TXeverydayDad's #11001 Roadster Coyote build - End of the Road

[BUDFIVE]

Txevery…
Very cool and congrats! Seems like you really got the coyote in and running quickly.

On the intermittent sound from the left rear wheel area…only heard when weight on the bearing? Do you mean you heard it with the wheel mounted but the rear tires off the ground? Ie only the weight of the,wheel and tire, not the left rear corner of the car? If so, did you eliminate interference with that caliper or brackets with the wheel inside as the cause? Or a wheel weight?
It seems your plan was 18” wheels so probably a long shot,

[danmas]

Feels great doesn’t it? Well done!

[Blitzboy54]

I’m not sure what to make of the noise yet.


The Coyote is alive! Congrats on a big milestone.

[TXeverydayDad]

Txevery…
Very cool and congrats! Seems like you really got the coyote in and running quickly.

On the intermittent sound from the left rear wheel area…only heard when weight on the bearing? Do you mean you heard it with the wheel mounted but the rear tires off the ground? Ie only the weight of the,wheel and tire, not the left rear corner of the car? If so, did you eliminate interference with that caliper or brackets with the wheel inside as the cause? Or a wheel weight?
It seems your plan was 18” wheels so probably a long shot,

Thanks! Yeah, it came together pretty quickly. The wiring took quite a few hours however. Probably spent 15hrs just doing the wiring…

I’ve checked for interference with calipers, weights, brake lines, everything. I could only hear it with the wheel mounted and spinning off the ground. Someone suggested that it could actually be the wilwood parking brake pad hitting its mounting pin which seems like the most likely scenario. I’ll test some more this weekend.

[TXeverydayDad]

It’s been a while since the last update but I’ve sorted through a few issues.

First up is the noise described earlier. I posted a video of the noise in a separate post on the forum and had a suggestion that it could be the parking brake pad that is moving and hitting its mounting pin. I played around with it and it seems like the most likely situation. I’ve not taken the roadster out of the garage since I noticed the noise and I do not want to have it running very long in the garage to thoroughly test the solution, but the sound of the pad moving/hitting its own pin sounds very much like what I heard so it’s likely the issue. I’ll tighten the parking brake a click or two next time I take it out to test if the noise continues. So I’ve put a pin in that issue for now.

A friend of mine brought his FLIR equipment and we’ve gone over the whole car to confirm that there’s heat and cooling where it needs to be and no heat in strange places, which is a nice confirmation of the work done. I did tighten all the cooling hose clamps while they were still warm but I also found a small bead forming at a fuel line connection, which just needed an extra quarter turn to seal.







Next up was working on the rollbars. I wanted to have 3^rd brake lights and reverse lights in the rollbars for visibility, especially on TX roads, and decided the most aesthetic place was in the supporting leg. I got 4 red and 1 white LEDs from Oznium for each leg. They are quite expensive for LEDs but seem to emit a lot of light. I drilled through the bar and had all leds lined up and used some silicone to mount them in the holes. I’m satisfied with the outcome and hope it will hold up well long-term. And yes, the gear is in reverse on in the 2nd picture.





My parents came by for a visit and my 72yo mother was very keen on getting in the car. As she was trying everything out, the left turn signal all of a sudden made both rear lights flash (although only 1 indicator light on the dash was blinking). They had been working correctly previously so I wriggled around in the harnesses behind the dash and it went back to working normally again. I figured I had a loose connection somewhere but I left it for the night and decided to look into it the following day. So when I got to it the following day, I re-checked and pulled on every wire but couldn’t find anything strange. When I tried the turn signal again, the problem was back and this time, all the gauges would light up with the indicator. The same also happened when I pressed the brake pedal as well. Looking over the schematics, it seems that the trailer converter that I have mounted behind the dash is the culprit. It seems it’s back-feeding voltage on the tan tail lights wire to the light-switch when the brake or left turn signal activates, which causes the gauge lights to engage, since it’s on the same switch as the tail lights. I’ve informed F5 just to make sure they have a record of the included trailer converter failure.



I bought and installed the recommended Tekonsha 119130 converter and everything is working as designed. I just hope it lasts longer than 2 weeks…

I’m preparing to mount the body on for the first time to confirm where the seats will go, so I added the bulb seal. I’ve seen the concerns about the bulb seal ripping when installing/removing the body so I’ll either use tape or trashbags to cover them for the first installation. I’ve also started looking into the process for getting the car registered here in TX. Lots of good information on the forum, which is great!

[F500guy]

Nice way to do the brake/backup lights. I have all the wiring in my trunk for future attempt, but I was concerned with the chrome plating, it seemed to not be adhered well when I drilled the bolt hole and was afraid I would end up with a bunch of holes that would rust around them. Yours looks pretty clean, how did the Chrome hold up?

[Blitzboy54]

If I had to do a 3rd brake light that's where I would put it for sure. I think your setup looks sleek. Bummer about the trailer converter, makes me wish I had maybe put mine somewhere a little more accessible.

[TXeverydayDad]

Nice way to do the brake/backup lights. I have all the wiring in my trunk for future attempt, but I was concerned with the chrome plating, it seemed to not be adhered well when I drilled the bolt hole and was afraid I would end up with a bunch of holes that would rust around them. Yours looks pretty clean, how did the Chrome hold up?

The chrome held up well, but I stepped through 3 smaller drills before getting to the final 6mm size. And freshly sharpened drill bits as well. I siliconed the lights in place so I hope that prevents the holes from rusting but time will tell.

[TXeverydayDad]

If I had to do a 3rd brake light that's where I would put it for sure. I think your setup looks sleek. Bummer about the trailer converter, makes me wish I had maybe put mine somewhere a little more accessible.

Thanks! Saw a similar setup on the forum a few years ago and thought it look good. That was with blacked out rollbars and black bezel leds, so I was a little concerned about how it would look in chrome, but I think it turned out well.

The trailer converter is just annoying. I’ve seen posts suggesting to just throw it out without opening the box, and I can see why. Mine is installed behind the dash and it’s easy to get to now, but once the body is on, that’ll be a different story. Hopefully this new converter is solid.

[cv2065]

If I had to do a 3rd brake light that's where I would put it for sure. I think your setup looks sleek. Bummer about the trailer converter, makes me wish I had maybe put mine somewhere a little more accessible.

I put mine in the tunnel right under the cover tucked away under the harness. If it goes out should be easy to swap out.

[TXeverydayDad]

It continues to be long intervals between my updates. Although it doesn’t really feel like it, there’s been some progress but it’s mainly been around me wrapping my head around how everything with the body work goes together.

In my color scheme, I want to have polished hinges for the trunk and hood. Turns out it’s quite labor intensive to get a good shine on stainless, especially smaller pieces. I used a pad on a drill and worked my way up from 400 grit to 1000 and then some light 2000 wet by hand and chrome polish to finish it off. It turned out ok, but will require some more elbow grease before I’m completely satisfied. However, I’ve decided to get the car registered as soon as possible and will leave some of the details to be dealt with after registration is done.

Next I installed the body for the first time, and it went on relatively easy. I think I’ve managed to get it centered (equal distance between strut tower and wheel well lip) and far enough forward (1/4” – 3/8” forward of the striker plate). I didn’t have to move the front 3/4” outriggers as some have had to do to center the nose. I pulled off the bulb seal from the rear to get the body to pull around the aluminum and once the body is in place, there’s space for the bulb seal but it seems it’ll likely tear if it try to leave it on while I position the body.



The hood fit pretty well and didn’t really need initial any trimming at this point. The trunk is too big, seemingly too much material on the forward edge as it interferes with opening the trunk, but again, holding off on trimming anything yet, until I have an idea for how the entire car goes together. The doors don’t fit at all and need to be trimmed. However, the hinges are interfering with the CF dash, which I need to address first. I’ll need to trim the underside of the ‘wings’ on the dash to have free hinge movement. It also seems that the body is rubbing the top of the dash ‘wing’ on the driver side as well. The body clears the 3/4” tube and moves when I push down on it, but it still rubs on the dash somehow. I’ll be doublechecking the bulb seal and also the ¾” tube padding to see if it changes anything. I’ve also added some temporary 5/8” spacers on the front of the ¾” tube and the front of the body sits well.



I also tried to install the windshield. The windshield legs installed ok but need to be tweaked a little. The radius at the top doesn’t match well with the curvature of the windshield and the legs need to be twisted to be made parallel. I opened up the body cut-outs but I’m getting interference with the aluminum filler plate on the PS. From what I’ve read on the forum, the hole in the aluminum panel should be cut about 0.5” deeper for easier fitment. I’ll do that when I remove the body.

Another thing to check with the body on was exactly where I wanted the seats to be. I installed some spacer bars under the seats to get a good seat angle for me. I riveted the bars to the seat frame and got some longer screws to fit and the seat is securely fastened. A caution is to measure exactly where the bolts go through the seat pan so you don’t get too close to the 4” tube. I can just barely get the nut on the bolt.



Finally, before pulling the body off, I measured and drilled the holes to position the headlight buckets. The cut-outs from F5 were decent but not great and needed to be moved a little. The same with the turn lights. The holes for the rear lights were correct however. The trunk latch and license plate were off about 3/8” so I’ll be using the license plate light as the center of the trunk. Worst of all was the hood, where the hinge holes on one side were off in relation to the hinge and on the other side, only 1 hole was drilled (which was actually better). The 3 holes for the strut were completely off on one side as well.







A couple of questions:

• Is it normal to have to trim the rear aluminum panels (lower lip, rear quarter pieces) for a proper fit?
• The manual mentions to rivet the body to the 3/4" frame rail with the hood spacers/bumpers. Is this still the recommended procedure?

[Blitzboy54]

The hood fit pretty well and didn’t really need initial any trimming at this point. The trunk is too big, seemingly too much material on the forward edge as it interferes with opening the trunk, but again, holding off on trimming anything yet, until I have an idea for how the entire car goes together. The doors don’t fit at all and need to be trimmed. However, the hinges are interfering with the CF dash, which I need to address first. I’ll need to trim the underside of the ‘wings’ on the dash to have free hinge movement. It also seems that the body is rubbing the top of the dash ‘wing’ on the driver side as well. The body clears the 3/4” tube and moves when I push down on it, but it still rubs on the dash somehow. I’ll be doublechecking the bulb seal and also the ¾” tube padding to see if it changes anything. I’ve also added some temporary 5/8” spacers on the front of the ¾” tube and the front of the body sits well.

This is a relief in a weird way for me. I have the exact same issue and was convinced I had installed something wrong. I think if I was going to install the CF dash again I would put the body on first, set the dash then make it permanent. As you can see I had to remove quite a bit of material to make the door fit right.

[TXeverydayDad]

This is a relief in a weird way for me. I have the exact same issue and was convinced I had installed something wrong. I think if I was going to install the CF dash again I would put the body on first, set the dash then make it permanent. As you can see I had to remove quite a bit of material to make the door fit right.

Yeah, I had a similar feeling when I saw your pictures as it looks very similar to the amount I’ll have to take off. My dash is also slightly below the 3/4” hoop and when I put the body on, it’s borderline that I can see the top of the dash and the 3/4” tube under the cowl. Just a slight bit lower and it would have been visible so I agree with your idea to put the body on and then determine the dash placement.

[cv2065]

I installed the body, positioned it correctly then pushed the dash up as far as it would go while remaining level from side to side. Seemed to get it right but we’ll see on final body install. Things like to move around all on their own.

[TXeverydayDad]

I installed the body, positioned it correctly then pushed the dash up as far as it would go while remaining level from side to side. Seemed to get it right but we’ll see on final body install. Things like to move around all on their own.

An enigma no doubt!

[TXeverydayDad]

The work continues with lots of small items being addressed.

Before taking the body off to make adjustments, I fully installed the headlights and the turn indicators/park lights and wired them up. I did a full light system test and it all works as intended. The lap seat belts were also installed.





I installed the hood on its’ hinges and it works decent. The opening mechanism works well, and the hood fits fairly well in the opening. I don’t have the latches on yet but with some minor trimming and added bumpers, it looks like it will sit well. I’m debating the spacing to use for the latches. 12” from center like the manual or 14” from center as according to Kleiner. Or compromise on 13”? I’ll make that decision once I see how well the hood fits when the body is better aligned. The hood seems to be a little high in the nose in comparison to the body, even with the hinges all the way down, which probably means that the body is not sitting high enough. The temporary 5/8” spacers have compressed quite a bit so I probably just need a firmer spacer. I’m not sold on the spring washers in the hinge assembly either, as they give the hood too much free movement. I’ll replace them with regular washers and test out the movement then.







We then took the body off and started working through the list of items to be addressed.

First off was trimming the CF dash wings to clear the door hinges. I had marked the areas that needed addressing and it was quick work with a drum sander. The CF is actually quite a pleasant material to work with (with the correct PPE). I also took this time to align a switch in the dashboard to make everything symmetrical.



I trimmed the aluminum around the rear quarters and bottom lip just a little bit. Probably not enough but I’ll take off a little at a time to get as good a fit as possible.

I then drilled and cleco’d the transmission tunnel cover. I’m not doing a removable cover so I will rivet the cover in place and cover with carpet. My goal is to register the car and get some shakedown miles on it before I button everything up and cover with carpet, so I’m not too concerned with the cover not being removable. The flanges on the cover were bent to fit flush with the side. I’m riveting the top of the panel into the ¾ tubes from the top to minimize any movement/flexing.



The windshield is interesting. The legs need to be twisted and bent to fit both the glass and the frame. The brass is easy to work with and the chrome plating seems to hold up well, but it’s a lot of iteration work to get it to fit fairly well. Since I couldn’t get the windshield to seat with the body on, I’ve been adjusting the fit with the body off, to get it parallel with the frame. I’ll drill the holes in the legs and do final adjustments once the body is on, but the starting position is better now. I’ll add spacers to fill any distances I can’t twist or bend out, as needed.

With all this done, I mounted the 5/8” spacers as body support in the front using the large and small included bumpers stacked on eachother and a long rivet. I hope they hold up better than my temporary spacer.

[TXeverydayDad]

The prep work with the body off continues. Since it’s significantly easier with the body off, I re-checked and adjusted the ride heights. I expect it to settle some but have decided on 4” in the front and 4.5” in the rear. I made some spacers that slide in under the frame and it gives a rough estimate. Then I adjust the coilovers so they are the same length/number of turns on both sides. My garage floor is not perfectly flat so the ride height is not perfect, but atleast the shocks are the same side to side. My wheel alignment seems to be decent as well. I used the string method and a combination of the arm measurements indicated by the manual and Kleiner. From the short test drives I’ve done, it tracks well and is very drivable. I’ll get it laser aligned at a shop nearby as my first stop.



In order to prepare for registration here in TX, I need to get an ASE Master Technician to do a safety inspection and a weight certificate. Match that together with some other forms and it should be good to register. I figured I’d try to get a temporary tag so I could drive it to the inspection and weigh station, so I dropped by the Texas DPS office to give it a try. I filled in a temporary tag form, brought my insurance and the F5 MCO with me and walked out 30 minutes later with a plate! I set the start date for the 30 day period a few weeks down the road so I can get everything finished before the timer starts. So now I just need to get the car done!



I had held off on installing the driver foot box tops just to maintain easy access to the brake/clutch mc’s, incase I had a leak, but it’s now buttoned up and the engine bay looks pretty complete. I’ll be driving the car in gelcoat some before I finish everything so if I have a leak, it’s still easy to remove the aluminum if required. I added the weather strips on top of the 3/4” tube along the engine, attached the fuel filler ground strap to the frame and installed the shoulder harness belts.









We then put the body back on to prepare for the registration process. It turns out that the minimal trimming I did on the rear quarter panels was exactly what was needed to get the body on easily, without ripping the weatherstrips. I’m glad I didn’t remove more material.

[TXeverydayDad]

Just catching up the build thread, as it's been falling behind a little. Turns out it's really fun to drive the car, but will get to that part soon. Now back to the process that got me there...

With the body back on, I started with fastening the rear bolts (Kleiner mod). I used the large spacer that came with the original bolts to set the approximate distance to the body. I expect I’ll need to tweak the distance depending on how the trunk fits. I then moved to the front and attached the front with the supplied bolts. I will add the metco grommets later when I do the body work. I measured to confirm that the body is centered on the frame by measuring from the shock tower to the wheel well lip and it looks good, within 1/16". The front bolts lift the body up quite a bit when tightened and the 5/8” spacers on the frame seem to fit quite well.





I then installed the hood and I got it to fit quite well. With the body a little higher, the front of the hood is better aligned with the body, but it's not perfect. The marked/F5 drilled placement holes for the hinge attachment on the hood don’t seem to be ideal, as I feel I’m running out of lateral movement. I’ll try to align it some more and see how it looks after I’ve installed the latches. Using regular washers instead of the spring washers included makes the hinges very stable, but seemingly more difficult to adjust. I might want to have some movement to get a good fit so the spring washers might be going back in. We’ll see.



With the adjustment that I made to the dash wings, the door hinges work unobstructed and the passenger door fit quite well. I’ll need to trim the excess around the edges but the overall fit is not too bad. The driver door (as expected) does not fit as well into the body. I’ll be following the recommendations on the forum to get the door/door opening aligned as well as possible. Once it fits decently, I’ll install the latches.

I installed the weather strip around the trunk opening and trimmed the front edge of the trunk lid to get it to fit and open without scraping the body. The curve of the trunk matches the rear of the body fairly well. I’ll need to trim the sides somewhat but will do that after I’ve installed the latch and license plate holder.

With all the panels mounted, I had some help to start the work with the windshield. After much work trying to get the angle and distance correct, I marked the “depth” of the holes with the windshield resting on the body, then removed the windshield glass and centered the holes on the leg. I tapped the driver side holes but made the passenger side holes a little oversized to have some wriggle room. I then installed the legs, opening up the body cut-outs as needed to get the correct angle and bolted them down. With the legs in place, I used a large pipewrench wrapped in a towel to twist the legs to fit the windshield. This way I don’t have to use spacers and it was quite easy to get them to align with the windshield. I’m happy with the outcome. There doesn’t seem to be any stress on the glass or frame either.

With the windshield in place, I made a quick mount for the rear view mirror. I’ll polish the mount later, but it works well. I’ll install the side view mirrors (convex 4” peep mirrors from speedway), visors and wind wings later, as I’ll probably just bump into them as I move around the car.





The roll bar openings were next and using a drum sander, I opened up the cut-outs to get a good fit without any rubbing. With the rollbars installed, it’s looking more and more like a finished car. Exciting!

[TXeverydayDad]

Getting the car ready for registration continues.

We connected all the lights and installed and connected the fuel filler cap. I also trimmed the doors and trunk a little further to get a good fit. They all open and close unobstructed now. The trunk latch and license plate holder were also installed. The screws that come with the kit to install the license plate on the holder are too long and touch the body, so it’ll be important to trim those.





Fitting the side exhausts was relatively easy, since I have the ball flange headers. The body opening required a little trimming on the driver side and the pipe was easy to align along the body. I initially measured the body openings on both sides and marked them to be identical, but that turned out to not be the ideal approach. The passenger side header was in quite a different position than the driver’s side and the body opening needed more work. I’m glad I didn’t start cutting until I had fitted both pipes, as the holes won’t be identical side to side. I doubt it’ll be noticeable on a finished car, but it feels strange when you’re working on it and you know the measurements are not the same. I think I remember Jeff K encouraging another member to put the tape measure away and just make sure it looks good – sage advice!



With the pipes angled and aligned to my satisfaction, I installed the exhaust hangers. I’m using the F5 uncoated exhaust pipes at the moment but will change them out to polished pipes later, as I wanted to get a feel for the sound and look before deciding on which direction to go in for the polished pipes.

It’s unclear whether Texas requires wipers or not for registration, and it would come down to the individual tech doing the inspection, but I’ve decided to install them. Whether they get used on not doesn’t matter, I think it just gives the car a more complete and polished look, since it’ll not be a racer (yet?). I have the kit from Specialty Power Windows (WWK-2) with their bent right arms and 10” flex blades for curved glass. Installation is pretty straightforward using the F5 instructions. I made an angled spacer to get the angle correct and a solid mounting under the body. I also had to cut the included steel spacer to fit above the body. This will need to be polished for final installation, but it works as expected. I’m happy with the result.







The hood latches were next on the list and I decided to mount them at 13” from center. I’m happy with the look and function. The door latches were also installed, although I used 2 rivets instead of the rivnuts at this stage. I’m not confident of how much the doors/body might move as I fit them properly later and figured it’d be easier to remove a smaller rivet than rivnuts. The goal now is to get the car registered.



The final remaining parts needed to be mounted on the car for inspection are the mirrors, so I mounted them. I have the United Pacific 4” convex peep mirrors and they mount easily to the windshield frame. I haven’t mounted the wind wings or visors yet, but it looks like it should be possible to use these mirrors with them as well.

[tundra2050]

I like your wiper solution. Probably saved some money on the vintage route. How did you make your angled spacer and what angle did you cut the above body spacer? It'll probably add retail value or maybe easier to sell if needed.

[TXeverydayDad]

I like your wiper solution. Probably saved some money on the vintage route. How did you make your angled spacer and what angle did you cut the above body spacer? It'll probably add retail value or maybe easier to sell if needed.

Thanks! Yes, the solution is slightly cheaper than the F5 kit and from what others on the forum have said, it’s a better construction as well, but I don’t have anything to compare it to.

I chose to do the angles at 45 degrees, matching the angle of the hole I cut. I just used a good ol’ hacksaw and elbow grease and then cleaned up a little with a belt sander. The belt/disk combo sander I have is probably the most used tool during this build.

[TXeverydayDad]

With the car mechanically completed, I took my daughter out for the first ride. It just had a basic string alignment but drove ok and everything seemed to be working well. 5 miles in, we were standing at a traffic light and the engine just died. There was no crank, I cycled the ignition, fuel pump, master disconnect, nothing. Just completely dead. My daughter got in the driver’s seat and I started pushing it out of the way, to a parking lot close by. Before we had made it across the intersection, there were 4 other people helping me push and 2 cars blocking the road behind us to keep us safe. Gotta love Texas!

At the parking lot, I continued to check everything I could think of. Ground was good, no loose connections to the fuel pump, the inertia switch was fine. So I called my wife to come tow us the last 1 mile home. 10 minutes later, just as my wife showed up, the car just started as normal, so I drove it home without any further issues. I started it up a few hours later and drove another 5 miles and had no issues.

I have a separate post with support from the forum in working out the issue. It seems heat related but it’s unclear what’s actually happening. More info in the other thread.

The following day, my son and I took a drive to the nearest CAT Scales to get a weight certificate. It was a 14 mile return journey and we were prepared with tow ropes etc but we made it there and back with no issues. The car weighed in at 2380lbs. We also had our first encounter with admirers, which was fun. In hindsight I should have prepared my son better on some of the details, but he did well talking about it while I was getting the paperwork/certificate in order.

The only thing remaining in preparation for TX registration was getting the car ASE Master Tech safety inspected. It’s been a struggle to find an ASE Master Tech, with current certifications, willing to do the inspection. Not wanting to take on the liability was the main concern. I’d been actively looking for probably 6 weeks until I finally found a guy willing and eager to do it. The inspection itself was pretty simple. He was very impressed with the quality of the work which I’ll take as a badge of honor.

Armed with all the paperwork and the experiences from other TX registration threads on here, I got an appointment with the DPS (TX DMV) and took the plunge. I spent an hour at the Regional Center to get ‘a letter’ saying the car was eligible for registration and then headed to the local tax office for the registration process. It took another hour there, but I walked out with my cobra registered as a custom vehicle. It would have taken at least another visit or 2 had it not been for the knowledge and information shared on the forum, do lots of thanks for that! I now have paper plates and I’m legal! I should have my real plates in about 2 weeks.

I set the ride height to 4” in the front and 4.5” in the rear and took the car to a local Christian Brothers and spent 2 hours there getting a wheel alignment. They were all very interested in checking out the car while their alignment guru worked on it. The base measurements and string alignment got me in a pretty good spot, but the difference in driving after getting the alignment properly set up is still significant. It feels very planted now.



Let the shake down tests begin… 😊

[Mike.Bray]

Congratulations! I know when I walked out of the DMV with my paper plates I had a spring in my step.

Did they try to charge you any tax?

[TXeverydayDad]

Congratulations! I know when I walked out of the DMV with my paper plates I had a spring in my step.

Did they try to charge you any tax?

They initially tried. The person I spoke to remembered a kit vehicle she did the registration on back in 2013 (the last time she did this), turned around and pulled out a folder and 15 seconds later had found the physical copy of that registration and saw she had charged him tax (pretty impressive organizing skills). I showed her the comptroller website, she read through it and said, yep, no tax. I paid a grand total of $103.75, including credit card fees…

It was almost a surreal feeling walking out with a paper plate.

[2nd2none]

The belt/disk combo sander I have is probably the most used tool during this build.

Actually shopping for one of these right now as I get my garage ready for kit delivery. May I ask which you have and do you recommend it?

[TXeverydayDad]

Actually shopping for one of these right now as I get my garage ready for kit delivery. May I ask which you have and do you recommend it?

I have the cheapest (<$100) HF belt/disk combo with a vacuum port. It’s been good enough for my needs.

[TXeverydayDad]

Since the last update, we’ve spent a good amount of time driving around, getting to know the car and doing a proper shake-down. I got my real plates and it’s been a blast driving around, both in daylight and dusk/evening.



The previous issue we had with the car stalling at a traffic light turned out to be a loose connection to the coyote fuse box. After the initial stall, I couldn’t replicate the issue. Then 100 miles later, the car just died randomly as I pulled up on my driveway. After it started again, I shook all parts of the wire loom I could reach and found one section which would kill the engine, and traced it down to a loose connection. Glad it was a simple solution.

After about 200miles, I found a small fuel leak/seepage on the fuel line between the fuel filter and the hard line. Fuel was leaking past the barbs on the hard fuel line connector. I made a new line and the issue was resolved. However, 30 miles later, I had the exact same issue with the fuel line between the hard line and fuel regulator in the engine bay. Fuel was seeping past the barbs on the fitting. I added a hose clamp and no more leaks, so I added a hose clamp to the other line as well and will be keeping an eye on them going forward.



I initially had break-in oil in the engine. For the break in procedure I’ve been varying the load, reving up to about 4000rpm and then engine braking to bring the revs down again as often as possible to seat the rings properly. After several complete heat cycles, I changed the oil and filter and added approx. 9.5qts of 5W-30. I did find a little oil seepage by the oil pressure sender and tightened that a little further. Otherwise everything looked good.







We haven’t tuned the engine yet, so that is next on the agenda, but it’s been running decently without it.

In total, we’ve driven about 350miles so far at it’s been great. It’ll be even better when it’s completed, as the driver side footbox is still open which makes it quite toasty on drives.

[TXeverydayDad]

While we’ve been busy driving, we’ve also worked on a few items that needed to be added.

First off was a front license plate holder, since it’s required here in TX. I know many who don’t bother but I just can’t do it. I was inspired by another forum member and went with a similar design and I’m happy with the outcome. I’m just not sure if I like it better on the left or right side of the car.





We installed the over riders in the front and rear. Something to keep in mind is that they are different, with the fronts being mounted at an angle to match the front opening. The fronts installed very easily, as they just screwed right in. For the rear, since I’ve used the Kleiner mod, I drilled out the threads to fit the larger diameter threaded rod, and put a nut on either side and tightened the over rider between them. It was a little fiddly to get the nuts on the rod inside the over rider. I believe Jeff recommends putting some tape across the bottom of the overrider to save you from chasing run-away nuts all the time as you drop them…good advice!



We then continued with installing the visors. Given all the times I’ve read about fellow builders cracking their windshields with the screws, I again followed Kleiner’s advice and installed the visor bases with 6-32 screws and square nuts in the windscreen channel. Worked like a charm. To finish it off, I added 7/64” vacuum hose (1/4” OD) in the remaining channel to give a more finished look. I’m happy with the outcome.







Finally, I installed a phone holder on an articulating arm. I attached the base to the grab handle supports under the dash, which enables the holder to be completely hidden if needed, while at the same time be very stable.

[TXeverydayDad]

It’s been an exciting few weeks as I’ve been working on getting the Coyote Gen 4x tuned. Out of the crate, the Coyote ran ok. I’ve driven it about 350 miles on the pre-loaded tune, while breaking in the engine (with break-in oil). Basically drove the car with varying load, up to a max of 4500 and lots of engine braking. It felt easy to drive, but lacked real power.

In order to data log and tune, I got the HPTuners MPVI-4 unit. Basically the OBDII unit and then 4 licenses (don’t know why it needs 4 – it just does) to write to the Coyote. Reading and data logging didn’t require a license, with the software. I read the ECU, looked through the various settings and tables. Interestingly, the Coyote base map came with a standard parameter table to enable exhaust burble. Apparently all I would have to do is enable the function, and from what I understand, every time I lift off the throttle over 3500rpm, it’ll crackle and burble until I give some more throttle again. But I didn’t feel like playing around too much yet, so will experiment with that later on. I did go for a drive and do a datalog, just to get a base-line. Turns out that even when I gave full throttle, the TPS% signal (Throttle Position Signal) topped out at 50%. No wonder it lacked real power!



I looked into a local alternative to have it dyno-tuned but they recommended I wait until the engine has a couple of thousand miles on it before doing a full dyno-tune. They’d do a basic street tune for me to get me going for these first few thousand miles, but I’d have to leave the car with them overnight – not something I was eager to do.

So I started looking into other alternatives for remote tuning. Lund racing has been mentioned here on the site several times, so I reached out to them, but they wouldn’t work with the HPTuners device that I had. Blitzboy54 had used a company called Juggernaut Performance Tuning for his gen4x, so I reached out to them with some questions. They were very responsive, and Jon, the senior calibrator, was excellent to work with. I sent them the stock file, and got a first iteration performance tune back later that same day.

I wrote the new file to the ECU, started the data logger and turned the key. Wow – what a difference! I took it on a drive, got it up to working temperature and carefully revved up in first. It just felt so much lighter, less constrained and sounded great. Logged about 10miles of driving and sent the log back to Jon. He came back with a different data-log configuration and asked that I try WOT during this run.



Since I had driven the car for 350miles already, including trying WOT with the base map, I thought I knew what to expect… I have a good, one way, 2 lane frontage road along I-10 close to my house, so drove there to do the logging. At first, I didn’t really get what was happening, as I didn’t hear any tire squeal, but the engine just revved up fast and I was moving forward, but not as fast as I expected. So I shifted into 2^nd and continued with WOT and now I felt the rear end floating. The tires were just spinning. I pressed the clutch and felt the tires grip, but no other drama. It was tracking straight and didn’t feel out-of-control, just unable to grip. Armed with this experience, I went back for another run, and realized that any WOT in 1^st or 2^nd would just spin the tires, no matter how gently I pressed the accelerator. Just as a frame of reference, I tried the 0-60 timer on the speedometer and did a soft start. Balancing the throttle against traction ended up with a 5.3s run 0-60, but still way too much wheel spin.

I sent the new log back to Jon, along with some subjective driving experience notes and a day later, he came back with a new log. I took it out to the same straight, and did a first soft start 0-60, trying to get to WOT as soon as possible – and this time, I could hear the tires chirp a little but it didn’t spin as much as previously – and the time came back at 4.3s 0-60. It felt a lot more controlled, not quite as raw, but significantly faster. For my second run, with a little more aggressive approach, I timed 0-60 in 3.97s, while short-shifting and still not quite WOT. It revs to 7600rpm and sounds great!





I’m still continuing to data log and tune the engine with Jon’s help, but if you have a crate Coyote, I highly recommend Jon with jptunes.com. Great to work with, quick turn-around and works magic on the Coyote!

[Mike.Bray]

Love the video!

Just FYI, I've lived in Texas my entire life and haven't run a front license plate on any of my cars or trucks for over 40 years now. Never been asked about it. Not once.

[TXeverydayDad]

Love the video!

Just FYI, I've lived in Texas my entire life and haven't run a front license plate on any of my cars or trucks for over 40 years now. Never been asked about it. Not once.

Thanks! My daughter didn’t like that the camera moved so much when she was filming. I think it just adds to the feel of the experience.

Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to have said the exact same thing about the front plate. I just can’t bring myself to not have it…

[460.465USMC]

Great video! The Coyote sounds fantastic! That brings back good memories of my MK4 with the Gen3.

Appreciate the review of your experience with JPtunes.com. I'm a long ways away from tuning, but will keep them in mind. Can't beat their response time. Nice!

[TXeverydayDad]

The snake bit me.

On a drive, I lost control, hit and jumped the curb, and came to rest on a grassy median strip. It all happened very quickly, but luckily no injury or damage to anything but the car.
Unfortunately, the impact both fractured and bent the frame, which brings the journey with #11001 to an end.

Special thanks to Jeff Kleiner and Ken Pike for their input and support through this.

Let me emphasize what has been repeated over and over again on this forum – Respect these vehicles!

Be safe out there!

[cv2065]

The snake bit me.

On a drive, I lost control, hit and jumped the curb, and came to rest on a grassy median strip. It all happened very quickly, but luckily no injury or damage to anything but the car.
Unfortunately, the impact both fractured and bent the frame, which brings the journey with #11001 to an end.

Special thanks to Jeff Kleiner and Ken Pike for their input and support through this.

Let me emphasize what has been repeated over and over again on this forum – Respect these vehicles!

Be safe out there!

Really sorry to hear that. Good news is that no one was hurt as I've read about a few instances where the outcome was not as favorable. Is insurance going to be able to fund a new project?

[Mike.Bray]

Oh no! So sorry to hear about this. The important thing if you're okay to drive another day.

[PNWTim]

That's a bummer. It's very fortunate in the case of a total loss you can walk away to drive another day!

[460.465USMC]

Oh, no! So sorry to read about this. An ending way too soon! Glad to hear you're okay.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Depending on your insurance status you can buy a chassis and swap parts…

Jeff

[OB6]

Sorry to hear this, but very glad you’re ok.

[jfrissora]

Awesome that you were able to get the kids involved. I was always hoping too, but it just wasn't there.