OLD CROW 3V Mustang: Pypes X Pipe, MGW Short shifter and Billetworkz Shift Knob

 Ok, a few more mods to share. Last Friday I installed the Pypes after cat X pipe. This is a $190 piece that actually replaces the back half of the OEM cat pipe. It essentially replaces the H section with an X section. It's the same 2.5" diameter piping but has a better flowing X pipe connection which takes advantage of the exhaust pulses for improved flow. 

Measure twice, or 6 times and cut once. The marker lines were to tell me where the new X pipe will meet up with the cat pipe (the right line) and the other mark is where I was intending to cut the stock pipe. I gave myself 2" and really wanted some good overlap. This was the first pipe I cut. I missed the mark more than I wanted to. I blame the tight quarters under the car while trying to have a solid grip on the sawzall. haha

Here's the post cut comparison. The Pypes X pipe came with these exhaust hangers. I don't know what for as the stock car doesn't have anything to hang it to. I guess you could add hangers to the car somehow. These hangers are right near the transmission support bracket. 

Here's the X pipe installed and clamped in. LMR.com forgot to include a clamp with my SVE axle back mufflers. I told them about it and they shipped me 2 new clamps. That worked out well because the clamps that came with the Pypes X pipe were not very good at all. I didn't even try and use them. 

The MGW shifter arrived on Saturday while I was at 4 baseball games! LOL I was able to install it tonight (the following Monday). Here is a comparison of the OEM shifter vs the MGW Shifter for the 2005-10 Mustang GT.

First up was to remove the center console and gain access to the shifter boot and sound deadening material.

There were a few pain in the butt moments on this install. The biggest tip is to follow MGW's instruction to lower the transmission support bracket about an inch or so. If you don't do that step, I don't know how you remove or re-install the shifter unit. It's a tight fit in there and the shifter is an odd shape. 

I think the entire install took about 3 hours, including jacking up the car and putting everything away. Here's a picture of the front support bolt. This took some time but fairly simple step. Getting the bolt started with the tight squeeze for my hand took a few attempts.

Here's a view of the MGW shifter before I lowered the trans bracket. It was not going. I had to go under the car so I could better see how to maneuver it through the hole. 

Here's a view of the rear bracket and alignment pins. You can see the blue bracket has slots in the mounting holes. When I was inside the car, the shifter was wanting to sit toward the driver side more and I felt like it was going to be tight so I moved the shifter to the passenger side all the way. You can see the slot peeking through as I pushed the bracket/shifter to the one side for more clearance.

Once the shifter was all bolted in underneath, I moved back into the interior to reassemble the finishing touches. Here's the important boot which seals off the gaping hole in the trans tunnel. The earlier models don't have a sound deadening piece so MGW provides some dynamat and a NVH pad. Mine, being a 2008, did have the OEM sound deadening piece and I also installed the pad but not the dynamat. 

The finishing touch was the matt black "lightbulb" shaped Billetworkz shift knob and gloss black boot retainer. The instructions say to flip the shifter boot around 180 degrees since the shifter locates the shift knob further back than stock apparently.

I think it looks really sharp!

I put all the tools away and went for a test drive. The first time I went to shift into 2nd gear, I put it in 4th. The shifter is tighter and takes more effort to select the gears. It feels solid and the weighted knob feels good in the hand. I adjusted the throw about 5 turns out of the max of 10 turns allowed. If you put the shifter at its longest, its about 15% shorter than stock. So, its probably about 40-50% shorter than stock. 

I leave you with this photo at the parking lot at Viewmont High School from Saturday where I watched Josh play baseball. I can't help myself from taking pictures every time I get out of the car! It looks killer! I am loving the car! I have modified every aspect of the car so far, Interior, Exterior, Suspension, Wheels/tires, brakes and engine. It's been a very satisfying process! That's it for now! I need to find an autox event to sign up for!

OLD CROW 3V Mustang: JLT V3 CAI + SCT BDX Brenspeed customer 91oct Tune

 The fun continues! A week or 2 after getting the suspension installed, I ordered up the next round of parts for the Old Crow 3V Mustang Project!

Brenspeed is known for being one of the top 3V Mustang tuners and aftermarket providers. I ordered up their Intake + Tuner Combo kit. They have a few options and I chose to go for their most affordable set up, which includes the JLT Performance V3 Cold Air Kit and the SCT BDX programmer device. The out the door and shipped cost was $807 for the kit. After ordering, they send you an email and request some details about your car. I sent them all my mods along with rear gear ratio and tire diameter. 

If you didn't know, the 3V 4.6L Mustang GT absolutely requires a tune if you install a cold air kit on it. There are all kinds of warnings in the paperwork that came with the intake to ensure a tune is uploaded before running it. 

Here's a pic of the JLT intake installed along with some in-process pictures of the tune upload.

The intake install was fairly straight forward. The hardest part was mounting the heat shield bolt between the radiator and fan shroud. The PCV hose was easy as well. I took my time getting the intake mounted to the throttle body right. I wanted to make sure the seal was done well so there were no air leaks and so it won't move or fall off over time. Because the intake tube is plastic, the instructions said to not over tighten the clamps. The heat shield fits snug against the hood when you close the hood. I'll keep an eye on it over time to see if its wearing the underside of the hood at all. The overall look of the engine bay is much improved by installing the intake compared to the clunky and dirty/grungy stock airbox. I need to get those valve covers painted at some point in a nice bright Ford Blue!

So, I was a little nervous about the upload process. The instructions weren't actually very helpful. SCT provides a fold out map like page and it talks about like 6 different general processes. But, I followed the screen and clicked through and turned the key on and off when it told me and SUCCESS!!! Brent did instruct me to have a charger going on the car battery just in case. He said if the car battery doesn't have enough power during the upload and if something happens mid upload, you could brick the ECU or at least, put yourself in a difficult situation LOL. So I borrowed Corey's battery charge (again!) and the upload completed with no issues.

I went for a quick test drive when I finished at like 10pm. I could feel the car was snappier and more responsive and that it definitely had more power. The intake noise when you do a quick down shift blip or really dig into the throttle gives a sucking/whooshing sound now that wasn't there before.

So, here's the parts I bought, in addition to the Intake and tuner. I ordered up the LMR.com SVE branded axle back exhaust and the Pypes after cat X-pipe. This x pipe is clamped into place behind the factory cats. You have to cut the pipes behind the cats and clamp the x pipe on and connect it to the rest of the catback piping. So, its a hopped up version of the factory 2.5" exhaust system. 

I also picked up the MGW short shifter. It is supposed to arrive on Saturday. The shifter has adjustable throw. I've matched that up with a Billetworkz matte black weight shift knob in the "lightbulb" shape (Brent really wanted me to do the sphere shape but I felt it was too bulky). I also ordered the boot retainer piece, which comes in gloss black to help it look factory with the shift boot held in the proper position. It did cost $30 but hey, there's some showcar boi in me too! haha

Here's some pics of the SVE axle back mufflers from LMR.com. Here's a comparison of the 16 year old OEM mufflers. The SVE mufflers save 7 lbs each side. So far, the parts I've added have lost some weight overall. I need to find the weight of the GT500 arms because they are heavier than the OEM GT arms, but besides that, I've removed 60 lbs from the car but then added back in 8lbs of heavier wheel/tire combo (2lbs per corner).

I love the look of the new SVE mufflers. More aggressive, sporty look with the 4" tips and a nice shiny polished SS. 

You can see from these under car pictures that the smaller size of the mufflers give you more room underneath to work. 

While I was under the car, I took the time to wipe down with a soapy wash rag the underside. 

I also picked up this 8" short antenna. It only cost $15 and I think improves the look more than you'd think. That big tall antenna screamed 80's!