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Flipped upside down on the engine stand. Such a shame to have to remove a brand new, USA made oil pan for replacement of a china made oil pan.
If you look closely, you can see the lines that I measured out and drew on the windage tray so I knew where to cut it. The Holley/Hooker instructions were good. I thought I could use that Dremel but I ended up having to use a die grinder with a cutoff wheel.
Not bad. I cleaned up all the edges with a file before I cleaned then reinstalled the tray.
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 .
For what it's worth, the front and rear wheels on my Nova are all widened... all started as 18x8, and now the fronts are 9.5" and rears are 11". It cost me $220cdn per rim (maybe $150usd at the time) and the weld beads were gorgeous. It made sense to me since I really liked the look of my rims (still do) and at the time in order to go wider with the offsets I needed for fitment, it would have necessitated HRE or Forgeline, and I didn't (and still don't) have the cash or desire to spend $1000+ per rim.
I've never had a single issue with shake or air loss, and they haven't even needed more than one or two weights for balancing. I'm pretty sure the first set of tires on the rims after widening held air in them for 4-5 years without even dropping off more than 2-3psi. It isn't a drag car so I don't regularly air down/up.
Everyone with a good amount LS parts has a least one of those 5th Gen oil pans in their collection, they’re kinda useless unless you have a Camaro..... lol. OP while you have your motor on the stand and are changing oil pans you might consider a crank scraper from Improved Racing, saves power and fuel economy. Holley knock off pans out of China look identical to the originals. I’m using a Holley 302-1 with Holley baffle system and said scraper on my LS3 Powered Fox, couldn’t tell ya what is worth power saving number wise but I’d like to think it’s worth.something.. Another good low profile for a Fox is a C6 pan, they seem to be easy to find.
frojoe, thank you for posting your experience with widened wheels. Every person's experience that I read was positive. I'm sure there are some bad companies out there attempting to do this type of work but the reputable companies seem to get it right.
64post, my engine is long since been buttoned back up. Maybe I should've considered a crank scraper. That's a good reason to be posting a build thread in "real time." The builder can get a lot of ideas and feedback that might better steer the build. My thread is going to catch up to where I actually am here in February.2021.
This is the Holley 302-3 oil pan with the baffle installed.
Tray, Holley oil pick-up installed and Ultra Black silicone in the corners of the block.
I wasn't sure if I could reuse the OEM oil pan gasket or not. I know o-ringed intake manifold gaskets are reusable but I didn't know about the oil pan gasket so I got online and found that the oil pan gaskets weren't cheap. I did find an eBay seller offering Mahle gaskets for a good price and I ordered one. FWIW, I did keep the OEM gasket and it's in a box with the worthless OEM oil pan.
I bought this Mahle oil pan gasket from an eBay seller. $25.08 delivered. It was a complete, 1-piece gasket.
Finally, time to get the engine into the Fox body coupe. For the first time in the build, I actually had a coworker friend come over and help get this engine in. It can certainly be done by one person but another pair of eyes and hands helping to guide the engine into place makes things 10X easier.
It's happening! My Mustang coupe is getting LS power!!
It was really exciting to see this LS3 inside the Mustang engine compartment!
Look at that! Oh so close. Can I get the two, long engine mount to bracket bolts in? No. Only one.
We got the passenger side bolt in quickly but no matter how much Joe and I fought that engine, we just couldn't get the driver's side bolt in. We spent a lot of time on it before giving up in frustration. It was a sad attempt at my first engine install in decades .
You're doing good work there. In order to confirm, are you using the Hooker Blackheart poly inserts in the clamshells? If so, I would suggest removing the mounting brackets from the K-member and attaching them to the inserts with the long bolts/nuts. Once you do that you can lower the engine/mounts down onto the K-member and sight the hole pattern alignment from the underside of the engine perches. I suspect that you may have to slot the long slots for the main studs slightly more to allow everything to come together.
You're doing good work there. In order to confirm, are you using the Hooker Blackheart poly inserts in the clamshells? If so, I would suggest removing the mounting brackets from the K-member and attaching them to the inserts with the long bolts/nuts. Once you do that you can lower the engine/mounts down onto the K-member and sight the hole pattern alignment from the underside of the engine perches. I suspect that you may have to slot the long slots for the main studs slightly more to allow everything to come together.
Thank you, Todd! I know you deal with a lot of us car guys on this website and maybe other sites as well so there is no way you can be expected to remember all of us. Back around the 23rd of August, 2020, I sent you a PM about me not being able to get both bolt holes lined up. We conversed back and forth via PMs and I was eventually able to get everything together. It ended up being a "pressed in stud" problem. Actually, it was a lack of a pressed in stud in the Hooker swap brackets that bolt to the K member.
Once I got the proper stud (wheel stud) and pressed it in, I was able to get the clamshells to fit into both of the swap brackets mounted to the K member.
Yes, I remember our previous exchange of messages. So, have you been able to get the engine mounted to the K-member, or have you still not been able to get both of the long coupling bolts installed through the mounting brackets/inserts?
All the bolts for the swap bracket to K member were left loose so that everything could be mated together.
In the picture below, you can see that I was able to get one of the long engine mount bolts in on the passenger side.
However, the driver's side was a completely different story. No matter how much my friend Joe and I tried, we just couldn't get the DS to line up properly.
We were able to get it much closer to in place than this picture shows but you get the idea. That thick hex bolt head would keep the clamshell from dropping all the way into place resulting in the holes in the clamshell and swap brackets not aligning.
Holley/Hooker should have pressed in threaded wheel stud where the hex head bolt is. My attempt to substitute a regular bolt obviously didn't work.
Like I said in the post above, I ended up PMing Todd and he confirmed that a bolt wouldn't work and he told me which wheel stud to get: M14-1.5 Dorman 610-328. I found these studs sold individually at my local O'Reilly's and went and picked one up.
Last edited by dannyual777; 02-04-2021 at 06:33 AM.
Yep, that clearance issue you discovered with the bolt head is precisely why I had to incorporate the use of the wheel studs in the designs of the mounting brackets...they were the only fastener that would provide the needed clearance between the head of the fastener and the clamshell cage with the engine crankshaft centerline positioned at the prescribed height.
Yes, I remember our previous exchange of messages. So, have you been able to get the engine mounted to the K-member, or have you still not been able to get both of the long coupling bolts installed through the mounting brackets/inserts?
Once I pressed the stud into the swap bracket, the extra clearance allowed the clamshell to drop into place and I was able to get both long coupling bolts into place.
After I removed the engine from the coupe's engine compartment, I removed the driver's side swap bracket. I then used my old, Harbor Freight shop press to press the wheel stud into the swap bracket.
Yeah, it's an ugly press and a couple of years ago, I had to throw part of the press away. I was surprised that I was still able to make this thing work.
Here it is pressed in. Easy! Todd had given me a length dimension for this stud and I thought that I was going to have to cut it shorter. I placed the bracket into place and I had plenty of clearance so I left it full length.
That is cool! I wonder how many other situations could be "rectified" via the use of wheel studs vs. ordinary bolts...
I'm sure that could be true in certain, specific situations. Remember, the wheel stud is pressed into place so there must be an interference fit between it and the hole that it's going through. There are different size wheel studs so that would make this possible for some situations.
Here we go with another attempt at getting my engine in. I did this like almost everything on this project car, by myself.
Getting close. I have to admit that I dabbed just a small amount of grease on both ends of the red, polyurethane motor mounts just to help them slide easily inside the "ears" of the swap brackets.
Passenger side was, once again, no problem.
Yes!!!!! With just a little bit of wiggling, with the prybar seen in the lower, left corner, the driver's side clamshell moved right into place. I got that long bolt in there as quick as I could!!
Cherry picker removed and the engine is sitting in place.
Yes. I was very happy!
Here is a God's eye view of the engine. You can see the OEM, Ford offset to the passenger side that Todd at Holley/Hooker replicated into these swap parts.
After the great accomplishment of getting a GM engine into the engine bay of a Ford, I started some less exciting work. In a way, I was stalling. I knew that it was time to weld in my Maximum Motorsports subframe connectors but I was stalling. You see, I'd never welded. Ever! So, I put it off even longer by messing with other things.
I got my Griffin aluminum radiator into place. This radiator was run in the donor car for about 3 months before I pulled the car off the road back in Feb 2016. It's practically brand new even though it is 5+ years old.
Plenty of room between the engine and the radiator to install my Lincoln MKVIII electric fan later on in the build.
Next, I decided to take a look at my car's ugly trunk. It's pathetic and needs some serious attention. Not just because of it's visual shortcomings but because of the Swiss cheese trunk floor. Not from rust but because the previous owner drilled a bunch of holes. He tried to install a trunk mounted battery on the passenger side.
Just UGLY! I know that it won't be seen once it's covered with a trunk carpet but it's still a total eyesore!
The large, oval-shaped hole is the OEM hole for the fuel pump/fuel sender wiring harness to go through to the gas tank. The other holes are previous owner drilled. Notice the block of wood? I don't have the OEM trunk rods. Bummer.
Here is the driver's side. You can see that I took some rubber plugs and plugged up some of the holes. I have no idea why there are holes over on this side.
I cleaned up the trunk floor with soap and water and then treated the surface rust areas with Ospho rust treatment.
During the spring and summer of 2020, I pondered the welding in of my Maximum Motorsports Full Length Subframe ConnectorsI tried asking everyone that I knew if they could weld. No luck and anyone that claimed to have welded sometime in their past certainly didn't offer to weld my SFCs in. I called some professional shops but couldn't even get a call back from them. I admit that I could've tried harder to find a welding pro but I knew that it was going to be hard to get a mobile welder over to my house and have him crawl under my car to weld. I also knew that I was going to have to have him come to my house twice because after the SFCs are welded in, during installation of the torque arm, I would need round 2 of welding. The front TA mount brackets must be welded to the already welded in SFCs.
I said to myself and my wife, I've got to buy a welder and learn how to weld. I did a bunch of online research and found very good reviews on Hobart 210 MVP MIG Welder 115V/230V
I loved the fact that it's made (mostly) in the USA and some of the in depth review said that it would be a welder that most novices wouldn't outgrow anytime soon. Sure, I could've saved a lot of coin buying a Harbor Freight cheapie or any of an endless choice of china made welders. That's just not my MO.
Last edited by dannyual777; 02-08-2021 at 08:16 AM.
02-01-2021, 07:11 AM
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