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My garage find story

11K views 61 replies 11 participants last post by  gearheadct 
#1 ·
Barn finds are all the rage, so I thought I would share. This is the story of a 1965 Galaxie 500 convertible. Actually a garage find. Pretty typical story, with a twist or two along the way. Warning: this is going to be long.

This is the outside of a suburban garage in central CT. Pretty standard house for my area, usually housing some kind of family hauler SUV. You wouldn’t know there was a cool car in here.



We car folks often wonder how a classic car ends up neglected for years. Did the owner die? Is it a victim of an overly ambitious restoration project? Is it one of those “I’m going to restore it some day” stories? Maybe the owner watched too many TV auctions and thinks it is worth a fortune? Whatever the cause, it’s heartbreaking to think of such a car sitting neglected for years. At least this one was inside, protected from the elements.

As it turns out, this Galaxie fell victim to a variety of distractions. A fairly simple mechanical problem took it off the road. Then the owner was busy raising kids, and coaching their sports like soccer, softball, baseball, and basketball. A demanding job required long hours and a lot of travel. Then came time caring for elderly parents and in-laws. Next thing you know, eight years have gone by in the blink of an eye. And the classic car has become a storage shelf.

By now you’re thinking, “let’s see the car already!” Here is the Galaxie as found in late 2018. Sorry for the blurry photo - I must have dropped my camera one too many times. This poor classic was left neglected behind a variety of tools, toys, etc. Even worse, it was buried under a bunch of boxes and other garbage.



So, how did I find this car? Was it during my daily search of the local Craigslist? Ebay? Local swap meet? Tip from another car guy? None of that. I simply walked out the back door of my house. You see, that suburban garage is mine, and I’ve had this Galaxie since 2007.

My car has been in that spot since 2010, when the water pump went bad. I could have spent $60 and a couple of hours to replace the pump. But I guess I thought that was too easy. In future posts, I’ll show the detail of what I did instead. Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those dead end project threads that stops part way. This project is actually done and I’ll post a bunch of photos I took along the way. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting.

- John
 
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#30 ·
The Mark VIII (and most other modular engines) uses a rear sump oil pan. I needed a front sump pan to clear the cross member. Turns out the mid-'90s Lincoln Continentals used a front sump pan. Here's a photo, with the matching pick up tube:



I acquired up a used pan and pick up tube from ebay.

One problem: the Continental pick up tube is a larger diameter than the stock Mark VIII tube.



I thought about cutting and welding the two together, but honestly I didn't trust my welding skills enough. I was afraid the weld wouldn't be fully sealed. So instead I swapped the oil pump to match the pick up tube. This is a bit complicated on a modular V-8. The oil pump is crankshaft mounted, behind the timing chain. The 4.6 DOHC is an interference engine so you have to be very careful with cam timing when messing with the timing chains. I don't have any pics but I managed to get the new oil pump in OK.

After that, I reinstalled the timing cover and added the new oil pan.


- John
 
#31 ·
My Galaxie has pretty much zero options. Manual brakes and manual steering, and certainly no air conditioning. The Mark VIII engine comes with a power steering pump and an A/C compressor. Easy enough to remove those, but then I had to figure out the belt routing. The stock idler pulley is smooth and designed to run up against the back (smooth) side of the serpentine belt.



I figured out a belt routing that required the grooved side of the belt to contact the idler pulley. I tracked down a grooved idler pulley with the correct diameter and then measured for the correct belt length. I used a 48 inch belt.



- John
 
#33 ·
Thanks Marauderjack! I'm resting with a cold today so should be able to post up a lot of pics.

Time for some cooling system work. When I bought the engine, I also got the Mark VIII radiator, cooling fan, hoses, etc. The Mark VIII radiator is a nice aluminum cross flow unit, but unfortunately too wide for the Galaxie core support. I thought about cutting and welding the core support to make it fit, but I decided to keep the stock Galaxie radiator. No modifications necessary, and it turns out the Mark VIII fan fit really well against this radiator.

The Mark VIII electric fan is popular with hot rodders. It flows a lot of air. It also draws A LOT of current - more on that later. It has a plastic shroud that looks like it was designed to fit the Galaxie. I did have to do a little trimming at the bottom:







And a little at the top to clear the upper hose connection:





Don't worry, I cleaned up that rough cut with a file later.

Here it is up against the radiator. It's a perfect fit:
 
#34 ·
Next step was to mount the fan to the radiator. The stock Galaxie radiator has flanges on the sides for mounting a shroud. I lined up the fan shroud and made some cardboard templates. Then I cut some sheet steel and started bending it. Without a sheet metal brake, I had to improvise. I used clamps, angle iron, work bench, and a hammer to make the bends. Not the smoothest bends, and lots of hammer marks but it got the job done.









Needed two smaller brackets for the other side.



These needed some welding.







More to come.

- John
 
#36 ·
Time to get some fresh air into this engine. The 4.6 DOHC I used has the throttle body in the back of the intake. My engine came with the Mark VIII air intake tube and air box so the easiest path was to use these in my car. Here is a pic of the stock Mark VIII:



I had already moved my battery out of the way to clear space. But the Galaxie core support was in the way of the air box. Not by a lot. After some measurements I determined I could modify the air box to make it a bit shorter. I started by measuring the diameter of the stock opening, so I could maintain the correct inlet area. Next I marked out the cuts with blue tape, along with the new shape. I then started cutting with my jig saw.





After making the correct cuts, I used a heat gun and bent part of the plastic into place.




Then I cut the excess plastic out of the way.


I also cut the air opening out to match the original cross sectional area.


After some trial fitting to confirm I had it right, I started plastic welding. I used a cheap Harbor Freight plastic welding kit and it worked great. Took me a little practice to get the technique down, and make sure you have a LOT of ventilation.



After a little sanding, it looked good to me.


Once it was done, I double checked the fit. No interference issues, and the core support already had openings for fresh air to flow in.



Only thing left was to figure out how to permanently hold the air box in place.

- John
 
#37 ·
Quite a bit of time passed between my air box mods and the final installation. In that time I made a small and simple sheet metal brake for my hydraulic press. I used the new toy to bend up a mounting bracket. Here it is ready for paint. You can see the mounting holes and slots, along with some clearance areas.



After paint:



The mounting slots are designed to pick up the fasteners that hold the air box cover to the main air box. The slots are there so I can install the air filter and attach the cover loosely, then slide it into place on the bracket and tighten it up. I used poly-nuts to mount this bracket to the car, and then mounted the air box.

Here it is for a trial fit on the air box.


And mounted in the car:


So now I had the air and electrical figured out. Next logical step would be fuel, right? Except I took a detour and did some suspension work instead. Stay tuned...

- John
 
#38 ·
The 4.6 DOHC has aluminum block and heads. Even though the heads are large, the engine weighs a bit less than the FE that I pulled out of my '65. I can't find my notes, so I don't have the measured weight difference between the FE and the 4.6.

I needed different front springs because of the lighter engine, and I wanted to lower the front end a little bit. I spent some time gathering details on spring options from NAPA. Height, spring rate, wire diameter, spring diameter, spring type, etc. This allowed me to choose some spring options and determine how much to cut off. I calculated I needed to cut off just under one coil. Here is a new spring marked where I wanted to cut it.



I used a cut off wheel to cut the spring, cutting slowly and carefully so the spring didn't get hot.



After painting I installed the springs.

Now I needed to address the rear. Like so many of the '60s Ford products, my car's rear end was sitting low. So I pulled the rear apart and found someone had tried to address it. Those of you over a certain age (like me) may remember these:



Air shocks! Somebody's attempt to solve the saggy rear problem.

And the original springs:


It may be hard to tell, but one of them was longer than the other. That explains why the car didn't sit level side to side!

I can't find my pics, but I once again did a bunch of research and found suitable springs. I didn't use Galaxie springs because I was looking for non-stock spring rate and height. I ended up using springs for an early '60s Pontiac Catalina. Same style, end diameter, and outer diameter so they fit right in.

Now that I have some mileage on the car, I am planning to cut the front springs just a little bit more.

Next up: fuel system.

- John
 
#39 ·
Fuel. The Mark VIII, like many EFI set ups, uses a return line to maintain correct fuel pressure. The in-tank high pressure fuel pump pushes fuel to a pressure regulator. The regulator lets out excess pressure via the return line, which goes back to the fuel tank. EFI tanks also provide a vent.

The stock Galaxie fuel pickup has one fuel line. In my case, this was a 5/16" line. I wanted a 3/8" line for the pickup. I also needed to add a vent. There are many ways to do this, including cutting the fuel tank and welding a small sump to the bottom. You can also cut into the top of the tank add an in-tank pump. I opted to modify the stock Galaxie sending unit and use an external pump. Here's what I did to the sending unit.

First I needed to find the right place to locate the 3/8" line. I marked a support bracket that interfered with where I wanted the line to go.


Instead of cutting it away, I bent it up so I could use it to support my new line.



I marked the location. I wanted to roll the material like the factory did, so I would have more material to support the line. I fabricated a small punch set up and practiced on some scrap sheet metal to determine the proper pilot hole. Then I punched a pilot hole.



Here it is drawn out to the correct diameter.



Here it is with the tube in place to check fit. You can see how the material is drawn out.


My set up to hold everything in place before soldering.


I did some research and determined that silver solder was the way to go. In this pic the line is soldered to the main plate. I later soldered it to the support bracket that I bent up earlier.



I followed a similar process to add a vent line. Here is the sending unit ready to go, including the new 3/8" pick up filter.



And back in place in the tank.



- John
 
#40 ·
After bypassing your post many times, I finally thought I would read it.

Stupendous work. Great initiative and great attention to detail. Love seeing how you make stuff (although I'm still trying to get my head around the clutch cable quadrant - where does the cable attach and how is it routed?) to get around problems. It's a lost art these days, everyone tries to 'buy the right part' when sometimes you just have to get the hammer and welder out.

Curious about the plastic welder you bought? I'm not sure we have those here in Australia - could you post up a link to it or a photo - I've lost count of the number of plastic items I've repaired with a soldering iron, some last, some don't....

Can't wait to see the next instalment - I have a 390 in my '63 Galaxie but a 4.6 in my '02 Cobra, and there is a story behind that.... More please....
 
#41 ·
Hi Jiffy,

Thanks for the kind words.

I used an inexpensive plastic welding kit from Harbor Freight. I don't know if they have similar in Australia. Here is a link to the one I used: Welder . The kit is nice because it comes with some filler material and fine screen to use for reinforcement. It's basically a soldering iron, with a flat triangular tip on it. I found the tip helps smooth things out compared to a soldering iron.

Sometime soon I'll shoot some pics of my clutch cable quadrant with the cable attached, so you can see how it works.

Now, for more about my build. I had a new Summit Racing external EFI pump hanging around, left over from a different project. Basically an MSD pump private labeled for Summit. I had used one before on a '57 Chevy and it worked well, although like many external pumps it was pretty loud. The noise didn't worry me because I figured it would be drowned out by the exhaust anyway.

EFI pumps generally like to push fuel, but not pull it. So an external pump is tricky. You want to mount the pump close to the tank, and below the tank bottom if possible. I found a spot on the driver's side, underneath the car. Low enough but still tucked up out of the way. Also close to the fuel line routing.

I made an aluminum plate to hold the pump mounting clamps. Then I drilled some holes in the car to mount it. Here are the holes, with riv-nuts in some of them.



I put riv-nuts in all four holes, then mounted the pump.



This worked OK, but it didn't stay on the car long. I'll cover that in a later installment, along with my solution.

- John
 
#43 ·
Keeping this in somewhat chronological order, I'll cover the rest of my fuel pump story later.

Now that I had the fuel pickup and fuel pump sorted, I ran a 3/8" line along the left frame rail, right next to the original 5/16" line. Then I bent up a couple of lines that I mounted to the firewall, routing them over to the passenger side up high where the 4.6 fuel fittings are. I then used some short lengths of rubber fuel line (EFI pressure rated!) and connected to the engine. Oh, I also added an in line EFI fuel filter in the engine compartment. I thought about doing this under the car but I couldn't find a good spot to get it up out of the way. The Mark VIII came with a switch to cut off fuel delivery in case of a severe shock (like a crash) or rollover. I thought it would be a good idea to keep this safety feature so I mounted the switch in my trunk.



Of course if I ever do roll over in this thing, fuel leakage will probably not be my primary concern.

Now I had most of the core systems handled. But I was still missing a drive shaft. I know people who have modified and welded up their own drive shafts, but I decided that was a bit too risky for my skill level. So I ordered a custom driveshaft. I just needed a length measurement (with weight on the rear axle to it sits at normal ride height) and some additional info (pinion yoke dimensions, transmission type, horsepower level, max rpm, etc). In a short time I had a nice new driveshaft ready to go. This is one of the few things I farmed out on this project. I'm kinda stubborn that way (and maybe more than a little bit frugal according to my wife...).

My driveshaft shipped well protected.





One of the joys of late night auto projects is that none of my family members are interested in helping me. Many times they aren't even awake. So I propped up the driveshaft on my transmission jack then inserted the front into the transmission. I oiled it up a bit so it would slide past the seal easier.






Then I slid the rear u-joint into the yoke and installed the caps. Done!


At this point, it was getting close to running again. Things moved pretty quickly now that I could see the end of this project.

I still had some work to do. Some bigger items (like the rather large hole in the transmission tunnel) and some small.

- John
 
#44 ·
One of the small items: speedometer. By nothing more than pure luck, I happened to buy a T45 transmission that came with the ability to run a mechanical speedometer. In fact, the stock speed sensor can be converted to mechanical by removing a plug. One problem: there is no clip to hold the cable in place. I searched everywhere for the clip, and even tried making my own. But it just wouldn't work. So I ordered a new speed sensor which was meant for cars with mechanical speedometers. Here are the two side by side.


The stock one is on the left. Behind that greasy white plug is a cable drive. On the left you can see the clip that I spent way too much time on. Oh well, at least it is easy to swap the speed sensor. I also changed the speedometer driven gear (attaches to the sensor) to match my car's tire size and rear axle ratio.

Another problem: the modern speedometer cable connection is different than the original Galaxie one. I ordered a cable that has the modern transmission end and the old style Ford speedometer end. Easy. Except one thing - the cable I ordered turned out to be way too long. That's what happens when you are too lazy to go out in the garage and measure!

Somewhere along the line I had picked up a speedometer crimping tool. You can never have too many tools, right? This gave me a chance to use it. I cut the cable to the correct length, and ordered a new speedometer end.

The tool includes the crimping dies and a mandrel so you don't end up ovalizing the cable. Here is the cable in one of the dies, with the mandrel inserted into the cable.


Theoretically you can put this tool in a vise and crimp it down.


Maybe it was my little crappy vise, but it didn't work for me. So I used my shop press. That made it easy.


With that down, the cable fit perfect and hooked right up.

Time to move on to a big item - transmission tunnel.

- John
 
#45 ·
By this point I had filled up the fluids, hooked up the ECM, and fired up the engine. And it ran - it actually RAN!! OK, it didn't start the first time. Turns out I had missed a ground wire from the VCRM so the fuel pump wouldn't kick in. And then I found a bad cylinder ID sensor - apparently not uncommon. But with those fixed it fired up. With wide open exhaust manifolds it was pretty loud. My wife was thrilled. Nevertheless, a pretty exciting time. But it wasn't done yet.

I still had a big hole in the transmission tunnel.


So I started with my usual cardboard and made a template. I needed to make sure the seat could move up without hitting the tunnel. I also need a flat area up top to mount my shift boot and trim plate.


Once I was satisfied with my template, I took it apart and laid it out on a piece of sheet metal.


I then cut the parts out with a jig saw. It took a couple of blades... There's an optical illusion here - this was still a flat piece although it looks bent in the photo.



Here is my home made press brake doing its thing. It took a bit of trial and error to get the correct bend angle.



Taped together for a test fit.


After some trimming and tweaking I welded the sides in place.


I thought I was done, and just needed to weld it to the floor. But we all know how that goes. I thought a bit and then decided on a slight change of plans.

- John
 
#46 ·
Ford liked to bolt their shifter covers to the floor. I assume that allowed them to adapt different transmissions to the same floor stamping. I decided I would follow the factory approach. Partly because I wanted access to the transmission and shifter without dropping the transmission.

First I fabricated and welded a flange to my new tunnel cover. Another joy of working late at night - I forgot to turn on the welding gas on my MIG, and somehow didn't notice despite the poor arc control and spatter. Luckily I have a day job, because I don't think I could make a living with my welding technique.


I trimmed the floor opening to match my new tunnel cover, and painted the bare edges. Then I punched holes in the cover and transferred those locations to the floor. I inserted riv-nuts - lots of them.


Painted the cover and added some self-adhesive soft gasket material to the flange.


Then bolted it in place and added the shift boot and shifter.


The car was running and driving (just in my neighborhood), but still had wide open exhaust manifolds. I had it towed to a muffler shop and they hooked the 4.6 manifolds to my existing pipes. I already had 2-1/2" pipes with Flowmasters. Another one of the few items I farmed out. I also had them add the oxygen sensor bungs.

Done, right? Well, not exactly. Like any major project, there were some bugs to work out. More on that later.

- John
 
#47 ·
For those of you still with me on this long story, hopefully some of this information is helpful on your own projects. Now for the inevitable problems and what I did to resolve them.

First issue I noticed as soon as the exhaust was hooked up: a LOUD tapping noise coming from the engine. Uh oh! At first I panicked thinking I had a bad rod bearing or something. Thanks to the various Mark VIII forums I found this noise is not uncommon and isn't a big deal. Some investigation confirmed this was coming from the valve lash adjusters. I ended up swapping them (all 32!) and the problem was solved. I don't have pics, but Google will lead you to several videos and web pages describing the procedure. No special tools needed - just a screwdriver.

Second problem - overheating at idle and slow speeds. On my first couple of test drives the car was running nice and cool. But those were short drives with no idling. On the next drive, while driving slowly, I noticed the temperature creeping up. I found the electric cooling fan wasn't kicking on. I eventually traced this to the VCRM, which controls the fan and the fuel pump. I opened up the VCRM and found a bad MOSFET, which is like an electronic relay. This MOSFET is long obsolete, and unfortunately it is a Ford proprietary part. I could not get the manufacturer to give me a data sheet to help me cross it over to a modern part. As it turned out I was able to find some of the original MOSFETs at an obsolete parts broker.

The VCRM also contained several electrolytic capacitors - all of them now over 25 years old. Electrolytic capacitors are known to dry out over time, and that's what had happened to some of mine. So I decided to swap them all. I found suitable replacements at Newark electronics. Thankfully I have access to some good desoldering and soldering tools at work.

After soldering, I cleaned up the circuit board and coated it with a conformal coating similar to the original. I had a hard time installing the heat sink clips until I used my shop press (very carefully).



This solved my cooling problem and the fan has been working great when needed.

One item I hadn't completed was the PCM mounting. The PCM is the main engine control computer. I had mine sitting on the passenger floor for the first several drives. I fabricated a mult-piece bracket to hold the PCM.



And mounted the PCM in it with some rubber isolation.



This bolts up under the dash, under the glove box.

One big item remained: I had problems with the fuel system. The pump I chose was ridiculously loud - you could hear it whining even over the Flowmaster exhaust. Probably due to cavitation - these pumps struggle to pull fuel from the low part of the tank. And after only about 200 miles I started having fuel supply problems if the tank went below about 2/3 full. I needed a better solution. Details in my next post.

- John
 
#48 ·
ok - I was really, really impressed with the metal work and attention to detail!

But component level repair on the VCRM - beyond epic. Finding the details of the components and replacing them, well done, I haven't heard of a MOSFET for a million years (Metal Oxide Semiconductor - Field Effect Transistor if I recall correctly??)

Haha - tapping from the 4.6, I can tell you a LOT about that, with mine I did the lash-adjusters, that didn't fix it but it did improve - it turned out to be the cam chain tensioners - they are a crap design with a shitty oil seal behind them and that fails and bleeds oil pressure out the back so the thing rattles like a bastard when cold and when very hot because the cam chain is powered by oil pressure....

164337


Ask me how I know...
 
#49 ·
Hey Jiffy,

You nailed MOSFET! Well done. I have worked with some excellent electrical engineers and electronic technicians over the years, and I guess some of it rubbed off. It helps to know that if I screw something up, one of them can get me out of trouble. I won't tell you how many hours it took to trace the circuits, trouble shoot, and source parts.

I probably should have replaced my chain tensioners when I was doing the oil pump swap. I didn't know about those issues until it was too late. So far mine are good - hopefully they hold up.

Back to my fuel problem. I found my external fuel pump was failing, probably due to a couple of factors. The Galaxie tank is pretty tall so the pump has to work pretty hard pulling the fuel. And the pump may have been getting hot from the exhaust - it was pretty close to a muffler.

EFI pumps generally like to push fuel, not pull it. And the OEM ones usually sit in the tank so the fuel helps keep them cool. I thought about fitting an in-tank pump in there. I know at least one company makes mustang sending units with the pump built-in. But the stock tank opening is pretty small so I decided to keep the external pump.

I found a surge tank on ebay, made to take a Bosch EFI pump. Most of the pump is immersed in fuel so it doesn't have to pull fuel, and the fuel helps cool it. Then I just needed a low pressure (non-EFI) electric pump to feed the surge tank.

I devised a bracket design to hold the two pumps, with a heat shield between the pumps and the muffler.

Flat layout, designed with one right angle bend to create a heat shield:


Bending in my home made press brake:


Mounting holes drilled, pressing in some PEM studs for serviceability:



Four studs pressed in place:


Pumps mounted in place. Surge tank with Bosch EFI pump is on the right, low pressure pump on the left:


Bracket installed under the car. Hard to tell but the pumps and heat shield are tucked up above and protected by the frame:


And installed, plumbed, and wired. I used the previous fuel lines with a little bit of cutting and bending.



With that all done I powered it all up. The fuel pumps were much quieter than the previous one. Best of all, no leaks! So I cranked the engine and got...

nothing. After some investigation I found very little fuel pressure out of the EFI pump. Aargh!

Dejected, I went to bed to think about it. While asleep, it hit me! Another joy of late night projects is forgetting things even though you reminded yourself about 15 times before. The Bosch pump ships with a protective cap on the inlet. I knew the cap was there, and I knew it needed to come out. But I still forgot. Here is the cap, right where I left it:



With that resolved, it started right up and is still working great after a few thousand miles. This fuel set up is super quiet - I can barely hear it even without the engine running.

So that's my modular swap story. Hopefully it was useful, or at least entertaining. I got to enjoy the car this summer and fall and it was awesome. Good power, pulling hardest above 3,000 rpms. Reliable. Great sound. Fuel economy is OK, although I was hoping for better. Which leads me to my next post: what next?

- John
 
#50 ·
Last post: what next?

Rear axle ratio: I kept the stock 3.00:1 rear axle ratio. Fifth gear is really not useful until about 80-85 mph. I lose my nerve at about 75mph in this thing. I plan to switch to 4.11 gears if I can find a Mustang Cobra T45 speedometer drive gear. That will give me just over 2,400 rpm at 75 mph.

Heater hose. One of the heater hoses takes a tight bend and I think it is crimped a little. I need a molded hose or a metal bend to resolve this.

Tuning. The stock PCM expects an EGR (I blocked mine off), an automatic transmission, and some other things. I need to get some tuning tools and turn these off. Probably a Moates Quarterhorse. Then do some tuning to optimize performance and fuel economy.

Unrelated to the swap: new top and interior planned for the winter.

Thanks for coming along with me on this story. I'll post info on the improvements as I go.

- John
 
#52 ·
As usual, great work. So, I have had some experience with DOHC 4.6L engines (not from working on them, but paying for it...).
I have a 2002 Cobra Mustang (only made for and released in Australia/NZ) that I've had since new. After daily-driving it for about 8 or 9 years (and beating on it pretty hard with no reliability issues other than the 8ft long Australian clutch cable x6 due to RHD conversion) I decided I wanted POWER (in a Jeremy Clarkson voice).

I got a bunch of stuff from a wrecked 2003 Cobra Mustang sent over from the US - 27,000 mile engine, T-56, harnesses, driveshaft, ECU, BCM, steering column, fuel tank, gauge cluster from Canada (for KM/h) and swapped it all out. Ran like a top, lots of power (419rwhp) and reasonable economy unless you were silly.

As these 03/04 SVT motors come with everything forged and super-duper, I upgraded the Eaton a few years back to a 2.3 Whipple, BAP, big throttle body, CAI and MAF etc etc. Near-on 600 rwhp and it'll pass anything except a gas station...

So, a friend has a n/a DOHC 4.6 and is considering buying an $3,000 Eaton-swap.

But that's a fair amount of cash for delivering some more power and it's all used with an unknown history.
A more sensible (financially speaking) option for a stock motor might be an $850 twin turbo kit......

Best thing would be to ignore this post....;)
 
#53 ·
Jiffy,

I laughed out loud at your last line. That is exactly what I was thinking as I read your post!!!

That Cobra sounds like fun. Quite a set up!

I seriously considered adding a turbo set up when I was doing the swap. This swap took a long time due to family and work obligations and the turbo would have added even more time. So in the end I decided to stick with the stock configuration. At least for now. ;)

- John
 
#54 ·
So - re-reading this, again really impressive work, well done.

What's it like to drive??

The gearing sound tall. My 01/02 Cobra had a 3.27:1 rear, the 03/04 had a 3.55:1 and I didn't replace the rear-end, so the gearing was pretty tall. 1st gear was good for about 30mph which was too tall, so I got the centre rebuilt with 3.73:1 which livened to up some. This thing makes a lot of torque, especially down low (3,000-4000rpm) so slow-driving is an art form.

Cruising would be good and comfortable I would think, but a higher ratio rear would certainly make it faster off the mark.
 
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