New Mustang Guy, And A New Project!

Heresy

Member
Oct 19, 2015
9
3
13
Upstate NY
Well, here I am! My name's John, and I live in upstate NY. I just bought a '94 Mustang GT roller, and I just sold my '92 Camaro roller... The Mustang is just a better all around car to mess with! Better looking, stronger rear axle, more comfortable to drive, and well, to be frank, I'm planning something that hasn't been done yet (Not that I'm aware of, anyway.)

I have a 383 LT1 engine, brand new, built with about 550 horsepower in mind... Let's say a conservative 425 at the wheels, through the T56. I had it in my Camaro, with a stock 350ci bottom end, and spun the motor apart and rebuilt it with all forged goodies, but decided to sell the car, because I felt like building something a bit more unique.

The LT1/T56 are going into the Mustang. That's happening, and no, I'm not doing an LS motor / 408W / Big block ford / BBC / coyote / 302W etc... There are plenty of awesome engine platforms to mess with, but I have a garage full of parts for what I have, including standalone ECU, plenty of optispark parts (which I may need), accessories, etc...

My roller so far includes Hotchkis rear upper and lower control arms, a TREX pump (Car had a Vortec blown 331 in it before I got it), H&R springs, Bilstein shocks, bolt-in subframe connectors, 13" cobra brakes, 18" saleen wheels, Fluidyne radiator, and some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting...

The Cobra brakes were picked up by me recently from PA, along with a 2004 Mustang black dash that needs airbags.

I'll be getting an AJE tubular K-member with SBC mounts, Tubular Lower control arms to use my springs and struts (unless I decide to go coilover up front), Dynatech 79-04 SBC swap headers, a T56 crossmember, a Thunderbird turbocoupe pedal assembly to run the hydraulic clutch of my T56, probably fabbing up an X-pipe from one of those universal kits, a Qwik-stik shifter to relocate my shifter into the stock location (or close enough to it to maintain the factory look), a 2004 Mustang GT interior including dash, seats and carpet, a custom driveshaft, and lots of random parts...

The LT1 engine uses exhaust ports that are raised, so I might need to modify the headers a slight bit.

Once I dyno the car, I will upgrade the rear differential ratio according to expected trap speed in 4th gear. I'm thinking the car should go high 10s, at 125-130mph. A 3.90:1 gear should do fine, keep in mind the 2.66:1 first gear of my GM T56, and 6500 - 7000 RPM expected shift point.

My goal is to have a car capable of turning heads, occasional street use, strip use, going into the 10-second range at over 125mph, piss off some chevy and ford purists, a top speed of 175MPH, and have fun busting balls while spending time and money I'd otherwise piss away on worse things.

The big money is already spent (Motor, transmission, suspension, the car itself). I am also looking to spend under 5 grand completing this pile of blasphemy. I will use Craigslist at every opportunity to scrounge for used and usable parts. Figuring as follows:

K member: $300
Motor mounts: $80
Driveshaft: $200 (I know a guy)
Xmember: $200
Gears: $300
X pipe and mufflers: $400
Headers: $600
Tires: $1000 (Unless Craigslist comes through)
Clutch: $500
Turbocoupe pedals: $200
Fluidampr for my motor: $400
Tubular LCAs: $300
Shifter: $300
Misc. parts like fuel fittings, hoses, bolts, band-aids: $800

...and the parts I expect to sell, like the stock wheels, k-member, old interior, etc...

Well, I'm sure I'll get lots of hate for putting a Chevy motor into a Ford, but I think it'll be lots of fun to do the project, and even more fun to piss off the purists. Don't get me wrong, I like a proper Ford motor just the same as a proper Chevy, but why not turn the butthurt switch on!!!
 
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Welcome! Sorry to disappoint but these kinds of builds don't bother me lol. Post some pics up. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress and the final product.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
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I was anticipating getting flamed for the whole "Chevy motor n a Ford" thing, but I'm aware many have done similar swaps before.
I haven't been on this forum long enough to know how the others feel about this, but I have seen many nice builds with LS/LT engines. I'm a Ford guy but I appreciate all cars. Foxbodies with Chevy small blocks just tend to be great budget builds. Hopefully everyone here can help you along the way. I'll be looking for the progress thread and pics. [emoji482]

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
I haven't checked in here in a long time. I have made some progress with the build, although very slow because of free time, but I've crossed many bridges and learned a few things!

First off, I got the AJE K-member, LT1 mounts, Dynatech SBC swap headers, X pipe, mufflers with turndowns (IMCO 40-series), a set of FR500 17x9/10.5 wheels with Nitto NT555R tires, AJE crossmember for the T56, a full 2004 Mustang GT 40th anniversary interior including dashboard, carpet, leather seats and all of the interior panels and the MACH stereo system, an ATI Super damper for my motor instead of the fluidampr. I have been selling stuff off the car and out of my garage and buying virtually everything on Craigslist. I have under $2000 into the car so far, including the car itself. There have been enough parts that I got with the car that I didn't need and was able to sell. I've driven all over the place to pick parts up also. It's been a hell of an adventure!


The strut towers had a little bit of surface rust at the seams, so I took to it with naval jelly and a wire brush over and over until I got the area shiny, and coated it with POR-15 and then some high-temp flat black paint all over the engine bay.

Tonight, I just ripped out the dash, steering column and the seats. I'm going to cut out as much wiring as I can and switch the 1994 Mustang dash wiring harness over to the 2004 dash. Next up,I'll pull the stock K-member and put the front end back together with my AJE... I'm going to try to make my Terminator lower control arms work without hitting the headers. I understand the passenger side rubs, so maybe I'll give that a arm a little trim treatment, as long as it doesn't affect the strength of that stamped steel arm too much!


I decided on some auto meter gauges, but I'm going to be scouring eBay and Craigslist for a gauge bezel and each individual gauge. I like the Auto meter Phantom gauges. Maybe some will turn up this year at the Englishtown swap meets?

Here's a shot of the car from the back... Notice the missing front fenders as I have been ripping everything under the hood apart and eliminating anything I don't need. I will have to take more pictures of the engine bay and the parts.
 

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So, I put the aje k member in place with the spring perches without a hitch and reused the terminator a arms. Got my motor mounts on the engine, after a little cutting to clearance the lt1 knock sensor, and lowered the motor in. I ended up needing clearance on the passenger side a arm for the header, like I anticipated, and ground away at the flat protrusions on either side, and I cleared the headers... Headers I bought had an evac system welded in and no o2 sensor bungs, which I fixed although I'm not the best welder. I cut holes around the evac tubes to remove them, cut a 3 inch segment of 3 inch pipe, and welded it to each collector, drilled for and welded the o2 bung in place on each header, after mocking up and marking the location desired on each header. The 3 inch x pipe I bought from the fox body fit with longer rubber hangers. So far, it's a pretty easy swap. I'm having a lot of fun with wiring it up, and I am going to have more fun getting the lt1 t56 situated. I'm probably going to remove the clutch quadrant from the clutch axle and pivot that arm so that it rotates towards the firewall, and use that to push a master cylinder rod... I'll figure it out and post my solution... I wish I bought a mustang as a kid, so easy to work on compared to the f bodies I am used to.
 

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I forgot to mention, I put a quantum fuel pickup with a 340lph pump and an fittings in place of the stock fuel basket, which required a bit of banging the tank to make room for the 8AN supply line. I also needed to put a good size dent under the car to make room for the 3 bolt flanges I welded to my dynatech headers.... My key take away so far is this... Dynatech swap headers will work with stock style A arms, with a bit of clearancing done to the passenger side A arm, and the AJE LT1 mounts need to be chopped up a bit in order to work properly with a knock sensor.
 
How about I move your thread over to the '79-'04 general talk subforum. You'll get better responses there.

You don't have to worry too much about negative response to your swap. You're not the first.

It's good to have you posting though, I look forward to watching your build.
 
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You don't have to worry too much about negative response to your swap. You're not the first.

Never understood why there would be negative response. When I had my G35, over at the G35 forums guys would swap in LSx motors all the time. Did anyone give them crap? Nope...they all wanted pics.

Seriously. You see one 5.0 in a fox, you've seen them all. Show me something different!
 
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I'm looking for a decent manual steering setup for the car. Has anyone put a fox rack into an sn95? Are the flaming river racks all the same, as far as the steering shaft on the rack side? I know tie rods are shorter on the fox rack, but assuming the thread is the same on the inside, I could change to sn95 tie rods. Reason I ask is I have found more fox racks used.