Murphy's Law gets a 410

[302N20]

Can't promise I will be timely with this pics and updates, I usually forget to snap pictures while working on the car.

As some of you know I'm doing a motor swap this winter. I am taking out the original 306 and replacing it with a 410 cubic inch windsor. The motor will be:
1994 Lightning roller block .040 over (410 cubes)
Eagle Forged Crank with Armor Coating
SCAT Forger Rods
RaceTech Forged & coated Pistons
AFR 205cc heads
Trickflow R Box Intake
42lbs injectors
255lph in the tank
Custom Cam (most likely from Jay Allen)
New factory oil pump and water pump.
Griffin Radiator
Assembly of the long block(maybe the intake too)
Tuning will be by Adam of POPs Racing in Rochester.

There will be some exterior changes to the car, new wheels, new iginition system, beefing up the rear end, and new nitrous system (probably mid-summer).

These things will all be towards making the car more track friendly as I enjoy racing with MOMs organization and I need to step up my game since I will be in a tougher class this year due to the larger motor. Forgive me for some of the time gaps in the pics, as I said I forget to take pics sometimes.

How I started out the winter.

Pulled out the 306 and put it up for sale.

Now it was time to tackle this mess

I bought a large Griffin radiator, should be sufficent for this build and future ones

I took out the A/C of the car finally this year

Here is the holes going into the cabin blocked off

Then I had to buy a set of headers for the new motor and Choda gave me a deal on his complete exhaust system off his car I could not pass up. I got the entire system for 1/2 the price of just a set of headers new. If I don't like how it sounds I can always change out parts of it down the road.

Oh, and this is the little guy that is making all this possible in the middle of winter in an uninsulated garage

Took off the 13" Cobra front brakes and traded them to a fellow MOMs racer for setting up my rear end and helping with my wiring on my ignition system. So back on go the factory GT brakes so I can clear a set of Prostars this year.

Also in the name of getting off the line better this year, I bought a set of Steeda drag springs. I'll toss the back ones in when I doing the rear end upgrade, front will wait until the motor is in the car to make it easier. (Pat I'll be contacting you about assistance with installing the fronts once the car is on the road.

Magnaflow catback thats still on the car that I have to sell...

Starting to re-arrange some of the factory harness to make the new radiator fit as well as starting to hide it.

Back in July 2008 I hit a deer(only a phawn) on Grand Island that took out my headlight and header panel. Never got around to replacing the header panel until I just picked one up cheap randomly from the same guy who had the Griffin radiator.
Here is the new one

Here is the damage to the old one

Taking off the front bumper to get to the old header panel

And last night I sold the last factory part of my motor, the shortblock. Two guys from Rochester came out, one bought my heads and timing chain, and the other one bought my short block.
The heads

The shortblock right after I took the heads off

My rockers that I got to keep since the kid didn't want them, so now I can sell them too

And my shortblock in their truck going away....tear to my original block.

I also have picked up my 275/50/15 Mickey Thomson Drag Radials already and they are wider than I expected lol. I have my new Throttle cable already (Fox Body one), and a 31 spline diff, I need to get picks of those.


More to come.

 

[302N20]

I almost forgot, here is the block

 

[302N20]

Welding axle tubes in 8.8 based Mustangs is something as common in the Mustang Drag Racing community as upgrading your axles. I found an article from Mustang 5.0 Magazine showing the build up of an 8.8 rear end step by step. Here are the steps and pictures pertaining to the tube welding.


Here is a pic of the weld.

"Robert says that out of the hundreds of rears he's checked for trueness, he's only encountered two that didn't have issues."

Here is a common axle housing that is stock, see how un-true it is..

"As you see in this photo, the bar that represents the axles is not centered inside the axle tube,which means the rearend housing isn't straight. That's not a huge problem. The heat from welding the axle tubes to the differential housing for strength and to prevent them from twisting actually loosens the metal of the axle tubes"

Now after welding look at how the jig has made the rear end true and straight compared to the picture above...

"As the metal cools, the bar works as a guide for the tubes to set up in a new position-which isn't perfect, but it's a lot closer to straight. It's interesting to watch the axle tubes move ever so slowly into their straight positions off the differential housing."

You can see in this picture the tube welded up and painted.

Oh btw, no matter how hard I looked they say nothing about "baking" the rear end

.


Here is the complete article for anyone that is interested in reading it.
http://www.mustang50magazine.com/tec...end/index.html

I don't see any reason to skimp on a $75 procedure on a rearend thats going to have $100s of internals in it.

 

[302N20]

New o2 Bungs!
Choda had the bungs welded shut since he ran a carb, so I had to get some new ones put on last night. Big thanks to Doug.
Cutting off the old one

Grinding them smooth

Little welding action

TA Da!

Now they are ready for paint...

 

[302N20]

Made some progress over the weekend....
Hung up the Headers and painted them

I put two coats on them so far, might put one more on.

Here are my 275/50/15 Mickeys I picked up.

I had to get the front of the car on the ground so I went out and got some new rotors for the front.

After I got my front bumper and header panel off I found this tag on my core support. I doesn't have my VIN on it and I'm not sure what most of the codes on it mean.

Here is the new header panel installed with my Pony off my old one

I got the gas tank out yesterday too, need to out a 255lph pump in it, the 190 in there won't cut it.

Next to come out is the rear end....

__________________

 

[302N20]

I will prolly buy this new since I have yet to come across one for a decent price, but here is the upper intake I'll be using

 

[TBapp3]

Cant wait to see what kinda times she puts down when all said and done!

 

[302N20]

The other night I got the rear end out.

Last night Jeff and I took it over toe West Herr after hours and power washed it, it came out nice although I don't have any pics since its been cleaned.
After it is welded up, the quad shock brackets cut off, and the new axles and carrier are installed i'm going to paint it with POR-15 that I have. I'm also
going to be picking up a girdle cover.

Edit: I'm also replacing the rubber brake hoses with braided.

 

[302N20]

Got the rear end apart and ready to take to Vito

Stock axles and carrier for sale! lol

Cleaned up the cat back for pics for my ads

Cleaned up the gas tank too, got some surface rust I'll sand down and fix

 

[302N20]

~Auto Meter Instrument Cluster Bezel to hold 2 gauges in.
~Auto Meter Ford Racing Oil Pressure Gauge
~Auto Meter Ford Racing Water Temp Gauge
~Moser Aluminum Diff Cover/Brace
~Moser 31-spline axles
~Summit Remote Battery Disconnect
~Taylor Battery Relocation Kit
~UMI Adj. Rear Upper Control Arms

....and thank god for friends with their Pro discounts is all I have to say.

 

[302N20]

I have to take completed pics but here are some pics mid-way through POR-15 the rear end

ANNND I made some purchases over the weekend....

`Trickflow R Box Upper intake
`90mm Accufab Throttle Body
`Anderson Powerpipe 4" intake
Here are the parts on the seller's car

I also have picked up all the items I need to swap over to a Fox Body style Throttle body.

 

[302N20]

Got the rest of the housing painted with 2 coats of POR-15. Gears are installed as well as the new 31 spline Diff. I installed the new axles bearings and seals last night as well.

Had some left over paint so I hit the dust sheild and some of the brackets that will be going on the rearend.

Since I still had some left I cleaned up the surface rust on the top of the gas tank and made sure it would never come back

And just shot with the new differ Gridle I got

How she sits when I brought in all the boxes of new parts last weekend.

 

[302N20]

New ABS rings pressed on thanks to West Herr's press

Old 28 spline axles vs the new 31 spline Moser units.

Axles installed

New Driver side rear spring

New Passenger side Rear spring with progressive spring rate to help with body roll on launch

And if it wasn't for Jeff's extra set of hands to help muscle the rear end in place I probably would not of gotten it in last night before calling it quits. Thanks man.

 

[302N20]

Batter box is mounted, I have to mount it where my bottle used to be because that side has more floor space, so when the bottle goes back in it will be in the space tire well or on the driver side.

Dash getting ready for gauges...holy hell its dusty behind the bezel!

Oil Pressure

H20 Temp

 

[302N20]

.578/.562....236/244....110*

 

[302N20]

New 225lph Wahlbro pump is installed and in the tank now

Battery is all bolted and and wiring to my safety switch is complete. The car has power again! Just waiting to modify the bracket for the safety switch before I bolt that in, so it's just hanging for the moment.

Here is where the new battery cable comes into the engine bay to hook back up with the car @ the fuse box.

Wiring up the new gauges...

Here's the new gauges and the new shiftlight (wired that in last night too)

 

[302N20]

Here is a pic of where my shut off switch will come out of my trunk, but it will be on the passenger side no the driver. Nice thing is I won't have to cut any holes in the bumper or the tail lights. When I'm not at the track I'll just unscrew the rod and put it in the trunk and the car will look stock again

 

[302N20]

I'm so pumped, I just found out that my old balancer since it has a removable weight on it for the imbalance on my old motor can be used on the 410.....WOOHOO! $300 I don't have to spend, and its already SFI 18.1 so I'll prolly keep it on there forever

 

[302N20]

Put the rear brakes and lines back on today. Now they are ready to be bled. Cut the two rods from the battery box so they are now in the way of the tank anymore so I will put the tank in some. Put some rtv on the diff cover, going to let that set up over night and I'll fill it with fluid tomorrow.

I tried to put the new braided center brake line on the rear but it was a different thread than my factory lines so no go. I'll see if the front lines match up when the rear is back on the ground and I can pull the front tires.

Car should be on the ground Tom

oh, and my cam came in yesterday

 

[302N20]

I still can't believe I'm really gonna have AFRs on my car...

Motor is getting clearanced....