Factory Five Racing Forum banner

Shark92651's MK4 Coyote Build #9327

50K views 236 replies 14 participants last post by  IsaacW 
#1 · (Edited)
Shark92651's MK4 Coyote Build #9327 - fully titled and registered

While my Kit is still about 3 weeks from delivery, I have actually started working on it already so I decided to go ahead and start a build thread so that I can consolidate all my updates and questions into a single thread. If you count the obsessive research I have been doing online, I guess you could say I have been "working" on it since December 2017. I attended the Mott Build School the weekend of 3/9 - 3/11, which I found to be excellent. I met a lot of cool people including a few more builders here in Texas.

I've always loved the Shelby Cobra as long as I can remember, and have thought about building a replica off and on over the years. I finally got my mind set that I was going to build a Factory Five roadster and with a tepid buy-in from the wife (she is coming around, or at least accepted it is inevitable now) it is on now. Besides, I was born in 1965 so it's like it was meant to be ;)

Here is my planned build:

MK4 Complete Kit with IRS
Coyote 5.0L
Tremec TKO 600
Quicktime Bellhousing
Ford Performance Clutch
Tilton Hydraulic Release Bearing
KRC Power Steering
Koni single-adjustable shocks
13" Wilwood brakes
18" Halibrand Wheels
Stainless side pipes

Other Upgrades
Dual Breeze Stainless Roll Bars
Russ Thompson Trunk Box (yes I'm going to cut the diagonals)
Russ Thompson turn signals
Competition Gauge Layout
Leather Covered Dash w/ Glove Box
USB Charger, 12V adapter, Footwell Lights (hidden under dash)
Leather Removable Trans Tunnel Cover
Leather Bucket Seats
Leather Door Panels
LED Headlights, turn signals, tail/brake lights, dash indicators

Color is undecided at this point, probably one of the first items I ever thought about and will probably be the last decision I make.

I'm really looking forward to this process and want to thank everyone that has helped me already and those that will in the future. This forum and it's participants are an invaluable resource! My experience with working on cars in not very extensive. I have installed LED lighting in the front and rear of my truck, replaced a radiator on my Z3 I used to own several years ago, and some basic maintenance, but that is about it. I've done quite a few jobs around the house (electrical, plumbing, etc.) and ran network wiring and camera systems in two offices so I know my way around tools, oh and I am REAL good at Googling and YouTubing.


Here is my one-car garage where I will be building. It's a little tight, but I have 1/2 of the 2 car garage just across from this one to store my body and boxes of parts. Up to this point I've just been getting this work area ready.


I had a large monitor and a Chrome Box at the office that were not being used so I mounted them on the wall over one of my workbenches and connected to my home WiFi - this should be very useful.
 
See less See more
2
#219 ·
Steering wheel badge

There are few "finishing touches" I can do before paint, but I went ahead and installed the steering wheel badge. I did as others suggested and drilled a small hole above the o-ring to relieve air pressure if I have the need to pry it off later. Looks good :)

 
#220 ·
Splash guards undercoated

I pulled all my splash guards and painted them with 2 coats of my leftover Herculiner bed liner. I taped the edges where the bulb seal goes so it would be easy to re-install it. You can also see the filler panels I fabricated to fill the gaps between the body and frame in front of the rear wheels. I intend to secure my filler panels with rivets once the vehicle comes back from paint, but just holding them in place with self-tappers for now so will be easy to remove until then. The main front and rear splash panels are all removable via 10-32 rivnuts. I'm glad to finally be done with these as I probably spent more time screwing around with these panels than all the other panels in the entire build combined!

All panels coated




PS Front Splash Guard Installed




PS Rear Filler Panel




PS Rear Splash Guard Installed

 
#221 ·
Halibrand wheel hubs and spinners

This is how I decided to secure the center hubs for the fake wingnuts on the Halibrand wheels. I drilled and tapped three 8-32 holes in the hubs and secured them from the inside with 1/2” long set screws and a drop of blue locktite. I considered drilling and tapping through the outside of the wheel but decided I like this approach better. I also put some anti-seize on the wingnuts before tightening them just snug. The set screws should provide plenty of resistance to avoid a situation where the hub just spins when trying to remove a stuck spinner (I hope!)

Before re-installing the wheels I made sure all the suspension bushings and ball joints had plenty of grease, re-installed the wheels and torqued them down to 90 ft lbs.





 
#223 ·
First highway miles

This morning I took a short road trip, about 50 miles in total, to go get a weight certification. It was the first time I've had her up to highway speeds, around 80 most of the way and it was a blast. It was a good opportunity to shake things out, and quite literally I did shake something loose - one of the nuts on the driver's side door hinge came loose and fell off - guess I forgot to tighten that one. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful, but a blast to drive! I like my choice of the .64 5th gear as it cruises right along at 80 mph at 2500 rpm.

The car weighs in at 2360 with a full tank of gas and is pretty well balanced. I have all my paperwork in order and will go to the tax office next week to hopefully get title, registration, and tags.




I took a couple more photos in the driveway when I got home. Here is the current state of the car at this point. I've pretty much done about all I can do until body work and paint, other than go out and have fun!



 
#224 ·
Title, registration, and tags

This past Monday I took all my paperwork to the county tax office and got everything submitted to get my title, registration, and tags. I did all my homework up front so was able to get out of there in about 20 minutes with my registration sticker and 60 day temp paper tags. They said I should expect to receive my title and permanent license plate in about 3-4 weeks.

I also finished up my "Kleiner modded" license plate holder. I found that I needed just a bit more room to get the plate to fit without touching the trunk latch so I removed everything and cut a couple notches in the bottom of the "bridge" that holds the lights to allow the plates to slip all the way up into the holder. I also opened up the mounting holes in the trunk just a bit so that I could bring the entire unit up just a bit and that allows it to fit so I shouldn't have to modify the plate itself at all. For a plate mount I purchased an inexpensive license plate blank on Amazon and modified it to fit. I cut a notch in the top to clear the light housing and secured it to the license plate holder with some #10 flathead screws cut down to about 1/4" length so that they will not touch the trunk. I also drilled some access holes in it so that the entire unit can be easily removed from the trunk without removing the plate mount.

 
#225 ·
Forte AC Cobra pedals

The stock Wilwood pedal pads weren't really working out for me and I wanted a bit more room to reach my dead pedal. After seeing what others had done I decided I wasn't crazy about the look after cutting them down so I decided to order the bolt on AC Cobra pedals from Mike Forte. The pedals are a little too thick for the rubber inserts to hold properly in place so I used a couple drops of super glue under each one and attached the center cover with a bit of leftover silicon caulk. I like the look and feel of these pedals, they are quality parts.

 
#226 ·
Lund Racing custom tune

A couple weeks ago I ordered an nGauge unit and custom tune from Lund Racing. Several people on the forums have recommended them so I felt it was a good choice. I'm optimistic that the custom tune will optimize the engine performance and I will feel it was worth the investment. I am about 1/2 way done with the turning process at this point. The Lund tuner asked me a few questions as to parts in my build (air intake, exhaust, fuel pump size) and asked for a photo of my intake. He asked me about a "PATS delete" and I had to Google that. I think is an anti-theft system but I don't know if that is even present in the crate motor and control pack. He then asked me about if I "locked the IMRC open", again I had to go to Google. I believe that has to do with the CMVC system and I told him it was plumbed as normal but I have no idea if/how it functions on the crate motor. He asked me to perform a "read vehicle" function and send him the file. He then informed me that it looks like the IMRC is "locked open" with the stock tune, I have no idea if that is correct or not but I'll trust his knowledge on this. He also sent me a base tune which I flashed to the PCM. I then performed the requested data logging at idle, holding engine at various RPM, and then performing slow RPM climbs on the street and sent the data logs over the weekend. This morning, they send me an "R2" tune which I have loaded. They now want me to perform the same data logging as before but add in a WOT from 2,500 to 5,000 RPM and then send the logs again. I will keep you posted as to my results. So far I must say I am impressed with their quick turn around and customer service.


 
#227 ·
Fire extinguisher

I picked up a small H3R Hal Guard fire extinguisher and a billet bracket from Eddit Motorsports. The bracket is quite a bit cheaper than the one from H3R and I like the look of it. It is advertised as for 2.75" cylinders and the small H3R is 2.6". I bought it anyway as I figured I could use a wrap or two of electrical tape or a piece of rubber to fill the gap. In the end, it clamps down tight on the cylinder without doing anything so that was a nice surprise. I mounted it on the rear wall above the U-Joint cover. At first I thought I could get the bracket to fit on top of the rectangular frame tube at that spot and just drill/tap all four corners. The bottom holes were drilling into the edges of the tube, so I had to bring it down a bit, and used rivnuts through the aluminum at the bottom, and tapped the top holes for 10-32 screws. I just filled the extra holes I drilled with some JB Weld and it will all get covered up with carpet anyway.



Other that installing the fire extinguisher, not much to do at all on the car until after paint. I did receive an updated tune file from Lund. After loading the new tune, I was asked to add a WOT from 2500 to 5000 rpm in my next data logging session. I did that this morning and sent the file back to Lund. I suspect we are really close to the full WOT dyno test, probably after the next tune update I expect to get back on Monday.

It's fall but here in Texas it's still in the mid-90's. It is supposed to drop to the 60's by next Friday. Can we at least get a couple weeks of actual fall weather before winter arrives, please? I want to drive the car without sweating!
 
#228 · (Edited)
Nicely done, on all your work.
I am looking forward to getting there.
I think I am ready to set the body on the chassis.
I have done some short go cart trips, cannot risk the traffic on the main road.
Looking forward to your impressions with the Lund tune.
I have used him on 2 cars and very happy with the results.
Also, need to get with Mike on the foot pedals.
 
#229 ·
Fully titled and registered

Earlier in the week I received my Texas title in the mail and on Friday I received my plates. It's fully titled and registered now!



Today I did my first "field test" of the 3.5" poker table cup holders. I'm happy to report they hold a Chick-Fil-A medium soft drink with straw and a Mac-N-Cheese with no issues. The cup did tilt under heavy acceleration but it didn't fall over.



I also did another data logging session for Lund. This time they asked for a WOT from 2500 - 7200! It took a couple loops around the service road to finally get on it without any traffic (especially cops) and I hit about 80+ in 2nd gear, that was fun.

I parked it on the street near my house and took this photo today. I can't stop looking at this thing :)

 
#232 ·
Great work, you deserve to be proud of it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#233 ·
It's been awhile since I posted an update on my build because there really hasn't been much to do while waiting to send it out for paint. It's been a relatively mild winter here in Texas so I have been able to put a few miles on the car most weekends. I have about 550 miles on the car now and so far it is working great. I did have one remaining issue that I needed to resolve before paint that I have been putting off and finally got around to tackling it today.

I noticed some time back that my radiator overflow tank is sitting a tad too high and the edge of my cap was making contact and rubbing on the underside of the hood. It rubbed a thin mark on the hood and would deposit some fiberglass dust on the cap as you can see in the pic below.



I thought about how to correct this and I decided that the best way to handle it would be to move the tank so that the flange rests below my bracket rather than on top. This moved the tank down about 1/4" which is plenty to get the clearance I needed. My plan was to use some of my 10-32 rivetnuts in the flange of the tank so that I could place it underneath the bracket. The 10/32 bolts are thinner than the original bolts I used so I did not even have to drill out the threaded holes in the bracket. My son came over to help and I was able to do the work, which included cutting down the bracket on the underside of the tank that rests on the fan shroud by 1/4", without having to remove any of the hoses which avoided a potential mess. I used some moving blankets to protect everything while working.



Here is how it all turned out. Not a lot to see but if you followed how I originally installed the tank you can see how the flange is now under the bracket. It feels plenty sturdy so I think it will hold just fine. To test if I have enough clearance now I put a thick bead of grease on that edge of the cap and took the car for another ride. No grease transferred to the underside of the hood so looks like the problem is solved!

 
#234 · (Edited)
Today was a fairly warm, sunny Texas day for February at 63 degrees so took the car for a cruise and to run some errands. When I got home I started looking at the hood scoop so decided to go ahead and prepare that for mounting to the hood. I picked up a fine point white paint pen marked a centerline in the flange all the way around. I then found the center of the top of the scoop - not a simple thing to do with a curved piece like this so I double and triple checked it. Earlier I had decided to use 25 bolts with one in the center of the top and the two at the bottom that are .5" from the end. I did my best to measure the circumference of the scoop to figure out my hole spacing. After a bit of trial and error, and a little math, I found that if I used spacing of of 2.172" between holes that I ended up with the last hole at .5" from the end. I set my calipers to 2.172" and started from the top-center mark and worked my way around marking all the locations with a pencil. Once satisfied with the locations, I went back over them with the paint pen.




To avoid drill bit walking, I center-punched each location and then drilled each with a small 1/16" bit, then moved up to the 11/64" that allows the 8-32 bolts to drop in. I bought 8-32 x 5/8" torx buttonhead stainless bolts for the scoop, along with some clear polyurethane washers and stainless acorn nuts. I'm probably not going to bother to cut a hole in my hood since it isn't needed for the Coyote.

 
#235 ·
I borrowed my friend's laser level and did the best I could to run a line from the center of the oil cooler opening, across the hood, and between my roll bars. It may not be perfect but I think it's pretty good and hopefully will be OK for when the painter lays down stripes.



 
#237 ·
Sharky;

Where did you source the mounting bracket for the rear-view mirror?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top