11/19 oil pan all welded up- added another trapped door to prevent oil from flowing to the far right side of the pan since the motor was originally set up for circle track that was the configuration of the pan. should work good with a box in there and a good lip to prevent oil starvation under braking
inside pic of the oil pan of the windage tray
fits good
11/20 got to work on the pass side motor mount. wasnt too hard to mock up and figure out what i needed to do. still have to add some gussets to make it a little stronger but it does the job for now.
11/21 started to fab up some fuel cell brackets. nothing crazy just welded together some 3/4 square tubing
12/21 mocked up(with thinner metal than i used) of version 1 of the drivers side motor mount. this will be revisited later to better resemble what i did with the pass side once i found a similar engine mounting bracket
pic of motor with both motor mounts done. Wasnt happy with the driver side mount so i jsut left it for now in order to mock the exhuast etc. leaves plenty of clearance for the air cleaner and carb etc.
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1/7/14 drivers side header. lots of cutting and fitting, came out pretty good
1/13 pass side header- a little bit more complicated
1/21 both headers installed…but i made a totally different set of headers instead and decided to not even use these lol
ok going to try and be a bit more detailed now that i have all the pics uploaded ahead of time and in order.
got the fuel cell mounted in the car just about as low as i can go still leaving room for a rear diffuser when i get to that point
then i had to make a set of mounts to for the pedal box to mount to the cage. ended up calculating i need a 5/8 master for the rear and a 13/16 for the front. and im using a 3/4 for the clutch. sourced all new 75 series compact style Tilton masters just shopping around waiting for deals to put up. so hopefully my math is correct although i have a few other sizes i can try if need be.
did a rough mock up of the seat where i wanted it to sit and the desired angle and started making some mounts.
rear mount will hold the back of the seat and keep the harnesses somewhat located on the bar as they will pass thru
here is the beginning of version 2 of the headers. wasnt really happy with the floor clearance/ collector orientation of the first set so i hacked up a set of headers i got with the motor that were originally cross over headers from an asphalt late model(which exit the passenger side of the car and pass thru along where the passenger seat is in a normal car)
i opted to have the collectors facing downwards and then use 3.5" tubing from there to 90 underneath the car and then continue thru the exit out the side
this was a much more realistic approach than tha first set, and a lot cleaner looking
beginning stages of the drivers side
passenger side
finished result with mid pipes (for lack of a better term)
view from the other side
at this point i was pretty confident in my welding and got the heat control down pretty good for doing various thicknesses etc. whole exhaust will be made out of mild steel for money purposes. and besdies time i probably only have $250 into the entire thing from headers to tip
And an added bonus, the motor can be pulled with the headers attached which was fantastic because some of the bolts are a bitch to get to.
reference pic to where the collectors sit in relation to the motor
driver header on motor
pass header on motor
everything is either v-bands or slip fits on the exhaust and take only minutes to pull from the car.
the linkage for the tranny is all on one side so some room needed to be made in the tunnel for that to fit, so out came the sawzall andi started cutting away. then bent some 16ga. to fill in the gap between the floor and top of the tunnel. but i dont have a top pic handy but this is about the clearance i was left with when i was done.
scored a surge tank for the fuell cell cheap on ebay. saved a couple hundred bucks on that find. so i had to take the cell out and cut the foam in order for the tank to fit in the center back part of the cell. has 3 trapped doors. both sides and one in front to allow fuel in but not out.
fitted into the foam
here is my fill plate assembly with vent and pick up etc. same type used in nascar and other classes requiring roll over spill prevention in the cell. pretty sweet piece.
bought some AFCO threaded hex rod and some heims and made my own rear control arms. they are slightly shorter than the stock ones to account for the tranny angle needed for driveshaft clearance so i could get the pinion angle correct.
welded in the watts link. went this route instead of a panhard bar like the roush had so i wasnt getting an arc like motion in the rear suspension travel. this allows the rear axle to move up and down freely on both sides as opposed to only 1 like a panhard bar setup would yield.
also was just about riding the bumpstops on the rear shocks on the roush the last time i ran it and wanted to run this car lower so i had to do some modding to the lower shock mounting points. i think i have a more effective way of doing this but this will have to do for now. ended up lowering the mounting position 2-3/4" from the factory location which will give me rough 2-1/2" of shock travel before bottoming out.
then i got around to the daunting task of welding in the brackets for the front mounts of the torque arm for a 3 link setup. wasnt one of my most favorite jobs to do just because sqauring everything up correctly and using 14058432523 clamps to hold it all sucked.
and after hearing about all of @MPD47 horror stories of getting the wrong driveshaft multiple times on his car i measured up what i needed in terms of length and what size u joints i wanted to use and searched around on ebay for some used nascar driveshafts. ended up scoring a Dale Jr. driveshaft off a friend of mine down in North Carolina for $95 shipped! 4" steel driveshaft 47.5" length with a billet yoke. ideally i would’ve probably got a 47.75" length if i were to have one made but this will do the job.
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thanks man!
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thanks!
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yeah i am very pleased with how they came out and badass looking to boot!
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ear drums will be raging lol
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me too man, been a long time coming for the both of us to be out there at once…and observation deck beers ftw
bent up a tranny mount out of some 3/16" steel. allows the exhaust to pass over it between the floor. i added bracing in the middle “hump” and has 3 5/16" bolts holding it onto angle welded onto the subframes on both sides
and once i had the tranny mount all made i wanted to continue on with the rest of the exhaust. so i bought 2 more v bands and a 5 ft length of 3.5" pipe and am using a used NASCAR boom tube which is 3.5" pipe that transitions into an oval to buy me some more ground clearance.
started out by hacking the boom tube up and cutting it to where i wanted to transition up and over the subframe connector which required cutting out the floor pretty much from the tunnel to the rocker on the passenger side. you can see the bracing to the middle"hump" in the tranny mount in this picture as well
and i intended to make this next part all one piece but it was too long to fit up and over in the car so i had to v-band it. which probably made it easier in the long run
and here is a pic of the whole thing almost fully welded. tips still have to be final cut once the side skirt is installed to get the proper look. i plan on having it protrude from the body work roughly 1/8’-1/4"
added some bracing to space the pipes out from each other and to double as a hanger point once i figure out how im going to make those
I’ve never driven a mustang with am IRS on the track or the street. And I’ve used the solid axle Before and feel it’s a little more predictable. I still have the IRS but not gonna go that route at the moment
now i had to cut a 2"x11" hole in the side skirt for the exhaust to pass thru. so cut 2 holes with the hole saw and then used a grinder for the rest. only had to open the one side a bit more for it to fit correctly
here is a pic of the side of the car with the side skirt installed. extremely happy with how it came out. took a lot for cutting and welding than i originally planned to get it over the subframes and under the pinch weld and all lined up correctly. but for spending like $250 on the entire thing i cant complain.
i had originally planned to mount the radiator vertically like any normal mounting position but changed my mind and opted to mount it on roughly a 45* angle to aid with air flow going in and out thru the hood
and it also leaves me with a good amount of room for an oil cooler and power steering cooler . of course it will be all boxed in from the bumper
i cut the area out on the pass side of the firewall where the heater box was and had to fill the hole and make a little room for the one tube on the header so i just made a patch panel for the entire firewall which made it a lot cleaner looking and was a hell of a lot easier than welding in all sorts of patches.
