About the Video
1999 2004 Mustang GT Project Green Bean (Stage 2)
Check out our YouTube channel for even more tech tips, installation videos, how-tos, and more. The best place to go for anything Mustang related!
Published on 2016-04-06
Stage 2 consists of a couple things, but are mainly drivetrain related. Performance Automatic hooked us up with a killer, twelve inch thirty-two hundred stall converter and a valve body kit!
Racing torque converters are generally grouped by size (diameter) and stall speed. As the diameter of a torque converter decreases, the stall speed (RPM) goes up. This promotes excellent fuel economy and drive-ability because they are specifically designed for these purposes.
The valve body kit not only improves performance, but they also reduce wear because the transmission won't be trying to drive in two gears at once.
Team Z tubular front bumper support which will help knock off even more weight from Green Bean. Remove the front bumper, impact isolator and front bumper support so you can install this awesome part.
To help keep the transmission a little cooler a Derale universal cooler kit was installed. We bypass the ports on the radiator and ran it straight to the front mount cooler.
Mustang Fitment: 1994 (94),1995 (95), 1996 (96), 1997 (97), 1998 (98), 1999 (99), 2000 (00), 2001 (01), 2002 (02), 2003 (03), 2004 (04)
Transcript
Hey, what’s up everybody? Landan here with LMR.com, and it’s time for stage 2 on Project Green Bean! We cover some transmission goodies as well as some more weight reduction with a tubular front bumper support, so let’s check it out.
If you guys haven’t seen the intro or stage one of Project Green Bean, check out the video description where you can find the links to those videos.
Alright fellas, stage two consists of a couple things, but are mainly drivetrain related. Performance Automatic hooked us up with a killer, twelve inch thirty-two hundred stall converter and a valve body kit to back it up. Aside from the drivetrain components, Team Z came through again with their awesome tubular front bumper support which will help knock off even more weight from Green Bean.
The converter is a solid chunk of awesomeness and should really help chip away at our sixty foot times. Likewise with the valve body kit; it will help with firmer, more responsive shifts and even helps prolong transmission life. After all, ol’ Green Bean has about one hundred and sixty thousand miles on her, so anything to keep it working, we’re game. To help keep the transmission a little cooler since we went with an aggressive stall speed in the converter, a Derale universal transmission cooler fit the bill.
Tackling the drivetrain components was two things: one it was straightforward, but time consuming; and two it’s not for the faint of heart or someone doing this for the first time. I would strongly recommend the assistance from a knowledgeable friend or pay a reputable transmission shop to get the job done.
The converter went in without any issues what so ever and while we had the transmission out of the way we inspected the rear main seal. Which in fact looked to have been replaced before, so we left it in place since it looked good to go. Upon further inspection of the transmission, looks like we got extremely lucky and that was at one point freshened up as well. Granted, not knowing who did the work, it could still be a ticking bomb.
Once the converter was in we bolted the transmission back to the block and addressed the valve body. This one put up a fight, but we took it down just as easy. Switching springs and chasing down check balls was the easiest of the whole ordeal. The nerve-pinching steps was drilling into your perfectly fine valve body. Regardless, the Performance Automatic valve body kit we tremendously help out Green Bean.
Once the underside was all fixed up, we turned our attention to the front of the car. We removed the front bumper, impact isolator and front bumper support so we can install our Team Z tubular support. This reuses the four factory bolts and best of all sheds fifteen to twenty pounds off of the front. While we were there we installed the Derale universal cooler kit. For the most part this one was plug and play and we did bypass the ports on the radiator and ran it straight to the front mount cooler. Other than bypassing the radiator we made some custom brackets to mount it to the core support.
Alright guys, that’ll wrap things up for stage two on Project Green Bean. Of course you’ll want to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can stay up to date with all of the latest covering Project Green Bean. Until we move onto stage three, keep it right here with the real Mustang enthusiasts, LMR.com!
