🔧 BUILD LikeABauce302's 427 SBF Twin Turbo Build. 404 Error: LS Content Not Found

General Information

Since I've been on this site for awhile now, I figured its time to post up the project I've been working on. Some of you may recognize the car. The previous owner raced it quite a bit and ran it in the IMSM series.

Here is my 90 Mustang LX hatchback:

Mod list:

Engine:
-Stock block bored .040" over
-Stock crank
-Forged rods
-Forged pistons
-Balanced, machined, and assembled by Opel Engineering
-Edelbrock Performer RPM Heads
-Edelbrock Performer RPM II Intake
-Basically your typical stock block H/C/I SBF

Transmission:
-Freddy Brown Built AOD
-Manual valve body
-Transbrake
-3200 RPM stall converter

Front Suspension:
-AJE K-member and A-Arms
-94/95 Mustang spindles
-Moroso Trick springs
-Lakewood 90/10 shocks
-UPR Castor/Camber plates

Rear Suspension:
-TRZ double adjustable upper control arms
-TRZ single adjustable lower control arms
-stock springs
-Lakewood 70/30 shocks

Chassis and Rearend:
-Welded full length subframe connectors
-Welded torque boxes
-Aluminum driveshaft and safety loop
-Custom 9" rear end
-Roll cage soon to be installed

Brakes:
-Maximum Motorsports manual conversion kit
-94 Cobra master cylinder
-Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve
-Maximum Motorsports braided lines
-99 to 04 GT brakes all around

Wheels and Tires:
-Chrome Pony R Wheels
-Rear: 17x10 with 275/40/17 M/T ET Street Radials
-Front: 17x5.5 (narrowed by Weldcraft) with M&H Racemaster Radial Front Runners

There are probably a few things I'm missing. I bought the car in December of 2009 and it's been a work in progress ever since. It was a solid well built car when I bought it, but it needed some work to make it street driveable.

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How the engine bay looked when I first started working on it:
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Teardown and preparation for cleaning up the engine bay:
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Beginning to fill in all of the holes in the engine bay:
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Engine bay all finished:
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5 lug swap time:
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94 spindles all cleaned up and new hubs installed:
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Maximum Motorsports manual brake conversion with 94 Cobra master cylinder, and new UPR castor/camber plates:
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Finishing installing new brakes up front:
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Test fitting the new wheels
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I've still got some work to go. Before spring I'm going to freshen up the rear end and I'm planning on installing a Holley EFI system. If I have enough time and funds left over, I want to install a roll cage of some sort since I'm planning on running at the drag strip quite a bit.

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LikeABauce302

TCG Elite Member
Aug 27, 2013
5,874
16,316
South suburbs
Real Name
Matt
I visited my car over the weekend and did a little bit of work. One thing holding me up from getting started on the cold side was figuring out whether I was going to point the throttle body forward or towards the passenger side. To give myself plenty of room to run an alternator, I decided to direct the throttle body towards the passenger side, like stock basically.

I had a new low profile elbow, but it would have needed a huge spacer to clear my valve cover mounted coils. I ended up buying a used cast Edelbrock elbow, despite PJ yelling at me for putting ugly junk on my engine with billet valve covers. I would have at least bought new, but a lot of cast aluminum parts are still hard to find. I will eventually get something that looks prettier, but didn't want to spend a ton of money when I still have a few other parts to buy.

Just posting this picture to make PJ mad :LOL:

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With the throttle body position figured out, I started welding the charge pipe from the intercooler outlet to the throttle body.

I need to buy a RotoZip tool this week so I can cut out the fender to pass the charge pipe through.

Booger weld content below. Also you can see the bead I rolled onto the end of the pipe. $150 Amazon bead roller worked great.

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LikeABauce302

TCG Elite Member
Aug 27, 2013
5,874
16,316
South suburbs
Real Name
Matt
Thanks guys! When I'm learning a new weld process, I always start at the area I know will be hidden, although I'm really happy with how my aluminum welds are turning out so far. Learning how to weld stainless tubing first really made the aluminum learning curve a lot easier. The biggest hurdle was just getting the machine set up properly with a little trial and error on some scrap pieces I had. Also running a much smaller cup size really helped.
 
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LikeABauce302

TCG Elite Member
Aug 27, 2013
5,874
16,316
South suburbs
Real Name
Matt
Went over to my parents house yesterday for dinner and the Superbowl, but ended up in the garage working on my car instead. I didn't get a lot done, but still made a little progress. Any progress is good progress.

I continued working on the charge pipe I started on last weekend and took some measurements for placing another order for aluminum tubing. I have to transition the tubing from 3.5" to 4" into the throttle body, so figuring out how and where I'm going to put the transition took up most of my time.

If work is somewhat quiet later in the week, I may take Friday off to work on the car. I'm getting more and more anxious to fire the car up. I miss driving this thing.

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LikeABauce302

TCG Elite Member
Aug 27, 2013
5,874
16,316
South suburbs
Real Name
Matt
A little more progress on the cold side. I welded the throttle body V-band flange and started making the charge pipe that's going to pass through the passenger side fender.

Next weekend I'll get the Roto-Zip out and cut the fender.

I'm slowly running out of things to weld, so I'm beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

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LikeABauce302

TCG Elite Member
Aug 27, 2013
5,874
16,316
South suburbs
Real Name
Matt
I took a day off of work yesterday to spend some time on my car.

I finished making the main charge pipe from the intercooler to the throttle body. This pipe is 2 pieces, connected with a coupler, because there's no way I'd be able to install it as one piece without cutting out a huge hole through the inner fender.

I still have to install the blow off valve, but that should be easy. I started looking at placement options and I think I've decided on where to put it.

This leaves me with just 2 pipes left to make - the connections from each turbo to the intercooler. The passenger side will be easy and I'll do myself. I think I'm going to leave the driver's side to be finished by my buddy who will be tuning the car. On that side, I need to cut the end of the compressor housing off and weld a 90 degree outlet. I've never welded cast aluminum before, so I don't want my first attempt to be on a somewhat expensive part like the compressor housing. The compressor outlet is also really thick, so I would probably be testing the limits of my welder.

Once turbo fab work is done, I'll move onto figuring out oil plumbing for the turbos. I bought a TurboWerx Exa scavenge pump, so I'll need to fabricate a mount and find a place to put it. I'm also undecided yet if I will just run lines direct to the pump or fabricate some vented oil catch reservoirs under each turbo that the pump will pull oil from. I need to do more research here because I'm pretty clueless about what will work best.

Still on my to do list:

-Pull engine and trans to paint the engine bay.

-Make new lower radiator mounts because the ones on my motion raceworks lower radiator brace don't fit my radiator very well.

-Install alternator on engine. I'll do this on the stand when it's out of the car.

-Plumb fuel system.

-Wire fuel pump - this will be easy. I just have to install connectors. I already have upgraded wiring from my previous build.

-Wire ignition system. I converted to coil near plug from a TFI setup, so I'll have to find the wiring diagrams and figure out what I need to do.

-Wire and plumb dual Mac valves with CO2 for boost control.

-Find a new location for transmission cooler, then install and plumb.

-Safety upgrades: engine diaper, transmission blanket, window net, and new driver harness.

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