Project: 1978 Ford Mustang King Cobra road racer.

Started with a fairly rough, mostly stock 78 Mustang - 5.0 4bbl automatic, and a wrecked 89 Mustang GT - 5.0HO EFI 5 speed. Used a qt of oil on the 60 mile drive home with the 78 due to bad rear main seal. Pulled the engine to change rear main. While it was out, I decided to junk the 89, so pulled engine/trans, wiring harnesses, etc, and the 78 conversion began.

The body is very rough, patched the floor but that's about it. was bondo'd pretty much everywhere, doors are shot, quarters are rusting out, but base chassis is solid. mostly just surface repair needed. Plus body work doesn't make it go faster

Mods to fit engine:
-- 6-8 hours to pull down 89 wiring harness and find correct power/ground/sensor leads, fit to 78 harness, strip out unneeded wiring and clean everything up with normal plugs for disconnection.
-- Change Auto brake pedal with Manual brake pedal/clutch pedal
-- Trans mount had to be moved back 2" to fit the T5 (saws all works every time); stock 4speed for 78 was shorter.
-- Driveshaft shortened 2" and balanced
-- Clutch cable shimmed and tweaked - plan on eventually replacing with hydraulic
-- Modified factory Y-pipe with O2 sensor bungs. Later replaced factory manifolds with long tube headers and dual 3" racing glasspacks. Had to completely rebend the lead tube on the drivers side due to 89 bellhousing (78 had different positioning on clutch arm and starter). Also there's only about 2 sets of headers available for that body style.
-- Holley High flow fuel pump, Accel fine grade fuel filter, all AN8 line and fittings from fuel cell to fuel rail.

Car Mods:
-- Custom accessory brackets for alternator and PS pump, using 89 waterpump with serpentine belt setup.
-- Stripped interior to install roll cage. Dynamat and interior will be mostly reinstalled after (no dash).
-- Custom Gauge panel with new mounts, shortened to fit with the cage
-- Cleaned engine bay and trunk mounted battery
-- RCI 15 gallon fuel cell with sender; dual AN8 sump outlets, AN8 return, and AN8 rollover vent ports
-- Removed spare tire well to install fuel cell; Accel filter, Holley pump, and racing aluminum housing filter installed under fuel cell plate.
-- Ford 9" full floater rear axle with large studs and Curri Trac Loc Posi unit and 373 gears
-- 15x8 standard dirt racing wheels with 215/60 firestone tires (can't beat free tires)

Engine Upgrades, supercharger ready:
-- Ported stock heads, gasket matched intake ports and plugged EGR/Smog passages
-- Ford F303 Cam
-- Chromoly 5/16" pushrods
-- 1.7:1 Crane Cames Roller Rockers
-- Higher lift/stronger valve springs/retainers
-- TrickFlow Track Heat black powder coated intake
-- 42lb/hr Ford Racing fuel injectors
-- 75mm throttle body
-- 80mm Mass air
-- Anodized aluminum fuel rails and AN8 lines and fittings to connect
-- Aftermarket high end pressure regulator and guage
-- Ford Racing tall aluminum valve covers (black with red highlights)
-- Stock 4 bolt main bottom end
-- AEM Wideband O2 sensor
-- TwEECer RT chip (plugs onto ford ECU, USB port for real time monitoring/datalogging/tuning, dash mount switch for selecting between 4 different tunes)

Goals over the next year:
-- Install Poly motor mounts
-- Install 5 lug drilled/slotted front rotors
-- Aluminum Radiator
-- Eventually (maybe not next year) ATI Procharger P-1SC or D-1SC intercooled blower type supercharger

Car remains and will remain totally street legal. Goal is to be able to drive out to the track if I so choose and run it. Or can be trailered and hauled if needed. I'm trying to build a versatile car for as wide of variety of tracks as possible; I love road racing, but would also like to drag it, take it on the dirt track, or whatever comes along. Was considering going to and IRS setup, but decided to stay with a 9" on leaf springs for easiest setup/maintenance.

Last Update 3/17/09

Early pics:

Front view (no grill):


side view (black spraypaint ftw!)


Engine Installed, low hood clearance:


Dash (and patchwork in the front):


Engine - Driver's side with headers installed:


Engine - Passenger's side with headers installed:

I remember when you first got that thing, checking it out at your place on Pioneer Parkway with it sitting next to Joel's Ultralisk.

Between Tate's 3SGTE swapped MR2, Joel's Big Sumbitch Bruiser-mobile, and your (then relatively untouched) Rustang, you guys definitely had some cherry whips. Yee-haw!

Top End back together:

I almost bought one of these cars when I was 15. I wanted to make it into a road race car as well. I'm not sure it would be my first choice these days, but I would love to see one out there. It wouldn't be your garden variety performance car and I admire those who dare to be different! Good luck with the project.

with a proper front and rear suspension it should work out fairly well... those years are still pretty light weight. I will be glad to see where you take it.

That was my thought as well. Family has had Mustang II's forever, thought I would continue the trend, cept play around a little

Hoping to get the cage finished out and the gauge cluster redone this fall sometime, so once the extra cash comes along i can get the dynamat in, then it's on to rear end, fuel cell, radiator, seat and harnesses. Hoping to have it track ready next spring!

Well, unfortunately I'm not sure how long I'm gonna hold onto this one. Looking to put together a dirt Late Model, and lack of funds means only one project. Gonna pick up a 9" rear end soon and get that and the new front rotors put in, new tires/wheels, and probably the computer tuner chip for it. Once I get it tuned up and slap a new paint job on it quick, it's gettin sold.

On a side note, if anyone knows anyone looking for a boat, I've got an 18' runabout I'll cut a good deal on

Got the gas tank out last night, and one of the rear cage bars in. Other bar is going in tonight along with any finish welding needed. Pricing up a fuel cell as the gas tank is a rust bucket. Once the fuel cell shows up, will get the rear floor pan cut and new sheetmetal/square tube housing in to hold it, and get the battery box mounted.

8" rear end was pulled out Monday night, picking up center section with 373 gear and posi unit this weekend, as well as the floater hubs for the 9" and some rims to figure out needed offset. Planning to get the new axle in next week before I go to TX.

Ideally my new racing seats that were supposed to be in about 2-3 weeks ago will be here this weekend...

Roll cage is basically finished other than some finish cleanup/welding, and the seat/belt support bars. 9" is set in and mostly installed. Need to pull the center section and seal it still. Removed the spare tire well where the fuel cell will be mounted for the time being. Picked up the Tweecer tuner chip, and an AEM Wideband O2.

new pics:

view from driver's side


cage/axle/missing spare tire well


driver's side cage bars


passenger side lower view


interior cage from passenger side


gauge cluster/mounts (kinda blurry)


the brains (Tweecer)

Good progress! The dash has a notoreous resemblance to Gross's GSX Plexi-glass Dash!

rear axle finished, car back sittin on the ground. Fuel cell installed and mostly plumbed, waiting on a couple fittings, should be in tonight. More pics to come.

Inside view of Fuel Cell:


Fuel Cell Plumbing:


Fuel Cell Upper:


New axle from behind:

Looking good buddy! Is that fuel tank baffled to help with the sump and prevent sloshing when you pull those 1.3g turns?


Oh wait, it's a mustang, so the only time it's going to see close to that kind of force is if you smash it into a fixed object.

Yes, baffled and foamed. And I do plan to put it through it's paces

Maybe someday I'll get real inventive and figure out how to give it AWD. That'd be sweet.

you should ditch the old leaf spring setup for a 4 or 5 link setup.

We considered that when originally talking about rear suspension (I initially wanted an IRS from an 03-04 cobra), but decided that, at least for now, it's way cheaper and easier to stay with the leaf springs. The II's have always hooked up well with the factory leafs, though I may change spring rates down the line. Or may throw something like this on it:

http://www.mustangii.net/ssmfaq.asp

I think you could probably find a used solid axle and 4 link stuff from a stock 79-04 GT pretty cheap... ***EDIT*** I must have already given the control arms away and do not have them anymore ***END EDIT***

The lift bars that you showed help for drag racing, but I thought you wanted a corner carver???

yeah I was just thinking to prevent wheel hop, Honestly on this app I'll probably stick with leaf for some time, though may end up with a monoleaf setup of some sort.


Update:
Got some new tuning software in, and new tune uploaded last night. Running pretty smooth at idle. Hoping to get the rear brake lines run this weekend, and get seat mounts made so I can get it out on the road and get some good logs under load.

2nd update... this tuning software is badass. Got a little further in depth today, it does most all calculations you need for you, making it super easy to be an amatuer tuner. Well worth the $130 for both parts of the software (though you can get away with just 80 for the analyzer). The TwEECer chip I have is solid and works well with the software, but there's a cheaper version called the Moates Quarterhorse that does just as well. Had I known about it before, I would've used it and saved a couple hundred $$

http://www.eecanalyzer.net/
http://www.moates.net/product_info.php?cPa...products_id=199

Highly recommend both for any Ford guys out there.

Tuning Woes: I so far have had very little luck in the tuning process. I believe I have something wrong either hardware wise, or a component that's not what I was told it was. With the stock tune enable, it runs pretty well, but a little over rich (about 12:1 at idle no load), but has a hell of an idle surge, and as such makes it damn near impossible to set the base idle on the new TB I have. When I run the tune I built, it goes waaaay overrich at idle. runs steady, no surge, but kinda misses, guessing due to overrich. Already fouled one set of plugs, and the new ones I just put in are already carboning up. Bleh, wish I knew more about troubleshooting, and the EEC tuner forums have been pretty worthless so far. Other than that, life is peachy!

looks like, if things play out well, there'll be a nice turbo upgrade to the stang in the future. Thanks Aka!

How big a turbo?

Not sure at this point, still waiting on Gross to get me the specs. He got it for his Evo back when he first started upgrading it (remember him having issues), and it was too big, couldn't get it to spool up right, so he ended up going back to stock, then got another down the road. He thought it was ideal for about a 4L engine, so will be a little small, but should make good power still.

Roll cage is finally done, head liner back in place. Gotta finish priming the cage/install roll bar padding. Next step is priming the floor, installing the soundproofing, carpet, and seats. Tuner chip came back from upgrade yesterday, however they left off the connector for my tune selector nob ><. Hoping they send it out soon. Bout all that's left after that is rear brake lines and I'm in business.

Excellent. Sounds like we should see this thing up and running this spring then right?

Goal is drivable by April 10 for Fairbury's practice day, see if they'll let me play on the dirt track...

Interior almost all back together. Battery box finally mounted. Floor finished noiseproofed. Wideband logging properly so I can actually tune now. Seats, Belts, Carpet, etc done. woooo.

Looking good man!

Sweet!! Looks good!!

except for the purple belts lol, but the price was right (free)

I didn't want to say anything about the belts...

brake lines done, just need to find the right fittings for the calipers and can get them bled. Hoping to have that done by Thurs. If I can scrape up the extra cash, may even get it licensed by this weekend so I can take it out for a spin. Though have to be careful until I can get the leaf spring and brake brackets welded to the axle...

Brake system is finished. Car is basically ready to drive, other than welding the axle brackets. Will probably tack weld axles and brakes sometime in Jan when I have more free time, so it's ready to haul to my dad's shop (or somewhere with a bigger welder).

I had thought about getting it licensed to drive/tune it, but don't see much point right now. I think I'll simply trailer it back to my parents timber, where I can take it on the 1/8 mile dirt track and put it through the paces, to get it dialed in. Also have lots of nice open country land there I can cruise on.


In the meantime, think I'm gonna build a good speaker box, put some subs/tops in the back, and fab up a head unit mount so I can have some tunes.

lookin sweet....

weather was nice last night, so opened up the garage and did a little welding on the rear end. Got the leaf spring and brake caliper brackets welded in place, so rear end stuff is good to go. Now just need some track time to get it tuned, hoping to have the van done so I can pull it to fairbury on the 15/16th

New updates. Decided i didn't have time to mess with tuning, and my priorities are shifting, so the Fuel Injection stuff is gone, got a 4bbl manifold from Marcus, holley 650 double pumper on ebay, MSD 6AL from a buddy. Going mechanical fuel pump, which is somewhat of a pain since the 89 engine I have was electric and doesn't have the fuel pump eccentric. So have to pull the timing cover and install one, along with making a new cam dowel pin to hold everything in place. Had to remove the return line, and reroute the primary feed line.

got everything pulled down as far as I could last night without having a balancer puller (mine broke recently, bah), and got the lines rerouted and filter remounted. Tonight gonna wire up the oil pressure and coolant temp senders, and maybe mount the msd/coil. Hopefully Sunday will be able to get the eccentric on and fuel pump mounted, then when the rest of my parts come in next week will be ready to fire it up.

Update.

Fuel pump eccentric installed, fuel pump installed and carb plumbed. Need some float/metering block gaskets for the carb, as they ones on it have dried/etc and leak. So that was prob #1.

Got MSD installed and connected up, but the ign wire i used was only hot in run, not start, so had to fix that, now got good spark.

Used a distributor for an 83 Bronco 5.0 (Richporter FD30, good quality dist). Comes with steel gear that works with ford hyd roller cams, and uses a magnetic pickup like what the MSD dists use. Has mech/vac advance. Got dist, cap adapter, rotor, and MSD wiring adapter for $120 total, about half price of MSD's billet dist at 250ish + shipping.

Next step get carb seals changed, reinstall carb, then fire that beast up.

Everything mechanical has bugs to work out of it dont they!? LOL

Glad that intake manifold is working out for you.

Was able to get it fired up and running. Still got a small fuel leak on the primary float bowl. Can't tell if the bowl is cracked or if it's leaking around the accelerator pump. But that's minor. Ran well, got timing set close, so good to go.

Nice!