95-0049 is back home
 

In Florida.

Barely ran getting off the truck...LOL. A genuine s351 characteristic.

From what I am told, it has not really run or been driven in years. Tires flwt spotted.

The tank had been drained, I filled it up. Bled the brakes after having Alcons reinstalled, changed to oil. It drives just like #111 before we had a chip burned for it and also like the 98 Spider we owned for several years. After the ard stuff, it poured here in Naples, so I garaged it, clay barred it, cleaned the seats ( someone had a silver marker pen stain the seats, cleaned the carpets and picked up tons of dead love bugs. A splash of some secret leather conditioner has revitalized the seats to almost new status.

This week it goes to my mechanic for some full service items, new set of tires, change all the fluids, help determine why the Fuel P gauge is lazy of dead...I hope not. Probably install new Hawk brake pads. Then a chip burning fun on Friday afternoon. Still considering mounting up a set of Magnesium wheels. Needs a shifter as well....


So, here is number 49.

http://i.imgur.com/ZKEZBvFm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IAQSiLKm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mryyKNIm.jpg

http://http://i.imgur.com/tzbRutSm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mhbhy3xm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tzbRutSm.jpg

Thank you to
 

Mark at PAS for the several phone calls and for talking me off a ledge before I got the car running a little better, and to S S for selling us the car and for many...MANY questions that he answered.

Now to make it run a swell as #111, or close to it is probably a better goal

ooops
 

Forgot this one

http://i.imgur.com/mhbhy3xl.jpg

Very nice... what does back home mean? Did you own this before?

back home
 

No I was just commenting that after being purchased in TN, it was almost immediately moved to Florida for about a decade IIRC

Cool, just curious... I would love to find my first love, the 87 convertible. I would enjoy a homecoming story.

Nice car(s). You have some nice S351 candy in your garage !!

Thanks. Dyno tuning results...

http://imgur.com/e1yYdX9

oops
 

New work done this last week.

Removed stock ...really quite worn our original shifter, installed a new fancy MGW shifter. Wow, what an improvement. Stock shifter saved.

New AC Compressor and dryer. Now that is cold air from the word go..that you don't have to wait 5 minutes for....!!!

New tires are working out great.

Now to get to the dead FP gauge, replace the overly complicated star wars CD/radio unit with a nice simple Alpine unit. Only the right channel is working, so I wonder if I have a dead amp on the left. I hope not.

I also want to fine tune, the tune job. I am contemplating spending a 1/2 day at Jake Lammotta's shop near Orlando for a fine tune.It also needs an alignment, and probably shocks...and the drivers side bolster fixed on the recaro.

And then, the re application of the side skirts. That is going to be some dame bramage I fear, having never done that.

Side skirts suck. Yes, Dane bramage

Dyno day #2
 

At LaMotta performance near Orlando. WOW.

What a pro. Descends on the car, checks timing, plug gap, wires, cap,rotor, Throttle body plus inards...... first thoughts, it needs some adjustments..some fresh parts, but we can make a dent, with a to do list at home post dyno.

First run, about 350 RWHP and 365 Tq. He kind of laughs with a note of who touched this thing! 4 Dyno runs with only mechanical adjustments, last run, 434 HP 475 Tq. It now has a smooth linear power line, is much more fun to drive, idles, runs cooler...simply Wow. I mean WOW, much closer to the performance of the Whitemare...1995 #111.

Home to Naples, then do the to do list, one more run to Jake in a few weeks for some button up items. I think we have another few safe stallions to find.

What an improvement... awesome power!

The whole story
 

So, I decided to man up and take it to Orlando, to (Jake) LaMotta performance, home of 5.0 and 5.7 tuning. I had hoped to avoid having to take a day off, drive up the night before, have a 2 hotel night stay. but since both my sons live in Orlando, we jumped in hesd first and made a 2+ day deal of it including two meals in Winter Park Florida, home of all things hip in Central Florida.

OK, so we have a Friday AM appointment, but Friday night driving up he calls...has a local customer with a race car issue, hopes we had not begin our 4 hour drive...but sorry big guy, we are half way there...we are committed! He asks us to show up at noon, no biggie, i know he takes care of repeat customers first, I am just the out of town guy.

So, we drop the car off ( Jake asks me to take him for a test drive so he can see how I drive and experience any issues, of which there are several) in the AM, go for a local lunch ( there is some great food in Orlando , really all over town) , I avoid buying any more UCF swag, and wait for the text that the cat is up next, it comes after my last work conference call at 1:00, back to the shop.

We arrive and he has the car on the dyno. He is frowning. First comments, pre dyno run. He tells me that per the test drive he a thinks the following. Dirty fuel filter ( he changed it), and that timing is off. Pops the hood, suggests I toss the MSD wires, MSD coil, add an MSD 6AL, determines that the TPS sensor has an GIGANTIC issue ( the surrounding plastic gasket was gone upon inspection). I think, great, all he is finding are issues. We do a dyno run, and without the TPS gasket, we are really dead, the TPS voltage is jumping all over the place, the computer cannot sense throttle position. I call my friend ( Orlando Mustang...they restore Shelby's primarily) and beg him to find me a TPS gasket (from a cobbled Fox Body) gasket...as my wife ( who had left the dyno to go shopping) bails on shopping and drives 22 miles to the O Mustang ( which is no longer in Orlando) to collect the part and deliver it back to us. What a woman.

Jake continues at work, adjusting the timing, tapes up a burnt wire that had previously touched a header, tightening the supercharger belt due to slippage at WOT. Examines the electronic tune, says we are good for the time being.

Wife returns, Jake pops in the gasket, does two more runs with slight adjustments, blam! HP jumps to 434HP, Torque jumps to 470 ft pounds. He gives me that at home homework ( parts and more parts) , and tells me it has 50 more of each HP and TQ , if I will bring it back with the additional small part changes/additions.

I take it for a drive and WOW, it starts, runs....has lost the 1500-2000 RPM stumble, finally has a smooth power curve...no longer drives like no boost and now..WOW ..... it has boost. Runs a lot cooler, I even got 16 MPG driving home to Naples! It is virtually a Prius!

So, in a day of people who over promise, and under deliver, a few good men exist. Jake LaMotta is one of them. Not much small talk, and he is brutally honest....but so be it. The man makes cars go. He knows his poop, which seems rare these days.

Good looking S351! Im guessing your dyno #'s are what I am too be expecting when I finally get it there. Then with a O/R X pipe. :)

next week
 

Gathered a few new items to install per the dyno tuners advice, and my seat of the pants desire to have it drive even better.

Complete bushing kit including some items direct from Saleen, a msd box, new FMS set of red wires ( keeping the NOS Saleen wires on the shelf for awhile longer) 6 new bilstein shocks/struts.

Great stuff, glad it is back to life.

Thanks Rick
 

An update. Added new Bilstein shocks ( all 6) added a hidden MSD box, replaced aftermarket coil with a a stock coil, same for plug wires, and every bushing on the car. Removed, painted and re installed all the side skirts as well asall of the attachment points which were all ruined and worthless.

Now a decision on more tuning, a final decision on another set of wheels....and maybe a wet sand polish to give the paint a huge pop.

No hurry, going to drive it around SW Florida today. Happy Friday everyone.

And ....most importantly, with the skirts re done, I can now open the drivers door! Its the small things in life that make me happy!

New pictures

Just a couple of quick pics taken yesterday morning.....before driving around on errands. The color match is quite magical. This pic may not be a good representation though.

http://i.imgur.com/NlMrTJCh.jpg

I chose to not remove and re-attach the side skirts myself. We worked out a price, to remove the previous paint, paint them and re-install the skirts. He ended painted them three times to match the Laser paint, and the re-install process was a full 8 hours of time. I would still be working on those darn things, months later.

Did the side skirts age? Or were they removed before?

Dave, they had in fact been removed, and then modified to accept a different fastener that was long gone in several spots.

So the aftermath was kind of a mess. Paul the painter had to try 4-5 different fasteners to get them to attach correctly. He did the best he could, which was a gigantic improvement of them almost falling off in a couple of places, and not allowing the drivers door to open.

Maybe a stupid question but I really don't know, and I have never dyno'd our S351. What is the cause of the big difference in numbers? Before and after tune?

In regards to the dyno run is one wheel HP / torque and one is calculated flywheel?

And the S351 looks awesome! Love the red!

The primary reasons were several fold. If my memory serves me well they were:

Throttle body had a missing part that messed up the MAF voltage. I might have the exact description wrong.

Several after market arts that were very poor/ coil and wires

Timing was off

Injectors were incorrect.

blower belt was slipping

Then we disabled all of the Super FMU, to run the fuel management on a programmable chip.

It is measuring rear wheel HP and Tq

Thank you very much.