The Official Project Vanilla Ice Thread...

So, the car was nicknamed "Vanilla Ice" one night when a few friends opened the garage and saw my white on white 89 vert sitting there.

I traded for the car just before christmas.
I traded straight across for this
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The car has the following mods

Stock 93 motor from SSP car with oil cooler
Stock 93 T-5 with centerforce clutch.
BBK Springs
BBK Upper and lower control Arms
Subframe connectors
6 pt cage welded into subframes
95 front spindles/rotors/calipers with stainless lines
5 lug rear axles with drum brakes
Auburn posi with 31 spline shafts and 3.73's
17" bullits with 245 fronts and 275 rears
BBK CAI
MAC short tube unequal length headers
MAC O/R H-pipe
MAC 2.5" catback

And that is all i can think of.

Immediate plans started today. I started prep work on my block that is going to the machine shop monday.
Its getting a .030" bore and cleaned up. The machine shop is going to machine the crank .030" also and assemble the stock rods and hyper pistons.
Using moly rings.
Its getting an E cam if the one i have is any good, or an X cam if i have to buy one.
GT-40 heads off of my 94 cobra and ford explorer intake.

The motor is a temporary motor. I'm headed to san diego in march for about a year and upon return i plan to build a 408w for it. I'm not going to get into specifics on it, because its a long time out.

The trans is going to stay stock until i put the 408 in, and at that point with get built with Astro's parts to handle around 500 ft/lbs

I have no plans for the rear end at all.
On the front end i plan to upgrade to 99+ calipers and call it a day.

I want to put 99+ front seats in it, and do a rear seat delete.

It also needs some typical things that a 20 year old car needs, the top needs replaced(if anyone has done this, can you give me a rough idea of cost) and it needs a weather stripping kit.

I'll try to update this as the motor build progresses. The motor will be in the car by the middle of February.

Here are some pictures of the car.
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Here are few pics of my block and crank waiting to go to the machine shop(my prep work consisted of cleaning out the head bolt holes, popping out the soft plugs, radiusing the oil holes, and gasket matching the oil pump feed hole)
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As with any project, i am always open to suggestions.

Along with the motor, i am going 24lb injectors, new maf and 255 fuel pump.

Strippt88 said:

Very nice- but I never understood the whole "mudding" thing anyhow- we have the best roadway system, why not use it? Love the 5 lugs/GT rims, they look great on Fox's If it were mine, I'd get a new set of headlights, and lose the cage, unless you wanna run 9's, and seat 2 uncomfortably. And, a new name, I almost didn't look cuz of the whole "Vanilla Ice" thing the country is still reeling from.

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the cage stays because i plan to dip into the low 11's minimum and with a vert its mandatory. The name stays cause its an inside joke.

Headlights? Suggestions?

picked up my intake and heads today.
the block and crank get picked up tomorrow, and i'll start assembly this weekend
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the heads and intake are going to the hot tank tomorrow.

my wife thinks it's dumb too, she's just not old enough to know how cool he was.

Strippt88 said:

We must be thinking of two different vanilla ice's, this one you know was cool? The one we had back in the early 90's, a total riot, thought he was black, danced around in pajamas, scowling, punching the air while he "sang" these hilarious tunes about how tough he was- think he spent a lot of time getting his ass kicked in school- prolly just for this hair he had, it actually went up, defying gravity! It was great stuff, he even went on Saturday Night Live, acting like this rough guy from the hood- one of their funnies episodes ever, totally upstaged guys like Eddie Murphy! Like a nightmare with, like, Hammer, only less talent! Dude, people that were there, in the early 90's, we couldn't get enough, don't know why he suddenly vanished!Just disappeared, gone! Like nobody wanted to laugh at a guy pretending to be another color, and being nearly devoid of any ability, and being sooo threatening anymore! If you were bored, and wanted a great laugh, this guy was it!

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i clearly remember him, i grew up in the early 90's... my wife though is almost 7 years younger than me

picked up my oil pump, water pump, cam bearings, t-stat and timing chain today
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Tore my heads down
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Picked up the block and crank from the shop.
I had the crank machined .010", i had the block align bored and torque plate honed .030" for the new pistons and i had the shop hand and align my pistons.
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Here is a funny story...
So, if you notice my earlier pictures you'll notice my block was previously painted blue...
the hot tank turned it pink!
And my father(a master engine builder) will not let me a paint an engine he's built. he states "painting is for ***gots, and it wont make you go any faster"
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And check out the sweet ass machine work
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no, he thinks the pink is funny. and you cant really see the block in teh car anyways

1989fiveohman said:

no no no , you must paint the block , if a chevy guy were to see that under the hood , we ford guys could never live it down!!!!lol but you can do what you want!

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here is a pic of my current motor... anyone see the block color?
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i rest my case