68 mustang shock towers w/ 428

[diverdaveman]

I've heard that on the 68 big block cars that Ford and/or Shelby reinforced the shock towers to help support the weight of the 428. Is this true? If so, what do they look like and does anyone have a picture of what they look like on the car? I'm doing a 289 to 428 conversion and would like to get all the strength I can.

Thanks
Dave

 

[crushnut]

I know that they did on the 1970 Boss 302 & Twister Special, but i dont know about the 68, i would have to guess that they did since the 428 is a monster. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than i can answer your question further, D.Hearne maybe BTW, it sounds like a fun project you got there, be sure to post pics for us We all like pics.

I did some research on this and found that you can cut the towers out of a wrecking yard 69/70 V8 Cougar. Mercury didn't cheap out like Ford, and supplied all of them with the heavy reinforced towers. You can drill out the spot welds to remove the bracing from the junk yard towers. Good luck finding one though

 

[Sicarius428]

I have a 70 Mach 1 Q code and it has the reinforced shock towers. Unfortunately I do not have a digi cam but here is a kit to strenthen the front end.

http://www.metromustang.com/projects/67_fastback/shock_tower_repair.html

http://www.pro-motorsports.com/art-crackedshocktower.asp

You can see a bit of the reinforcement on the bottom right corner of the shock tower.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...=20&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N

On my car they are about 3/8thsish inch(haven't looked under the hood lately) plates which are spot welded in and not welded on the edge like the kit does them.
I am not sure how much work will be involved in doing this but if you are handy with a welder it should be a piece of cake. I suggest correcting your steering geometry while you are down there because you will need all the handling you can get out of that car with all that weight on the front end. You can do that by redrilling your upper control holes arm an inch down. I only mention it because it doesn't sound like you are trying to keep the car original. I believe I got the template from Mustangs Plus and the only hard part is finding the odd ball drill bit 17/32 or something like that. Drill any more than an inch and you will start to have issues with the ball joint wearing out quickly or breaking. They sell corrective a arms that fix that problem if you want to go that route but they dont come cheap. Not to mention that your tires are going to wear more on the inside as it is. Wow, I just made that seem like a pain in the @ss. Sorry. I also suggest getting some subframe connectors and X brace like the ones from Total Control Products to stiffen up the frame a bit. With the X frame you will have to give up the idea of having an H pipe but I think it is worth it. Good luck.
Kevin

 

[diverdaveman]

Thanks for the infor and links to the websites. I think I'll be purchasing those shock tower reinforcement brackets. I already have welding in the extra bracing for the sub-frames.
I still would like to see a picture, if one exists, of what a factory reinforced tower looks like...

Thanks again. This was my first post, and you guys welcomed me with great information.

 

[Lswhat]

ive heard that the shock towers have to be move out an inch to fit the monster in the also. like the manifolds wont clear and as far as heards i dont know if they will even go at all.

 

[67GTA-FB429]

You do not need to move the shock towers for a 428 to fit.

 

[Sicarius428]

The 428 is no bigger than the 390,360 and 352. The intake manifold is the size of Texas and weighs about 100 lbs but it will fit. The FE intake manifolds are kind of integrated into the heads so they seem a lot bigger than they actually are. It was designed that way to be stronger which the FE blocks are. Another thing to improve handling is to ditch that brick of an intake manifold and get an aluminum one. The only problem is that you have to remove all your pushrods and valvetrain in order to change it. that should save you about 70 lbs in the long run. The only engine that they had to move the shock towers is the Boss 429 because its hemisphereical heads... The 428 comes close though... especially with headers. You should be able to shoehorn the engine and tranny in all at once without too much of a problem unless you have headers on too. The headers bind on the steering box wich takes some adjusting to get around but headers will fit... somehow. I'll see if I can snag somebodies camera to take a couple of pics.
Kevin

 

[Lswhat]

yeah i just heard that from somebody in my travels to the track and car shows so it very well could be inaccurate

 

[67GTA-FB429]

I have a 429 in mine and did not moce the shock towers. I do not have headers. I wish would have....but it is not required.

 

[Sicarius428]

I'll borrow a digi cam and take some pics of the firewalls. The 67-70 have the same engine compartment. In my highschool autoshop we had a 460 crammed into a 67 with headers. Kind of nuts but but it somehow worked. The 429/460 is actually a bigger engine than the 428 if you can believe it although it was designed to be smaller, lighter, stronger and more powerfull... none of which it was able to accomplish.
Kevin

 

[D.Hearne]

The 428 wil fit, unless your shock towers have "leaned" in toward each other due to stress and age. The big block cars did have extra reinforcemnets at the bottoms of them. After dealing with headers with an FE ( or other big blocks) you won't be as enthusiastic about them as you now are. I would highly recommend getting a set of FPA Tri-Y headers for it instead of the Hooker/Hedman 4 into 1's, they're easier to live with but a little pricier at around $400 a set. Also recommmend a good assortment of 3/8 or 7/16 end wrenches( for whichever head size bolts you use, I'd go with 3/8ths) for those header bolts, you'll definately need them, plus a butt-load of patience to install the header bolts.And don't EVEN think of trying to use allen head bolts, they won't work. It used to take me 3 hours just to install all the bolts on my 390 and later the 427

 

[67GTA-FB429]

Keep in mind the 429 is a 351C on steroids or a high-fat diet depending on viewpoint...

 

[Sicarius428]

Hey Diverdaveman,

I got some pics if you have email I can send them to you. I do not know how to post them on the forum because I do not have any webspace.
Kevin

 

[crushnut]

You can send them to me and i will post them for you.

[email protected]

 

[diverdaveman]

Here is my email to send the pic's to

[email protected]

Thanks...

 

[crushnut]

Here is my email to send the pic's to

[email protected]

Thanks...

He tried to send the pics to me too, but said they were too big for yahoo

 

[diverdaveman]

Thanks anyway crush...

If he still has them, he can send them to [email protected] This is my work email. It has 35meg limit on it.

Thanks again.

 

[crushnut]

Sorry i couldn't help ya, hopefully he still does have them. You might wanna PM him to get in contact sonner.

BTW- Don't forget to post some pics of your car, when you are done

 

[KillerKittyCat]

1968 Cougars had 428 CJ's in them. Same everything as the Mustang except for the eye patches, taillights and performance.

Have you ever seen an early Cougar with a 6 banger???

 

[bud4660]

If you want to make it easier to work on. Cut the towers back and plate them. Makes life better with a big block.