My LS1 Powered FD Pictures Condensed

[ablake211]

Figured I would make a more photo oriented write-up 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!

[ablake211]

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





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

[ablake211]

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:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FMS-M-4700-C/
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FMS-M-4413-A/
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FMS-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!!!




:fu:







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.

[ablake211]

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.

[ablake211]

[digitalsolo]

Glad you reposted this.   I love the photography in the early pictures.   

You take stuff apart almost as often as me. 

[ablake211]

Thanks! Lots of time went into this car and all of the locals that have seen its progression compliment how clean/detailed it is in person.

My friend Ian did the photos at the beginning. We are going to get together this week sometime hopefully to do some quality shots of the finished product.

I took this car apart like 893475983745 times haha. Now that it runs 10s cam-only and cruises really nice I haven't been as much. Especially with the rear setup and trans being built now I shouldn't need to I hope. I am considering selling the car but am torn on if it would be the right decision. If I keep it this winter I know i will be pulling the motor to paint the engine bay/undercarriage and making the interior 100%. This should make the car close to "like new" condition. I would add ac but it just isn't needed where I live.

Maybe build a turbo kit haha. <This is why I need to sell!!!!!!

[BeasTT]

One of my favorite build threads on the old site as well. Glad the rear end is workin out good for you, and hope you decide to keep the car!

[ablake211]

Thanks man I would have posted this sooner if I had known you guys really liked it haha. I doubt I will sell it since I have a number that I am firm on getting and being as I have no need to sell and not much desire it isn't going cheap. If I had to guess I would say it ends up getting a finished interior(its close but I want like new), painted engine bay/undercarriage, and a turbo this winter. Had a fun season cam-only and got some 10s which was my goal. Id like to try a new route.

I will try to get some new shots up from Ian this week!

[nadeem]

Very nice swap.  Couple of things I noticed when I was reading your post.

You're work is extremely meticulous.  The more I read and the more pictures I saw, I kept noticing that the more you got involved with the swap, the greater attention you paid to detail.

I read the entire post pretty much in detail, but I'm sorry if I missed it.  How long did the entire project take.

Nadeem.

[ablake211]

Thanks and you are right about the detail and here is why. I got into this project late into the winter and was dead set on having a car for the season. I bought it late Jan and had it out by April IIRC with all of the new components. I was determined to have it out so I had to pick and choose my battles on the finishing touches. Then throughout the season I kept spending my time on working toward my final goal which is to have a car that i built to be reliable and in a near "like new" condition. I will not stop these small improvements anytime soon as the list seems to go on forever although I am very happy at where it is at.

So bulk of project was ~90 days including paint/interior/suspension etc. Then finishing touches and 8.8" rear new trans throughout the season.

Also not too documented but for reasons I would not like to discuss i basically rewired the entire swap as well.(was a pre fab harness)

[MPbdy]

I love this car, and I still want to know what camera took those pictures in the beginning .  The shot with the valve cover off is incredible.

The same thing happened to me with attention to detail.  I'm kicking myself for not going the extra step on some of the early stuff.  Now its all put back together.

[nadeem]

So bulk of project was ~90 days including paint/interior/suspension etc. Then finishing touches and 8.8" rear new trans throughout the season.

Thanks.   I dont think it is your daily driver.  Is it?

[nadeem]

Would like to see more pictures under the car.

[nadeem]

.