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Rio Red 98 GT Build

24K views 262 replies 15 participants last post by  JonR2006 
#1 ·
JonR started his build thread and beat me to the punch.
OK, so as promised Im starting up on my build thread. For the sake of history I have to give a little back story on the car, so the beginning of the thread will be kind of slow going but I will try to get up to speed as soon as possible. On to the story. I came home from my first tour in Afghanistan in 2011, around March time. I bought my first mustang in august. It was a 2002 GT. Bought it from a shady car lot, needed tires, clutch, heater core, all kinds of crap but it looked cool and sounded great and it was a mustang. Car came with a 30 day drivetrain warranty. When I found out it needed a clutch I took it back to the guy and it sat at his shop for 2 weeks. I finally said F**K you and took the car back and did my own clutch. Then the 32nd day of owning it the car overheated and shut off. I let it cool down and started it back up to find out it was tapping/rattling something awful. Took it home, pulled the engine, found out the intake manifold was cracked, did a top end rebuild because I thought it was a valve related issue. That meant brand new loaded heads with cams and a new intake manifold. Put it together and to my surprise at the time it still tapped just as loud. I got angry, real angry. So to prevent me from torching the car in my field I traded it to my neighbor for a 1994 F150 that had 5k worth of paint. Then I found a guy that had my current GT and needed a truck. He had beaten, abused, and neglected this car, but it was a mustang and it had potential. So I traded my F150 for this 98 GT.

First Mustang


The trade




Then came my 98. I don't have any pictures of the day I got it but at this point I had put the bullitt wheels and headlights on it. Cant tell very well in this picture but it had been in a small front end wreck or something because the hood is a couple shades darker than the rest.



Put the grill delete on


SLP Loudmouth 1 cat-back


I did the black leather with the white gauges


How she sat then
 
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#2 ·
As everyone knows, the car bone stock was slug. I was on the interstate one night and i got outrun by a 2005 chevy malibu, I couldn't have that so I put a pi intake, accufab tb/plenum, pullies, did a 5 speed swap, and put 3.73's in the rear. At the time it was enough but that changed quickly. So I put in Bullet racing stage 2 cams, mishimoto aluminum radiator, 180 t-stat, and tuned it all with a diablosport predator. After all that, I ended up with this cluster .... of an engine bay, but it ran better.







After the car was setup this way it was my D/D for a few months. Then I started preparing for my 2nd tour in Afghanistan. While I was gone I ordered a few parts for it. It got a new wiper cowl, and new carpet for clean up. I also decided it was time to lower it, so I got a set of lowering spring for a 1.5" drop all around, got upr spherical/adjustable upper and lower control arms, steeda bump steer kit, poly bushings for front control arms and steering rack, and a set of shark c/c plates. While I was gone I also decided to change the sound some so I took out the slp loudmouth I resonators and I welded in some magnaflow chambered muffler (best move I ever made). The magnaflows are much better in my opinion. And while I was gone my wife bought me a 1995 Harley Davidson heritage softail.

This is what I came home to, my Harley is the orange one, the other is a friends bike. That story is for a whole different time.



Most of the parts I came home to


Started to take care of the neglected and abused parts I mentioned.


















 
#3 ·
Ok, now I moved on to the suspension work and the new exhaust set up.

Got this b***h sitting like a car instead of 4x4 style.




Then one morning I went out to the car and found this.


So, Time for new wheels


Got a great deal on some wheels with decent tires
 
#4 ·
At this point I had my car running better and looking half way decent and I was thinking about painting it. I started having idle issues and I had never had it on the dyno, I was just running an email tune, and I had a birthday coming up so i decided to order myself a Megasquirt III with expansion card for sequential fuel and spark control. To top it all off, a jimstim for testing. So i started putting it together. Now mind you I had never, until this point, soldered a circuit board of any kind, and I had very little wire soldering experience. With this kit though, I would be able to tune myself and have full control over all of the engine functions and I would know exactly what was going on in there, unlike the email tune where I just load it in and hope everything works.

JimStim:
bare board


Work station







Completed JimStim


Moving on to the mainboard






Most of the main board is done here, got some jumpers to make and have to put the expansion card in.
 
#5 ·
Then after I started assembling my Megasquirt, I had to go to a military school up at Camp Shelby, which is in Hattiesburg, Ms. Its about an hour from my house. While I was there I lost oil pressure and it started rattling. I had no clue what happened, so I let it sit for a while and when it cooled off I started it up and the oil pump was whining and my gauge was jumping all over the place. I have a good friend that lives up there so I took the car to his house and we started pulling the engine and tearing it down. Apparently my timing chain guide pins had fallen out at some time and when I lost oil pressure it let the chains get slack in them. It was a bad day.

Pulling it


My friend posing for a picture


Tear down


Then I found this. Aluminum shavings everywhere.


I don't have any pictures but I found out that in the process i put metal through the crank journals and head journals. Heads were trashed, so was the crank. Oh yeah and I spun 3 rod bearings in the process. That was a really bad day.
 
#6 ·
Then it was time to order all the parts for my rebuild. My friends house is about an hour north from my house and it was just way to hard for me to get there every weekend to work on it. So I loaded my car up and took it down to the shop where I work. Then I started assembling/restoring.

All loaded up, almost ready to roll.


Got it down to the shop and gave it a quick pressure wash to attempt to clean it a little, it was absolutely filthy.




Then I brought it in the shop and started getting it set up for cleaning.



I got the car set up in the shop and I started doing some engine assembly.


Pistons hung


SRP Pistons


2013 Boss rods


Shortblock was put together with ARP mains and clevite H main bearings


 
#7 ·
Went back to the car for some more cleaning. I knew I wanted a wire tuck and a clean engine bay.

Started taking it apart for the wire tuck.


Then went the hydroboost and k-member




Then I started cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning. Did I say this was filthy?




At this point I noticed the paint was pretty much wiping off. I was trying to save the paint but it just wasn't happening. So I talked to the painter in the shop next to mine and he said to just buy the paint and he will spray it for me.

So next came the a/c system removal.




A/C is out, did more cleaning




Started prepping for paint.










At this point I was pretty much ready for paint.
 
#8 ·
Alright, so Tuesday night 16SEP2014 I went next do to see the painters and just hang out for a little bit. He asked if I was ready to paint and when I told him yes, it was on.

last minute prep work




Painters getting ready




Before we started spraying, the painter showed me how the gun worked (I had never painted before). Then he says "you will do the paint, I will do the clear". So we went to work, got it all sprayed and cleared in about 45 minutes.

Here she is that night right after paint.




Then the next morning







Before:

After:
 
#9 ·
At this point I am slowly putting the engine bay back together. I wanted to change up my suspension a little bit so I ordered a UPR k-member/coil over kit. Anyone that is wanting to buy one beware. The finish is nice, it looks pretty, but the fitment is crap. I am less than pleased with this and I will not buy another UPR suspension item because of it. The manager over at UPR did send me a bolt kit to help fix all this, but it was a battle none the less.







Notice the sleeve does not have notches in it to sit flush and keep it from spinning.








To make these A-arms go in, I had to beat them in with a dead blow hammer. I don't know about you guys, but when I pay close to $800 for something I expect it to fit properly.


On to my next issue with the kit, the front bolts fit horribly. The shoulder on the head of the bolt hits the welds up front, reference the pictures below. This is with the K-member pulled all the way forward.






Put the notch in the coil overs, also had to put shim stock between the sleeve and the strut because they fit really loose. Another awesome UPR trait.






This part of the build had been going pretty slow just because its tedious and I had to make sure everything is going to fit just right and look halfway decent.

Started my wiring












 
#12 ·
Excellent work, my man! Much more involved than mine...maybe mine will get this far one day but I hope I don't have to tear it down to the shell though :)

I will be getting a photobucket I think so I can link my images. I hate attaching...much better to see them in the thread.

How far along is the engine build? 12:1 CR...93 otane? E85?
 
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#14 ·
12:1 on 93 octane. The engine is built. I have to get my pictures caught up. I could have gotten more compression if I knew then what I know now. 13-13.5:1 seems like the cap for 93 octane. I just helped a buddy build his 13:1 2v and it runs great. Sounds awesome too.
 
#16 ·
Wish I could get this stuff local, summit was the cheapest though.


Wanted to paint this panel that covers the wiper motor


up close


After paint


Wiper cowl, before




Hard to see but this is after


 
#17 ·
Got my exhaust valves in the mail and my manual brake kit also. Let me start by saying the quality of the MM brake conversion is FANTASTIC quality. All the parts are perfectly machined and precision fit. You can definitely tell that MM puts a lot of time into their products. I will be putting my money over there now.

Exhaust valves. Swirl polished, 1mm oversize, stainless steel




MM brake conversion kit












MM sent instruction on how to install this kit. The return spring that is on the pedal moves over to the right with this and MM says to drill a 5/16" hole 1" down from the top and 3/4" from the side. I have to say that these directions are spot on.



return spring on the pedal


Right now I am working on getting the brake light switch and cruise control shutoff switch wired in. MM does not have a kit for the 96-04 cars so this is for a 94-95. Everything fits properly accept the light switch, and MM made sure that I knew that before purchasing the kit.
 
#18 ·
Pulled my door panels so I could paint the top halves to match the dash. I must say, I really love the way these things came out. I do know that I need to replace my panels because of bubbles in the vinyl, but I wanted to paint them and see how I liked it first.

Got them pulled off and cleaned up, getting ready for tape.






Got it done and ready to go back on




Don't mind the mess


I need to get a better shot of the inside with the panels completely put together. The black just flows so much better with the rest of the car. I don't know why Ford didn't continue to do this.
 
#19 ·
That looks awesome! I was going to go through and paint my interior but I wanted go-fast parts first (FYI I'm still in this mind set)....:)
 
#21 ·
At that point I was moving pretty slow on the car. You all know how it is, working, then planning, then losing motivation. We have all done it. Anyway, we had a slow day at work and the guys decided they were going to move my car out of the shop to bring another one in.

Personal pit crew getting ready


Sitting it on the ground, a place it has not been in a while lol.


Then it came to rest out here, all alone, in the weather, and half way torn apart.



So sad!

Let us back track a while, which would put us back to 05DEC2013. I was looking around for some dash options. I really wanted to change my gauge cluster. I didn't know of many companies that made face plates for our cars. I did come across a web site called Caribbean Custom Designs. I had never heard of them before, and didnt care much about it because they had the face plate I wanted on my cluster. So I ordered it. Shortly therafter I started reading up on them, they had a bunch of bad reviews and a few good ones. I was already up the creek because I made my order. Gauges were supposed to be in my hands in 30 days. That time came and went, long story short I emailed them 3 times a month for almost a whole year and never got a response. I had already cut my losses with the money spent but in a desperate attempt to get my gauges, I threatened to file a claim against the charge that was made for them. Then magically I started getting emails back from them. Was told they would be done in a couple days and shipped out. So last Friday came, exactly 1 year later, and I got an email saying the gauges are done and will be in your hands on Monday. Well, I got them. They look good but the fit is crap, anywho, enough talk here are a couple pictures.


Fresh out of the car






BAMM!!
Mach 1 style for the SN lol


Also sanded and did my needles while it was apart, I think im going to use a brighter paint though










 
#22 ·
Ok, so when we last left off the car had been moved outside to sleep in the cold and the rain. Everything was so sad for that period of time. I didn't do anything to the car, but I did score a hood for $50





It needs some work, but hell, I'm not complaining for the amount of money I have in it lol. She sat outside with the new hood for a little while and then it happened! My bay at the shop opened back up! So I took that opportunity to get the car rolled back inside and get some more work done.





I took this chance also to give it a bath, something it has not seen in almost a year.






Then I am back in my spot!


Alright, so I was trolling the craigslist and came across a cobra front bumper. The guy wanted $150 and the bumper needed some repair. I talked to him a little bit and then offered him $100. Then I never heard from him again, so I felt as though I should let the bumper situation go for now because it wasn't meant to be. Then I found a guy parting out a 97 Cobra. He was taking the drivetrain and all the electronics, but didn't need the body. So I called, he had the bumper and told me another guy looked at it that day and said he was coming back to get it but never showed. I took a ride over there.

Found this


Then the guy told me he would take $25 for the bumper, fogs, corners, and header panel.


The bumper didn't sag anywhere and felt really solid, so I thought it had to be aftermarket.
It was factory.




Got all that, the I went to pick up some exhaust for a buddy. While I was getting the exhaust the guy shows me a 13" brake kit, so I said "here take my money"




I decided to test fit everything and see how it all went together.
Getting started


Goodbye pink bumper










Then I got started pulling my dash so I could work on getting the rest of my wiring hidden. I want to run my transmission harness from inside the car down through the trans tunnel so it cannot be seen from the engine bay.
 
#23 ·
*has flat tire.... Buys new rims* heck, I would do the same if I could lol.

I'm really enjoying this build and looking forward to what comes! It's really looking nice!
 
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#24 ·
That pretty much how it happened but the flat tire had a huge gash in it and the rest were almost done for. I wasnt putting a new set of tires on the bullets and got really lucky finding the saleens.

Thanks for the compliments! Ive got a lot more done right now, Im still trying to get my pictures caught up.
 
#26 ·
Got some aero catch latches




Then pulled the dash. It took most of my lunch break to get it pulled. All in all it took about 45 minutes to get the dash out.






Then I started doing some of my body work (which I have never done by the way) while I was getting my plan straight for the engine. Originally I had planned to run the pi heads I have that I have played on with the grinder, with my iron block, boss rods, and the srp pistons I have. Then a fellow member and I began chatting about npi heads and compression and max effort 2 valves, you know, all the good stuff. I ended up purchasing a teksid block with some flat top .020 over pistons from him. I planned to run that block and a set of 1 off, worked over npi heads but the stars weren't lining up on that plan at the moment. They will in time though, that is still the bigger goal. Right now since I have built a megasquirt for the car and I still need to learn how to tune, I figured ill go ahead and put together what I have and learn how to tune on a temporary engine lol. So without further ado I will show some pics, starting with a little body work. I don't have much of the process just a couple shots here and there.


The bumper was black and in bad shape so I got some aircraft stripper designed for plastic bumpers. Stripped it down to the factory coating, the stuff was crazy effective. Then I hit it with adhesion promoter and some primer.







Then, the hood that I have was in absolute terrible shape, and had hood pin holes in all 4 corners so I needed to fill them and fix some small cracks. I have more progress made than the pictures are showing but this is some of it.







 
#27 ·
Then I started back up on the engine because if I waited any longer to put it together I would change my mind again. So now the plans are to run my pi heads on the shortblock I already have and a set of stock pi cams. Should be pretty fun, and not to bad to learn how to tune on.

Cleaned the heads up pretty good


Chased all the threads


Lapped in the valves and assembled the heads










Got some paint on it
















 
#28 ·
Welp, the engine came back out lol. I picked up some comp xe278ah cams and cloyes hex-a-just gears from a buddy and figured I would get them installed while it was still in the early stages of being put together.





And it was on. Got them degreed in, checked the centerlines and valve open and close points. I never realized how far off a cam grind can be from one side to the other. None the less, they are correct now.


I got the engine assembled, cams degreed in, and got it set back down in the car. Then I decided it was time to finish building my computer. So here it is.




Attempted to test it but my MacBook wasn't working out right.


I took it to work and used my computer there. I was trying to get my firmware loaded into the system and I was failing miserably.


I found out I didn't have the drivers installed for the damn cable I use to hook the megasquirt to the computer. After lots of thinking, and cussing, and google-ing, I FINALLY got it to load lol.


And now I have moved on to the transmission, while the car was running I had a terrible leak from the output housing. I changed the seal while it was in the car and had no change. So now I am installing a new output bushing and a new seal.


Well, I ended up moving the shift fork shaft while I had the back apart so I had to pull the front off and get that thing fixed. Its amazing how there is practically nothing to these transmissions lol.


Found out my syncro fibres were trashed.




Going back together








Rebuilt unit


Car, re-meet Transmission.








I got my A/C compressor cleaned up and installed along with my new belt and a fresh set of motocraft plugs.


This is the routing I used for the belt with a 3 bolt tensioner and without all the hydroboost crap.


And if anyone needs the belt specs or part number here it is. Its a 6 groove 66" belt that I used. This one is made by Gates.
 
#29 ·
Been keeping up with this thing the last few days. Dude that is an absolute sh!t ton of work you have into this car, I am a big fan of your attention to detail - the cleaning up, painting etc of every bit and piece. That thing is gonna be too nice and clean to drive it when you get done, lol.
 
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#30 ·
Thank you sir! Its been a long journey to say the least and I am honestly just looking to have a fun car to drive. Ill have everything as clean as I can get it but, It will be driven.....a lot lol. Ive got a bunch more pictures to post up so just stay tuned.
 
#31 ·
New Master cylinder




Did a bit of wiring. Getting ready to install the Megasquirt.
I figured out how I am bringing the harness out of the car.




And, building a db37 connector for the spark module I am putting together


The whole time I was trying to keep the stock computer's plug and have it easily returned to stock. Up to this point I was doing good, then I had a dream that I removed the plug and threw all the extra wires away.

So I came to the shop and did this


That is all the crap that will be replaced by the magasquirt. Then I needed to build a spark module/box thingy that held the drivers for my cop's. This is by far, the hard way to do things.




Maximum Motorsports solid engine mounts. I have to say, these are really nice pieces and for the price you just cant beat it. Other that this, I have been doing TONS of wiring. Im so tired of reading wiring schematics lol.


This doesn't mean much to you guys, but this was a big step for me. I had made all of my connections from the megasquirt to the vehicle harness and got it tied up. I still have a couple stragglers to tie up though. Starting to build the engine harness here shortly.





Then after a few years of owning the car and needing to drop the gas tank to replace the filler grommet, I finally did it. Had a good friend come over and talk me in to doing it. We had it out in about 15 minutes, and I had been putting it off for 3 years.......




Swapped in my 310 fuel pump and got it back up. I just knocked the dirt off and put it back up. When I paint the car I will be color matching the cover.


Then I got the dash put back in and all my plugs connected up.




I put power to the car and I haven't gotten any smoke yet, so my connections appear to be good lol. Since I have removed the stock ecu from the car, the PATS module is saying it doesn't like a component missing and it was not letting me get power from the key to the starter. I spent most of yesterday trying to wire around the PATS module and I finally discovered that it was responsible for sending ground to the starter relay. Well......since I don't have the stock computer and I don't need to worry about its functions, I took the PATS box off the column where the key goes through and I unplugged and took out the PATS module from under the dash. Then applied my own solid ground to the relay, and BAM! The starter turns with the key. So, for the first time since April 2014, I was able to turn the engine over with the key. I still haven't started it yet as I am chasing down a megasquirt problem with my rpm signal. Shouldn't be much longer though!
 
#32 ·
Had to decide how I wanted to do my coils. I had ford cop's but they are really cheap and as soon as I put power to them I burnt 3 of them. I tested my wiring and it's all good so I know the packs were faulty. I had to decide if I want to get a good set of ford cop's or, dare I say it, ls series coils. I just built that transistor box with the fancy db37 connector and I wouldnt use that for ls coils.

Then this happened




Got lucky and found a shop near by that was parting out a gt with 03 cobra drive train. He traded my 98 solid axle and a little bit of cash for a 03 IRS that already has the cover brace and all poly bushings, came with brakes and tokico blue shocks. I think I made out alright. I had to drop it myself though.








Had it all shoved under there in no time.




Then we got a little more technical. I did a little reading and found where the ls coils are classed as coil-near-plug (cnp). I do not see a setting that would apply to that other than cop? I also changed from dual wheel to single wheel and the settings conflict. The error says i cannot have fully sequential without the ms know the cam position.



Then I got a little tied up, between taking family vacation and getting swamped at work I hadn't made much progress at the time. I did do a little bit of wiring. I never did like the ccrm so I decided to replace it and make it do what I wanted it to do. So I decided to wire up my own 4-gang relay box.



I made some modifications to the stock ccrm bracket. put the 4 bolts through there and welded them on the back side. Had to flatten a couple spots and grind off a couple tabs, nothing to difficult.








I also built my spark plug wires for the LS2 coils. I still need to make some changes to my engine harness to fit them. I made the changes that were needed to remove the spark module from the harness. I also wired the coils up on the engine, and had them laid up there temporarily just to make sure everything will work. Im finishing the battery wiring and then I will be pulling the spark plugs out and spinning the engine. I want to make sure they are sparking before I try to fire it up. I got a set of stock 98 wires and cut them to the length I wanted. Then crimped on LS connectors to plug in to the coils.

 
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