Toph6888

I've been thinking about having it redone, but instead of saying mustang it would say "3PointH8"

Fox body's look terrible :gabe:

Lol bumper came that way. It's a 92, and she got it for $3000 with 32k on it, so we couldn't really complain haha. Which one, the mustang side stripe? I like it, it's one of the reasons I bought the car in the first place, I don't care for when they don't have the stripe, looks too boring an monotone to me

Haha, someday I will have a big garage all to myself. She does have a decent reason to need a spot in the garage though, as her car was painted just last year and we would like to avoid it getting crapped on, otherwise I will have to rebuild it (again :doh:)

Well since I was tired of wiring stuff, I started working on getting the vacuum booster off. The bolts that hold it in are in a super huge pain in the ass area to reach, but the real pain isgetting that damn booster out of the engine bay. The shock tower is completely in the way and the studs are too long to give it clearance, battled with it for about an hr before we were able to get it out. but I do have A LOT more clearance now so the exhaust shouldn't be too bad to fabricate now. The oil dipstick tube will probably touch it, but I will wrap it with some heat tape and other then that I'm not too worried about it since it shouldn't really cause an issue. lots more clearance gotta love when the gf lets me have the whole garage for the weekend

Decided based on other's suggestions to move the HVAC controls down to the bottom slot and move the gauges up top, so that I would have a bit more clearance for the shifter and so the gauges would be easier to see. Moving the stuff around in the center console really wasn't too bad, took me about an hour or so to move everything around. Still need to tap into the power for the gauges, but everything is pretty much ready to go into the car.

Worked a little bit on it today, first worked on figuring out how I am going to mount my intercooler, bought some angle aluminum used for mounting garage doors lol, and I'll cut and bolt it together to make it work. Also bought a new grinder today! woo new toys. Just a cheap one, but should do what I need it to do. I'll get this mounted on tomorrow. Also mounting up the hydroboost unit and trying to get the steering pump and alternator on tomorrow with the master cylinder, adn get the calipers painted and on, but we will see how far we get tomorrow. Tonight I mainly focused on some of the wiring for my gauges, worked on the wiring for my pyrometer, oil pressure, and water temp. Hooked everything up, have to get a couple more couplers, but everything is set up wtih quick disconnects so if something doesn't work I will be able to take it out and put it back together quickly. and now pics! Starting to wire them up Wiring done (mostly) Where they are going and how they will look in the car. I bought the holder from summit racing, and I'll have to clearance just a little bit to make it work on the gauge holders behind the mounting plate, but it should fit in there pretty well.

No super big updates but I got the front grille delete and chin spoiler on, took a look at what my new floormats will look like, and got the driveshaft flange/ujoint all put together. Sorted out my brakes and started getting them set up to be painted, so hopefully I can get them painted later this week and then put them on next week since I will be out of town this weekend. Mostly working on small things, getting them cleaned up and what not so that when I have a weekend (at the end of the month, woot!) I can spend my time focusing on actually putting things on for good vs having to worry about cleaning and whatnot.

Did a couple small things tonight. I wanted to get more done, but it was just so muggy I couldn't stand being in the garage. Figures on my one night off this week. Anyways, started off by getting the rear seat out I mocked up where my battery box would go. Looks like I will have to drop the tank at least part of the way in order to get my hands up to where I need to to be able to put the hardware in. I knew I would regret not doing it when I had the tank out originally, ohh well, thats how it goes. got the cobra rear seats in: Managed to break the tabs on the piece that fits over those so it looks like I will be hunting around for one of those in the future :fuuu:, but it will just be ghetto rigged for the time being. Front seats mocked in. I decided to put them in to see how they would look because I needed the room in my living room haha. I still need to take them out so I can drill out the rear bolts, and then put new hardware in to secure them to the floorboard. Kinda a crappy picture but I think the white suede goes well with the silver car. Should really look good in the sun. Thats all for now, hopefully some cooler weather will show up so I can get some more done on it on Sunday.

Not too much to report on as we had a housewarming party this weekend and were rushed with getting all the small things done around the house. Did push it out and got it washed, looks much better now. There are some new scratches/burrs in the paint now from when I started the project, but nothing major. It happens, I planned on getting it painted in a year or two anyways. Was able to finally make it to the scrap yard and sell off my old junk. Wasn't too bad, I dropped of 320lbs of stuff like the old crank/rods/pistons, shocks/struts/springs, flywheels, and miscellaneous stuff, sold the two cats that were from the car for $25 each, and the old oil pan for $4 lol. All in all walked out with $86.32 in cash lol. Better then nothing. The best was when I went to throw the old pressure plate out, and it landed on an old refrigerator sticking out of the door like so And with said $86.32, I proceeded straight to Jegs to pick up a battery relocation kit to move it to the trunk haha. Gonna have to cut and length the battery bolt down, but other than that it fits pretty well. It looks like its perfect, but there isn't quite enough for the it to fit around the battery, just on top of it... Other then that there was a car show at a bar a mile from my place and got to see a lot of old muscle cars and some cobras, and got to take some pics of the hydroboost line routing so I know where all th I work nights this week so not too much will happen, but wednesday night and friday night are off so I hope to have the battery kit and seats in place by then and will hopefully have my brake caliper brackets here, so I can paint all the calipers and put those on, and my driveshaft flange should be here so I can finally have only the intake and exhaust to work on haha.

Didn't have a whole lot of time today, but I at least got the front two seats of the mustang out. Man they are old. Did the passenger side first. Stud nuts came out just fine. The back two bolts, well, they are broken. Gonna have to drill them out, and I'll get some new bolts and bolt it through. Damn you Ohio winters! Passenger side out. No Battery, No Problem. Had to move my front power seat forward, so I just hooked my car up to the dependable back up battery haha. Drivers side out. I am also up $3.47 in change, time to go buy more parts! Went ahead and switched out my seat belt locks. My 13 yr old ones on the left, cobra ones on the right. Yah, lets take care of that.... Hopefully I will get my battery box relocation kit this weekend, put that in while the interior is out of the car, and then I will have the cobra seats in. Pretty pumped to be able to sit in them in the car haha.

Thanks for the comments guys, pretty happy with how its going, and now that we are finally almost done with the move it will hopefully start picking up on updates quicker now. Well here's a quick update. Not much has happened in the past couple weeks from moving and whatnot. I have made a couple decisions though: 1) I will go ahead and mount my battery in the trunk because I have to take the interior out anyways, and it will just be easier to do know then trying to make it work with the turbo kit, I need the space for an overflow tank for my radiator anyways. 2) I have decided to go back to the original intake instead of the windstar. Currently it will just be easier to use that to get it running for now, and if I decide to do it later I will already have the parts. I will gasket match the upper intake, clean it up and paint it silver and call it done for now. I just came to the decision it won't affect my numbers that much since I have the turbo to just force the air in haha. Last night was a good clean up though, with all the moving the garage was in shambles but I finally got my bench put together, all my tools organized, and found all my parts from the move haha. New garage is a bit smaller, but its all small stuff remaining that I don't need a huge space for so it shouldn't be too bad haha. I was pretty spoiled with that last place. All the parts that still have to go on, and the trunk is still full :eyetwitch: Workbench! This weekend I am hoping to get the hydroboost on, get the brakes all on, and get my trunk battery and new interior in. We are having a housewarming party this weekend though, so who knows how far we will actually get haha.

Yah that rain did nothing to that 7month layer of dust haha. I will hopefully clean it up a bit this weekend. I'm quite happy to have it in Cbus, the entire time towing it was just adrenaline as my buddy kept making comments like "did we remember to get that strap" or "did you see how that webbing was frayed?" haha. The motto's of this project have been "Just two more weeks" and "don't worry, it will just bolt on". I would estimate relistically to get all the little things done, and get the turbo exhaust refabbed and to get my handheld tuner, I am looking at about a month or so till fire up. Currently the goal is to get it running for the summit racing all mustang show up in Tallmadge on July 27th. Fingers crossed

Ya I was pretty happy with the deals that I got on those. I was pretty stretched to pull it off to pay for them, but too good of a deal to pass up on. Well yesterday it finally got down to columbus, all in all took about 6 hrs, 2 hrs to get there, 2 hrs to get the wheels on and a couple things tied up and the car loaded, and another 2 hours back. All in all it finally got in the garage in columbus at about 10pm or so, so not too bad. Old wheels vs the new wheels haha My buddy Brad left me a message on my car ("Looks Good, -Brad") The car does need a wash since it has been collecting dust for the past 6-7 months, I can't believe its been that long Got the new wheels/tires on the car, looks good! Got it on its own suspension!!! Its only been on those jackstands for about 5 months haha Up and on the trailer. Hood doesnt quite clear the windstar intake because I still have to grind it down, but we just wedged some wood and cardboard so it wouldn't bounce around during towing Been a while since we have seen this car spot open A little bit of rain on the way back, but not enough to get her clean And in the excitement of finally getting it off the trailer and into the garage, and checking out our new place, I forgot to get a pic of it in the new garage. Quite a bit smaller, but shouldn't be a problem since all the big stuff is taken care of. I'll get a pic later tonight haha

Just a quick update, got a couple things for the mustang but haven't been able to work on it yet because it is still up in akron, but I am driving up tomorrow with a friend with a trailer and we are towing it down (FINALLY) to Columbus. In the past two weeks, I did get some pretty good deals. Deal #1 was a set of 03 Cobra machine faced wheels with BF Goodrich Gforce sport tires with less then 2k on them. Got the whole set for $650 Deal #2 was a set of 03 Cobra seats (front and back) that were in very decent condition for $500. The drivers side suede is a little worn, and the bolster has some very light wear, but other then that they are in really good shape. Pretty happy with these, I was originally gonna just get the foam and the seat covers from TMI Upholstery set, but this turned out to be cheaper, and I was already in Detroit anyways on a buisness trip so picking them up was a breeze. Other then that nothing has really changed, been super busy with getting ready to move, but after tomorrow and this weekend of moving I will be able to get started on all the little things.

Thanks man glad you like it. I can't wait for it to be finally fired up haha. Well I got some more done this weekend in order to be ready to tow it down on the 23rd hopefully. All I need to do is get some 17" rims to put on the back axle (my stock 15's won't clear the tierod bar mount on the spindle), get it off the jack stands, and put the hood on. I did manage to get my windows back up by hooking my car up to my subarus battery with some jumper cables haha. Also got my buddies garage all cleaned out, I don't remember ever bringing that much stuff over haha. And now, pictures! I bolted on most of the stuff just becuase it would be easier to tow that way, but it also is nice to see it starting to really come together. The windstar intake needs to come off to put the harness and coolant bypass tube, as well as the turbo off so I can put my accessory belt on, but hey it looks cool and the engine is sealed so nothing should get in it during shipping. Then got the bumper and stuff on. Don't worry, I have better headlights, these ones are just the crappy dd ones haha. also gonna have to rework that radiator hose so I can get my tubing to the throttle body. Finally got all my stuff cleared out, and got the subaru loaded up iwth way too many parts haha, Those tables on the sides were FULL And the subaru loaded up. Kind of hard to tell, but the back wheels had about 3-4" of clearance while the fronts had around 7". The car had terrible handling at low speeds because the front would just sway back and forth because no weight was on it. Once it was at highway speeds it was fine but I don't think I will load it up like that again haha. So that will pretty much be it for about two weeks, won't be able to really work on it again till maybe memorial day, but things will be going much quicker hopefully because it will be at my place so I will be able to work on it at night and not have to worry about driving up to Akron to work on it.

Well today was a long day, but I had a solid goal of getting all the suspension in and I managed to accomplish it. My apologies for not taking more photos, but I was in overdrive mode (I was in the garage for over 12hrs today) First I painted the front control arms and the front spindles, and then set about torqueing all of the bolts for the IRS and finish assembly of it. Only real issue that I had was that the shock bolts that the guy gave me weren't the right length, so I had to go out and get some longer grade 8 bolts that would fit. Got the drivers side in first: Then the passengers: Been waiting a long time to see this under my car: Then I went about checking the brake rotor clearance with the caliper bracket, because since it is vented it is a thicker rotor so you have to open up the gap in the caliper bracket with a grinder, or get cobra caliper brackets. But other then that the calipers fit on just fine In other good news, the stock Ebrake cables look to be long enough (this is kinda a crappy pic, but take my word for it ) Finally once all the paint was dry I was able to work on the front suspension, I didn't get any "final" pictures of it because it was close to 11pm, but its all in there Caster camber plates Most of the front stuff in Tomorrow I am going to finish buttoning up the turbo hotside, get the radiator/fan in, and get the front end and hood back on the car because I will be towing it down to my new garage in Columbus on the 23rd, so now I will finally be able to work on it all the time instead of having to drive up 2hrs to work on it during the weekends.

This is a sweet build, I like when people take a shot at something and go for it with limited experience, thats how I felt with my build, and it keeps the adrenaline up! Those parts you got cleaned look really good. Makes me wish I would have sent them out for the same treatment.

got a little further tonight, just did a couple small things because I was by myself and it was crappy out, and traffic was a dog haha. Cleaned up my front control arms, spindles, and valve covers so I can paint them tomorrow when the humidity drops down. Then I started messing with my rear axle, and I decided to put one of the axles in so I could check the movement of the upper control arm and see if it would hit anything. I had to bend the stock brake line just a smidge, but nothing that would kink the line or break it. I think it should be good. Pics with the axle in (Getting close!) Then I got some pics of the driveshaft spacing so anyone else who is looking at putting in a IRS in their V6 will see how much clearance there is between the yoke of the driveshaft and the transmission rear seal Transmission/Driveshaft Yoke, about 2-4 inches of spacing here, pretty much where it was stock Here is where the driveshaft is against the flange for the differential side (it looks farther apart, but I can garantee you they are pretty much centered on each other, its hard to get a good pic because there is all this IRS crap in the way ) Then I finished looking over my hydroboost conversion. Seems pretty simple, and I don't see as of right now that I will have to swap pedal assemblies, it looks like mine will work. So tomorrow I plan on painting the front suspension, getting that in, getting all the IRS bolts torqued down and getting the brakes on the car, getting my Ujoint that I need, and getting the car back on its own legs. I also plan on getting the radiator in, fan in, wiring harness in, and getting that hydroboost setup in so I can put my turbo stuff in for good. It will be a busy day, but nothing really to strenuous to fit, just have a lot of parts to put on haha.

Most people will tell me its been a waste of money haha. But I knew from the beginning people would give me crap for building a v6, but I just shrug them off and keep doing what I'm doing lol. I think the investment will be worth it, I'm about $10-11K into it, but I also have an essentially new car for that (brakes,suspension, engine, transmission, clutch, turbo system, IRS, gauges, fuel system, underbody coating, all the misc general wear items), and its semi unique. Plus right now its been more about learning about the whole thing, and learning how to deal with a lot of issues/hiccups that you just can't predict lol. But it looks like the light is finally showing at the end of the tunnel, a couple more weekends and hopefully start up.

Thanks, and whenever I finally get it down to Columbus sounds good. I am hoping it will be down by the end of the month. I have been working on it at a buddies place, and once I get all the suspension in and get the engine sealed up we are going to trailer it down to my garage that I will finally be getting end of the month. If you have any general questions about the car feel free to ask, I think I am getting pretty close to have had turned or touched every bolt on this thing haha.

Got a little further today. Managed to get that last IRS frame bolt into the car, and afterwards we worked on getting the differential in, which took a little longer then what I thought but we got it in, and got the control arms on. The front lower control arm bushing sleeve was about 1/4" longer then what the width of the control arm mounts was, and we had a couple issues driving a few control arm bolts in past the differential crossmember brace, but nothing that a small grinder, grease, prybar and hammer couldn't solve. Hoping that I might have some time tomorrow to get some stuff in, but it looks like I will be getting the full suspension on next weekend and then it will be a full roller. Also in good news, I checked my driveshaft clearance, and I have a good 2-3" of play before my driveshaft will rub against my transmission seal, so even with the slightly larger flange on the back it shouldn't have any issues with length. Score. Just a couple pictures because I was in a hurry trying to get this stuff in, but I will get some better pics soon Differential in Drivers control arm Passenger control arm

Was able to work on it for only 4-5 hrs today as its my dads bday today. But here we go! I went to the shop to get my front control arms back from getting the rubber bushings pushed out, and I said why not just install the urethane bushings and balljoints. Well they tore both boots on the ball joints, so they are going to fix it, and hopefully be done with it by Monday. So much for getting the front suspension on today/tomorrow. Ohh well thats how it goes. I took the timing cover off the other night because I was worried I didn't torque down the timing tensioner bolts. Started with putting the timing cover back on with the new timing gasket, mine got jarred up from when I took it off last night. Still glad I checked though because the timing tensioner bolts weren't as snug as I would have liked them to be, and I put loctite on them this time so should be good to go! Then I went ahead and measured for my pushrods. I made a solid lifter by taking an old one apart (and marking it so I would remember which one it was), took the spring out, flipped the inner piece upside down, and put the pluger on top of that. When I was using my checker, it was 6 spins to match the same height as the stock pushrods, and the best position for my pushrod length was 6.5 turns. Based on the turns being 0.100", and that being a solid lifter I didn't have any preload, I will go with a rod that is 0.100" longer then stock, and I am pretty sure that will give me the required length to get a decent geometry. I tried it with 7 turns (thus being 0.100" over stock) and it looked like it was super close to binding the spring, but I believe once it is on an actual hydraulic lifter that will take out some clearance and make it the correct length and not cause bind. I know that was a lot of words, but if anyone sees any issue with this please let me know haha. Solid Lifter Image of valve top (doesn't give a clear image of the wear because they are stock rockers, but I tried it longer, and shorter, and this was the best I got with an even contact over the whole patch, the others were either centered to the top, or centered to the bottom) Next I went ahead and put all of my lifters in, oiled them up, put the locks on, and bolted them down. Then I got the gaskets set up and put them in, and got the lower intake partially on. I didn't have an in-lb torque wrench, so I will get one tomorrow and bolt it down for good. Right now everything is finger tight. Intake on, fuel rail temporarily on, and coolant tube temporarily on (checking clearance on the windstar) And then I was trying to get clearance for the windstar, I was starting to run out of time, so I didn't get it bolted down. I still need to clearance the coolant tube a bit more, but its almost there. Got the fuel rail bent out of the way at least. I personally feel the badge on this intake is the best part about this swap haha Tomorrow my dad is going with me so we are going to get the rest of the IRS stuff on and hopefully get the pushrods in and the ujoint I still need for the driveshaft, but hopefully the back half of the car will be on the ground by tomorrow night!

So I spent most of today getting some stuff cleaned up and painted. I can't believe how much time this painting is taking haha. Anyways, I started off on the lower intake, I drilled and tapped for a water temp sender, but then found out my tap was too small for the sender, so I will take it to work with me to get the proper size hole/tap put in it. So much for getting the intakes on today. I did get my homemade shitty egr block off made using some i believe 1/8" steel plate, a gasket as a guide, a grinder, and I cut the bolts short to make it fit. Then lined it with rtv sealant on either side, and its bolted on. Then got the intake painted silver to match the heads Then I cleaned up my exhaust headers and merge pipes, got all the old heat wrap off since it was all stained and falling apart anyways, and sprayed 2-3 coats of VHT high temp ceramic paint. It looks glossy when wet, but it drys flat black which should be a nice contrast to the blue block, silver heads/intake, and semigloss black engine bay While I was waiting for paint to dry, I decided to see how my gauges would look in the car, so I mocked them up to see, they still need to be wired. Then I decided to test fit the drivers side header so I could get an idea of how I want to route my exhaust dump (the guy who originally had this kit had a tubular k member and went underneath the k instead of trying to get back past the engine) and I realized I will have to convert to a hydroboost setup in order to get enough clearance because I took a piece of 3" pipe and tried to fit it between the header primary, vacuum booster, and steering linkage and there was no way it is going to fit. So if anyone knows anyone selling a setup, LET ME KNOW ASAP lol. I would like to have it by saturday. So I was pretty dishearted that A) I wasnt able to put my intakes on and B) I have to get a new brake system in order to put an exhaust on, but I was dead set and determined to see the turbo on the car! The guy that made the kit made it so the turbo was hard mounted to the engine, with a lot of flex pipes around everything else so it could still "move" and not break welds if the engine torqued one way or another. So I bolted up that bracket so I could see the turbo in the engine bay, looks pretty good! All in all, it was great getting the engine in this weekend. I will have two more weekends to work on it up by Akron close to my parents, and then after that if the suspension is good to go and engine is sealed I am going to have it towed down to my place in columbus so I can work on it easier. Hopefully next week goes honestly as good as this one did. Fingers crossed.

Well yesterday was freaking awesome. Started out by getting a tap set so I could chase my head stud bolts (11m x 1.5, who makes bolt this size?!? way to go FORD!) Anyways, got those on, made sure left side meant drivers side lol, put my head gaskets on, put the heads on, and put the oil pickup / oil pan on. Then worked on painting some misc parts like the bellhousing, trans, motor mounts and trans mount Put the harmonic balancer on most of the way, still needs to go on about 1/4-1/2", but I will finish that once it is in the car. Then we started the transplant. Getting it off the stand After installing the rear main seal and pilot bearing (which sucked, it barely wanted to go in, but I know it was the right one cause it was the same as the one on my old crankshaft, and the pilot hole fit right, got it to where it was sticking out 1/8", and went with "hit it harder" and it finally popped in haha) got the flywheel on And the clutch disc and pressure plate. the alignment tool I had kinda sucked, and the first time we went to put the trans in it wasn't lined up perfectly, but we got it the second time but had to use hte trans bolts to kinda pull the trans into place because the friction disc was still a little off, but it pulled on just fine with little resistance. and bellhousing/transmission on To the air! When putting it in, we had one REALLY BIG SCARY moment when the release valve for the lift all of a sudden loosened and started dropping the block and we almost completely lost it. The crank pulley hit the wall and kinda tilted it, but we stopped it before it was really resting on anything. I about died watching that happen lol. Took a bit of muscle and a couple tries with the leveler, but we were finally able to get the mounts to mate with the kmember, and got the trans mount bolted up All in all yesterday was a 13 hr day. Holy crap I am sore. Gonna work on some miscellaneous stuff today, prob at least get the lower intake on, get the exhaust and accessories on, and see where I am from there. Hoping to have a shot of the turbo in it tonight but we will see haha. And yes, it took way longer then I thought it would, about two or three times as long haha. But its in!