74_5.0L_Z

My car has the shifter very close to the stock location, but that required moving the engine back almost against the firewall. The back of the driver's side cylinder head is 3/4" from the firewall. To put the engine in this position required deleting the factor hood latch, and fabricating my own mounts. I believe the Laine Family installation has the engine in a position similar to mine and that they managed to keep the hood latch.

Which big spoiler are you using? I am wanting to add a rear spoiler to my car to help with high speed stability and to get a little more confidence in high speed turns (Turn 1, Turn 17, and Bishop at Sebring). I am hitting speeds of 140 - 150 mph headed toward 17 at Sebring. My car NEVER pushes and feels very balanced. I like driving a neutral car at autocross speeds, but would like an aero induced shift toward understeer at higher speeds.

Mike, Where did you find the M14 x 1.5 tube ends? I looked for those a while back without much success. I was planning to go the same route that you did with the Moog ES323 tie rod ends.

https://www.facebook.com/hokeperformance/

I swear by the ATL Black Box fuel sump. It is a gated plastic box that sits inside your fuel cell. The fuel pump is inside the box and is plumbed out through the top of the cell. Gates allow fuel into the box from three sides. I also plumb my fuel return into the top of the box. The system is so effective that l have completed a track session without any starvation issues and then have the car run out of fuel loading it onto the trailer. Good to the last drop.

What do you want to do with the car? Are you auto-crossing, drag racing, or just driving? How are the roads where this car will be driven? Is the car structurally sound or is it really rusty? Does it have a cage or any structural reinforcement? Are you planning to run camber plates or use the stock isolators? My car has a lot of structural reinforcement. I autocross and road race. My front springs are 500 lb/in and are 8 inches tall free length. My rear springs are 400 lb/in and again 8 inch free length. You have to consider rate and free length when selecting springs and while you are placing the coil-over sleeve on the strut.

If you lower the S30 and do not significantly increase the spring rate then you will most likely experience bottoming of the suspension over bumps. On a lowered Z, the benefits of coil-overs come mostly from the availability of different lengths and rates of springs, and from the additional clearance between the strut and wheel. Read the sticky regarding sectioning struts. To properly lower a Z car the struts must be sectioned, you must install shorter inserts, and you must have decent bump stops.

You cannot use the full potential of bigger front brakes until you have also added appropriately sized rear brakes. A balanced set-up is key to maximum braking performance. Right now, with the upgraded front and stock rear, the front brakes will lock easily and the rear are doing not much of anything. I found myself in the same predicament years ago when I upgraded the front brakes before the rear. The brakes felt better than stock but were severely limited by the stock rears. I finally decided that upgrading the rears to match the front was mandatory after trying to stop on a wet slippery bridge. The front locked super easy and the rear did nothing. I nearly hit the car in front of me before getting stopped. An unbalanced brake set-up is dangerous to drive in wet conditions. If you have four 1.75 " pistons (per caliper) in the front, then you will need four 1.375 pistons (per caliper) in the rear and a proportioning valve in the rear brake circuit to get good brake balance.

The center to center distance for the mounting bushings on the S30 is 700 mm, so the S30 sway bars are likely too narrow for your application. I would look into a sway bar for an older Mustang. I used to play with the older Mustangs (69-70). They had a similar shape and were wider than the S30 sway bars.

I think that piece of metal might be sufficiently strong for hanging up your laundry after it comes out of the washing machine. Other than that, I see no useful purpose.

I have run three track days now with the MSA flush mount mirrors. They don't move and the visibility is great.

Here is a little light reading regarding caster, its measurement, and its effects. http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/24543/steering-geometry-and-caster-measurement%5B1%5D.pdf

Caster does have a jacking effect, but only when the steering wheel is turned. When corner balancing the car, you REALLY need to make sure the wheels are pointing straight ahead. If you have 6+ degrees of caster, then turning the wheel will significantly affect the scale readings. If you turn left, the left front wheel and right rear wheel will gain load and the right front and left rear will lose load. On a related note, caster (or more specifically caster trail) produces a torque about the steering axis. If both wheels have equal caster, then when you are driving straight the caster induced torques at the front wheels will be equal but opposite therefore cancelling each other out. If one of the front wheels has significantly more caster than the other, then the car will pull toward the side that has less caster.

I'm guessing that your caster is not equal left to right.

Do you have stock control arms? How much caster? Bump steer spacers? Camber plates? The stock camber curve at stock ride height starts off toeing out with bump and then at extreme bump start to toe in. When you lower the car with everything else stock, you operate closer to the hump where the curve transitions from toe out to to in on bump. The bump steer spacers help get a lowered car back in the safe toe out on bump region of the curve. From the pictures, you have lowered the front substantially. Bump steer spacers will help but probably not enough. Raising the LCA pickup helps the camber curve on a lowered Z, but also moves you more toward the toe in region of the curve. Your options are as follows: 1. Raise the car so that you are operating in the toe out region in bump. 2. Raise the steering rack relative to the LCA pickup points. 3. Lower the outer tie rod ends to get back in the toe out range. In all of the above, you are just moving around on the same curve. To change the curve, you need to use a different length rack. I wish you were close enough for me to come help you out. Good luck.

If you are good at math, try "A Multi-body Systems Approach to Vehicle Dynamics "https://books.google.com/books?id=FlBgF8w9CegC&source=gbs_similarbooks

Let's see a picture of the end links. The simple cure is to replace the six with a V8. Problem solved. Actually, I had a similar issue wth an ST sway bar years ago when I still had the L6. For me, the cure was longer end links.

Delete the rear sway bar.

I think Hoke Performance does this. He's in Asheville NC.

Thieves should die of lead poisoning.

Replace the crossmember and get the suspension geometry correct. If the steering shaft hits the exhaust, modify the steering shaft. The addition of an extra u-joint and constraint is well documented on this site. If you just modify the tie rods, you will have bump steer issues. The car will toe in on bump on one side and toe out in bump on the other side. Every time you hit a bump with both front tires, the car will try to turn. Take the time and fix it right. I have a stock front crossmember that you can have for the cost of shipping.

Packaging drove the primary lengths for my exhaust. My primaries vary from 25 to 27 inches (measured from the exhaust flange to the beginning of the merge collectors). Being as short as they are, I expected to lose some bottom end torque. Unexpectedly, I gained 38 lb-ft of torque.

Cool! That is exactly how defined the bends for my exhaust. Except, I made everything from j-bends. Who did you use to do the CNC bending? How much did they charge. That looks really good. How long are the primary tubes?

I would start by getting an unmolested crossmember and see if it will bolt up. If not, you may need to visit a frame shop.

Pictures would make this whole conversation meaningful and allow us to be helpful.