All of us love this car, we have done upgrades in stages because not all of us can afford to spend a lot at one time. That's why I have set packages in stages. Now it has been discussed by a few why is there a need for doing any thing but just install Supercharger and be done with it. Well, to me this makes no sense I will address the brake issue first.
Recently questions have been raised as to the reason for upgrading brakes when an engine upgrade has been performed. The reasons are as follows, stock braking systems have been designed to stop a vehicle within the established perimeters of physical size, weight, tire sizes and type, speed capability. When any one or more of these items are modified, the stress on the braking system increases. With this increase in stress, the vehicles will experience brake fade, spongy pedals, and increased stopping distances. To properly correct these problems, you must upgrade your brakes to compensate. The most cost effective method is to replace stock rotors with a 2 piece OEM size cross-drilled rotors to effect additional cooling, lighten the weight, replace brake pads with a compound that requires no warm-up, has a low brake dust such as our carbon fiber pads, install stainless steel braided lines that will be available mid spring to early summer, and replace your brake fluid with a DOT 5.1 to ensure that you have a fluid that has a higher heat range to stock. These items combined will compensate for the increased stress, without breaking the bank.
The rotors come in Blue Black or Red
http://web.iwebcenters.com/reinharta...s/MVC-020F.jpg
KVR has now dropped the price of there kits because of consistent sales to 685.00 for the front and 448.00 for the rear in either cross drilled or gas slotted. This is a very affordable upgrade the Bear kit is very nice but The Bear front kit costs as much as KVR's 4 wheel kit, and I can get the Bear kit if you want it.
Now lets talk about upgrading the transmission, The stock Marauder makes about 233 RWHP. With a stage 1 kit the car gains over 23 RWHP and over 30 foot pounds of torque some members here with both stage 1 and stage 2 modifications to there cars are very close to 300 RWHP. With my supercharger kit and a 3.61 pulley this is about eight pounds boost the car jumps to 440 RWHP thats about 528 to the flywheel. There are members here who's cars don't even have superchargers installed that have had there transmissions fail still under warranty, and some of these members really don't hammer there cars like some of us, While at Ennis three SC Marauders lost there transmissions either too or from Ennis, two of the cars were KB cars one was mine.
Jerry W tore down one KB cars Transmission's and my customers, he found that both transmissions C clip had popped off the Mechanical Diode assembly along with that he found that the gasket on the valve body was pinched out and the 1/2 and the 2/3 accumulator pistons rubber lip had been torn on installation from Ford, I have seen this on three transmissions here.
This is what caused the transmission failures, and I can safely say none of these are really contributed to the SC install except for the snap ring, I know that when you have increased the RWHP from 233 to over 400 RWHP the stock transmission is going to fail no matter who's Super charger kit you buy. So to fix the snap ring problem you can either stake the old C. Clip type in, or replace it with the Spiral lock clip. But the C Clip has been a problem on the transmission for years, now this will fix the snap ring problem on both N/A and SC cars of course there are other modifications will need to be done that is what the level 1 and level 2 Transmision kits are for.
Now lets talk about the rear tail shaft bushing, the only means of lubrication for the rear tail shaft bushing is transmissions fluid that is splashed back in the tail shaft when fluid is sloshed around while driving and during heavy acceleration, now if you are driving for long periods on straight and level roads very little fluid gets back to the tailshaft bushing, now if you add 4:10's the rear out put shaft is really spinning much faster than with the stock 3:55's this can burn out the rear tail shaft bushing, Common sense tells you when you add the forced lube tail shaft modification, your cars transmission is now supplying a constant lubricant directly on the front yoke and the rear bushing this will prevent the bushing from ever burning up do to lack of lubrication. So those people who say its not needed are just plain wrong, but they are entitled to there own opinion, Jerry Wroblewski was a drive line engineer at Ford he wrote the service articles on this transmission. I have been selling and building AODE/4R70W's for years, with his advice and guidance. So again I have tested every thing I sell for the Marauder. I am not here to sell you something you don't need, and I tell you that on the phone.
My goal has always been to sell proven products, what I try to do is improve the car while at the same time having enough insight to see where the weak areas are and fix those areas before they cause problems Why would I sell you a Supercharger knowing that the brakes will not be sufficient to stop the car safely under all types of driving habits or conditions, or that sooner or later your transmission is going to fail, and if you upgrade it prior to failure this will save you money, just like Mike Eaton's car, he drove here and was just wanting an up grade level 1 we found the transmission had failed to the exact problems I have out lined above, so instead of a 700.00 repair he spent more, and if this would have happened on the way here he would have paid a lot more and probably a huge tow charge, So for any one to say just bolt on a Supercharger kit and go for it, if that is what you want go ahead, I will gladly sell you one as other companies do, but I will tell you what I think while I have you on the phone. Again if it were not for you I would not be here I appreciate all your business, and I am trying to improve mine to better serve you.
Dennis A Reinhart
P.S. I just got this from my friends at Art Car,Alan just sent this, and it sounds real familar.
"Why
in the world would some one want to upgrade the 4R70W transmission in a
vehicle that has a modified engine and chassis?" My first response is
why would you not want to? You just spent all of that money to enhance
the engine and chassis performance of the vehicle but when you break
your transmission all of that work and money is just sitting there like
a high dollar paper weight. When Ford designed the Mercury Marauder and
Mustang the engine was already pushing the limits of the 4R70W
transmission to begin with. Now people are having super charges
installed, tuning work done, other engine mods, and 4.10 gears install
into the rear end. All of the add-ons add up to a enviable event for
breaking the 4R70W, just ask Mark Keiser form Chicago. His trans was a
typical failure for that kind of horsepower application. I believe that
he had his car modified by Kenny Brown and lost overdrive on the way to
Dallas for the Fun Ford Week End toward the fall of 2003. We were ably
to have Mark drive to our facility in Abilene Texas and get his
transmission into our shop and we found a list of things that failed
(please see attached failure analysis). This is why we upgrade the
4R70W trans the way we do. The bottom line is that you when you upgrade
the horsepower you need to improve the shift timing, clutch upgrade to
hold more horsepower, install hardened stub shaft to prevent brakeage on
2/3 shift, upgrade snap-ring to keep the mechanical diode on the drum
and last but not least the forced lube circuit to keep the yoke bushing
from seizing to the yoke when 4.10 rear-end gears are installed. That
bushing only relies on a very small amount of splash lube that is
supplied through the tail housing, if that bushing seizes than you will
dump all of your fluid out of the trans while going down the road and
you will never know it until the transmission is burned up and will not
move. If someone wants to take their chances and not upgrade the
transmission when they modify their engine that is their own folly. In
my professional opinion that is money well spent to protect that kind of
investment not mention the performance enhancements.
EAT SLEEP RACE
ART CARR
Alan Hartmann
Vice President
Art Carr Performance Products
www.artcarr.com
Originally Posted by darebren
Reinhart
