Project Nightmare

Hey, welcome to the horsepower shop or should I say the black and blue Mustang Corral from this gorgeous as your blue 66 that was built up by the guys at year one to my 96 project nightmare. Now, we've got a serious power adder for this baby today. But hey, first, you gotta check out a few of the features on that fast back, man. It's got more than a few. This classic's been total tricked out to have the best of both worlds. Now, it's still got the original looks but the integrated fiberglass spoiler into the deck lid along with the quarters and underneath, you'll find a fuel safe fuel cell along with the nitrous bottle.

It's also been mini tub to make way for the big bud

neck wheels and BFG drag radials under the carbon fiber hood. Don't expect to see a carbureted 289.

It's got an 03 Cobra engine with a Kenny Bell supercharger and six speed transmission that make 590 horsepower at the rear wheel. Well, I don't think I'll see that kind of power in my Mustang, but there's nothing like supercharging for adding power to just about any engine. Now, last year, Chuck and I bolted up this Vortec SQ unit to my Mustang and well, it's their standard A P SI street unit.

After the installation, we woke up the nightmare to the tune of 82 extra horses for a total of 286 at the rear wheels.

Of course, we're always in the hunt for more horsepower. So we're gonna give that little street blower a boost of its own by installing an after cooler kit.

Essentially an after cooler works like a radiator for the super charger water that's stored in this tank travels to this water pump which pushes the water into this unit. So the cooling fins can cool the water

before it travels up to the power cooler. It's got fins of its own in here. So the water cools the incoming air before it's forced into the engine's intake.

This max flow power cooler kit also includes all your rubber hoses, barb fittings and mounting brackets for an easy installation. Now, since the nightmare already has a super charger bolted on to it. The first step, believe it or not is to remove it.

And the reason is this thing has to be recalled

to clear that power cooler. But first, I need to remove the main bracket from the supercharger.

Then the six cap screws that hold the compressor housing to the gear case.

Now I can rotate the gear case in line with the compressor housing

and replace the retainer plates

and the cap screws.

We're also going to speed up the super charger by replacing the original pulley with the smaller one from the kit.

Well, that's it for the mods on the super charger. Now, I can go ahead and stick it back on the engine.

Meanwhile, there won't be room for this battery after we install that water tank I showed you earlier.

So we're gonna remove the battery and the battery tray and

we'll relocate this thing later.

Now I'm gonna pull off the fuel management unit that was installed with the blower originally so we can recalibrate it later.

Well, it looks like we're ready to drop in this power cooler by first slipping this bypass valve over the cooler inlet bar.

Then we connect the blower discharge tube to the cooler inlet,

then connect the outlet side of the cooler to the throttle body using this piece of tube from the kit.

Now, we want to take this bypass valve from the kit

and slip it over the bung on the tube,

then connect a vacuum line to the nipple on the back of the bypass valve.

I

drilled and tapped a hole in this blower inlet for this barb fitting that will connect to the bypass valve. Now, what the bypass valve does is recirculate any excess boost back into the system to maintain a high boost level.

Well, now it's time to drop in this water tank and start plumbing the system. And by the way, this thing was designed to fit inside the stock battery tray and it will soon as I trim the edges here, so it'll sit nice and flat.

Now I'm gonna take the supply of the hose and cut a piece that measures 50 inches

and attach it to the fitting on the rear of the water tank.

Then I'll take this 98 inch piece, we cut and slide it over the water return fitting.

And after rounding it through the air dam, we can attach it

to the return fitting on the power cooler.

We about have the after cooler wrapped up. Now, the only things that are left are the water cooler and the water pump. Now, while Joe gets the nightmare up on the scissor lift, we're gonna go ahead and attach these brackets that came in the kit to the cooler

with the air dam removed. I can put the cooler onto the core support and slide it to the passenger side as far as possible

and mark my holes.

The reason I mounted the cooler so far to the passenger side is to make room for the water pump.

With that, we've got the system plumped from the water tank to the water pump, from the water pump to the water cooler and then on up to the power cooler. Now to power the pump, all I'm gonna do is find a good ground and a positive 12 volt source in the fuse box.

Well, we got it plumbed and powered up. Now it's time to pour in some liquid. Now, this system uses a mixture of 75% water, 25% antifreeze and be careful not to overfill it

or the system won't be able to purge itself.

Now, stay soon. We're getting mighty close to finishing up and firing up. The mustang don't go away

and welcome back to the shop.

Well, the 4.6 engine project nightmare is about to be supercharged with cooler denser air all thanks to our vortec after cooler kit. And I gotta tell you so far, this project's been pretty easy.

We bolted up the power cooler next to the blower,

install the water tank where the battery used to be.

Then underneath mounted the water cooler and water pump.

Then we plumb the system. We put some power to the water pump and

even filled up the tank here. So I guess we're just a few steps away from a test run on the

dyno Jet. The FMU what

the FMU, the fuel management unit we removed earlier. Well, it needs a little tweaking of its own to work properly with the new after cooler system. But first, I need to remove the six allen head cap screws

with the cover off. Go ahead and remove and replace the diaphragm washer and retainer plate with the new ones from the kit.

Now, the reason these are smaller is to allow more fuel into the engine.

And with that cooler, denser air, you're gonna need it

with the fuel lines attached. I had to relocate the FMU up here on the firewall in front of the power cooler

to relocate our battery. We had to get one of these relocation kits that includes the battery box, our positive and negative cables hold down and with all this hardware to make the installation possible. First thing we got to do though is run the cable through the firewall into the car and back to the trunk and looks like Mike's got a head start making way for it.

The kit comes with eight hour clamps and metal ties to make this job easier

inside the engine compartment, cut the loops from the positive and negative battery terminals,

then take the negative ground strap and attach it to the radiator core support.

Then with a lug attached to the positive cable, we just ran secure it to the other positive

with hardware from the kit

to finish the installation inside the trunk. We'll need to lower the gas tank and to start, we'll need to remove the three screws inside the filler neck

six.

Now I can go ahead and get the mustang up in the air so I can get to that gas tank

and by removing the straps, I can lower it about four inches and rest it on the jack,

that'll give us the clearance. We need to drill holes for the all thread to mount the battery box on the passenger side.

Now, we can lower the battery into the box and attach it with the hold down bracket,

then secure the vent host to the 90 degree fitting on the box.

And after attaching the terminals to the cables, connect them to the battery,

then cinch down the other end of the black cable for a good ground

and top it off with the lid.

Well, the last phase of this job is my favorite, firing up the mustang, checking it for leaks. And

you guessed it another run on the

dyno Jet. Here we go, Mike.

Remember last time with the supercharger only, we made 286 horses. This time,

it looks like 301 horsepower. That's not bad. That's about a 15 horsepower gain. Yeah. And you gotta realize we'd make more than that outside on the road with more cool air coming in. Now, make sure you don't go anywhere because after the break, we're going on a road trip that you don't want to miss. Not FMU I hope no.

Hey, welcome back to the show. Now, from the Putnam Road course in the heart of Indiana,

you may remember a few weeks ago we took an airbag equipped 63 of pall

through a slalom course and we were pretty impressed with the handling, were we? Yeah, but when air I technologies invited us out to the ultimate test of their suspension,

we had two words. Hell, yeah.

Imagine giving a bunch of media types the keys to your cool air ride equipped muscle cars and encouraging them to thrash and bash them on the road. Course

you think you can handle that

blows me away.

Well, we wanted to do the street challenge to dispel some myths about air suspension. I mean, everybody thinks an air suspension is just for laying around in the parking lot or for cruising. And we wanted to demonstrate the fact that it's really a performance suspension that offers no compromises.

A few customers brought their own air ride equipment, vehicles as everybody first put them through the brake test,

I'll check that one out.

Then off to the skid pack.

Of course, air rides got a lot riding on this challenge, putting their technology and reputation on the line,

just tell them the truth. Tell them what you think. Good, bad or indifferent.

Then it was off to the road course where we guess drivers could thoroughly abuse the car

and their suspensions.

Yeah, I think this puts a new spin on the term hot lapse. You ready?

Yeah.

Hell no,

that's

what I

thought.

Hope, you know what you're doing.

What do you think about this Mustang?

I like it. It handles well for, for a street car.

Um, that's not really set up for racing.

The car's even running on street tires. Good years.

Good road.

Yeah, it's impressive. You can feel the tire roll a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah, I've been feeling well over here. Yeah, a hard left and right hand as you can feel the tire roll.

But overall the, the car is stable when it goes to get out the way from you,

it's really easy to gather back at us.

Good job. Thank you. Thank you very much. We had a lot of fun, that's for sure.

Couple of pros from the NASCAR circuit were also invited mainly for a before and after test on this late model Camaro

Steve Grissom and Mike mclaughlin took it through the skid pad

and the road course first with a stock suspension.

Then the tech guys quickly swapped it out for a complete air ride suspension setup.

Next, it was back to the track for the ultimate test and comparison of stock versus air ride,

the stability and control,

uh corner of the car. You really had something there to uh lean on in the corners and uh it was a lot of fun driving it after lunch.

So you kind of a believer there. Oh,

without a doubt, I mean, uh I would put one of these uh deals on top of mine. Uh I never even think anything about it.

Definitely uh has a good feel, has a better balance. And like I say, you know, the, uh the opportunity to change that balance to fine tune it I is there. You know, so that makes it even sweeter. And not only that, when you're all done, you can let the air out and it looks good.

We spent the day on the road course and on rough country roads, putting these airbag rides through the paces.

Of course, some skeptics will continue to question the high performance applications of this new improved technology.

But here on this sunny day in Indiana, the air ride challenge made some serious believers out of these drivers

now convinced that bagging it has even finer functions than lowering a car stance.

It can also turn a car with a stock suspension into a near race ready corner cutting performance.

Hey, when's the last time you saw a 41 Studebaker tooling down the road?

Well, if this classic was yours and heaven forbid, the front fender got trashed,

you'd be hard pressed, finding a replacement in any junk yard.

Your only hope might be a time tested tool that's been around hundreds of years and still on the job.

Brian Pierce teaches techniques of the English wheel to students at Wild Tech in Blairsville, Pennsylvania.

It offered us a crash course on how to use this piece of reliable old technology.

Well, all we have is an upper stationary nine inch wheel.

These are a lower anvil on the bottom.

If you pay close attention right here, that is a contact patch that's gonna play a key role. When we start rolling some metal through this

with our anvils,

we have six to choose from

anywhere from flat

all the way up to a high crown like that one right there

for today.

We're gonna start off light

with this one right there.

All right, Joan, what we have here is a piece of 20 gauge cold rolled steel.

We take a look, we see

that that is

absolutely flat with our straight edge.

All right,

we're gonna wheel, put this in the wheel here

and put a slight load of pressure on there.

Now, as we roll it through from one end to the other,

this is called tracking.

All.

All right, Joe, as we get into this workpiece,

we're gonna want to tighten the pressure up just slightly.

Give us more of a fact.

And as we work through this, you gradually have to increase that pressure to get, get that, get that same effect.

All right, Joe, if you look, we're getting a lot of shape

this way,

let's try and get a compound shape. Let's roll through the wheel

this way.

I'm ready for that.

All right, Joe. If you remember what we started with flat piece of sheet metal,

now, we can really check the difference.

Oh, yeah. Quite a difference

all the way around.

I

bet it's stronger too. Huh? Oh,

yeah.

I

can't

feel that compared to

this care if I give it a shot. Sure,

careful. It's been known to buy some fingers from time to time. Thanks for the warning. I notice you got this wheel spinning first. Right. Yeah, it's called a flywheel start. Give it a shot. Here we go.

All right.

That's pretty good.

Hey, I would show you guys a perfect compound curve but you know what?

We're out of time.

How would you like to get 22 more horsepower out of your stock engine with just a little piece of metal? Well, maybe you can with one of crane's quick flow power spacers.

It's machine from aircraft quality billet aluminum and increase the flow in both carbureted and fuel injected engines.

The design in here creates a controlled turbulence for better fuel atomization, more power and well, maybe more gas mileage. Prices vary according to your application.

If your old wheels need a little makeover, how about a little color duplicate color? Makes this new metal cast paint that will give them a high gloss anodized look. Now it's easy to apply, resist temperatures up to 500 degrees and it works ideal on valve covers, oil pans and chrome accessories. Well, cool enough, looks like our time is just about out. But guess what? We'll see you next time with more horsepower. I'm gonna paint your ruse wheels. I don't think so.