When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Well they're on the site, but won't ship till the 30th? and forget about "budget" builds cause it ain't gonna happen.....good lord!, why so expensive,maybe forget the powder coating?
Well they're on the site, but won't ship till the 30th? and forget about "budget" builds cause it ain't gonna happen.....good lord!, why so expensive,maybe forget the powder coating?
The listings got put up today as place holders to be reviewed by me to ensure the information is correct. I won't have a chance to do that until tomorrow morning and the pricing information could changed based on that, but I can't say as I don't have the file information in front of me at the moment. The kits aren't technically on the shelf yet, which is why again, the 30th is shown as a place holder date until the parts do make it onto the shelf in the next couple of days. Once they do, the date will change to "available now".
In terms of cost, I have to say that none of the Hooker swap systems I've developed have been designed with a focus on performing a budget swap, but instead allow the user to achieve predictable, discrete results without having to buy multiple versions of the same types of part until a combination is found that offers acceptable results. I've seen so much money wasted in this fashion over the last ten years that I'm happy to have been given the freedom at Holley to design better solutions that provide overall swap cost reduction to the user by not having to go through the typical swap parts buy/sell cycle previously mentioned, even though the piece price cost may be higher than some other available products on the market.
I can't think of another system of parts currently available that permits installation of an LS into a Fox Body using the stock K-member (and steering shaft) as a jump-off point and lets you then upgrade to a Maximum Motorsports MMKM-1 K-member down the road without having to replace a single additional part that you used to swap onto the stock K-member. You can also change out the K-member to the AJE or Team Z units by only having to buy a simple set of engine brackets; the Hooker headers, transmission crossmember and full exhaust systems will fit the same as they did with the stock K-member.
The Hooker/Holley LS swap system for Fox Body/SN95 Mustangs won't work for everyone's requirements, but for those like me that want comprehensively designed parts and are willing to spend more to obtain specific results, I think it will fill a spot in the market. There are already many budget minded Mustang LS swap parts in the market and we even offer some of them ourselves through our other brands, that's just not what the Hooker Blackheart line represents.
Lastly, remember that purchasing products directly through Holley will almost never be the cheapest source you can get them from...as soon as they are showing on the website with a "buy it now" option, you can also purchase them through any reseller of Holley products.
Toddoky- An acquaintance( I refuse to call him "friend" for reasons unrelated to this discussion, lol) once had a business card that had on it- "Fast, Cheap, Good- pick any two...". These are one of Life's compromises. I, for one am glad Holley/Hooker does not choose "Cheap". Your stuff is proving to be "Good", and trying to be timely. I would rather it be a little late in availability than be not "Good". While not "Cheap", it's not unreasonably expensive either. For most LS swapping, Holley/Hooker has been a Godsend. I have a few of the LS swap books now out, and all were written before most of your stuff was out. All those books now need revising to reflect the relative ease of LS swapping since the availability of Holley/Hooker products. Keep up the good work!
Todd, your points are well taken, I suppose I was just really frustrated after the months of waiting, and then seeing that price as compared to the SN95 prices . As far as your last paragraph have you checked the prices with either Summit or Jegs, they are exactly the same as quoted on your site. The only prices I find on E_BAY are Summit or Jegs.
Don't take this as "bashing" you or your product I still think you've done a fantastic job. I've been at this (LS in a FOX) since PHR or Car Craft (cant remember which) did one all those years ago, so believe me I've been through many K-members,headers and mounts. Thanks again for a great job!
Todd, your points are well taken, I suppose I was just really frustrated after the months of waiting, and then seeing that price as compared to the SN95 prices . As far as your last paragraph have you checked the prices with either Summit or Jegs, they are exactly the same as quoted on your site. The only prices I find on E_BAY are Summit or Jegs.
Don't take this as "bashing" you or your product I still think you've done a fantastic job. I've been at this (LS in a FOX) since PHR or Car Craft (cant remember which) did one all those years ago, so believe me I've been through many K-members,headers and mounts. Thanks again for a great job!
Yes, the wait has been frustrating for sure, including for myself. I won't have any idea as to what the cost difference might be through Summit as it will probably take a couple of weeks to load the parts on their website after the new product release gets sent out by Holley, which is typical.
The brackets actually made it up onto the shipping table this afternoon to be boxed. I don't want to say much more as it seems the more I've talked about these things the slower the pace of progress has gone...I will be so glad to wrap up this project.
I finally got every thing needed from Holley/Hooker (except the exhaust system which I cant use anyway as my car is tubbed with an Art Morrison back half), to do the conversion I started first thing Saturday, took out the MM swap k member, I left the A-arms attached to the struts, tied the steering rack to the sway bar, supported the engine and dropped the k installed the MMKM-1 k spent a few hours aligning it, then re attached the A arms at this point I re-installed the rack but when I tried to mount the engine mount brackets the big stud hit the output fitting so I had to lower the rack by one hole, I could have taken the bracket out and shortened the stud by 1/4" but it is a bitch getting them in and out with the engine in the car so I'll live with it for now, the stock line may be okay but I'm using AN fittings on my rack, so keep that in mind if you do this swap. Now for the headers I removed the started per the instructions as there is no way you'll get them in there with the starter mounted any way I snugged every thing up (big mistake) you need to leave the headers fairly loose to get the starter back in, and even at that It's a real bear to get it back in, on to the drivers side I remember Todd saying in one of his posts that they could be installed with the steering shaft installed, nope, I had to take it back off but they went in a lot easier than the pass side, thanks Ford, for biasing the engine to the right.
So all in all I'm satisfied with the fit and finish of the product although the instructions leave something to be desired.
Nice job Todd!!!!.
I finally got every thing needed from Holley/Hooker (except the exhaust system which I cant use anyway as my car is tubbed with an Art Morrison back half), to do the conversion I started first thing Saturday, took out the MM swap k member, I left the A-arms attached to the struts, tied the steering rack to the sway bar, supported the engine and dropped the k installed the MMKM-1 k spent a few hours aligning it, then re attached the A arms at this point I re-installed the rack but when I tried to mount the engine mount brackets the big stud hit the output fitting so I had to lower the rack by one hole, I could have taken the bracket out and shortened the stud by 1/4" but it is a bitch getting them in and out with the engine in the car so I'll live with it for now, the stock line may be okay but I'm using AN fittings on my rack, so keep that in mind if you do this swap. Now for the headers I removed the started per the instructions as there is no way you'll get them in there with the starter mounted any way I snugged every thing up (big mistake) you need to leave the headers fairly loose to get the starter back in, and even at that It's a real bear to get it back in, on to the drivers side I remember Todd saying in one of his posts that they could be installed with the steering shaft installed, nope, I had to take it back off but they went in a lot easier than the pass side, thanks Ford, for biasing the engine to the right.
So all in all I'm satisfied with the fit and finish of the product although the instructions leave something to be desired.
Nice job Todd!!!!.
Glad to hear you got some parts to work with. thanks for supplying some feedback on your installation experience, as users report about their experiences I make use of the feedback to edit the instructions further for future users. My initial writings of instructions can in no way anticipate every installation variable or combination of parts that one might encounter or assemble on these cars, so I do the best I can out of the gate. For my information, what oil pan and transmission are you using. Again, I’m very glad to see you be able to move forward finally.
I know, it's hard to write instructions, used to do that for a living, but most of the time you can figure it out on your own. if not you shouldn't be playing with cars! I used the 302-3 and it does provide a lot of clearance, in fact if I had cut the stud by 1/4" I'm sure I could have mounted the rack all the way up, much better for bump steer correction, as for the trans its a TKO 600, I wont be able to use your cross member because my car has pseudo frame rails, I'm using a stock double hump x member with some mods to fit my particular car, I will have to add a shim under the mount to raise the tranny up a bit because your mount brackets raised the front of the engine a tad over what i had before right now the engine is sitting at 5 degrees down so I'll just shim the tranny up to get it around 2 degrees.
I know, it's hard to write instructions, used to do that for a living, but most of the time you can figure it out on your own. if not you shouldn't be playing with cars! I used the 302-3 and it does provide a lot of clearance, in fact if I had cut the stud by 1/4" I'm sure I could have mounted the rack all the way up, much better for bump steer correction, as for the trans its a TKO 600, I wont be able to use your cross member because my car has pseudo frame rails, I'm using a stock double hump x member with some mods to fit my particular car, I will have to add a shim under the mount to raise the tranny up a bit because your mount brackets raised the front of the engine a tad over what i had before right now the engine is sitting at 5 degrees down so I'll just shim the tranny up to get it around 2 degrees.
Your input is appreciated. The development car I used was also ultimately configured with a TKO 600 trans like yours and there was considerable clearancing of the tunnel required to allow fitment and provide the 2.5 degrees of inclination angle that the Hooker crossmembers provide. I’d say you’re on your way to having a really nice package and one that is based on the use of the MMKM-1 k-member, which nobody has thought was possible to this point in a bolt-on fashion.
All five versions of the Hooker Fox Body LS swap engine mounting brackets are now listed on the Holley website and are available for purchase through that source, or from any Holley re-seller. For anybody who has been waiting for any one of the sets, I wouldn't wait to long to place an order if you wan't to receive a set out of the first production run as initial lot sizes are always small compared to what they end up being once sales history becomes available to use to set shelf min quantities.
I have a question. I want to order the mounts and pan but I have an 84 fox. I'm wondering the reasoning for the mounts being 85-95?
This is now my forth mustang (had an 87 coupe, 95 GT with a Vortech supercharger, and built 02 GT).
I used to manage a junkyard a few years go so I'm fairly good with parts interchange.
I know 96-04 k members are all the same whether v6 or v8 and I think I remember reading that v8 and 4cyl fox were the same just spindles and brakes were different.
I also remember reading that the old fox k members had a different control arm pick up point (narrower) but nothing about the engine mount locations being different.
If they in fact are there are a could local mustang hoarders I can get a stock k member from.
just would like to know before I begin the swap. If not i would just order your mounts and giving it shot on my 84 k member.
At this point I'm undecided whether I will get the long tubes or just go straight to turbo and either get the new Holley turbo manifold or the DIY truck manifolds.
If the mounting points are the same I will begin to order the mounts and drop in the engine.
I'm also temped to just order and try them unless you know for sure they will not work on the pre-85 k members.
On my previous Fox build I had Maximum Motorsports Modular K-member and was going to mod the 4.6 mounts. Also had an iron 6.0 with LS2 heads and intake the for the hot side i had a BG single kit for the 302 but had cut and welded LS flanges on the headers. Unfortunately I woke up one morning and decided to sell the car and everything I had put together. I regret so bad now.
I'm excited for this kit you have put together and I'm looking forward to using it. I just want to get all my ducks in row and have all the parts ready to swap in.
Thank you for your time and love the thread. I've read almost the thing at least twice now.
Again keep up the great work!
I have a question. I want to order the mounts and pan but I have an 84 fox. I'm wondering the reasoning for the mounts being 85-95?
This is now my forth mustang (had an 87 coupe, 95 GT with a Vortech supercharger, and built 02 GT).
I used to manage a junkyard a few years go so I'm fairly good with parts interchange.
I know 96-04 k members are all the same whether v6 or v8 and I think I remember reading that v8 and 4cyl fox were the same just spindles and brakes were different.
I also remember reading that the old fox k members had a different control arm pick up point (narrower) but nothing about the engine mount locations being different.
If they in fact are there are a could local mustang hoarders I can get a stock k member from.
just would like to know before I begin the swap. If not i would just order your mounts and giving it shot on my 84 k member.
At this point I'm undecided whether I will get the long tubes or just go straight to turbo and either get the new Holley turbo manifold or the DIY truck manifolds.
If the mounting points are the same I will begin to order the mounts and drop in the engine.
I'm also temped to just order and try them unless you know for sure they will not work on the pre-85 k members.
On my previous Fox build I had Maximum Motorsports Modular K-member and was going to mod the 4.6 mounts. Also had an iron 6.0 with LS2 heads and intake the for the hot side i had a BG single kit for the 302 but had cut and welded LS flanges on the headers. Unfortunately I woke up one morning and decided to sell the car and everything I had put together. I regret so bad now.
I'm excited for this kit you have put together and I'm looking forward to using it. I just want to get all my ducks in row and have all the parts ready to swap in.
Thank you for your time and love the thread. I've read almost the thing at least twice now.
Again keep up the great work!
I believe the engine mounts will work. But the transmission crossmember mounting area is different on the earlier foxes.
I decided to error on the side of caution by initially listing the stock K-member engine brackets to fit 1985-93 cars only as I've not had the time or opportunity to confirm that the mounting hole location geometry and layout (not just the main slots for the large studs) is the same on the 1979-84 cars, which it would need to be to be able to install the Hooker engine mounting brackets without require any drilling or grinding. I think you will likely be safe with your car/K-member being a 1984 model; I just need to be sure some of the other early year model Fox Body K-members didn't use a mounting hole layout that was similar to what was used on the Fairmont K-members like shown in this image. Once I confirm that, I can increase the application range to include as many year models as possible.
Todd do you know if the 2.5 inch exhaust systems will be released and if so could you get an estimated date?
They definitely will get released, but I can't give you a date as they are out of my hands now and under the control of those in the production department. If I happen to see anything related to their production I'll let you know.
05-16-2018, 05:25 PM
