Zippy's 98

Starting up another build thread on my car

My 1998 Mustang GT DECH in Bright Atlantic Blue

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Current Mods:

Drivetrain
Aluminum block 2V
Coil on Plug conversion
Steeda Underdrive Pulley's
BBK Cold Air Intake
BBK Throttle Body
Accufab Upper Plem
03/04 Cobra MAF
BBK LongTube Headers into a X pipe w/ Gesi Cats
Flowmaster Catback
3.73gears
Aluminium Driveshaft
Pro 5.0 Shifter
Centerforce Clutch
Canton Rad Tank
Lanier Metals Rad Cover
Made 283/318 on 91

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Suspension
MM K Member + Rack Bushings
MM A-Arms
MM Steering Shaft
MM Coil Over Kits Front & Rear
Koni Double Adjustable Struts & Shocks
MM Extreme Duty Rear Lower Control Arms
Steeda Billet Sway Bar Mounts
Prothane End Links
MM Bump Steer Kit
MM Caster Camber Plates
MM Rear Bump Stop Rubber
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Brakes
Front: ATS 4piston Brembo w/ EBC Reds & SS Lines
Rear: 03/04 Cobra w/ EBC Reds & SS lines
Track Pads: GLock 16/10 compound w/ Plain Brembo Rotors
ATE Brake Fluid

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Wheels & Tires
Street: 03/04 Cobra Chrome 17x9 & 17x10.5 wrapped in Mickey Thompson Super Street 275/40 & 315/35
Track: Cobra R 17x9 with Nankang AR1's 255/40/17 Squared

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Other Mods
Corbeau Racing Seats
Rear Seat Delete
Upgraded Spare Tire Set
Saleen Wing
Sparco Fixed back with removable halo seat for the track
Cobra Hood
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History

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It's an interesting story on how I got ownership of this car. My dad's friend John bought this off of a friend of his in the early 2000s. John then had the car up to 2019 where he sold it to me.
In those years, John use to take the car to open lapping days as well as Time Attack events in parking lots. My dad met John through the old mustang club and started working on the car here and there.
John invited my dad and I to one of these events and this car was actually the first car I was ever in doing time attack in. I was pretty young back then, and all I remember was this oversized helmet on my head, my head flinging back and forth as we went through the cones. It's pretty cool to now own that same car.

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In 2006/2007 John and my dad found killer deals on take out Ford Explorer motors from the states. These were the all Aluminum motors, one was brand new, the other had 2k miles on it. The 2k miles motor is in this car, the other went into my dad's 00GT.
During the motor swap, my dad did a coil on plug conversion to get rid of the ugly coil packs that are prone to screwing up. Engine bay looks way better now.
This swap happened in the late fall and the car went into storage. The plan was to get it out early in the spring and finish it up, that never happened. John lost interest and priorities in his life changed and the car sat. Being the car guy John was, he drove it at least once a year and changed the oil&filter then tucked it back into the garage.

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In November 2019, I made a deal with John to take the car off of his hands. Man, it was a long winter waiting to pick it up.
Finally spring time came around and I was able to go pick it up. Best day ever.
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DECH #2097
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Derek Hanson started DECH in 1985 looking to build parts for mustangs for the racing enthusiasts. DECH was one of the first companies to provide aftermarket components for mustangs in Canada and eventually North America. This car is #2097 of the cars built with DECH parts. This car was sold from the dealership as a DECH car. Way back in 1998 the car was sold new for $42,562.

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This car was not equipped with all the goodies DECH had to offer, but it certainly was ahead of it's time.
It came equiped with...
17x9 Cobra Wheels on BFG Comp TA Tires
Front & Rear Springs
Underdrive pulleys
K&N Filter
Borla Side Exhaust with SVO Side Skirts
Front air damn splitter (AD-1)
DECH Specific Rear Wing (AFD-IV)
Two Plaque's, one on the dash, one of a keytag
Windshield Banner with Front Fender Decals saying "DECH"
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The car to this day still has all the special DECH items, either on the car, or in boxes stored away.
The previous owners bought extra Front Air Dam Splitters as well as a extra AFD-IV Rear Wing.
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The Plan

My plan for this car was to turn it back into a track monster. I want to be able to drive this car anywhere but still be able to go to the track and turn some good laps. Want to be able to be consistent, make it reliable and fun to drive.
Let's see what I started out with...
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As said before, this car had sat for nearly 15years. It needed a lot of updating/replacing/redoing.
The car had a Procharger on it and I had to make the decision on what to do there.
I decided that a road course car would be a lot more fun NA then it would be supercharged. With the heat of a supercharger & the weight, I decided to strip it off the motor and sell it. The intercooler for the supercharger also made it so you couldn't run A/C as it was in the way of the condenser. Luckily, the previous owner kept all of the old AC bits and I was able to just buy a few hoses and O-rings and reinstall it pretty easily.
No AC = no fun.

Besides the supercharger, some major things I changed on the car was...
- Moved the battery back from the trunk to the front where it belongs
- Removed and sold all gauges from the interior (shift light, boost gauge, A/F Gauge)
- Removed and sold 5link system from rear of the car and will replace with pan-hard
- Removed and kept side exhaust system and replaced with Flowmaster
- Removed and sold Sparco fixed back seats, replaced with Corbeau
- Reinstalled A/C system, was taken out for the Procharger
- Removed Factory oil "cooler" (the pre heater)
- Replaced Oil Pan due to the other one having to be drilled for the Procharger
- Replaced aftermarket headlights for the originals
- Removed welded in driveshaft loop
- Replaced Axles due to wear
- Replaced ALL fluids
- Replaced Cobra R wheels/tires with 03/04 Wheels: Kept Cobra R wheels for storage/track wheels
- Replaced shifter boot, torn

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I can't believe how many parts I've bought for this car since I've owned it... I also can't believe how much selling online through Facebook & Kijiji I've done. I've been pretty thankful for being able to sell off as much as I have. That has allowed me to buy other parts that I needed to get the car on the road.

Mr. Clean

If you know who I am at all, you know that I'm a pretty big clean freak... especially when it comes to cars. Before I even started ripping it apart for all the upgrades/changes... I started cleaning it.
The underside of the car was not good. It wasn't undercoated, it just was dirty.
Everynight once the weather started to get decent, I was outside with a bucket of soapy water, a toothbrush and something to lay on, cleaning the underside of the car. If we didn't have a car in the shop overnight, I would sneak it onto the hoist and do the spots I couldn't reach on jack stands.
Here are some before and after photo's. My OCD is much happier :clap2::clap2::clap2:

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Some random photo's from when the suspension was installed....

K member dropped & New Oil Pan

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New MM K member

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MM A arms installed w/ steering shaft, koni DA Struts, Coil overs & Bumpsteer kit

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Hubs modded and painted waiting new big brakes.

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Caddy Brakes mounted and bled

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Rear Suspension & Brake pics

Ford Racing Rear Brake kit (Cobra)
New everything including 28spline axles
EBC Red Pads w/ SS lines
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MM Extreme Duty LCA's. All new hardware

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Koni DA Shocks w/ Coil overs
Rear Diff Fluid done.
Diff cover painted up along with Upper Control arms aswell as stock sway bar
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New Flowmaster Exhaust with new to me rims& Tires
315s!
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Dialing it in

Getting that road race track alignment.
Still need to dial it in some more with how low I want the car to be.
Shout out to ZR on the alignment and getting it absolutely perfect.
Still need to setup the bump steer... hopefully this spring.
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Strapped Down

Well after all the suspension mods were done.... it was time for some horsepower.
Since the car had a supercharger on it, a lot of things needed to be changed over and done to the motor to get it back to stock form.
New Belt, relocated the battery from the trunk to under the hood, reinstalled the AC.
Did fresh plugs, new to me Cold Air intake, new to me BBK Catted front pipe w/ a Flowmaster Cat back.
Bought a brand new set of Steeda underdrive pulley's to go along with the BBK Throttle body.
The car made a surprising number of 263/303 at the tire on 91.
Tuned by DCT, he whipped up two tunes for me, a street tune with some extra timing, and a track tune. Want to be able to hold my right foot down on the floor all day long without worrying about it at all.
Going to be adding a Upper Plem and a new JLT Cold Air to it this season. Will also be tuning it for 94 to see if we can't get some more ponies out of this little 2v.
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Video of one of the dyno pulls. She sounds sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBBha_3BrwE

First Track Day
Well... after all this work to bring the car back to life... it was finally that time to take it to the track to see how it does!
A huge thanks to ZR for the long hours of sorting through this car. I think we had 75% of the car apart to get it to this point. Long nights of wrenching and working weekends to get this ready to go for track day.
Covid made things really difficult with getting parts in a timely manner... or even just getting the parts.
Really thankful to all the sponsors of TMC and all the people that had a hand in helping me get this car back on the road.
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I have done a lot of laps in the passenger seat at TMP... but only a handful behind the wheel. It certainly is a totally unique experience driving your own car at the track for the first time. Anxiety was through the roof!
Started off in the rookie group in the morning to make sure the car was good ... and most importantly the driver was good! I was thankful to have John, the previous owner of the car, able to come out to the event and ride shot gun. He was a HUGE help in showing me where I need to put the car. I picked up on it quickly and jumped into the intermediate group in the afternoon.
I have a pretty good understanding of what to do behind the wheel, just need more laps to put it all together consistently. More track days are ahead for the DECH... that's for sure.
Here are some pics of it rounding the final corner.
Also a pic of John & I. (Me Left / John Right)

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Troubles in DECH land

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It wasn't always flowers and sunshine working on this car up to this point. Had some major hurdles to get over.
On one of the first test drives, there was a wicked noise coming from the middle/rear of the car... Turns out whoever welded in the driveshaft loop... didn't center it. Every hard right hand corner the rear end would move over just enough to make it so the weight on the driveshaft would touch it. It sounded really really bad.
Cut it out and sound gone!

Another teething problem we had with the car was it popping out of 4th gear. John, the previous owner, mentioned it to me prior to me buying the car. It never ever did it on the street... however, on the first track day, it did it a handful of times.
As I was buying parts to fix the trans, which cost an arm and a leg btw! I was able to find a spare T-45 from a reliable source. Going to hold onto both T-45's while I own the car as it's getting harder and harder to find good transmissions.

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The last major hurdle we had was inside the diff. When doing the Cobra Brake upgrade on the back, we found that the rear axles were smoked. Also found a couple of bad bearings inside the diff.
Replaced axle bearings w/ seals & bearings inside the diff. Raided the stock pile of parts we had kicking around to get me back on my feet. Shout out to Da'silva's for rushing me axles.
Doctor ZR had me fixed up in no time.
Next Diff upgrade will be a T2R diff and 31spline axles. (maybe next year)

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New Wheels

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The DECH is getting some new street wheels this summer. Wanted to change it up. I was up for tires on my old Cobra Rims, so I figure this is the time to change up the rims.
Found this set of Enkei GTC02 rims for sale... was going back and forth with the seller on price for a week and a half. Finally pulled the trigger this afternoon and picked them up.
They are pretty much brand new, had tires on them and taken off. Never driven on.
Hoping they look good *crosses fingers and toes*
For people wondering they are a 18x9 square.
Going to buy a square tire setup for it so I can rotate them front to back for longer life. My aggressive camber will not be kind to front tires :)

Couldn't find a picture of these on a mustang... but to give you an idea of what they will look like...

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New track rubber ordered!
Shout out to Fast Ed for making it painless once again on buying stuff.

Went with the 255/40/17 Nankang Ar1's for this season.

Should fit really well on my 17x9 Cobra R wheels.
Should be no BS on fender clearance /strut clearance. SUPER EXCITEDDDDDD!!!

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Spare Tire Solution
Well it came to my attention last summer... how in the world am I suppose to put a spare tire onto the front of my car if I got a flat?
With the new brake setup, my old spare wasn't even close to fitting, the 17inch cobra rims barely clear it as is.
At the time, I wouldn't be able to put a rear on the front, then the spare on the back, as I was running a 10.5 on the rear.
The idea came to put on a S550 spare on the front.
Was able to purchase one for a great price and did some mock up.
Was able to make it work with a small spacer on the front. Looks pretty good for a spare too!
It fits perfectly in the rear where the spare goes.
Great peace of mind that if something happened... I'm not stuck waiting for a tow truck.

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Can't wait to get the car out of storage... won't be long now...
Major upgrades coming in the spring!

Bought some aftermarket lug nuts to better suit the new wheels.
SALT GO AWAY ALREADY!

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Messing around with my new to me race seat. Looked for along time for a halo style seat. Found one on an insane deal.
Can't wait to mount it in the car. This will be only used on track days as I don't think it'll be that comfortable on the street.
I really like the fact that the halo's unbolt from the seat so that it is safe to drive on the street.
Purchased new side mounts for it as well as a new seat base for it.
Will have to monkey around with it to figure out where I want it in the car.

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New track day tires arrived yesterday. Shout out again to Fast Ed for looking after me.
Excited to mount them onto my Cobra R rims and get them onto the car! :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

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Nice purchase Zip.

Picked up a few go fast parts over the winter for the car.
JLT Cold air intake. My plan is to have it hydrodipped before installing. Really like the look of carbon fibre.

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Picked up this really cool and unique shifter. Hope it works as good as it looks.
Made by Agent 47.
Had the shift ball custom made. White shift knobs are my favourite and having the ford racing on the side should look really cool in the car.
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Got a call from the storage place this afternoon! Looking like this weekend hopefully to pick up my car!
:highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive:

Finally got my car home over the weekend. Havn't had the chance to drive it yet. Time to spend everyday after work working on it :mechanic:

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Well Team DECH won't be driven a freaking mile with this lockdown...........................
I guess this is the best time to pull the motor.
:highfive:
.... stay tuned.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zippy

Well Team DECH won't be driven a freaking mile with this lockdown...........................
I guess this is the best time to pull the motor.
:highfive:
.... stay tuned.

---

[emoji848][emoji848]
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bca05a099f.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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The DECH is going under the knife really soon.
Thinking about trying this for a motor removal. I think it'll save some time on the uninstall portion of the job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBVmXukx_Gk

Love it.

A proper update to my thread and what is going on with the DECH.
Ever since I've bought the car, on a cold cold start (if I havn't started it in acouple of weeks) it makes a pretty good noise under the hood. Sounds like the chains are slapping the front cover.
ZR and I have narrowed it down to it probably being the Primary tensioners losing prime. The ladder of it is most likely broken or just aged from sitting.
The car sat for years at a time without being started, not ideal.
Anyways, I havn't started it since I've picked it up from storage as the likely hood of it jumping the timing chain is pretty real.

The parts from MMR finally hit my doorstep today...
I went ahead and bought the upgraded Iron ones. My year motor most likely has the plastic tensioners.
It'll be a lot of work to change them... but rather be safe then sorry.
Motor's are way too expensive these days to risk it.
Hopefully in the next 1-3weeks we can get to it. Roads are a mess right now anyways and the track isn't even open.

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Have some visual upgrades and some performance upgrades that I'll be doing at the same time.
Planning to have the Valve covers & Cold Air Hydrodipped at the same time.
Also have the MM Strut Tower Brace to go on aswell as a new Upper Plem from Accufab to install.
Here's of what I'm hoping the Valve covers will look like. Carbon Fibre :drool:

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Took my car out for a drive the other night.
I know I know... I shouldn't be driving it... but I couldn't resist...

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Finally got around to mounting my nankang's to the cobra r rims. They look fantastic! Hope they work as good as they look!
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Also... found a great deal on side skirts for my car last week. Someone was parting out a BAB 98 cobra and I scooped up the side skirts!
In pretty decent shape. Just going to clean them up and slap them on for now!

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I think I'm addicted to buying parts... or maybe just to finding a killer deal on stuff...
Found a off road X pipe for sale on Facebook and scooped it up tonight! Was only a 20minute drive!
Going to give it the Zippy clean up with some high heat paint!

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Also pulled the trigger and ordered a set of BBK Long tube headers (ceramic) w/ the proper 02 extensions.
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... I know what you're thinking "an off road pipe?!?!?!?"
Hold your horses ... going to be buying a set of one of the best Cats you can put on your car. Gesi.
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The plan is to do the exhaust system once in the DECH.
Since the panhard is going in as well as the Torque Arm... exhaust work will be needed no matter what... might as well do it all in one shot.
Hoping it will sound badass with the flowmaster catback *crosses fingers*

Update time
Finally found a set of valve covers with the correct number of bolts and correct placement for the oil fill. Damn you ford and you're million variations of 2v stuff!
Anyways... found a guy in Bolton that does hydrodipping. Dropped off the two valve covers and my JLT cold air for him to do in Carbon Fibre.
I hope it comes out good...
*crosses fingres*
Just waiting on some other small parts that I forgot to order for the header install... and I should have everything by early next week.
Hope to sneak it into a hole during the week and get the DECH back on the road and onto the track!
#Sendit

Who is the guy in Bolton that does the hydro dipping?

Very pleased with how my valve covers and JLT came out
They aren't perfect but I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg having them done perfect.
Probably going to have some other bits and pieces done as well...
Check it out!
:highfive:

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Look sick in person, well done.

They look great. A nice little modern touch without being too in your face.