Selling My Marauder...

[Lidio]

I hope this doesn’t come as to much of a let down for the Marauder community and some may have seen it coming, but I’ve listed my MM for sale here. :bigcry:
I simply have to much going on with other things right now with the possibility of purchasing my own building finally after fifteen years and other shop cars that are needed for continuing R&D and to stay competitive.

I’ve sold and gotten rid of several Mustangs in the last few years and nothing is going to hurt more then to see my MM go. Of all the cars and trucks I’ve burned through, My wife and a couple of friends are pretty upset with this decision. (she really likes this one) I truly do not want to sell the car. I don’t even owe any thing on it. Its just that with the many other things I’ve got going on, especially the 05 Mustang I got back in February which at this time is a must have in my shops position and my career, I simply need to learn and stay with the times. Ford doesn’t give me any thing to learn from.

Technically the 04 and newer F-150’s and the 05 and newer Mustang (plus many other newer Ford’s) are very different then the much friendlier and simpler EEC-5 that came in most 04 and older Fords and our MM’s.

I will continue to be a sponsoring vendor here and continue to post plus contribute as much as I do now. I’m sure the car wont sell before MMV-3 so I fully intend to participate in all of that here in Michigan.
My 2004 Mach-1 is also for sale and I will eventually put it in the classifieds as well.


Thanks

[MikesMerc]

I have to say that I'm not surprised this was coming. Its a bummer for sure, but when it comes to keeping your shop up to date with the latest projects, it makes sense to let her go.

Now....who's gonna be the lucky bugger to nab this beast. With all the go fast goodies in place and a brand new bottom end someone's going to get a killer, turn key, ass stomping, Marauder. :banana:

[DEFYANT]

Damm

First Scotty and now this?

This is a dark day. Someone will be getting a nice ride.

Good luck sir!

[Bradley G]

Well My friend!

I know this decision did not come easy for you!
Good luck on the sale!
Thinking to myself:"Two Black Trilogy Marauders?" :nono:

I could be like my buddy, Mr. Barnes! :coolman:

[bigslim]

I am sorry to see you sell your car. I guess you have to do what you have to do to stay ahead of the competition. Thanks for all you have done to help with our MM's. Good luck with your future projects.

[Rider90]

Well My friend!

I know this decision did not come easy for you!
Good luck on the sale!
Thinking to myself:"Two Black Trilogy Marauders?" :nono:

I could be like my buddy, Mr. Barnes! :coolman:
I'm renting one if you get it :coolman:

[Sully008]

Lidio,

Best of luck selling your car. I'm glad you'll still be around helping us out. I've learned tons from you the short time I've been here and I hope to learn more.:beer:

[Merc-O-matic]

I hope this doesn’t come as to much of a let down for the Marauder community and some may have seen it coming, but I’ve listed my MM for sale here. :bigcry:
I simply have to much going on with other things right now with the possibility of purchasing my own building finally after fifteen years and other shop cars that are needed for continuing R&D and to stay competitive.

I’ve sold and gotten rid of several Mustangs in the last few years and nothing is going to hurt more then to see my MM go. Of all the cars and trucks I’ve burned through, My wife and a couple of friends are pretty upset with this decision. (she really likes this one) I truly do not want to sell the car. I don’t even owe any thing on it. Its just that with the many other things I’ve got going on, especially the 05 Mustang I got back in February which at this time is a must have in my shops position and my career, I simply need to learn and stay with the times. Ford doesn’t give me any thing to learn from.

Technically the 04 and newer F-150’s and the 05 and newer Mustang (plus many other newer Ford’s) are very different then the much friendlier and simpler EEC-5 that came in most 04 and older Fords and our MM’s.

I will continue to be a sponsoring vendor here and continue to post plus contribute as much as I do now. I’m sure the car wont sell before MMV-3 so I fully intend to participate in all of that here in Michigan.
My 2004 Mach-1 is also for sale and I will eventually put it in the classifieds as well.


Thanks

Sorry to hear the Marauder has to go! :(
I better get those "autographed" Marauder Brochures on Ebay quick...Hi Hi.
Will you still be selling the Xcal and related "goodies" for the Marauder
as before?
Hope your new building becomes a reality....and you continue
to have much success. You helped put the Marauder on the map and
your expertise has been deeply appreciated. Hope we continue
to hear from you. ;)

[David Morton]

Thanks for my rims, R&D and all that rot it took to make a known good upgrade that's true to the cars design.

T'was a pleasure to meet you last spring at the NMRA Spring Ford Nationals here in Bradenton. PM me if you need a friend for anything here in Bradenton.

I wish there was some way you could translate your famous tune to the Predator, specifically the transmission schedules because they're the only fault I can find with the tune in Diablosports' Mach 1/Marauder program. Now that you'll be busy with other things, I regret getting it instead of the SCT tuner, even if it did give me the best "tune only modded ET" on the board, a 14.455.

Best of luck. Be reading you. :D

[huot5]

It's a sad day to think someone's gettin rid of one of their favorite rides. The MM will def find a good home. Good luck with the bizness and the future of ALT AUTO and your continued support to the MM owners.

[RF Overlord]

Hope your new building becomes a reality....and you continue to have much success. You helped put the Marauder on the map and your expertise has been deeply appreciated. Hope we continue
to hear from you. ;)^^^what he said^^^

[Bluerauder]

I hope this doesn’t come as to much of a let down for the Marauder community and some may have seen it coming, but I’ve listed my MM for sale here. :bigcry:
I simply have to much going on with other things right now with the possibility of purchasing my own building finally after fifteen years and other shop cars that are needed for continuing R&D and to stay competitive.
Sorry to hear about your decision to sell the Marauder; but understand your position. :D Good luck on buying your building and expanding the business !! :up:

[sailsmen]

Sorry to hear you are selling the MM, but I know you will make someone very happy, the buyer! :)

Why did you replace the pistons and rods? Did you put in a bigger shot of NOS?

[Smokie]

Best wishes on your forthcoming business venture, and thank you for your contributions to our club and the car we love.

I hear Logan is going to set up a new forum, it will be called:

iusetoownamercurymarauder.net ;)

[jgc61sr2002]

Also sorry to hear about the sale. :( Good luck with you new venture. :)

Your Marauder will make someone very very happy. :D

[GarageMahal]

My wife and a couple of friends are pretty upset with this decision. (she really likes this one)
Looks like she should buy it from you ;)



Logan I hear is going to set up a new forum, it will be called:

iusetoownamercurymarauder.net ;)

Sounds like a support group to me :P

Anyway, thanks for all your support and I am happy to hear you will still be around :)

jta

[MI2QWK4U]

You have to know guys this decision is killing Lidio. I have known him for a long time, and he wrestled with this one for a long time now to come to this decision. In this age of competitive aftermarket automotive performance, you need to be one step ahead and actually own and work on the newest cars to stay on top. Cutting edge is where its at....old school doesnt cut it anymore. I dont think there is another owner, vendor, wrench, engine builder on our forum that has been cited, printed, quoted, featured, photographed, etc in the top Ford Performance Magazines over that last 15 years than Lidio. He wants us to know that he is committed to catering to the Marauder community as only he can. Bottom line is that Lid is one of the best and brightest Marauder Vendor and genuine lover of the car. He knows this car like the back of his hand, and it shows. Under his direction, he has built up and fine tunned the two fastest Marauders in the contry...period. Not to mention having built up several members Marauders onto the plateau right below his and Jerry's Marauders. Mike, Dee, myself are right there and feel confident in Lid's abilities!
You will all still be able to get his help and expertese on the Marauder!

[snowbird]

You have to know guys this decision is killing Lidio. I have known him for a long time, and he wrestled with this one for a long time now to come to this decision. ... .... ...
You will all still be able to get his help and expertese on the Marauder!Although i don't know him personnally, i had the opportunities to use a little bit his expertise and he his top notch. I'm confident that although he have to go "with the market" to stay on top, he'll be able to keep on helping the Marauder communitie. This is a field he already know and .... we're good people !!:D

[FastMerc]

I am glad to hear that your still gonna keep up with us,I am planning on spending my tax refund with you next year.That had to be a tough decision:( Good luck with your expansion.

[John F. Russo]

Thank you for all that you have contributed to this site.

Good luck in your business expansion.

I wanted to widen my rims. Who do you suggest?

[Lidio]

Thank you for all that you have contributed to this site.

Good luck in your business expansion.

I wanted to widen my rims. Who do you suggest?


We are not in any way going to stop working with or on the MM's with my decision to sell my own. I'm going to continue to R&D, and update, tune and etc with them like any other performance Ford I take interest in.

We are still handling the widening of the wheels if you want to send them to us or simply buy two new ones from us that we get from the dealer and then send out for the widening.


Thanks

[FiveO]

Good luck Lidio!

Thank god you'll still be doing some tuning and work on Marauders! :D

Can't wait to see the new building!

[Lidio]

Sorry to hear you are selling the MM, but I know you will make someone very happy, the buyer! :)

Why did you replace the pistons and rods? Did you put in a bigger shot of NOS?
The reason it got a forged short block is kind of a long story that I don’t want to get into to deeply but I’m sure I will any way. I wanted to put a forged bottom end in it this past winter because of how much I punished the motor all of the 2004 season with the Trilogy at 13.8psi and the roughly 80 shot of NOS. I actually had the short block ready to go with slightly lower compression. 9.8 not 10.1:1 like stock. We’ll I ventilated the block in Mach-1 first in the late fall and had to use that readied short block in that car first. The budget did allow it in the MM over the winter so I thought I could let it go and stretch another season out of knowing I wouldn’t hopefully be to tough on the MM while I pounded my 05 GT this season.

We’ll in late 04 and early 05 when I started to drive the MM again, I noticed that at part throttle and at full throttle the MM didn’t feel as touchy and as responsive as it usually does. Even on the 100 unleaded and more timing like I usually do with the race fuel tune. It just felt down. ( no the motor wasn’t broke… yet). I also thought I noticed that the boost gauge didn’t go has high as it used to both at part and wide open throttle. For some reason I just felt that their was some thing wrong with the blower after checking every thing else with the motor, compression, tune, etc… Finally around March of this year I made the decision to remove the Eaton and try to see if we could find why MM felt not so good at the time. We’ll my instinct/guess was right. The Teflon coating on the blowers rotors had been damaged. The damage came from having an air foil or air divider welded into the air inlet elbow feeding into the back of the blower. Per the blower porting guys recommendation, I choose to use his idea. This plate in the inlet elbow over time some how got fatigued and simply broke up and got injested by the blower and luckily went on to do know further damaged to the rest of the engine.

I sent the blower back to Magnuson for inspection and repair. It ended up being cheaper to buy a new blower unit from Jerry Barnes then have mine’s rotors recoated. At the same time I installed the fresh new blower I also installed a K&N filter kit along with a 90 MM Mass Air Meter. All of this added up to 15.1 psi of boost not the usual 13.8ish that had worked so well all of 2004.
I had no problems with the extra 1.5ish psi boost on 93 octane or 100 octane. But when it came time to spray the NOS and sort out the NOS tune all over again with the new blower and higher boost…. The fuel system started acting very inconsistent at WOT when it got over 5K on the tach. In short before I could get it all sorted out it broke a piston from going lean to many times while trying to sort it out, and that was the end of the stock motor in my MM that got its ass kicked all 2004 for 22K miles.

Over the last few weeks it basically got a new forged short block with stock compression as I like to do now after learning some lessons. Plus it got 60lbs injectors like many other returnless fuel system Ford’s we’ve done with great tuning and drivability success. So far the new motor as I’m writing this only has about 200 miles on it and it sounds, looks, and feels great. I’ve got the 60lbs injectors and the BA 2400 90mm meter from SCT totally sorted out. On 93 octane its still making 15psi of boost and has totally stock MM like drivability of course as I always say “until I put my foot into it”. I’ve not yet NOS’d the new motor but intend to very soon. With a more stronger bottom end ;) Slightly higher boost and a fuel system that should be good to about 550 RWHP… I intend to throw a little more NOS at it as well. It still has totally stock exhaust and a stock 04 TQ converter. I think its got an 11.30 in it now with the NOS and in cool weather hopefully consistent and solid 11.70’s with out the NOS.



How’s that for a response on a simple “why did it get forged pistons” ???

[MikesMerc]

We are not in any way going to stop working with or on the MM's with my decision to sell my own. I'm going to continue to R&D, and update, tune and etc with them like any other performance Ford I take interest in.


Yep Lidio knows real well that many of us are done with our Marauders just yet....not by a long shot:D

I still have plans.....lots of plans :thinker: mwaaa ha ha ha haaaaa.

[sailsmen]

Lidio, Thanks for the good 411. :)

Who ever buys your MM I am sure will be very pleased.