AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

Thanks for the leads on the 8.8" parts, barrok69. Do you by chance know what thread size the fill and drain ports are? I have one of the old GMPP diff cooler setups that I've never installed, and I just want to be sure those ports wouldn't be too much of a restriction.

Edit: When you cut the rear mount off the LPW cover, did you just cut it all the way down to that lip at the base of the mount?
Edit2: Just looking at different cover options, one difference I see with the non-IRS ones is that they don't have a location for a vent (since there's a vent on the one or both of the axle tubes). Not a huge deal to overcome, but something to be aware of. The Ford Racing cover is $40 more (@ Summit) than the LPW one, and it looks to me like there would be more grinding required on the cover to make it work (if it was possible at all). The LPW one seems to be a great find.

barrok69

I should have measured the drain plugs while it was sitting in my basement for all those months! I'm not sure on the size. I can call them tomorrow and ask though. Worst case you can drill them out bigger if you needed and just NPT tap them.

I machined down to their initial machine marks at the boss. This was a good guess and left about 10mm of clearance between the cover and rear crossmember of the cradle at that location. When i was locating the diff it looked like it was going to be closer, so i did a quick pass with the grinder and took it down another 5mm off the top part of the mount boss to make it flush with the cover in that area. It wasn't completely necessary, but helped maneuver it a bit while I was installing.

I used the mini mesh breather that the cover came with. It also came with a brass barb fitting, but it was too large to clear the CS diff bracket, and i didn't want to have a hose dangling with a check valve on the end under the car. I'm never going to submerge this car anyways.

I originally looked at the Ford Racing cover as my first choice due to its overall design and "OEM solution", but the shape of it simply required way too much modifications, and would have had to modify the CS bracket, which I didn't not want to do. At the end of the day I didn't want a "FORD" logo visible from the back of the car

I forgot to mention the DSS 1000hp axles are HUGE and weigh a ton compared to stock or Gforce stuff which is fine. I had to "massage" the axle window across from where the inner control arm bolt head is on the cradle a couple mm's to clear the driver-side inner CV to be able to install it.

AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

Thanks for the details!

barrok69

The 3 hole style LPW racing cover like I got was just introduced in January 2015. The previous version had just 2 holes fyi (fill and drain).

Anwyays... the newer style 3 hole cover is 3/8" NPT on each plug. There is enough room and meat on the boss to drill them out to 1/2" NPT without issue. I got this information from calling LPWracing directly.

NIKDSC5

iTrader: (10)

I guess I never thought of that being an issue. At any rate I ran a breather tube from the diff up along the spare tire well towards the back. Used an NPT elbow and brass pipe to do so. Reason being is at an HDPE event with 90 ambient and 5 laps into each heat the gear oil would get hot enough that going around hard lefts fluid would come out and land on the exhaust pipe. Causing me to get black flagged every heat due to smoke, which got most annoying. And embarrassing since everyone thought I blew my motor.

That was with the breather that came with the CS kit, or maybe I ordered it form summit. Can't remember, but it was just a breather cap basically.

Anyway, figured I would let you know as to why you may want to run an actual diff breather some how.

barrok69

Good points. I've read about mustang owners having fluid run out on track days with their stock covers. I'm not sure I'll have that issue with the LPW cover as it has a nice blocker plate on the inside in front of the vent to prevent mass flow of fluid. I wish i would have taken a picture of it. I can't seem to find anything on the google. Time will tell though. Still working on my 500miles break in before I start tossing it around like it was meant to be.

shadyLS6

I've never tracked the V and i have plenty of gear oil all over the rear center section, so even in daily driver status this happens. I end up cleaning it every time change wheels.

AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

Slapped the summer wheels/tires back on the car (a bit late, I had to get the front tires flipped to even out the wear and I was a bit slow getting around to that) and changed the erl (aka oal aka oil).

barrok69

I gave mine a bath and had an alignment done after putting in the KW3's, Creative Steel balljoint wide trailing arms and rear poly toe rods. My stock toe rods were seized and not adjustable anymore. Rear camber was stuck at -2.5° and couldn't go any more positive


I dialed everything down slightly with the new rear toe rods in place and put: Front Camber: -2.0°
Front Toe: +0.02°
Rear Camber: -2.3°
Rear Toe: -0.02°

She handles like a dream now.

Fweasel

iTrader: (6)

Ride height looks great.

barrok69

Thanks!
Now I just need more tire width all around and I'll be a happy camper.

I might raise it a couple mm's if it settles any lower though.

AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

Picked up my 8.8" from the machine shop - they bead-blasted the housing and rebuilt the diff with a Truetrac and 3.73 gears. Rear cover is going to be replaced, so I didn't bother to get that blasted.



And I also installed some new lug nuts. I have some red steel Muteki lug nuts that I bought a couple/few years ago to beautify my track setup. (Track events are all about looking good in the paddock, right?! ) I was running black McGard Splinedrives with my street wheels, but then I left the red Mutekis on with the street wheels and decided I liked the little splash of color. Unfortunately, the Muteki finish is garbage - they literally came out of the packaging brand new already chipped, and that just got worse with time. I decided last week to splurge on some new McGard Splinedrives that are chrome with red caps on the ends - all of my wheels have pretty deep lug nut holes, so really all you see is the red cap.

I ordered a 20-pack and a 4-pack of the red tip ones, and I also ordered a 4-pack of the blue tip ones, just to try them out. Here's how the blue looks (with a little Paint.net cutting and pasting to make all 6 blue):



Since the car is blue-ish, and the blue on the lug nuts doesn't match, I figured I wouldn't like them, and I was right. But it was worth a shot to see how they would look. On a black or red or silver V I think they would look good.

As for the red ones, the first pic is a shot of the old Mutekis, which you can see are faded and you can kind of see that they're all chipped around the edge. The other two pics are with the new McGards.

actrite80

iTrader: (2)

Praying I don't gernade my diff at the track

ls1247

iTrader: (2)

Who's looking at the lug nuts...I can't get past the calipers! Having grown up with chrome lugnuts, I'm not a huge fan of lugnut bling. Nice looking car though!

Good Luck with the 8.8, what driveshaft setup did you decide to go with?

isis

iTrader: (1)

I have cheap black painted acorns. Yeah they're all chipped up when you first put them on but the brake dust fills in all the chips within a few days. Viola, black lug nuts again.

AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

I'm sticking with the stock driveshaft + CS adapter.

AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

Installed a new serpentine belt. In the process of reinstalling the air inlet tube and the top of the filter box, one of the tabs broke off the filter box. So now I have a nice spot to suck in unfiltered air, so I've got that going for me.

Bio248

i put the hurst shifter back in my car again. yes, BACK in.

i swapped out the hurst for a CS shifter and i switched back to the hurts. it's way nicer to me.

Fweasel

iTrader: (6)

which is nice

tommycompton

iTrader: (1)

I did nothing to the v today , but I did clean up its home.
She's done waiting to get in for a tune.