North Florida 289 Build, #10306

[Grubester]

I'm building a Mk4 - 289 (w/BP347 & TKX): might I ask where you sourced the gear shift lever and knob, as well as your grab bar on the dash? I have the forward-shift feature, too.

[Chainsaw]

I'm building a Mk4 - 289 (w/BP347 & TKX): might I ask where you sourced the gear shift lever and knob, as well as your grab bar on the dash? I have the forward-shift feature, too.

The stick and knob came from Silversport. The grab bar was from Finish Line Accessories.

I'd like to get a more period-correct 289 shift lever which is a little shorter, but the shifter throw on this TKX is so short that I'm not sure how a shorter lever would work out. Maybe once the shifter loosens up a little bit I will switch it.

[Jphoenix]

The stick and knob came from Silversport. The grab bar was from Finish Line Accessories.

I'd like to get a more period-correct 289 shift lever which is a little shorter, but the shifter throw on this TKX is so short that I'm not sure how a shorter lever would work out. Maybe once the shifter loosens up a little bit I will switch it.

I have an 8” shift lever on my tkx with the mid shift mod, I agree that I would not want a shorter shifter, plenty stiff as it is, but I like the solid gated feel of it - and short-ish throw is nice as well.

[Chainsaw]

Pulled out the lower PS body just in front of the rear tire and locked that down. Then I relocated the PS side pipe and it looks much better now. Decided to take this pic before I started working on it yesterday.
Almost done Large.jpeg

I took my DMV paperwork to the regional center in Duvall Co so they can approve it before they’ll give me a 10-day temp tag. That will allow me to get it weighed and drive it up to the same location to get it inspected. It’d be a whole lot easier if I had the means to just trailer it around to get that done, but it is what it is. Hopefully, they’ll approve the paperwork soon (next week?) and I’ll be able to get the final steps completed to get it fully titled and licensed.

[ehansen007]

Where'd you get the brake ducts again? Sad story, I never put mine on when I built my first one 10 years ago. They sat the in garage for years and I think I eventually threw mine away. Let's face it, they don't look like much on their own but I'm bummed now.

[Chainsaw]

I got the ducts with the 289 kit.

[Chainsaw]

Got a response from the FL DMV and had to provide a few more documents. Re-entering a high-speed hold.

[Chainsaw]

Progress!
Got word from the state that all was ready except I still needed a certified weight slip and the inspection. Got my temp tag on Tuesday so I can head to the nearby truck stop and get the weight slip.
TempTag.jpg

It will be a cool (cold) ride to the Duval inspection office on Monday as the temp is supposed in the low to mid-50s Monday. I'll get to try out the seat heaters for real. Additionally, although I didn't ask for it, it appears FL will register this car as an antique.

[Chainsaw]

Went to get the car weighed this morning for the upcoming inspection and paperwork finalization. That part went okay (2320 lbs), but when I attempted to start the car to pull if off the scales, I heard a sizzle and no start. I think the solenoid somehow cooked itself. First ride of shame back to the house.
Ride of Shame small.jpg
Too busy today to pull the starter yet, but I'll get to that tomorrow. Part on order as I need to get the inspection done by Friday as they only give a 10-day temp tag here in FL to get the weighing and inspection done. I was going to get the inspection done tomorrow. C'est la vie.

[Chainsaw]

Solenoid replaced. All good now. Inspection set for Thursday now.

[Chainsaw]

Last Thursday’s inspection went well as did the drive to/from (31 miles each way). My friend Jeff, also a F5R Mk4 owner, followed me as a chase car in case something went sideways. Car drove well, but has a slight pull to the right, which is expected as the front toe is a little to the right. I’ll have to get a real alignment, but the car tracked well and wasn’t crabbing at all. However, this car is mind-numbingly loud. I wore electronic ear muffs and my head was still rattled when all was over. Double hearing protection is needed for longer drives! I did add baffles to the j-pipes yesterday. I think it helped but it’s still quite loud. It does sound great and smooth when accelerating up to 3500 rpm (still have a break-in rpm limit).

Last Friday, I went to the DMV office to finalize everything, but had an issue with the info I gave to Hagerty for the insurance and the way that the inspector filled out the title paperwork. Not a big issue and got all that fixed by Monday, but couldn’t get to the DMV until today. All complete now and ordered my personalize plate which takes about 90 days to arrive.

Took the car for a drive today and it ran pretty well. Seemed to be missing a little around 2000 rpm but always smoothed out when I accelerated past that.

[tundra2050]

Congratulations!

What kind of baffles did you use? I'm planning on going with Boig quiet pipes. I don't want to upset the neighbors. Well, I don't mind bothering my neighbor across the street. He had a Harley once. Drove my wife nuts when trying to put the kids down for a nap. Time for some payback. Lol.

[Chainsaw]

Congratulations!

What kind of baffles did you use? I'm planning on going with Boig quiet pipes. I don't want to upset the neighbors. Well, I don't mind bothering my neighbor across the street. He had a Harley once. Drove my wife nuts when trying to put the kids down for a nap. Time for some payback. Lol.

Pretty sure I used these https://www.carchemistry.com/3-disk-insert-3-diameter/

I just used the steel wool packing with no plugs.

[tundra2050]

I wonder how significant the drop would be with both baffles at the header collector and dynatech muffler insert cones at the tailpipe without loss of power or back pressure. Seems like a less expensive way to reduce sound, but is it as effective as Boig or Gas N?

[Nigel Allen]

Coarse stainless pot scourers (look like swarf) worked better than anything else I tried. Game changer.

Cheers,

Nige

[Chainsaw]

Went for a 50 mile spin today. The car drove well and I had no problems. Although it is a bit less loud, the car is still race car loud. I was wearing both ear plugs and muffs and it’s a bit much. It saddens me to try to dampen the noise, but I have to consider doing something more. I might try tundra’s solution above as it’s not expensive.

An interesting note. While filling up with gas, a Corvette C8 owner good-naturedly started giving me grief for pulling up in a car “cooler” than his. What can I say?

[tundra2050]

Went for a 50 mile spin today. The car drove well and I had no problems. Although it is a bit less loud, the car is still race car loud. I was wearing both ear plugs and muffs and it’s a bit much. It saddens me to try to dampen the noise, but I have to consider doing something more. I might try tundra’s solution above as it’s not expensive.

An interesting note. While filling up with gas, a Corvette C8 owner good-naturedly started giving me grief for pulling up in a car “cooler” than his. What can I say?

Of course your car is going to be way cooler, lol!

Check these out. https://www.carchemistry.com/cc-inserts/
I saw them on another post. Not sure how hard they are to insert, but they claim to reduce noise 7-10 db depending on which one you get if I read it correctly.

[Chainsaw]

Went for a 50 mile spin today. The car drove well and I had no problems. Although it is a bit less loud, the car is still race car loud. I was wearing both ear plugs and muffs and it’s a bit much. It saddens me to try to dampen the noise, but I have to consider doing something more. I might try tundra’s solution above as it’s not expensive.

An interesting note. While filling up with gas, a Corvette C8 owner good-naturedly started giving me grief for pulling up in a car “cooler” than his. What can I say?

Or I may just stuff some "brillo pads" up in the pipe (with some sort of retention feature) per Nigel's input and see if that works, too.

[Nigel Allen]

Or I may just stuff some "brillo pads" up in the pipe (with some sort of retention feature) per Nigel's input and see if that works, too.

The scourers don't need to be a tight fit. I threaded a few onto a piece of fencing wire (like meat on a skewer) then fed the assembly up the tail pipe, so that the scourers were in the muffler section. I had bent the piece of wire in a U shape, leaving me with 2 ends. This allowed me to thread one of each wire end up a different tube in the 4 into 1 section. With the 2 wire ends protruding from seperate pipes, I just twitched them together to hold the assembly in place. It might sound like I have my butchers apron on, but believe me, this worked perfectly. I got the noise down to 89db @ 1 meter at 3,000RPM. This was a requirement of our DMV for testing purposes (90db @ 1 meter at 3,000RPM). At this level, the cooling fan drowned out the exhaust. On the day of testing, they didn't bother trying, as the background noise was too high.

I had tried out several ideas previously. They would help a little, but not get me below 103db. Sorry, I dont have any pics, but could sketch you a drawing if my description is hard to follow.

scourer.jpg

Cheers,

Nige

[tundra2050]

That's an impressive reduction! I would like to see a sketch.

I'd like to reduce the dbs mainly for my ears as well as any passenger. Also, I don't want to be "that guy" in the neighborhood. I want people to admire the car, not necessarily the noise.

[Chainsaw]

I did an inspection of the baffle installation and, not surprisingly, the aluminum rivets melted out and the baffles dropped down. The PS one only slipped down about an inch until it hit the lower j-pipe flange. The DS one fell down into the sidepipe. When I pulled it out of the sidepipe all of the steel wool was gone, blown out the exhaust pipe. This corresponds to the change in pitch I noted during an earlier short drive. I ordered some stainless steel rivets and got everything redone today. If these new rivets don't work, I'll have to install some sort of bolt which will be a real pain unless I put the bolt all the way through the j-pipe.

I also added two 1/2" LED back-up lights. I might have to get some brighter ones, but the lights work.

[tundra2050]

I hope the stainless steel rivets work for you. If those baffles work as advertised, could be a less expensive alternative to Boig or GasN.

Was your packing like this? Not sure if the pic gets attached correctly.

Screenshot from 2025-11-26 15-45-34.png

[Chainsaw]

Yessir.

[Chainsaw]

Been doing a bit of driving. Loving it. My S/S rivet solution seems to be holding for now. Some sound reduction but still very loud and I recommend some form of hearing protection if in the car for any drive >10 minutes. (Maybe it's just a flashback of my safety officer training.)

Getting some miles on the car. Will be time to change the oil and be past the break-in period soon.

297.jpg

Got an update from Mike at Spotlight and looks like the car will be going in for paint early next year.

[Chainsaw]

Clip from my drive last Saturday. A nice day for a drive.

https://youtu.be/sn7KuzNnrtA?feature=shared

I’ve got to get a different camera. The video from my sunglasses camera is just too jerky even when I try to keep my head still. Still surprising how much our brain smooths out the real-time video from our eyes.

[Chainsaw]

While trying to adjust my headlight aiming, I discovered the low beam on the PS headlight was inop. Turns out the tab for the low beam on the back of the light had broken off from the headlight. Rather than just replace the one headlight with another sealed beam version, I bought a set of halogen lamps. I like the look and they're an upgrade from the ones we get with the kits. I might do an LED update later on, but I don't plan on driving this much at night so it's a very low priority.

New headlights.jpg

I also relocated the DS side pipe a little as it was sitting too low and didn't run parallel (enough) to the body line. It now looks more like the PS side. So now I have an extra hole in the 2" chassis tube, but I filled it with a bolt/nylock and rubber fender washer to seal it. The pipe still sits lower than the PS one, but not much I can do about it. Speed bumps are a real bummer.

[Chainsaw]

Weekend before last, Jeff B and I took our F5R roadsters to the Caffeine and Octane event in Jacksonville. The car drove well and the show was a lot of fun.

Went out this morning to drive the "Thunderbolt Grease-slapper II" to a pickle ball game and no dice. Battery was dead, as in 3.7V dead. Got another battery this afternoon and then took the car for a 22 mile spin. All good.

[Chainsaw]

Installed a new battery, but I still have to track down the parasitic draw. I only made one change electrically prior to the battery drain, so I unhooked that but I'm pretty sure that didn't fix the issue. I am considering installing the kill switch (which I should've done in the first place) just to make sure things are truly off when they should be. The other electrical problem I have is that the H2O temp gauge still isn't working. Speedhut keeps telling me it's the sensor, but the I've swapped it out 3x now and still no-go. Fortunately, I can still check the H2O temp with the Edelbrock app - all good so far. I'll have to pull the dash to get to the gauge and, even though I mounted the dash to be able to do that, it's still going to be quite a pain. If/when I get to that point, I'll install the kill switch at the same time.

On a happier note, the car turned over 500 miles last week and did the oil change. While doing that I attempted to move my kluge-y oil temp sensor mounting away from the filter adapter, but I can't do it with the current hoses and fittings I have. All fixable.

Bumped up the redline to 4500 and I'll crank it to 6k in a week or two. One thing Jeff B and I noticed is that his 427 roadster has a much smoother sound than my 289. Both are loud, of course, but the 289 is harsher (more racy?) sounding even with the j-pipe baffles installed. I love it.

Took my oldest grandson for a quick ride between my house and his yesterday. Low speeds (<35), but lots of grins from him. My wife says she wants to take a ride (finally) - a major milestone.

I've been not wearing ear plugs when just driving on the low speed roads around the area I live to listen for "things". The car isn't as loud as I thought until I get to highway speeds.

[Chainsaw]

New plate received.
New Plate Large.jpeg

[Stangrob]

New plate received.
Attachment 223842

Hmmm - getting an error on your pic - just FYI.

Rob

[Chainsaw]

How about now?
New Plate Large.jpeg

And thanks to Eric Hansen as I sort of copied his.

[tundra2050]

Congratulations! Cool plate!

[Chainsaw]

Lovin' it.

289.jpeg

[Chainsaw]

I worked with my technical advisor, Jeff B down the road a piece, and we sorted out my brake issue. Or more correctly, he sorted me out and I got the brakes working much better. Might need some more adjustment later on, but the feel and stroke is better. Quite a PITA to work on the MCs In a previous life, I’d have coded this as “OP MALF”, short for operator malfunction. Over a year ago, I had adjusted them the wrong way and never fully checked them out to realize I went the wrong way.

I did finish my cubby door project except for adding some edge trim. I should’ve built this door earlier, but realized I really needed it when my registration and insurance cards (paper) blew out of the cubby at 75 mph on I95. (Bye bye).
CUBBY DOOR.jpeg

[Chainsaw]

Started trying to track down my parasitic draw. I found that I've got a 330mA draw with everything supposedly turned off which seems a bit high. So I started pulling fuses. Luckily on my 4th pull, the draw dropped to 5mA. The extra draw is on the headlight switch/radio memory/courtesy light circuit. Now for the indescribable fun of trying to sort out exactly which specific wire is the offender.

[Chainsaw]

Got the kill switch itself installed, but waiting for some 2ga wire to finish it up.

Even though it was frigid 50F today, I took the 289 for a spin. I'm glad I put in the seat heaters. Car ran great and I'm still loving it. Time to bump the rev limiter to 6k as I bumped the 4500 limit again today. The PF4 cut off is quite harsh.

[Chainsaw]

Got the kill switch wired up and it works as a theft deterrent. I may want to install a racing compliant kill switch at a later date. All good for now.

Bumped the rev limiter to 6k. As many have noted, even with the "puny" 306 SBF, these cars are quick. I've made sure I'm pointed straight when I've hit the loud pedal and no drama so far. Haven't been able to fully run it up to 6k, mostly due to paranoia (as I've already had an unwanted conversation with a St Johns County sheriff's deputy ), but it pulls hard to 5k. It's hard to find a deserted stretch of smooth road to give it a go.

[Chainsaw]

Car is running great, but something is bugging me. Having seen several 289 photos, I’m wondering why my rear tires don’t come all the way out to the edge of the wheel opening.

Skinny.jpeg

I am reluctant to add wheel spacers, but that may be an option. Other than getting 17x10.5 rear wheels, does anyone have any ideas how to scootch out my wheels a bit?

[Chainsaw]

Got word from the Spotlight Customs that I should send my car in for body work and paint o/a 5/29/26. I’ll be using Reliable for the transport to Dahlonega.

[Stangrob]

Got word from the Spotlight Customs that I should send my car in for body work and paint o/a 5/29/26. I’ll be using Reliable for the transport to Dahlonega.

Nice - what color scheme are you going with?

Rob