🔧 BUILD TURBO LS powered 2011 Police Interceptor dontBSme baby!

nsogiba

Regular
Oct 29, 2020
159
740
WNY
Man did I miss forums. Been active in a couple communities since 2006 or so depending on what car I had at the time. TCCoA, Spec V Board, Bimmerforums, LS1Tech, Corvetteforum, M3Post...you name it. I've done a couple of swaps over the years, maybe I'll make a post in the intro section.

Anyhow, feels good to be out of the Facebook cesspool and back onto a place where there are normal enthusiasts.

Back to the action: I actually bought this pig back in September of 2020, so the posts show progress as I went up to this point.

2011 Interceptor in my favorite shade of NY State Police Trooper Blue. Trak-Lok axle, most likely 3.27 gears.

I actually looked at a 2009 that the guy was also selling, but between a sloppy repaint and generally trashed interior I passed on that one.

This one has a solid body, a few superficial rust spots with solid metal underneath that I'll fix. The paint should clean up with a polish and the interior isn't too bad, just needs a heavy vacuum and wash.

The 4.6 pulls strong and I was told the trans was recently rebuilt. Doesn't matter to me since those are both coming out, but would be nice to recoup some funds by selling those. It also has new brakes up front, and snow tires with decent tread on them.

First up is ripping off the light bar, and boy oh boy you guys should hear the deer whistle on this thing that turns on with the parking/headlights.

More to come!

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My favorite part:
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nsogiba

Regular
Oct 29, 2020
159
740
WNY
Slowly but surely making progress. I decided to postpone the cam/turbo setup until this winter/spring and just get the thing on the road, I may even drive it through the winter as it came with nice snows. With a tune on the stock LQ4 it should be about 290whp, plenty of fun to burn tires for the time being. I did rig up the 6.0 to run on the engine stand and it sounds healthy.

It didn’t help that the 80E I bought ended up being totally smoked, obviously went into meltdown at some point. I think it starved for fluid as the pan was dented and the filter was cracked in places.

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That put a pretty sour taste in my mouth but it is what it is, so I have another 80E on the way from a yard with a warranty this time, hopefully should turn out a lot nicer.

While I wait on the trans I have been chipping away at the other stuff.

Factory cats cut out, sold to recoup some funds.

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Pulled out the 4.6/4R70W which is for sale. Motor runs great, tranny was shifting funny.

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I got it covered up with a tarp, it will probably sit there until somebody buys it or get tired of looking at it and just scrap it. I don’t even know what these things are worth anyways

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Between work and spending time with our 3 month old daughter I don’t take nearly as many pictures as I used to. I just get in the zone and make the most of the hours that I have. The engine bay was pretty grimy but not too bad. Powerwashed it and cleaned a ton of leaves out of the cowl drain.

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At this point the chassis is pretty much ready for the new drivetrain to drop in. I pulled the 4.6 engine mounts off the boat anchor and installed them onto the 6.0 using the CJ Pony Parts 4.6 to LS adapter plates. Had to open up the forward bolt holes, not a huge deal but slightly annoying for something advertised as bolt in.

That ride height and wheel gap with no motor! I don’t plan on lowering this one, need all the ground clearance I can get for the jumps this thing will see.

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Got the F-body pickup tube, windage tray and oil pan installed also. She’s ready to party.

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No pics, but got the following done too:

4L80E yoke installed onto P71 aluminum driveshaft, replaced both u-joints too

New rear rotors installed, 8.8 pinion seal replaced, diff cover and bolts wire wheeled and painted

Powerwashed the radiator, condenser, tons of gunk in the bottom.

Lots of parts rolling in also, PS lines, rad hoses, the usual accessory junk to get it going. Hopefully more progress and pics to come soon. My deadline for burnouts is Halloween.

I sourced another 80E locally from a yard this time with a 30 day warranty, and dropped it off at a local builder to take a peek inside and make sure it’s good to go. I’ll still be putting the HD2 kit in that one. Not much left to do, I really need to get the trans back so I can slap it all in. I am running out of “prep work” on the chassis.

While I waited on the trans, I decided to plop in the motor from the front to see if it lined up with the crossmember pedestals. First attempt was a no-go due to the cherry picker hitting the front bumper.

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I forgot how massive this boat is. Might make it easier to pull the front clip, but why make additional work for myself…just go in from the side.

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The stock steel wheels on this thing were rusty and gross and had nice snow tires on them. I picked up a spare set of 17s in nice shape, rattle canned them gloss black, and mounted up a cheap used set of Michelin’s off some Mazda SUV that just so happened to be the exact same size as the Ford. Can’t wait to boil these tires off.

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The M3 continues to be a great work truck, hauling transmissions and wheel sets like they’re not there. For anyone that is curious, this setup is great compared to driving a pickup all the time and getting abysmal fuel economy. Ok, the M3 gets 18mpg, but at least it’s way more fun to drive than a truck.

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Once I had opened up the slots on the crossmember, the motor dropped right in. The F-body oil pan is close to hitting, but clears.

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From a brief mockup it’s looking like truck manifolds will fit like they were meant to be there. I will hack off the 3 bolt flanges and weld on some v-bands, which will be handy when I go turbo next year.

I still need to figure out power steering lines, rad hoses, transmission cable, and the fuel system. I have decent game plans for all those and will document as I get there.

Bonus Pics: Hauling home the 6.0 and original shit 80E

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nsogiba

Regular
Oct 29, 2020
159
740
WNY
Well this looks fun!

How do you like the MaxJax lift? I've been toying with the idea of getting one for years, but can't make a decision. I've heard lots of scary stories about them, but it sounds like a lot of it could be chalked up as user or
installation error.
It's great. I have a 2.5ish attached garage with a pitched floor to a drain, so the install was more complicated than most and the space is tight. But, it beats the shit out of laying on the concrete like a peasant. Mine has been bulletproof for 5 years and I use the shit out of it. Besides my heater it is probably my favorite tool.

Here is the install for that if anyone is interested

 
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nsogiba

Regular
Oct 29, 2020
159
740
WNY
Hell yeah. I may have missed it, but are you going aftermarket control or factory PCM and Trans control?
Good catch, I am sticking with the factory PCM to control motor and trans. I would love to try out all the newfangled Terminators that self tune but I already own HPTuners and I want to be able to pass NY state emissions inspection, so the PCM is a must. If the Terminators could support OBD2 it'd be a different story.
 
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v6buicks

TCG Elite Member
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Oct 22, 2018
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Franklin, IN
Real Name
Jon
It's great. I have a 2.5ish attached garage with a pitched floor to a drain, so the install was more complicated than most and the space is tight. But, it beats the shit out of laying on the concrete like a peasant. Mine has been bulletproof for 5 years and I use the shit out of it. Besides my heater it is probably my favorite tool.

Here is the install for that if anyone is interested

Oh hell yeah! I love perusing garagejournal. I wish it wasn't such a PITA to use though. Looks like you have the nicest two post anchoring I've ever seen. lol Nice work.
 

nsogiba

Regular
Oct 29, 2020
159
740
WNY
Love it! Should be a sweet cruiser when finished.

Today is Halloween though, let's see the burners! :)

Ugh, I know, I missed my deadline, but such is life with a 4 month old at home.

The good news is that I'm getting really close and just buttoning up loose ends. Over the weekend:

-I spent Saturday butchering the stock crossmember, got it all reinforced and welded up with a shot of leftover spray paint.
-The motor/trans are fully installed now
-intake manifold and front accessories are all installed.
-Driveshaft is in, had to trim about an inch off the front of the yoke. Fun fact, despite being a live axle car, the yoke pulls OUT of the trans on axle compression, unlike most traditional live axles that push INTO the trans under compression.

All that's left:
Run fuel lines from tank to regulator/motor and back
Hose clamp the rest of the coolant hoses
Drop off power steering lines to be modified with hydraulic shop
Finish running trans cooler lines (need adapter fittings to use OEM cooler)
Attach standalone wiring harness and tap into power/ground
clean up vacuum lines and intake

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nsogiba

Regular
Oct 29, 2020
159
740
WNY
Houston, we have an update!

I got tired of wiring and general mechanical work so I pulled off the rear trunk plug where the antenna used to be...so that I could install a junkyard antenna off a GM car. It serves no purpose and is totally nonfunctional but completes the look of the Covid Cruiser as I've begun to affectionately call it.

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Magic eraser wheel continues to save fingernails around the world

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Mocking up the harness to figure out lengths and routing. I'm using an HPI Harness I bought on Amazon for under $300, it's a turn key unit. For the price it looks to be of nice quality and the customer support has been great. I can't imagine ever depinning and reworking a factory harness when you can just buy one of these, it's a fantastic value.


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Once I got everything just laid out and connected I tried to start the car, it wouldn't crank at all even though the Ford starter wiring hooked up directly to the GM starter. After some head scratching and reading I realized the Ford starting circuit uses the PRNDL switch (MLPS or Manual Lever Position Switch in Ford speak) to ensure the trans is in park before it allows current to flow to the starter so you don't accidentally run over your dog. My solution was to remove the entire engine harness from the 4.6 and cut out any wire that wasn't plugged into the MLPS - essentially thinning out the entire harness down to a MLPS bypass. Bolted the MLPS to the front header panel, plugged it in, and voila she cranks.

At this point there wasn't much left to prevent me from starting it, so I hotwired the fuel pump by jumping pins at the Fuel Pump Driver Module (FPDM) in the trunk (Ford really loves their 4 letter acronyms). Motor fired and sounded good, but putting the trans in Drive did nothing as the car didn't move in any gear.

So, off came the trans pan...which got hung up on the crossmember and dumped everything all over my floor. Thank god for epoxy flooring and a drain.
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I found that the snap ring for the boost valve in the HD2 kit was loose and shot out, trans was bypassing internally. Must not have seated with my shitty snap ring pliers, so I ground down the tips of some needlenose which worked far better.

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Once that got reseated she made pressure and this was the result:

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The cluster is laughably angry, this is going down the Thruway at 80mph:

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