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tfrasca's 142 Turbo Project

Yeah, I think the new T5 will be really nice with my short final drive.

A couple weeks ago, I redid all the front suspension bushings and ball joints, then had it aligned. The shop didn't want to touch my 50 year old car but once they saw that it had all new hardware and no rust, they aligned it to stock specs without issue. I don't know much about that stuff, but at some point I'd like to see what a bit more caster does to the car's high speed stability. The steering gets pretty light at speed, but I think that's a function of not having an air dam, too.

I figured I'd share a picture of pressing the upper control arm bushings, because it's such a pain. On Hiperfauto's recommendation, I cut a piece of angle iron to span the inner distance of the control arm so it wouldn't deflect when pressing in the bushings. There's no other way to do this, and it works perfectly. Removing and pressing new bushings into the lower arms is easy to figure out.

While I had the control arms out, I welded gussets onto the sway bar endlink mounts, as they have been known to crack.
 

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As for the trans tunnel sound deadening, I think the Dynaliner works really well. I laid down some Noico 80mil (with the foil backing), then used the Dynaliner to cover that. I still need to figure out a solution for carpeting. i like the idea of using a one piece 240 carpet, but I'm sure the fit will be weird. I could also just have some black carpet sewn up to span the gap between my early 140 carpets. Not too concerned about that yet.

This transmission is still loud, but it sounds like most of the noise transfer is coming through the firewall. I put some Dynaliner there too, but it's hard to be thorough unless you pull the entire dash out. I may or may not ever do that.

Also, I got one of these late 140 center consoles to hold volt and oil pressure gauges. It's nice to have the information again.

As you can see, I bolted a stock 240 boot to the tunnel (bolts go through the Dynaliner for a good seal). The Hurst shifter is in exactly the right place, so I'll keep that on the new transmission.

Don't mind the dust; spent some time driving in the dirt last weekend.
 

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Tfrasca said:
Well, I could have saved myself a lot of time, but I guess that's how you learn. Everything looked great with the transmission, so I read up on people adding some Luca Oil Stabilizer to the ATF in their T5s. I put about .5 quart in, and I'd say the noise has been cut down by 50%. It's completely liveable.
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My buddy’s cobra trans sounds like it has no fluid in it has sense it was new...great build
 
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looks great! I noticed a very large difference at 70 mph with my 122 when running an air dam. Without it, it was very loose, and you could feel the front end lift if you pointed it into a headwind. With the dam on, its worlds different, still gets light, but no where near the extent.
 
cwdodson88 said:
looks great! I noticed a very large difference at 70 mph with my 122 when running an air dam. Without it, it was very loose, and you could feel the front end lift if you pointed it into a headwind. With the dam on, its worlds different, still gets light, but no where near the extent.
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Good to hear. I was talking to a 60's Mustang driver who had the same experience when he put a pretty small lip on his car. It would be nice if it felt more planted.
 
Tfrasca said:
Good to hear. I was talking to a 60's Mustang driver who had the same experience when he put a pretty small lip on his car. It would be nice if it felt more planted.
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Even the small factory front spoiler on my 68 Z/28 made a very noticeable difference.
I was surprised.
 
I think Fredrik Hilman has a mold for the 140 airdams, might hit him up.

When I put the airdam on mine (one of the IPD ones from way back), it made a BIG difference in stability from about 50mph on up. It still gets a little light at speed like everything, but the difference between stock and with the airdam, it's WAY more stable, definitely pulls down a good bit now.

I forget if you tried a yoke with the balancer, but that might help even with the new trans.
 
gsellstr said:
I think Fredrik Hilman has a mold for the 140 airdams, might hit him up.

When I put the airdam on mine (one of the IPD ones from way back), it made a BIG difference in stability from about 50mph on up. It still gets a little light at speed like everything, but the difference between stock and with the airdam, it's WAY more stable, definitely pulls down a good bit now.

I forget if you tried a yoke with the balancer, but that might help even with the new trans.
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Is Fredrik on Tbricks? I've never met him. I heard back from that Swedish company. It would cost $260 to get that airdam shipped to California. Not outrageous, but enough that I'll want to think about it for a bit. I definitely need to get something on there before the next big roadtrip.

As for the damped slip yoke... I wanted to try something like that but the driveline guy at the shop said he hates dampers and didn't stock anything. I should have insisted, but I was on a tight time line. My vibrations seem more RPM/ger selection based than wheel speed based. I took that to mean it was happening within the gear box and not the driveline. Though I guess the damped yoke would effectively damp gear lash too. I'll look into that.
 
Tfrasca said:
Is Fredrik on Tbricks? I've never met him. I heard back from that Swedish company. It would cost $260 to get that airdam shipped to California. Not outrageous, but enough that I'll want to think about it for a bit. I definitely need to get something on there before the next big roadtrip.

As for the damped slip yoke... I wanted to try something like that but the driveline guy at the shop said he hates dampers and didn't stock anything. I should have insisted, but I was on a tight time line. My vibrations seem more RPM/ger selection based than wheel speed based. I took that to mean it was happening within the gear box and not the driveline. Though I guess the damped yoke would effectively damp gear lash too. I'll look into that.
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I hate to say this but you are probably on point with it being in the gear box. Did you set the input shaft preload properly?
 
cosbySweater said:
I hate to say this but you are probably on point with it being in the gear box. Did you set the input shaft preload properly?
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Yeah the noise and vibes are in the box itself. Just drove it again and it's for sure RPM/gear dependent. I got the trans "rebuilt" and with the Deeworks bearing retainer already installed. I didn't check preload. There was no side to side play in the input shaft, if that means anything.

Honestly I'm going to just buy a new T5z with better ratios and call it good. And of course I'll set the preload on the new trans when I swap the retainer over. If I still have vibes with the new trans I'll what kind of damped yoke I can fit in there.

The driveline shop set me up with the "smallest" T5 yoke they make, but I don't remember what size u-joint it takes. I guess that will determine which damper I can use.
 
So...my 140 has an RPM specific vibration as well, not vehicle speed dependent. Input is preloaded at .006", counter at the same. Swapping in the balancer yoke changed the dynamics of the vibration a LOT, reduced the severity and rpm range of it by a pretty good margin. Makes no sense, but it helped. On decel it would start at any rpm over 3k, any gear, and shut off hard at 2700rpm. With the balancer it is gone if you decel over 4k, still there from 4k down to 2700 but about half the severity.

Yeah, Fredrik is on here from time to time and on the TB FB group (Fredrik Hillman).
 
gsellstr said:
So...my 140 has an RPM specific vibration as well, not vehicle speed dependent. Input is preloaded at .006", counter at the same. Swapping in the balancer yoke changed the dynamics of the vibration a LOT, reduced the severity and rpm range of it by a pretty good margin. Makes no sense, but it helped. On decel it would start at any rpm over 3k, any gear, and shut off hard at 2700rpm. With the balancer it is gone if you decel over 4k, still there from 4k down to 2700 but about half the severity.

Yeah, Fredrik is on here from time to time and on the TB FB group (Fredrik Hillman).
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I really should have just picked up one of those huge T-bird dampers and insisted that the shop use it. Did you just find a damped yoke that used the same u-joint and swap it yourself? No concerns about balancing the whole thing?
 
There's a few things to look for, but yeah, it's pretty easy to swap. Make sure you have a 1.5" OD on the yoke, insertion length should be around 4.5-5", 28 splines, and a 3" shaft, not a 3.5", so it'll run a 1310 instead of a 1330.

Only concern for you might be tunnel clearance on the earlier tunnel, unless you've already addressed that issue.

BTW, talked to Fredrik today. He has a 140 airdam he plans to make a mold from and be able to make them after that. Probably be a little bit until he gets to that point, not sure what your timeframe is. If it's before Davis, I don't think he will have time to get to it since he's got a couple projects in the works right now.
 
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