blackened88lx

Hey guys. I've been searching around here for a little while now and it seems to be a great site so I decided to join. I've done a lot of searching and learned a lot but also have not yet gotten a lot of answers I need. I own an '88 Mustang LX 5.0 hatch that will be ls powered before too long. It's super clean with under 50k original, and I'm gonna enjoy pissing off the world by tearing it apart and putting a real motor in it. The plan consists of a relatively cheap, light, stick shift street/strip car. I plan on just a regular ole ls1 for cost reasons and the aluminum block. Probably keeping it stock crank again for cost reasons with good rods and pistons with some compression, big heads and cam and carbed for cost and simplicity. If I can find one with a t56 bolted to it I will probably use that but at any rate it will be a faceplated or proshifted stick car. I'm going to do some research on trannies to find the lightest setup but it will most likely be t56/tko/jerico with a cable clutch. All the usual mustang weight reduction will be done. No a/c, no p/s, manual everything. It shouldn't be too hard to get the car down around 26-2700 lbs. I would LOVE to make around 500rwhp on motor but I'm not sure how doable that will be with 346 cubes. Either way I would like it to go deep 9s on the bottle and still be very streetable. I dono about you guys but any 9 second stick shift street car makes me weak in the knees. I have pretty limited knowledge on ls motors at the moment, so any comments, concerns, suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Josh



Here's the car in its current state.

prochargedchevyi

iTrader: (9)

Welcome to the site!

My recommendation would be to read, read, and read some more. You can literally spend days looking at all of the information on this board.

There are several detailed builds of guys doing LS swaps into 87-04' Mustangs. As a novice, the most difficult aspect of swapping motors will be the wiring harness. But again, there are tons of stickys showing which wires to remove and which ones to keep.

And if you get stuck, just ask us. I'm in the midst of starting a Fox swap myself, so you'll be amongst good company.

Good luck,
Vince

5-0stank

iTrader: (6)

Good luck w/ the swap. I'm about to put an ls1/a4 into my 94 GT. Some info is a little hard to come by, even with a search....