Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole

[zmotorsports]

While we're on the subject of spark, I know I may be getting deep down in the weeds here but probably the biggest improvement to the ignition system when I was racing and working with boosted engines was the addition of a MSD ignition module. This was a noticeable addition it keeping the fire lit. In fact, I had one box fail on me just prior to a club rod run so I had to remove it to send it out for repairs. I put the car back and run it on the standard ignition module and coil and it was definitely a seat of the pants feel difference. Having that extended duration spark really ensured a full burn of the combustible mixture.

 

[jbmatth]

Good info to have Mike, as mentioned before I don't have a ton of experience with FI engines that use spark plugs. There is only one company (that I'm aware of) that makes an upgraded coil for this car/engine since they are coil on plug or more descriptively coil as plug wire type, here is the upgraded one:


I sometimes wonder why I'm toying with these oddball platforms, very common, but not very well supported like small blocks and LS stuff. I'm sure with enough rework I could adapt something else to work, but the juice wouldn't be worth the squeeze for me on this car, it is my daily driver after all and reliability is key for my 81 mile drive everyday.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I think ZZP has a pretty good following in the FWD GM car world. They have done a TON of stuff for the 3800 SC setup.

 

[jbmatth]

I think ZZP has a pretty good following in the FWD GM car world. They have done a TON of stuff for the 3800 SC setup.

They are pretty big in the GM 4 and 6 cylinder world, really got a start on the W bodies then onto the delta platform (Ion and Cobalts) now they are doing a lot of work on the Sonic and Cruze, and are getting into the turbo 4's for the ATS and Camaro. Just like any company developing parts for cars they have had a few issues but have certainly made a ton of power on all of these platforms and made them go exceptionally quick too. I just need to remember this is a DD and I don't need 400+ hp in it.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

They are pretty big in the GM 4 and 6 cylinder world, really got a start on the W bodies then onto the delta platform (Ion and Cobalts) now they are doing a lot of work on the Sonic and Cruze, and are getting into the turbo 4's for the ATS and Camaro. Just like any company developing parts for cars they have had a few issues but have certainly made a ton of power on all of these platforms and made them go exceptionally quick too. I just need to remember this is a DD and I don't need 400+ hp in it.

JB

JB, Richard Holdener did a video series recently on an M90 supercharger on a 3.8L V6 and then putting the same Gen 5 supercharger on a 4.8l LS...interesting returns on that one. That little 3.8L with mods made SERIOUS power.

 

[jbmatth]

JB, Richard Holdener did a video series recently on an M90 supercharger on a 3.8L V6 and then putting the same Gen 5 supercharger on a 4.8l LS...interesting returns on that one. That little 3.8L with mods made SERIOUS power.

I didn't see that one, I'll have to check it out, they were no slouch when built right, their biggest downfall was the weak auto trans 4T65E (I think, going off of memory) and they weren't intercooled from the factory. In one of the tests they did during developing the intercooler for it I think they dropped 140°F off of the intake air temp, that'll make a big difference for sure.

JB

 

[Finallygotit]

I just need to remember this is a DD and I don't need 400+ hp in it.

JB

Blasphemy!!! Just think, if you get that road paved and with 400+ HP, you will cut so much time off that 81 mile commute.

 

[86turbodsl]

I just need to remember this is a DD and I don't need 400+ hp in it.

JB

That statement is incongruent.... lol...

 

[jbmatth]

Blasphemy!!! Just think, if you get that road paved and with 400+ HP, you will cut so much time off that 81 mile commute.

That statement is incongruent.... lol...

Well ya'll do have great points, I guess time to turn this baby up and get all of the speeding tickets Kansas has to offer.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I took the week of Thanksgiving off to get in a little time in a deer stand and to do some work on the turbo Ion. I saw quite a few deer, but nothing I needed at the time so passed on everything. Sadly due to rain, an ice storm, and traveling for Thanksgiving I could only hunt a handful of times, I'll just let them grow another year and give it a go then.

On the turbo Ion I didn't like how low the car sat with the lowering springs the previous owner installed and it caused it to ride quite rough. I bought new factory height parts and replaced the front struts, lower control arms, inner and outer tie rods, and rear springs, I'd replaced the rear shocks previously, here is the front all back together:


It was pretty pain free installing everything other than doing it on the floor since the RX-7 is still on the lift begging for attention. In the rear the lowering springs had a bigger ID that required a spacer be added, rather than buying the right parts the previous owner welded one of these on each side:


The only cutting tool I could get in there was an air grinder so after about an hour they were both off and the welds were ground flat, new springs on and headed for an alignment. While it was in the shop the new spark plugs came it, I used my fancy new tool to gap them to .032" (.81mm):


It runs a little better than the previous plugs, but a ton better than before I gapped the old ones.

While on the way to Thanksgiving with my daughters my clutch pedal in the car started to act up and I was having more and more trouble getting it to go into gear and kept hearing a popping sound from the pedal. When I stopped to get gas I discovered where the master cylinder push rod broke through the pedal (photo borrowed from online):


The temp fix to get us the next 250 miles (400 km) was to wrap electrical tape around the white clip (shown later) to keep it from deflecting as the push rod was only hitting this part. I'm not sure the reason for the white clip as it seems to serve no purpose and is only clipped on one side allowing it to deflect enough to prevent clutch disengagement from the engine. I made it to my brother's house and tried to find a replacement pedal on Wednesday afternoon, the earliest I could have one there would have been Saturday and would be $350. Amazon had them on sale (Pre-Black Friday sale) for ~$50, so I had one on order.

In the mean time I found some longer term temp repairs online and used these as my next steps, drilled a hole in the white clip and installed a very small bolt and nuts:


Installed and locked in with a self tapping screw on the left to keep it from deflecting:


I made it the entire way home with no issues, but have the car parked to prevent further destruction until the new pedal arrives this week.

JB

 

[jbrentd]

Glad to hear your misfires stopped and it wasn't something major. I've never seen one of those spark plug tools. Was always taught to tap it gently on the workbench to get the gap to close.

 

[jbmatth]

I was a bit surprised that the spark plugs were the contributor to all of the misfiring I was experiencing, it was pretty bad before under heavy load and is completely gone now. In searching for what heat range of plugs to go with the discussion on iridium plugs mentioned you couldn't pry them back open like copper plugs and a more precise technique should be used, I'd always just tapped them before too and pried back open if I went too far. Plus a great excuse to buy a new tool.

JB

 

[jbrentd]

Good to know on the iridium plugs. Yes, new tools are always the best option, lol.

 

[Grizz1963]

I am always amazed at how these tools actually make a difference

Glad it’s running better.

 

[jbmatth]

I couldn't agree more, in this case it may not really be needed, but now I have it and will be able to "more" properly set plug gaps.

It wasn't running terrible before and I was able to drive around the problem, but it certainly runs a ton better now.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I've been doing a lot of traveling since Thanksgiving and getting home after dark during the week so not a ton of progress on things. I mentioned back during our trip at Thanksgiving that my clutch pedal broke, sadly I wasn't able to replace it until this past Friday. Here is a comparison of the broken pedal to the new one:


Sadly no matter how much I searched I couldn't find a good writeup or video on replacing the pedal, one suggestion was to remove the clutch master cylinder, but that looked like a nightmare. What I decided on was pulling the steering column, turns out is is only 3 bolts and the splined U joint, a few wire connections and it is free to be pulled out:


Here you can see some of the PO's wiring work, that was all replaced with bare connectors and shrink tube, column set to the side:


Pretty easy once I decided to pull the column out, maybe only 30 minutes to finish from there vs the 3 hours to get to that point. Another little project I worked on while I was at it, a couple weeks ago the cruise control stopped working and the brake light came on on the dash. I determined it was the brake level switch, quick search and ordered one only to find out it was for a Cobalt and didn't work with the Ion, also found out the Ion part was discontinued and none available on ebay, amazon, or any parts store I called. I couldn't make it to the Pull-a-Part before they closed during the week so on my Friday off I went in to try to find one, ended up getting 3 just to be safe. I later found out they charge ~$15 for sensors at this particular lot, ouch! I also finely found someone scrapping another Ion with the leather wrapped steering wheel like mine above that is in poor shape, it should be shipped out today.

In other news I went down to southern Oklahoma for the annual Key Swap G500 Revenge of the Grinch, we had 8 swap vehicles this year, one being this Acura, if you can still call it that:


Here is the full lineup:


CRV, Acura, Town & Country, 4 Runner, Solara, Grand Prix, Camry, and Escape, we played Dirty Santa style, in the end I came away with the Escape:


Slight dent on the passenger side fender from a previous mailbox incident, and an OBS Ford grill guard "bolted" on, pretty nice shape all in all though but does have 338,000 miles (541,000 km) on the odometer. It made the 230 mile (370 km) drive home with no issues other than the cruise wasn't working, turns out the cable wasn't connected to the throttle body, I'll have to test it out now that it is back on.

Once I made it home I needed to put a bale of hay out for the cows:


They didn't want to wait for me, but sure seemed to enjoy me getting out of the way:


That is all for now,
JB

 

[Grizz1963]

I think you did well at the key swap.

 

[jbmatth]

I think you did well at the key swap.

It is an entertaining event, there are people coming from over 300 miles just for the adventure of it and to see what might happen. I'm pretty pleased with the new to me vehicle. My biggest complaint is that it is extremely uncomfortable to sleep in the drivers seat, next time I take it to an event I'll either bring a tent and air mattress or just put the air mattress in the back. I'm already looking for lift kits and bigger tires to give it a little more off road capability.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

After a total of 2,785 miles of driving we made it back from Florida, I took the family down to Universal Studios theme park and some of the other parks there as well. The first shot we got when getting on site:

I only got a small fraction of the photos they took, many in selfie mode and am only showing a small number of those. Bear and Cat were really interested in seeing the Harry Potter stuff, this was one of my favorite versions of that:


At 37 seconds after the 10 minute marks the dragon would spit a big fireball out, it was quite impressive really, they seemed to get startled every time but nothing like the people who weren't expecting it.

The girls also had seen a few movies they had cars of there on site including the Back to the Future Time Machine:


As well as the Jurassic Park Jeep:



Speaking of Jurassic Park, they got to meet Blue:


I ran across a few cars that caught my eye including the '32 from American Graffiti:


The off road Charger from one of the F-n-F movies:


Not at the park but at our hotel was a load of C8 Corvettes including a few Z06's with carbon wheels and brakes:


While mom and Bear were trying to ride a ride Cat and I wondered around a bit and got a few photos:




I didn't get any of the evening horseback riding we did in the bay outside of Bradenton, Fl, but we had a good time with that too, it was a first for all of us to be riding horses as they swam in the water, a really cool experience if a bit cold.

All in all a fun Christmas trip/vacation but I'll be happy to never have to drive in I-4 or I-75 in Florida again, at least not without a vehicle comfortable at 100 mph, wow no wonder why @Bob Heine has Corvettes and a CTS-V.

In other news it sounds like I might have another car coming to stay with me for a while, more to come.

JB

 

[Chrisb62]

After a total of 2,785 miles of driving we made it back from Florida, I took the family down to Universal Studios theme park and some of the other parks there as well. The first shot we got when getting on site:

I only got a small fraction of the photos they took, many in selfie mode and am only showing a small number of those. Bear and Cat were really interested in seeing the Harry Potter stuff, this was one of my favorite versions of that:


At 37 seconds after the 10 minute marks the dragon would spit a big fireball out, it was quite impressive really, they seemed to get startled every time but nothing like the people who weren't expecting it.

The girls also had seen a few movies they had cars of there on site including the Back to the Future Time Machine:


As well as the Jurassic Park Jeep:



Speaking of Jurassic Park, they got to meet Blue:


I ran across a few cars that caught my eye including the '32 from American Graffiti:


The off road Charger from one of the F-n-F movies:


Not at the park but at our hotel was a load of C8 Corvettes including a few Z06's with carbon wheels and brakes:


While mom and Bear were trying to ride a ride Cat and I wondered around a bit and got a few photos:




I didn't get any of the evening horseback riding we did in the bay outside of Bradenton, Fl, but we had a good time with that too, it was a first for all of us to be riding horses as they swam in the water, a really cool experience if a bit cold.

All in all a fun Christmas trip/vacation but I'll be happy to never have to drive in I-4 or I-75 in Florida again, at least not without a vehicle comfortable at 100 mph, wow no wonder why @Bob Heine has Corvettes and a CTS-V.

In other news it sounds like I might have another car coming to stay with me for a while, more to come.

JB

Bradenton is about 40 miles or so from me......but fully understand ...on vacation...... time not available for meet ups. Some other time.

 

[Grizz1963]

Excellent pics.

New beard I see.

 

[jbmatth]

Bradenton is about 40 miles or so from me......but fully understand ...on vacation...... time not available for meet ups. Some other time.

I didn't realize you were that close, but you are correct, we only had about 30 minutes on the beach then onto the horses and head straight back to Orlando soaked and cold. I was very impressed by the beach though, nice white sand unlike most of the beaches I've been to in the Golf.

Excellent pics.

New beard I see.

Thank you sir, it was a great time out there. With the new job I don't have to be clean shaven, first time I've ever had more than a few weeks of beard, it is growing on me.

In other news I have a delivery scheduled for today that I just found out about Tuesday, I'm pretty excited about it as I've never had one before. In order to make room I had to do a little cleaning and move the tractor, over the last couple of weeks it has had trouble starting, I keep trying to put a battery tender on it as well as plug in the coolant heater, but the mice/rats keep chewing the wiring, traps out but no luck just yet, have I mentioned how much I hate those little buggers!?

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Well the wait is over for those wondering what I was going to get into next. Short backstory, my youngest brother bought this car when he was 15, drove it through high school and took pretty good care of it for the most part for a teenager, well due to life he must now sell 10 years after he bought it. I warned him not to as he'd regret it but if he insisted I'd hang onto it, finish the engine swap and care for it for a while, if when I got tired of it he wanted to buy it back he could, otherwise I'd sell it to never be seen again.

He and another brother dropped it off yesterday while I was at work, then hit the road headed back home. I didn't get a ton of information on what all it needed but did know he had the engine and trans that I pulled out of the cobra in the car. A warmed over 351w and T5 5 speed manual trans. This is what it looked like when he dropped it off:


Obviously it has been sitting for a year or two, but will clean up and be a nice comfortable cruiser. It was originally a '66 Silver Blue 6 cylinder auto car with blue interior, everything is still the same but the engine and trans:


So here it sits while I start making parts orders:


What I've found so far is I need headers, finish the pedal install, cooling system, electric fan, and he managed to forget to bring the driveshaft so I'll try to figure something out there. Not a ton of work needed, but will keep me from getting bored with the 200 other projects on my to do list including that RX-7 I keep procrastinating on.

JB

 

[oldironfarmer]

Pretty cool Mustang! glad you have something to help you stave off boredom.

On the Ion clutch pedal, it is apparent you push too hard on the clutch.

 

[Grizz1963]

I wanted to load the video of the Mustang but my searching is weak today

 

[jbmatth]

Pretty cool Mustang! glad you have something to help you stave off boredom.

On the Ion clutch pedal, it is apparent you push too hard on the clutch.

Thank you Andy, glad to hear from you, it should be a little something to keep me busy during the cold next couple of months.

Sadly the Ion pedal is a common failure item, but I'm sure the "racing" clutch the previous owner installed doesn't help. As far as pedal feel though, it really isn't that tough, the old clutch in the cobra (now in my Mustang) was much worse.

I wanted to load the video of the Mustang but my searching is weak today

Which video are you referring to Grizz?

JB

 

[Grizz1963]

Thank you Andy, glad to hear from you, it should be a little something to keep me busy during the cold next couple of months.

Sadly the Ion pedal is a common failure item, but I'm sure the "racing" clutch the previous owner installed doesn't help. As far as pedal feel though, it really isn't that tough, the old clutch in the cobra (now in my Mustang) was much worse.

Which video are you referring to Grizz?

JB

Taking it for a test drive.

No brakes.

Your brother

 

[jbmatth]

Taking it for a test drive.

No brakes.

Your brother

Oh that one, that was actually their '65 Mustang they put the old engine in from this '66 Mustang, that was a fun one. They got that car as a trade for the labor to install a deck at a family friends house, after a few years I'm pretty sure they just broke even.

JB

 

[86turbodsl]

I didn't realize you were that close, but you are correct, we only had about 30 minutes on the beach then onto the horses and head straight back to Orlando soaked and cold. I was very impressed by the beach though, nice white sand unlike most of the beaches I've been to in the Golf.

Thank you sir, it was a great time out there. With the new job I don't have to be clean shaven, first time I've ever had more than a few weeks of beard, it is growing on me.

In other news I have a delivery scheduled for today that I just found out about Tuesday, I'm pretty excited about it as I've never had one before. In order to make room I had to do a little cleaning and move the tractor, over the last couple of weeks it has had trouble starting, I keep trying to put a battery tender on it as well as plug in the coolant heater, but the mice/rats keep chewing the wiring, traps out but no luck just yet, have I mentioned how much I hate those little buggers!?

JB

Bradenton is where i bought my Fairlane. In 1986.

 

[86turbodsl]

Well the wait is over for those wondering what I was going to get into next. Short backstory, my youngest brother bought this car when he was 15, drove it through high school and took pretty good care of it for the most part for a teenager, well due to life he must now sell 10 years after he bought it. I warned him not to as he'd regret it but if he insisted I'd hang onto it, finish the engine swap and care for it for a while, if when I got tired of it he wanted to buy it back he could, otherwise I'd sell it to never be seen again.

He and another brother dropped it off yesterday while I was at work, then hit the road headed back home. I didn't get a ton of information on what all it needed but did know he had the engine and trans that I pulled out of the cobra in the car. A warmed over 351w and T5 5 speed manual trans. This is what it looked like when he dropped it off:


Obviously it has been sitting for a year or two, but will clean up and be a nice comfortable cruiser. It was originally a '66 Silver Blue 6 cylinder auto car with blue interior, everything is still the same but the engine and trans:


So here it sits while I start making parts orders:


What I've found so far is I need headers, finish the pedal install, cooling system, electric fan, and he managed to forget to bring the driveshaft so I'll try to figure something out there. Not a ton of work needed, but will keep me from getting bored with the 200 other projects on my to do list including that RX-7 I keep procrastinating on.

JB

Good luck with 351W headers in that car. At least the last time i looked, nobody made them except expensive semi-customs. The collectors end up into the frame stubs.

 

[Bob Heine]

Good luck with 351W headers in that car. At least the last time i looked, nobody made them except expensive semi-customs. The collectors end up into the frame stubs.

@86turbodsl, I don't think a semi-custom header is a problem for @jbmatth, based on his earlier posts like this one:

The Warthog Hidey Hole

Manual valve, tell me more. The parking brake hasn't worked right in this car ever, and I've never bothered to try to actually fix it, they are weird rear brakes that I haven't messed with much. JB Instead of the electronic push button style, it will have either a twist valve or a lever.

www.garagejournal.com

 

[jbmatth]

Good luck with 351W headers in that car. At least the last time i looked, nobody made them except expensive semi-customs. The collectors end up into the frame stubs.

I have a Headman header ordered part number 88660, it is supposed to fit with the 351w according to their website: Headman 88660

Time will tell, they are out for delivery now, maybe I'll know tomorrow.

@86turbodsl, I don't think a semi-custom header is a problem for @jbmatth, based on his earlier posts like this one:

The Warthog Hidey Hole

Manual valve, tell me more. The parking brake hasn't worked right in this car ever, and I've never bothered to try to actually fix it, they are weird rear brakes that I haven't messed with much. JB Instead of the electronic push button style, it will have either a twist valve or a lever.

www.garagejournal.com

Bob, If I ever have to make headers from scratch again it'll be too soon, I don't recall exactly but probably had close to 100 hours into them along with the material and my labor rate at work that would mean they are worth more than the Mustang I just bought. For $330 the Headman's are worth a try, hopefully nothing a hammer can't fix, if I have to break out the welder I will though. At least the collector flange for the car side will need some work.

Funny story on the exhaust on this car, I looked this weekend while working on it because I wanted to know what mufflers he had on there, turns out there aren't any, I'll give it a go as is to see if I can stand it, but will likely buy or build a full exhaust for the car with at least some mufflers.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Working on the Mustang have re-ignited my fire for working in the shop a good bit, I certainly missed that as I've really not been wanting to do anything with the RX-7 for some reason. I made a list of what I could see after my first glance at stuff and ordered a few things with more to come. One not on the list was to install the shifter ball. But the one that came with the shift lever he bought wasn't going to cut it, I dug around the shop and found this old Hurst shift knob I bought years ago, verified fitment and now just need to pull it back off and polish it up:


One question I had was I didn't know what rear gears were in the car, found the tag after putting all 4 corners on jack stands and found out I have 2.80:1 open gears, well I should be really low RPM on the highway at least this way:


I needed to hook the ebrake back up but wasn't entirely sure how it went together but found this screen grab while watching another video on the tube:


The good news is after rolling around under the car a lot I now know there is absolutely no rust anywhere under the car, none, I'm extremely happy to have found that out.

To give an idea on what I've done and where I have to go here is the punch list I've made so far:


Some things not on the list, but it'll at least give me a place to start and find parts I need to get ordered in.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Easily a 200mph car with a 2.80 gear

Driving my Z28 last weekend got me motivated to continue to wrench on the stuff I have!

 

[jbmatth]

Easily a 200mph car with a 2.80 gear

Driving my Z28 last weekend got me motivated to continue to wrench on the stuff I have!

Haha, I suppose if I were 16 again I may give that a try. (Fun addition to this below)

I really needed that bit of motivation as you I'm sure, lately it has all only been required maintenance and I was just burned out. I much preferred to work on the property or play with my new boomsticks, they take up so much less space than the equivalent value in cars.

*I've had a number of people ask how fast I've driven the cobra and Viper since they are both capable of extreme speeds now. My answer for both is about 120 MPH (200 kph) and that is only when required to pass people and I think only once for either car (with the current engine in the cobra). I RARELY ever get them over 80 even on the highway, the fastest I've ever driven a car is 136 MPH (227 KPH) back in my teens in the first iteration of the Yellow ZX2 S/R I owned. I just don't have the desire to do top speed runs anymore much preferring spurts of acceleration, fast corners, or just cruising. I also like no points on my license and keeping my license, but that is a story for another day.

JB

 

[Finallygotit]

I have had that same question asked of me multiple time about the Cobra. I always tell them I stopped looking after 90 mph as the Cobra gets a bit light and twitchy after that.

There is a traffic circle near our neighborhood that I treat as my own personal skid pad. I have a lot of fun hanging the rear end out.

 

[LutzTD]

cool Mustang!. with the 5sp I would be looking for 4:11 or 4:56's

 

[jbmatth]

I have had that same question asked of me multiple time about the Cobra. I always tell them I stopped looking after 90 mph as the Cobra gets a bit light and twitchy after that.

There is a traffic circle near our neighborhood that I treat as my own personal skid pad. I have a lot of fun hanging the rear end out.

Mine is a little better now but in that triple digit area it still gets a little light. I'll never know if I go over 120 though, there are no numbers past that on the speedo.

cool Mustang!. with the 5sp I would be looking for 4:11 or 4:56's

Thank you, I'm pretty excited to get to have it for a while. I doubt I'll go that crazy with the gears, I have the fast vehicles already, I just want to keep this one a cruiser. At one time I had this combo in the cobra with 4.10 gears and it was screaming on the highway and that was with taller tires than the Mustang has.

In other news my oldest daughter has expressed interest in learning to drive and my wife and I agree it will be in a car with a manual trans, I've considered it being this car she learns on, yard/pasture to start off with then the gravel roads around our house just to get used to using the first few gears. She isn't tall enough to drive the cobra and the Viper is borderline as well. I guess we will just have to see what she can fit in and go from there, we have plenty of options right now.

JB

 

[Finallygotit]

I vote for 3:56 gears for the Mustang. Although it depends, is the 5th gear in the trans an overdrive gear?

 

[jbmatth]

I vote for 3:56 gears for the Mustang. Although it depends, is the 5th gear in the trans an overdrive gear?

5th is a .68 ratio I believe, if I change the rear gears it'll likely be in the 3.3x to 3.5x range, but all of that is back burner for now and likely won't happen until next winter, the only upgrades I'm considering for this year are disc brakes for the front and maybe go to power brakes. Time will tell though, I need to drive it a little to see what I think about the existing manual drum brakes, manual steering is likely to stay as well.

JB