History of this car.

It should be mentioned that my life prior to having our daughter in 2002 was devoted solely to the Chevy camp, with the most recent rides prior to the Stang being ( ! "th gen #$%odies, a &'( )spd 200hp .( v* that was good for +). ,&s bone stoc-, a &00 .* /$2(, and an 0" &00 1rans 0m, both of which were good for low + &s on street tires. 0fter giving up the new cars and living with a " door Saturn for a while, I had to have a 2real car3 again. 4ot wanting to shell out the going rate for a good rd gen #$body, this .ustang came along at auction and it fit the bill (at least on paper! with its 200hp v(, )sp, rear wheel drive it should have, but there was a problem, stoc- 5(* .ustangs were slow as H677 and that wasn&t going to wor- for me in something I spent 2 hours a day in. %ac- in its 2glory day3 shortly after I purchased it from an abandoned vehicle auction in San 8iego in 200 for a whopping 9(*0, but only after I removed the (:$' ;1 ground effects to sell for < of what I paid for the car.

1hen came some =ony wheels

0 Harwood fiberglass hood scored out of the local pic-$your$part for a whopping 9 0. 1his pic also shows the addition of some 6ibach lowering springs ac>uired from a friend at wor- for cheap.

?n its first outing to the strip (Carlsbad @aceway! when I wasn&t too embarrassed to ta-e it out after some basic bolt$ons it managed some +".:0&s (it seemed as slow as my " door Saturn when bone stoc-A! 8idn&t ta-e too long and it was bac- from its +st paint Bob under my ownership

1he original stoc- &(* power plant was good for + .:,&s at around +00$ +02mph with only an e%ay scored #lowtech off$road hCpipe, S4') electric fan, .2: gears, .1 61 Street %ias =lies, .r. ;as-et underdrive pulleys, and a pair of #lowmaster "0&s to replace the stoc-ers before being yan-ed and sold in favor of a newer (:$' shortbloc- which I purchased used and rebuilt it with the intentions of 2upgrading3 to 6: heads. %efore I could even finish porting those I stumbled upon a little -nown secret of the timesD the 6,plorer ;1"0= heads. 4ot being able to afford aluminum, I had to have a set of those 2=&s to top it off. 7iving in Southern C0 at the time brought about a problem with the selection of the 2=3 heads, they had no smog passages so I sent them off to Central Coast .ustangs in 1ehachapi for the smog legal treatment. 7ittle did I -now I was going to move to .ichigan before ever seeing another smog test. 1he engine went together with stoc- forged pistons, ;1"0= heads, =rofessional =roducts upperElower inta-e only after playing with a Comp Cams polymer inta-e with very disappointing results on the stoc- engine. It also got a =rofessional =roducts egr spacer, and :0mm 1%, and stoc- (:$' H? cam to wor- the valves. I also converted from speed density to mass air with the purchase of an 0'7 on e%ay, and a 2Cobra3 maf. In this fashion the car was good for + .00s on good days, or + . $+ .)&s typically e>uipped with the .: &s after trying out .))&s for a while. 1he stoc- &(* engine yan-ed to be sold.

0nd the freshly rebuilt one topped with my +st set of ;1"0= heads.

0ll was peachy for years until one day in 200* when I e,perienced an ignition misfire on the way home at high rpm&s which resulted in a crac-ed cransnout. 1hin-ing I would Bust replace the cran- and rebuild the engine I purchased a freshly machined cran- for 9+) on e%ay from a local seller and he threw in a couple fresh S%C cran-s as well (remember I was a diehard %ow 1ie guy!. 0fter realiFing it was going to cost me more to have the machine wor- done on this engine I searched the yards for a suitable low mileage replacement armed with the -nowledge that the '*$2000 6,plorers came with the ;1"0 (early '*s!, or ;1"0= heads (=roduction date of at least #eb &': from what I&ve seen in person!.

I nabbed up this current +''* 6,plorer long bloc- for a whopping 9)00 in the hopes it was an early enough version to still have the "0&s, but in fact it had the p&s.

Gith only '0- miles on it, and impeccably clean, I simply swapped on the fo, body oil pan (while chec-ing the nearly new loo-ing cylinders from below! and the timing cover. I too- my last set of = heads that were modified for smog and sold them to a happy bidder in 1e,as for nearly what I paid for the entire replacement engine, (yea, they went for more 9 bac- then! I also sold off the 6,plorer upperElower inta-e (also went for better 9 then! and anything else from the Bun-yard replacement that I didn&t need. 1his .?@6 than paid for the purchase of the engine. Ghile it was out I also felt that it was a good time to upgrade my camshaft, thus the crunching numbers in the computer simulators began. I -new I didn&t want to go with the coo-ie cutter alphabet cams that so many ran, so I scoured e%ay until a particularly well performing (on the simulator software! 0nderson #ord .otorsports %$2 blower cam turned up (yes, blower cam! and I was able to actually trac- down the specs of it as it wasn&t really out there on the web li-e it is now. I nabbed it up for 9200 less than the 9 00 retail, stuc- it in my new Bun-yard engine after upgrading to some 1ric- #low valve springs, -eepers and retainers that 0#. recommended for it and ran with it until Huly 20+2. 0t first it was good for an appro,imate best ever gain of 2E+0ths with the new cam running a %6S1 of +2.(0I+0:. Since the car lived in this fashion for nearly * years without any changes to the engine I had plenty of time to twea- it and fine tune anything I could without spending a ton of money I Bust couldn&t seem to ever find.

1hen the unthin-able happened on the way to wor- one evening in 200:, a full siFe Chevy truc- decided he was going to ma-e a left turn into me while I

was doing *0mph. 1he impact crushed the passenger side of the car and spun me around nearly sending me into a light pole.
The Damage purchased for $300 on eBay What was left of the donor

I drove it around in crashed form for that summer while trying to slowly fi, it, then the following summer it was time for a face$lift in Huly of 200(. I even raced it with the orange passenger sideD if you loo- close you can see the orange fender in this 0pril of 200( shot at the trac-.

Some shots from Huly 200( going through paint in my shop.

.ore

In the fall of 200( now with its new paint, and housing ".+0 gears in the rear it could only average +2.')I+0*.(: due to the inability to hoo- with the new gears. Somewhere along the way I was able to snea- in a set of 0merican .uscle tubular rear control arms to replace the bo,ed in stoc-ers that I had been running.

In the winter of 200($200' I was able to purchase a set of used 2"lb inBectors, and a used =ro #low technologies maf,(for 9++' together! and a new Holley +'0lph fuel pump (9:0! and a new adBustable fuel pressure regulator (9)0! on e%ay on the cheap. 1he result come spring time was an average of +2.::I+0:.:2( with uncor-ed e,haust while only averaging +2.'"I+0)."( in the necessary street trim re>uired for the series I was doing at the local trac- which re>uired mufflers. Jnfortunately in the fall of 200' I suffered one of my many stoc- 1) catastrophes when the $" shift for- bro-e on the 2nd pass, this was a simple fi, unli-e the typical rd gear blow outs I had become accustomed to but I had enough of dropping and rebuilding 1)&s so I li>uidated a lot of my parts that had accumulated over the years and purchased a /$Code 1) 2.') ratio from 1he ;ear%o, in ;arden City, .I over the winter. Blown out 3rd gear Code Z-

?ver the course of this same winter I was able to get a great deal from a buddy on a set of Koni adBustable struts and shoc-s for a cool hundred dollar bill, so now I had a semi adBustable suspension to play with. I also realiFed very late in the game that I was twisting the body of the car as evidenced by the crac-s in my door pillars in the new paint so I hit up the local steel supply for 9 0 of rectangle tubing and fabricated my own 2/3 subframe connectors. 0nother bargain to rid weight off of the car was to purchase a set of L6@M used dummy aluminum spares with .oroso 8rag #ront @unners (these things are light!. 4ow being able to actually plant the tires by adBusting shocvalving and use the energy to propel the car forward instead of twisting it, and losing the heavy street tireEwheel pac-age up front, I was rewarded with a new best of +2.)*I+0(. * and an average of +2.*0I+0:.:.

In .ay of 20+0 I realiFed that there was more to be had in the tune than Bust manipulating the fuel pressure and globally adding spar- via advancing the distributor so I purchased a .oates Nuarterhorse 1uner, and used the cheapest tuning software I could findD =aul %ooth&s 66C 68I1?@. I tried to catch onto this tuning thing by reading the tuning forum li-e a bible, but all I really messed with prior to my ne,t trac- day was Bust using the G?1 multiplier to get me to my commanded G?1 value. 1his compiled with an ailing clutch in mid summer heat only netted me an average of +2.*'I+0(mph, actually down from the spring, which is e,pected due to the change in air. 4ew for 20+0 was also the cars +st ever time on a chassis dyno in 0ugust. I was still not comfortable in changing much in the tune e,cept for the 2-nowns3 of deleting emissions parameters so when it went on the dyno I was still running my mechanically advanced distributor and using the G?1 multiplier to get me to my desired air fuel ratio. In S18 corrected fashion the little 02 laid down 2("rwhp and 0 rwt>, basically on a stoc- tune. I continued to develop my tuning s-ills on my daily drives to wor- over the course of the 20+0 season, where I was introduced to the 4.@0 1rue Street event that I competed in at .ilan, didn&t do well at all with ailing differential clutches causing one wheel peels, and the first time on a pro$tree, and the whole rolling out of the staging beams thing, but I was determined to ma-e more events in the following year, and do much better.

?ver the 20+0$20++ winter I upgraded to a nice used set of .1 61 Street @adials on some G0M more aesthetic Geld wheels, I also went bac- to a .: rear gear after fighting the ".+0&s all season long. Ghile I was in changing the gears I pic-ed up a set of new Superior 0lloy 0,les off of e%ay for the rear also. %efore those went in the .oroso lug studs found their place in the hubs ma-ing sure I don&t shear a stud upon a *000rpm launch. 20++ was a very busy season for the car, and my tuning s-ills were coming right along than-s to a very long winter of studying. Starting off in 0pril I ran my +st event that was only an +E(mile where I ran my first sub$( second +E( mile time, I had to wait until 0ugust to get to ma-e a full O mile pass in

2race trim3 to see what that :.' +E( translated to. In between the wait I hauled the car to Holiet, I7 to compete in the 4.@0 Super%owl of Street 7egal 8rag @acing competing in the 1rue Street class where I won the + second brac-et with a + .0++ average after the 0 mile cruise and bac- to bacpasses ma-ing the ) hour trip worth it. 1his was also my first time in a magaFineD 1he ?ctober issue of @ace =ages, and the same issue of #astest Street Car magaFine.

I then competed in the 4.@0 #ord 4ationals held at .ilan, also in the 1rue Street class where I was able to muster a +2.'*I+0*mph in the single time trial, but by the time eliminations came it was so hot and humid I could only garner a best pass of + .+' in my final pass to go along with the +st and 2nd pass of + .": and + .2 both at only +0 mph placing in "th place in the + second class.

0fter .ilan I revisited my spar- tables when I realiFed that was the cause of the drastic drop in times and .=H after the heat and humidity moved in, then I too- it out to 7apeer for a .emorial @ace where I ran in 2race trim3 with open headers and set a new personal best of +2.":I+0( and two other passes in the high "0&s, one even at ++0mph with a cool engine.

0fter 7apeer I continued to ma-e minor changes to my tune then it was time to see what all the tuning changes had given me so I headed bac- out to my home trac- for the 20++ 7abor 8ay #un #estival where I competed in the Street 61 class, ma-ing it into the O finals Bust to miss rd gear and be beat by .0" : seconds. %est time trial pass of the wee-end was a +2.)()I+0(.

0fter the 7abor 8ay #un #est it was time to get onto the dyno for the +st time since I @6077M got into the tune so I headed over to my buddies annual dyno party. 1he result was up from a more lenient standard correction of 2("E 0 to an S06 corrected 0'rwhp and "rwt> with open headers. 1hese pulls would be the basis for the changes I would ma-e in the following two wee-s before strapping it bac- on the same dyno, but this time at my own dyno party at my place. In this time frame I purchased a used #@== aluminum driveshaft for 9+)0, and a set of used #@== +E* pedestal mount roller roc-ers

for 9(). 0rmed and loaded with these it was time to see what they were worth. ?ctober +st 20++, dyno party at my place. 7oaded up with the new roc-ers and driveshaft, strapped to the dyno I first ran it in street trim through full e,haust netting a respectable 0 rwhp and *rwt>. 4ow it was time to compare apples to apples from the pulls made Bust two wee-s prior with open headers. I let her rip and it put down +:rwhp and "*rwt>A Nuite the improvement for the wor-, admittedly I -now they were on two different days, and the correction isn&t completely accurate, but none$the less it was a gain. 4ow of course I couldn&t Bust par- the car for the year without seeing what this translated to at the trac- so on the last test and tune day of the season we loaded up and headed to .id .ichigan .otorple,, the result was a best of +2.""I++0. 4ot too bad to close up the year.

0t this point I wanted to go heads up and try my luc- in the 4.@0&s #actory Stoc- Class, a class that is Bust absurd, with the leaders running high +0&s at better than +2"mph all while L6@M restricted on combinations consisting of a ma, of ++ cubes, ;1"0 and ;1"0= heads that have no porting but have been wor-ed over into the 92)00 dollar range and stoc- inta-esA If you don&t -now about this class, google it, read over the rules, these guys are Bust flat amaFing and have an incredible amount of research and development coupled with countless time testing to do what they do. 0nyhow I figured it would be great even Bust to go a year running high ++&s low +2&s in the class Bust to do it, so I went nuts on ?1 and made some drastic changes to the car over the course of winter of 20++$20+2 in hopes of being able to run the P&s. 4?1A %ut it wasn&t all in vein as you&ve seen with my latest personal bestD at least it was all in the name of lower et&s. So what e,actly did I do over that winterQ

#irst off came the new 7u- aluminum flywheel (92:0 shipped!, with a new /oom clutch and pressure plate (new 9+: .'' after discount at 0dvance 0uto! to replace the slipping (not very old! Centerforce unit. Ghile I was in there I figured there was no better time to -eep my feet attached to my legs so I purchased a used 7a-ewood S#I bellhousing from 4.@0 #actory Stocracer .att Gilliams for 9+)0 shipped (great guy btw!. 4e,t up was adding some cooling capacity and the .ishimoto aluminum radiator I had been eyeballing for years came up on 0maFon for a ridiculously cheap 9*) to my door, Mou heard that right, 9*) for the same brand span-ing new one that anywhere else is 92"0$92)0 needless to say, I was s-eptical, but I didn&t hesitate to tell my buddy about the only other one available so he purchased that one and they were e,actly what 0maFon claimed amaFingly enough. 4e,t on the agenda was to let this thing breathe through a full e,haust so I purchased a set of used %%K + )E( long tube headers and matching ,$pipe from 8%@ High =erformance for 9 00 shipped to my door off of one of their customer&s cars. 1o complement those I got another 0maFon deal on a set of new 8ynoma, Jltra mufflers meant for 200* ;1 .ustangs for a whopping 9:2 shipped for the pairA 0fter the remaining two were purchased they raised the price to 9(' each. 0ll I had to do to use them on the fo, body was to cut one of the weld brac-ets off and weld it on the opposite side to use the factory hanger. 4ow I didn&t want to use my e,isting nasty tailpipes so I ended up ordering a set of #lowmaster 2.) tailpipes and " 8ynoma, e,haust band clamps shipped to me for a cool 9'' after the discount for signing up for an 0maFon credit card. Gith the e,haust complete I turned my attention to horsepower thieves and what I could do to free up some of my current horsepower. 1his lead me to .icro %lue @acing, where I had them send me a

full set of polishedEcoated bearings for the entire (.( rear end that I had already ta-en apart to replace the slipping and bro-en clutches in the differential and to step up to a ". 0 gear. Spea-ing of the ". 0 gear, I nabbed that up for 9)0 from a local forum member in li-e new condition and also sent that down to .icro %lue for their special 2slic- and smooth3 treatment of polishingEcoating. 1he .icro %lue partsEcosts were one of the highest of anything I have done to the car, but when I received my parts I could see why, these things are slic-A Ghile waiting for parts I figured that it was way past time to re$enforce my poor tor>ue bo,es that have been on the receiving end of *- clutch dumps on slic-s for entirely too long. ;lad I did as there were crac-s forming in them. I welded up all the attachment points to the tin of the body, and anywhere else I saw fit. I also strengthened the bolt holes by welding washers on outsides of the bolt holes that go through the arms. %efore the a,le went bac- in a new addition was added in the passenger side rear coil spring, an 0ir @ide, airbag. ?ther than going completely anal on finding places to shave more weight off of the nose of the car while still -eeping it safe and sound for the daily commute, the other thing I did was to order up a custom cam from Scotty %rown of Competition Components in ?-emos, .I. He came highly recommended from my friends that race =ure Stoc- %uic-s so I -new I was in good hands but waited until nearly the end of the season to get around to installing it to see what it was good for. Initially I told him that I wanted a no holds barred flat out race cam to optimiFe my current engine (still the Bun-yard one from &0*! but in more discussion with him, and me not being ready to not be able to drive it on a daily basis he pointed me at a more conservative cam that I wouldn&t need to spend a ton of money on valve train upgrades to run for Bust this season. 1he cam is a rather large grind (duration wise! but -eeps a stoc- lift of ."(03 at the valve to stay within the rules I thought I was going to be racing under. I&ll get to the results of the cam later, but for now, with all of the above changes over the winter it was now time for a little test and tune to see what I had gained. #inally after a long winter of wor- and an,iety we headed bac- out to .id .ichigan .otorple, on 0pril 22, 20+2. 1he cam had not been swapped at this point. 1he car responded well with a best of +2.2')I+++.0) mph, so it was all worth it, or was itQ

.ay +2, 20+2, bac- to the trac- for a little tune and tire testing. 1he resultD a best of only a +2.":I+0', nearly identical to last fallA Seems the air had played a big role in the +st outing of the season s-ewing the results. 4ow in the .ay air it Bust couldn&t hac- it. Huly +"$20+2 time to Bump on the dyno to see what the winter changes were good for. 1his time I solely ran it in street trim to compare to last fall&s 0*rwhp and *rwt> in street trim. 0fter a couple of tuning pulls it put down +0rwhp and "rwt> in full street trim, and that is with a gear swap from a .: to a ". 0 gear also. 4ote, custom cam was still not in. ?nce I had dyno P&s in this fashion it was time to get the custom cam installed, so I spent a day doing that, then spent about two wee-s driving it while trying to get the tune straightened out. 1he spar- re>uirements were completely different from the old cam, as was where it wanted to run in regards to air fuel ratio. 1he biggest hurdle was to get the tune correct to the

point that it didn&t have the massive low speed, low load buc-ing that became apparent the first time when trying to drive below 2200 rpm, which is all the time for meA 1he load scaling was also off by a considerable amount necessitating a bit of logging to establish where it needed to be. ?nce I felt comfortable in the tune I had at cruise, and wot it was time to hit up the trac- again. 1oo bad I chose one of the hottest days to do so. Gith a density altitude hovering near the 000 foot mar- and temps of '0R degrees I had no e,pectations of seeing what this new custom cam had to offer and had decided that it would strictly be a tuning day at the trac-. Gith the +st pass down the trac- a +2."*I+0'."0 it loo-ed li-e that was going to be the case, then on the bac- up pass it went +2. (I+0'.* , so I went bac- into the pits to loo- over the data, made my +st adBustment to the tune and ran it over. I -ept up this cycle for +: passes between "S )pm and (S0 pm, needless to say the car never even thought about cooling, but it -ept going faster and faster until the 2nd to last pass of the day it clic-ed off a prior-best matching +2.2'I a bit slower +0'.(:mph. In a previous pass it had cleared the ++0mph watermar- even in the horrible air so I -new the cam was wor-ing. Gith my worst pass out of +: being a +2."' when I bogged it by launching at a low 000rpm, I called it a day.

#ast forward to 7abor 8ay wee-end, one wee- later and I&m bac- out at the home trac- of .id .ichigan .otorple,, this time for a competition wee-end. 1he weather was >uite a bit cooler but the density altitude Bust wasn&t down where I had hoped it would be, still straight off the trailer the car went +2.222I+++.+*, now we were tal-ingA 1he only changes I had made from the previous wee-end was I had installed a set of stoc-Euncut " cylinder springs in the rear prior to my testing day a wee- before that ended up being too soft ma-ing me have to run too much air pressure in the airbag so I replaced the passenger side rear with one of my stiffer, cut ;1 springs. I also added a < degree of timing to my base table where it reverts to during a shift so it would match up to the spar- being commanded at wot at the

specific rpm the engine is brought down to at the ne,t gear. 1he last adBustment was made to air fuel ratio. ?n paper it appeared that the car li-ed the 0#@ at + .+)S+ best as that is where it ran its best trap speed, but when all the weather corrections were done it actually made better passes at + .0 S+. %oth of these may seem a tad lean, and they definitely don&t follow what I see on the dyno, but this is where the car made the most mph at the trac-, regardless of what the dyno P&s say. ?n the dyno it was the e,act opposite, rich made more tor>ue and power, lean by Bust .2 from what I had typically run on the dyno resulted in loss of both, now at the trac- I am ." lean and it&s running its best. ?h well, give it what it wants. 0nyhow, bac- to time trials, the 2nd time trial of the day resulted in another personal best of +2.+(I+++.0'. %y the time eliminations came around at O after (pm the humidity had started to rise and it was running consistent +2.2)$+2.2' all the way to the O finals where I ended up dialing a 2' and ran a 2" getting eliminatedA 1he ne,t morning after gathering weather data it appeared that the car was going to be about dead nuts where it left of last night, so much so that I told my buddy if I had to dial right now for this +st time trial pass I would dial the 2" I ran at +2S 0am in the O finals. Gell, it didn&t run a +2.2", the car ended up going +2.++I+++.')mph to my surprise, and this was at +0 till noon. 1o wrap this up, I ended up going red by .002 in the rd round ending my day.

Clearly this ends prior to changes I implemented over the 20+2$20+ winter in preparation for #actory Stoc-. I wrote this to where it was up$to$date at the time. Someday I may get around to a 2nd editionTT.4early all of the referenced dyno pulls, and trac- outings have been documented on my youtube channelD httpSEEwww.youtube.comEuserE1ooSlo(* I invite you to checthem out if you haven&t seen them already.

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