On this episode of HOT ROD Garage
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:20 This is Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech and this is our third installment with the
00:24 EBC Brakes 2005 Mustang. Now our whole point with this car has been to show people
00:30 succinct answers to the questions we see most often on forums about basic bolt-ons of all kinds.
00:36 What you're going to see here applies to 2005 to 2014 Mustangs. Now in episode 13 we just
00:42 lowered the car as cheaply as we could. We put EBC Brakes on it. We upgraded the wheels and tires.
00:47 In episode 14 we tested some really basic engine bolt-ons and this time we're going to show you
00:52 the Ford Racing Handling Pack. We're going to put that all together, put it on the car and show you
00:56 exactly how it works. But first, check out this quick tip from Lincoln Tech.
01:01 [Music]
01:04 Let's talk U-joints. In our world the most popular U-joints are the 1310, 1330 and 1350 series variety.
01:11 The 1350 is the widest and largest diameter joint of the three and will handle the most power.
01:17 Now U-joints pivot on needle bearings which can be destroyed by lack of lubrication, moisture
01:22 and extreme operating angles. So how can you tell if you have a bad U-joint?
01:27 Drive down the road with your transmission in high gear and note the speed and RPM that you feel
01:32 at any vibration. Now shift the transmission into lower gear and again find the sweet spot.
01:38 When your car begins shaking, if the vibration occurs at a different engine RPM or diminishes
01:43 at the same RPM, then you could have U-joint issues. If the vibration occurs at the same intensity
01:49 and RPM, then you could have engine trouble. Another good way to check your U-joints is to get
01:54 under your car and grab the drive shaft from either end and try to force it up and down and then
01:59 twist it. If you see or feel any play at all, then it's probably a good idea to replace the U-joints.
02:05 Lincoln Tech can teach you how to have a career working with cars. See lincolntech.edu.
02:11 The last time we touched our Mustang, all we did was try and lower it as cheaply as possible
02:16 and that meant throwing in nothing but coil springs. I used Ford Racing's K-Springs which are
02:21 pretty popular. They drop the car an inch. But when you take a stiffer spring and combine it with a
02:25 softer shock, it's not really a recipe for greatness. The thing didn't handle any better at all,
02:29 but it looked pretty cool and this time we're getting more serious. Not super hardcore serious,
02:34 you can go off the deep end with these cars in the aftermarket. Instead, I'm looking at this
02:39 Teamwork package from Ford Racing. This is the Ford Racing handling pack for a 2005-2014 Mustang.
02:47 If you want to buy this one, it's part number MRFR3AMGTA and that's the kit that has non-adjustable
02:54 shocks. You can also get a more expensive one with single adjustable dampeners. This whole kit is
02:59 about $1500 and you get P-Springs, which is great because I'm going to be able to compare the ride
03:04 height to the K-Springs and a lot of people want that answer. It has matched struts, which actually
03:09 come completely assembled. Rear springs, anti-roll bars, rear shocks, an adjustable pan hard bar
03:15 for the rear bump stops, all the little hardware and stuff. Really neat factory hardware everywhere
03:20 you go and these billet anti-roll bar end links that I would use as a connecting rod. So that's
03:25 pretty cool. I'm going to put this all on the car and at the end of the show we're going to come
03:29 back and find out if it actually performs better than what we did last time on this.
03:34 Pulled out the spring and the strut that I installed last time. That is a Ford Racing K-Spring,
03:43 which you can discover by finding the part number stamped on it. See how it ends in a KF? That's
03:49 what's just colloquially known as a K-Spring. Now, I learned some stuff last time that I should
03:54 share with you this time about the upper strut mount. This is a Ford Racing part number M18183-C.
04:02 This is actually OE on 11 to 14 GT500 and it also fits a GT500 back to 07 and what's interesting
04:09 is it'll fit a GT or a V6 model from 05 to 10, but unfortunately it does not fit an 11 to 14 GT
04:18 with a stock spring. It will fit it with this spring. Why all that rigmarole? Because Ford.
04:24 But actually, it's not that hard to figure out. The aftermarket has a lot of solutions to it.
04:29 It's just something you need to be cognizant of when you're shopping for this stuff. So, keep
04:33 that in your little brain, especially if you're buying caster camber plates.
04:36 So here's the brand new spring, fully assembled. There's no death with a spring compressor trying
04:41 to put it together. What's great is that this one comes with the P-Spring. See the little print
04:47 here that says P? So when I install all of these, I'll be able to set it down and tell you exactly
04:52 the difference in ride height between that K-Spring and that P-Spring and that is like
04:56 mysteries of the pyramids. Everyone on the internet is going to want to know that info. So stay tuned.
05:01 I just did all of that work, installing all the springs and dropping the car on the ground,
05:10 rolling it around, bouncing it, just so that I could measure the ride height and reveal the
05:14 information I keep promising you, which is the difference between the Ford Racing K-Springs
05:19 and the P-Springs. And the final answer is, the P-Springs drop the car about half an inch
05:24 and the K-Springs drop it a full inch. So there's a half an inch difference between the two,
05:29 at least in our application.
05:31 Remember I was showing you all the differences between the years on that rubber upper strut
05:35 tower mount on these Mustangs? Well, I'm not even going to use that deal. Instead, we're going
05:40 for an aftermarket caster camber plate. These things replace the entire stock rubber bushing
05:46 on top of the coil spring and they allow the strut to move in and out and side to side
05:51 within this plate so that you can get some alignment adjustment. The stock rubber bushings
05:56 don't allow that at all. And when we butchered this thing together the first time, just lowering
06:00 springs and nothing else, we actually had more caster on one side of the car than we did on the
06:04 other. Now we're going to be able to get it perfect. This is a BBK caster and camber plate.
06:09 It's universal. It fits both the early cars and the late cars. It has a little adapter for it.
06:13 The problem with them is they have this big decorative billet doohickey that goes on here.
06:20 And we discovered that that does not fit with our strut tower brace. So we're not using that.
06:26 Instead, we're going to go with higher level of function and install that Hotchkiss strut
06:32 tower brace. Now what does that do? It locks together the tops of the two struts and makes
06:37 them rigid so when you're running around the autocross or big course or whatever you happen
06:41 to do, you're not seeing some flex in the front end that can change your alignment dynamically
06:46 as you're rolling around corners. Probably more of a decoration than anything on this
06:50 particular car, but there you go. So we're going to button this all up and then move on to the
06:54 rest of the suspension.
06:57 [Music]
07:10 This is the first guy who's going to comment, "Use a torque wrench!"
07:13 Because that happens.
07:17 Now I'm moving on to the anti-roll bars, which you probably know as sway bars.
07:22 The Ford kit comes both front and rear and what's interesting is that the front bar really
07:27 isn't that much bigger than stock. I'm talking like a 32nd of an inch. It's tiny.
07:31 I knew that because I've got this trick where I take out an adjustable wrench, squeeze the
07:36 tube, and measure it up. And this deal right here is 1 3/8ths and that is literally just a hair
07:42 smaller than that. But what's important is this bar has three adjustments on the end.
07:47 Now this changes the length of the lever arm that's acting on the sway bar from the body
07:52 pressing on it. So this one is going to make a shorter lever arm and make the bar act stiffer.
07:58 This hole out here is going to make a longer lever arm and make the bar act a little bit
08:02 softer. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put it on the softest setting because
08:05 the car already has a problem with understeer, which is pushing the front tires. And since
08:09 we're putting a stiffer sway bar in the back, which is going to tend to make it want to
08:13 oversteer a little bit, I'll balance that with softer in the front and hopefully we get
08:17 the thing to go around the corners pretty neutral. The rear bar is a little bit bigger
08:21 than factory. This guy is 7/8ths and the factory unit is 3/4.
08:25 Last thing I'm going to do before I button up the rear sway bar is the adjustable panhard
08:29 bar. People were reaming me in the first installment when I just put 1 1/2 inch drop
08:33 springs in the car and didn't put in an adjustable panhard. And here's why. You need a way
08:38 with a coil spring suspension to locate the axle side to side in the car. The 3-link controls
08:44 it fore and aft and up and down, but nothing side to side. And that's what the panhard
08:48 does. The problem is when you lower the car and you have a fixed length panhard rod, it's
08:53 either going to kick the body one way or kick the rear end one way depending on how you
08:57 look at it. And truly on this car, we had a wheel stick out of about 1/4 inch on one
09:02 side because we had not done this. But the Ford kit comes with an adjustable panhard
09:06 and real simple, you can set the links just like a tie rod end, shorter or longer so you
09:12 can get that rear end centered perfectly in the car. The only thing you need to know on
09:16 this deal is look how the tube is offset on the bushing. That's simply to give you a little
09:20 bit more clearance if you've got an aftermarket rear end cover on there, which I don't. So
09:25 I'm just going to button this up, drop it on the ground and center that rear end. And
09:29 then we're going to take the car for alignment and finally head back to our autocross to
09:32 find out if any of this stuff made any difference whatsoever. Out with the old.
10:01 So last time we were out here at the autocross with the EBC brakes Mustang, it was pretty
10:05 basic. We just had those 1.5 inch drop springs, no other suspension mods, stock motor, JBA
10:11 mufflers. We did have EBC brakes on it and the Falcon tires and it ran 37.9 here on our
10:17 test track. But today I shaved a full second off of that. 36.9 seconds. How did we do it?
10:23 Well partially because in the last episode we gave it a little bit of horsepower with
10:27 the Ford Racing Cold Air Kit. And this time we put on that full Ford Racing Handling Pack
10:32 and the better alignment with the BBK caster and camber plates. And it really adds up to
10:37 a solid improvement without some significant bolt-ons that you'd probably like to see.
10:42 We still don't have aftermarket control arms on the car. There's no Wazoo Watts Link or
10:46 anything like that. There's no subframe connectors. It's just an affordable package that gives
10:50 you a good daily drivable car with some nice gains in the autocross. One full second. That's
10:55 pretty good. And that ends the educational part of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln
11:00 Tech. Now we're going to go into the fun part with a question and answer session with myself
11:04 and Mike Finnegan from Roadkill.
11:06 This is the question and answer portion of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech.
11:14 And you might ask what we're doing here absolutely filthy sitting in a Challenger Hellcat.
11:19 I'm not tan. That's dirt. Yeah. We are filming Roadkill right now and answering your tech
11:25 questions that I've posted here on our Facebook page Hot Rod Garage Show on Facebook.
11:31 Alright. Are you ready? Yeah.
11:33 Just let me turn off traction control here.
11:37 So much dirt I can't read this thing. Wait for it.
11:42 Traction control is off. Yeah. Disabled.
11:47 Alright. Question one. John Mason Collins. Will you ever build a badass 4x4? You guys
11:53 are awesome. Oh that's a perfect question to answer right now while we're hooning in
11:56 the dirt. Why do you need four wheel drive when you have a Challenger Hellcat? Yeah.
12:01 Why? It seems to be handling quite nicely. It is doing pretty well. And to prove that
12:06 we're going to go straight up a motocross berm right now. Watch this.
12:10 Okay. Left. Right.
12:13 Right.
12:14 Who needs four wheel drive? It does. Okay.
12:21 So that's answering your 4x4 question. We prefer muscle cars on dirt.
12:25 Wow. I'm going to have to take my glasses off to do this.
12:27 Do you ever plan on doing an air cooled episode? Matt Jackson wants to know. We did. We had
12:32 a VW one. We did. How about Corvair? Did you do a Corvair? My mom had one of those. Yeah.
12:37 Did she? What? 4 door? 2 door? What year? It was, well I was a little kid so I don't
12:43 remember. I'd have to remember the stories. It was a 2 door that she complained spark
12:47 plugs would actually shoot out of the engine block. Really? Yeah. My mom and dad told me
12:52 they would not stay in. That sounds road kill. Yeah. There we go.
12:56 Joseph Lacey. Mike's Rocking the Impressive Beard. Can I give you, or will you please
13:01 give me some manly beard tips? Oh, okay. Let's go. Alright, you have to drive while doing
13:07 this. Alright, manly hair forming tips. First, a steady diet of beer and ribeye steaks. That's
13:17 what you feed the monster with. Okay. And how do you trim your beard? You don't. Be
13:23 a man. Let that shit grow. Let that shit grow. And the next guy wants to know, why don't
13:30 I wear shoes? I don't know. I just like it better that way. I feel constricted by shoes.
13:36 It's sort of holding me down. You don't like toe jam. Nope. Let's see. Next question.
13:43 Between the two of you, who has the worst road range? That's a good question. Chris
13:48 Hersey. I have a temper, but I'm usually too lazy to do anything about it. I used to get
13:54 really, really angry in traffic, but now that my drive to work is 28 miles and it's an hour
14:00 and a half one way every single time, I found a certain zen to it. I just own it. So, I'm
14:06 actually pretty good now. It's called Bluetooth. Call a friend. Then you don't notice all the
14:11 people are nearly running you off the road. Which one of your cars does the best burnouts?
14:16 I'm going F-Bomb. I don't think you can top F-Bomb. I don't know. I mean, given that I
14:21 hardly ever see the thing running. But every time you have, it's been doing burnouts, right?
14:25 Yeah, but those are drag strip burnouts. I muscle truck. Does Epic burnouts? All you
14:30 have to do, here's what you can do to go see my F-Bomb car. Go on YouTube, search F-Bomb
14:35 Camaro. Look at all the videos from Nelson Racing Engines. It's like NRE2000 is the site
14:40 or something, Nelson Racing Engines. He's got tons of videos of doing highly illegal
14:45 things with that car that are nearly as entertaining as what we're doing right now.
14:51 Brian Russell wants to know, "Will it be cool to own current cars 30 or 40 years from now?
14:57 Will the Honda Insight be the new Gremlin?" This car will be cool to own 30 or 40 years
15:03 from now. This is a Challenger Hellcat with 707 horsepower, the most power ever from a
15:11 factory passenger car. There's no chance this isn't cool in 30 or 40 years. Even if they
15:17 come out with one that makes 800, I think this will still be cool. Not this particular
15:22 one because it's pretty well trashed. Yeah, you're not going to want to just go ahead
15:25 and buy this off the used car lot anytime soon. If you find the Roadkill Hellcat, Viper,
15:30 you know, any one of the ones we derbied today, avoid it like the plague. Do you think a Prius
15:35 will ever be semi-collectible in the way that like a Gremlin or a Pinto is now?
15:41 No. I hope not. I really can't see a reason to. Nick Tosh points out, "You smashed a Prius,
15:47 you might as well take out a Honda too." That's a good way to end that one.
15:52 Jordan Ruff wants to know if my Bonneville Camaro is coming back. Because you might remember
15:57 it, uh, it's short a few pistons. All of them, I think. Yeah, probably pretty much all of
16:02 it. Probably the block has got a lot of aluminum smeared all over it in certain places. Yeah,
16:06 it's been down a couple of years. We're planning on going back to Bonneville, I think this
16:10 year. Maybe in October instead of August. Working with Mike Copeland at Lingenfilter,
16:15 we're going to put an LS7 in the thing and run naturally aspirated and on nitrous with
16:20 carburetors and fuel injection, trying to get records in four different classes. So
16:24 we'll see if that happens. Hopefully putting, you know, data acquisition on it this time.
16:28 Data ac would be a lot better. Big, flaming, huge AFR meter that I trust is key. A warning
16:35 light. That's it for this Q&A on Hot Rod Garage presented by Lingen Tech. Make sure
16:40 to check us out on Facebook.com/HotRodGarageShow. You can also see us on Roadkill Show, Finnegan
16:47 and Freiburger on there all the time. On Instagram, he's @finnegan999, I'm @DavidFreiburger,
16:53 and I also do @DavidFreiburger on Facebook. So check us out on social media, and we'll
16:56 see you next time on Hot Rod Garage. And if you're on the fence about it, trust us. Buy
17:01 a Hellcat. Yeah. I love this car.
17:09 [Music]
17:15 [Music]
17:18 [Music]
17:43 (explosion)