New: Kenny Brown Front Sway Bar (Firm) purchased!

NEW: Pics of the Kenny Brown Matrix installation on Page 2!

NEW: Casting Video for Bullrun!

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Change in strategy on intake side + Brake Package chosen - Mach 1 & Brembo rotors in front on by the end of the month! Page 6.

Preview from VAP:

Ditch Divin' Deputies, Freaky Dangerous Thunderstorms, and Civilians placed in Mortal Danger! p. 19.

The Kansas Coyote & Hildalgo move to Washington, D.C. p. 20

Update! "I fought the Law, and I won," or "How it feels to be Staring down the barrel of every gun in the Manhattan, KS Police Department" p. 17.

Update! Misconceptions and errors with regards to head gaskets. Plus a reminder to take care when handling head gaskets from JDM cars p. 16

Hildalgo

Named the project Hildalgo -after the Mustang that no one gave a chance when racing Arabian Thoroughbreds in the sands of North Africa.

Now, I ain't one to brag, but I covered San Diego to Topeka in 21 hrs, and run from Omaha to Chadron regularly. I frequently run at 85mph and make it to and from Ogallala on one tank of gas. The car handles the two lanes in the Sand Hills with ease and used to run the Hogback Mountain Road in Arkansas on a regular basis without breaking a sweat, while following the kings of the sport car set. -Not to mention the dirt mountain roads in NW Arkansas and NE Oklahoma when I lived down there. I've put 166,000 miles on the car, and it's done all I've asked it to do so far.

I reckon there isn't going to be much harder running than Deserts, Mountains and Plains in Bull Run.

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Here's my motivation:

Thanks to my son's ex-stepfather for the recent pics!

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I bought this car new in 2003 for $13000 after rebates and some minor transportation damage that I fixed within a couple of weeks. For the money I saved in over a Mustang GT in upfront costs, interest on the difference ($12000), insurance costs, gasoline and maintenance, I could have gotten two of them. The difference was 1 second to 60mph, and 1 second in the quarter mile.

I figured I could make up that difference with little trouble, and with the savings, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted.

So the goals for the car were to maximize effiencies, build a foundation for power, and after the 200,000 mile duty rating was done, and the car paid off -rebuild the engine for power. I put together a 1968 Mustang in the 90s, and the power wasn't far off that car when I started. (the 1968 390GT was slower than the 1999+ mustang V6s).

Given the strength of the redesigned and strengthened block in 2001, making 400 horsepower would be an easy goal, but since I bought the car, others have been making 600hp+. There are now Mustang V6s doing the 1/4 mile in 9 seconds.

I started building cars in the 90s. Back then, the Chevy Monkeys were claiming "No Replacement for Displacement, and all that crap. I built my 1968 Mustang to prove them wrong. The replacement for displacement is intelligent engineering. My 1968 had a 302, but from the factory it only weighed 2753 lbs. I lightened the car to 2400 lbs, and built a bulletproof street engine putting out 325 hp. I was only beaten by Hot Rod feature cars back then (a Nova by the name of Black Magic, and a Pontiac LeMans(?) 'Vert called Jus4play).

Here's the last remaining photo of my 1968 Mustang -the rest were stolen, and my old 1968 Cougar XR7 390, which I had to sell once gas hit $2.00/Gal back in 1999. Sold the Cougar and picked up a white 1998 3.8L.

The Honda Head pioneers will tell you they were inspired by the 5.0L crowd beating the crap out of the 5.7Ls.

The difference between the 302(4.9L) and the 350(5.7L) was 0.8L. It really makes me sick to hear the same crap coming from Mustang GT owners. Guess what the difference is between the 3.8L and the 4.6L?

Yep, 0.8L.

So this is going to be fun, I love teaching lessons in building.

The first thing to do is shore up the chassis. The car only weighs 3,150 lbs, with power everything. It was designed in 1979, when light weight was needed for fuel economy. Back then the 302 only made 139 hp, and structural reinforcements weren't really needed. Ford had planned on using either a 2.3L turbo or the 3.8L as the engines of the future. The 302 was never thought to survive the next few years

-Boy were they wrong the 5.0L was in production for another 15 years before the 4.6L became the standard v8.

CONTENTS

P.2 Putting the Power to the Pavement
P.3 Engine Specs & Development Strategy
P.4 Appearance (look good while avoiding 'ole Smokey)
P.5 I.C.E. -lightweight sounds.
P.6 Up & Coming Attractions
P.7 Kill(ed By) List
P.8 Tips to win -Lessons I've had to give repeatedly to Giantkillers (in progress)
P.9 Tales From My Misspent Youth
P.10 More Tales
p.11 More Tales
p.12 The coyote almost gets caught.
p.13 Lament for the winged ponycar.
p.14 Coyote gets caught!
p.15 Beginning of the end for the 1968 Mustang.
p.16 Head Gaskets, design, law, and danger
p.17 I fought the law (unknowingly) -and I won.
p.18 Not finished
p.19 Ditch Divin' Deputies, Freaky Dangerous T-Storms, and Civilians placed in Mortal Danger