The start of my ford 5.0 T5 swap and restoration

[BKB94]

 

Well I have done horrible things to this header and it's just not going to happen. Bolted it to a spare head and put it in my press and smashed it up against the head. Heated it with a torch and dented it with some 1" stainless. I still can't bolt the rack up its hitting so bad, need another 1". It's sad but a LS factory manifold looks like what I need, Patriot H8482 is pretty close to the LS. It's the header that Chery garage used on their 5.0 Starion and I don't see much else that will work. Not in the mood to make headers, Cost to HP doesn't make sense. Having issues hitting the order button, that's 1K between driveshaft, headers and some other small hydroboost fittings I ordered. 

[techboy]

Hmm ... bummer that didn't work out.  You're really forging the way for future 5.0 swaps though.

[BKB94]

Well I knew it was coming. I received a memo from the accounting office. Cease-and-desist on all CC purchases till the end of the month. I snuck my jegs header order just in time. If someone want to start a go-fund me that would be great. 

[BKB94]

The Patriot headers do not fit on either side, waste of $375.00. Plenty of room for headers but haven't found anything shaped right that fits. Should have just bought a kit and made my own headers. The passenger side I will use my modified BBK mustang header and I cut up the drivers side header to make one that fits.

 

 

Also received my driveshaft and working on the adapter. But in general have other things that needed my attention so quest work has been slow. 

I had to move the 3 horses from a temporary crappy farm to a more long term farm. I think the old truck looks great for a 2005 that sits outside its whole life. Cam, tuned, FICM tuned, Billet turbo wheel should be 450-500 RWHP on the race tune. I don't have $110,000.00 to replace her with a new King Ranch so she better last a long time. 

Also getting the old mustang ready for Carlisle Ford Nationals this Friday. This is my only new car I have had so far in my life. Wife and kid know that this car was before them and comes first. But the sad part is she has been severely neglected. I think this is the first time I have waxed it in 6-7 years, the bugs were practically part of the paint it's been so long. Its been 11 years since I did the 6 speed conversion using a Camaro TR6060, probably the only one in the world. Close to 20 years since I did a mild wire tuck and smoothed and painted the engine compartment. Car was still under warranty when I pulled the factory 145hp 3.8 V6 for the supercharged 3.8 V6. Back in the late 90s early 2000s 400 RWHP 450TQ were impressive now days that's a 5.3 LS with a cam. 

Edited October 12, 2023 by BKB94

[BKB94]

 

added a 20mm spacer out back to help.

Edited June 30, 2023 by BKB94

[techboy]

So who ended up doing your wheels? They came out great!!

[BKB94]

It’s one of those friend of a friend deals I can’t speak of. I had to rebuild a corvette T-56 to have the wheels re-finished. They were straightened, welded to remove all curb rash and nicks, polished and powder coated. Cost me $400 for the tires. They are rear SHPs on the back and rear 8s on the front. They were to machine the mounting hub down .200 to help pull the front wheels in but accidentally did the SHPs. Once I mount a fender on it I might throw the wheel on my mill and cut the mounting hub down. Rear 20mm spacers have been ordered and I’m going to be rolling the wheel well soon. 

[BKB94]

I really didn't want to start another project but I have never like the 13" two piston PBR Cobra brakes on my Mustang. I'm doing 14" GT500 rotors with Cadilac XTS J64 Brembo's. So this allows me to see how well the Cobra kit will fit the quest. 

Here is the quest, Cobra, GT500 rotors for size.

Hers is the passenger side done for mock  up. Thats $115 in parts for a big brakes on the passenger side, got to love it. 

Edited July 2, 2023 by BKB94

[BKB94]

Lets talk headers.

Patriot H8482 fit very tight to the block, lets say high and tight. The drivers side did not work with my rack but might work with the stock steering. The passenger side hits the motor mount hump built into the stock crossmember hard, tubes are too short to bend.

BBK Fox & SN95 shorty's. The drivers side did fit but not with my rack steering shaft. The passenger side hits the side of the frame hard. I heated it and smashed it against the head and it's what I'm using. 

BBK Fox 351 headers. Drivers side hit the block and did not work. Passenger side fit with no mods. 

60's Mustang Ebay shorty headers. These don't fit at all. They hit the firewall since they kind of sweep back past the last exhaust port. 

My drivers side is a cut up BBK Fox short'y and the 60's mustang.

Passenger side is the BBK Fox shorty heated and smashed against the head.

 

My driveshaft is done, my friend was slow at work and offered to do the adapter.

 

Steering is complete, another Mitsubishi fail is this sad excuse for tilt column. My simple lower mount still allows the column to wiggle up and down but is way more ridged then the OEM upper mount. The whole dash structure moves around quite easily and the weird friction pivot point is loose. Will see if I can shim this a bit to try and firm it up a little. Steering feel is perfect even with the angle of the U-joints not matching.  

Clutch is done and seems to work properly. Another Mitsubishi fail is the rubber cushioned clevis on the clutch master cylinder. If you want to improve the feel 1000% get rid of it.  Not much else for updates

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by BKB94

[BKB94]

running of brake lines

My new E-brake cables are in and adjusted and the master cylinder is bleed and firm.  I think it's nice and clean running the lines like this, also didn't take long to do. I guess next is Y-pipe and exhaust. 

Edited January 24 by BKB94

[techboy]

Really making some serious progress on this thing.  I'll have to pop over sometime soon and see it in person.

[BKB94]

Only a few days till surgery and I wanted to hear it run, this was a rush job. My rockauto OEM ignition module was DOA so I'm running a old style that runs a fixed 10' timing with no EEC timing control. Because of this my first video was a no start with some cursing, I did smelled fuel so I knew something was working. Open headers with no O2s the intake is not tight, cobbled air intake, no coolant or belt. But she runs and I think all my factory gauges are working. This really got me excited to get things moving along. 

 

running

Edited October 30, 2023 by BKB94
No idea how to add video, click on RUNNING

[BKB94]

Gauges

TACH - So you put a V8 in your car and your tach reads 2x the RPM. I'm sure there are ways to correct this with a module but all it takes is a resistor.  

That circled resistor measures 15.2 ohms on my car ( I didn't even look at the bands to see the rated ohms ) I removed that resistor and soldered leads with a potentiometer to adjust the tach while reading true RPM with a contactless RPM meter. Dialed in the resistance till she read correct at 750, 2000, 3000 rpm ( no coolant in my motor so RPM limited ). I then measured that pot ( 27.5 ohms ) and soldered 2 resistors in series to add up to 27.5 ohms. If you are lazy and also putting a V8 in as you can see double the resistance will get you real close to half the RPM. This can be used to calibrate the factory tach or make it work with any piston engine you decide to install that reads off the coil - side. 

coolant temp - I'm using the stock 94-95 coolant temp sensor that ford seems to use on everything out there for decades. With no mods it reads 1/2 gauge @ 195'F, Im very happy with that since my T-stat is a 192'F . 

Oil Pressure - 94-95 5.0s use a pressure switch not a pressure sensor. If you hook these gauges to a switch that grounds the signal wire to ground it will destroy the gauge, it must go through a resistive load to reduce the current passed through the gauges windings. Using a Fox oil pressure sensor E4ZZ-9278-A tends to put the factory needle at the top with cold 5-30W at 80psi. I have not run the engine enough to get the oil hot but from mapping out the stock gauge it should be just below 1/2 gauge at 40psi where I expect my hot idle oil pressure to be. I might tweak this to my liking but as is it will work fine and uses the whole sweep of the gauge, something I like. 

Proper Ford 3G alternator charging - Like the factory Mitsubishi alternator the Ford requires a charge light bulb with a back up resistor incase the bulb burns out. This sends a low voltage back to the charging field coil, without this the alternator will not charge. The Mitsubishi resistor is mounted on that stupid relay cluster on the drivers side inner wheel well. Since I cut all the crap off the car I had to add the 550 ohm resistor to the back of the cluster.

 

It's hiding under the shrink wrap from the battery bulb to the bottom side of the diode.

[BKB94]

I had my open heart surgery the 3rd and was home a few days when I went into stage 3 heart block. Went back the next Sunday and Monday they put a pacemaker in me. Thats not something I ever planned for and has a huge impact on my hobbies and carrier. For example I can't do any kind of welding, I'm pretty sure my rotary phase converter in my barn puts out crazy EMI so no 3 phase power for the machine shop. Any my job I just see no way in hell I can do it. 

I need to collect data and see if this pacemaker is contributing to my life or just along for the ride. Once I have 3 months of data I can decide If I do all the things I'm not supposed to do or If I need to play nice with it. They already tuned it to be very numbed down but there is only so much they can do. The ultimate goal would be to have it removed if it's not needed. 

This might slow down the build quite a bit.  Hell I just sneezed yesterday and re-broke my sternum, Thats not fun at all. I'm doing what I can with my 5lb lift capacity and trying to not think about the what ifs. I am out in the barn every single day and doing what I can to keep some forward momentum on this project.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by BKB94

[BKB94]

Not one to follow the rules I have been doing a lot of welding lately. So far I haven't passed out and poop myself after hours of mig welding. I'm sure my pacer tech is going to flip out on me once this data log gets sent into the manufacturer. 

2 1/2 down pipes to 3" going into a flowmaster 40 Delta Flow #9430412. It was a bit of a rush job and the plan was to tig but I'm scared to try the tig unless someone is on site with me. The tail pipes are in place but not finished welding and coating. 

Click to here it idle

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-WQksT2k/0/01daae9b/1280/i-WQksT2k-1280.mp4

Went with the $13 EVO peddle covers, I like the look as long as they hold up. These are not direct fit, I cut new metal backing the same shape as the pedal covers. 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by BKB94
Still cant figure out how to add video.

[BKB94]

Did a quick alignment so I could tighten up my cam bolts. Seems the right side has some issues that I can't fix without caster plates. 

On the front when I start to pull the right wheel front to add caster the wheel is now leading the other wheel (set back) this is not good and the cross member has 0 slop in it to adjust it there. The rear right is maxed out on the toe cam and I can't get it into a + number and it has a lot of - camber also. Not going to worry about it until she has some drive time and see if things settle. 

      Decided to weigh the car and corner scale it to see if we have any issues there. I'm at 2824 with a running car 5 gallons of fuel, missing parts are spare tire, fenders, front bumper, hood, headlights. I don't know if that's even 150 pounds to add. Now the scales I built myself and they have been accurate to around 40 pounds, I'm more than happy with that for what I paid to build them.

LF 804lbs     RF 768lbs     RR 700lbs     LR 600LBS

F 54.7%     R 45.3% Full tank of gas will really improve this.

 I will try and get some height measurements and see if I can shim up the LR a bit to get better weight distribution. 

 

[GoldStar]

On 12/11/2023 at 4:09 PM, BKB94 said:

Did a quick alignment so I could tighten up my cam bolts. Seems the right side has some issues that I can't fix without caster plates. 

On the front when I start to pull the right wheel front to add caster the wheel is now leading the other wheel (set back) this is not good and the cross member has 0 slop in it to adjust it there. The rear right is maxed out on the toe cam and I can't get it into a + number and it has a lot of - camber also. Not going to worry about it until she has some drive time and see if things settle. 

      Decided to weigh the car and corner scale it to see if we have any issues there. I'm at 2824 with a running car 5 gallons of fuel, missing parts are spare tire, fenders, front bumper, hood, headlights. I don't know if that's even 150 pounds to add. Now the scales I built myself and they have been accurate to around 40 pounds, I'm more than happy with that for what I paid to build them.

LF 804lbs     RF 768lbs     RR 700lbs     LR 600LBS

F 54.7%     R 45.3% Full tank of gas will really improve this.

 I will try and get some height measurements and see if I can shim up the LR a bit to get better weight distribution. 

 

For the front caster, the torque arm doesn't have enough threads to even it out?

[BKB94]

I have plenty of adjustment but pulls that wheel in front of the left wheel. Set back causes weird issues when one wheel is ahead of the other. Granted it’s not a lot but the fact that the rear of the car is all screwed up doesn’t help anything. Seems the rear cross member is favoring the left side in the car but again no slop in it to adjust it. If I put CC plates on it front and back the rear would be probably 80% dead nuts on and the front could be 100% with both wheels in line and proper caster split. As of now the right rear wheel is probably 1/2” further out then the left side do to the -camber and having the cam adjuster all the way out to correct toe. Left cam is maxed in right maxed out out. I will measure the unibody and see if that answered any questions. Car has all original paint and no signs of an accident. Like I said I’ll drive it and see if anything changes. Plenty of room to get creative with alignments, one thing in life a truly enjoy. 

[BKB94]

That picture of the alignment is a bit misleading since I adjusted the tension rod but did not do a caster sweep. So in reality the right wheel is ahead of the left a tad but my caster is probably a full point lower then the left. 

[BKB94]

It's the little details that take forever. I have been working to finish up the engine compartment and underside of the car. Been on a few hell rides around my house and she is fun, makes all the correct sounds but does attract allot of attention. 

Cooling - Gates Molded Coolant Hose ID Guide This is what I have been using to find the hoses I need. So far 100% success rate. Only my low speed fan has had to kick on and it's quiet and brings the temp down. Seems I picked a good resistance for low speed fan. I will be shocked if this little rad and fan can keep this cool with AC on.

Steering - It feels like a factory rack set up, No bump steer or other issues. Car has insane turning radius. If I had to complain about something it's a bit over boosted feeling. Steering feedback is one of the things I look for in a car and I'm usually very disappointed. My mustang has fantastic steering feedback but it’s running a race inspired rack with a lot of caster. Only other car that I owned that got it right was of all things my base model Focus company car, that thing felt great. Final thoughts it was well worth it and I’m glad I did it. Steering is tight and she tracks straight with awesome return to center. Only thing I might have changed was the U-joint connection to the steering column. I would have welded a splines end on the column and matching U-joint for a better connection. 

Hydraboost - I really didn't know how this was going to work out but I'm glad I did it. The massive amount of pressure this puts out along with the 1" master gives great feeling brakes. Modern cars brakes feel very different then the old vacuum brakes, this feels like my 2021 explorer and that a very good thing. Need to bed pads and see if my proportioning valve needs adjusting. 

Trans - I have 5 forward gears and reverse from my junk trans that is made up of many parts of other T-5s. It shifts great and is quiet. My master / slave combo is working nice and feels good. 

Engine - Adding the aluminum heads sent me down a path I had little experience with. I have not built many V8s and my first experience buying rocker studs. I ended up with a 1.9 stud and really should have went taller since the posi lock was lacking threads. This was all too tall to fit under the stock valve covers and I made the mistake to buy cheap stamped covers off E-bay, they leaked bad. I bought Fox body stock cast aluminum covers and no more leaks. Engine didn't run right after that and I wasted a few days swapping injectors, plugs, leak down and compression tests. Swapped EEC and it ran normal again, This EEC came from a basket case mustang that never ran right. It also had a piggy back tuner at some point and burned traces where that plugged in. It was to be replaced but since it ran out of site out of mind, new EEC coming tomorrow.  New EEC in and all is good. Pretty sure the old EEC was dropped hard and I found 2 metal bodied capacitors touching the pins on a chip. I might test it later but it’s really rare for any eec to fail.

Fuel gauge - This one has me pissed and wasted a lot of time. This complete tank I bought looks brand new inside and out and the fuel sending unit itself looked new. I keep adding gas 5 gallons at a time but the gauge always read low, full tank reads 3/4. Pull unit and my resistance is off 25 ohms full 135 ohms empty and should be 1-105 ohms. I cleaned it and tried to make the sweeper move further on the rheostat but little luck. I ordered a new sending unit and will see how that works out. 

HVAC - found the evaporator had a hole in it, swapped with a spare. Swapped a lot of O-rings trying to get a good vacuum on this thing. I don’t do many car system so maybe I’m asking too much but high 900 microns is as low as it will pull, it will then leak and shoot up to 1200 micron. Being all is new there should be no moisture in this system and I have purged it many times with N2. I am done at this point and will just run it and see if I find any oil if it leaks, pressure tested to 250psi and no leaks found.

Suspension - The ST front sway bar did not fit the oil pan on the 5.0. During mock up with the front clip I had a lot of room around the pan with the stock sway bar. I can't explain it but the front clip and the car do not match at all, nothing I mocked up on the clip fit the car the same. I had to bend the stock bar on my press to make the front come out more to give me the clearance I needed. Dampening and spring rates are very soft and I actually smashed the rear sway bar into the floor pan on a dip I don't even feel in my mustang. I have ST lowering springs with new front Tokico inserts and rear used Tokico blues. At the minimum I'm thinking coil overs on stock struts, and maybe seeing what Koni has in cut a strut inserts. The rear of the car is way too low and I bumped it 3/8" with spacers but I'm out of threads. I ordered BMW camber plates for $50 and will be using them on the rear and that should lift me around 1", That might fix this issue for now.

Edited January 6 by BKB94

[BKB94]

Parts always look nicer with some clear on them.

D2s are all corrosion protected and assembled. My diy cheap rear camber plate was a bust so now I need to order one from MKS. I really didn't want to put these on right away but I'm kind of running out of things to do on the car. Body work and paint is next and I can't do anything till its warm again. So I will slap them on and do another alignment and see how much better I can get it.

I had a spare windshield that was very nice, I was stupid to leave it in the front clip outside. Mother nature took over and a weed grew up inside the A-piller and broke the glass. This windshield is in pretty bad shape with 130k miles of stone blasting and the windshield wipers left swipe marks over the whole windshield. Buffed it out and I'm pretty happy with it, about 95% of the wiper scratches are gone. I wish I would have buffed it when the engine was out because you need to use a lot of pressure. Should have taken a before picture to see how bad it was, some cerium oxide is in the stone chips and makes it look much worse then it is. 

This trim tool does work very well at removing the upper trim. 

Have a few interior parts to put back in and then I need to work on a different project for a while. Wife wants me to do a 240-260 or 280Z car, I had a 1981 280ZX T-top car in high school and I miss that car. Guess ill start looking and see what's available and how rusted it is. Only about 3 weeks before I go back to work so I need to accomplish something. 

Edited January 15 by BKB94

[BKB94]

My D2 install.

everything was labeled wrong, put all your right side parts on the left and all will work out. They recommend cutting the strut at 1 1/4" tube length but I went 3". I felt a lot better with that much engagement and it gave me a lot more room for plug welds.  After blasting the fresh paint off the struts I heated the sleaves up and dropped them on, nice shrink fit. I did 5mm of spring preload, will adjust after the first 1k miles. Did a quick weight scale and only my rear right needed raised to get equal weight. I'm using MKS rear camber plates, there was a question if they work and yes they do. Your alignment guy is going to hate you because you need to drop the strut to guess and adjust then measure again and over and over till it's correct, expect an upcharge on your bill for an extra hour. The front camber plates remove a full degree of caster, not a big deal but again more time on the rack to get back your degree of lost caster. I unbolted my rear cross member and even with a porta power I can't get any movement, its twisted in the car but I can't fix it. I'm going to assume since these cars spend so much time broken down on the side of the road some idiot hooked a rear control arm and hoisted it on a flat bed. All tow hooks have been mangled on every quest I had and same with that nice hole they put in that lower control arm. 

I was lazy and didn't touch the front tension rods to correct caster. The rear right camber plate is maxed out but because of the crossmember that's as good as its going to get. 

new weights are 2992 full tank of gas and heavier wheels and tires.

FL 736       FR 742

RL 740      RR 734 

For all the haters that claimed a V8 would kill the handling I see no proof of that so far. Remember this car still has all options like A/C, PS, and full interior. No intentional weight reduction, in fact more sound insulation is going in soon.

Edited January 20 by BKB94

[BKB94]

Well did something you should never do with a project like this, added it all up. So this is my all in # and I do mean all in, every roll of tape, wire loom, light bulbs, the car, paint, tires. Good news is I should be done spending money since I have a running - driving car and have all parts and paint supplies to finish it. 

$9981.50

I gave myself a $6500 budget, aluminum heads and the D2s being the 2 big unexpected purchases of $2300.00 + $6500.00 budget = $8900.00

I did come into this project kind of blind in that the drivetrain was chosen but little else was planned. The fact that it's probably a little more on the car show side then just a engine swap helps justify the added expense.  I'm not upset but going to be a bit more cautious with spending. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 25 by BKB94

[techboy]

That's actually less than I would have thought.  But when you can a ton of stuff yourself, that really helps cut cost.  It cost  me $5500 to have my car painted in 2015.  9 years ago already - Yikes!

[BKB94]

I started buying parts for this project in 1996 and it’s all documented. Back then these cars were common in the junk yards and nobody touched them. Back then you would go in line like a pack mule and they would charge $20 for as much as you could carry. I would walk out with 2 fenders, carpet around my head, back pack full of HVAC units and relays. Wheels were always gone. But I’m slowly selling off my stash, have people coming almost every weekend and that money is why I’m not expecting this 10k or so to increase.