2005 Mustang GT "Dark Ace" build thread

[JCON]

Back in August, I sold my beloved 05 V6 vert pictured below, for the same amount that I bought it for a few years ago (exact same price, had about $1500 in mods on it). Had 55k miles on it and no problems at all.

In September, and after months of searching and test driving. I found what I was looking for. My search took me to six states and then ended in Manassas, VA. Where I found.... (the cover was mine, which I kept from my old S197)

Where I found a 2005 Mustang GT convertible, 5-speed, red leather interior, and 38,000 miles.

When purchased, the car came with:

Ford Bullit grille

Smoke tails
Mac Boomtube resonators

http://youtu.be/o3evDBo8R98?hd=1

Cervinis side scoops
20" chrome American Racing Shelby Redline
Toyo Proxes 4 tires- 255 front, 295 rear

From here, I knew I wanted to eventually add navigation and needed to be able to use my iPod/iPad 2/ iPhone 4S. So I added a Pioneer 4300DVD with a the 5V regulator and the relay bypass to use video while moving.

I also bought an OEM throotlebody that was ported and polished by Jerry Strannigan. His bench tests say 12-13% higher flow. I don't know about actual power but response picked up a noticeable amount and my gas mileage (with no other changes to the car or driving style and driving the speed limit on the highway, I can average 27-28mpg.)

I also cleaned up the engine bay a little

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Now on to other mods:

Installed the DG Customs grille. Came with upper, lower, horn relocation, and hidden foglight brackets. This was before I installed the fog lights.

After the lights are in

American Muscle strut tower brace - felt a difference in cornering and especially drive way entrance, less creaking from the front of the car now. I also added the plenum cover

JLT catch can

Mac longtubes after ceramic coating

homemade engine ground kit

and a dyno of my car on April 21, 2012 with just Mac Boomtubes installed

and I have webelectric sequencers

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Parts waiting to be installed are:

Mac ceramic coated longtube headers
Mac ProChamber
SLP highflow cats (for emissions)
CHE k-member brace with torque limiters
Prothane Bullet motor mounts
Steeda tubular radiator support

I will keep updating this thread as the build progresses

 

[Flapjack]

Why did you make custom grounds? Were you having electrical issues?

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[AbdullaGT500]

Very nice! Our cars are twins! Do you still have the Bullitt grille??

 

[JCON]

I made the engine harness because I have been having a ghostly failsafe issue which regularly gives me the following codes (every time the MIL turns on which is 75% of the failsafes, it's happened probably 20 times since October):

P061B
P2106

It throws one of these two codes in conjunction with the above maybe 50% of the time

P0446
P151A

and one time when it failsafe'd I got these:
P0446
P2106
P061B
P151A
P201
P202
P203
P204
P205
P206
P207
P208

All of these led me to believe I had a bad ground causing bad readings. After installing the harness last weekend, it immediately failsafe'd 3 times in the first mile of driving and then hasn't in over a week.

I don't have CMDP's and have not had fill issues or fuel pressure related codes yet. I will start a new thread about this to see what comes up. I have been fighting this issue since my stock battery died and I replaced it with a Duralast Gold. The first 3 failsafes actually came immediately after pulling away after I installed the battery. My ECU voltage reads above 13V, battery at 12.1-12.4 when off, and 13-14v when car is running. This new battery has never died on me.

Abdulla, I sold the bullet grille when I switched to the billet one.

 

[Flapjack]

The reason I asked is that I add a few grounds trying to troubleshoot an issue with ETC codes that seem to present for no reason. Sometimes, I get P2101 and P2110, and sometimes I get P2104 and P0000 in addition to the first. There is no rhyme or reason to it, and I've replaced everything but the PCM, which I'll do as soon as I can get ahold of one.

I didn't have a battery die, but it was pretty low at one point. I just did an engine swap and accidentally left it in gear while tying to start the car with no hydraulic pressure to separate the clutch. Blew the main fuse on my positive battery cable and have been having those codes ever since.

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[warrior86]

just wanted to comment on a good musical selection. Nothing like Metal! I got the same Pioneer too! haha

 

[JCON]

Flapjack, I am certain my issues are electrical at this point. Just can't pinpoint the cause. I started a thread related to my issues here: http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82609

 

[Flapjack]

Flapjack, I am certain my issues are electrical at this point. Just can't pinpoint the cause. I started a thread related to my issues here: http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82609

I saw your thread. I'll read it fully in a few minutes. I'd be surprised if our problems were not somehow related....

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[JCON]

There was a mobile dyno in town Saturday (4/20/13) at the Pepboys Car Show so I put my car on. The car's only performance changes are: Mac longtubes, Mac ProChamber, Bassani Race mufflers, and 4.10 gears.

The car was dynoed with just 4.10 gears and 87 octane last year (4/21/12) to get a baseline. Stock numbers were 270 RWHP and 292 RWTQ. Dyno below:

It was then dyno'ed with the above mentioned parts installed and 87 octane again. With exhaust, numbers were 283 RWHP and 296 RWTQ. Dyno below:

Below is a table of the changes in performance. I made a mistake in the most recent dyno in not having them start at the same RPM so the data is not as accurate as it could be but, the basic story is yes, I lost some low end torque but were the runs to start at the same time, I would expect it to be single or low double digit losses (not 31% as pictured).

I picked up peak gains of 13rwhp and 4rwtq. Non-peak max gains were 13rwhp and 13rwtq. The average was 3% gain in power across the rpm band from 2,600 to 6,100 rpms.

Because I didn't ask for the run file from last year (and the shop hasn't sent it to me, only a screen print of the run) I used excel to plot the data so you can see an over lay:

I knew that most of us knew that a full exhaust isn't going to post major gains by itself but it is a building block for a stronger car. Before now, I never could find a dyno on just these parts (mostly because it just isn't very cost efficient to do a dyno after each round of mods) but here is the proof I was waiting for. So for all of you in the future, you should be able to better determine where to spend money and what to expect from it. Using a 91-93 octane tune would have likely netted me another 5rwhp and 5rwtq but I just remembered that I didn't even think to switch it (although not sure how great a canned 93 tune would have been).

The next round will be Steeda Charge Motion Delete Plates, Steeda Under Drive Pulleys, WMS High Velocity Intake, and an 87 and 93 octane tune.

Here is the exhaust only dyno video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnOyQDY6-zI