Benny6.7

Bought this car with my dad when I sold my 00 h/c/i TA. It was a very, very clean street car, mostly stock and well restored that had been swapped with a bone-stock LQ4/T56 setup with a modified Quicktime 5.0 turbo kit and a Precision 76GTS turbo kit & meth injection. Decided to completely redo the car after the stock motor let go. Decided to completely redo the car after the stock motor let go. First up was suspension stuff, then decided to go with a bigger motor setup, then a bigger turbo setup - and from there it just sort of took on a life of it's own. Then the car sat for almost a year apart while I had a couple back surgeries slow me down but now it's FINALLY getting close go-time. This car is going to be strip car but keeping it street car style in the interior and general look of the car (for now heh).

Shooting for 1000-1200rwhp and ET's in the mid-high 8's, so we can run 9.0 index classes.

- Specs -

Engine:
AES Boost 408
-32cc Wiseco pistons
4.030" bore, 4" stroke
Eagle H-beam rods
Eagle forged crank
Melling 10296 oil pump
JP Performance billet double roller (LS2 style) timing set
Lunati high rpm link bar hydraulic roller lifters
ETP 11* Cylinder heads, 58cc chambers
Custom ground cam
FAST 90mm intake, lingenfelter ported
Final compression ratio about 9.25:1
DirtyDingo adjustable engine mounts (until we switch to motor plate, probably next season)

Trans:
"Extreme" lvl TH400 built by RPM Transmissions in Anderson, IN
Reverse manual valve body
Custom converter (still has to be built)
AJE tubular trans cross member

Turbo kit:
Custom turbo kit by Fathouse Fabrications in Whiteland, IN
Precision Pro Mod 88mm, 1.15 A/R V-band housing, journal bearing
Precision 66mm wastegate
JGS 60mm BOV
Treadstone side in/top out a/a intercooler (may be switching to A/W depending on room!)

Fuel/tuning:
E85
BigStuff 3
Mechanical fuel pump w/ surge tank (still to do)
ID2000 injectors or Siemens 220's (haven't decided)
Trunk mounted sump'd fuel cell

Suspension/chassis:
Team-Z lower control arms
Team-Z relocated upper control arms
Team-Z heavy duty anti-roll bar
Lakewood 90/10's & 50/50's w/ UPR coilovers (just until the car is ready to race, then I'm switching in some Santhuff's)
PA Racing chromoly K-member for LS swap
PA Racing tubular front A-arms
SN95 spindles
Maximum Motorsports bumpsteer kit (bolt through spherical tie rod ends)
Maximum Motorsports solid steering shaft
Flaming river manual rack, std ratio
Strange pro race front brakes (2 piston SN95 setup slotted rotors, super light)
Chromoly cage, NHRA 8.50 certified (going out to fab in a few weeks from now!)
RCI thru the floor subframe connectors tied into the cage (welding these in next week probably)
Donathen Racing tubular front bumper support
Donathen Racing tubular rear bumper support & Parachute mount

Rear end:
8.8 narrowed 1.5" each side
Chromoly axle tube strut braces
Bulletproof cover/main girdle
Strange 35 spline axles & full spool
Strange 4-piston brakes w/ blank rotors
Ford 3.27 gears (have 3.55's if needed later on)
Redline shockproof lube lol...

Cooling:
B&M trans cooler
Griffin aluminum radiator w/ -16AN fittings
Stock LS water pump w/ -16AN fittings welded on (for now, plan to upgrade later)

Wheels/tires/body/misc:
Depends on what class we end up running here locally, and in bigger events, but should be legal for some 275 DR classes (275/60/15's) and 28x10.50 races.
Stock LX bumpers
Weld prostars
Kirkey pro-street seat/cage mount
Strange quick release steering hub
Retaining stock dash, headliner, and most interior panels
Aerospace manual brake master cylinder

Here are some highlights and details on the car thus far.


How it looked when we bought it.


Engine bay before starting the rebuild.


Started engine bay tear down.


Rear end out.


Rear end ready to go in.


Front mocked up to put it into roller. Going to fill holes in the engine bay and redo some of the sheet metal and respray before the new motor goes in


Almost rolling.


Where I left it this afternoon, ready to roll but waiting on longer front wheel studs! Those wheels/tires are just for rolling around in the garage, they are 24" ET fronts and 26" et streets in the back

I'll take more pictures as I get more done, but right now most of the pics I have would just look like a pile of parts lol! I'm doing almost all of the work in house but leaving modding the turbo manifolds/crossover and the cage to a friend of mine who is damn handy with a TIG torch Huge thanks to Automotion Indy, Donathen Racing, RPM transmissions, and Fathouse Fabrications for all their help.

Will post updated pics of the car as the build continues! If anybody has any questions or wants to see specific pics of stuff just post up.

LS1PUNK

iTrader: (5)

O YES!

Factory paint?

Chrome_Rust

iTrader: (4)

Was that a stock K member in there when you first got the car?

Benny6.7

Not stock paint, that is Dark Shadow Gray. It was really well painted though

Yes, stock kmember was used with 4.6l motor mounts. It wasn't done ideally and that's one of the main things I wanted to fix from the beginning.

Benny6.7

Made some more progress today. Cut out the old trunk pan to make way for fuel cell mounting subframe and new tin work, and sliced out the old mild steel floor plates. Didn't have my angle grinder with me so I didn't get a chance to clean up all the edges and finish weld the fuel cell frame. But for now, I'm happy with the days work.


Initial rough cut. Look Ma' no floor!


Just an underside shot before I continued cutting.


Trunk pan cut out to frame rails, cell frame main rails tacked in place with the smaller support rails just laying in there for mock up. Also cut out the poorly done floor plates from the old roll bar.


Fuel cell and battery box mocked up. The fuel cell actually mounts from underneath and is secured with straps and bars - the battery box mounts directly to an accessory rail I'm welding in. The open areas around the cell will be re-tinned.

I plan to finish the subframe and get all the welding done this weekend, tin work will be done shortly thereafter.

LS1PUNK

iTrader: (5)

Looking good.

The color of mine looks VERY similar but couldnt figure out if its original or not.

ls1sleeper

iTrader: (6)

team z for the win, if u ever wanna sell this car le tme knwo thanks

Benny6.7

LS1PUNK: What year is your hatch? I know they had like 4-5 differen't dark gray metallics from 87-92 heh... Cool color for sure Do you have a build thread online anywhere or more details on your car you could PM me?

Btw my buddy Tim who did my tubular bumpers has an original paint gray notch, I think same color as your hatch (maybe not) - it's a sick car too, F1 blown 347, so far has run 5.20's@135+ (but setup for a 1/4 mile class, heh).

ls1sleeper: Team Z makes the best stuff! Their customer support is second to NONE as well. Oh and sorry, but we aren't selling this car - ever. My dad and I have been dreaming about building a car together since I was 8-9yrs old and finally both of us are in a spot where we can now do it, so it's staying here.

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Got my Moroso extended wheel studs from UPS Friday. Man I gotta say I love Amazon Prime when you live in a city with a distribution center - ordered Thursday at 1AM and got them Friday afternoon My buddy Jeremy at Fathouse Fabrications has my steering column right now TIG'ing on a Strange Engineering steering wheel quick release hub, as well as putting -16AN (1") fittings on our stock style water pump. Decided to go with a 21.5x13x3 Spirocco style radiator to save space over the stock-style Griffin I already had on the car. Once it gets here I'll be building a mount for it off of my tubular lower radiator support, and fit my B&M trans cooler/fan, and maybe A/A intercooler. I'm still undecided if I want to run the A/A I already bought, or sell it and switch to A/W. Still waiting on Precision to get to building my Pro Mod 88...after the whole blowing up fiasco they have been slow on filling orders....but once that gets here it will be mocked up and the turbo kit will be rockin' n rollin.

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Oh and here are some random parts pics just to make it look like there is more done than there is


AES Boost 408 shortblock...not much to see I know...


B&M Trans cooler/fan for our TH400.


Our PA Racing chromoly front end stuff the day we picked it up from Automotion Racecars in Indy.


JGS 60mm BOV - really sick piece! This is a cell phone pic that I took inside one of my photo tents (I do product photography, on the side), turned out really nice haha...


Lunati high rpm link-bar hydraulic roller lifters. Really excited to ditch the plastic lifter trays!!!


Melling 10296.


Fistin' a FAST


Un-coated DirtyDingo adjustable solid motor mounts. I got them bare for two reasons: 1) After I put the motor where I want it I am going to weld in sleeves on the mounts so they will no longer be adjustable, and 2) I'm powder coating them in house once they are fitted properly. Having your own powder coating gun/oven is sooo nice for small parts!


Stock LQ truck manifold on the left, modified QuickTime turbo headers (originally for 302 SBF). I'm cutting these off straight at the collector and welding on 2.5" v-bands - Fathouse Fabrications will using these as a starting point in making our crossover, merge, wastegate plumbing, and downpipe.


Side inlet/top outlet 3.5" core v-flow Treadstone intercooler I plan to use **IF** I don't switch to an A/W setup before then


Donathen Racing tubular front bumper going on.


Maximum Motorsports steering shaft - always wanted one of these on my three other stang builds but couldn't justify the price until this build.


Chromoly tubular radiator support I had bent up by Donathen Racing vs a mild steel one I made out of scrap roll bar tubing (just to get the dimensions right for mock up).

Oh and here is a video explaining exactly WHY our stock LQ4 shot a rod....
[youtube]grUBgQH8Ark[/youtube]
...Check valve failed + previous owner had installed the reservoir higher than the pump, and pump higher than the nozzle so when the check valve leaked a quart of methanol ended up in the intake pipe. Cranked the motor over and it flooded the intake, hydrolocked, and shot a rod simultaneously. This is how much methanol was left int he intake after we removed it a WEEK later.

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More updates later this week as I finish some more fabrication projects and whatnot!

LS1PUNK

iTrader: (5)

Sure do- https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...tt-ls-fox.html

Mines a 1990, my brother knows more about the color codes then I do but from what I understand there was 3 different grays that year.

Realistically we have the same goals time/power wise but I plan on street driving mine quite a bit.

Never the less, your **** should be a hoot. Ill be watching.

Benny6.7

Nice build man - should move for sure Are you doing everything to make it NHRA legal or class specific at all? All the SFI approved and safety measures are adding up on our project already

Fully installed the struts, cc plates, tie rod ends, and brake mounting plates. Also removed stock wheel studs but didn't have an installer tool or a set of nuts/washers that wouldn't ruin the new studs soooo I left them just sitting there for today


Spindles enlarged out to 5/8" for tie rod bolts.


Front suspension/steering fully assembled, brakes are just mocked up in this picture since the wheel studs haven't been pressed in yet.

More to come shortly

LS1PUNK

iTrader: (5)

Thanx, Im trying to make it as legal as possible but Im not going to put a real cage in it just yet so I know Im gunna get some **** for that. Not building a class car, just something that will run the times I want and be driven to and from the track.

Those are the same brakes I was looking at going with but I could of sworn they had a bigger pad surface then that.

Benny6.7

You are somewhat correct! The Strange Pro Race front brakes for 94-04 model only fit the 2-piston calipers, not the 4's like the fox body spindle setup. The weight savings of the SN95 spindles was way-way too much to give up though! Also since I live 3.5 miles from our local track (IRP), and outside of driving to the track my dad and I hit a few cruises and car shows a summer, these should work out fine for us (or so says Strange hah!).

Since we are running this big iron slug up front I've been careful to shave as much weight as off the front half of the car. Got some other little weight savings tricks going on with the car as well...

LS1PUNK

iTrader: (5)

Aww... That makes sense.

Do you know the weight difference between those and these?

Benny6.7

I can't tell what spindles those are from that pic...4cly, 5.0, SVO??? I actually have a set of stock 5.0 spindles/brakes I was going to weigh the other day, just for *****'n'gigs, but digging them out of the ole' parts pile was going to side track me so I said "F that!" Haha.

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Just got word our Pro Mod 88 should be shipping soon!!!!! I am beyond excited! This project has sort of been stalled since February-March after we ordered the turbo and found out they were super backed up due to all the problems the old PM turbos were having. As soon as the turbo arrives I'll start posting updates on the turbo kit - which is where all the action is anyway right?

Benny6.7

Stumbled upon an Aeromotive belt drive setup in the classifieds already setup for an LS motor - score! Saves me some time/effort/cash haha.

Here is a pic from the seller, Ryan K:



Still need surge tank fab'd up later, elec priming pump for the fuel cell, and injectors- phew!

JAX04

iTrader: (17)

IN, replied to you PM on bullet bro.

Loving the car/color/engine/turbo, all of it!

You getting rid of those wheels tires bro?

LS1PUNK

iTrader: (5)

Those are the stock 4 lug spindles.

Do u got a part number for the rear brakes?

Benny6.7

The ones I used? No idea! lol...but they are S series steel for big bearing ends, same as 9" ends but they have the regular 8.8 pattern. Little bit heavier than the pro race but I got a deal on them at the time and they work just as well, so they've stayed

Mustang605

iTrader: (13)

put a victor jr on that thing...from what I've heard those plastic intakes will leak under a lot of boost...nice build though...I miss my lsx coupe

Benny6.7

Jr Vic would be awesome! Kinda pricey and at this point out of the question unless we, and i doubt we will, develop a leak with our Lingenfelter/FAST intake. Our intake is setup with boost in mind, though. You can't see it in the pic but the MAP port has a beefy aluminum hold down bracket, and a threaded insert for threaded style sensors if we so choose.

So, it shouldnt leak from there...and if it leaks out the seals between the intake halves then that would be pretty crazy!

I need to fab some spacers up for the rear wheel studs so these crappy steelies can fit on our 5/8x7/8 studs, and I got most of the moroso front wheel studs in... but then the Weld lug nuts I was using started to pull threads on the last 3 studs - so i have a tool steel stud installer set coming tomorrow. Gonna roll the car out tmr if its not raining and power wash the engine bay and then put it up on my Titan Lifts midrise scissor lift so I can finish welding up the torque boxes, reinforcement plates, Team z anti roll bar and axle mounts, and the side rails on my fuel cell subframe which mount the battery box, electric priming pump/filters, etc etc etc...