My LS1 Powered FD Pictures Condensed

[cougarspeed]

Figured I would make a more photo oriented writeup and a little bit of info on my car on here.

Initial Build

How and why it happened:
Well I have wanted a ls powered fd for quite some time and had an itch to get working on a car again. I found a nice donor car and got to work.

Then right away we started getting it ready to be painted

Then for whatever reason I decided to remove the entire interior(including dash now) to do some weight reduction, swap to black carpet, and clean everything real nice.

For another unknown reason I decided the entire suspension, subframe, EVERYTHING had to come off the car. After I got everything apart I had brilliant ideas such as I NEED STANCE COILOVERS! I NEED A FULL DELRIN BUSHING KIT and I NEED TO POWDECOAT EVERYTHING!!! as well as ss brake lines+ebc yellow pads. Which led to this:

BLING!!! (calipers sanded after to show mazda)

Here is some random progress shots:

I have been so busy with school I have not worked on it the last few weeks. Paint will be done soon this week I hope(black) Then I need to finish the interior and it is done mostly. I will get underhood shots once it is cleaned up some.

Motor is an 02 with 35k miles and as for mods just your classic cam-only Trex setup with a bottle if necessary.

snky first pic of it painted.

Some pics are coming in now!!! Thanks Ian!!! <3

Ugh I <3 it

Man looking at the pics I am kind of amazed
Before

During

Just took these out!

Wheels look super dope on but like 2min after test fitting I started tearing the car apart as always.

Last night we mostly finished the cam install, new cam is in and everything is done but I still need to tq the crank bolt. So for the motor I need to still bolt on the new headers when they show up, make an intake, make an exhaust, and then clean up some wiring. Here are some random pics I snapped yesterday.

most expensive bushings in the universe(rear pillow balls)

After dust shield removal and paint

New springs after installation (patriot .660 kit)

I <3 my new steering wheel

New cam is in!!!

Yeah thats right snky studderin all the way from roch last night. :snky: :snky: :snky:

!!!

Now I give you the closest thing to a real motor we have seen yet!

---------- Post added at 07:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 AM ----------

I win

Not drunk

Perpetual spark device

Juat?

New bathroom

dis go in da car?

I FUCKING WIN FGGT MOTOR AND FGGGT CAR AND FGGGGT HEADERS!

Makin it purty again

Seal of approval

More parts!!!

Rear suspension+brakes all done.

Wheels are on the back now…Still not 100% on which set I will run.

Motor shot! Spent HOURS cleaning up wiring and such to make it look somewhat better. BTW this is not the way im running my intake haha

Craig(half-breed) made me this sweet ass exhaust. 3"y-pipe to a 4" cat-back using flowmaster merge and hooker muffler. I <3 it.

Oh look its ILC!!!

A few motor shots with the new covers on to end the night. Don’t mind the wiring on the right that is tucked I pulled it up to look at something.

New oil pan baffle

Exhaust fitment

Then painted

Steering issue before

After

MOTOR SHOTZZZZZZZZZ

You can kinda tell here but I have the front suspension back in 100% But I am not putting the car on the ground until the exhaust has all the kinks worked out and the car runs so I can check for leaks and such.

Dirty as hell at Pats shop

[cougarspeed]

Blown Stock Diff

Cobra diff setup after i blew the stock unit
Car weighs ~2700 at the track I am looking to get it to ~2600 lol. Thanks for the compliment I am super in love with how the car is coming together.

So here is what I am ordering tomorrow.
Ford 8.8" IRS
Ford inner axle stubs
DSS Axles for the conversion :ballin:
http://www.driveshaftshop.com/pdetail.php?pid=134
DSS custom driveshaft
The following are to rebuild the diff:

Ford Performance Parts 8.8 in. Traction-Lok Rebuild Kits M-4700-C

Ford Performance Parts 8.8 in. IRS Bearing and Seal Kits M-4413-A

Ford Performance Parts Ring and Pinion Installation Kits M-4210-B

bushings from these guys
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/suspension-258/260665-cobra-mustang-irs-delrin-uhmw-alum-bushing-kit-w-adj-sway-bar-links-bumpsteer-kit.html
Samberg 8.8" cradle

Either 4.10 or 4.30 gears as well. Not sure yet.

Here are some pics from the shop today. Mind you the car is filthy but I know I have been slacking hard on pics since I got it up and running.

Stuff we took apart!

EMPTY!!!

LOL at what the inside of the torsen unit is supposed to look like.

Things that were happening:
Entire interior out including dash
Patch holes in firewall and shifter area
Install 24sqft of dynaliner(lightweight sound deadening and thermal barrier)
Delete ABS(no comments or opinions please)
Relocate small battery under the hood where abs was
Make new power and ground cables as well as add a second engine ground(Hopefully eliminating a WOT voltage issue)
Make a rear section out of hardboard and make the car a full interior car
Custom mount a set of Rockford Fosgate 6x8 speakers in the sail panels making it a 4 speaker system.

And here is where we have gotten

All holes have been patched. This is just a few of them and give an example of how big they were. Thats a lot of heat!

A couple dynaliner shots

Note: battery box is gone now!

ABS gone and new battery mounted in place with new cables

A few new lines and I moved the prop valve to the drivers side. Eliminated a ton of lines.

Engine bay shot, starting to look nice. This winter I will be sure to paint it I swear!

Starting to put it all back together

My carpet didn’t fit well so I made a 38"x4" patch I glued in. Now it will fold over and give a clean even seam.

Hardboard I will be using to make a full template of the rear hatch area and then insulate and carpet. I want to be able to pull it out easily to put tools and such in the spare tire well.

Can’t forget my rice addition of the week, PS im changing the red all to gold and black.

More updates soon, I am really excited to see how much it improves the car when I finish it up.

Some interior pics. Not 100% yet but im working on it. New speakers FTW.

Went out and tossed the strut bar back in and it does look great. Thanks the blue I totally forgot. Second pic is the area I am undecided what to do with and is basically all I need to do to “finish” the interior.

---------- Post added at 07:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 AM ----------

Blown Trans!

Built trans arrived today about 12 hours ago lol

Time to take it apart

About 30min later from when the job started…

Oh haiiiiiiiii

Old on left new on right

Time to put it together!

Sexy pat pic

Done

About 4hrs start to finish including a test drive and bullshitting around with friends.

Work done at Elma Automotive. Thanks for letting me get on your lift and saving my back/time man! I <3 Pat

For lolz here is what the dyno graph looked like the other day. this was AFTER i unplugged the 2-step where I only made 374 and what I have been running on all season. I appear to have fixed my voltage issue and hopefully will get a dyno graph soon that does not look like this. Not bad numbers for a 11v and a haywire ignition haha.

[livin4hockey]

Man I want an FD, been waiting 7+ years and have yet to actually save for one lol. Maybe in another few years, looks great man. Definitely nice looking through the condense version.

[ultradriver10000]

Did you end up selling the vette?

[cougarspeed]

juat?

[ultradriver10000]

The white C5

[cougarspeed]

That is chokos car. I never owned nor implied ownership of a vette.

[ultradriver10000]

@cougarspeed

That is chokos car. I never owned nor implied ownership of a vette.

Yah that was totally my mistake. Does he still have it?

[91MR2]

Really gorgeous car you have there, I really like it a lot.

[Onyx_Z32]

Are you bringing it to the BBQ Sunday?

[LUKE_L]

:tup:

Let me know when you want to clean up that harness.

[neonglh]

Very nice in one post

[cougarspeed]

@ultradriver10000

Yah that was totally my mistake. Does he still have it?

Yessir

@91MR2

Really gorgeous car you have there, I really like it a lot.

Thank you!

@Onyx Z32

Are you bringing it to the BBQ Sunday?

The have to change a brake fitting and bleed them. Prolly not going to feel like it before then haha.

@LUKE_L

:tup:

Let me know when you want to clean up that harness.

In a few weeks i think I am going to start taking it apart and pull the motor lol.

@neonglh

Very nice in one post

Thank you. I figured it would be nice to have it together and a nice way for some of you to kill a few min at work.

[LXIFLYBY]

what battery did you end up getting? I really love this project!

[cougarspeed]

It is currently running great on some $80 battery from Advance It is a self contained unit in with the motorcycle and atv batteries.

[KhoiFish]

awesome build, man. It would be great to see this car in person

[cougarspeed]

@DAteg

awesome build, man. It would be great to see this car in person

Anytime! Thanks

Winter Build!

Dash out and getting started on teardown

These grounds were on a bolt to the head that was not tight at all.(picard myself) this certainly was not helping my electrical issues.

Oh haiii engine harness on my seat

Luke L is obv on top of the wiring situation and teaching me oh so much. I am getting pretty decent at this stuff. We made a full page of labels and an index for when we start remaking a new harness. It is all going to be in the pretty loom newman uses that I <3. I am stoked.

All starting to come out!

Engine/trans could come out right now it is just sitting in there right now. I had to take the mounts/subframe out to get the headers out. I am going to slap the subframe back in tomorrow though so that the car can be a roller and we can get started on building the turbo kit while I wait for my new motor.

Entire harness out!

Jus chillin in there

Enjoy

[Onyx_Z32]

Nice progress so far :tup:

[cougarspeed]

Getting started tonight on drivetrain removal. Deff in a groove with this car as this is day 4 of work maybe 16hrs MAX into the complete teardown.

---------- Post added at 02:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 PM ----------

Parts!

I suppose I should take some parts pics. I have a bunch in the garage already but I was unpacking these today and snapped a few.

Have but not pictured
Tial 44mm WG
Tial 50mm BOV
Huge IC
Fluidyne Rad

[cougarspeed]

Got some work done today. Spent a good amount of time just cleaning things really. Hopefully this week I might finally get the suspension and subframes into powdercoat. Cleaned then installed oil pan, cleaned then installed intake manifold, painted valve covers(thanks pat) guys if you don’t like this paint you have to see it in person. SO HOT! Everything is going to be black and gold now in the engine and suspension.

I changed the cam in my other motor for it to go to its new owner as well. Too easy.

This is a 1 liter dr pepper not a 20oz. Still dwarfs it.