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After getting all of these main suspension hardware pieces installed, I was eager to get the car on it's own four wheels. I'm currently using the donor car's beautiful 1999 Mustang Cobra wheels that I purchased for the '91GT back in 2007. I really like the way these wheels look but the downside is that they're only 8" wide. Back when I was rolling in the donor car with a total of 225hp, that was fine. Now with the LS376/480hp crate engine, I've started thinking about wider wheels for more rubber on the pavement.
These are genuine Ford wheels that I had to wait about 6 months for back in 2007. When they finally arrived and I opened the first box, wow! They were worth the wait.
Obviously this is the first time that these 5-lug wheels had ever been on the coupe.
Just awesome! You can see how well those homemade, wooden jackstands work. Notice all the metal jackstands relegated to second class citizenship status?!
Aren't these some great looking wheels? I love them but sadly, they're too narrow.
There are places that will widen a wheel properly.
Andrew
Andrew, a couple of days ago, I did some online research on this. Here is one of the highly recommended places that widens wheels: Weldcraft Wheels
There are some people who say that there can be problems with widening wheels and I read that some tire shops will not mount rubber on wheels that have been widened. All of the people that actually had wheels widened by places like Weldcraft were very happy with the results.
On the other hand, I could just buy a wider 2003 Cobra wheel. Similar looks to my 1999 Cobra wheels. I still like the '99s better but I'd consider buying new '03 Cobra wheels. I could think outside the box and look at other aftermarket wheels as well.
Nice build! Can't wait to see the finished product! And you are right... car guys are a dying breed. I do all my work alone as well.
Thank you, Double00gt! We are certainly a dying breed. There are very few of us and very, very few young guys are interested in cars. Video games are what they're interested in.
It takes a lot of thought process to do work that requires two people. When I really get in a bind (meaning I'm totally PO'd and about to lose it!) my wife will come out and lend the needed third hand. Honestly, without complaint she'll help me anytime I need her help. Its just that she's usually not home to be able to help me.
Andrew, a couple of days ago, I did some online research on this. Here is one of the highly recommended places that widens wheels: Weldcraft Wheels
There are some people who say that there can be problems with widening wheels and I read that some tire shops will not mount rubber on wheels that have been widened. All of the people that actually had wheels widened by places like Weldcraft were very happy with the results.
On the other hand, I could just buy a wider 2003 Cobra wheel. Similar looks to my 1999 Cobra wheels. I still like the '99s better but I'd consider buying new '03 Cobra wheels. I could think outside the box and look at other aftermarket wheels as well.
Your choices are wide open if you don't mind aftermarket wheels. I personally think gold wheels would look amazing on a white Fox.
Your choices are wide open if you don't mind aftermarket wheels. I personally think gold wheels would look amazing on a white Fox.
Andrew
Yes. If I get away from factory wheels, then there are many choices. I like the choices and sizes but I seem to be partial to the 1999 Cobra looking wheels such as these:
I'm sure they're china made but they do look nice. I'd probably have to ditch my SN95 length axles (.75" longer per side) and go back to Fox length axles. If I did that, I'd go ahead and upgrade from the stock 28 spline axles to at least 31 spline. I guess that means a 31 spline differential as well. Never had to worry about things like that with a 225hp 5.0.
Gold wheels might look nice. It seems like I used to see gold wheels years ago but these days, not so much. On the other hand, prior to a couple of days ago, I wasn't really looking into wheels.
At about this point in the build (middle of summer, 2020) I knew I was close to getting the engine in the car. I hadn't installed an engine in decades so I'll admit I was a little apprehensive and stalled by doing some other piddly things.
This picture is right after I removed the carpet and underlayment. I then scrubbed the floorboard with soap and water. Afterward, I applied some Oshpo rust treatment to the surface rust just in case.
This is the passenger-side about to be cleaned.
In the following pictures, you'll notice a bunch of foil covered wiring on the passenger side. This is the wire harness that came with my Holley Terminator LS MPFI Kit 550-611
The engine compartment waiting for it's new engine.
Rust, from the internet research that I've done I found that there are places that pretty much specialize in this type of work. I'd never, ever, ever try this on my own! The price per wheel seems to be under $300 as of Jan 2021. Not cheap but not cost prohibitive if one wants their current wheel just in a wider (or narrower) version.
On the other hand, a large selection of brand new wheels can be purchased for less money. Most likely china made .
I'd never hoisted an aluminum headed engine. I wasn't sure how strong those bolt holes were in the head so I was quite nervous. The last thing that I wanted to do was strip out or break one of the bolt holes!
IIRC, I ended up stacking a bunch of washers on the rear bolts like I did in the previous picture.
Get yourself a lift plate that bolts in place of the valley cover. It really makes the job a lot easier.
Andrew
With this LS376/480 completely assembled at the factory, I really didn't want to take anything apart that I absolutely didn't have to. In the end, the bolts and washers worked just fine although one of the washers left a little bit of an imprint in the soft aluminum head. I used rags to try to avoid that but I still got a slight imprint on the front of the driver's side head.
I will keep the valley cover lift plate in mind, though. As much work as this project is, I'm not planning for it to be my last. If you look at the second picture in my last post (#130) you'll see the back of my 1980 Camaro Z28 that was my high school graduation present from my parents. It's in dire need of a restoration and will be getting LS power to bring it into the 21st century.
Ok! Now to hoist that LS3 out of the crate and get it on the engine stand for the Holley oil pan swap.
I hadn't used a cherry picker to hoist an engine in decades! I've used this cherry picker (purchased used about 4 years ago) for other hoisting jobs but this was the first time I used it to lift an engine.
It's ready to be rotated upside down so that I can swap the OEM pan for the Holley pan.
With this LS376/480 completely assembled at the factory, I really didn't want to take anything apart that I absolutely didn't have to. In the end, the bolts and washers worked just fine although one of the washers left a little bit of an imprint in the soft aluminum head. I used rags to try to avoid that but I still got a slight imprint on the front of the driver's side head.
I will keep the valley cover lift plate in mind, though. As much work as this project is, I'm not planning for it to be my last. If you look at the second picture in my last post (#130) you'll see the back of my 1980 Camaro Z28 that was my high school graduation present from my parents. It's in dire need of a restoration and will be getting LS power to bring it into the 21st century.
Taking the intake off is painless and so is the valley cover. Both have o-ring gaskets.
I purchased the same engine (actually the connect and cruise with the 4L70). It is a shame with what these packages cost that most can not use the oil pan, exhaust manifolds, water pump or damper. There is little value in the take off parts either!
Originally Posted by dannyual777
Ok! Now to hoist that LS3 out of the crate and get it on the engine stand for the Holley oil pan swap.
I hadn't used a cherry picker to hoist an engine in decades! I've used this cherry picker (purchased used about 4 years ago) for other hoisting jobs but this was the first time I used it to lift an engine.
It's ready to be rotated upside down so that I can swap the OEM pan for the Holley pan.
Taking the intake off is painless and so is the valley cover. Both have o-ring gaskets.
Andrew
Modern engines' o-ring gasket intake manifolds are wonderful. My first and only experience dealing with them was probably 10 yrs ago when a couple of us who knew how to turn a wrench helped a friend (who wasn't good with wrenches) with his ailing Ford Taurus. We had to remove the intake and it was so nice to just be able to bolt it back on because of the o-ring gasket.
I purchased the same engine (actually the connect and cruise with the 4L70). It is a shame with what these packages cost that most can not use the oil pan, exhaust manifolds, water pump or damper. There is little value in the take off parts either!
It is a shame that those perfect parts aren't usable to us. It pained me to have to remove the OEM oil pan and replace it with a chinese made oil pan. A good looking piece, but still, it's china made. Pictures will be posted in the next day or two.
I'm using Hooker stainless steel headers so my engine's manifolds are now taking up room in a box. The Corvette offset damper is going to be useless to me as well. I'm planning on using ICT Billet's front end accessory drive kit and their kits are only for the F-body spacing or truck spacing. I can still use my water pump but I have to purchase one of their spacers.
All black wheels look nice on a white car. Kinda wished I’d had looked into Max. Mototsport torque arm set up vs UPR control arms.
I'm thinking the torque arm and panhard bar are really going to change this car compared to what I'm used to after having driven my stock, 4-link 1991 Mustang GT for 25 years before I pulled it off the road 5 years ago. I'm a little concerned about the transfer of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) but I'm adding sound deadening material to the entire floorpan as well as some of the side areas of the car. I did some of this work recently. It's a lot of slow, tedious, but easy work getting all of that in.
EDIT on 2/3/2021. Here is a good picture from 2/1/21 showing the progress on the sound deadening material.
Last edited by dannyual777; 02-03-2021 at 07:08 AM.
Reason: Added a relevant picture
01-28-2021, 07:34 AM
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