92 Mustang LX Foxbody Coupe

Got the wiring fornthe battery kill switch hooked up and tested. It works. Installed the power post to move all car electronics off the starter solenoid. 

In the process of messing with the starter solenoid a post snapped out of the housing. So had to go get a new one. Luckily it wound up being about 10 bucks after my 20 dollar autozone rewards. Also put the fuel pump on a ground sided switch. Since the ecu controls fuel pump relay ground and it goes on the fritz either after it goes into open loop or running for 10 minutes, it was time to try some stuff. 

Cut the wire coming from ecu and ran it to a switch then grounded it on a known good ground. Seems to work. Will have to drive to fully confirm. 

well just about 2 weeks left until the challenge and i have about $220 left in the budget. i am trying to spend it extremely wisely as well as leave a little left for the event itself in case of emergency. I did score some 99-04 mustang gt dual piston calipers today for 30 bucks and that is an extreme upgrade over the existing single piston calipers i have now.

I am thinking of grabbing some sway bar bushings and end links and maybe some rack bushings to help with driver feedback in autocross. 

The last thing i really need/want is a good set of front struts. my rear shocks are single adjustable but the fronts are factory ancient struts. 

More post to follow as i button up the car and add finsihing touches. 

My goodwill find today. Seeing as my car is fighter jet themed im sure you all know where im going with this.

Get those bogies in missile lock!

I hope that will be a shift lever. Also, I hope every button will be for nitrous, so you don't have to worry about which button to hit for nitrous, you can just hit any button.

In reply to slowbird :

You guessed it! Except the buttons are not functional, for now...

Please use trigger button on stick to trigger nitrous.

In reply to 1SlowVW :

The nitrous is rpm activated. But i can use the trigger for purge...

surfshibby07 said:

In reply to 1SlowVW :

The nitrous is rpm activated. But i can use the trigger for purge...

I came in worried that you would say no, but I’m leaving satisfied that you’re using this to its potential. 

At the moment the car is still acting up. Im going to put in the stock maf from the 94 parts car and see if that fixes it. As it sits now its definitely not competitve. Its infuriating 

Welp. last night in the midst of trying to diagnose this bizarre issue, the engine bay erupted in flames. luckily i got it out within 15 seconds but it was still enough to roast a portion of the harness. after work today i need to diagnose what needs to be done and start cutting and replacing wires. 

I believe there were 1 or 2 injectors sticking open and filling cylinder 8 and maybe 5 with fuel. pulled all the plugs and disconnected coil and proceeded to turn over the motor to scavenge any fluids. i could see fuel spray out from the drivers side then almost immediately it erupted in flames. luckily i had a fire extenguisher inside the car already and i got it out pretty fast. 

i just keep telling myself "this competition is fun, this competition is fun....."

I'm glad that you didn't have a worse catastrophe on your hands.  Sttill sounds really frustrating.

EDIT

To clarify things. When i posted on facebook that my engine bay caught on fire i had a few friends messaging me asking how they could help etc. one of my friends tom, who recently sold his racecar (foxbody) as a roller but kept his drivetrain offered to give me his stand alone so that i could race the event. I told him i could not do that as the rules state i am not allowed to take freebies. and i could not borrow it. He then offered to sell it to me but when i told him i could not afford much because i am near my budget limit he asked me how about $100. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes as he is going to a coyote platform on his new build (ranger or explorer) I am not going to lie i definitely felt hesitant but i accepted the terms after asking about 100 times if he was for sure. 

Just want to clear the air and describe exactly what happened. i had him sign a receipt and i have our facebook messaged printed as well.

Goodbye factory harness as well as ac. Time to put this car on a diet and get this thing wired up and hopefully running tomorrow. 

Almost finished with the stand alone. Splicing wires and routing everything ti fit isnt as easy as i thought ut would be. But not overly difficult. Also cleaning off fire extenguisher residue as i go. 

Hoping to have it running again this afternoon. 

Fyi that sounds like an inside deal.  Might want to check your wording

In reply to Patrick :

Do you mean for the holley? well it did come out of his last race car he sold. it wasn't new. i told him i had to buy it because he did try to give it to me. i am trying to follow the rules exactly. So when he offered it to me for $100 i did not see anything wrong with it. Especially considering some people "buy" their cars for the cost of a nice dinner out to eat. 

I did message Tom about the situation because even after my buddy offered it to me i was hesitant because i know even used these kits aren't cheap. i definitely do not want to upset anyone, break any rules, or ruffle any feathers. the other route i can take is pull all the usable harness out of my 94 parts car and try to repair my harness and get my ecu rebuilt for $65 from a local guy who does it. I just figured i was doing the right thing turning down his free offer and paying for it. 

I am fine with proceeding with either route so long everyone is happy. I do not plan on even coming close to winning with this car i just wanted to be competitive with my knowledge and experience of building mustangs. 

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

I'm glad that you didn't have a worse catastrophe on your hands.  Sttill sounds really frustrating.

yea me too. i havent checked to see if the wipers still work because the harness is melted there but might be good enough to still operate. the under side of the upper intake manifold was scorched, but luckily the master cylinder didnt melt. had that happened and the brake flid been exposed to the flame i dont think i would have been able to put it out with what i had. 

I did realize it was my fault it caught fire. going over what went wrong and how it could of ignited i realized that i unplugged the ignition coil, but i unplugged the wrong side. instead of unplugging the power source i unplugged the plug wire. so when i scavenged the cylinders of fuel the coil most likely grounded to itself and thats what ignited the fuel. Thats what i get for trying to work on the car at 1am. nothing is as frustrating as something going wrong that could have been prevented had i been paying attention.

The good news is today when i finally got the car started, i noticed i did not bend a rod like i thought i had from vapor locking/hydro locking the motor with fuel from the leaking injector. cylinder number 5 appears as it might be dead. I thought that it was due to the plug threads being jacked up and the plug not being able to fully penetrate the cylinder, but now i am thinking little to no compression on cylinder 5. tomorrows compression check will tell me its secrets. 

In summary. i almost burned my car and a portion of my deck on my house down. it was my fault. the car runs and has no bent rods. I might be the only 7 cylinder car at the challenge this year. 

So after messaging with Tom i see now how it is an inside deal. I was unaware that the parts had to be available to everyone at that price not just to me. I will be pulling apart the looming tonight and try and get my factory harness repaired and drop off my ecu to a local buddy who repairs them for cheap. 

good news is at least i will have more left in my budget, bad news is this may not work and the car might not run at all...

Got a set of dual piston calipers off a 99 gt from mustang parts reaper. Used some of the garage sale spray paint i had them and they came out pretty good. I had like a third of a can of paint and it just barely got them coated lol. 

Going to grab new rotors and pads today. 

Well the holley is out. And after replacing a few wires, the factory harness has been fed back through the firewall and re grounded in a known good cleaned spot. 

Dropped off my ecu and he has already fixed it. 1 blown capacitor and 1 that was swollen. Hoping it fixes the issue.

Sorry I didn't mean to send you down a rabbit hole, I just thought you might want to reword your post.  I hope everything works out.  

In reply to Patrick :

No worries i honestly believe its for the best. I was honestly hesitant in using it because i felt like it was an unfair advantage and also the easy way out. The route im going now feels much more like the grassroots way and ill be a lot more happy in the end knowing i fixed the problem vs replacing parts. 

Ebay caster camber plates and sway bar bushing came in today. Not sure if im going to use the cc plates or not yet. Tonight will tell if the car runs good and doesnt act up.