11/30/2008 - Ready to be dropped in
The engine is ready to be dropped in, I planned on doing it today but didn't have anyone around to help out. So I'm shooting for next weekend instead.
(4) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

10/04/2008 - Removed engine
Today the engine was pulled from the bay. A few things to note:
  1. You have to remove the starter to pull off the transmission.
  2. You have to unbolt that plate that sits between the back of the block and the transmission (2 small bolts at the bottom - you'll see).
  3. The easiest way to get the 2 top bolts on the tranny (for me anyway) was to put a bunch of extensions together I would say about 2-3 feet worth along with a swivel it should be a lot easier than trying to squeeze a small wrench up there. If you got a better way let me know.
(4) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

09/22/2008 - Started disassembly
Started disassembly of the engine today. I decided to remove all the parts that may break from the stress of the chain when I go to lift it out. I removed the exhaust, driveshaft, intake manifold and as many wires as I could. The only thing left is to remove the transmission, AC compressor, and power steering pump and it should lift right out.
(17) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

09/06/2008 - Bought an engine hoist
Last weenkend I bought an engine hoist and today I put it together, if all goes well I will be pulling the engine next weekend.
(1) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

08/10/2008 - Assembly Complete!
Engine assembly is now complete, I need to build a pallet to bring the engine back to my house, then I need to put the pulleys on and other misc stuff. The old engine will be pulled very soon, I can't wait for this to be finished!
(4) Picture(s) | (
2
) Comment(s)

08/02/2008 - New wheels
I thought it was time for a change and went with chrome Bullitt wheels with rear deep dish and nitto DRs so I can hook better when the new engine setup. I really like the look of the car with this wheel setup.
(3) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

07/17/2008 - Cobra fuel system
I started working on cobra fuel tank. I bought the new lines and and everything is ready to go back in the tank, I'll be putting the cobra tank on very soon.
(2) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

07/12/2008 - Installed Chains
Installed the chains and rest of timing components
(1) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

07/05/2008 - Degreed Cams
Today we degreed the cams, with aftermarket cams it's always a good idea to double check that everything is timed correctly. Mike @ L&M Engines makes adjustable crank gears to do this. A lot of the aftermarket adjustable gears replace the cam sprockets and have weak screws or bolts that can break and cause engine failure so I went with L&M's adjustable crank gears instead.
(4) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

05/31/2008 - Back on track
So I haven't really worked on the engine in quite a while. A lot of stuff happened and delayed the project. When I finally got time to work on it again it had a bunch of surface rust so I basically tore the whole thing down and sanded off all the rust and reassembled it again. I'm back on track now, and put the heads back on. I'm determined to get this thing done as soon as possible now.
(9) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

05/30/2008 - New Pics
I haven't really taken any good shots with the cobra bumper all put together (fogs, chin spoiler, etc). I felt like I should take some decent shots of the car, it's been awhile. I found an industrial park up around my house, I think they turned out well.
(5) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

07/23/2007 - Lowered
Installed the Steeda Sport springs and Bilistein shocks/struts. The ride is still comfortable and the car looks good. I think it needs to be lowered more and I may take out the isolators to drop it but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
(1) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

07/09/2007 - Block assembled
Finally got around to assembling the block. Coming along now, shouldn't be too much longer.
(12) Picture(s) | (
6
) Comment(s)

06/24/2007 - Cobra bumper installed
I decided to replace my stock GT bumper with a 03-04 cobra bumper. My old bumper had peeling paint, the tabs were broken on one side of the bumper from a previous accident so it was time for it to go. I'll be setting up a day with the body shop next week to get it in for paint. I also removed the spoiler, I was always a fan of the spoilerless look so I decided to have the shop fill in the holes while the bumper was getting done.
(8) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

06/23/2007 - Assembly started..
Today I had my friend come out all the way from MA to help me with the rebuild. He was 3/4 the way here and I realized that I never recieved my main and rod bearings with my rotating assembly. I should of checked my parts beforing having him come all the way out but I didn't, I've ordered so many things these past few months I just completely forgot that I didn't have them. Anyway we ended up putting the pistons and rods together, filing down the rings, and installing the rings to the pistons.
(9) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

06/21/2007 - Engine back!
I got the engine back from the machine shop, I'll be starting assembly this weekend. I went with the manley forged rotationg assembly, and vt stage2 blower cams from VT Engines. The engine has been bored .020 over, all the machine work is being done by L&M Engines over on Countyline road.
(8) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

03/06/2007 - New engine in the works
It's been awhile since I last updated, a lot of things have happened. I married my high school sweat heart Oct of last year! Love ya babe! As for the car I took the car to be dyno tuned with the 100 shot of nitrous and it developed a knock thought maybe it was a lash adjuster but it now appears that it could be a wrist pin. It made pretty decent power though (336rwhp 423 ft-lb torque).

I've decided to rebuild my old 99 GT block (forged internals) and go with a vortech v2 setup. I'd love to rebuild the explorer block but I'll need that to drive the car around since this is my daily driver.

This will be my first rebuild so lets hope it works out.

As always there will be lots of pictures, here are the "before" shots.
(23) Picture(s) | (
1
) Comment(s)

08/01/2006 - Accident
A couple of weeks ago I had a little accident where the hood flew open and smashed the windshield, finally got the car back today looks better then before, they even gave me nice new motorcraft wiper blades.
(14) Picture(s) | (
8
) Comment(s)

07/21/2006 - Added Comments
Added ability to add comments to updates, feel free to add if you'd like.
(
3
) Comment(s)

06/25/2006 - Vibration gone!!
Finally the vibration I've had since the swap is gone! It ended up having to do with the flywheel. I remembered that I forgot to install the alignment dowels so we pulled the tranny and went to put them in to see if it would help and then we saw that the alignment holes on the flywheel would NOT match the alignment holes on the pressure plate??? I ended up buying a FRPP billet flywheel which I should of done in the first place instead of going with cheap ebay parts and bought a new king cobra clutch just so I didn't have to go back in sooner then later, it's a PITA to get that tranny on/off on your back.
(12) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

06/09/2006 - Radio pocket
After I replaced my cd player it left the bottom din slot empty since the radio and cd player were two seperate pieces. I went to a junk yard several months ago to find a radio pocket to fill in the bottom din slot and after alot of tweaking I finally got it the way I want it. I'm thinking about inserting a plate and using it to hide all my switches.
(5) Picture(s) | (
3
) Comment(s)

05/27/2006 - New tires and good wash
I finally caved in and gave it a good washing since it was detailed back in Nov. I just recently bought some new nitto's as well since my old tires were shot. She's all nice and clean now!
(18) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

04/30/2006 - Reinstalling nitrous
So I started reinstalling the nitrous finally, I've been lazy about it and I decided to take my time since I don't plan on spraying again until I get the car tuned (rather be safe then sorry). I should be getting some new tires and scheduling for the tune very soon. I havn't figured out the vibration issue yet I'm going to order some new header bolts, and gasket so I can pull the driver side header off and swap out the mount. I also plan on replacing the tranny mount hopefully this gets rid of the vibration.
(6) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

04/02/2006 - Mp3 Player
One thing that I've always wanted to do is build a computer to put in my car. At the momment the only thing I'll be using it for is playing Mp3s. I built an aluminum case for the computer and bought an infrared remote to control the music, I also had to replace my head unit in the mustang because there are no aux inputs in the stock one.
(9) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

04/01/2006 - Been awhile...
Well it's been awhile since I updated the site. The car getting colder issue was fixed with replacing the thermostat.

The car has been running well infact I ran the best time I've ever had (13.625 @ 103.4mph) with this engine when I was at the track last. Right now I'm trying to fix a vibration issue, I replaced a broken mount which seems to have helped but the vibration is still there so I'm going to replace the other side along with the tranny mount within the next couple of weeks. I'm also going to be reinstalling the nitrous with a 100 shot and will be scheduling an appointment to be dyno tuned within the next month or so.
(1) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

11/02/2005 - Car gets colder??
The other day I was driving to work which is a good hour drive one way, about 50 mins into the drive I noticed my temp. needle on my cluster started to drop. I think the thermostat is stuck so I ordered a new one hopefully it'll take care of it. The picture below was taken right when I got to work.
(1) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

11/01/2005 - Car detailed
Well I havn't washed the car in about 3 months so I figured why not get it detailed? I've never seen the mustang this perfect before so I snapped some pictures to savor the momment.
(15) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

10/30/2005 - Paint cracked??
It's been about a week since I've been driving around and the other day I decided to check my fluids. I popped open the hood and found that the paint on my new C&L intake plenum has cracked. I called the company that I purchased it from and they basically told me it's not their problem to call C&L. So I called C&L and they wanted me to send it back to have the powder coater redo the paint. I decided to not go through the hassale and if/when the paint starts to bother me I'll just strip it down and polish it. I won't be buying C&L products anymore that's for sure.
(3) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

10/29/2005 - Still going strong
The car feels good it pulls hard especially in the top end. I havn't had any problems with the car at all really other then non related things. One thing I did notice though is that my BBK shorties quiet my exhaust down but it actually sounds more throaty. I know a lot of people that claim when they had their shorties installed they didn't notice it at all well this is noticable, I'm a tad disapointed that the exhaust isn't as loud but I'm happy with the overall note.
(
0
) Comment(s)

10/25/2005 - Back home
Back home where she belongs. the car feels strong so far so good so we'll see. She's a bit dirty but is getting a detail next week.
(4) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

10/24/2005 - She Lives!!
Well I finally turned her over last night. It was only for a min or two because we didn't hook up the exhaust yet. I just wanted to see if it would turn over before we hooked up the exhaust and I was curious to see how loud it would be with open headers . Today I'll be putting the exhaust on and it should be all finished. I'll just be glad to get it back on the road.
(
0
) Comment(s)

10/20/2005 - Engine in!!
I finally put in my new motor!! Everything looks good. It's been almost 2 months since I last drove it, I had a dream the other night that I finished everything and it started up and ran perfectly and we were so happy together....
(7) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

10/11/2005 - Clutch and Flywheel on
Finally put on the clutch and flywheel. It almost went horribly wrong having never done a clutch before also didn't help. The explorer engine that I got had an automatic driveplate on it, not realizing that the driveplate to crank bolts are shorter then flywheel bolts I attempted to put the new flywheel on with the driveplate bolts, started to tighten one up with the torque wrench and it started to strip because there wasn't enough threads. I didn't understand why it was stripping so I took everything off went to the old engine to grab a bolt to replace the one I just stripped and that's when I noticed they weren't the same size. After that scare everything went on perfectly.

All I have left to do is put on the oil pickup, pan, and trans then the motor goes in. Sorry forgot my camera so no pictures.
(
0
) Comment(s)

10/02/2005 - Coming together
It's actually starting to take shape now. Not much longer!!!
(6) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

09/20/2005 - Stripped
Started swapping parts off the old motor to the new one. I accidentally crimped the EGR tube, luckily I found somone local selling one he didn't need from an 04 GT.
(7) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

09/10/2005 - Pulled old motor
Pulled the old engine today and started tearing apart the new one so that I can start swapping the parts off my old motor to the new one. Check out all the metal shavings in the oil pickup tube from the spun bearing. Lots of pictures here.
(46) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

08/26/2005 - Received engine
Got the new engine delivered today and started getting ready to pull the old one out. I started after work which left me barley any time so only thing I got done today is pretty much unplugged all the wires I could find, dropped the H pipe, and pulled the driveshaft. I also took some pictures of the motor before pulling things apart for reference when I go to put it back together.
(10) Picture(s) | (
0
) Comment(s)

All Images, HTML Copyright © 2009 Shaun's Mustang - Unauthorized Duplication Strictly Prohibited