Derek's Project GFP

I got it going. I took it out on a few tuning runs and got it driveable. Decided to go to the local fall car show and won a top 50 award with it. However on the drive to the show, it started to knock. I had the timing low and the boost was only 3 psi, so I dont think it was a tuning issue. It was probably how i put it together.

I was so disgusted witt it, that i havent touched it since. Instead ive been watching the facebook groups for some decent heads and maybe a dart block. maybe i will get motivated to pull the motor again soon.
 
I got it going. I took it out on a few tuning runs and got it driveable. Decided to go to the local fall car show and won a top 50 award with it. However on the drive to the show, it started to knock. I had the timing low and the boost was only 3 psi, so I dont think it was a tuning issue. It was probably how i put it together.

I was so disgusted witt it, that i havent touched it since. Instead ive been watching the facebook groups for some decent heads and maybe a dart block. maybe i will get motivated to pull the motor again soon.

Kind of makes you wish you had left it a V-6.......:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Adding major mods can be a headache and there's growing aches and pains for sure. I've had a love/hate relationship with my black '94 for years but I still have it. In the end the love part always wins out over the hate part.......:D:D
 
I got it going. I took it out on a few tuning runs and got it driveable. Decided to go to the local fall car show and won a top 50 award with it. However on the drive to the show, it started to knock. I had the timing low and the boost was only 3 psi, so I dont think it was a tuning issue. It was probably how i put it together.

I was so disgusted witt it, that i havent touched it since. Instead ive been watching the facebook groups for some decent heads and maybe a dart block. maybe i will get motivated to pull the motor again soon.

Man that's a tough break! Always going to be growing pains when you pioneer a new build. I applaud your work tho...I wish I had half the skills and patience to do the work you have on the car.

Your signature sums it up "Any idiot can make a Mustang fast...It takes a special idiot to make a Thunderbird fast!!!"

Keep your chin up!

-Tim
 
thanks guys. I have not given up, just taking a break. I spent a lot of hours this past year getting the car to this point. Sometimes you just need a break... mentally and financially! Ive got about 10k in this swap, but I was able to offset the cost by over 5k by selling stuff from my old set up. (If anyone is interested, I can post the info from my spreadsheet of part numbers and cost.) I was originally trying to make this a budget build sort of thing, but that takes a lot of discipline... not to mention risk. I probably wasted money by going into the motor and installing bearing, rings, lifters, oil pump, timing set. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So for now, im just taking a break and saving some money to buy stuff that will really help me reach my longer term goals. Im now questioning if i want to put good money at risk by building a 700hp stroker out of the stock block. I would feel a lot better if it was in a SHP block. Its also gonna need some decent heads. So im just looking for deals on stuff like that for the time being.
 
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I'm sorry to hear about the troubles. I definitely understand the pain with this sort of thing. Keep us updated as you get it going again.
 
thanks guys. I have not given up, just taking a break. I spent a lot of hours this past year getting the car to this point. Sometimes you just need a break... mentally and financially! Ive got about 10k in this swap, but I was able to offset the cost by over 5k by selling stuff from my old set up. (If anyone is interested, I can post the info from my spreadsheet of part numbers and cost.) I was originally trying to make this a budget build sort of thing, but that takes a lot of disciple... not to mention risk. I probably wasted money by going into the motor and installing bearing, rings, lifters, oil pump, timing set. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So for now, im just taking a break and saving some money to buy stuff that will really help me reach my longer term goals. Im now questioning if i want to put good money at risk by building a 700hp stroker out of the stock block. I would feel a lot better if it was in a SHP block. Its also gonna need some decent heads. So im just looking for deals on stuff like that for the time being.

SC Shuffle in full effect...

Good luck, David
 
I just came across this thread and skimmed threw it , from what I have seen you have done a fantastic job of making it clean and simple, don't let the engine failure take you out of the game .
Ya, cars/hot rods, are always trial and error and a lot of BS , but nothing anywhere as good was produced sitting watching others do it so we pay the price of admission to make it happen... you have an awesome car there .
If I am understanding it correctly you are thinking of a stroker and still only want in the 700hp range, if that is the case and money is an issue,I would suggest drop the stroker, its not really needed , a half decent machined 351W with a good set of rods along with using a half decent set of aftermarket 202 heads will make and hold 700hp no problem , you should be able to do this with under 20lbs of boost if your turbo and camshaft and intercooler is sized correctly .
If the stars become aligned I may be resurrecting my twin turbo 351W project in the very near future, it would be good to see more of these types of builds with the Thunderbird MN12 chassis out there .

Dave.





thanks guys. I have not given up, just taking a break. I spent a lot of hours this past year getting the car to this point. Sometimes you just need a break... mentally and financially! Ive got about 10k in this swap, but I was able to offset the cost by over 5k by selling stuff from my old set up. (If anyone is interested, I can post the info from my spreadsheet of part numbers and cost.) I was originally trying to make this a budget build sort of thing, but that takes a lot of disciple... not to mention risk. I probably wasted money by going into the motor and installing bearing, rings, lifters, oil pump, timing set. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So for now, im just taking a break and saving some money to buy stuff that will really help me reach my longer term goals. Im now questioning if i want to put good money at risk by building a 700hp stroker out of the stock block. I would feel a lot better if it was in a SHP block. Its also gonna need some decent heads. So im just looking for deals on stuff like that for the time being.
 
I just came across this thread and skimmed threw it , from what I have seen you have done a fantastic job of making it clean and simple, don't let the engine failure take you out of the game .
Ya, cars/hot rods, are always trial and error and a lot of BS , but nothing anywhere as good was produced sitting watching others do it so we pay the price of admission to make it happen... you have an awesome car there .
If I am understanding it correctly you are thinking of a stroker and still only want in the 700hp range, if that is the case and money is an issue,I would suggest drop the stroker, its not really needed , a half decent machined 351W with a good set of rods along with using a half decent set of aftermarket 202 heads will make and hold 700hp no problem , you should be able to do this with under 20lbs of boost if your turbo and camshaft and intercooler is sized correctly .
If the stars become aligned I may be resurrecting my twin turbo 351W project in the very near future, it would be good to see more of these types of builds with the Thunderbird MN12 chassis out there .

Dave.

Thanks for the compliments and encouragement Dave,

I did finally figure out what caused the bearing failure. I dont think i mentioned it, but when i took everything apart the first time, I replaced the oil galley press in plugs with threaded NPT plugs. I went back and double checked these plugs after being pushed by some folks to figure out what happened. One of the plugs was too long and partially blocked the feed to that galley. I was so focused on making sure that plug didnt interfere with the cam retainer plate that I didnt check the other side of the plug to see if it was too deep. That led to oil starvation and the bearing failure.

I dont think you are wrong with your assessment of the 351 and power levels... However there is a bigger motor in the works already. Not because it is the only way to get the goal, but its more that I just want to do it that way. It is not going to be cheap, but it wont be significantly more money that I spent to build the 4.2l mpx motor... but it will be over 2x the power output. Im not going to give too much away yet, but the project is far from over! Im knee deep in trying to make some important decisions on the next part of the project... so I hope you guys stay tuned.
 
Ya, its the small misses that cause the big problems, I should have mentioned a friend had a 460 stroker Ford in his Fox Mustang years ago , lots of money in the engine , built by the local " god$ of engine building " [ being sarcastic here ] .. it kept blowing out the main bearings in a very short time , had it back to them a few times to re build it .. finally he took it on himself to try to figure it out .. turns out it was die grinding stone chips in the oil passages that were not cleaned out properly in the first place .
If you get an aftermarket block and crank you should be able to breeze to a thousand hp with a big enough turbo no problem .
What engine management are you running on this set up ? .. I ran the Accell DFI unit on my first SBF twin in the early 90s on the 87 Turbo Coupe and have the same for the SC 5.8 twin project , it was ok back then, but I am sure not as easy to tune as some of the newer stuff , I can't remember what Wayne Ing ran in his Single turbo 5.8 but I am pretty sure it had wide band on it .
His car was crazy heavy with the sound system etc , but still performed well .
Keep at it , looking forward to seeing this creation come to life .
Dave



Thanks for the compliments and encouragement Dave,

I did finally figure out what caused the bearing failure. I dont think i mentioned it, but when i took everything apart the first time, I replaced the oil galley press in plugs with threaded NPT plugs. I went back and double checked these plugs after being pushed by some folks to figure out what happened. One of the plugs was too long and partially blocked the feed to that galley. I was so focused on making sure that plug didnt interfere with the cam retainer plate that I didnt check the other side of the plug to see if it was too deep. That led to oil starvation and the bearing failure.

I dont think you are wrong with your assessment of the 351 and power levels... However there is a bigger motor in the works already. Not because it is the only way to get the goal, but its more that I just want to do it that way. It is not going to be cheap, but it wont be significantly more money that I spent to build the 4.2l mpx motor... but it will be over 2x the power output. Im not going to give too much away yet, but the project is far from over! Im knee deep in trying to make some important decisions on the next part of the project... so I hope you guys stay tuned.
 
Its been a tough week. We had to say goodbye to our 18.5 year old cat this week, which was really hard on me and the wife. Now im fighting off a cold, which left me worthless for a day and a half. But, I did manage to get one thing done this weekend and that is wiring up the EEC relay. There are a few wiring changes that need to be done to make the swap happen, and this is probably the biggest one. Im not going to post too much about the specifics here, as Dave Dalke (SCUinc) has documented this pretty well and copyrighted the information. I will say that for any non-paying members that read this thread, there is a great resource of wiring diagrams available on the members only portion of the site... way better schematics than the EVTM. I did some double checking and tracing of the schematic to make sure I understood what was going on. The SC uses the IRCM to power the EEC, and the 5.0 uses a relay in the main power distribution box. So I wired up a 40 amp relay using the wiring diagrams and DD's documentation and hid the relay in the power distribution box. I swapped out a connector on the 5.0 harness and and all that is left is to re-wrap the harness in electrical tape.

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Derek, you happen to remember where that information is at that you talk about, i am a member.
 
Derek, you happen to remember where that information is at that you talk about, i am a member.

I think there is a link to them on the "index page" but I dont remember for sure or not (I'm not a paying member right now). Someone else who is a member and familiar with them could chime in. They are very useful, Ive been using mine a lot lately cleaning up unused connectors and what not.

I have not posted in a while, I figured most folks have seen my junk on facebook. Hopefully get this new build started up in the next month. The 427 is built, the twins are ready, I just got to finish up getting the battery moved to the trunk and some gauges hooked up. Getting close!
 
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