the engine harness into a few subharnesses to make later work easier, but hopefully this will mark the last engine harness rebuild on the car, haha. It'll also give me a chance to clean up the under dash stuff a little, as I have a few systems there that grew "organically" as the system was fleshed out, so I'll be able to improve integration and remove some complexity there.

I'll have updates as things go along and I plan to share some of my design documentation and methods for those that are interested.

[andrewb70]

Big plans. Please take tons of pictures of the upgrades!

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

The forum keeps choking on my posts... weird.

Anway, here's the list of goodies from Haltech:

Haltech Elite 2500
2x CAN I/O Expansion Modules (A and B)
CAN Dual Wideband
CAN Hub
IC7 Digital Dashboard
DTM IAT Sensors (pre and post intercooler)
DTM Oil Temp Sensor

Also converting my previous single wire temperature and can style resistance pressure Speedhut gauges to dual wire and transducer.

Here's the ECU:

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The dash:

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And a whole bunch of wiring stuff:

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The CAN expander and wideband O2 stuff isn't here yet.

The harness will be bulkheads (like before) at the firewall, all m22759/32 wiring (18/20/22 gauge) with fully shielded runs for all VR and Hall sensors, plus knock, and any OE sensors will either be potted and converted to DTM or Deutsch Autosport or have subharnesses made that tie the stock plugs to those for future servicability. I'm also breaking the ignition coils and injectors into separate harnesses per bank to make them easy to modify in the future if needed. Finally, I'm adding a few more sensors like radiator pressure, turbo outlet temperature and oil temperature (for ECU). I'm also prepping it for 8 channel EGT in the future.

Along with the wiring work, I'm going to redo the exhaust, and get the front swaybar installed properly (old setup took too much steering angle away). I'm planning to move the swaybar back and just fabricate some arms that clear everything since they'll have to snake around a bit of stuff. I also want to get wheel sensors in the front wheels for traction control and maybe do some prep work to put an MK60 ABS system on the car next winter. Oh, and get the A/C working! And maybe change to a variable speed sensing setup for the EPAS. Oh, and I want to get an S1 Sequential shifter conversion on the TR6060. This is an expensive hobby. LOL

[andrewb70]

Wow...I see a lot of money just in the wiring stuff from ProWire!

Looking forward to more updates!

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

Since I'm not using my homemade CANbus system to control the electrical system anymore (I have an ECUmaster PMU16 if you recall), I have an empty mounting cage under the dash that was used for those boxes previously. Well I have some Haltech I/O expander boxes that need a place to live, so I re-purposed the old bracket to hold them:

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These are 2x (A and B) CAN I/O Expanders and a CAN hub from Haltech. I'm starting work on the various adapter harnesses that interconnect from my main engine bay harness to the sensors that can't be terminated with proper race-spec sealing and that I don't feel like potting right now. I'm making progress on the 2JZ Camaro Z28 I'm building for my friend, which will hopefully be out of my possession soon enough and I can get my car back and get started on the full rewire.

[JayinMI]

All this electronics stuff is what really does it for me. It seems like nowadays any 12 year old can swap an LS into some non-GM based car,
but what really sets some of these swaps apart (for me anyway) are things like data integration and factory gauge retention type stuff.
I was really interested in your homemade BCM project, I'll be watching this "upgrade" with great interest.

Jay

[digitalsolo]

Reworking the gauges for new oil pressure and coolant temp units:

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Should have a ton more progress over the next 8-10 weeks. :)

[digitalsolo]

Working on the wiring harness.

First layer is shielded 2/3 pair stuff for VR and hall sensors:

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Then 18 gauge for injector/coils/etc. Red is 12V IGN, black is ground, blue is control signals and violet is filler.

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Then all the 22 gauge for sensors, various control leads, etc. White is signals, green is sensor ground, gray is 5V ref.

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And finally wrapped/sealed in DR25/SCL/Raychem boots/epoxy:

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This is the main harness for the driver side. Passenger side has a similar one then this breaks out into small harnesses that do various things. The idea is to make future changes easier to deal with by using the sub harness layout. It also allows this main harness to be 100% sealed up, since some of the sub harnesses use OEM connectors that I can't easily boot unless I want to pot/convert the sensors to DTM or AS connectors (and I'm not going to do that now, other than the DBW throttle body).

[digitalsolo]

So next up was getting my exhaust cleaned up. These are cast steel "Ford Performance" manifolds that I modified. I picked up a method from a friend a while back of creating the short flange adapters (or just up pipes in this case), then bolting them to the manifold and TIG'ing the whole thing together so that it's solid/doesn't leak. The bolt then weld setup means that the load is distributed well and helps take some onus off of the TIG welds at the flange to the cast part. Anyway, they were originally shot in VHT 2000*, but the storage facility I had my car at all winter was very humid and caused some surface rust, so I figured it was a good time to get them coated properly at a local place. This is their ceramic 2500* coating in satin black, before and after:
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Next up is the engine bay starting to come together. Wiring is in place on the driver side coils/injectors/DBW throttle body, plus the leads that run under the intake for the cam/crank/knock/etc. sensors on the rear/valley:

174091

And next, I wanted to put a Haltech IC7 in where the OE radio was, so I designed a bracket and 3D printed it on my big CoreXY machine I designed. This was a pretty complex part to get the CAD right on, but it fits like a glove!

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And here's where it goes:

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[andrewb70]

Blake,

You're doing an amazing job! I am definitely going to attempt this when I do my next project!

Andrew

[wfo guy]

Looks great. I'm thinking there is quite a bit of money in all the wiring. :)

[70CougarXr7]

Sharp looking car, love that you did some things which are really not original on the car. ( rear lights for example).

Biggest thing i like is interior, big fan of nice interiors :).
Look like comfy seats!

And those door handles, was very close of putting them in my car...

[digitalsolo]

Thanks guys! The seats are great, I really like them a lot! I'm SUPER happy with how the interior came out. I'm hoping to finish the last few details in it this spring/summer and it should be just about perfect for my needs/goals.

The wiring was... well it wasn't cheap. I think materials were around 2200 dollars for everything in the chassis for wiring. Hopefully it's the last time I have to touch 95% of it though!

[blade]

Really awesome build! The work you've done on the wiring and electronics is amazing.

[digitalsolo]

Redid the in-trunk fuel lines, and the main battery fuse.

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[andrewb70]

Blake,

What's that little box between the fuel pump relays? Looks like a little power distribution module.

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

Single in, dual out fusebox. It's either an Eaton or a Littelfuse part.

[digitalsolo]

Some updates!

First off, S1 Sequential shifter setup for the TR6060. This is a really slick piece and I'm very pleased with it so far.

Laid out:

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In the car:

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And trimmed up in the center console:

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New exhaust system (dual 3" with a 2" crossover h-pipe). MUCH happier with the sound on this vs. my old true dual 2.5" setup. More mellow, less dB and much less drone.

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I was having a ton of issues with my cam sensors. It turned out to be a bent pin in the connector, humorously caused by me TESTING the sensors. Doh. Anyway, it's fixed now. If you're curious, here's what the "square wave" hall effect output of a Coyote intake cam sensor looks like on a scope. If you notice the "soft" rise and hard fall (curved rise and very sharp, square drop) that's why you use a trailing sense on these, you get a more accurate signal.

177610

And finally, the Haltech IC7 mounted up on the dash, and the mock up of the center console HVAC controls and dual trim pots for traction and boost maps.

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[digitalsolo]

And a little more center console fab. The black 3d printed trim pot surround will get remade in billet aluminum soon(ish) and the whole center console lid is likely going to be redone in forged carbon with some rework of the rear e-brake setup (might do a Tesla electric parking brake, not sure yet) and a few other details, but it's at least usable now.

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Next up is some fuel system rework. I dropped my dual pump setup for a single Deatschwerks DW440 LPH brushless with a PWM controller run by the Haltech. This is fed 18V from the MSD 2351 voltage booster:

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And then a VR pickup for front wheel speed, run off of the 2 piece rotor hat bolts. I'm still testing this, but I think it will work well for me to enable traction control:
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And finally, a quick release fire extinguisher mount, because fire bad:

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Current projects are:

Finishing air conditioning (I'm ALMOST there on this I think).
Redo electric power steering with new torque-feedback ECU controller to make it less... twitchy... on the highway.
Fix knock sensors (they aren't reading)
Finish front sway bar
Finish center console
Tune traction control
Tune E85
Turn up the boost

[andrewb70]

Blake,

Amazing work. What are you currently doing for the EPAS?

[digitalsolo]

Blake,

Amazing work. What are you currently doing for the EPAS?

Thanks Andrew!

I have a Saturn EPAS with the "Gen 1" "Bruno" kit. Basically it's adjustable with a pot on the dash. That's annoying, so I'm planning on just snagging their V2 kit that uses the torque sensor on the EPAS ECU to control boost based on closed loop torque sense feedback. I like it around town now, but it's super over-boosted at >50 MPH with the setting that makes it useful in a parking lot.

They actually have a line you can ground for the newer "automatic" kit that lowers the boost even more, so I will likely run that to a spare output on my EPAS and ground it above say 55 MPH to be sure that assist is off or VERY minimal at speed.

[wickedwood]

What did u do to clean off the aluminum block, and what acid did u use? Great work!

[digitalsolo]

I used "NAPA Aluminum Brightener"

[jaybee]

I missed some of your earlier updates. I see it gets really tight around the trans mount. Things are really busy there with the the u joint, trans mount, exhaust, torque arm, and chassis stiffening crossmember.

[wfo guy]

I love the use of technology. Are you planning on a dyno trip to tune the car?

[digitalsolo]

So, I've not updated this in a minute, but the car has gotten a lot of work (and a bunch more in progress). I'll try to get pictures together shortly, but the list is:

Completed Updates/Changes:



Transmission was having issues in 3rd, so it went to Tick for an entire "full tilt" build with everything worn replaced, everything upgraded to 3 pad billet forks, updated synchros, carbon blockers, cryo treatment, micro polish, yada yada. Shifts fantastic now.

Battery was swapped to an Odyssey after having my 3rd Optima die (with their fancy charger, keeping it tended, etc...). The Odyssey is smaller and lighter and has been fantastic for >12 months. Very happy with it.

Tesla Model S electric parking brake calipers were installed. I never liked the Wilwood "hat" style parking brake, and I like to overcomplicate things, so I have a set of Tesla Model S parking brakes on the rear now. They're managed by an ECUMaster H-Bridge that just uses a time/current drive to push them to closed and release them, and I built a small microcontroller on the CAN network that tracks status and sets the indicator for "parking brake set" on the IC7 dashboard. It's all controlled by...

Haltech 15 position CANbus keypad. This is mounted in the center console and runs a bunch of functions. Namely cruise control (FINALLY), A/C, parking brake, EPAS override (so I can lower assist or disable it if I wish), traction control, etc.

I've also completely redone the electrical system. Again. The old ECUMaster PDU is gone (I loved it, but Haltech has some that integrate into their system now). I now have a Haltech Nexus R5 under the dash for the engine management and power for everything in the front half of the car, and a Haltech Nexus PD16 (PDM) in the trunk that runs everything back there.

"Blinkstop" wireless steering wheel controls with CANbus. I added these this spring for turn signal controls after the OEM style Ford steering wheel cancel mechanism broke and half jammed up my steering. No thanks on that. This is a racecar style button plate with 4x buttons, I use them as headlights, left/right turn signals and horns. It uses a small receiver to put the data on CANbus and I added functionality to my microcontroller to intercept these CAN messages and spoof being a second Haltech keypad, so that the Haltech can receive these messages and run the functions properly.

Turbochargers have been upgraded from the On3 journal bearing units with .81 A/R housings to similar sized VS Racing dual ball bearing units with billet compressor wheels and 1.01 A/R housings, to make sure I'm not choking the exhaust up high.

Power window controls have been totally redone. Previously I had a relay bank (8x relays for 4x windows) that ran them. Now I have Pontiac G8 controllers that are run off the BMW switches I had before. These give me one touch down functions and are a LOT cleaner setup. They're easier to mount as well, so I moved them under a plate behind the glovebox, allowing the glovebox to be the central point for my CAN network, which is helpful when I need to access things.

Lots of minor things, all of my generic "ebay" transducers have been replaced with either "WHP" or "Low Doller Motorsports" pieces that don't randomly die on me. Fuel lines have been redone with PTFE everywhere, etc.


That's the "Done" list. There's also the "WIP" list...

Engine is getting some upgrades, all reliability stuff.
For reference, the starting point is:
2013 Coyote (F150) - ~35k miles
ARP head studs, cam tower bolts, phaser bolts, balancer bolt
Boss 302R valve springs/retainers
Billet Oil Pump Gears
Innovators West crank pulley/balancer

Upgrades coming:
2020 GT500 Oil Pan/High Volume Pump
New MMR billet gears for that ^
MMR Billet main timing gear
MMR billet timing guides
MMR billet rear cover
MMR billet reluctor wheel
MMR billet secondary chain tensioner relocation bracket
MMR coolant crossover mod
MMR oil crossover mod
Comp Camps HD timing chain set
Ford Racing Boss/Cobrajet chain tensioner set

Hoping that keeps it all in happy condition. Next year I might do a forged bottom end and some bigger cams, but we'll see. The ~650 RWHP it makes now is more than enough for the chassis. Oh, yeah, the chassis...

Chassis Upgrades Coming:
I have never been very happy with the Mustang II based setup I put in the car years ago, and I think something in the setup is (slightly) mis-aligned at the mounts, so it's always a struggle to dial the alignment in perfectly. So I'm cutting the front of the car off (mostly).

I'm putting in a Speedway Motors "G-Comp" front subframe kit. This includes an entire subframe that will get welded in place of what was there before, and then everything forward of it, below the aprons/core support I'm going to just fabricate out of round tube to pull some weight out and improve clearance overall. The G-Comp kit uses a C6 style knuckle and C6 hubs, which I'm re-drilling for 5x4.5 to match my rears. I ordered new hats for my 2 piece brake rotors to fit these properly and I'll fabricate new brackets on the knuckles to take my Wilwood 6 piston calipers from the old setup.

It has a DSE power rack (so the ratio I want) which I will de-power to run via my EPAS, and I've got a set of single adjustable QA1s coming (DS401) for coilovers.

I think that catches up on the last... 2 years. I'll snag some photos shortly. :)

[digitalsolo]

Fired it up on the Nexus ECU today. I had a few minor brain farts, but once I cleared those from the air it fired right up and idles great. Now to tear it all apart for the suspension work...

[andrewb70]

Blake,

Great to se some progress on this build. Are you using a Freewheel transmitter for anything? I was looking at their website and was thinking of using them for paddle shifting my 4L80.

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

Hey Andrew!

Yessir, I've got their steering wheel button setup with the transmitter, and then the can receiver hacked into the Haltech. I briefly considered their paddle setup and putting pneumatics on my sequential shifter, but decided that was complicated, even for me.

[digitalsolo]

Old suspension removed:

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Plated in the rear "framerail" end and trimmed the new subframe to fit. This is mocked in place. I'll get everything installed and check alignments, etc. then tack it in, double check it, then fully weld, plate and gusset it all up. It should look relatively OEM when finished. The shock tower openings will get close-out plates to clean that area up a little also. I expect I'll need to clearance... several things.... once I am ready to set the engine in and sort out engine mounts and turbo plumbing.

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I'm reusing the brake rotors from the old Mustang II spindle setup on the C6 hubs, with new Wilwood hats. I'll modify the caliper brackets from the kit on the mill to make them more useful for this setup, then weld some bosses to the C6 knuckles to mount it all up. I need to add my wheel speed sensors on each side also.

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[andrewb70]

Who made the new suspension?

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

It's a Speedway "G-Comp" system with the "Unser" knuckle/hub upgrade (fabricated C6 Corvette pieces).

I'm re-drilling C6 wheel hubs for 5x114.3.

[andrewb70]

It's a Speedway "G-Comp" system with the "Unser" knuckle/hub upgrade (fabricated C6 Corvette pieces).

I'm re-drilling C6 wheel hubs for 5x114.3.

Why did you choose it over so many options that are on the market?

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

It seems to be well proven in quite a few Auto-X cars, the design lent itself well to where I needed clearance, and the pricing was excellent.

The DSE Aluma-frame was on my short list, but the design would definitely not clear my turbo layout, which made it a ton more work. It was also 3x the price. The Mustangs To Fear setup looked interesting, but they wanted WAY too much money for it. Same was true for most of the other stuff I looked at, I either had major issues with some part of the design or the pricing (or both).

[andrewb70]

It seems to be well proven in quite a few Auto-X cars, the design lent itself well to where I needed clearance, and the pricing was excellent.

The DSE Aluma-frame was on my short list, but the design would definitely not clear my turbo layout, which made it a ton more work. It was also 3x the price. The Mustangs To Fear setup looked interesting, but they wanted WAY too much money for it. Same was true for most of the other stuff I looked at, I either had major issues with some part of the design or the pricing (or both).

Thanks for the explanation!

Andrew

[anangryford]

Looks really good. I will be following. I have the same suspension that you took out except I didn't modify it. It's okay but I was debating Griggs or Cortex. If this goes well it could save me a bunch of money. Keep the updates coming and keep up the good work! Miss you over at VMF.

[MSTSFabbed]

I was just thinking about this car the other day! Thanks for the update, good to see you’re still having fun with it. You do some killer work!

[digitalsolo]

Making progress, slowly.

Forgive the first picture, didn't realize it was 90* off until I uploaded it, and didn't feel like fighting with the attachment manager.

Anywho, progress thus far: Subframe is aligned and installed. Forward upper plates are in, as are lower plates on the passenger side, and endplates on both. These plates make a kind of "parallelogram" of the two frames, stock and added. They run the entire front length with seam welds, which were then lightly dressed off with a flap disc to make sure everything is smooth.

The rear of the "front" (toward the control arm pickup points) is just boxed in then a fillet is welded to smooth the transitions. The actual rear of the new subframe is butted up and will get gusseted to the factory frame and then fish plates over top of that to make sure it's rock solid.

The front will get a (probably removable) lower bracket that will support the bottom of the radiator and the oil cooler, as well as providing a point for undertray mounting to control airflow.

Finally, I'm going to build a new set of "save your ass bars" that will run from the aft crossmember on the new subframe to the some big heavy tube I welded to the stock subframe under the car (where my lift points for a lift are). These will be (probably) 1.5" round tube that I'll bend up to stay clear of the turbos and such, and will provide some additional triangulation, but mostly be a spot to mount a big, thick aluminum skid plate under the nose, as the lowest point is the turbos/cast aluminum oil pan, and those are all ~4" off the pavement, so a skid plate is a MUST on the car.

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[digitalsolo]

Making progress. I've got a few days off this week, hoping to make quite a bit more progress. Going to add fish plates to this section over top of the gussets to tie it in heavily. No kill like overkill...

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[andrewb70]

You're making great progress!

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

Subframe installed!

Next up is upgrading timing components and oil pan/pump in the Coyote, then clearancing for the pan and alternator (and maybe turbos, we will see), then engine mounts…

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[andrewb70]

Like!

[digitalsolo]

Upgrades for my Coyote. MMR guides and secondary chain tensioner flip. Comp Cams HD chains, Boss 302R tensioners, MMR billet lower sprocket, MMR rear cover upgrade, MMR coolant and oil crossovers, MMR billet reluctor, GT500 pump with MMR billet gears, GT500 pan. ARP hardware throughout.


Engine already has Boss 302R valve springs, ARP bolts on the cam towers and phasers, and ARP head studs.


I need to clearance the pan a little for the turbos tomorrow, then I can put the clutch back in, install the trans and start measuring for subframe clearances.


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[andrewb70]

You've been busy!

Happy New Year, Blake!

[digitalsolo]

Thanks, you too Andrew!

[digitalsolo]

Turbo clearance to the oil pan was less problematic than I expected, though I'll know "for sure" once it's all in the car.

The driver side on the oil pan needed a small notch, and I won't be able to mount filters directly to the turbos now, but I should be able to fabricate a little bit of tubing to get them somewhere in the same general area they were before. I have more subframe clearance in front of the turbos now vs the old setup, so that should help.

I also setup a mount for my Turbosmart oil pressure regulator, which holds turbo oil pressure to 40 psi to prevent blowing oil past the seals. I've had issues with it as the Coyote makes big oil pressure, and I'm adding an even gnarlier pump with the GT500 setup, so. It also has a small inline filter. While I was in the area, I redid the oil lines from the remote filter adapter block to make them a little less tortuous than the old setup.

The engine mounts are mocked up, but I expect they're about 3" too wide on each side (I knew this when I bought them) but i'll check once the engine goes in. I plan to just trim them a bit, and add a little more plating where they'll end up. For the pricing, it was cheaper/easier to just modify these vs. building my own. The chassis will get little towers that are just barely off the "frame rails" with a hole on top and the engine will drop down on top of them with poly mounting "biscuits" above/below. Isolated effectively and dead easy to install/remove. It also means I'll be able to easy slide the engine 6" forward by pulling the cooling system and a few bolts if I need to service things on the back in the future, that SUCKED with my old mounts...

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[jaybee]

That's going to be a fast little car!

[digitalsolo]

Engine mounts are (mostly) built and are (heavily) tacked into position. Transmission mount is also completed. I need to sort out cooling system mounts for my new radiator/oil cooler, sort out oil drain/scavenge for the turbos, and sanity check how the charge pipe clearance looks. Once that's all validated/finished, I'll tear it all apart, finish the bracing on the engine mounts, final weld it, and prep/paint.

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[staffy]

Great project, just started reading it. giving my good inspiration for my ‘68 fastback project

[digitalsolo]

Progress!

Shocks and knuckles are just mocked up, as I'm getting slightly longer and heavier springs, and I need my custom brake caliper brackets to come in from Send Cut Send so that I can weld them on and finish that out, but the rest is "final" installed.

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I also changed out the firewall pass throughs to use quick disconnect cables instead of the previous cable gland setup:

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[andrewb70]

Nice work, Blake!

[MSTSFabbed]

Looking good! I like how you have the plumbing tucked into the back corners of the firewall. Very clean.

I’ll be interested to see what you think of that front clip. I haven’t heard much about it before.

[digitalsolo]

Thanks all!

The tucked plumbing was required as the engine is literally up against the firewall. I have 1/8" from the rearmost point of the engine (MMR oil crossover) to the firewall, so it's SNUG. Looking nice was a good side effect though! :D

I'm finishing installing my custom brake caliper brackets (adapting Wilwood 6 pots to Corvette style knuckles) tonight, then I need to drill/tap my exhaust manifolds for EGT sensors (adding 8x EGTs for tuning, mostly because I'm curious of cylinder/cylinder behavior). Hoping to reinstall in the engine this weekend. Once that's done I still need to:

1. Build new lower radiator hose
2. Build radiator shrouding for sides of radiator
3. Build skid plates and lower radiator shroud
4. Finish mounts for radiator fan
5. Build "hot side" of the charge pipes
6. Finish turbo oil feeds
7. Update exhaust between turbos and mid-pipes under car
8. Touch up a few wires under the hood
9. Install bracket for hydraulic hand brake
10. Plumb hydraulic hand brake
11. Build new center console to clear hydraulic hand brake
12. A bunch of stuff I'm forgetting on this list...

[anangryford]

Back together yet?

[digitalsolo]

Yep. About 20 miles on it so far.

[anangryford]

Awesome! Update us when you can please.