460.465USMC's MK4 Build #9890 - V.I.N. for the Win and Spring Rumble

[460.465USMC]

It's hard to believe, but I'm out of aluminum panels, unless the VIN plate is considered a panel. I'll install that once my title arrives.

My last two panels to install were the door sill plates. They're powder coated to match the dash and trans cover. Instead of installing carpet on the sill, I picked up a remnant stick of angled aluminum (1"x1/2"x1/8") from my local metal supplier. Man, I love that place. They always have exactly what I need, and inexpensive. It's become one of my favorite places to shop.

Here are the DS sill edge pieces cut, drilled, and prepped for powder coat. They fit just fine in my little PC oven.




Well, I did my best to cut the aluminum ends to match the slope of the door sill chassis tubes. My goal was no gap between the pieces, but here you can see I fell a bit short between the longer two sections on the DS. Oh, well. My build has never been at risk of becoming a show car, so why start now? A theme of stainless fasteners contrasted against dark powder coat (dash, trans cover, etc.) emerged earlier in my build. I liked it, so just continued throughout the build. These rivets are not stainless, but have the same effect to my eyes.




My battle with the DS rear wheel spacer is now in Round 3. I installed this 1/2" spacer because a 1" spacer caused the tire to rub even during minor suspension travel. The body also happens to sit lower on the DS, so double whammy between (1) the shorter wheel well lip and (2) lower body height. As I noted previously, the DS wheel well lip extends from the chassis about 5/16" less than the PS. (The 1 inch spacer on the PS is working well).



The 1/2" spacer made a big difference, but I'm still not out of the woods. The tire still rubs, but only during extensive suspension travel (i.e. big dips in the road). I would like to keep the 1/2" spacer, so will probably trim the wheel well lip (on both sides to match). This was going to be left for the body/paint pro, but I need clearance on the DS now.

While I was looking for a 1/2" spacer (bought the one above from Speedway), I stumbled across extended thread lug nuts. Who knew? Apparently, designed for situations like adding wheel spacers. (I wasn't looking forward to removing the studs from the hub). In my case, these lug nuts provide about 0.05 inches less (1.3 mm) of thread engagement (0.62" v. 0.67") as compared to the original lug nuts without spacers.

In between all of the above I spent time on a dyno with a tuner. Looking forward to getting my dyno chart emailed over from the tuner. I'll post the results.

Happy building!

[buttsjim]

Bit by bit, you're making an already great car even better. I know that you plan on driving in gel coat for a while, but I'm really looking forward to seeing your car after paint--it's looking great now, I can hardly imagine what it's going to look like out of the paint shop! I've enjoyed your thread, gotten lots of ideas, and always appreciate your encouraging comments on my own build. I'm wishing you the very best of enjoyable driving in that beautiful car!

[460.465USMC]

Thanks for the kind words, Jim. It's been a lot of fun for me to see others' builds along the way. So many good ideas, many of which I've shamelessly tried to copy in my build. I have a lot of appreciation for the craftmanship and ingenuity I see on this forum.

Oh, and did I mention it's fun to drive? My odometer reads 949 miles. I expect to hit the 1,000 mile mark Saturday morning when I meet up with the other local Spokane builder for coffee.

[460.465USMC]

Based upon a number of Coyote Gen 3 experiences I've read here on the forum, I've had it in my head a professional tune is required. My goal for the tuner was to remove the MAF related error codes that occasionally trigger:

• P0507 "Idle air control system RPM higher than expected
• P0100 "Mass or volume air flow A Circuit"

I don't observe any performance degradation when these codes trigger. However, I'm not excited about the prospects of the MIL being active frequently, potentially masking some other issue.

Since my goal for tuning was very basic, I chose to use a local tuner for about half the price Lund quoted me. Plus, the tuner has a dyno, a safe way to run through WOT. After the tuner dialed in the MAF table, I noticed the idle is more consistent around 750 RPM. Bonus. Before the tune, the idle would start at 750 RPM for about five seconds (engine at operating temp), then jump to around 925 RPM and stay there.

Here are the initial baseline pull results (before MAF table optimization)







The Coyote makes sweet music when it winds up to 7K! Here's a 49 second video of a pull on the dyno.




The Coyote continues to run strong. Plenty of power and acceleration for my needs, and then some! Still some window left in driving season here in the PNW. I'm past the 1,000 mile mark (1,050), and couldn't be happier overall. The TKO600 doesn't shift as well as I expected it would, but will work okay for my purposes. It can be a little tricky distinguishing first from third when stopped. And, it took me some time to find the sweet spot when shifting into fifth.

Happy building!

[Railroad]

Most roadster owners have learned to run lower tire pressures than expected, due to light wt, for the best ride.
You need to correct this for dyno runs. You can pick up or get more accurate hp numbers after this correction.
Nice post.

[Blitzboy54]

Just awesome. So happy for you Chris. I wish I was close I would love nothing more than to go for a drive. The thing that has taken me by surprise is after all the initial tuning and debugging just how reliable it is. Just turn the key and go. It’s been great.

[460.465USMC]

Most roadster owners have learned to run lower tire pressures than expected, due to light wt, for the best ride.
You need to correct this for dyno runs. You can pick up or get more accurate hp numbers after this correction.
Nice post.

Hi Railroad. You're right. I'm running 24 PSI in rear, and 22 up front. So, you're saying if I ran the rear tires up to say 35 PSI or so, the HP results read by the dyno would have been higher and/or more accurate? Is this because the contact patch would be slightly smaller (i.e. smaller contact patch=less friction=less load on the motor?)?

Just awesome. So happy for you Chris. I wish I was close I would love nothing more than to go for a drive. The thing that has taken me by surprise is after all the initial tuning and debugging just how reliable it is. Just turn the key and go. It’s been great.

Thanks, Jesse! I'm really enjoying this part of the build experience. What a blast!

Great to hear yours is dialed in and running as expected. It is fun to hop in on a whim and go for a drive. I'm still volunteering to run errands for my wife.

Road trip?

[Railroad]

Normal tire pressure will reduce the flex in side walls. I won"t try to explain the logic. The fabricator/tuner/chief cook and bottle washer for Kenne Bell, passed this info along to the 99 Mustang Cobra owners that bought KB superchargers for their cars. Dyno's are already all over the place on results for a lot of reasons. This happened to be one he pointed out to us, as we tuned our cars.
I noticed your tire side walls collapsing in the video.
On a conservative side, I would guess 10 more hp. Taller side walls would seem to me to give up more hp.
Enjoyed the video and post!
Hope to get mine on the dyno someday.

[460.465USMC]

Thanks, Railroad. I appreciate your insights. It was my first time on a dyno. I "drove" the first WOT to redline (not the one in the video above). True confessions: it was a little unsettling to run my new motor up to redline. I had dollar signs flashing in my eyes as it approached 7K+ RPM. Probably just my inexperience with the whole thing. Ford Performance told me there's no special break-in required. Anyway, it was a good experience, and I learned a few things.

[John Ibele]

Hi Railroad. You're right. I'm running 24 PSI in rear, and 22 up front. So, you're saying if I ran the rear tires up to say 35 PSI or so, the HP results read by the dyno would have been higher and/or more accurate? Is this because the contact patch would be slightly smaller (i.e. smaller contact patch=less friction=less load on the motor?)?



Thanks, Jesse! I'm really enjoying this part of the build experience. What a blast!

Great to hear yours is dialed in and running as expected. It is fun to hop in on a whim and go for a drive. I'm still volunteering to run errands for my wife.

Road trip?

Fantastic, Chris, very happy the tune worked well. I’m right behind you at about 800 miles, which doesn’t properly represent ‘seat time’ - a fair amount has been at idle, using the laptop software for the Sniper. A deep dive but immensely satisfying. I may get a tune on a dyno at some point but I’ve reached the most satisfying part: a reliable, very street-friendly setup where I can just turn the key and go. Sooo much fun with the right choices and setup.

I like the road trip visual! One of those white dots is Minneapolis, right? Maybe we make it a caravan for the rest of the drive East to Jesse’s

[Nigel Allen]

Hi Railroad. You're right. I'm running 24 PSI in rear, and 22 up front. So, you're saying if I ran the rear tires up to say 35 PSI or so, the HP results read by the dyno would have been higher and/or more accurate? Is this because the contact patch would be slightly smaller (i.e. smaller contact patch=less friction=less load on the motor?)?



Thanks, Jesse! I'm really enjoying this part of the build experience. What a blast!

Great to hear yours is dialed in and running as expected. It is fun to hop in on a whim and go for a drive. I'm still volunteering to run errands for my wife.

Road trip?

That looks truly awesome. Don't suppose you need a passenger?

[460.465USMC]

Fantastic, Chris, very happy the tune worked well. I’m right behind you at about 800 miles, which doesn’t properly represent ‘seat time’ - a fair amount has been at idle, using the laptop software for the Sniper. A deep dive but immensely satisfying. I may get a tune on a dyno at some point but I’ve reached the most satisfying part: a reliable, very street-friendly setup where I can just turn the key and go. Sooo much fun with the right choices and setup.

I like the road trip visual! One of those white dots is Minneapolis, right? Maybe we make it a caravan for the rest of the drive East to Jesse’s

Hi John. Very cool you're getting the bits and bytes squared away on your tune. I imagine your winter starts even earlier than mine, so the clock is ticking on 2023 drives. We best keep at it, grinning at every turn and satisfying acceleration. Boy, this part is fun!

P.S. Of course one of those white dots is Minneapolis. Two Cobras heading East. I love it!

That looks truly awesome. Don't suppose you need a passenger?

It would truly be an excellent adventure. I tend to make wrong turns at virtually every opportunity, so yes, a passenger would be required to keep me pointed in the right direction!

[460.465USMC]

Over the last several days Spring showed up in a big way in my neck of the woods. Temps in the mid- to upper-sixties! Time for the first Spring Rumble.

Boy did it feel good to stretch her legs out on the open road. Even better, I had the chance to give a first ride to a little guy. Look closely and you'll just barely make out his head in the passenger seat. He was all smiles. Upon return, he made sure I agreed to drive the Roadster (with him as passenger) to pick up the pizza. We did.

30 second first ride video: https://youtube.com/shorts/ctSnqxdus1s?feature=share


The V.I.N. is in: in even bigger news, after a short wait of two-hundred-thirty-seven days my title arrived. I won't revisit here what turned out to be a long slog through the WA state titling process. But happy to share my trials and tribulations with any Washington builder if they're interested. I plan to hand stamp the VIN on the F5 VIN plate and rivet to the top of the PS FB. Visible from inside the engine bay.

My plan for the winter was to work on some minor punch list items. Also, I wanted to enjoy some non-Roadster things I haven't done in a long time. That was Plan A. My better half had Plan B: Moving. Locally.

Suffice it to say no work on the Cobra over the winter. Instead, winter found me diligently making over a new-to-me-garage: interior wall framing, insulation, paneling (OSB), painting, and ceiling fans. The new digs are 45% of the square footage of my last garage. Admittedly, a first-world problem. Woe is me. And, I say diligently because the calendar says my next project shows up in April.

I hope others up north are getting their first Spring drives logged in the books. Perhaps our southern friends are smiling as they change oil, brought on by miles and miles of driving over the last few months?

Happy building!

[buttsjim]

I was wondering how it was going for you...congratulations on receiving your title!