My 2002 GT Progress

[Fawls]

I bought a cheap gasless Mig welder, some exhaust tubes, bends and flanges and a X pipe and went at it, it is all mild steel for now as I want to try lot of "experiments" with the exhaust, once I am happy I will run it till it rots then replicate it out of stainless, well that's the plan.
I forget to take photos a lot so some things will just happen.

Exhaust was fabricated while lying on my back under the car on jack stands, I would love to have a hoist.

I also bought an pipe expander to ease assembly and make it easier to weld and I added a heat shield to where the collector came close to the transmission.

 

[Fawls]

One of the first mods I did to the car was the Flowmaster copy Chinese chamber mufflers that a friend welded in for me in his workshop, it had the factory original mufflers to start with so I only needed to join the headers to the mufflers. The chamber mufflers gave it a deeper sound and not much louder.

Next I aligned the wheels with some string so I wouldn't wear out my new tires on the way to get an alignment, I just went to the Tyre shop where they basically just adjust the Toe and get the steering wheel crooked (every time, doesn't matter who).
The steering had a lot of play and wandered all over the road. So after changing the Hydro boost I went whole hog and replaced the pump, hoses and got a new steering rack and steering shaft.

I have since had it aligned (with wheel straight) by a friend's shop, his mechanic has set up race cars and knows his stuff, all seems good now. My friends workshop is over an hours drive away, if it was closer I would get more done there. (They build Hot Rods).

 

[Fawls]

Reading through some of the posts here I see I'm not the only one with door window issues, when I discovered mine, a panel beater I was talking to told me why the drivers window wasn't closing properly, it was going too high and not sealing when I closed the door.
Upon online investigation I saw LMR had a fix, a square bar to attach to the mechanism to support it and future proof it.

I made my own first with alloy bar but decided it had too much flex so made it out of galvanized bar which was easy using the alloy one as a template.
Some months later I had the panel off the pass door and saw the same problem even though this window opened and closed as it should, so had to repeat the process on the pass door. While removing the glass (both times) I scratched the hell out of the window film (tint?) so removed the film from both.
I fully cleaned and re bonded the glass to the mechanism and added the support brace, hopefully it will last now.



And the Pass side...

 

[Fawls]

The interior got some attention as well, Double din Head unit and USB charging ports in the cigarette lighter location and an extra on the pass side of the center consol, and USB connection to the stereo in the arm rest storage area.
Also did the white face gauges, had the steering wheel recovered (at great expense) and a B&M shifter with custom knob.
I have a pair of Corbeau seats yet to fit.

Before.


Guages...

 

[Fawls]

Shifter



Steering Wheel,

 

[96blak54]

Ok, i didnt know about the window issues. Thanks for the heads up and a simple diy fix!

 

[Fawls]

Yeah when it hits the stop the window keeps going up a bit and wont seal properly, looks like a previous owner had a go at fixing mine with more glue but it didn't last/work.

 

[Fawls]

Being over 20 years old and knowing these engines have a problem with valve stem seals and because the was a bit of blue smoke on start up I decided that new seals wouldn't hurt, and while I'm in there might as well pop a couple of bigger cams and springs in, new Ford timing chain, guides and tensioners, high volume oil pump and even a new damper on the front, nothing wrong with the old one but the rubber in it is over 20 years old. New front seal and gaskets, lets go....
I replaced the engine and transmission mounts when I fitted the headers, forgot to add that earlier.

I ordered MHS stage 2 cams, springs and retainers and used their degreeing service, good thing I did, I had intended to do it myself and bought the necessary tools but it is the best part impossible to do in car, I removed the radiator but not the A/C condenser as I didn't want to degas it (and don't know how lol). one of the cams had to be retarded 4 degrees as you will see in the pics.
I chose the MHS stage 2 cams because after my research I was paranoid about Piston to Valve clearance and did not want to pull the engine down any further, and they guarantee these cams to be the biggest with out fear of contact.

Again while I was there I replaced the Radiator, water pump and hoses including the to the heater at the rear of the engine.
I added a cold air intake mainly for looks and the original filter housing clamp was looking close to breaking, the BBK one I bought was full of swarf from drilling the holes, I used brake clean to wash it out which stained the outer coating, I'm not very impressed with BBK products.

 

[Fawls]

Before,



I have replaced a lot of vacuum hoses and PCV hoses as well.

Progress...

 

[Fawls]

New Melling High Volume oil pump, I swapped out the 80lb spring for the 60lb spring.



New valve stem seals, you can see how worn the old ones were. I bought the tools to make the job easy and it mostly was, apart from the rear most one which took for ever, the Passenger side one took 4 hours, I just could not get them to stay in place, one would knock the other off etc. Got there in the end but it was an exercise in patience. Would have been easy if the engine was out of the car.

 

[Fawls]

I left the rockers off until I had timed the cam so there would be no chance of valves hitting pistons.
The chain can jump a tooth very easily, I had it set in the correct place on the crank then the cam, lucky I double checked, the last photos are in the correct position.



Ooops...



All good...

 

[Fawls]

I cleaned the injectors and fitted new O rings, New spark plugs & coils as well.

And back together...



Before, during & after.

 

[Fawls]

More surface rust to take care of and a new radiator.

 

[Fawls]

Because of the width of the new radiator I had to move the ABS module, I managed to get away with elongating the mounting holes, it moved enought to but is a tight fit.



Added a Alloy header tank, again for looks...

 

[Bronco2Fan]

So much work, I haven't the patience. Really nice.

 

[RAU03MACH]

On those windows there is a ppg windows company here in el paso 120 for a window with all the hardware
That's pretty reasonable
I need to pick some up for my 98 gt
The sand and grit have really ate them up

 

[96blak54]

https://lmr.com/item/LRS-9804285/mustang-abs-delete-distribution-block-98-04

Maybe gain some room with an ABS delete?

Fantastic work mang!

 

[Fawls]

It all fits, and I prefer to keep the safety features, ABS, Air Bags and so on, thanks.

 

[Fawls]

I see I forgot to mention the Steeda Caster Camber plates.

Before I went to the Dyno I made sure everything was up to scratch, the only way I could get it to idle was to open the throttle blade a bit and the throttle was now hanging, kind of dangerous when driving, come off throttle to slow down when traffic in front is slowing and the car wants to keep going!
I bought a smoke machine to test for vacuum leaks and went over board sealing everything up, I replaced the TPS, IAC and EGR valve.
There was a mix up with the tuning dates so when I turned up they weren't expecting me so I left it there, in the end they had it about 2 months. He was happy with the results said it made 300 HP, the goal was just to have the mixtures safe and have it drivable.
I think he was blowing smoke up my ass with the numbers, its not what the sheet says which is in KW and MPH. My calculations are 195 Kw = 261 HP & 214 KPH = 128 MPH = around 5500 RPM with 3.27 gears and 285/35R18 tires.
It drives ok but is prone to stalling when maneuvering (changing direction) and also stalled when I turned on the AC at idle. I don't think it would be as noticeable in a manual, I will see what I can do about it when I get it back from the paint shop.

 

[Fawls]

Ready for Painting...