No mistakes, just happy accidents

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Words cannot describe how excited I currently am. It finally works. Wheels don't wobble, transmission shifts as designed, and the chirping is gone.


Little things are left. I'm swapping back to my tan carpet, I need to assemble the passenger kick panel and computer area, extend the exhaust so the tips can be seen how I want, and it needs a polish.
 
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First real trip in about 4 years.

The tune is WAY off, the rear wheels are rubbing, the exhaust catches on the driveway, and the carpet is blocking the accelerator pedal.


But, she lives.
 
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Last run of the season certainly ended in a bang.

And I mean the the transmission. 2nd gear has been completely deleted.

No noises, no grinds, just an extra neutral.

Added to the list of accomplishments.

More stuff happened, and Ill get into that later. But I have killed an M5R2.
 
Welcome to the club, I've taken several out myself...it always seems to be second gear too...
 
Probably sheared off the dogs. I had to replace second gear (and the synchro and ring and fork) on my TR3650 as they were ground to nubs
 
I've seen gears broken in half, laying in the bottom. Either way, easy to fix.
 
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Trailer is finally solid again. All the rotted cross members have been replaced. Rewelded all other cross members as they were only tacked in place to begin with.

Next is replacing the the front axle, bearings, and fixing multiple wiring issues. Then putting all the deck plates back on.
 
Nice work Glad to see you're giving the axles and bearings some attention. Those and good tires are the most important parts of a trailer. So many trailer break downs that I see on the highway are tire and bearing related.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
Nice work Glad to see you're giving the axles and bearings some attention. Those and good tires are the most important parts of a trailer. So many trailer break downs that I see on the highway are tire and bearing related.
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That's what started this whole debacle. A blow out going to my last drift event. I ended up using the trucks spare as the bolt pattern is the same across them both (5x5.5).

My mom brought me a spare tire to change onto the trailer wheel because the truck wheel rubbed against the frame. she followed me on the way home. She later told me the trailer looked like it was "caving in". So I dug into it and found the rotted cross members, cracks in the frame, the front axle bent and cracked, and only one brake working (due to adjustment).

Idk how it lasted the summer. We all know these cars aren't light, and the trailer was barely holding itself together.
 
Posting here again.

Those who are familiar with my red car, Rowdy, know the cars paint is trash. IMG_20240315_080131515~2.jpg
And while I am not planning on stripping the car down and painting it (yet), I also don't want the thing to start looking like it's been abandoned.

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Spent the time and painted both upper quarter panels. Sanded down the rough spots, cleaned everything off with brake clean and blue rags, and sprayed some Rust-Oleum Sunrise red paint.

Upper fenders, front and rear bumper, flares, and roof were painted last year in the same manner. So I know it'll fade back out to match the car in about a month. And now I have at least another year of it not looking like total ass. IMG_20240317_083158338_HDR.jpg
The trunk and doors will get the same treatment at some point. But that'll wait until my next spurt of motivation.
 
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I have decided the route I'm taking with the trucks paint.

I'm going to attempt it myself. The idea of spending $4k (Maacos price) or more on something that will get beat up and scratched doesn't sit well with me.

Issue is I don't have the space to paint the beast in one shot. Doesn't fit in my garage, and even if it did I am not gonna tie it up for the weeks it'd take. So I'll be doing it panels at a time.

Would love to get some feed back from body guys. My biggest fear is not prepping the metal properly and it all flakes off in a year. I will be using stripper to remove all the dead paint. And hoping to get new front doors so I don't have to deal with rust. IMG_20240321_115203311.jpgIMG_20240321_115208316_HDR.jpgIMG_20240321_115214326_HDR.jpgIMG_20240321_115229959_HDR.jpgIMG_20240321_115224705_HDR.jpgIMG_20240321_115221607_HDR.jpg
 
Anywhere that the paint is checked like that has to get taken down to bare metal. Use a good quality high-build primer, sprayed from a gun. The cheap harbor freight spray guns are great for projects like this, and will give you a better result and save you money compared with doing everything with rattle cans. The key to getting the paint to stick is proper prep and keeping everything clean. Anything that can be taken off should be removed rather than taped up. Anything that is going to be primed should be finish sanded with 220grit sandpaper, then when the primer cures the final sanding before paint should be 400grit wet. Take your time and read all the instructions on all the paint materials, and follow them to the letter! This includes number of coats, time between coats, temperature recommendations, gun pressure, etc. It isn’t difficult to do, but it is very time consuming, and everyone has a tendency to get antsy and try to hurry things up, and that will ruin a paint job.
 
MadMikeyL said:
Anywhere that the paint is checked like that has to get taken down to bare metal. Use a good quality high-build primer, sprayed from a gun. The cheap harbor freight spray guns are great for projects like this, and will give you a better result and save you money compared with doing everything with rattle cans. The key to getting the paint to stick is proper prep and keeping everything clean. Anything that can be taken off should be removed rather than taped up. Anything that is going to be primed should be finish sanded with 220grit sandpaper, then when the primer cures the final sanding before paint should be 400grit wet. Take your time and read all the instructions on all the paint materials, and follow them to the letter! This includes number of coats, time between coats, temperature recommendations, gun pressure, etc. It isn’t difficult to do, but it is very time consuming, and everyone has a tendency to get antsy and try to hurry things up, and that will ruin a paint job.
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I am planning on stripping every panel down to bare metal as I do it. I will be using stripper since everything is metal.

Is there a specific primer you have in mind? Self etching? Normal automotive primer?


My plan was to rattle can it and use basic universal white so it's easier to touch up later. And to finish everything in those 2k clear cans you told me about.
 
I like the Omni high-build 2k primer. It is relatively cheap, but fills imperfections well and isn’t too hard to sand. If you are going to rattle can a whole truck, I would spray the whole thing with the rustoleum turbo can. The 2k clear rattle cans are good for wheels or mirrors or small things, but that is going to be a nightmare trying to get a nice smooth finish with those on big panels like your hood, doors, bedsides, etc. Again, Omni clear is a decent lower-priced clearcoat that is good for a budget job, and the $20 harbor freight spray gun is surprisingly good the first few times you use it. Those 2k clear rattle cans are like $20 each, and you would probably need 20 of them to get enough clearcoat on the whole truck, so you’ll be money ahead to just buy the $20 harbor freight gun, and $200 for a gallon of clear and hardener. One other thing, if you do go the rustoleum white route, rustoleum does not like to play well with other paints, so I would spray it with the rustoleum, and let that cure for like a month before sanding it down with some 1500 grit then clearcoating it. The cheap-o rattle can paints are much less finicky with being cleared over, but then that will be harder to get an even finish on the truck, and your fingers will be cramping like you wouldn’t believe trying to paint that whole truck with cheap rattle cans.
 
Any aversion to a wrap? Not sure what the cost of that is, but would think considerably less than paint. And if you can't find white doors it wouldn't matter.
 
This past weekend showed me I need to get more serious about cooling on the drift bird.

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Ended up over heating, and boiling over pretty bad. Car lost half a gallon. Also ruptured my power steering system, twice. Guessing from heat expansion.

I've already installed the radiator, which does cool down really quick (even in 100F° heat), but during a run it will gain 30-40° over what I start at.
I did not install a thermostat because the bolts were seized. I'm considering a 140° stat, or just a restrictor. Would like opinions on either or. I never believed in the "coolant is moving too fast" things but here I am.
Also getting a better expansion tank as the plastic one burst.

For the steering: New and larger cooler, lines, and an AN fitting conversion for the rack is coming in. Found out stock cooler lines are no longer made for SCs. So that's fun.

Also want to ditch, or ad to, my oil cooler.
It's the factory 96 Expo coolant fed cooler. When my car reached 250°, my oil pressure gauge was reading 1 psi at idle. I got lucky this time, I don't want to keep pushing it. Screenshot_20240625-224435.png
My current thought is to keep the current oil filter/cooler housing, while adding a sandwich plate like this.

I would like some thoughts on this from guys who have done endurance racing, like @MadMikeyL and @gunn, and anyone else with good knowledge of thermodynamics.
 
On my lemons car, I never had any engine overheating issues. We actually had the thicker rad as a spare with us at every race, but never installed it. We ran the stock rad from a 94-97 V6 bird, the stock 94-97 bird electric fan wired to high speed whenever the key was on, and a 180 degree thermostat. The car would get up to 220-230, but never went any higher. But then again, when you are moving at 120mph, there is a lot of air being forced across the rad. You are in an odd situation because you have just as much load on the engine as we did, but don’t have the airspeed to help with cooling.

As for what I think you should try, a good oil cooler like that will help. You might actually want to delete the Explorer oil cooler. The oil to water cooler is going to be putting all that heat into the coolant, and if you can delete that and instead have it’s own oil to air cooler, that will help. Some Explorer motors actually have an oil filter adapter that puts the filter in the same location, but doesn’t have the cooler. Don’t mount the oil cooler in front of the rad, mount it off to the side somewhere so it isn’t preheating the air going across the rad. If you haven’t already, make sure the fan is on high whenever the key is on or engine is running. We did that by taking the wire that triggers the fuel pump relay, and having it also trigger another relay for the fan. If you don’t have any thermostat in there, definitely install one, or at least a restrictor. Taking an old thermostat and just breaking the center out of it works fine and costs nothing but the gasket. My final thought, I don’t know if you have to run straight water or if you are allowed to run any coolant you want, but if you are allowed to run it, Evan’s waterless coolant is expensive, but good for about a 10 degree drop in coolant temps. I have a couple customers with C2 vettes (one small block, one big block), and both of them would always overheat on the highway. On the big block car we tried air dams, fan clutch, flex fan, electric fan, shrouds, foam between the shroud and the rad, nothing made any difference. We put the evans coolant in as a last ditch effort, and it has been fine for years now! When the small block car first came in for the same issue, I immediately went right to the evans coolant, and that car has also been fine now for several years.
 
The 99 forward Explorer 5.0s have the filter mount with no cooler.
 
MadMikeyL said:
On my lemons car, I never had any engine overheating issues. We actually had the thicker rad as a spare with us at every race, but never installed it. We ran the stock rad from a 94-97 V6 bird, the stock 94-97 bird electric fan wired to high speed whenever the key was on, and a 180 degree thermostat. The car would get up to 220-230, but never went any higher. But then again, when you are moving at 120mph, there is a lot of air being forced across the rad. You are in an odd situation because you have just as much load on the engine as we did, but don’t have the airspeed to help with cooling.

As for what I think you should try, a good oil cooler like that will help. You might actually want to delete the Explorer oil cooler. The oil to water cooler is going to be putting all that heat into the coolant, and if you can delete that and instead have it’s own oil to air cooler, that will help. Some Explorer motors actually have an oil filter adapter that puts the filter in the same location, but doesn’t have the cooler. Don’t mount the oil cooler in front of the rad, mount it off to the side somewhere so it isn’t preheating the air going across the rad. If you haven’t already, make sure the fan is on high whenever the key is on or engine is running. We did that by taking the wire that triggers the fuel pump relay, and having it also trigger another relay for the fan. If you don’t have any thermostat in there, definitely install one, or at least a restrictor. Taking an old thermostat and just breaking the center out of it works fine and costs nothing but the gasket. My final thought, I don’t know if you have to run straight water or if you are allowed to run any coolant you want, but if you are allowed to run it, Evan’s waterless coolant is expensive, but good for about a 10 degree drop in coolant temps. I have a couple customers with C2 vettes (one small block, one big block), and both of them would always overheat on the highway. On the big block car we tried air dams, fan clutch, flex fan, electric fan, shrouds, foam between the shroud and the rad, nothing made any difference. We put the evans coolant in as a last ditch effort, and it has been fine for years now! When the small block car first came in for the same issue, I immediately went right to the evans coolant, and that car has also been fine now for several years.
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I was going to place both the PS cooler and the Oil cooler in the front bumper air vents.
supergordo said:
The 99 forward Explorer 5.0s have the filter mount with no cooler.
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I have one. I'm just concerned the engine oil would get too hot if I don't use it.
 
Engine oil also extracts heat from the engine. I wouldn’t run it with no oil cooler, but if you have a good external cooler, that will take the load of cooling the oil out of the rad, helping to keep coolant temp down, and not having your oil cooled by overheating coolant will likely drop engine oil temps as well.
 
MadMikeyL said:
Engine oil also extracts heat from the engine. I wouldn’t run it with no oil cooler, but if you have a good external cooler, that will take the load of cooling the oil out of the rad, helping to keep coolant temp down, and not having your oil cooled by overheating coolant will likely drop engine oil temps as well.
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What size cooler would you recommend?
 
I'd get one with a built in fan due you usage with lower speed. Derale makes some nice ones. Order from somewhere what but this will get you part numbers.

Fluid Coolers

Fluid Coolers. Read more
derale.com derale.com
 
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