For the next 700 miles I had fun breaking in the ProCharger and getting used to the amazing power output of this blown 5.0L V8. I also picked up some jacking rails, a chassis brace and shifter brace. It was a pretty easy install.

Mile 4,323: Steeda G-Trac Brace, Jacking Rails & Blowfish Racing

The S550 Mustang doesn’t have the best jacking points for lifting the car. Steeda has created some excellent “Jacking Rails” which let you slide jacks under the S550 easily. These were pretty simple to install, a bit of confusion initially about which holes are used, but it’s not too hard.

 

Next I started installing the Steeda G-Trac K-Member Brace which ties together the front of the car and stiffens it. This was a bit of a pain in the ass to install. Had a hard time lining it up right and getting everything to bold in without putting any of the structure under stress.

Following that I began installing my Blowfish Racing Shifter Brace. With the Mustang’s new power I was having a hard time making crisp shifts. The shifter mount from the factory is some flimsy steel and rubber. You can bend it with your hands. The Blowfish brace was built and documented well. Unfortunately, my hands are big and I was having a hard time getting everything to mate up and bolt together. Nothing hard, just frustrating and uncomfortable on your back without a lift. After I was done I went to test out the new shifter. It was so crisp, made it much harder to miss shifts, especially the sloppy 2-3 shift I had before. Now the shifter felt amazing!

Mile 4,495: HPS T-Clamps & ProCharger Cooling Tank Leak

After the supercharger install I kept smelling coolant. These cars use essentially Dex-Cool under some Ford spec, but it’s the same stuff as GM is using. I kept looking for leaks and found that the Coolant Reservoir that ProCharger provided was sweating coolant through the teflon used to seal it. I decided I should use red Loctite to seal it and took a video of the process. While I was doing that I wanted to make another repair. If you remember I had used worm gear clamps, two of them actually, to secure my silicone intake hose to the throttle body and intercooler piping after it a clamp popped off. I ordered some HPS Spring Loaded T-Bolt Clamps from Amazon that same day. Removing the coolant reservoir gave me a lot of room to re-do the clamps with the new HPS clamps. The HPS clamps are very solid and much better designed that most other t-clamps. They’ve held up without issue so far!

Miles 4,898 & 4,916: New Tires & Lug Nuts

Ok so this may sound boring, but the supercharger ate up what was left of my Pirelli P-Zero 275/40R19s in less than a thousand miles. The loss of traction all the way through 3rd gear leaves serious rubber on the road. The fronts are staggered and still look new. I knew I needed new rear tires and then I picked up a nail in my driver’s side rear which sealed the deal. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of sticky tires in 275/40R19 so I went with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires which are some of the stickiest non-R compound summer street tires.

I jacked up my Mustang and took my wheels to Discount Tire in my Audi. I don’t trust those guys to work on the car. I also removed the center caps and valve caps. Why? Because they always break or lose valve caps, center caps and lug nut covers. I dropped off the wheels in the morning and came back after work to pick them up. Funny enough there were some random used caps on the valves. I’m sure they assumed they lost my caps and spent time looking for caps they didn’t have. Wonder how long they spent looking for center caps?

My factory lug nuts started warping as you can see in the pic below. I never misused them, factory lugs are just a shitty two-piece design. They have a soft outside and a hard steel inside, so after I took them off with an impact gun a few times they started to fail and no longer accept a 13/16 socket. Since I bought the car no one else has removed the wheels and I’ve never used the wrong socket on them. I ordered Gorilla Lug Nuts from Amazon. These are stout single piece lugs that don’t fail. The part is “Gorilla Lug Nuts 61147CX Chrome 13/16″ (14mm x 1.50 Thread Size)” and you will have to buy 5 units for a full set of lugs or 4 units if you use one keyed locking lug per wheel. This isn’t really a street car so I bought five. This SKU is also only meant for factory wheels. Aftermarket wheels generally require a different kit due to the fitment of these lugs.