Hey everyone. Thought I'd start a thread about my build. Here is what I am doing. LS swap in my 07 mustang. Going to run a 6.0 and a VS racing T6 80mm, 96/88 1.32 AR turbo. NA the motor will be 550 flywheel or so, ported CNC 799 heads, Vic jr., hooker blackheart turbo manifolds, and 4” front bumper exit downpipe with 5" Vibrant race muffler or something similar. Car is about 3500#s with driver, TH400, Moser 9"/4.10 gears, 4500-5000 stall. Cam will be hydraulic roller in the 230s and low .600 lift., wide lsa for the boost, 9.5:1 or so cr. A1000 fuel pump and return style regulator. Air to air intercooler, MSD LS controller. 91 fuel with a couple gallons of 104 race gas for good measure. Car has a fuel cell. Car has a manual steering rack and will have an electric water pump, so only accessory is the alternator. Full interior.

I don’t want to run EFI. I would like to run a carb. Talking to CSU about a blow thru carb. I figure I only need about 10 pounds of boost to reach my goal, which is 6.40 in the 1/8 at 5000 DA. Don’t have a roll cage right now, just a roll bar. My dad and I have a Hellcat that makes 820 flywheel or so and runs in the 1/8 mile 6.80 (confident it will run 6.70 when we have some track prep) at 4500 DA and is about 1000 pounds heavier than my mustang.

My uncle and I will do all the work and fabrication on the car.

I have three used truck LS engines. A 5.3 L33/799 heads, a 5.3 LM7/862 heads, and earlier, 200 or so, 6.0 LQ4 iron block and heads motor. These engines are complete. The 6.0 is the one I plan to use if the block checks out okay. Would like to just get pistons/rings and bearings, and rebuild it using stock crank and rods, or borrow the rods from the L33 motor cause I think they are gen4 rods and I can then run full floating pins. Would like to use the L33 because it's aluminum but I am going to race this car a lot and I don't want to ruin that block. The crank out of the LM7 is in beautiful condition. I haven't torn down the L33.

I look forward to reading about the other swap builds and also learning from you all. I am going to keep a running log of the build. My hope is to have the car done in a year, but you know how these things go, and I don't have a big pile of money, so it will probably take longer. Right now I am working on the small stuff. Last thing will be the engine rebuild, transmission build and rear end. I am going to tear down the 6.0 to the bare block and take that to the machine shop just so I know for sure if I can use it.

An ideas and/or observations on the build are appreciated. Thanks!

Here is the car:



This is a picture of me leaving work on Friday afternoon.

 

First was removing the 4.6 and whipple 2.3 and selling all of it, and also the 5R55S (the S stands for sucky) transmission and driveshaft, etc. Got $5800 for all that stuff, so that got the project going. The transmission was slipping and had been thrashed on pretty good so just sold as a core basically.

Next step was of course finding some LS engines. I got the L33 for and the LM7 complete for $1700 total, which I think is fair since the L33's are worth some money. Then I was talking to my uncle's buddy about my build, and he was like, I've got a 6.0 sitting around that you can have for $300.00.

The came stripping a bunch of stuff off the car. Fuel tank, emissions junk, and all the AC lines, exhaust.

I installed a bmr k member and flaming river manual steering rack, and BMR drag springs front and rear, and put my strange single adjustables back on. BMR tubular A-arms are in the mail. I have already done the rear suspension with the 8.8 rear that's in the car now. Test fitted the motor with some motor mount adapters I found on ebay but the motor mounts will have to be modified further for the turbo exhaust manifold, and in order to have 4 bolts that connect to the motor on each side.

I have the fuel cell mounted but it's not done yet. Per NHRA rules, your fuel tank has to be sealed off from the drivers compartment so we are going to make a cover for it, and then have a door that opens on the coveer for access.

Yesterday, I moved the electrical fuse box and it looks like the turbo will fit. One nice thing is that since I have no accessories on the passenger side there are the two tapped holes for the AC and one tapped hole on the front that we can use to mount a bracket to support the turbo.

 

Loaded up with 5.3's.






It fit. But will take a little work on the motor mounts to get it to work with the turbo manifold on the passenger side.



Roll bar was bolt in so only had to weld the rear braces. Rattle canned it black.

Had to make a bracket for the safety harness to bolt to and attached that to the floor using the studs for bolting down the seat. My uncle fabricated some collars for the top mounting points of the harness so that they don't spread apart on the bar.



Split collars to keep harness straps from moving.

 

So I have everything pretty much wired now. Just got a TH400 core and bolted it to the motor and dropped the works in the car. Transmission clears fine except in one spot where the edge of the pan is just barely touching the tunnel, but a little hammer work will take care of that. Haven't installed the shifter cable or anything, since it's a core, and just getting it all mocked up. Won't be long and we will be working on the fuel cell and then it will be the turbo and the piping. That's going to be tough. Will probably need to move the radiator forward a couple of inches. We will see.

 

Curious to see the trans tunnel pounding required for the TH400 compared to what I had to do for a 60E and 80E during mock up.

 

It barely touches. Other than that one spot there is plenty of room. I knew going in that the TH400 was a pretty easy fit in these cars. Lots of people have swapped in a TH400 with their mod motor.

 

It looks really close, are you going to clearance it any or just leave it like that?

This is the 80E with that mount missing. Mine needed to be moved up to get a good driveline angle with AJE cradle.

 

You're running an aftermarket 1 piece driveshaft, right?

Before I took the car apart I checked all my angles, etc. It worked pretty good traction-wise, but the car was only making 500 flywheel. I have BMR adjustable upper and relocation brackets for the lowers, and I installed 1-2" drop springs, BMR drag spring, so I am sure I will need to work it all out once the car gets on the track.

 

Sorry I missed this, but yes I had a driveshaft built for this.

 

I will have a custom DS built after the trans is rebuilt with a short tailshaft.

Getting closer to finishing the 55 Chevy build, and then it will be fab time on the Mustang. Probably will be moving the radiator forward a few inches for the turbo. I'd like to use the rad and fan I currently have. Will be doing fab on the fuel cell in the trunk to make things NHRA legal, and also working on the mount for the turbo, the downpipe and cold side, etc. I plan to post mock up pics to get feedback on the hot side/downpipe and WG and A/F sensor placement and all that.

 

We've made some progress. Have the fuel cell done and the filter and pump mounted. This was a big project but turned out pretty nice, and it's very safe, too. In the pic, the plastic protective covering is still on the the aluminum cover, and that's the scratches you can see, but it's just the plastic. Going to have something engraved on the fuel door. Main thing is it's serviceable and it's sealed. Got luck on the filer and fittings and pump fitting just perfect. NHRA rule is that there must be a firewall between driver and fuel cell. Must be .024 steel or .032 alum and sealed. The aluminum cover is .040. and it all seals up completely, but can removed easily if I need to do service the fuel cell or fittings/lines for some reason. We've been using nutserts on a lot of stuff lately, and they work great. Going to start on the turbo hot side next weekend, so I am sure I will be asking for some feedback on that as we mock it up, etc.

The 55 Chevy is all done and have taken it to a few car shows, so the focus has been this project.

 

Finally got the turbo mounted. I know the three bends on the up pipe aren't ideal, but that was the only way to do it. It's a 3" pipe. I used the hooker manifolds because I really like how the crossover goes under the transmission rather than in front of the engine, so there's less clutter there.

Plan is to put the wastegate on the "top" of that vertical 180 and then run the dump tube out the front bumper. The downpipe is 4" all the way out with vibrant 4" race straight through muffler and will exit under the car and to the side.

 

For the down pipe, had to do some clearance work on the firewall. I will post what it looks like with the patch panel later, as I didn't take a picture of it. Removal of this section leaves enough room for the 4" downpipe.

 

Here is the driver side motor mount

 

This should be a fun car. Too bad FORD wasn’t smart enough to source their engines from GM. LOL

 

That;s for sure. I have always been a Chevy guy. Had a 69 Chevelle for about 25 years. I ended up with this mustang for various reasons. I wanted to have more power and to do that would have to spend bucks on the 4.6 3V after which I'd have an engine that was worth nothing. I really wanted something more old school, and the body is super straight, etc., on this, and it actually makes for a pretty solid street/strip car.

Plus when it comes to cutting it up, no problem at all, since it's a Ford.

 

Someone now makes motor mounts for doing an LS swap in a 05-23 Mustangs. One of the reviews for these someone says they had to remove 1/8" of material on the passenger side for the Hooker LS swap turbo manifold to clear. Also says these are adjustable, so you can move the block forward or rearward. Looks like the holes are elongated.

G Force Performance Products: GF-LSMUSTMM

motor mounts

 

Here is the firewall clearanced for the downpipe




And the bracket for the turbo




Pic of clearance needed for hooker ls swap manifold and motor mount on passenger side

 

Here is the downpipe with muffler and also the wastegate piping mocked up/tacked. The dump pipe will go out the front bumper. Next will be building the radiator support and mount for A2A intercooler.

 

The radiator and intercooler mount is done, and the cold side piping turbo to intercooler as well as the wastegate dump pipe, which is going out the front bumper.