DailyGTO

I figured I am long overdue with a thread regarding my LS turbo project over the last few years. I had goals of running consistently in the mid 10's, finishing Drag Week, and being able to drive it basically anywhere at any time. I feel I completed all that so I am moving on to something else (engine will be going in my Chevelle). I want to thank all the people on LS1tech, as I got the vast majority of the required info I needed to do this. Denmah's thread's, vid's and website were of particular help.

The car is a 1984 Ford LTD LX. The LX means it was one of a very small number of LTD's in 84 and 85 to get the 5.0 (about 3000 or so in total). I even got a Marti report to verify it. The problem was that the 5.0 was dead when I found the car. I thought of all my options but a junkyard LS made the most sense. The car was in okay shape, the previous owner had just painted it.

Through out its tenure with me, the car has received many names, but POS stuck after I put a metal POS badge on the front of the car right before 2016 Drag Week.









I started with a stock 2001 LM7 and 4L60e. AJE K member and mounts, AJE trans crossmember, DW300 intank pump, 80lb's, EFI Source Gold box, and a TCI EZ-TCU for the trans. I got an 8.8 with 3.73s from a mustang (LTDs only had 7.5s). I had a 6 point CM cage put in, and got Team Z rear upper and lowers.

I am oddly proud of my ugly front accessory mounting. It had no power steering or A/C, so I made some brackets for the alternator and tensioner. I never had any issues with this setup.





The turbo was just something I had lying around, a t4 exhaust (dont remember the A/R) with a Garrett Gt4288 from a Volvo truck. I looked it up and its only a 64.7mm inducer. This has unknown mileage on it too. I knew it was too small, but decided to give it a go since the price was right. I just flipped the truck manifolds and made my own plumbing.









The 4L60e died after only a few dozen miles, so I decided to go with the 4L80e. I found one for $200, and got a 3400 converter from Yank. The brackets I made to put the 4L80 in may not be pretty, but I am proud of them. I even was able to use the AJE 4L60 crossmember.








Finally it was really driveable. I got some 255/60/15 MT DRs and headed to the track. I just ran gate pressure of about 8psi, but I still learned a few things. First, the limited slip was dead, and second, the trans had no first gear so I was running in second. It still went 11.9 at 120, but it seemed to have lifted the heads in the process. I was still quite happy with it so far, but knew some more tweaks were in order.

DailyGTO

Next I pulled the engine apart, put ARP head studs in, BTR trunnions, 7.4 CM pushrods, LS7 lifters, and LS9 HGs but I kept the stock cam in it.

I got 3.27 gears and a spool for the rear, and got a new Extreme Automatics 4L80e.



I began slowly upping the boost, and diving deep in the low 11's. I eventually hit a single 10.8 too.

Then came Drag Week 2016. This was an awesome event. I knew the car had potential for solid high 10s, but I didnt want to push it, so I ran 11.1-11.3 all week. On the plus side, I never even had to pop the hood, and averaged 19 MPG for the full week. I made a custom trailer hitch, but the trunk was ample enough on its own.








After Drag Week the engine started knocking. It ended up being a bent rod (from detonation I assume). Before I found that, I just bought another LM7, and swapped over all the top end stuff. Then I got a bit more serious. I wanted to see how far I could push this little turbo. I installed the Aeromotive dual pump kit, and started running E85. I also decided on some new tires, MT 28/10.5s. They are overkill, but I didn't have to worry about traction anymore, and they look pretty good. They were a pain to fit though, as LTDs have less room for tire than even a normal Fox mustang.





Once I got the tune dialed in, with just a footbrake and 2-step, I started working down into the 10's with a best of 10.5 at 130 at only about 16-17 psi of boost. The car was quite consistent around 10.5-10.6 at 129-130. I ran it a bunch this year and I know the car had a ton more potential in it (transbrake, real turbo, cam, etc.). All this and the car weighed about 3500lb without driver.









And those are the broad strokes of the last 3-4 years with this LTD. I have torn it apart, and will most likely be selling the rolling chassis come spring time. But I learned a lot, and had a ton of fun.

MY_2K_Z

iTrader: (1)

That's really cool man. Seems like you have had a lot of fun with the car on a very basic setup. And 10s is still fast as f**k

RealQuick

iTrader: (14)

Cool build!

Bad Apache

Love the 4 door 5.0's!

adamantium

iTrader: (3)

that thing is sweet

DailyGTO

Thanks for all the replies! I know I just covered everything broadly, but if anyone ever has questions about my setup I am glad to help, pay forward the help I have gotten. Especially regarding the specifics of an LTD, or a 4L80E swap in a fox, as there is not a bunch of info I found and had to wing it a bit.

I always like slightly odd cars, mainly 4 doors and wagons. My previous project was a Mitsu Galant VR4, which has the chassis and engine of an Eclipse, but is a sedan. I had that running high 10's but it was just a hassle to keep together and not very streetable. An LS turbo fox body is just a simple platform that gets it done

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

how do you like those MT slicks? especially interested in how they work on marginal tracks

DailyGTO

I am probably not the best person to answer this since I went from some 255 Drs to these 10.5's and never tried any other slicks out, and I never hit them hard with any transbrake launches.

I will say that I didn't have to worry about traction with these though. My small turbo spooled fasted so I normally came out of the hole a little weak then about 10ft down it would come on hard. With the DRs I would normally blow the tires off, but these never flinched. I ran a 10.5 and 10.6 at Norwalk during the Hot Rod Zip tie drags, which had terrible prep, since it seemed I was 1 of only a couple cars there that day to have slicks or DRs, everyone else was on normal street tires. I felt a small amount of spin there, but the car kept accelerating. Those tires made the car very consistent for me, just pull up, footbrake and hold on. I ran them at about 18psi.

Even a few times in *cough* "Mexico" these worked great. A small burnout and they were good to go.

Edit: I'll add that I ran them without tubes, on a 15x8 rim, which is less than optimal. They normally slipped on the rim about an inch or so each pass. I plan on keeping these tires for other projects.

Cheese Weasel

Really cool build man, I'm diggin' how different it is...

Anyone give you any crap about the Bowtie emblem on the back??

DailyGTO

Thanks.

A lot of people didn't really know what kind of car it was. I could tell them LTD, and they still didn't get it some times. It was mistaken for a Malibu a few times as well. But yea, I had a few people that were not too happy about the Chevy badge (think it was from a Cobalt?). A neighbor said it would be a lot better if I took that badge off, but he calmed down after I said it ran 10s with a junkyard engine

408GT

iTrader: (2)

Nice build. I get that all the time too about people not knowing what kind of car it is. I've had Fairmonts and Zephyrs over the years too, people didn't know what those were either.

DailyGTO

Thanks! I have seen some of your stuff on here and it has helped me out. Always a fan of the Fairmonts, Zephyrs and Marquis'. Weird cars with common chassis' are my go-to.

One time before I slapped the Chevy badges on I went to grab some food. A guy said he really liked my car, and that it took him back to 1984 when he was working the line assembling these LTDs. As he sat in his f150 and seemed like he was really going down memory lane, I couldn't break it to him what engine was in the car haha.

408GT

iTrader: (2)

When I first built my Zephyr in my avatar, it had a 418 nitrous sbf (Mid 5's). We took it out of town to do some testing, people were very surprised to see a Ford engine in it.

With the LS being put into everything these days, everyone at the track now expects my car to be a turbo LS.

Bad Apache

We call that "The Malibu Syndrome" around here, lol.

69-chvl

iTrader: (11)

130mph with a 64mm turbo and a stock cam at 3500lbs is amazing! Great job!!

DailyGTO

I agree that when I go to the track or talk to other drag racers, they immediately expect it to be turbo LS and that it runs 8's. I'm in South East Michigan, so you only see two cars at the track, Fox body mustangs and G bodies haha.


Thanks! I have been quite impressed too since normally people put two turbos on LS swaps at that size (from all the research I have done, its actually only 63.5mm or so). I kept thinking about how I should step up the cam and turbo, but those things cost money If I had ever got a transbrake launch in with maybe a couple more psi of boost it would probably have been knocking on high 9s.

Bad Apache

Buddy has an LTD LX and I have a Zephyr. So we too have experienced the treatment driving the "ugly stepsister" foxes. Doesn't bother me! I have a soft spot for unusual cars.