Completed Project My 98 super charged EX

[4pointslow]

Cal Tracs

When I lifted the front of my truck off the ground at the race track, I was supprised. I also wanted to stop it since I launch with Automatic 4wd. (look it up it is not a viscous coupler or completely locked).

Someone I worked with who was the training manager suggested Cal Tracs. So did someone else who I still work with who works with the permatex drag car. See link
http://www.followadream.net/
Both really great people who would do whatever they could to help you, I am lucky to be surrounded by people like them. Just like the people on this site.

Then I reread Ahodges thread when I find out what Cal Tracs were, very helpful. I sent Calvert Racing some lower leaf spring mounts to have the brackets welded on and ordered the kit. I also installed rancho adjustable shocks. I run the shocks at the hardest position, I run the cal tracs at 1 1/2 turns of preload at the track. Instead of the rear going up into the wheelwell and the front lifting, now I have the rear actually lifting, pushing the tires down towards the track at the same time. To acheive this I had to move the bars towards the top holes in the levers. see first picture. This makes it hard to see what you are doing when adjusting the Cal Tracs. You don't want to drive on the street with 1 1/2 preload, it rides very harsh, so you have to adjust them at the track. Calvert racing has come up with different levers with only one hole, making things easier to see when adjusting. They are supposed to be for low profile veihicles, but will make it easier for me to adjust so I got a set.

 

[4pointslow]

New Throttle body

I got a new thottle body, I plan to use a Nitrous plate made for the GT500. It is made by Nitrous express. The throttle body is rather large, I had to get a 5.5 to 4.5 inch reducer from HPS to attach it to the 4 inch inside diameter sewer pipe I am using for an intake pipe. Dont know when I am going to install it. Think I am doing the Cal Trac Levers first.

 

[4pointslow]

Video

Last but not least, I got a set of glasses that record video from a point of view as the person who is wearing them. They are Pivothead Durangos. Not the best video in the world, I am sure Go Pro is better, but they are from the point of view that I wanted. Video's will follow when the weather permits.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i thought you had cal tracs already. also, nice throttle body. i can only imagine what that was worth. the accufab i have on mine (single blade, and ironically i bought from american muscle while i was down there last summer and they are close to your work) wasnt cheap by any means.

 

[2000StreetRod]

Merry Christmas!

Those are three very nice Christmas presents! I wonder if those Pivothead Durangos are available in trifocals.

 

[4pointslow]

Cal Tracs

i thought you had cal tracs already. also, nice throttle body. i can only imagine what that was worth. the accufab i have on mine (single blade, and ironically i bought from american muscle while i was down there last summer and they are close to your work) wasnt cheap by any means.

I did have the Cal tracs, I just changed the levers on them tonight.
The throttle body is a Ford Racing Cobrajet Mechanical Throtle body. It is only the dual 63mm one. I bought it because it was cheap. I paid about 179.00 for it. Up till now they were listing for 500-600 dollars but must have went clearance. I mean who really wants dual 63mm bores when you can have dual 67's or a single blade oval plate one rated at over 1800 cfm's. lol.
I currently have a single blade throttle body for a Ford Lightning made by LFP. I think it was rated at 1800 cfm. Probably overkill. If this dual 63mm one slows me down in may not make a difference since I am adding Nitrous. I will be running the smallest shot possible to see what happens and go from there. Using this throttle body allows mwe to use the Nitrous Express GT500 plate. I still have to bolt it up and make a bracket for the cable. A lot of my students work for American Muscle, they even bring some of their cars over when we have events. Cool guys over there.

 

[4pointslow]

Christmas Presents

Those are three very nice Christmas presents! I wonder if those Pivothead Durangos are available in trifocals.

The weather outside is frightful, I should know since I am in my garage where its cold. lol.
What are trifocals? I was told I would need bifocals soon, and that was a year ago. I can not focus on things closer than about 12 inches with my contacts in. The durango lenses are available in RX's but they are expensive and hardly worth it IMHO. I hope to have some video by the end of the week.

 

[4pointslow]

Cal Trac Levers

Here is what the new levers look like, first shot is new lever on top of old lever. The second picture is what it looks like installed now, you can see and get to the lock nut much better.

 

[4pointslow]

Explorer wieght loss program

Decided my Ex should shed a few lbs.
New thread
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3369978#post3369978

 

[4pointslow]

Tires and wheels

I need new tires and wheels, I may never find what I am looking for.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3381446#post3381446

 

[4pointslow]

Every one has LED's

About a year ago I worked on my buddies 2005 Honda Accord. I installed some HID units for his head lights, a cold air intake, and did some brakes on it.
One thing I noticed was that his car lit up real good when you opened the door, the light seemed whiter than most interior lights. When I asked him about it he said he converted all his interior lights to LED with a kit he got off the internet.

Also last year when I got a chance to meet Vroomzoomboom and see Evil in person, I noticed the interior lighting looked much better than mine. Tim told me about installing led's and to check his thread on the door switches. I read his and MUSTANGP51's threads along with many others.

Very cool stuff, the LED lights look brighter, you can have different color tints, and LED's are supposed to last a very long time.

Years ago I found replacement LED's for 194 bulb sockets at PepBoys and even installed a few in my Autometer gauges. They were expensive and not that much noticeably different. Now that so much time has passed LED's got better in quality and cheaper in price. So I had a bulb burn out in my 4 door Explorer's instrument cluster so I ordered a 20 pack of 9 LED 194 replacements. I played around with them in a spare cluster I had in the garage when it was snowing out and to cold to do anything else. Long story short I put them in my 4 door and My supercharged Explorer. I like how the needles look whiter, it's a cleaner look. They are plenty bright, they dim, and we will see how long they last.
The Battery Gauge needle is being blocked by the shifter handle in the picture, it really is there.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

to some they may think its kinda "ricer" looking, but doing all the LED's in evil if you ask me was one of the more better mods that i have done. its funny because i did this years ago and to me it doesnt seem bright now, but when i have to get into someone elses car that are using regular bulbs everything seems so dark and not well lit. it is a big improvement over regular 194 style bulbs

 

[ahodges]

Looks great! I switched the 194 bulbs to LED a couple years ago too. Now I'm taking Tim's lead and doing the rest of them.

 

[4pointslow]

LED's

I plan to do the rest of the lights as well, got some time off coming up and three weeks of it. I figure I will be bored by the third week. lol. Sure hope the track is clear so I can get some early track time this year. I plan to terrorize Friday night test and tunes a few times and get some video.

What kind of LED's did you guys use for the Instrument cluster?

 

[2000StreetRod]

LED PCM monitored status lights?

. . . What kind of LED's did you guys use for the Instrument cluster?

LED PCM monitored status lights?

 

[4pointslow]

LED's

2000Streetrod,
It has been a year since you did yours, are you happy with the LED's you used for the backlighting?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i also used the same style of 194 LED streetrod has in his. but my problem is i cant say how good they are. i have a gauge overlay in mine so they gauges themselves light up with their own power source and the 194's are used basically to light the needles. i do however have them in the heater controls by themselves. havent had to many burn out but then again i got them from ebay and not superbright so you can only expect so much from them

 

[2000StreetRod]

Can't say

2000Streetrod,
It has been a year since you did yours, are you happy with the LED's you used for the backlighting?

This may be hard to believe, but I haven't driven at night since I installed them. At this rate, they should last many years.

 

[ahodges]

I got my 194 LED bulbs from ebay as well.. They came on the slow boat. Mine are 5 light SMD LED and I like them. It only has 1 or 2 "hot" spots that are brighter than the rest.

 

[4pointslow]

Puddle Lights

I wanted to do something with my puddle lights. I found small LED boards that were about 1.5 x .75 inches. I found that if I grinded a small notch in the hole in the lens that I could slip the board right in. Two boards seemed to fit just right. I was able to piggy back the connectors, cool no more wiring needed. The boards came with adaptors too. Now the cheesy part, I used foam to hold them in place. lol. I will change that at a latter date if needed.
The normal connector seals up the hole so no water intrusion.