Creation of the Red Baron - Phase 2: Modifications

[MikeFleming]

The goals in this build:

- A reliable, low-maintenance 325-350 WHP. All systems in the car must support this power goal.
- Reduce weight by 200 Lbs.
- Recreate the red. Repaint the car with no masking lines.
- A show winning car.
- Fix the chassis failures inherent to the FOX.
- Improve the chassis, handling and brakes.
- Use newer, updated technologies where applicable.

[MikeFleming]

First modification is installing a Maximum Motorsports front suspension including FOX 5.0 tubular k-frame, MM front SN-95 a-arms, KONI Double-Adjustable front FOX struts and Maximum Motorsport's KONI Coil-Over kit.

Test fitment of the MM k-frame on the engine checking for any clearance issues. Outgoing engine test fit with stock mounts installed.
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[dagenham]

With that much clearence under the oil pan Mike, did you give any thought to lowering the engine a little bit to help the center of gravity???
Just a thought.

[MikeFleming]

^
I did not. Too many additional changes would be required: gearbox placement, shifter linkage changes, etc. That'd be a good idea if I had used a tall block (for hood clearance) though.

[MikeFleming]

Wanted to remove the wimpy stock FOX/SVO sun visors and put in a dual-panel visor assembly like the Taurus's have. Loved them in my SHOs.
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So I purchased a currently-available set of Taurus visors, iirc 2002 was the earliest available, and the interior body panels where they mounted to get the proper hole templates & spacing.
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Transferred the hole patterns to poster board, then to 0.015" sheet aluminum for the mockup.
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Test fit the template.
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Clearance the stock mounting holes using the carbide cutter, air rotary and Shop-R2 to keep the mess down.
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Unfortunately the mounting angle wouldn't work so I made mounting plates to weld-in at the proper angles. (This pattern always reminds me of Texas.)
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[MikeFleming]

Test fit & label new mounting brackets.
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Bend & weld brackets, drill screw holes, test fit to inner roof. Add power wiring from the center dome light to each visor.
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The stock SVO radiator is 19x29" for the core size. I wanted to install a narrower radiator, in two-row aluminum, in the left-most position near the stock location. The new aluminum radiator uses a 19x22" core. This was done to allow an additional ~7" of clear air space on the right side of the radiator core opening. Removed stock spot-welded radiator mounts, and added new mounts for the new mounting pins on the aluminum radiator. The engine charge cooler will go in this new void. And installed a 16" curved-blade SPAL fan to the aluminum radiator.
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Time to seam-weld all the loose [spot-welded] panels in the front sheet metal and repair assorted stress cracks. Evidence this car has had a very hard life. A LOT of miscellaneous creaking went away from this process. Not to mention the major increase in chassis rigidity (and the jungle gym in the back helped with that also).
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[Laredo]

Mike, how many miles / years old when you started this project?

[MikeFleming]

I was somewhere under 50 ... with LOTS of miles too. Or were you asking about the car??

I started taking the car apart in late 2001 then took a couple years away from the project to recover from a heart surgery. The car saw ~170K street miles including about 500 hours of track time. It was my testbed for most all things SVO.

[blueboss]

Your welding of the panel seams gives me validation. I did the same when I replaced the front end (frame rails, aprons, shock towers, rad support) on my son's LX. I not only rosette welded the factory spot weld holes but I also seam welded for strength.

[MikeFleming]

Wait until I get to the jungle gym installation.

[MikeFleming]

Moving on to prepping the front suspension modification parts. Here are the straight-arm SN-95 front spindles (1996+). The arms were abrasive blasted for inspection first. Then one of the two needed to have the caliper mounting bosses trimmed to mount the COBRA caliper, LOTS of sharp areas needed deburring, the tie-rod mounting holes were machined out to allow a 5/8" through bolt to mount the bump steer kit and then blasted again (using alumina media) and then painted gloss black.
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[MikeFleming]

I used a 94 Cobra aluminum MC with a 15/16" bore, and needed to machine the snout down where it pushes into the booster (bolt pattern is same). 94 Cobra MC on left, SVO on right.
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Stock SVO on left, machined Cobra on right.
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I bought these for the front of the red car and some EradiSpeed+ 13" rotors.
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Milled off the raised COBRA lettering.
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Made a GIBBS program to CNC the "SVO" logo into the new face.
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Paint & bake.
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Cut the paint from the SVO logo recesses.
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Mount on car and hide inside wheel.
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[baltimucho]

Milled off the raised COBRA lettering...

Made a GIBBS program to CNC the "SVO" logo into the new face...


Good lord... I want to praise and applaud you, but my jealous rage makes me want to harm you.

[MikeFleming]

I'm very familiar with that Love-Hate kind of relationship.

[baltimucho]

I don't wanna hijack your thread, so... http://www.svocop.com/forum/showthread.php?1100-Manual-Brake-Conversion-Questions

Have you heard of or know anyone who runs manual brakes?

[Chalky]

Mike, do you have a part number for that radiator?? What core size did you use for your intercooler??

[stott]

i just did the cobra MC swap, and found out that even with the bigger snout size, it still fits on the stock brake booster!

[MikeFleming]

Mike, do you have a part number for that radiator?? What core size did you use for your intercooler?? Stock core is 19 x 29 in copper with 2 rows. I used a 19x22 two-core aluminum unit with a 16" curved-blade SPAL fan. Seven inches narrower than stock.

Note that copper cores are ~3/8" wide while the aluminum ones are 1.25" wide.

Iirc I ordered it from here:
http://www.alumrad.com/ford.html
http://www.alumrad.com/fans.htm

Told him what I wanted size-wise and he made it up for me.

You will need to fabricate a mounting method as the stock brackets will not fit.

[MikeFleming]

More chassis crack repairs. This one is just behind the end of the center console, in the top of the tunnel just below the front of the rear lower seat. It will later get a larger plate welded over it, to reinforce the area and spread the load over a larger area, and where a portion of the jungle gym will attach. 3521
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Underneath shots.
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The fabrication shop. Some nice equipment lives here.
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Patch crack in tunnel area shown above.
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Prepping car for welding. Remove all paint and rubberized coatings.
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[MikeFleming]

Plate fitting. The plate were initially cut from some scrap (cheaper) thin sheet metal to fit the required size. Then cut from 0.085" 4130 place and welded in place.
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"X" marks where the upper rear suspension arm boxes attach. For reinforcement plates and tubes.
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1.75" x .090" and 1.0" x .090" 4130 tubing pieces.
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Center plate fitting.
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Tubing test fit.
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Tack welding tubes and mounting plates.
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More welding.
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[MikeFleming]

Finished tube welding pics.
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More stuff tomorrow.

[in2fords]

Nice work.
Just out of curiosity, why not thru floor sfc's with rails, then attach cage to that?
I'm thinking of doing that and am interested in reasons for/against since I don't know what I'm doing :-)

[Ford Builder]

Mike are you doing all your own tig welding ?

[MikeFleming]

Just out of curiosity, why not thru floor sfc's with rails, then attach cage to that? Already had external, weld-on SFCs (sub-frame connectors) in place beneath the chassis. With cross bars for the rear of the front seat mounts.

There were four main goals with the jungle gym installation:
1) Reinforce the chassis areas that are prone to stress cracking (spread the loads across a larger area),
2) Provide a place for the front shoulder harnesses to mount,
3) Provide structural support to the rear upper shock mounts for the Coil-Over installation, and
4) Make it look pretty while allowing all the interior panels to be re-installed.

Note it's not a full cage - there are no tubing pieces forward of the B-pillar. So it's perfectly safe as a street car without the need to wear a helmet.


Mike are you doing all your own tig welding ? Nah, I paid a professional to do that. And he did very nice work indeed! He's a long-hair that looks very much like Howard Stern. Known around here as "Heavy Metal". His day job is creating sheet metal things and he spends lots of his weekends crewing for a funny car team. His hobbies include welding stuff, making custom sheet metal stuff for cars, building race cars, etc. You know, just a normal guy. He's mostly a Ford guy. Has this custom tube pinto and drives a 1928 Ford custom rod. And an F150.
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In his new weekend shop, he's building a better corvette. When we have the SVOCOP Annual Meeting in Tucson, we will definitely visit his shop.
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[rodster]

Information overload....can't make it to Phase 3! ;)

Great stuff!

:like3:

[MikeFleming]

What core size did you use for your intercooler?? Sorry Chris - just realized that I didn't respond to this question.

The charge cooler I used was marketed by a company called Treadstone. The core is a Spearco Bar/plate piece measuring 18x6x3.5" and uses cast side tanks with 2.5" inlet/outlet connections. I bought it in mid-2004, iirc.

[cookin86]

Mike,

What I wouldn't give for your garage, skills, and knowledge for just a little while! Really cool stuff.

Ryan

[MikeFleming]

Thank you. Thank you very much.

[MikeFleming]

Alrighty then - back to the Red Baron's Modifications list.

Not sure if this is a Modification or an Engine topic. So here it is. This section will detail what I used on the Red Baron for a charge cooler, how it was fabricated and installed.

I started with a Spearco bar/plate core measuring 18x6x3.5" that had tapered cast tanks installed. It originally came with 2.5" hose connections. As you will soon see, those bibs were removed and 2.5" OD x 0.060" aluminum tubing was welded directly to the housings.

The charge cooler as received.
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Initial installation/fabrication into the engine compartment. As you may recall, I installed a 7" narrower aluminm radiator to create a 7" opening in the radiator core area. The bracketry on the right side frame rail is temporary bracing.
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Final mounting brace on top to top of radiator core support (with clearance around radiator end tank), clearance to AC compressor in rear, lower mounting brace to lower lip on radiator core support.
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Test fitting tubes and bypass valve installation.
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Looking at bend fabrication to throttle body.
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More tube fitting and some tacked test fits.
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[MikeFleming]

More tube fitting and some tacked test fits.
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Removable tubes welded.
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Blast, and add some semi-gloss black paint.
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Close-up of cooler cooling fins. They're serrated and bent like that to provide LOTS of cooling surface area for the outside, cooling airflow.
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Final installation pictures.
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[MikeFleming]

Heat shielding on the throttle body tube (that's directly over the exhaust manifold!).
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Fabrication of the side air ducting pieces to assist the frontal airflow into the cooler core. Start with test fitting using one of my favorite tools - pop rivits - then weld, paint and mount.
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That 3" black hose at the bottom left of this pic is brake cooling ducting.
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[dagenham]

Mike, the only thing I dont like the looks of is that universal radiator hose. I always hated that corrugated look.
It makes me think that someone got lazy and just slapped one on to get going instead of looking for something smooth that fits correctly.
Please dont get mad since it is just my dumb opinion and I understand that with everything being so customized that it is probably almost impossible to find anything else to fit right.

[MikeFleming]

I looked for several days at a couple of local parts houses and never found any hoses that had the formed bends right. I thought that flex hose looked better than using a two-piece hose with a bunch of clamps. I could also go with a PC'd piece of aluminum tube and two short couplers on the ends (and double the usual number of clamps).

[dagenham]

I agree with you about the pieces and clamps, I think that would look worse and just be more possibilities for a coolant leak.
Like I said sometimes you just cant find anything to fit right with so much customization.
It sure doesn't make me like the car any less!

Beautiful job on the car!

[brsvo]

How are you securing the air cleaner in the fender?

[MikeFleming]

How are you securing the air cleaner in the fender? I'd say that classifies as a modification too!

First I fabricated the MAF electrical harness and air handling tubing. The electrical EEC wiring is setup to switch easily between VAF/MAF (vane air flow/mass air flow meters) by changing a harness plug then installing the appropriate EEC code into the EEC Tuner chip. The short black 3" aluminum tube mounts the VAT (vane air temp) sensor as this MAF (mass air flow meter) doesn't have an integrated temp sensor (most later ones do).
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This shows testing the Beta MAF system installation (to verify wiring and EEC coding) with the MAF gently resting on the fender.
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I mod'd the MAF air filter housing to work with an K&N cone filter (the housing wouldn't easily fit inside the fender area).
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[MikeFleming]

More air filter mounting.
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Mocked-up a bracket to mount the MAF & filter in the desired location (using my favorite tools, aluminum pop rivits and galvanized steel straps!).
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After some road testing & a few positional adjustments, a real aluminum bracket was fabricated to mount the MAF and filter.
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Then the final flexible air tube ductlng and BPV (bypass valve) dump port were added when the charge cooler tubing was installed (which are pictured above with the charge cooler mods.

BTW - I have ~20 feet of smooth interior wall air-rated flexible tubing in 3" remaining. If someone has a need.

[brsvo]

Did you have to open up the hole to the fender or was it big enough stock? That tubing is smooth inside? Never would have guessed!

[MikeFleming]

No, that hole is where the stock "cold air" elbow went through the inner fender panel. I added some grommet tubing to the hole first. Perfectly sized.

As an aside, here's some documentation on the VAF/MAF backflow issue. This is the graphical logging data from the Zeitronix wideband unit.

Top trace - in white - is the (noisy at this time!) RPM tach signal
Second (yellow) is EGT.
Third (purple) is TPS in %.
Fourth (aqua) is MAF voltage.
Time scale is horizontal.

Notice the brief WOT period where RPM rises predictably (except for the noise spikes!) and MAF mostly follows. As boost starts, naturally airflow increases more rapidly. Then notice how the MAF immediately drops when throttle is closed completely and RPM slowly drops.

However the MAF signal continues to "bounce" as it tapers down to the normal closed-throttle idle level. That is the trailer-hitching effect commonly associated with airflow measuring systems. The VAF and MAF measure airflow in both directions - in and out of the sensor.

Once the throttle plate is closed, when under boost, the pressure (and flow) reverses direction back to the air meter. That is the bouncing reading in the chart.
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[MikeFleming]

Some more Zeitronix tuning/logging charts. Still had the RPM signal noise.

Traces are A/F (green, ait/fuel ratio), RPM (blue), EGT (yellow, exhaust gas temp sensor), TPS % (purple, throttle position sensor value), and MAF VDC (aqua. voltd on the MAF sensor).

First chart shows WOT in three gears in a row with 78, 90 and 94% throttle respectively. A/F varies between 12.2 and 11.8 during the WOT durations with airflow holding pretty steady in the 4.35-4.45 VDC range, ~40 Lbs/min iirc. Peak EGT hits 1852 shortly after the throttle is closed in the third gear - cooling airflow is reduced, so temps rise. Iirc this was limiting to 17 PSIG. 1850 F is kinda toasty - needs more timing.
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Peak EGT in this is 1713; peak throttle is 98%; airflow peaks at 4.43 VDC; RPM is between 3197 and 6850 on the first WOT period, drops to 4247 after the shift then climbs to 6035; A/F varies between 12.5 (start of WOT - wide open throttle - period) to 11.9 at end of WOT periods).
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Here EGT peaks at 1625 (more ignition advance!) while most of the MAF bouncing is gone. RPM goes from 3025 - 6737 during the WOT period. Looks like a good RPM signal now.
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Progressively getting closer.

[BLK BRD 88]

Mike,
What a beautiful job of upgrading an SVO from front to rear.

If anything this thread has reminded me that at 70 years old, I am still a noobie at a lot more than just this forum!

You lost me a few times with abbreviations, but I find it to be very interesting and informative reading.

Hopefully someday, since you are only a hundred miles south, I will get to meet you and the car in person.
Ron

[MikeFleming]

Let me know which abbrevs you're having difficulty with and I'll fill you in.

And it's South-East.

[BLK BRD 88]

Let me know which abbrevs you're having difficulty with and I'll fill you in.

And it's South-East.

Thanks for the offer Mike, I found most of the definitions in wikipedia & other online dictionaries.

"Shoot" if I keep reading them thar online dictionaries I may learn to talk like a 21st century auto mechanic someday. LOL
Ron

[Rlessary]

Awesome build

[MikeFleming]

Thanks to Jack Hadley, who is now banned until his next post, I now know that I did not post any data on how I addressed the stock SVO rear parking brake cable bracket and made it get along with the reinforced MM lower Coil-Over shock bracket kits. I will now do that here.

First off are some pics of how the stock lower rear shock and parking brake cable brackets attach to the rear axle housing. Note the stock cable bracket is above the shock mount and centered on the upper MM bracket bolt hole. Makes it easy enough to align the parts on the bench. Left side:
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Right side:
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Stock brackets off-car.
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Holes in differential housing. The lower hole is ~12mm iirc and the MM lower bracket bolt fits straight away. The upper hole is a slot and needs to be drilled out to accept the MM mount - 3/8". iirc.
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Once the upper holes are resized, the MM brackets can be test fitted. But first, the MM kit parts.
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Where the washers and locknuts go. As usual beware of sharp edges
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[MikeFleming]

MM lower CO shock mount and SVO parking cable brackets cut and joined together using the hot glue gun. Fresh out of blast cabinet and cleaning.
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Fresh gloss black applied.
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Some installed pics.
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[bluemax]

As always, very professional looking installation.

I almost cried when I saw how you welded the parking brake cable bracket to the lower shock mount. Those are the brackets that I am looking for. Pulled from the Lincoln parts bin back in the day, they are long obsolete and so far, proving difficult to find. :(

[Jack Hidley]

Bluemax,

Are you looking for stock 8.8" lower shock mounts?

[bluemax]

Bluemax,

Are you looking for stock 8.8" lower shock mounts?

No I am needing a nice pair of parking brake cable brackets. Do you have any???

[Jack Hidley]

Nope. I think I threw out a pair about 15 years ago.

[Laredo]

Close-up of cooler cooling fins. They're serrated and bent like that to provide LOTS of cooling surface area for the outside, cooling airflow.

Mike, I really like the super-clean look of the side mount charge cooler you did here, and especially the short intake pipes to/from the turbo and TB!
Most likely your "fun" driving is w/o the AC running - so this would be non-issue, but did you ever happen to get charge air temps with the AC running?
I am contemplating the same setup you have here, and weighing the pros/cons of going FMIC with longer pipes (and getting cooler "pre-condenser" air - I like my AC!) vs the side mount that will be pulling some warmer air through the condenser.