The Black Pearl Evolution

[ProKiller]

I’m bored at work so I figured since I’ve never actually done a build thread I would start with all the things I’ve done with this car. Also to preface this, most of this stuff was done years ago without really documenting everything so there are some gaps in the details as well as a lot of little parts missed.

I had a relatively stock laser red 94gt that I wanted a vortech for. I ended up finding this car for a really good deal that I couldn’t pass up. I bought it and sold the red one.

This is from the ad when I found it:

First photo shoot:

At the time it had a stock bottom end with edelbrock performer heads, F303, performer RPM intake, the vortech, mac shorties, o/r H-pipe, mac catback, 3.73s, and tremec T3550. 24# injectors with a C&L maf and vortech FMU. Some gauges and billet stuff in the interior and that’s about it. It had issues with loading up on fuel and it would run on the hot side.

Found the loading up problem was a bad fuel pressure regulator was dumping fuel in through the vacuum line into the upper. So basically un-metered fuel was going through the upper intake. Replaced that. Got a fluidyne radiator and that solved the heat issues. Also put in a manual fan switch.

Drove it like that for a while just enjoying the car. I started to get blowby issues from the tired bottom end. I had a breather on the valve cover that was just constantly spewing oil out. So I ordered the following:
DSS 331 super pro bullet level 20 short block
Forged D.S.S. Pro-Lite Pistons
forged D.S.S. H-beam rods
cast stroker crank
Cometic .050 head gaskets
D.S.S. windage tray
D.S.S. Main support girdle
D.S.S. 7qt. oil pan with FMS High Volume Oil Pump
Anderson B21 cam installed
42# injectors
80mm mass air
fidanza flywheel
Promotion built mcleod clutch
26-spline upgrade for the tranny
All kinds of ARP hardware

Part accumulation:

Tearing the motor out:

 

[ProKiller]

The buildup begins:

the pile of parts that was cleaned up and painted. in retrospect, i wish i would have had them powder coated, but after spending all that money on the upgrades, i was thoroughly tapped out.

Of course with every build you run into an unexpected issue. I had taken the new input shaft and trans to Hanlon Motorsports to have it put it. He found that the synchros were going out and the tailshaft was bent. apparenlty that is a common thing for the T3550s. He hooked me up with a larger diameter tailshaft and new yoke as well as putting new synchros and fork in it.

hoisting it back into the car:

the finished product:

After it was all installed, i needed a new way to tune the car as the chip that car originally had would no longer work. So i used what little remaining money i had left and went with a PMS. I got a pretty spot on tune from Rick at AFM when i got it too.

I drove the piss out of it at that point. went from 390rwhp and 360rwtq:

to a stout 450rwhp and 450rwtq:

nothing really changed much with the car for a while becuase i just blew all my money on the last round of upgrades. i moved into the interior and painted some things silver to add a little more color to the all black interior. i also bought a daily driver at that point so i didn't have to worry about getting around in this car.

 

[ProKiller]

The next big thing was the paint job. The car was showing signs of it's age. I wanted to keep the black but didn't just want black. I talked it over with my painter and for starters we chose not to put the factory black on the car since ford's black has brown in it making it look almost a little faded. We went with a true black and i had him add blue pearl. I also wanted to do some kind of stripe. I was debating going with silver stripes but that had already been over done and tends to be very bright. I suggested since we were putting the pearl in the car to lay down some ghost stripes with the blue pearl.

I also had him shave the antenna and the ford emblem in the trunk. Fixing some of the little dents and imperfections:

The final job:

I scored a set of export tails off ebay and put those things on there:

Let me tell you how much of a pain in arse it was to wire those things in. Or rather the wiring wasn't the issue as was the rapid flash. I tried numerous resistors in the harness to slow it down with no real success. It worked, don't get me wrong, but they would get extremely hot. I found a post in a f150 forum about a different flasher. I ended up going over to autozone and picking up a stock replacement flasher with a trailor feature and BOOM it worked. Just wish i would have tried that first.

 

[ProKiller]

the paint now looked great and i again drove it for a while since i blew all my money on the paint job. the 03 cobra wheels just didn't do it justice anymore and i really wanted to change them out but didn't know for what. I ended up getting hired over at American Muscle part time so that gave me some extra cash. Then came the FR500s. I upgraded from stock 03 cobra 17x9s to 18x9/18x10 hypercoated FR500s. I put 265/35/18s up front with 305/35/18 mickey thompson ET street raidal IIs in the back.

the size difference was quite impressive

On the car:

It was then that i wanted to redo the exhuast. I kept having issues with the MAC headers leaking becuase they didn't have a solid flange. I wanted to switch over to long tubes. I put in some BBK ceramic coated long tubes and a dr. gas o/r x-pipe. The long tubes were fox ones as i no longer had an EGR anyway and the bellhousing was a fox. that was quite the chore. driver's side went in without problem. The passenger side however took forever. finally got them in though. I found a set of roush side skirts on the craigslist for cheap and so the search started for how i wanted to do the side exhaust setup.

I decided on dual slant cut intercooled borla tips that i would have cut and turned 90degrees. The mufflers had to be small and quiet as possible because i didn't want to be obnoxiously loud but yet still being a straight through style. i didn't want to run the borla side exhuast where the muffler is still in the stock location with same side in/out and then another 90* turn. just isn't very efficient if the air has to turn around twice. I took a chance on dynomax race bullet mufflers. I dropped the car off at the chassis/exhaust shop right next to my painter. There were able to fab up the necessary pieces to have the exhuast flow like i wanted and to adjust the pipes. then it was off to have the skirts painted to match.

Finished product:

 

[ProKiller]

quick drive-by vid i did after getting it put on:
[video=youtube_share;c6Q-bP-dQ_s]http://youtu.be/c6Q-bP-dQ_s[/video]

The skirts were so much lower than the front and rear bumpers it really threw off the lines. I knew i was going to do something different and was set on the saleen kit for the longest time but after purchasing a fiberglass kit with the intentions of manipulating the rear bumper to smooth over the exhaust humps i realized it wasn't going to be low enough. I put the front on the car and it didn't look right at all. So then search began for a different bumper setup to match with the roush skirts. i don't really like the roush kit for these years other than the side skirts obviously. the rear is okay but the front just looks funny and unfinished. I made a deal with Venomous96cobra for the T1 wing he had and it sat in the closet for a time while i decided what bumpers i wanted to go with.

flash forward to the super stallions of the net race in cecil county fall of 2011. I hadn't been to the track with this car since i got it so i was excited to finally get back at it. The week before i took the car out for a spirited drive and popped a head gasket. the rush was on to replace it so i could it to the race. Ended up having only evidence of the drivers side being popped so i only replaced that side and left the pass side alone knowing full well that the header would give me a hell of time. Got it all back together in time to arrive late to the race and only get a couple passes in. First run was a 12.12 @ 121. Second pass.....watch the video at 43 seconds:
[video=youtube_share;wMbt6bTwFvs]http://youtu.be/wMbt6bTwFvs[/video]
I couldn't get it into 2nd gear and thank god that i did or i would have been a lot closer to him when he crossed over. 3rd pass was a decent launch but on the top end i felt the belt slipping and look back to see some white smoke. I kept in because i figured if it was the damn head gasket again then screw it i'm going to at least make it count. ended up with a 12.11 @ 112. Would have been a probably been a mid 11 second pass but my top end got killed. Low and behold, the only evidence of the coolant was the rad cap popped on me and spewing coolant all over the place. in our rush to get the car back together we didn't fully burp the system. Or at least that's what we attributed it to... It was winter time so the car was put away.

So over the winter, I agonized over getting the GTR bumper for a long time because i couldn't find any pictures of it nor ever see it in person. I knew that i wanted to do something unique but not ricey and this had that but was on the edge of being too much. I still don't know what i want to do with the rear yet. Or at least admit it to the world what i have in mind yet. I ordered the bumper and didn't like it when it arrived. it was very square and huge. I didn't think it would work but i figured that i might as well put it on the car to be sure. It lined up perfectly with the side skirts just not the rounded edge at the wheel well. So I figured why the heck not. Dropped the car off for paint of the bumper and spoiler. Of course the paint scheme would be followed with the stripes through the spoiler. I also had him smooth out the sides of the lip to be more rounded to mimic the side skirts. I didn't think i would like it as much as i do. Came out better than expected. Over the winter i also put new moroso fabbed aluminum valve covers on. I used AN fittings to a moroso catch can w/ breather that i mounted in the driver's side fender.

Of course as always, it was coming down to the wire to get the car ready for Ford Carlisle. I needed to get the car inspected before taking it and i got a call from the guy saying it's pissing coolant on the pass side. so i babied it home tuesday night(leave for carlisle friday morning) since it was a very small leak at that point. head gasket issue again, i should have just skipped that damn SSOTN race and pulled both sides off but live and learn i guess. Started tearing it down and there was just no way to get that pass side header out of the way and the only way the car was going to be ready was if we worked all night and dropped the heads off on wednesday and hope i could get all the stuff i need overnighted for thursday. basically i would have to put it all back together thursday night and hope i didn't have any issues. Couldn't get the pass head off so i said screw it and just didn't bring the car to carlisle.

A buddy of mine had a set of AFR comp 185s that he was going to put on his fox. Been sitting brand new in the box for almost 2 years. He got married and talked him into selling the heads to me instead of just letting them go to waste. So off came the small edelbrock performers and on went the AFRs. The goal was to have the car ready for the American Muscle show in august. problem 1: they were stud mount rockers not pedestals like the eddys. order was placed for comp 1.7s. Problem 2: Summit was drop shipping them from comp who screwed up and shipped them to virgina beach. They made good on it at least and overnighted me some trickflow 1.72s. Wasn't sure what size pushrods i'd need so i got a checker as well. Finally got the pass side head off to find the head gasket was cracked at the number 3 cylinder. Put the new heads on and began the install of the valvetrain. The pushrods i was using before ended up working for me with the new heads/rockers. adjusted the valves to 1/2 turn and installed the rest.

Started it up and the rockers were tapping like crazy. I was out of time at this point and was just too pissed to not chance the drive to the AM show. So i brought it to the show to then discover that the back of the lower intake was puking out oil. Either i didn't put enough RTV on there or there was something wrong. Either way i had to take it back off and fix it. Did a small photo shoot since it was the first time the car was out in the day light since the new bumper/spoiler:

 

[ProKiller]

limped the car back home after the show to tear it back down. started the tear down and this happened:

Discovered that i had some bad lifters too. Had the intake welded back together. i got a set of FRPP lifters. The old ones came right out with the heads on still. The new ones wouldn't go in though. they had square heads where as the others had rounded heads. Had to grind down all of them to get them to slip in. That was nerve racking.

side by side comparison. new on the left, old on the right:

after some grinding:

Got them installed in and adjusted the valves to a 3/4 turn. Started it up and the valves were still a little noisy but figured it just might take some time to quiet down. I did all the tear down and reinstall on a saturday morning and didn't leave a whole heck of a lot of time to let the RTV seal up. I didn't even get 5 miles down the road before i smell oil burning and see smoke. take it back home and the lower rear intake gasket blew out again. parked it to tear it back down AGAIN. So now the thought was this happened twice in a row so perhaps its because of excessive crankcase pressure not just bad seals. The only thing i've changed is the catch can setup and the heads. Can't be the heads so we're thinking the lines i used aren't big enough to the can. since i had to take the intake off again, i readjusted the valves to a full turn this time and they are quiet now.

This brings us up to date now. I haven't taken it out since this most recent install as it was raining out when i last put it together. i'm hoping to take it out this weekend to prove that it isn't the catch can setup and just two bad seals. If it does blow again, then i have to rethink the catch can setup.

 

[ttocs]

I want to do something similar on my paint but green with ghost black looks good mang. Do you mind me asking how much you spent on paint since I am hoping to do it myself?

 

[belber095]

Sweet build man. Those ghost stripes look killer on the black.

tapatalkin'

 

[ProKiller]

Scott, the painter is a good friend of the family and was able to hook me up with a great deal so i don't really want to say, nor would it be a real world idea. and actually the only reason i had it painted when i did was becuase it takes a long time to get in to have your car painted by him so i jumped on the chance when he had a cancellation.

 

[ProKiller]

one side project was to switch out the gauges in from mismatched lunars/phantoms to all C2s.
before:

after:

apparently i don't have any good night shots. i'll have to remember to do that this weekend.

My little claim to fame is the car has been in two American Muscle calendars:

[video=youtube_share;7TEIDsWOwA0]http://youtu.be/7TEIDsWOwA0[/video]

Also can be found here:
http://www.americanmuscle.com/ryand-1994-mustang-gt.html

The full running tally of mods is as follows:
Engine:
-D.S.S. Super Pro Bullet 331 Stroker block with Series 20 upgrade
-Forged D.S.S. Pro-Lite Pistons
-Forged D.S.S. H-beam rods
-Cast Stroker Crank
-Felpro MLS head gaskets
-D.S.S. Windage Tray
-D.S.S. Main Support Girdle
-D.S.S. 7qt. Oil pan with FMS High Volume Oil Pump
-Vortech S-trim SQ-V2 (2.95" pulley)
-AFM Power Pipe
-AFR Competition 185 58cc heads
-Trick Flow Stud Mount 1.72 Roller Rockers
-Moroso fabricated aluminum valve covers w/ JIC fittings for breather
-Moroso breather tank w/ JIC fittings/lines
-AFM B-21 Cam (218/226 .542/.542 w/1.7 rocker 272/280 112 108)
-FRPP lifters
-Edelbrock Performer RPM intake
-1" phenolic intake spacer
-Stack Racing Polished 70mm Throttle Body
-Pro-M 80MM mass air w/ attached filter
-42lb FRPP Injectors
-Aeromotive Fuel Pressure Regulator
-PA Performance 130-amp Alternator
-BBK 1 5/8" ceramic coated long tube headers w/ Stage 8 locking header bolts
-Dr. Gas 2 1/2" x-pipe
-DynoMax race bullet mufflers
-Borla duul slant cut round intercooled exhaust tips for side exhaust
-255lph intank fuel pump
-T-Rex inline fuel pump
-MSD Pro-Billet Distributor
-MSD coil w/ Ford Motorsports 8mm wires
-MSD 6A Ignition system mounted in glove box
-Fluidyne Aluminum Radiator
-Manual Fan switch
-AFM PMS w/ boost controller
-Billet Smog Pump Delete (99.5" belt)
-Most wires hidden
-EGR Deleted -A/C Deleted
-Snow Methonal Injection Stage 2 kit (waiting for install)

Drivetrain:
-Tremec 3550 upgraded with 26-spline input shaft and larger output shaft
-Mcleod clutch
-Fidanza steel flywheel
-Maximum Motorsports Clutch Cable
-Steeda Double Clutch Quadrant
-AM Firewall Adjuster
-Pro 5.0 shifter
-Ford Motorsports Aluminum Driveshaft
-FRPP Driveshaft Safety Loop
-Hurst Line-Loc (Waiting for install)

Rear End:
-Ford Motorsports 3.73 gears
-Moser 28-spline axles
-Trick Flow Rear Stud Girdle

Suspension:
-Ford Racing Lowering Springs (I think C's)
-KYB Rear Shocks
-Cross Drilled and Slotted Rotors
-Steeda Aluminum Lower Control Arms
-Steeda Adjustable Upper Control Arms
-Maximum Motorsports 4-bolt Caster/Camber Plates
-BBK Strut Tower Brace-Kenny Brown full length welded in subframe connectors
-2003 Cobra Rack (SPR-ZM)
Exterior:
-Fresh paint job :: Black with blue pearl, ghost blue pearl dual stripes
-Cobra R Hood w/ Hood Pins
-ABC Exclusives GTR front bumper smoothed on the sides
-Roush Side exhaust side skirts
-Saleen T1 race spoiler
-Export horizontal tail lights w/ amber turn signals
-Black Bullit fuel door
-Ultra Clear Headlights
-Ultra Clear Side Markers
-Clear Rear Reflectors
-18 x 9 FR500 Hypercoated front wheels
-265/35-18 Nitto NT555 Extreme front tires
-18 x 10 FR500 Hypercoated rear wheels
-305/35-18 Nitto NT555R drag radials
-Window Tint
-Painted Red Calipers w/ Pony Stickers
-Silver Bumper Inserts
-Painted Mirrors

Interior:
-Painted Interior pieces
-White Face Gauges w/ LED light mod and red needles
-Sinus Industries Gauge Ring Bezel
-White HVAC panel w/ LED light mod
-LED Reverse lights
-LED dome lights
-LED license plate lights
-Autometer 2 gauge pillar pod
-Autometer 2 gauge cluster pod
-Autometer 2 gauge clock pod converted for wideband
-Autometer C2 Boost, Water Temperature, Oil Pressure, Fuel Pressure gauges
-Autometer C2 Tachometer w/ UPR Tach Bracket
-AFM Uego 2000 wideband sensor (partially installed. Still have to hook up to Tach/PMS)
-Bullet Shifter Knob
-Billet Headlight Knob
-Billet Window Switches
-Billet Clothes Hangers
-Billet HVAC Contols
-Billet Cigeratte Lighter
-Billet E-Brake Handle
-Billet Door Lock Pins
-Billet Cruise Control Buttons
-AFM Billet Ash Tray Switch
-Neon Blue Lights under the dash
Stereo:
-JVC headunit
-Pioneer Tweeters
-Viper Alarm

 

[Tony]

end result....straight fn sickness!!!

dam dude you dodged a bullit! thank god ya missed 2nd gear, lol!!!!!!!

 

[MustangChris]

carbon fiber air filter.... FTW. lol. ;-)

sweet thread man! love looking at your car.

 

[TLSF150]

haha.. thats awesome..

I had no idea this was your car lol..

 

[MustangChris]

hahah. thats like finding out your girlfriend is your buddy's daughter. LOL.

 

[clark98gt]

The car turned out bad ass, well done and a hell of a story.

 

[belber095]

sorry if i missed it, but what kinda numbers was this thing putting out?

 

[the.greg]

Your car is sick man! I actually really like that front bumper, rear spoiler, and sideskirt setup. It flows very well. That thing sounds like its given you alot of trouble, but its nice to see you keep fixing it up better and better and not give up on it.

 

[ProKiller]

Tony: yeah your telling me. i was very pissed off when it happened then i looked up and realized the guy was all kinds of squirrely and let off so i didn't end up anywhere near him. of course at the time i was more pissed off that the guy ruined my run than the fact that it could have went severely bad.

belber: last i had it dyno'ed was before the exhuast and new heads and it put down 450/450. i expect it's over 500 now with the upgrades but have to get it running reliably first before a dyno pull.

the.greg: thanks. my wife has actually mandated that i'm not allowed to sell the car. ever. so that helps keep the balance with all the issues over the years. i get pissed off and want to "pull a justin" and she tells me to just park it for a while and then i get interested again.

 

[the.greg]

Tony: yeah your telling me. i was very pissed off when it happened then i looked up and realized the guy was all kinds of squirrely and let off so i didn't end up anywhere near him. of course at the time i was more pissed off that the guy ruined my run than the fact that it could have went severely bad.

belber: last i had it dyno'ed was before the exhuast and new heads and it put down 450/450. i expect it's over 500 now with the upgrades but have to get it running reliably first before a dyno pull.

the.greg: thanks. my wife has actually mandated that i'm not allowed to sell the car. ever. so that helps keep the balance with all the issues over the years. i get pissed off and want to "pull a justin" and she tells me to just park it for a while and then i get interested again.

HAHA @"pull a justin"!

 

[ProKiller]

got this from amustangrocksleather.com. black leather w/ blue stitching. install was easy just had to work the leather a bit to get it to smooth out. i'll be getting a shift boot to match. probably some other interior stuff to match as well.

also ordered some brakes for the front for this winter's project.