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Donovans Rio Red 94 GT Convertible Build

42K views 187 replies 26 participants last post by  fasterthangas 
#1 · (Edited)
After a few suggestions to make my own thread on my car I decided to put something together.

The back story on this car was that it was bought in 98 from an older lady in the portland area. It had 12k and was hardly driven. I was looking at 95 cobra convertables, but I could justify the extra 7k since I was just going to start chopping away at it as soon as I got it in my garage. Over the following 5 years I ended up installing the full Saleen body kit, put a R-4 blocked N/A 347 stroker in it plus a bunch of other stuff. Then due to some other projects this thing got back burnered. It basically sat (in working condition) until the spring of 09. Here is what it looked like at that point:







Original 347 build from 01'



Here is one of the problems that I had that made me start the rebuild/update. Fel-Pro paper gaskets don't seem to hold up for long.



My new goal was to fix some of the problems the car had with the charging system, fuel system, cooling system and some minor other bugs. Of course the right thing to do was start with a Aeromotive / Glens performance fuel system and some new gaskets. Well that led into a blower and now a turbo. Keep in mind that it hasnt been ran at all. I just keep changing my mind about what I want to install.

The goal at this point is to have a streetable 600-700 rwhp car. Here is my progress so far:

The basics of the new fuel system. They are twin walbro 255lph pumps with a stock sleeper (-10 an)pickup. The lines are a single -10 feed and a -6 return. I am then running a aero boost indexing FPR and aero rails. I am also using a 100 micron filter before the pumps and a 10 micron filter after the pumps for fuel filtration.





The (now gone) first blower moch up with a YS trim vortech:



 
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#2 · (Edited)
New intake combo - Found a great deal on a 90mm TB and Hogan intake.





One of the things that I wanted to do is get rid of the 60s tech distributor....So I got some LQ9 coils and fastened them down to some Moroso 94-95 specific VCs (thanks for the tip on this Keith)





I had to redo the harness and add a crank and cam sensor. I wanted to stick with the factory stuff so i could buy them anywhere.

Some misc parts that i needed:



I completely rebuilt the harness. I added coil pack plugs, a gm map, a gm iat and a ford crank and cam sensor. I also deleted the MAF, GM data link connector and the factory 02 harness and all emissions harness components. I did add a delphi connector for my fuel pressure and one wideband 02 sensor.

Harness before it was modified:



Harness finished with LS2 coil connectors, Explorer crank and cam and a bunch of things removed such as the 02 sensors, all emissions stuff and the data connector.



 
#3 · (Edited)
I know there is a contingency on this board who could care less about stereo stuff. However, I believe anything that moves has to have some good sounds. My old stereo was never finished like other parts of the car. Accordingly I decided that a nice glass box would be a good way to make some sounds and keep the weight down. I also HATE mdf in general so I wanted it to be wood free. I also needed to get this finished to put the tank back in as i wasnt about to weld on the chassis above the tank....



















 
#4 ·
I ended up buying a cheapy intercooler from cx racing. Not sure how it will work out. I am hoping that it will be ok. I also had an old FMS oil cooler kit so i built some custom mounts so that i could put it infront of the intercooler.

Before


Mock up with YS


Finished intercooler mounts


Clearanced bumper


Power steering cooler




 
#5 ·
Looks good man.

You may have the same issue I had. When you put the plug wires on the coils they will sit pretty far off the valve covers. I have my stands in the same place as yours and wished they were an inch more inward.
 
#9 ·
Here was my original mock up with the Vortech YS trim. I wasnt really happy with the finderwell clearance and also the radiator to belt clearance so ultimately that played a big role in going to the B&G kit (which i havent recieved yet).







 
#12 ·
Nice progress so far.
 
#13 ·
Im guessing the wastegate on the coldside does the same thing it does in a turbo application? That way you can pully the hell out the supercharger and just put the spring in there for the amount of boost you want to run?
 
#15 · (Edited)
Someone should make a combined unit that performs both blow off and wastegate functionality. That would be a seller. The problem with blow offs is that they are either completely open or closed. Of course a wastegate is way over built for that application and then you have the extra weight and complexity.

I actually got this idea from a Mercury racing motor in which they control boost through the computer (on a supercharged setup) and then learned that there were others doing this on mustangs with big blowers.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Nice setup! If you run into issues with where you mounted the coils, you can do what I did and mount them on the firewall. I have no issues clearing the stock hood and if you notice, I am also using billet spark plug rails to keep my wires away from my exhaust.

If you are looking for ideas on the stereo I made a modular one so that when I am at the track I can easily pull them out. This is to also stop the flamers from badgering me. I converted my single din to Double Din as well :)




 
#18 ·
No it's all good. I am not needing to be a thread virgin. If some haters pop on here (like they have in other threads where I have posted) I will let them know. Love the double din setup. Was it a real PITA? Do you happen to have a parts list of what all you needed?
 
#37 ·
wow that is a VERY nice fosgate setup...I love it...I'd love to have something like that in my 94 gt...that's bad ass...for now I'll stick with my 3 10 inch infinitys and cuspid 1600 watt ebay amp...doesn't sound terrible but could definately be upgraded majorly...it bumps but I wanna set off car alarms (wait...my exhaust already did that when the stereo wasn't even playing one time lol)
 
#19 ·
I purchased the Double Din bezel from LRS: http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/item/LRS-04338B/01-04-Mustang-A-C-And-Radio-Control-Bezel

Where the 3 holes are, you can get the filler plugs from LRS as well. I simply took my dremel to it and inserted my Moroso Switch Panel.

The only other modification I made was I cut off 2 small tab's on the center dash that prevented the center bezel from seating back. I then took a small steel plate that had lots of holes predrilled and used it as a template and spacer (the spacer was needed to drop the radio low enough to look like it belonged there) and I drilled the holes into the metal bar in the dash that goes across the middle. If you need a detailed pic of that I can try and take one tomorrow (it is late in germany). This looks really great and unique for our body styles.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I have a few updates.

I made a bracket to mount the fuse box to in the fender. Its 1/8" which is way thicker than it needs to be but it was all I had at the time.




I also after speaking with Keith offline realized that cutting the smog ear off would be a good idea on the P/S bracket. Surprisingly my plasma cutter made quick work of the bracket and then I cleaned it up witha flapdisk so I wont mess myself up on some aluminum shards.



I also got my dampner back from Limited Productions in Bellevue, WA. They not only machined me an adapter but they did it with one of their CNC milling machines. These guys do some serious work!




I also got my custom plug wires from Taylor. The specs that I used were 135 degree boots on both ends with Thundervolt 10.4 wire and 8.5" of wire between the boots with their "space age" heat boots. In total it was 150 including shipping and a pleasant 15 minute phone call to Taylor support. Not a bad deal! I also have installed some other things so I am coming along slowly but surely....
 
#24 ·
Well after I just installed the damper It looks like i have .085 to .090 of clearance. Everything I have read has said you need .040 -.060 clearance between the reluctor sensor and wheel. I may need to clearance the sensor mount a bit to reel that clearance in.



 
#27 ·
There is actually two bolts. After looking at the MS docs they are saying that theoptimal clearance for the vr to wheel is 1mm (.039) but 3-4 mm can be tolerated. Seeing that I am a hair over 2mm I may give it a shot and try it out.

On the fuel lines I have a -10 feed and a -6 return which I was told by Glenn from Glens performance would work good with my twin walbro 255lph pumps.
 
#26 ·
Looks good. I may steel the fuse box bracket idea.
 
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