March 4, 2006 - Clutch Removal, Intake
Install, and Part 1 of Tackling the Rear Suspension (1)
After a one weekend hiatus we were back at it. With two
glaring mistakes behind us we were ready to make some progress on
other areas of the car. On Saturday March 4th, we were
dead-set on getting the IMRC deletes installed and working on the
rear suspension.
Earlier I mentioned that Dad removed the IMRCs from the car.
One of the easiest ways to delete them is to just use some epoxy to
fill in the holes left after the butterflies are removed. At
some point in late February he completed the deletes so we figured
we would install them today. For those that don't know, the IMRCs
(or intake manifold runner controls) block half of the intake ports
at low rpm to increase port velocity. They are computer
controlled and open at 3200 rpms to allow flow into all 16 intake
ports. Over time they get gunked up and sometimes they even
stop working. We decided that the car would be making enough
power in the lower rpm band and therefore we wouldn't need the
increased air velocity created by blocking half of the intake ports.
I've read mixed reviews on tuning high hp cars with IMRC deletes,
but I'll tackle that challenge later (hopefully it's a non-issue).
The first thing I noticed when I walked in on Saturday morning was
the gaping hole on top of the engine, I thought it need to be
filled, so I started bolting things up. Here's a picture of
the intake-less DOHC 4.6 engine with the IMRC gaskets laid in place.
Below that is a picture after the IMRC deletes had been
installed, again the "deletes" aren't anything more than the stock
pieces with the butterflies removed and a few holes filled (the
holes that get filled are not intake port holes they are
miscellaneous holes left from the butterfly removal).
We bought all new gaskets for the intake but we forgot to grab the
intake cover gasket so we just set the intake cover on top for now.
Here's a picture of the intake installed and cleaned up a bit - you
should have seen it before it was cleaned.
At this point the intake was in place and the 60 lb/hr injectors were
pushed into their holes. I would have installed the new fuel
rails, but I bought the wrong ones. For some reason I had a
brain fart when I ordered them and accidentally ordered the 4.6 2V
rails. I've since returned them and got the right ones, but on
March 4th we had to leave the rails off. I've got to say that
ordering rails for these cars is a pain. Well, let me rephrase
that, ordering non-descript rails is a pain. I found plenty of
blue, red, and even purple rails, but I wanted something that didn't
hit you over the face when you opened the hood. I didn't find
any though. However, I did do some research and found that
several people who wanted to keep the sleeper appearance in their
engine bays painted the rails a different color. I thought I
would do the same thing so I ordered some red Aeromotive fuel rails.
On Friday, March 3, 2006 I drove down to Summit Racing and picked up
the new clutch disc, pressure plate, and flywheel. I decided
to upgrade to an 11" setup because it would provide more clamping
force and with the power I'm planning on making I'll need it.
Here's a picture of the stuff lying on my living room floor.
The fuel rails in the picture above are the wrong ones.
The clutch disc is the light metal disc, LM281226. I wanted
the 6 puc DFX clutch part #23281226, but Centerforce's product
information on their website was confusing, Summit didn't have any
pictures with these products, and when I searched for 281226 on
Summit's website it gave me LM281226. I didn't even notice the difference in part numbers so I ordered the wrong clutch
disc too. It's ok though I think this disc will be fine.
A certain, retired, 400+ rwhp NMRA Pure Street 4V 4.6 used the LMC
series clutch with much praise, so I think I'll be fine for my stage
1 power levels. When I up the power I'm going to be switching to a t-56 which has
a 26 spline input shaft so I'll have to change the disc then anyway
which gives me the perfect excuse to get the DFX disc. The stock t-45
input shaft is a 10 spline input shaft, so I bought the light metal
disc for 10 spline input shafts. I learned a lot about clutches when I did my research.
Originally the guys at Centerforce recommended a $900+ pressure
plate, I can't remember the part number off the top of my head, but
there was no way in hell I was paying that much for a pressure
plate. It took some digging but I found that other high hp
stang owners, mostly 03/04 Cobra guys, were using the Centerforce
discs with the Centerforce II pressure plate part # CFT360075 (which
is confusing as hell because the Centerforce I pressure plate is
part # CF360075) simply omitting the 'T' will get you the wrong
part.
