[heitzke]

So it goes haha. Idling while waiting for HVAC guys to show up at my SO's place for 20-25min and out of nowhere heard a *pop* and rpm's started to hesitate a little and then got a whole bunch of awful cyclical screeching a second after. Sound is pretty central to the motor.

I let it go on for a min while thinking through possibilities, I notice the aftermarket temp gauge was a touch hotter than usual. It's pretty sensitive being in 10deg increments, so I got close up on it and sure enough the gauge was starting to sweep around and up slowly.

Killed the car, cranked the heat, popped the hood and let it start cooling off. I looked in at the water pump but don't see anything from the weep holes and it didn't leak any coolant anywhere that I can see.

Towed it on home since I was about 30min away and didn't want to take chances.

Started the car to get it off the wrecker and it wasn't making the sound anymore which was very confusing. Upon turning the a/c back on it immediately started making the same racket, and then continued after I turned the a/c back off.

I let it get back to operating temp and then watched the gauge start to sweep up, so just turned it all back off.

Signs point to water pump given the cooling, but if it is, it didn't really fail in a way that i'd have expected. The other confusing aspect is the noise doesn't start back up immediately when the car is cool. If I turn the a/c on, it'll trigger the noise OR if the car is at operating temp it'll make the same noise. The noise is also definitely cyclical and tied to engine speed.

I went ahead and ordered a water pump, accessory belt and tensioner. Not wildly excited about digging into it, but I don't really know how to diagnose this with 100% certainty besides what i've already done.

[Alfisti]

I am so confused, you have absolutely lost me on the relationship between those possible symptoms.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I am so confused, you have absolutely lost me on the relationship between those possible symptoms.

Figured it out! Turns out to not be directly tied to engine speed... and it's the radiator fan. Apparently it's fairly common on them and the shroud cracks and the fan blade starts knocking against it. That's why it starts with the a/c kicking on and when the engine is at operating temp.

[0-60Motorsports]

Originally Posted by heitzke

Figured it out! Turns out to not be directly tied to engine speed... and it's the radiator fan. Apparently it's fairly common on them and the shroud cracks and the fan blade starts knocking against it. That's why it starts with the a/c kicking on and when the engine is at operating temp.

Glad you found it. I was so confused for a sec LOL

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by 0-60Motorsports

Glad you found it. I was so confused for a sec LOL

Haha same. My trouble-shooting didn't make any sense at all and just pumped to worst case being a water pump.

Good thing is i'll probably still end up doing the pump, belt, tensioner and all so I don't have problems in the future. Now I can do it on my own time though when the garage is more finished

[heitzke]

Big ol pile of parts going on while I wait for the garage to finish up.

I just backed it into the backyard and tossed it up on the raceramps



- Afco heat exchanger
- VMP intercooler pump
- Reische 170deg therostat
- Lethal performance intercooler reservoir
- Moroso radiator overflow tank
- replacement radiator fan
- inner accessory belt
- new belt tensioner
- Billetflow aux pulley
- high flow water pump



Afco installed with the SVT I got a stencil for to paint on. Not centered perfectly but I like the look.




VMP brushless pump vs. original

Have a good bit of work to do but have all the coolant drained, so i'll throw in the new thermostat tonight and get to work removing the pulley bridge and the lower caged supercharger pulley. After that the water pump, belt and all should be pretty quick to knock out.

[heitzke]

It's been a while since i've updated! Still here and tinkering and in the midst of a pretty healthy install of some longtubes, tubular control arms, coilovers and camber plates (along with a bunch of odds and ends like fresh motor mounts, bushings, endlinks, etc)















The headers were essentially just as tough of a project as everyone says they are. Space is sooo limited on the passenger side and had a hell of a time even getting them bolted up, but I just the first start the other day and all seems good to go.

Have one corner bolted up with the coilovers, so on to the driver's side this morning and probably just a few leisurely hours left until I can drop it down and dial in the height.

[heitzke]

All back on the ground and driving again. Overall feeling quite good and the sound from the longtubes is very good. Really changed the exhaust note.

I tried dialing in the height but ended up being a touch too low imo. I'm probably going to crank it back up a bit in the front and then remove the spacers on the rears.

I will say the clearance between the coilover body and front wheels is VERY tight, I'm going to add a little spacer to give it a little breathing room. I drove it around a little this weekend and very pleased with how the front suspension feels and handles bumps. The rear UPR/Viking setup though.. very bouncy. I'l have to try to adjust the compression/rebound a little bit. I assume that with it feeling bouncy that the rebound is up too high.

Otherwise things are all moving along well. Plan is to drive it around a bit, get it aligned and then go back under the knife in a few weeks time for the fueling and Whipple once I feel like it's good to go.

[billnchristy]

Your story reminded me of something that happened in high school. I have a 1966 Mustang and I was taking a girl home and we hear a loud thump and the car starts shaking violently. I pull off the road and pop the hood and steam and water are just pouring out but it's dark so I can't see anything.

We walk the 2mi home (pre cell days) and my dad takes her home and we go look at the car.

The fan (old school pre-electric crank driven style) had a blade somehow bend forward, core the radiator and then fly off off and dent the hood. After that the engine was extremely unbalanced (hence the vibration) and of course the water came from the completely trashed radiator.

Fun times and not the first or last time my car c-blocked me.

[heitzke]

Quickly popping by for an update:



Raised the front of the car up a bit, tightened everything up and it's riding pretty decent actually. I'm still scraping the mid-pipe a decent bit but I'll give it another look here later today and see what I can do about it.

Quick test of vinyl wrapping the windshield frame gloss black. Actually really like the look



Also waiting on a set of wheels to get in. I ordered some Forgestar CF5's in 18x9 and 18x11 and they'll be wrapped in some Azenis RT615's. Not a lot of tire options for 18's anymore honestly and I don't really like the look of 19's on this car.

Fitment should be somewhere around here, with just mine sitting just a little more flush all the way around. I made my offsets a little more aggressive and anecdotally they should be in here in a few more weeks.



Then I'll dial in the "final" ride height, get it aligned finally and get ready to go back under for the fuel system and whipple. Car is feeling pretty solid as it sits and I've addressed a lot of things along the way.

[heitzke]

This is partially a placeholder post so I can come back and update it later with pics lol. So I ordered custom wheels from Forgestar and they came in today.

They. were. 100%. wrong.

I'm so mad about it too haha. Literally from the MODEL to the color, they're not what I discussed during the ordering process nor what I wanted at all. I ordered 18x9 and 18x11 CF5's in gunmetal with custom offsets to adjust for my SRA and how aggressive I wanted them to be.

I received gloss piano black F14's. During the ordering process we had some disagreements over the offsets and they ended up pushing me into an offset for the rear that I knew wouldn't fit. Despite having the wrong wheels I still test fit them... and wouldn't you know it... they were off by .5in and stick outside the rear fenders.

That being said, i've requested my money back and i'll ship these paperweights back to them. Already on the ball for ordering some BC Forged like I should have done the first time

[heitzke]

My gunmetal CF5's lol.

[heitzke]

Talked to Forgestar and they're going to take them back and we'll work on a refund when the wheels are returned.

In the meantime i'm working with https://www.wheellab.us/ on some BC Forged TD02 in brushed grey. Trying to figure out the right balance of concavity and the size of the lips.

[heitzke]

Order placed for the BC Forged TD02 in brushed grey. I got the general specs today from BC Forged and I do wish the lips were *slightly* deeper, it's all good. 41mm lip in the front and 65mm lip in the rear with more concavity in the face.

The fronts will be pretty flat to make sure i have BBK clearance in the future. Either way, looks like the turnaround time is somewhere in the 4-6weeks so i'm pretty excited for them.

Also went ahead and got on the books for tuning w/ Lee Blankenship for Nov 18th. I have some work to do but i'm not too worried about being able to knock out the 2.9 and the return fuel system between now and then. If I didn't go ahead and book now, i'd have been deep into the winter.

[heitzke]

Went ahead and started putting the car under the knife for the Whipple and fueling a little earlier than i was planning on doing. I figured I may need some extra time and don't want to be in a time crunch before my tuning appointment.

Well here's where we started off.



One lug on the driver's side broke the head right off in the wheel lol. Spent the next several hours drilling it out, basically ruining an OEM wheel in the process as well. Really sucked.




Hours later, all four wheels off.



Pulling as much stuff as possible to get out of the way. I'm also replacing the radiator with a unit from Mishimoto that should be here thursday. I've had a persistent ABS light so i'll be replacing the ABS module as the ABS sensors on the back are supposed to be fresh, and the fronts looked fine to me.





Engine bay opened up with my new reading material from Whipple. All seems fairly straightforward but we'll see. Blower is about ready to come off, just probably going to do the ABS module first.



Felt like knocking some other smaller things out so I loosely assembled the FPR to understand the actual fuel flow better and understand what I'm running and where. Obviously not together yet, but know a lot more than when I started.



Fuel hat assemlbed-ish. Still need to drop the tank to get the level sender, etc but I'll start that sometime this week and get this dropped in. Changed up my pumps to be twin Walbro 465's so I can run E85.

[0-60Motorsports]

Originally Posted by heitzke

Went ahead and started putting the car under the knife for the Whipple and fueling a little earlier than i was planning on doing. I figured I may need some extra time and don't want to be in a time crunch before my tuning appointment.

Well here's where we started off.



One lug on the driver's side broke the head right off in the wheel lol. Spent the next several hours drilling it out, basically ruining an OEM wheel in the process as well. Really sucked.




Hours later, all four wheels off.



Pulling as much stuff as possible to get out of the way. I'm also replacing the radiator with a unit from Mishimoto that should be here thursday. I've had a persistent ABS light so i'll be replacing the ABS module as the ABS sensors on the back are supposed to be fresh, and the fronts looked fine to me.





Engine bay opened up with my new reading material from Whipple. All seems fairly straightforward but we'll see. Blower is about ready to come off, just probably going to do the ABS module first.



Felt like knocking some other smaller things out so I loosely assembled the FPR to understand the actual fuel flow better and understand what I'm running and where. Obviously not together yet, but know a lot more than when I started.



Fuel hat assemlbed-ish. Still need to drop the tank to get the level sender, etc but I'll start that sometime this week and get this dropped in. Changed up my pumps to be twin Walbro 465's so I can run E85.

Great Work! Is that a Tudor Clasp I spy LOL

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by 0-60Motorsports

Great Work! Is that a Tudor Clasp I spy LOL

Ah hahah busted! I love my black bay and I forget to take it off about half the time I work on things. My collection is fairly small but I basically split time between this and my speedy. Otherwise it's John Mayer gshocks and fun stuff.

[0-60Motorsports]

Originally Posted by heitzke

Ah hahah busted! I love my black bay and I forget to take it off about half the time I work on things. My collection is fairly small but I basically split time between this and my speedy. Otherwise it's John Mayer gshocks and fun stuff.

Nice! I have a Pelagos my wife gifted me in our wedding anniversary. Otherwise I love my speedy pro too LOL. Check out my IG @junglehour

[heitzke]

Some weekend progress:



Head cooling mod installed and engine bay clean up. I've had an ABS light for some time and doesn't appear to be the ABS sensors so I went ahead and replaced the ABS module (at least the electronic component of it). Kind of a pain in the ass to do honestly.



Eaton is off and pulled apart. Pretty low drama there, just waiting on some additional gaskets I forgot and new bolts for the intercooler

Also going to plug the PCV port on the bottom of the IM and run breathers instead of the PCV system. I don't love the idea, but I also don't love the idea of this line running under the IM. All the lines are in pretty bad shape and I don't really want to replace them all, so I figure i'll go the simple route and change back later if needed (maybe to a bumper mounted vented catch can setup, etc).




The intercooler brick is naaaasty. Going to soak this and the IM in simple green.



New rad going in. Pretty significantly bigger than the oem one, especially once you consider the size of the end tanks and being dimensionally larger. It's a pretty nice piece.

It was a pretty tight fight honestly. Had to remove the battery box to get it in and even still had to bend the a/c lines a touch, remove a bracket for the p/s lines on the driver's side to squeeze it in. Fitment appears to be pretty good though and pleased with the size/quality.

I also assembled the FPR, finished the wiring for the fuel pump harness.

Next/this week:
- clean IM and intercooler w/ simple green
- await my gaskets/rings for the supercharger setup (wed-thurs this week)
- get the whipple all put together and plopped on

Weekend (hoping):
- drop fuel tank
- install assembled fuel hat
- wiring for fuel pumps
- start running fuel lines

Maybe a first start the weekend after next. I don't assume i'll get all the fuel lines done this weekend, but who knows.

[heitzke]

Few snags here and there but the 2.9 is on and bolted down and just have to get all the vacuum lines hooked up (or capped off) on the back. Engine bay is definitely getting there.

Naturally, weather was poor here today so I didn't start on the fuel tank but planning on chipping away at it over the week and might be back on track next weekend.

[heitzke]

Lots of progress this week actually, making some decent moves.


Tank dropped and fuel hat installed


Bunch o wiring but actually quite happy with "the box" and how neat all of it will be once I get it all into a finished state and secured up.



All the lines run temporarily to make sure the pumps were working, etc. Still need to really get things situated but it all functions thus far.



My TD02 are done! Getting in on Monday and should have the first crank of the setup this weekend if all goes ok. So far so good.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hAMv1NzvjrA
So far so good here, the pumps technically work and build fuel pressure. Not exactlyyyy sure how loud they're supposed to be but if this is correct they sound pretty badass.

[heitzke]

Made some pretty good progress lately. Awaiting to see if I missed something on the original blower assembly, which would be less than ideal, but is what it is. I got install instructions for the 2.3 with my 2.9, so I may have just missed a section entirely that has to do with the blower discharge plate. It may have something to do with my idle issues.

Anyway.




Bay all (mostly) dressed up.