Haggard-hawk

I bought a hooptie Firehawk from a friend not too long ago. He let it go for cheap because water was getting into the interior and a family of mice moved into the glovebox. I've verified that it's a SLP car, but gotdam, this thing is beat. I basically bought it to use as a track toy because of all the suspension junk on it.

Attachment 39139
Attachment 39140

Some details:
95, 6 speed w/stock Hurst, garbage paint job
SLP Bilsteins, Eibach springs, SLP triangulated subrame connectors
2OTL catback, Ram-air
Spohn LCA's, adjustable panhard, adjustable torque arm
Trufiber hood
275 Sumi HTR ZII's that I'm gonna roast

I've already gutted the interior, chased the rodents out, disinfected everything, and scrubbed a bunch of stuff with pinesol. The windshield was replaced recently and I think that's where the water is coming from. Once that's sorted, I'm going to hit the junkyard to see if I can find some replacement carpet to put the interior back together. There's a lot of small hokey stuff to fix (driver window gets stuck 1/2 way, viper alarm system driving me nuts, wipers hardly contact the glass, etc.) and a few mechanical issues (opti code 36 :( and a noisy rear), but I can still drive it around for shits because it's inspected. This will hold me over while the Camaro is down.

Attachment 39141

I've since reinstalled the front seats, belts, and shift knob and have been scooting around like that... straight outta the trailer park.

oh man, i love this

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Diamond in the. Ruff great track car

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Is that a warbird hood? Nice find, honestly. A little TLC and you could really have something there.





































...fuel pump is probably on its way out (there, I said it!)

It's made by the brand Trufiber, but it's the same style as the warbird. I wasn't too crazy about that type of hood when I saw it on TA's, but I kinda like it on the Formula/Hawk body because they're a little curvier.

And I'm gonna start carrying a spare fuel pump with me every time you're around lol.

Fixed a ton of small stuff on the car:
-plugged the firewall hole (from whoever installed the viper alarm), no more water
-ripped out all of the wet foam and sound deadening
-installed carpet from a junkyard car
-replaced driver side window motor
-replaced air filter
-replaced hatch struts
-removed shitty window film
-installed different opti harness (didn't fix code 36)

I need to put the rest of the interior back together and get the car through inspection because it expires in 2 weeks. Has a little shake to it (wheel out of balance or rear end going) but I'm hoping they won't give me grief for it. Unfortunately, my mechanic friend now works at a private shop that doesn't do inspections. The CEL is still on but it shouldn't matter with classic tags.

Gonna scope the opti to see what's up. Probably going to have to swap that for a junkyard one.

Finally got a change to test the opti. I put together one of those DIY oscilloscope kits a few months ago and figured it would be good enough to test the pulses.

Low-Res signal looks good...

Attachment 39213

Hi-Res signal... nada

Attachment 39214

I jiggled the connector going into the opti cap to see if it was a flaky connection but that didn't do anything. I took a mystery junkyard opti from the parts shelf and plugged it into the engine harness to test. Pulled the injector plugs and spun the rotor by hand with the ignition on standby. I tried to keep the speed constant. The Low-Res signal looked like the other one, ie a few skinny and fat pulses. The Hi-Res looked like this:

Attachment 39215

A lot of equal sized pulses. So I guess I'm doing the opti this weekend.

That's pretty awesome, I've never seen someone diagnose the opti like that.

Put the car back together with the working opti. Just have to add/bleed coolant and do an oil change.

I'm in the market for a square set of 18x9.5" wheels if anyone knows of any for sale. No staggered because I want to run 275/35r18 RS-RR's on all fours for autox.

Car has been running decent since the opti. I found plug wire #2 just hanging behind the AC compressor when I did the wires... this thing may have been running on 7 all along lol.

Attachment 39238

Got impatient, found a deal on some new c6z reps and couldn't resist. Gonna order tires soon.

Sounds like a fun new ride. Keep us posted!

Scored a 3.42 posi rear at the junkyard yesterday. Didn't know the v6 cars had an option for that, found this one in a 3.8 v6 vert. Hoping to throw that in along with some poly motor mounts and a new trans mount. Maybe it'll pass inspection after all that lol.

Autox season is only a few weeks away...

Attachment 39263

Good find.

The "Y87 3800 Performance Package" for the V6 cars, introduced in 1996, included the 3.42 posi (auto trans), 14.4:1 steering, 4W discs, dual outlet exhaust, and 235/55-16 tires.

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Originally Posted by Injuneer

Good find.

The "Y87 3800 Performance Package" for the V6 cars, introduced in 1996, included the 3.42 posi (auto trans), 14.4:1 steering, 4W discs, dual outlet exhaust, and 235/55-16 tires.

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That's the one. The u-pull yard has an online inventory with VINs, so I pulled the RPO codes for all 4th gens through Compnine and was able to pinpoint the GU6 G80 car.

I pulled the rear out and found some more mods lol. Has an aluminum driveshaft, stainless Russell brake lines, and the adjustable torque arm is the shortened type with a driveshaft loop on the mount. If I'm not mistaken, the short torque arm is more drag oriented, but I'm going to keep it for now. I have decided to ditch the Spohn LCA's though and picked up some of those Founders ones with the 3 piece bushings.

Also, check out my destroyed bump stops. Probably from saggy Eibach springs... I guess I'll keep an eye out for tighter lowering springs.

Attachment 39266

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Catmaigne

That's the one. The u-pull yard has an online inventory with VINs, so I pulled the RPO codes for all 4th gens through Compnine and was able to pinpoint the GU6 G80 car.

I pulled the rear out and found some more mods lol. Has an aluminum driveshaft, stainless Russell brake lines, and the adjustable torque arm is the shortened type with a driveshaft loop on the mount. If I'm not mistaken, the short torque arm is more drag oriented, but I'm going to keep it for now. I have decided to ditch the Spohn LCA's though and picked up some of those Founders ones with the 3 piece bushings.

Also, check out my destroyed bump stops. Probably from saggy Eibach springs... I guess I'll keep an eye out for tighter lowering springs.

Attachment 39266

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turn the short arm into a decoupled for autox

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by SSlowBoat

turn the short arm into a decoupled for autox

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That's not a bad idea... wonder how much work that'd be. I've only ever heard of the Unbalanced kit which I'd imagine is very expensive.

Got a stupid-good deal on some RS-PRO's which are supposed to be the successor to the RS-RR.

Attachment 39267

Used the extra cash to buy some coated Pacesetters (w/ORY). This thing isn't loud enough for me with stock manis, cat, and 2OTL.

Attachment 39268

Now waiting for some time off to put this junker together, but my work is hell bent on staying open. Not in a rush though, the first 2 autox's got cancelled.

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Originally Posted by Catmaigne

Got a stupid-good deal on some RS-PRO's which are supposed to be the successor to the RS-RR.

Attachment 39267

Used the extra cash to buy some coated Pacesetters (w/ORY). This thing isn't loud enough for me with stock manis, cat, and 2OTL.

Attachment 39268

Now waiting for some time off to put this junker together, but my work is hell bent on staying open. Not in a rush though, the first 2 autox's got cancelled.

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Are you just open auto-x'ing or going for a specific class? i ask because some of your mods are going to bump you from most normal classes

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Originally Posted by SSlowBoat

Are you just open auto-x'ing or going for a specific class? i ask because some of your mods are going to bump you from most normal classes

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Was just going to run CAM-C like before. Otherwise, ESP. If I made some adjustments, I could probably fit into STU though. I'm not trying to be that competitive with autox bc I'm just going to get destroyed by Miatas anyway. Goal is to get comfortable with the car so I can take it to Track Night in America @ NJMP. Gonna need those LS brakes.

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Originally Posted by Catmaigne

Was just going to run CAM-C like before. Otherwise, ESP. If I made some adjustments, I could probably fit into STU though. I'm not trying to be that competitive with autox bc I'm just going to get destroyed by Miatas anyway. Goal is to get comfortable with the car so I can take it to Track Night in America @ NJMP. Gonna need those LS brakes.

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*gonna cook those ls breaks*

there i fixed it for you [emoji23]

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by SSlowBoat

*gonna cook those ls breaks*

there i fixed it for you [emoji23]

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They're cheap and twice as good as what I have lol. The C5/C6 setup doesn't seem like a huge upgrade over them considering the $. This thing is too much of a hooptie for fancy V brakes and the like, so I'll steal some LS-era brakes from a V6 car in the junkyard.

Attachment 39491

So this pile is back on the road... sort of.
Installed the coated Pacesetter LTs, ORY, poly motor mounts, new trans mount, new spark plugs, Founders LCAs, poly Jeep bumpstops, and junkyard 3.42 posi rear. All emissions are ripped out too. I need to get back under it to adjust the pinion angle though because it's all out of whack.

Some observations: the triangulated subframe connectors aren't the bolt in SLPs, they're Kenny Brown Double Diamond weld-ins. It also has an aluminum driveshaft. For some reason this car feels way less planted than my Camaro despite having better tires. Maybe the Eibach/Bilstein combo has had enough after 25 years? Probably. Also, these brakes are absolute trash and the 2OTL is nowhere near loud enough for my tastes. PS- this thing is slow as hell lmao

Attachment 39511

Got this piece back on the ground a few days ago with the standard length adj torque arm from @SSlowBoat. Car drives much better than it did, but I still have a vibration despite the pinion angle at -2*. It's only under throttle and gets worse the faster I accelerate, so maybe the pinion angle needs to be readjusted? Or it could be ujoints or tailshaft bushing, idk. I'm done screwing with it for now though. Gonna slide it through inspection and just drive it.

The SLP 2OTL wasn't doing it for me, so I sold it. Replaced it with a perforated-tube glasspack [gasp!] and netted $350 to dump into other mods. It's definitely not as loud as an open cutout Borla, but has a similar amount of roar at WOT. I was pleasantly surprised to hear more midrange bark and hardly any raspiness. I guess glasspacks get a bad rap because dumbass highschoolers put them on their TBI 305's and they sound like trash.

Attachment 39726

This car is going to inherit the MWC watts link I originally bought for my Camaro, but wouldn't fit onto my Moser rear because of its sway bar mounts. I also bought a set of UMI lowering springs so I can ditch the SLP Eibachs. I went with UMI specifically because the rear rate was a little higher @ 200lb/in which will allow me to drop the watts link roll center down more than the typical lowering spring.

Attachment 39727

I also changed my mind about V brakes and decided I'm going to grab a set of new 4-pot Brembos for a gen1 CTS-V. I figured it would be more cost effective in the long run to get better brakes early on rather than having to buy a bunch of replacement LS1 calipers after they spread. I also looked at the rules for the STU class in Autox and I should be able to run V brakes without getting pushed into ESP because they use the factory mounting holes on a LS1 era spindle. They can totally throw me out of STU for using a 98-02 spindle on a 95 car, but I'm not banking on them knowing the intricacies of 4th gen f-body spindles lol.

I'm also working on making C7 wheel hub adapters I designed out of heat treated 4140 on a manual mill I bought. My friend is going to rough it on his lathe and I'll finish them up on the mill with a boring head. No ABS, but the factory system is crap anyways and I'd rather not have a wheel fly off from running 200tw tires.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Catmaigne

The SLP 2OTL wasn't doing it for me, so I sold it. Replaced it with a perforated-tube glasspack [gasp!] and netted $350 to dump into other mods. It's definitely not as loud as an open cutout Borla, but has a similar amount of roar at WOT. I was pleasantly surprised to hear more midrange bark and hardly any raspiness. I guess glasspacks get a bad rap because dumbass highschoolers put them on their TBI 305's and they sound like trash.

Attachment 39726

This car is going to inherit the MWC watts link I originally bought for my Camaro, but wouldn't fit onto my Moser rear because of its sway bar mounts. I also bought a set of UMI lowering springs so I can ditch the SLP Eibachs. I went with UMI specifically because the rear rate was a little higher @ 200lb/in which will allow me to drop the watts link roll center down more than the typical lowering spring.

Attachment 39727

I also changed my mind about V brakes and decided I'm going to grab a set of new 4-pot Brembos for a gen1 CTS-V. I figured it would be more cost effective in the long run to get better brakes early on rather than having to buy a bunch of replacement LS1 calipers after they spread. I also looked at the rules for the STU class in Autox and I should be able to run V brakes without getting pushed into ESP because they use the factory mounting holes on a LS1 era spindle. They can totally throw me out of STU for using a 98-02 spindle on a 95 car, but I'm not banking on them knowing the intricacies of 4th gen f-body spindles lol.

I'm also working on making C7 wheel hub adapters I designed out of heat treated 4140 on a manual mill I bought. My friend is going to rough it on his lathe and I'll finish them up on the mill with a boring head. No ABS, but the factory system is crap anyways and I'd rather not have a wheel fly off from running 200tw tires.

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what you doing with the slp eibachs???

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by SSlowBoat

what you doing with the slp eibachs???

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I was gonna send them to eBayland where the exhaust went lol. You want them?

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Originally Posted by Catmaigne

I was gonna send them to eBayland where the exhaust went lol. You want them?

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they severely sagged? if not ill take em. i just want to drop the front of the bird a little to match the hose mod rear springs. give it that drag look lol

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by SSlowBoat

they severely sagged? if not ill take em. i just want to drop the front of the bird a little to match the hose mod rear springs. give it that drag look lol

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They're not saggy, but they aren't as low as typical lowering springs and are pretty soft. The p/n is SLP 70009, I think it's only a 1/2" front, 3/4" rear drop.

I like my LS brakes with EBC Yellostuff pads. Enough power for auto-X (on 315s) and they held up well on a lapping day. What are you doing for swaybars? Can you swap them in STU? Are rod-ended suspension parts legal in STU? The Watts may bump you if anyone is paying close attention. I also have a C7 hub kit that I got through a group buy on FRRAX ready to install now. The adapters weren't too bad but decent hubs aren't cheap!

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Originally Posted by rentedmule

I like my LS brakes with EBC Yellostuff pads. Enough power for auto-X (on 315s) and they held up well on a lapping day. What are you doing for swaybars? Can you swap them in STU? Are rod-ended suspension parts legal in STU? The Watts may bump you if anyone is paying close attention. I also have a C7 hub kit that I got through a group buy on FRRAX ready to install now. The adapters weren't too bad but decent hubs aren't cheap!

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I've yet to measure the sway bars to confirm, but I believe they're the stock SLP 32/19mm bars. I'm allowed to swap bars in the ST classes, but I wanted to see how the car feels with the other suspension tweaks before swapping parts around. If I feel it needs stiffening, I already have a 35mm Hellwig for the front and can easily scoop a thicker rear from a 3rd gen in the junkyard.

Watts links are legal in ST for live axle RWD cars under G.1, but the bushings are a bit of a gray area. You're allowed to swap suspension bushings for those of different materials in their original locations, but metal is prohibited ie no rod ends allowed. The watts link rod ends are in different locations though? No clarity on this AFAIK. There's a bunch of Mustang people who run watts links w/rod ends in ST classes (generally the old STP class), but I haven't heard of them getting grief for it.

If they really wanted to throw the book at me, they could totally boot me into ESP or CAM because I have no cat and my hood isn't original (aftermarket trufiber). I don't think they will though because I'm not that experienced of a driver and probably won't be competitive anyway.

I contacted the guy who made the original x-tracker hubs and the newer C7 versions. I couldn't find anyone to go in on another group buy, so I would've had to buy 6 sets myself at no discount and unload the remaining 5 myself. He told me that there should be no change in track width, but the C7 bearing sticks out much farther than the x-trackers and the hub area where the adapter interfaces with the stock spindle would be alarmingly thin. I designed my own and added some thickness to the back flange because the hub is supposed to support the weight of the car, not the mounting bolts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rentedmule

I like my LS brakes with EBC Yellostuff pads. Enough power for auto-X (on 315s) and they held up well on a lapping day. What are you doing for swaybars? Can you swap them in STU? Are rod-ended suspension parts legal in STU? The Watts may bump you if anyone is paying close attention. I also have a C7 hub kit that I got through a group buy on FRRAX ready to install now. The adapters weren't too bad but decent hubs aren't cheap!

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i have seen ls calipers spread when tracked hard.

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I hadn't thought about the Watts rod ends being in a different location, that would put it in a grey area for sure. The top ESP car in our region ('10 Mustang) runs one and he's a stickler for rules so I'll assume it's legal! I have rod ends on the axle side of my rear LCAs so I could be kicked out of ESP for that. Our club is reasonable - people recognize that a relatively heavy, 25 year old, solid axle RWD car needs more than a few bushing changes to compete for FTD.

I have about $900 USD into my C7 hub setup with SKF hubs and ARP studs. Jim Dulaney (can't recall the name of his company) offered them as a GP in early 2019. I can grab some pics the next time I'm in the shop if it would be useful to you. The adapters felt damn solid and were machined to allow the hub to slide into them. It was a super tight fit. When my R888's give up I'll run A7's and I didn't think stock hubs would hold.

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Originally Posted by rentedmule

I have about $900 USD into my C7 hub setup with SKF hubs and ARP studs. Jim Dulaney (can't recall the name of his company) offered them as a GP in early 2019. I can grab some pics the next time I'm in the shop if it would be useful to you. The adapters felt damn solid and were machined to allow the hub to slide into them. It was a super tight fit. When my R888's give up I'll run A7's and I didn't think stock hubs would hold.

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If he's the guy I'm thinking of, I believe his site is rrsusp.com. I couldn't find pics of his C7 hub adapter online, but I assumed they would resemble the earlier x-tracker adapters with revised dimensions. If you could share pics, that'd be great.

I'll have to find my notes that I took when I dimensioned the C7 hub, factory hub, and stock LS spindle. I tried preserving the stock track width when designing my own, but found that it would only leave a few mm of thickness behind the C7 hub's dust seal. I pried the seal off to see if there was any room to spare, but there isn't. I decided to widen the track width a tiny bit to increase the factor of safety there being that it's responsible for supporting the weight of the car. I ran a few FEA's and liked what I saw. I also spaced out the bolts that hold the adapter to the spindle a tiny bit because the threads were very close to the large OD of the C7 hub making cracks likely. The mounting holes in the spindle might need to be reamed out a tiny bit because of this.

I made a fancy version CNC version to submit to Xometry, but producing it without volume made it costly. I made a simpler version for manual machining that I'm gonna prototype soon, it looks like this:

Attachment 39729

Also, these showed up:

Attachment 39730

The basic plan is to run the stock CTSV1 Ferodo pads up front and 14" Camaro SS rotors with the hubs bored out. I might need a small wheel spacer, 8-9mm max probably. The rear is getting new rotors and some Power Stop Track Day pads. Hopefully the brake balance will be reasonable.

The calipers look great, I'm jealous!

SSlowBoat - what do I look for to tell if an LS caliper is spreading? Will it start to leak?

Here are some pics of the hub setup. I had them partially assembled and lock-tited together and it was only 12F in the barn last night so I didn't feel like disassembling them:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c0d2155476.jpg20210114_200146 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...19a474cfbf.jpg20210114_200111 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2d739c6638.jpg20210114_195952 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...190ac01dca.jpg20210114_200003 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bd8efb5f55.jpg20210114_200016 by Rented Mule, on Flickr

The small tabs are for mounting cooling ducts

You'd be able to tell if they've spread if the pad wear has a taper to one side rather than wearing them evenly. I'd imagine there'd be a lot of material left on the inside edge of the rotor near the hat and heavy wear on the outermost diameter. Basically the heat and pressure of track driving causes the caliper fingers and piston tops to no longer be parallel, so the caliper goes from being U shaped to V shaped.

Here's cross sections of my C7 hub adapter (left) vs. what the other guy's should look like. I beefed up the locating hub ring that fits into the spindle by widening the track width slightly. Was trying to decrease chances of shear from driving on bumpy roads. If the ring cracks, then the car is being held up by 4x M10 class 10.9 bolts.

The locating hub ring on his version would have 2.5mm thick walls assuming 0.5mm clearance on each side. The stock f-body hub ring I measured was ~4.25mm thick and is made of some kind of forged steel. It also extends much farther into the spindle than what I'm seeing on his adapters, which would worry me because the stock spindle already has a big chamfer on it. Maybe the OE unit is overengineered? Can't say, I have no data on what forces it would see hitting a pothole on I95.

Attachment 39733

That xsection to the right is a big oof for stress concentrations. Just going 4340? Or something more exotic?

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Originally Posted by shownomercy

That xsection to the right is a big oof for stress concentrations. Just going 4340? Or something more exotic?

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Jim D's original design is made of 4130. The Strano and Detroit Speed clones are said to be made of "alloy steel," so I'm guessing it's the same 4130 or 4140 steel. If someone were making them out of 4340, I'd imagine they'd advertise it as that stock is way more expensive. They're all said to be hardened, but whether or not that's during post processing is a mystery.

I ordered a disc of 4140 prehard to prototype one on. I'm gonna try testing the hardness using the old ball bearing trick at different points along the radius, so hopefully it'll be harder at the hub ring than whatever mysterious forged steel the OEM hub is made out of. If not, I could try quenching it at home.

DIY induction hardening setup may not be that hard to rig up, but you would be guesstimating at best the depth it hardens.