$5000 budget Mustang by Ron S

6 minute(s) of a 178 minute read

Watching that show last night motivated me to finish this lower grill/brake ducts. I kind of liked the thing without the splitter, but its growing on me with it. If the weather holds out, I plan on hitting the drag strip next Sat., interested to see what kind of quarter mile times this thing runs.

3-19-2011

Had a very good day at the drag strip. Me and a buddy drove our cars to the track, its still pretty cold here so it wasn't real crowded. We both made about twenty passes, I was a little worried about the clutchless 4 speed, beacause this was kind of its maiden voyage. It took a few passes to master, man is it a hoot to drive.

The track was cold, so the Bfg's spun through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears. At one point, because of the violent nature of the trans, I broke loose pulling 4th gear and got a little close to the wall. Still managed to run a 10.94 @ 132 mph. If I had a set of drag radials, I think the car had a 10.4 in it. Nobody broke, everybody ran good, a really fun outing.

A buddy took a bunch of video, as soon as he gets it up, I'll post it. Ron

3-20-2011

My buddy Mark took these pics and the video

They asked that I didn't come back until I get some side glass or window nets.
Another video

3-27-2011

I've aligned the front end on this car several times. The adjuster cams keep moving, I guess from leaning on it so hard. The last two events last year were run with the front end way out of wack. I've made up these plates to take the place of the cams, after I line it up again, I'll punch the holes in them, should cure the problem.

4-3-2011

This is turning into the War and Peace of threads, the thread that never ends.

It was a crazy weekend, I'm still kind of in a funk. While on the road course at RTTS, the engine in the Mustang let go. While trying to lay down a decent time, in one of the faster parts of the course the engine locked up, knocking the side out of the block, laying 3 gallons of oil on to the track, and putting me into the wall.

While on the cruise Friday, the breather puked a bunch of oil out, only did it once, but it should have given me a heads up. Saturday while beating on it, it seemed a little down on power, but ran OK. When time trialing on the road course at about 6500rpm / 110 mph, in a long sweeping turn the thing let go.

Pulled the engine this morning, it appears #5 piston broke right at the ring land, throwing the rod thru the side of the cylinder. Looks like the heads made it though. I remember the guy I bought the engine from, saying he squeezed several times, maybe that weak'nd it,maybe not. I still want to have some fun this summer, so I guess I'll have to figure some things out.

The turn before it let go, I heard a vibration,I checked the guages, oil pressure was up, taching around 6500 in third gear. I was leaning forward listening for the vibration when the engine locked up. It locked the rear wheels, because I was partially through the turn, the car went into a spin. Once the rear wheels hit the 3 gallons of oil,and antifreeze, I was just along for the ride. I hit the wall backwards, its funny all was thinking was, I hope the block lived. Of course it didn't.

Looking at the car today,the chassis was so ridgid, the quarter hit so hard it has the perfect shape of the guardrail, but the crossmembers kept it off the frame. Probably a weeks work on the sheetmetal, its the engine that breaks my heart.

It was a dry sump Andrew, it actually broke a piston, sending the rod through the block (split right at the ring land). I bought the engine from a guy who was racing it on nos, that may have lead to its demise, I've only driven the car in angry mode, who knows?

4-4-2011

Jake, and Herb just sent me a pile of pics

4-11-2011

I'm pretty sure it will be LS powered, once again to get to the power level that I had, I'd have to spend way too much to go Ford.

I did start ripping off some old sheetmetal, used the hillbilly frame machine(a Jeep with a winch) to pull the metal around. Can't get over how ridgid the chassis was and how straight it kept the car. I'm convinced that a stock bodied Mustang would have blown the back window out, and been shaped like a taco. I guess its english wheel time.