Upgrades for Mustang, lessons learned on F-150

First up here is the changes to the Mustang:

• Pypes Cat back Violator Exhaust system installed (Oct 2011)
• Pypes X-pipe installed (Oct 2011)
• Projector One Piece Headlights installed (Apr 2012)
• Smoked Red LED Taillights installed (Apr 2012)

Comments on the first two upgrades, the Mustang sounds really mean now.  The bad thing was that it was a have to upgrade after I bought the car last year, since either the previous owner or the crap car dealer I bought it off of had a slapped together exhaust system on it.  Slapped together equals Flowmaster mufflers that looked like something from a small 4 cylinder car and a combination of pipes sort of welded together to make the whole thing sort of work.  The moment I became aware of this slop job exhaust was on a trip back from work for the week and the car keep getting louder and louder as I went, and the sound wasn't coming from the back of the car either.  After getting home with a massive headache from the sound I ordered the exhaust system & X-pipe, then when we went to install it we found that the car had lost the H-pipe they had tack welded into the car.

The next set of upgrades was the lights, first the headlights then the taillights a week later.   The headlights are a one piece design (originals are three pieces) with LED Halo Lights around the Projector lights.  The headlights seem kind of cheap in the way they are build, but that was not reflected in the price of them.  They didn't come with instructions, and the one's I found online that a guy had done were not the best.  So we got the side grinder out and cut out parts of the fiberglass headlight support to make the lights fit back in where they needed to be.  One of the cheap things about to lights was that the lens plastic doesn't seal to the backer plastic in places.  But that is what you get from stuff made in Taiwan, the temp fix is to add some RTV or silicone caulking around the joint.  I'll be adding in some more permanent fix for this over the winter, and might come up with a better Halo light for them as well depending on what I can fab up.

The taillights were a little easier then the headlights to install, but there was electrical issues to figure up with them all together.  The taillights bolt right into the same place as the original did, so that was easy enough as no mods there.  The electrical on the other hand gave us fits, as my and the friend Travis were not sure why they wouldn't work with turn signals turn on.  But the hazard lights would blink, brake lights worked and park lights would come on; but the one taillight would just stay on with the turns on, and the other had a very slow blink.  After we gave up on it for the time being, I looked at some forums for Mustangs and LED taillights.  I found some places that suggested the fix that I said would work and was shoot down on.  So the fix was to add LED load equalizers to the turn signals on the headlights, as there is three LEDs that we wired into the turns on the headlights.  I removed the headlights an installed the Load Equalizers between the wires, and the lights now work and flash the way and speed they are supposed to.  The Load Equalizers basically draw a little more power when the turns are on, as the LEDs by themselves don't pull enough power to trip the flasher tube.

Now for the lesson learned on the F-150:

If the brake pads you ordered have a three prong deal on the back of the pad that goes into the hole in the caliper piston to hold the pad in, check that the pad will fit into the holder on the vehicle before you try and modify the three prongs to work.  I cut the prongs off the pads, and tried them back in the rear disc brake calipers and found that it wouldn't fit over the rotor.  Then I took the pad and tried to install it on the holder to try and slip the caliper over it since I took off the prongs.  That is when I found the pad was to big to fit in the holder, but it was designed the same as the one I took off the truck.  So I'm going to see what I can do with the place I ordered them from on Monday, until then I went to the local parts store and bought a set of ok ceramic pads so I can use the truck.

So with the new Slotted & Drilled Rotors and EBC Yellow Stuff pads on the front, & plain Rotors and Ceramic pads on the back of the truck it will come to a stop very fast now.  Even for a big heavy truck it will emergency stop faster then normal cars around here, the Mustang might beat it by a few feet with it's current setup of disc on front and drum brakes on the back (but that is going to change).  The main thing is that when I have my enclosed trailer hooked to the back I don't have to worry about getting pushed down the road when I go to brake with it behind me.  Then next upgrade on the F-150 is a Pypes Cat back Violator system once it shows up (damn back order), since the previous Flowmaster exhaust Cat back system is almost rotted off the truck (only six years since I did that).  This time the Pypes system is all Stainless Steel, which is what I went with on the Mustang as well to go with the Stainless Steel headers on the Mustang.  I just want to to the fix one time and maybe not worry about for the time that I own the truck or car, if ever have to replace it.

That's all for now, Later.