bwkelley76

Hello all, I'm a newbie to this site. I was brought over from another forum regarding the 2013-2014 "GT Track Key/Track Cal" Check Engine Light/cat efficiency concern that seems to be plaguing those of us that shilled out the cash for this otherwise awesome tune.


I've been building and customizing Ford and other American, and a few foreign cars, for nearly 30 years now. Bought my first car at the age of 13 and I was hooked on the idea of customizing and restoring anything with 4 wheels on it.


I work for and manage a well known/reputable muscle car restoration shop in the Northern California area and I love what I do. ~Living the dream as many state it. I've been a highly decorated bumper to bumper auto tech for some time now and I can say I was part of the few lucky gents that started life young at a number of dealerships and I hung in the business for a number of years, gaining experience along the way, soaking up information like a sponge. If not for that who knows where I would be in life, maybe better, maybe worse, but I absolutely love what I do.


I have had an infatuation with Mustangs and Fords in the last 10+ years, especially the Coyote and other modular Ford engines as well as stroker Windsors. I've owned some pretty awesome, heavily modded 60's Stangs, a few 90's and Y2K era Stangs, as well as a few 2nd gen Lightning trucks. Most recently my collection included a very nice '67 Carroll Shelby Tribute, a '69 Mach 1, a few '67 Coupes, a few of them were equipped with 600++ HP Windsor stroker engines and other cool features. Other cool rides include a 2006 GTO, '67 Impala, '49 and '50 F1 trucks, '63 Falcon Sprint, ....and the list goes on.


Thanks in advance for the warm welcomes, and happy to be here so far!


Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.


~Brandon

laserred38

Welcome! What shop do you work for? I work in Pleasanton and live in the East Bay! There's quite a few S197s popping up in the Bay Area lately! Post some pics too...

bwkelley76

Thanks! I work for Gearhead Garage in Sacramento.

Heres a recent pic of my '14. Upgrades include 3" mandrel stainless catback exhaust, track pack rear diff cover, Vossen tribute 19" staggered wheels,
BMR rear lca's and relocator brackets, adjustable pahard, Steeda ultralite springs, Steeda shifter, and FRPP Track Cal tune.

laserred38

OMG you work for them?? I love their builds!! What catback did you you? I'm going with Solo Performance. How have the BMR pieces been?

bwkelley76

Well thanks and yes I do! Been with GG for about 3 years now and I love what we do! Great company to work for and I definitely found my nitch. You should see our latest SEMA 67 Mustang Fastback project. -Nothing short of SICK!

For my exhaust I hand picked the Flowmaster American Thunder catback (very nice system. It is very underrated/underadvertized.) I did swap out the existing mufflers for classic 40 series mufflers. The system after the muffler swap sounds badass but its not for everyone. 6th gear, under 2k rpm does drone, but easily fixed by downshifting into 5th or speeding up a bit. It goes away after 2200. The system is all stainless 3" mandrel piping with their patented Scavenger X-pipe, and I also went with a double-walled 4" tip for my setup.

Car sounds more like an old school muscle car than a mod-motor, which I love!

So far zero complaints in 7k miles with the BMR stuff. I appreciate the simple yet effective engineering. Zero wheel-hop and handling has improved. Relocators are just bolted in, not welded, and have not loosened up or anything. ...torqued and Re-torqued after 500 miles.

laserred38

Awesome buddy! There's quite a few NorCal owners on here now. I spend time in sac at least a couple times a month. Would you be down to help me out with my suspension install? I haven't decided on my rear end parts yet, but most likely going to hold off until I have the funds for a Watts Link. I already have K-Springs, Koni Yellows and MM CC plates.

bwkelley76

Sounds like you're on the right track. Always willing to help, probably wouldn't be an "in-shop" thing however, since we are packed full of classics at the moment. Keep in touch and let me know when you're at the point of install. Suspension is pretty basic/very straight forward on these cars. I've found the YouTube how-to videos to be extremely helpful. Before attempting it, do a search and watch a few videos. There are a few good tricks to save time and effort.

td01gt

Welcome.

laserred38

Oh yeah I'm not worried about my abilities - it's the lack of power tools and a lift that makes me not want to do it at home with hand tools and jack stands LOL

bwkelley76

I feel ya there. I have to fight for a rack at the shop myself most of the time. We could use another rack down there, or maybe two! Something tells me they would just become occupied like the rest however.


Hit me up after Hot August Nights if you haven't already installed everything. Right now we're running a bit over capacity.


You're definitely welcome to come get a tour sometime if you can give me advanced notice.

bwkelley76

Thank you!

laserred38

Awesome man! My buddy is a service advisor at Harrold Ford too, so let me know if you need work done. I don't know if they have any discount, but he can give it to their best techs...

bwkelley76

Would have been nice to know, I bought the car there and was going to have them buy and install some Ford Racing parts. Whoever I talked to said they didn't do anything custom or any FRPP stuff at all. So I've been going to Folsom Lake as per a customer of mine's referral.. ..Being treated great by FLF so far, and they don't seem to have an issue with my mods.


I do need to go back to Harold for some paint warranty on my front bumper however. ..Who should I ask for?

laserred38

My buddy's name is Vince. He works Tuesday - Saturday. Let me know when you're thinking of going and I'll let him know. They are definitely not a very mod friendly dealer, which is why I didn't buy my car from them haha. They're more of the "sell Focus Electric, Fusion/C-Max Energi" type of dealer if you know what I mean. It's cool that they have the old school family owned feel still, but it's just a different feeling. What sales guy did you buy the car from?

bwkelley76

He no longer works there although I don't have anything bad to say about him. He was actually very patient and not pushy at all.


The car sold itself though as it had a $3k "dealer cash" rebate in addition to the $4k Ford rebate. I got a great deal on the car and no other dealer could touch it for that price.


I'm bad with names so I don't recall. Younger kid, thinner, medium height, blonde hair.