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Stix's Coupe Build - Striped Steel

46K views 167 replies 26 participants last post by  OliverHuntx 
#1 ·
Well, it's fast approaching so I wanted to kick off the build thread.

Let me first say to Factory Five: Please, please offer a 50/50 sale! I'll put in my order the first day I know about it!! I'll take delivery at any time and have the money in hand. I can also keep a secret if you let me in on the deal tomorrow :)

Ok... now that I have that over with. Let me introduce my build:

As you can see, I've poured lots of money and time (kidding) into an early prototype by ordering a die cast model and wrapping it in 3M brushed steel vinyl.

On a serious note, here's what I have in mind for my build:
Type 65 Coupe Base Kit
Coyote engine
AEM Infinity control
Tremec something (TKO 600, T-56, or T-6060)
New IRS
Heat and A/C
Wilwoods at some point

The engine build may start out as a F150 engine just to get started due to funds but I have some lofty goals.
There are other things I have in mind to do to the kit as an overly ambitious engineer, but those things will be revealed in time to keep everyone guessing.
 
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#34 ·
First start!!

After fixing a few leaks with a couple -8AN Summit brand fittings (no leaks with their -6AN fittings though), I got the pressure regulator to hold at 55psi with atmospheric reference

I rigged up some of the connections, added two stubby exhaust pipes to hold the left and right O2 sensors, and hooked up the battery.

In the AEM software, I had the firing order updated for the 2015 F150 instead of the standard configuration 2011-2014 Mustang GT. It was rather painless once I got to the right menu...and boy are there a lot of menus and tabs. I also dropped the rev limited to 5000 from the 7400 default just to make sure with no rotating mass (flexplate only) it didn't spin too fast.

First start!!!
Well, starting on a pallet but no fuel leaks while running, a stable initial idle, and a pretty good sound all things considered.


It ran really lean at 17:1 to 18:1 because I had the VVT disabled and the VE tables were off from no intake and no real exhaust, but I'm impressed it ran so well first try and open loop.

Question maybe TMScrogins can answer: I blipped the throttle and the throttle body responded immediately and you can hear the rev in the video, but the pedal stopped responding right after that. I tried to see if there was a limit exceeded or something but I'm scratching my head what caused that. This happened on a second start doing a blip too.

Now that the fueling and engine electronics are confirmed working, time to tear down everything and add some 'go fast' parts!
 
#35 ·
After fixing a few leaks with a couple -8AN Summit brand fittings (no leaks with their -6AN fittings though), I got the pressure regulator to hold at 55psi with atmospheric reference

I rigged up some of the connections, added two stubby exhaust pipes to hold the left and right O2 sensors, and hooked up the battery.

In the AEM software, I had the firing order updated for the 2015 F150 instead of the standard configuration 2011-2014 Mustang GT. It was rather painless once I got to the right menu...and boy are there a lot of menus and tabs. I also dropped the rev limited to 5000 from the 7400 default just to make sure with no rotating mass (flexplate only) it didn't spin too fast.

First start!!!
Well, starting on a pallet but no fuel leaks while running, a stable initial idle, and a pretty good sound all things considered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ0f3PiiSFY

It ran really lean at 17:1 to 18:1 because I had the VVT disabled and the VE tables were off from no intake and no real exhaust, but I'm impressed it ran so well first try and open loop.

Question maybe TMScrogins can answer: I blipped the throttle and the throttle body responded immediately and you can hear the rev in the video, but the pedal stopped responding right after that. I tried to see if there was a limit exceeded or something but I'm scratching my head what caused that. This happened on a second start doing a blip too.

Now that the fueling and engine electronics are confirmed working, time to tear down everything and add some 'go fast' parts!
q4stix,

Your throttle going dead after a blip or two is expected. You must run the DBW calibration before the ECU knows/learns the min and max currents. What is happening is the DBW is going into limp mode. You can run the calibration and it will correct this.

I have a video I posted on my Infinity thread that will walk you through this. My video is broken into 2 parts. For now, you just need to follow the Part 1 video.

If you can't find the link, let me know and I'll post it here.

Nice job on firing the engine up with the Infinity.
 
#36 ·
I know I did that previously because I saw the position was flipped initially (reading WOT with no pedal movement). Once I ran that, it was followed by the throttle body auto calibration. Depressing the pedal showed correctly on the gauges on my laptop as well as matched the throttle body movement (after ignition on but before starting the motor).

I'll watch your videos and try re-running the calibration this weekend and see how thing change. Don't want to be the neighbor that starts the engine at 10:45pm on a week day haha.
 
#37 ·
DBW error

q4stix,

Also, to be sure our theory is correct that the DBW motor is going into limp mode, go to the DBW tab and watch the DBW1_TPSA [%] and DBW1_TPSB [%] channels in the text grid and compare the two. They should remain close when you blip the throttle. If they don't then it will trigger the DBW1_Error_Fatal channel. There should be a dedicated grid on the tab for this Error channel. When operating properly it will always be 0. If a tracking error is triggered this will change to 1.

Also, the calibration procedure will usually resolve these types of errors. However, there may a knee in either the DBW1_TPSA or DBW1_TPSB which is causing these two to not quite track to each other. If this is the case then you'll need to tune the DBW PIDs and that should certainly resolve this issue. You'll want to do that anyway and it will be one less piece to tune on later. I cover this in my "Part 2" video. Here are the videos for convenience.

Part 1 - DBW/Throttle Body Calibration

Part 2 - DBW Bias % table & PID tuning

Again, here to help if you need it.

Trevor
 

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#39 ·
Congrats on the start!!

pretty impressive stuff!
 
#40 ·
@TMScrogins: I think I got it resolved for now. I'm not sure if that was the underlying cause or not since they seemed to track nearly identically, but after a quick re-calibration it hasn't repeated itself. I also changed the logging to start even when the VSS reads 0, so I won't have to actively think to save a log before turning off the ignition (which is what I did the last time the throttle stopped working)
@SeattleDad: Now my plan starts with the 3rd unique firing order I told you about earlier :) I think I'll also be going forged pistons and rods just so I don't have to rebalance my new crank again. 8000+ RPM seems iffy on the stock F150 rod
 
#41 ·
*Internal discussion*
Go forged, it's cool. No, I don't need the expense. What if I boost later? Unlikely. Do you want to rebalance everything or do this twice? Umm....

*clicks purchase*
Oops


I've been in contact with Perpetual Balance near me in Arlington, WA, and once I get my harmonic balancer I'll be ready to go. The owner is incredibly easy to talk with (at least for me as an engineer) and walked me through each step he'll take when I visited a few weeks back. He took just over an hour of his time showing me how to weigh rods, his checklists and weight sheets, the balancers he uses, etc, but wouldn't accept a dime when I offered to compensate him for his time.

I'll try to get pictures of the process which I expect will at least let one cat out of the bag with my build
 
#44 · (Edited)
After a long delay of life taking up time and Ford being coy with their balancing information on the GT350 crank, I was finally able to make some more progress.

Phrases like "how did you get that?", "I'll have to talk with upper management", "They're stonewalling us", etc. all came from those I reached out to for information. After a fair amount of persistence, I was finally provided the values I needed for proper balancing. The big secret is that there isn't a real secret but everywhere I've mentioned what I'm doing, I'm called crazy so I guess there isn't a big market for the information. Anyway, now to pictures...

Here the bob weights are already measured and clamped to the crank and we put on the ATI balancer which would be needed to offset some of the flywheel and clutch component weight later on. He already hand balanced all of the pistons and rods (big and small ends) before I arrived to match their weights.


This is Mark. Mark is awesome! He runs Perpetual Balance in Arlington, WA and was a huge help telling me what issues we might run into along the way, how to prepare for them, examples of what other people have done (choosing components that affect things later, are too cheap and heavy and require tungsten inserts, dual clutch issues, etc). He's professional, is willing to talk once he know's you're not wasting his time, and was great to work with. I'd HIGHLY recommend him to anyone in the Washington area. On top of that, he let me watch each step, take pictures, and ask things along the way which is not something he would usually do for customers (they just drop stuff off and pick it up once complete). Having said that, he did mention various one-off projects where customers were more involved. Back to the pictures... this is the first drilling to remove weight


Once the crank was balanced individually, we added the flywheel and re-balanced by only modifying the flywheel. Same for adding in the components for the twin disk clutch (minus the friction disks since they rest on the transmission input shaft).


Skipping to the end, you can see Mark cleans as he goes, protects the crank and components by covering the journals while he drills and uses a vacuum, then visual inspects and re-greases the supports before re-measuring. This is the last drill operation after we attached the pressure plate and balanced that. Since there was so little imbalance at the front, he only drilled a single dimple at the end so he didn't go too far early on and have to 'chase' the imbalance later.


Here's an example of the outputs from the balance machine. We used an older Italian made machine instead of his newer one for ease of access putting on and taking off components as well as allowing us to weld on the pressure plate while still on the machine. The newer one didn't allow that but ended up giving the same final values. What you see is front and rear imbalance, the angle (out of 100, instead of out of 360 degrees), and the gram*inch imbalance. This particular image was after our third spin with all the components on. It took a small bead of filler metal on the pressure plate, another spin, and the dimple on the front mentioned above followed by a final check spin to be complete from here.


All in all, the results were something less than 3.5 gram*inches imbalance on the crank itself when finished and only 1.4 gram*inches front and rear for the entire rotating assembly with flywheel, mid plate for the clutch, and the pressure plate! Considering Nascar aims for under 6 gram*inches, I consider this a win!



Now I have some more Infinity and cam phaser issues to think about and try to resolve, but then it will be on to either the kit order or the engine tear down.
 
#46 ·
I did a local pickup and delivery before my kit delivery since I've had a mill on my 'want list' for a while and not just for the car. I was put in contact with a friend of a friend of a coworker and score a really great deal on a Bridgeport aka Mr. B. Portly for my garage. It was an old CNC setup that was surplussed which came with most of the handles and dials to convert it back to a manual mill. The head was recently rebuilt and it has ball-screws on all 3 axes so I can convert it back to NC easily at a later date without that additional expense.

With lots of road construction around, my buddy wanted to put it in the bed of his truck instead of it bouncing around on a trailer so we got a little creative. Nothing like some good ingenuity and mechanical advantage of a high lifting pallet jack :)

Our lifting setup.


At the 40"+ height of the bed of the stock height F-350 4x4


On 4x6's to lead into the truck


Delrin rods to roll the pallet which made it fairly easy to move; ratchet straps prevented it from rolling back off or into the front of the bed


All loaded and ready to drive!


Mr. B Portly's new home


The guy selling it was so confused when we didn't show up with a trailer. After, one comment we got was "Holy sketch town Batman!" but the reality was that everything was pretty stable and we didn't have much worry about it falling.

Not bad for $600!!
 
#48 ·
I had access to a few industrial mills, lathes, etc. when I was in college donated by LeTourneau Technologies so I've been wanting the same since I left college (sidebar, RG LeTourneau and his company supplied 70% of the earthmoving equipment used during WWII and had a fascinating autobiography)

I've got some suspension changes in mind for the coupe as well as some other things in work that will all need custom parts and assemblies. Add in my other personal projects, etc. and it's a great excuse to have one. Since the cost was so low and I'm used to working with them, I know it'll save me long term and let me work at my own pace.
 
#50 ·
One more day before my kit is considered 'factory complete'!! I'm getting excited. Stewart loads on or before Sept. 15th so I should know soon when it'll deliver to my house :grin2:

Also, huge thank you to Factory Five for letting me get in on the new sale since I haven't taken delivery yet!! Just like edwardb, I'll be getting a set of the Halibrand style 18x9 and 18x11 wheels. :surprise:
 
#51 ·
With word from Factory Five that my coupe is/was on the ground ready to go on a truck and an email out to Stewart to ask for updated information (shipping was delayed), I'm nearly positive that Mike Everson's picture taken last week shows my coupe. I only had the cutouts marked so of the three in his pictures, that means the one with the arrow would be mine. Come on delivery date, excitement is building!
 
#56 ·
After many, many shipping delays, it's finally here! Woohoo!

Even though I live in a cul-de-sac, the driver was able to make it in, do a 10+ point turn, and back right up to my driveway.


As soon as he pulled in it started to rain, but after 30 min or so and by the time he was ready to hoist up the car, the rain stopped. It was time to fly!


The unloading went smoothly and I was happy with the process at my house with Stewart Transport. I can honestly say that I was disappointed with them not conveying how many shipping delays there were and the fact that I had to be the one calling to hear they'd have a truck there the next week only to call two weeks later and get told the same thing. In the end I'd still recommend them, but I wish they would have been more proactive with their communication and telling me info instead of me having to call every two weeks after the stated Sept. 15 pickup date just to get an update. Enough of that...

Now inventory begins and then I can start looking at the changes I already have in mind to measure for feasibility. I'll need pull the body off and figure out where to put it for a while. I'm ready to get started!
 
#59 ·
Congrats.. :) enjoy the build.. :) After the initial enthusiasm wears a bit it will take perseverance and commitment to get all the way there.. :) Look forward to your build pics.. :)
 
#60 ·
Not a whole lot of progress at this point, but inventory is basically complete and I'm not missing anything that will prevent me from getting started.
I've got my donor 2015 Mustang GT performance pack IRS disassembled and since I want to be like @edwardb and his attention to detail, I'm following the roadster idea to POR-15 and clear coat the cast iron differential:


Up next will be the rear spindle modifications required for the IRS and I get to start making the body buck so I can take the body off and remove the aluminum panels.
 
#62 ·
All I want for Christmas...

... is my two front... wheels driven.

Not saying this is totally a go, but rest assured that I'm looking into seeing what it'll take! :surprise: :grin2:





I've worked suspension design before and I'm confident I can get new A-arms, new spindle integration, and a revised steering setup, but there are things I still need to figure out with confidence before I pull the trigger and start cutting anything. That way I can revert to a usual rear wheel drive if it doesn't work.

Things to figure out: tunnel cutting, seating due to transfer case and front drive shaft encroachment, front differential integration into the frame, new steering rack placement.

Soooo.... Matt's concept center is now open with a new project.
 
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