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June 1th, 2011 – Torqued Racing Solutions HPDE Track Day at Nelson Ledges!

This was my first time on track in 2011 and it was short lived. I had upgraded the fuel system a few weeks prior which included new wiring from the fuel tank to the new FPDM’s. I used the heat shrink that came with the kit after soldering the wires from the FORE fuel hat to the new wires to the dual FPDM’s. However it got pinched between the tank and the frame of the car during the first session. I went out on the first session and about 7 minutes later the car kept going lean. I was able to coast into the pits. My uncle ended up towing me home. I ended up cutting a small hole in the bottom of the trunk and ran the wires through with an excessive amount of electric tape and padding. Turns out this solution worked very well as i have not had any other problems with the fuel system in 2011!

http://torquedracingsolutions.com/blog/2011/06/16/nelson-ledges-track-day-recap-june-12th-2011/

September 9th, 2011 – Torqued Racing Solutions HPDE Track Day at Putnam Park Road Course!

This was my second event for 2011 and it was amazing. I rented the track Friday and Kenny Brown rented the track Saturday and Sunday. I had a unique opportunity to meet all of the Kenny Brown staff and even lap with them through out the day. It was a great time seeing Old Blue on track and the rest of Kenny Brown Mustangs. The first session was crazy. The track was soaking wet and with my “not so great” tires and no traction control I was fighting the car for the entire session. Later in the day the track started drying out and I was able to really push the car and my limits. I pushed a little to hard coming out of turn 3 and ended up going for a ride through the grass. It didn’t damage anything so i was able to finish the session. Then after lunch during the 1:20 session about half way through the brake pedal started to get spongy so I backed off slightly. I still had plenty of brakes but had to pump once before really standing on them. I finished that session and inspected the car. I was thinking a brake line was leaking. I couldn’t find a leak so we blead the brakes at the master cylinder. I went back out for the 2:20 session and was experiencing the same spongy pedal after a few laps, however i finished the 20 minute session. I decided I was done for the day and loaded the car up.   After talking with the guys at Track Guys and Cari at Kenny Brown I decided to come back Saturday Morning to the Kenny Brown 25th anniversary event. I was going to run a few sessions in the morning so I unloaded the car. When I was putting the straps away I noticed a large puddle on the left rear of the car trailer. It was brake fluid. I took off the left rear and found the seal around the brake piston was shot and it was leaking fluid badly. I loaded up the car and just hung out with the Kenny Brown staff all morning. It was a pleasure meeting everyone at Kenny Brown and hope to see them again in 2012. When fixing the brake caliper I decided to upgrade to 13 inch vented cobra rear disks. In order to install them you have to take the axles out to install the larger axle brackets. When I took the differential off I noticed metal shavings and some of the gears in the differential were missing or severely cracked! I ended up installing 31 spline axles and a new Torsen T2 differential.  It is a huge difference at the track. Check out one of the fly by videos.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tng9LAnLOaQ

http://events.torquedracingsolutions.com/2011/09/18/putnam-park-hpde-track-day-recap-photos-and-video/

October 23rd, 2011 – Torqued Racing Solutions HPDE Track Day at Nelson Ledges Road Course!

Nelson Ledges is always my last event of the year. Its near Cleveland Ohio and only about 3 hours from Columbus, Ohio which makes it nice. It was a great day with temps in the 60′s and sunny. The car ran great all day! It was a blast lapping with such a variety of cars. Nelson Ledges road course is an older track built back in the late 60′s. It was also the first track with a “tire wall” for safety. Its a very fun and fast track. The only problem I had was about mid day. With the semi-recent upgrade to 3.73′s i was topping out at 130mph on the back stretch all day and a few times hitting the rev limiter. I think this is what was causing the belt to shread as i haven’t had problems with this before. Finally the belt gave out at about 90mph right before on of the final turns. I had brakes but since the mustangs are setup on a hydroboost system they rely on the power steering pump to provide boost for the brakes. Since there was no belt I couldn’t press hard enough to slow the car down so decided to hit the e-brake and thankfully between that and the mud on the inside of turn 10 i was able to get stopped without damaging anything. I had to be towed back to the pits where i was able to put a spare belt on and finish the last two sessions. I was also able to run my fastest time of the year, a 1:19. Check out the video below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Std68DN6d4c

http://events.torquedracingsolutions.com/2011/10/27/nelson-ledges-hpde-track-day-recap-photos-and-video/

http://media.torquedracingsolutions.com/2000FordMustangGT/Upgrades/Maximum-Motorsports-Steering/16916192_4Kk5gL#1278406190_bDDMxj6

www.youtube.com/watch?v=erpaQShf_D0

Video after the break…

Before:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m8zhX8_jq8

After:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9XMjfkBd4Y

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5AfSmDq7Ww

Favorite Picture of the car at the event:

Click the link for more photos….

Some pictures:

More photos of the event can be found at TorquedRacingSolutions.com

Details/Instructions Click below……

First you want to cut a section out of the dust shield. You can get an idea of how much to cut out from the pictures below. I used a reciprocating saw to cut the section out. The wheel speed sensor wire is very close to where your cutting. You need to zip tie it out of the way or be very careful you don’t cut the wire. I used two 3′ exhaust pieces I picked up from advance autoparts. Then took a hammer and flattened out one end. Review the pictures for about how much to flatten them. Once they were flattened out I mocked them up and took the “L” bracket and held it in place. From there remove and mark the exhaust piece so you know where to drill the holes for the bolts. Drill the holes in the exhaust piece and bolt up the “L” bracket. Its EXTREMELY important that you torque down the bolts extremely tight. You don’t want one coming loose and going into the spindle. Once you have the “L” bracket bolted to the exhaust piece you can attach it to dust shield. Again make sure the bolts are extremely tight.

Once its bolted in take a hammer and tap down all the sharp edges and any extraneous pieces of the dust shield that would get in the way. I then used some high temp spray paint and panted everything black.

I was orginally going to fab up some inlets for the bumper however i found taking out the one screw for the fog light and removing the light was going to be enough. The stock fog light housing will work perfect.

Next its time to install the high temp hose. I had to take the hammer and work the inlet a little to get the hose to fit. Also its much easier if you take some of the spiral wire out of the high temp hose. You will notice in some of the photos i had the hose zip-tied to the frame. Clearance was fine until I put the wheel on. So i had to cut the zip-tie off and zip tie it to the sway bar bracket. The drivers site had plenty of clearance but the passenger side was a bit closer. You just have to keep testing and ensure it has plenty of clearance. One thing to note is the clearance will change once you get the car off the jack stands. So double check once its down.

Final Thoughts – I would prefer to weld the ducts to the dust shield but I don’t have welder. So if you do you only need the 3′ exhaust and high temp hose. I would probably try to find a bigger “L” bracket. Once I drilled the holes out there wasn’t much metal left on a few of the holes.  Also i would consider using 2′ exhaust rather than 3′. The 3′ is a bit tall once flattend and will allow some air to blow directly on the rotor. If I have problems I will probably take the hammer and flatten out the top to channel the air towards the center of the spindle more. Also the hardware listed below is only what I used. You can probably come up with something better with more searching at Lowes or Home Depot.

I have drove the car about 50 miles on the street with no problems so far with the cooling ducts rubbing or braking issues. Heading to a local track this weekend and will report back after a track day!

Hardware:

• NDS 2″ x 3″ x 3″ Styrene Down Spout Adapter –  You need 2 of them  - $4.94
• The Hillman Group Socket Cap Screws -5/16-18 x 3/4 – You Need 8 of them (come in packs of 2)- $4.60
• The Hillman Group 2-Pack Finishing Washer – You need 8 of them (come in packs of 2) – $4.60
• National Corner brace – Only 1 pack – comes with 2 in it – $2.36
• Perfection 3.00″ O.D. x 3.00″ O.D. Connector – $2.99
• Allstar | 42151 | Brake Duct Hose 3”X10′ Black 300 Deg – $69.98
• Autocraft Carbon Housing Hose Clamp, 1/2″ Band, 2-1/2″ to 3-1/2″ Range (2-Pack) – You need 2 packs – $2.99 each

Total Cost:  $95.45

Depending on your states sales take it might differ slightly.

Last run of the weekend I ran 12.347 @ 117.3. I picked up 6 mph! A lot of it was the tune, but I also got better shifting and experimented with the shift points.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb-EBe9ZXPQ

The improvement:

My cousins run tire only:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChU-ZW4-Yu0

Some Pictures from the event:

Here is the graph of the pull when it was on the #14 pulley. It put out a max of #12 on the #14 pulley. Now keep in mind mine is the top curve. The bottom curve is from a 2002 mustang gt with stock everything with the same 1.7L KB on the #9 pulley(his made 436rwhp with this setup). However his was run when the temps were in the high 60′s and not 90′s like mine yesterday. Also i believe both were with 18 degrees of timing. My CR is 8.7:1 so im assuming that’s the difference as well as the heads, cams, and exhaust my engine is more efficient so it produces less boost.

In the graph below the 440rwhp was with the #14 pulley producing #12 of boost and 22 degrees of timing. The tuner thought the 22 degrees was a bit much so he backed it down to 20 degrees. Thats the 336rwhp max in the graph.