I found a great deal on a 97 Thunderbird 1.5 years ago and pounced since I always wanted one as a driver even though I'm not a ford guy. Car is solid, interior is nice but the car was slow enough to get beaten by a girl in a Cavalier. This happens to be the slowest car I have ever owned and minor problems with the transmission coupled no aftermarket support for the engine had me debating what to do. Fix trans and still have a slow ford powered car or do what any red blooded Chevy fan on this forum would do. Needless to say I chose the latter option.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNSw9...layer_embedded

At this point the PCM wasn't mounted and the wiring was simply in place to be able to start and test run the engine in it's new home. I'm just always happy when a new project fires up the first time, especially without coaxing.

 

Nice sleeper! If you don't change the wheels or anything on the outside, you should really be able to suprise some people.

 

Nice

 

Thanks. The whole thing looks and sounds stock and will stay that way. My friends have been giving me grief about it since each time I show up they have no idea what I am driving until they see the car.

I've surprised a few people but I have some wiring kinks to work out. I just got a wiring diagram book for the Ford so I can get all my factory gauges and AC working again. Even the OBDII port will work properly.

 

if you have any pictures of the swap process post them up. I've got a 94 4.6 LX TBird and this is giving me some ideas, lol. I like the car because it rides good and has awesome seats, a/c, radio but I agree with you that the engine is seriously lacking in power.

 

looks good, sounds good.

 

awesome. I have a 91 cougar with a blown engine sitting around. Never even thought about that swap. Thanks. Now I have to go looking for another 5.3! hahaha

 

Thanks for the compliments. People like you kept me motivated.

It was a decent amount of work but driving the car has made it all worthwhile. The results are typical of a Gen III swap, power, power, power, smooth as silk, fires up first time and completely docile on the street.

I took a fair amount of pictures but since I was engineer, parts runner, camera man, water boy and many other hats I can't think of right now I found I'm missing some stuff. I will resize them write descriptions and post up a how I did it so you can see my progress to date now that I know there is interest.