The rise of the Gray Ghost...

[Stangman]

Yeah thats why I dont get a flu shot anymore. Too many bad side effects I hear come from it.

And Bob, no problem just let me know on those flanges. They're not quite 2.5" which is why I decided to get rid of them.

 

[SATURN5]

Flu shot give you the full on Flu too? Great fun.

Worse. I reacted to it. I'm still recovering a month later. I was fine for a week, and woke up one morning and could barely walk, all my joints hurt, my feet hurt to touch, knees didn't want to bend. I had just taken a long drive the day before and figured I was stoved up from the small car. 10 days later I went back to the Drs, feeling the same. Got a script for antibiotics and a muscle relaxer, ordered bed rest and no stairs (which meant crashing on the couch). Days pass, I get worse. Back to the Drs, my ankles are swollen, I have red rash on my feet and blotches/raised areas forming on my hands and the pain has moved into my arms as well as my legs. This time I get a script for Prednesone and more bloodwork. By the time I'm home I can't move my arm from where they drew blood. Wife fills the script and I take the first dose. Within an hour, the pain began to subside. A couple hours later, I can walk without feeling like I'm walking on needles. I'm now two days off the steroids, legs still ache somewhat, especially in the evening. In rare cases the shot can cause what's called Guillian-Barre Syndrome, where your immune system goes all postal on your nervous system. She's not sure if this is the case, but had I not responded to the steroids, I was to head to the ER for more tests as it can be fatal if it affects your breathing. (stops lung function). All my bloodwork came back showing nothing wrong. Missed four days of work, and the house is a wreck since I do most of the cleaning. (Wife works and goes to school). Kids aren't much of a help... lol /hijack

 

[Sapperfire]

Glad to hear that you're on the mend thou.. That's why I'm an all-natural kinda person. I won't take chemicals as treatments for ailments. Scary stuff man

 

[ford nut]

Wow, glad to here your better.
I hate taking that dam flu shot too, but what hit you is crazy.

Jesse, nice to see you back at it. :dancefool

 

[Stangman]

Ordered my EGR delete plate for the back of the intake off ebay, hoping it gets here before this weekend. I'd like to get the K-member back in its rightful home soon so I can get the steering shaft, p/s pump, rack, and hose in place and move on to the exhaust!

 

[Stangman]

Some cool stuff has been happening slowly over the past few months!

My EGR delete for the intake

Installed

Got the front subframe yanked out, and ready for the old wore out power steering rack off to come off

Got the K member all cleaned up and ready to go back in, was waiting on rack to arrive.

 

[SATURN5]

You have the IRS apart too?

 

[Stangman]

Lazy shop cat...

Then I found this on the interwebz

And it needed a lot of adjustments made to really fit right, but will work.

You can see its sitting in there tweaked. It's just how they're built. Had to shave down the lower rubber pads to half of their original thickness, and also tweak the holes in the fan shroud in order for it to line up perfectly w/ the radiator, but got all that sorted out.

Then I got these fancy parts from Jay

They're not going on until I can get the hubswap done, which is at the bottom of the list. But here's some pics for enjoyment.

 

[Stangman]

Now I will show some parts for the haters lol

Yes I know. It's mine. If it breaks, its my fault. I know some of you dont like piggyback pullies.

Lazy shop cat is lazy

 

[Stangman]

Then all of the sudden parts started coming together and magic happened.

Well, except where I had to clearance the K member because the remanufactured rack had slightly different lines than the original. And I didnt remove all the old lines from my junk rack before I scrapped it. Whoops. Oh well, quick work w/ a carbide bit.

Rack installed, w/ urethane bushings. New high pressure line installed as well.

One last look at these beautiful parts before it goes back together and they become forgotten about...

K member found its way back in the car!

You can see my alloy transmission lines. They are S.U.R & R lines. Which are great by the way if you do trans/brake lines!

So, then after all the parts collecting and researching, then came time for the hardcore automotive pornography...

Ohh yeah... look at that... it's glorious... all this time... now I will finally have Cobra manifolds/full exhaust w/ no cats and the steering mods to match! it's a good day!

I picked up a JBA H pipe for a 99-04 Mustang off craigslist a while back, so I will have FULL 2.5" Mandrel exhaust right off the manifolds. I will have to do some cutting of course to get it to work, but I'm confident I'll be able to do my entire exhaust from under the car in the garage and not have to take it to an exhaust shop.

More to come as soon as I make more progress!

 

[Stangman]

You have the IRS apart too?

No. Not yet. Didnt want to yank it apart if I didnt have a new gear to go back in it yet. Soon though. I will hopefully be making the exhaust sectional so I can remove it in pieces if need be. For reasons like the IRS.

 

[ford nut]

I need a shop cat....

 

[SATURN5]

No. Not yet. Didnt want to yank it apart if I didnt have a new gear to go back in it yet. Soon though. I will hopefully be making the exhaust sectional so I can remove it in pieces if need be. For reasons like the IRS.

Ah.... I saw the lower arms in one of the pics, looked like you had it apart.

 

[Stangman]

Ah.... I saw the lower arms in one of the pics, looked like you had it apart.

Ahh, the outside pic... yeah those are broken control arms from my parts car thats long gone. Car took a hard hit.

I think I was pirating what good bolts were left out of them.

 

[Stangman]

Will hopefully be working on this pile of parts again this weekend...

K member has to come back down for some adjustments to the motor mounts. Hopefully that will get squared away in a day. I'd really like to start focusing on the exhaust.

 

[Stangman]

"How you know your Mark Viii has been torn apart too long"

So, last I left off, I was having an issue w/ my TurboChuck motor mounts. I ended up having to slot the holes to let the bottom of the mount move inward. Took somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/4 to 3/8 of material out of the mount, and that made a huge difference. The went right together in the car, drivers side took a little convincing due to being in a bind, but eventually got it. So the engine and the K member have officially become one again. Now I can start focusing on exhaust, and other items.

 

[Stangman]

Was house/dog sitting at my friends house where the Mark has been, and was able to get a few things done.

First of all, I threw away the old list, and made a newer, better list.

Then, I added loctite to the threads, and attached this in place once and for all

Next was to install the Energy suspension trans mount. Since I couldnt get any of the bolts loose under the car, I took the crossmember out. The weight in the center of the crossmember was shot, and the little balls were falling out of it. And, because racecar, I dont need it.

Had some motivation

Then it dissapeared, and the ES mount was on for a test fit

Threw it back up in the car with relative ease

And scratched something off the new list!

 

[DieselDan]

Looking awesome man, that all looks very familiar

 

[Stangman]

Thanks! Wish you would have kept yours around long enough to do the cobra manifold/steering shaft swap too!

 

[Stangman]

Wow I haven't updated this one in a while...

A lot has happened.

I did the mustang hub swap and also the swap to Cobra brakes and installed stainless braided lines

Oh I also happened to get some of those big heavy awesome sway bars

Installed the gauge pod for my trans temp gauge

Also swapped to coil over plug and installed my cam covers that I painted to match the color of the car. And fancy Ford GT coil covers!

it sat on the ground for the first time in a LONG time

Since it was on the ground we were able to wire up the C.O.P. wiring

 

[Stangman]

Since the wiring was finished I filled the fluids and bled the coolant system. It ran great but was loud as hell because the exhaust stopped at the transmission haha

So it got to see daylight!

But it had to go back in for a bit

finished the gauge pod install. the AFR gauge is a dummy space holder.

The list is coming close to being done!

After all of that we did the sequential taillight wiring and got it working. Sorry no write up on that either.

next we started repairing the front LSC bumper cover I got a while back.

this stuff is amazing

So there wasn't much to do now besides get the exhaust done so we loaded it up in my friends trailer and took it to another buddy's house who has a lift. This is more recent. So sunday I loaded the car in the garage and lifted it up and got things started.

If you haven't noticed by now I swapped a rear LSC bumper on it too.. lol

These flow tubes started as a JBA H pipe to a 4.6 GT. Heavily modified of course.

mocked up the midsection after welding the X in.

Tested the fit of the front flow tubes to the X

Got one muffler mounted... I used the stock hangers and flipped them from one side to the other. And then bent them a little.

then got everything fitted and tack welded. So its sort of "done" as far as exhaust goes.

going back this sunday to finish welding everything up and install the o2 sensors and flange gasket for the passenger side cobra manifold.

Enjoy.

 

[Markviiiedrea]

Looking great Jesse! That first WOT will feel great!

 

[Stangman]

I hope! Gonna get it tuned eventually... hopefully sooner than later if I can get it all worked out.