I8URVTEC

Back in August of last year I bought a 5.0l 91 LX coupe. It has 143,000 miles on it but still runs pretty strong. The transmission shifts a little hard and you can feel that it has the miles it does on it. The engine is strong yet has lost some of its punch. It has a few small oil leaks that add up to me having to put about a half a quart in once a month or so. The rear end also produces some noises typical of years of wear. The suspension could definatly use some work but like everything else it is still driveable.
Overall the car is pretty strong and still fun to drive. However, come spring time I will be driving my '05 daily and am thinking of digging into this car as a project. It will be the first time I have done this with a car and I am certainly no mechanic. I have taken some mechanics classes and have learned some things I will need but I am concerned that I will get this car appart and not be able to get it back together.
I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for me as to what to do, what to start with, and if I am getting in over my head if I just start taking this engine appart. Let me know what you think.

Forgot to mention that the car is mostly stock. The air silencer has been removed obviously and it has a 4" cowl induction hood but that is really all the mods that were done to it b/w the previous two owners.

PACETTR

Start small and don't take on major stuff; i.e. let someone else build the short block, tranny, etc...also don't take on anything you don't have the tools for...


GOOD LUCK!!!

I8URVTEC

As far as the engine goes I was thinking about taking the intake off and replacing that with a cobra intake and possibly a larger throttle body. Then I was going to remove the heads and have them ported and polished, possibly even have a valve job done while they are off.

Fordracing200

AFR heads or TFS twisted wdge heads would present a good power gain also, a C-4 transmission with after market internals (valve body etc) and a 2800 stall converter can put your car if stock motored in the 13s.

I8URVTEC

I think a C-4 tranny is definatly in this car's future. As with most things in life my main constraint is the $$$. I think once I start getting this car appart its going to be a lot of "yea I am gunna put that in next when I get the money" haha.

Speaking of heads though I am new to the whole stroker thing...what is the best combination to get more cubes out of the 5.0?

Fordracing200

DSS 331 stroker with 3.73 gears and a C-4

joker

Start small. Do you suspension stuff first. Shocks, struts, springs, control arms, and a some good subframe connectors. A dss 331 and a good h/c/i combo isnt gonna be worth crap if you cant hook up.

Dont bother with heads or an intake unless you are going to do the heads, intake and cam at the same time. None of the three will net you that much power alone, but with the right combo all three will get a very nice gain. That, and the intake has to come off if you are doing heads anyways, so have some patience and get everything done at the same time. It will save you some labor charges in the long run.

Likewise with the throttle bod. It wont really net you much power by itself, but when coupled with a larger maf, cai, and intake, you will see more benefit from it.

Remeber any part that effects your engines flow, IE heads, cam, intake, tb, maf, and cai, work together, and if you have a bottle neck in any of them, then you wont see as much benefit from the others.

Gears are dependent on what you want to do with the car. There is no "magical" correct gear. Though you will see some people say the same gear is right for every car they are asked about. It depends on if you want to race the car, and if so what kind of racing will you be doing? Is it a track only car, or a daily driver? Auto trans, or stick? What gear is best is also determined by your head/cam/intake combo. Afterall, you want gears that better take advantage of your car's powerband, which is determined soley by the afformentioned things.

For a dss 331, afr heads, a good intake and cam you are looking at spending 4k easily, so for now, do suspension mods that way if you decide you dont want the car later, you dont loose your butt on selling the parts. As well as the fact that most of the smaller mods can be done cheaply, and by yourself with basic tools.

I8URVTEC

Thanks for the advice. This is definatly going to be a slow moving project because of my budget but I have had the car for a little while now and when the 05 becomes my daily driver and I don't have to rely on this car to get places I really want to dig into it.
Any suggestions on a good suspension package or are there some parts that you recommend for the fox body? This is the first fox I have ever worked with and there are so many options out there.

redd6054

I definetly agree with the suspension mods, Some stuff I did first, was brakes. I went and bought 87 lincoln LSC calipers { they have a larger piston }, top Quality non race pads, slotted rotors that I had cadnium plated to stop rust. A good set of ebiech springs [ prokit ] and new shocks and struts, Tokiko or bilstein, and a panhard bar and lower control arms from maximum motor sports. All of this can be done with hand tools and by you if you research on the internet for instructions. You will only need to buy a jack and 6 jack stands. You would not beleive the change in your car with these simple mods. Your car will have attitude and you will fall in love witk the handeling. Somewhere along the way you will have to get subframe connectors welded in by someone who knows what they are doing. If you buy the parts new on ebay it will cost you half of what the speed shop sells them for.

I8URVTEC

I will be doing most of the work myself and working with springs worries me a little bit...I don't want to kill myself but I am thinking I can get a shop to compress the springs and I could do the rest myself.
As far as breaks go the only changes I have made since I got the car was to put new rotors, pads, and shoes on but I agree that the breaks need to be upgraded. Did you keep the drums out back or did you do a conversion to disk breaks all around?

redd6054

I looked through the paper till I found a Lincoln "LSC" 1987 I beleive and bought it for 1.000. This lincoln model is a fox body and has the 5 lug 4 wheel disk system on it from the 1985 mustang SVO. I transfered all of the brackets , 5 lug rear axles, bought new pads rotors and calipers and a used set of 1995 cobra rims of of ebay. I kept the 5.0 engine, and 8.8 rear end, then parted the rest of the lincoln out for a total of 1,100. dollars.
As far as being worried about the springs that is why I said 6 Jacks stands 4 under the frame and then you wire in the spring so it does not fly off before you remove the shock / strut, then you slowly lower your a arm / axle with your jack. I found the instructions on the net , just punch in changing springs mustang into google.

conv_stang

good luck with the project. i am going to be starting a same deal here soon. my engine and all is fine as is my trans and rear. never thought about the lincoln lsc. will have to find one of those thats cheaper than buying the parts. thanks redd

I8URVTEC

Pretty good advice Redd...thanks.

redd6054

No problem, my pleasure. I'm sure somewhere in your buildup your going to put in a monster sterio to blow up rice rockets I hope. They hate it when a mustang has a better sterio than Japanese scrap. boom boom

I8URVTEC

Hopefully when I am all done they won't be able to hear their stereo over my exhaust anyway. :drive:

Fordracing200

you are gonna comply with emmisions or not?

I8URVTEC

Yes, unfortunatly. NY standards are the worst and I want to be able to drive it on the road. For this car I was going to eventually go with the flowmasters. I prefer Bassani and that is what is going on my 2005 but it just gets too expensive to do Bassani on both.

Fordracing200

oic, my dad ran a bbk off road H and a set of Dynomax mufflers with shorty headers 1 5/8 inch of course. With bbk tailpipes. all chrome, off road H, he changed it for inspection time though.

I8URVTEC

I figure I will probably run a set of flowmasters and maybe change out the headers. I had the car inspected last before Orange County had the new emissions test on their NYS inspection so who knows if the cats even really function anymore. If they do I would like to keep them in place so that it can get inspected.

Fordracing200

Car will be inspected so easily, But the 05 is a PITA to inspect, all 96 newer cars are PITA to inspect, for 95 older car is same as the years previous for inspection.