As my Cummins repowered Ranger project has begun to come to an end, it is time to work on the Mustang again. Ironically it has come at a time where many of the components that I have had in the works for some time now, such as the motor are also coming to a end.
The car has been through varies stages of since I have owned it. I bought the 68 Fastback after Basic Training out of CJ Pony part's junk yard. The original plan was to build a Bullitt clone with a nasty NA 302 and with vintage legal suspension upgrades. Eventually I decided to build a Shelby clone as I have always loved the subtle aggressive lines of the car, and I would never be able to afford a real one.
The car has had two power plants, yet has never seen the road. A GT 40 based 302, and a R Block based 331 Storker built for 15 lbs of turbocharged goodness. This was primarily to defeat my arch nemesis who I have never meet, just have seen his car. A beautiful white 4th generation single turbo Toyota Supra with "V8 HUNTER" plates. With that power plant came considerable drivetrain improvements.
- Cobra Automotive UCA, LCA, Roller Perches, and Spindles.
- TCP Strut Rods, Tower Brace kit, Manual Rack, and SFC's.
- Wilwood 13" on all four corners, 6 Piston up front 4 in the rear.
- Martz Fourlink, 9'' with upgraded tubes, 35 spline Chromoly Axles with a Detriot Locker.
- Eagle F1's 245 45 17 out front and 315 35 17 put back.
- F.A.S.T. Stand Alone ECU.
The car was on track to be running summer 2006, till I got a Notchback Mustang in a trade. This car ended up as a project as well but for all the resources it took from the 68, It helped dial in what I want in the car. This I also built this car for the intention of using it as a DD and for HPDE. In short it car had Cobra brakes on all four corners, and IRS from a 01 Cobra, a TKO 500, a 64mm Turbo, and the FAST box from the 68. The Car made 486/501 at the wheels with a stock motor and 14lbs of boost, and was gutted so it only weighed 2800 lbs.
The driveability and power to weight ratio was very attractive in this car, though it was a bit nose heavy which was the last thing a Fox body, or any mustang needs. Due to this I decided to ditch my boosted power plant in my 68, and build a big SBF stroker motor and have a more balanced street/track car.
I sold the motor and the notch to friends, and used that money coupled with some of my Iraqi Blood money to have essentially a Ford LS7 built. I bought a Hybrid 351W Dart Aluminum block w/ Cleveland mains and took the block to MCRP to have a high revving big cubed SBF built. In the past my friends and I built our motors, but with the cost and the rather extreme nature of this motor I decided to have it built by a experienced engine builder.
To support 7liters of fury. Accufab 2" primaries, long tubes for High ports.
This pretty much where the car is right now, besides the power plant change, I am concerned with the staggered wheel/tire sizing, excessive push in the turns could arise from my current set up. I initially was looking at building another suspension using a Mustang II drop spindle or possibly a FFR SN95 spindle and just adjusting the factory pick up points as needed so I can run a wider front wheel. A friend of mine is a Mechanical Engineer and has alot of first hand knowledge and tons of data to aid in doing this. But my access to tools has changed so that may not be a viable option at this point.
While researching that, I have been in contact with Agent 47 about their Harbinger Mustang SLA kit. The car has posted some impressive times and I really like how it uses modified stock pickup points. Money is always a concern and it has been tight as of late. If things go well I may purchase the Agent 47 kit in the coming months otherwise, I will just have to make do and try and build a setup with favors.
The motor should be done within the next couple of weeks, progress has stalled as CamMotion has yet to deliver my motors cam, so the top end is not complete. Also since the front suspension is not finalized so the oil pan has not been built yet. I am curious to see how well the headers fit in the engine bay, and how much tweaking I will need to do.
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427 c.i. of Aluminum Windsor goodness.
About two years worth of any non essential funds is almost complete. The last major portion of the motor to be finished is the Oil pan. Though until I get the front suspension squared away, it can't be built. A friend of mines first reaction to it was, "Sick, looks like a bowtie though".
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427 c.i. of Aluminum Windsor goodness.
Last edited by 68fbjjz109; 02-04-2012 at 12:15 PM.
Sadly, the Supra may still beat you But that's just because it's an awesome car.
Sadly you may be correct. However the last time I saw the car, to owner had put 19" wheels on it, that will hurt that car alot from a dig. Though from a roll that is a different story, but the rule of thumb is that you run no bigger wheels then you need to clear your brakes. The difference in sidewall rigidity is probably not worth the increase in weight, and rolling mass.
Although "beating" that car is no longer the goal of the car, I will venture to guess that it will give it a real good go at it in a straight line, and maybe even beat it in the turns. Rough/guesstimated numbers put the car at 600+hp and probably weighing in around 2900 pounds. Once the motor is finished where going to throw it on part of a chassis scale and see how much it weighs. Even if I am making a little less power I still have an attractive power to weight ratio, and with a relatively light weight rotating assembly and much more displacement on my side, I will probably make 600 hp before he will. None the less regardless of how the encounter turned out, it would be worth video taping.
All in all, I just happy that the Supra doesn't have any questionable body modifications. Their such clean looking cars, and they have such good lines from the factory, the only asthetic modifications they could use like most cars is a more aggressive stance/ride height.
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427 c.i. of Aluminum Windsor goodness.
Last edited by 68fbjjz109; 02-06-2012 at 11:05 AM.
Well things have not progressed nearly as much as I would like them to. The ranger is still hovering in the background with a leaking injection pump which will tie up alot of time and funds, and it was plagued for some time with now corrected death wobble issues.
My NA Miata sheared off a brake pad, which resulted in the brakes having to be replaced, however this turned out rather well as a friend of mine had some 1.8 Miata brake caliper brackets laying around so I was able to upgrade to bigger brakes, at no increase in price. This will also help alot on the track as that's the sole reason I acquired the Miata. It's an ideal car to learn to drive fast, and I wanted to get certified to do solo events by the end of this summer.
In regards to the Mustang, the motor is pretty much complete, aside from port matching the intake manifold and testing the block for potential leaks. Apparently the block has more screw in freeze plugs, and access ports than any other block that my builder has worked on in the past. So I should have it and updated pictures within the week.
I just have to decide if I am going to paint the motor, or just try and clear coat it to prevent to aluminum from oxidizing.
Another spot for delay is with the front suspension, I had pretty much decided to use the Agent 47 SLA setup from their Harbinger mustang, and I was just waiting to hear back about their revamped design for production. It seems that due to the racing season, any additional progress on the revision has stopped. This causes problems as I already went with a foxbody styled rear sump oil pan, to clear their, and frankly most aftermarket SLA mustang suspensions such as Griggs or Cortex. If they cannot reach a point where they can produce a kit for purchase within the next couple of months; I will probably revert back to building a setup based of modified stock pick up points, and either a Wilwood Mustang II Spindle or a Factory Five SN95 spindle to allow me to clear wider wheels. Although this most certainly is more cost effective, it requires alot of favors, and will be very time consuming. Though on the plus side, alot of quality barely used suspension components will hit the classifieds section soon.
I maybe be able to address oil pan clearance with the adjustable motor mounts, however I haven't measured anything to see if that is a valid work around. I may have to put the car back up on jack stands, and remove the rack and pinion and see if I can set the motor with the exhaust in the engine bay in an attempt to see if any modifications to the headers will be required right off the bat; hopefully very little.
At some point I have going to take the car and have the panels aligned. I have Dynacorn quarter panels without the marker light indent, and a passenger side rocker panel to replace my damaged panels. My only real concern lies with the reproduction doors. I have them rather close to where they need to be however they are in need of attention to bring them within spec. I really need to get this taken care of as this dictates much of the cars progress. I cannot shape the Shelby fiberglass into a presentable appearance until this is done aswell.
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427 c.i. of Aluminum Windsor goodness.
Last edited by 68fbjjz109; 04-18-2012 at 12:22 PM.
RTTS looks like lots of fun. Just need to generate some more funds to finish this car. But it is one step closer, this evening I picked up the motor.
I am pleased with the way the motor turned out, even more so giving the fact that it can in under budget especially giving the additional machining the block had to have done. The block had to be Line bored, as the crank would not even sit within the journals.
Once, it was mounted to the engine stand, later in the evening I decided to mock up the headers to address any issues which may present themselves. Three of which arose.
- First my awesome 1987 Mustang GT "Powered By Ford" valve covers will need to have to two lower gaskets tabs shaved as they will not allow the headers to sit flush on the head.
- Second, the block has large squared off lips, possible for use with a different style motor mount or plate which contacts the passenger side header. This will have to be shaved, in the interest of weight I may just cut them all off and save myself half a pound.
- And Lastly the most prominent and time consuming modification. A portion of the oil pan occupies the same space that my driver side header requires. I will more than likely clearance the pan to allow the exhaust to remain unmodified.
These modifications should allow the headers to sit flush on the heads, as the currently are about a 1/2'' away from their mounting surface in these pictures. All in all if I was not using a Man O War block and running a front sump oil pan like classic mustangs are supposed to, I feel that the headers would and tuck against the motor nicely.
If I have time tomorrow I will start taking measurements to see if any overly apparent clearance issues may be present with the engine bay. I do not suspect their to be any however these header where designed to be used with new stock motor mounts, which I am not using. I am using Ron Morris adjustable mounts which should allow to to correct any possible issues, though if I can identify a problem prior to trying to install the motor; I would prefer to so so.
An additional measurement which I am curious about is the distance from the number 3 primary on the passenger side and the firewall. It protrudes the furthest back, with that being said I want to move the motor as far back as possible so future firewall modifications may be in order depending how much adjustment I have left in the mounts.
And my favorite picture:
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427 c.i. of Aluminum Windsor goodness.
Last edited by 68fbjjz109; 05-02-2012 at 01:11 AM.
Took a serious of measurements and started to clearance things on the motor to allow the headers to fit. Hopefully I will have some time to get some concrete numbers tomorrow, but at this point it appears that I will have very little room to spare. Preliminary measurements with the headers not sitting flush, and with me just estimating how much room I will gain once they do puts me at a little over a .25" on each side of the motor; which is worrisome, though until I have the header mounted flush I don't want to get ahead of myself.
I cut both rear "mounting tabs" off with my sawzall, this allowed me to get the passenger side header up to the mounting surface to check the clearance by the valve covers. I also trimmed the gasket tabs, but additional clearance will be required due to how far portions for the valve covers hang over where they mount to the heads.
At this point I might just hit small portions of the header flange with a flap wheel just beneath the three mounting tabs which extend from the valve cover.
If I can tomorrow I will pull the oil pan, and mount the exhaust to get more accurate measurements. If things look rather promising I will seal of the rotating assembly and place the motor in the engine bay and see if I can actually get the headers to fit. If this works I will start working on pushing to motor back further, and working the new suspension which will allow me to run this rear sump pan, and meet my wheel and tire size goals.
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427 c.i. of Aluminum Windsor goodness.
Last edited by 68fbjjz109; 05-03-2012 at 01:33 AM.
That they are, and they have proved rather troublesome as well. In order to get a more accurate measurement of the width of the exhaust, I had to remove the oil pan, as it was making contact on the rear sump on the drivers side. With this removed and additional shaving of the valve covers I was able to mount the exhaust. With the exhaust sitting flat the width of the first two primaries was about 24 .25" Still a tight fight.
You can see here that there is now way to even run a stock pan with the way the exhaust is routed. This being said if the exhaust fit in the car I was willing to try and modify the pan to avoid the wait time of new headers.
With the exhaust mounted I began to try and install the motor. At the collectors the exhaust width is about 22'', plenty of room at the frame rails are a bit over 27" at that point.
About half way through that it became readily apparent that with portions of the TCP brace plates still in place that the 3 and 7 Primaries where going to make contact. So I removed the braces.
Also it seemed that my previous concern with the passenger side header size the other day where well founded. I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt but there is no way that this header was going to fit. The 3rd and 4th primary are just spread to far out, the forth protrudes to far back and hits the firewall, the 3rd makes contact with the shock tower. At this point I took the header off to see if there was some other way I could finagle it into place, this was also rather futile.
With how far off this header is, I almost feel that this is not the header for a Classic mustang. Besides the contact with even a stock oil pan, the driver side header is very tight, and fits rather well. I feel that if I had an inverted driver side header for the passenger side I could get the motor installed with these long tubes installed.
With the passenger side removed I put the motor as close as I could get it to where it should be sitting without mounting it.
With the way it currently sits, I do have a little more room on the vacant passenger side.
All in all a call to Accufab is in order, I expected fitment issues but nothing on the scale of the passenger side header. It couldn't be made to fit with out completely redoing it. The drivers side I was willing to work with in clearancing the pan provided the exhaust fit as is; however it doesn't.
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427 c.i. of Aluminum Windsor goodness.
Last edited by 68fbjjz109; 05-04-2012 at 10:38 AM.
For what you are doing, I would have had a set of headers built for that car. Shelf headers suck.
I would not worry about that Supra in a 1/8 or 1/4 mile, I have never seen one run an ET that is comparable to the astonomical MPH a big RWHP Supra typically runs. It takes them to half track to get the thing spooled up.....
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1967 Shelby Street/Track Project
But that's just because it's an awesome car.
