Update time...
Progress has been very slow. I haven't stopped working during Covid except for the 2 weeks we took off to move. My current garage is about 18" narrower than my old garage. This may not sound like a lot, but it makes a huge difference when setting everything up on jackstands. Yes I use jackstands, I am not rich enough to get a quick lift. I have had to change the location of everything in order to park the cars inside and still have work room, and even then I don't feel comfortable parking an entire car inside. This has really slowed me down... Also my new boss is kind of a ball buster, and is really making my job difficult. That added stress really drains a lot of energy out of me, so garage days have been less frequent. I will more than likely switch jobs or maybe even start my own business, but that wont be until the pandemic ends, whenever the hell that is...
Enough personal rambling....
I installed the G-Loc R6 pads, these things are nice! There is a bit of pedal travel for brake modulation, and they have a nice hard bite that doesn't take a lot of effort to reach. These things are much better than the EBC pads. There is still squish in the pedal from the firewall flex. Brake set ups are similar between the Pu and Mustang, except for 1) pad choice (G-Loc R6 vs Stoptech Street Performance), and 2) the mustang has a master cylinder brace. I will be looking into making some kind of Master Cylinder brace in order to finish tightening up the brake pedal.
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For anyone looking into these pads... You may have to bend the pad bracket inward for the front pads (mine were too wide and wouldn't seat in the caliper piston). The rear pads have a flat face and do not have any of those Inner/Outer tabs. They do take a while to bed, so allow yourself enough mileage for it.
I have some kind of tiny Vac leak somewhere which is giving my car a bit of the shakes. In the meantime until I can get to it, I swapped out my DM PMM, and installed an OEM PMM with modifications. (Thanks again for the mount
@Raider ) I sold my original PMM ages ago, this one had a few miles on it. Not sure if its gen1 or gen 2, but either way upon inspection one side had a much larger gap than the other. OEM is a floating hydrobushing, so in order to tighten it up I used some scrap aluminum plate to tighten up the gap. I drilled and bolted it in and cut out almost 3mm of slop on the one side, now both sides have about a 2-2.5mm gap. This should reduce the flex of the bushing for less engine movement and better shifting, while still allowing the hydrobushing to absorb NVH. For those wondering, yes I do notice a difference in shifting, but it is not noticeable unless you shift above 5k rpms.
Gaps...
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Fix...
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I have been extremely eager to swap the powerflex bushings I have for the front and rear. More on that later once I get a bushing press next week. Once that is done, I am going to re-evaluate my spring rates. I am definitely running out of spring travel in the front with the 6" Hypercoils, so I will upgrade to 7" Swift springs. I am not sure if I should keep the front at 500lbs or step down to 400lbs, I will wait until after the bushing slop is taken care of. I am definitely going to step down the rear and aim for more "flat ride." The 500lb square set up I have now is too much for the rear and really unsettles the car when going over large bumps or road debris, plus having the rear so stiff reduces the "passive steering" that Mazda engineered into our IRS. I will be revisiting all of this later.
Penguin, lets talk about those cool looking hood scoops! Sure! These are top priority right now. The biggest thing to worry about is location, location, location... Our hood is concaved in order to make room for the TMIC so its not like you can cut anywhere. I used 2" painters tape and started from the front of the hood and all the way back. I took Vac measurements along the hood and found the best location to be about 8" from the front of the hood, and roughly 11.5" from the rear of the hood (measured from center of curve). This clears the top radiator shroud and the battery, and places the vent right next to the TMIC. I have more perforated aluminum sheeting that I will cut and bolt on from underneath the hood, this will slow down any heavy rain from reaching critical components when the car is parked. I will make a battery/ECU cover using the top of my OEM battery box. The relay box I pictured earlier is some random unit from Amazon I got cheap. It will be for my SP63 fan controller, HID relays, and other electrical components. I may just cut the box a bit and lay everything flat inside, or I could do the proper thing and wire the cables and relays into the box assuming they have the same flange. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
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Unfortunately my shoe box of a garage is not insulated, and my neighbors have already complained once when I was grinding some metal down a few weeks back. I will need to get a couple of days off in order to cut the holes at another location, install the vents, seal the TMIC duct, and tidy up everything.
Last thing, my driver side visor has taken a shit and doesn't want to stay up. The light on the visor has also stopped working, so a wire is pinched somewhere which might explain some weird screen issues I am having on the dashboard. A replacement is ordered and on the way.
So...
Projects in order of priority...
1) -Hood Vents
-Hood Vent provisions/Seal TMIC
-Investigate Visor issue
2) -Swap Injectors/Seals
-Fix Vac Leak
3) -Install Aquamist kit/Failsafe
-Get Meth Tune from Rob
4) -Install Powerflex Bushings
-Order/Install Swift coilover springs
