1988 5.0 Coupe to 2003 Cobra Conversion Info Site/Blog
This site has no bells and whistles. It is simply for those who want detailed info on how to swap a 5.0 Mustang drivetrain for a 4.6 modular drivetrain. As a bonus, I will also be doing a full interior swap as well. Let's get started, shall we?
About me: I am 28 years old and have already built 4 FX bodied Mustangs in various setups. Until now, all of the power setups have done were based around the 351 Windsor Engine, both in carbureted and fuel injected iterations.
This is my first Mod Swap and my 5th FX Mustang.
I want to start off with some basic advice that most know, but some need to learn.
1. Pre-Plan your entire project before you start it. Research parts, problems, and cost to ascertain the feasability of your project. Too many times people jump into a project and then can't finish it because they run out of money. Also research time needed to do the required work and plan on it taking a lot more time then you think it will. Sure, dropping a Mustang rearend should only take maybe a 1/2 hour, but you know the bushings might be seized and you may have to carefully torch them off.
2. Add 20% to your estimated budget. You never know what expenses will pop up along the way. My budget to finish the car at this point in time is $14,000, so I will add $2,800 to that to be safe. (Don't get excited, 14k is only to finish the car. You will see how much I have into it already in my budget section). All prices on this page are in Canadian funds. You can do a currency conversion if you want to know the USD value.
3. Keep your workspace organized. Nothing is more maddening or time consuming than not being able to find a wrench or needed tool because everything is strrewn all over the place.
4. Keep every nut, bolt, screw, clip and whatever else you come across bagged and tagged. Example, for this project I will have 2 areas reserved for nuts and bolts for the 5.0 and nuts and bolts for the 4.6. I will group and baggy them and I will make a label to insert into the baggy. Do not write on the baggy because the writing wears off. KEEP EVERYTHING, even if you are not planning on reusing them. DO NOT MIX BOLTS, ie, don't throw them all in one box and hope you remember what is what.
5. If your 5.0 is a rotted out turd, don't do this swap to it. Find a better shell.
6. For this particular project, I HIGHLY recommend finding a complete car or at least somehting that is mostly complete. Searching for parts can be a nightmare.
7. Try to sell parts you are not going to use to recoup cost. You would be amazed at how much maney this can offset for your project. I will also be noting that as I go along.
The Swap
Ok, here we go. It is currently October 4/ 2006. The actual work is not going to start until Friday, but here is what has happened so far.
I bought my project car, a 1988 Mustang Coupe in early September for $5500. It is a very clean car. Floors, frame, torque boxes are all perfect. The body has some scabbies, but that is neither here nor there since the vehicle will be getting painted anyway. Here is a picture of the car:
So far total cost of project is...$5500.
Next I bought my donor car that will be getting stripped for parts. It is a 2003 Mustang Cobra that was wrecked into a pole during some racing. The shell is screwed but all of the imprtant stuff is still there. Cost of Cobra was $17,490 including 6% tax. This car has 30k miles on it and a lot of aftermarket goodies (remember when I talked about recouping costs?).
Now you are thinking: Woah...money. Well, yes money. You could buy this stuff all seperately and still be into it for this much. This was a fixable car. I was quoted $10,000 to fix it, which would almost put it in the low range of what a Cobra goes for up here. The cheapest non wrecked car I found was about $33,000.
So now, before 1 bolt is turned, I am into this car for $22,990. At this point you should be able to tell if this is the type of project you would like to get into. I figure I will have another $8000 into it for parts before it is done and before I get it custom painted.
Here are a couple of Cobra pics:
To be used from Cobra:
S/C'd Engine 6 Speed Transmission Interior (As much as possible) All Electrical (And I mean ALL, no splicing here) Fuel Tank and Pumps Hydraboost brake system with all disk brakes IRS (Haven't decided for sure yet) Cooling system Rims and Tires (One rim and tire needs to be replaced)
That is it for today. Most likely I won't update until Oct. 7/06 unless anyhting significant happens.
Oct. 8/06
I was supposed to start working on the 1988 Coupe on Friday, but was delayed until Saturday. What I can tell you now is that the car is in the process of being stripped out. I have the engine as well as most under hood components removed. I also have the interior mostly removed. I will go a little bit into the stripping process now, but it will not be as detailed as the actual build of the car.
Mostly this is for people who have never taken apart a FX Mustang before. I will try to list everything that needs to be unhooked before the engine is free to be lifted from the engine bay.
Under car:
Remove Exhaust from the headers back. The headers can be left on the engine.
Unbolt driveshaft from rearend and remove from transmission. Watch for tranny fluid in the yoke and trans.
Remove Transmision cross member and mount. Unless your engine mounts are really dicked, they should hold the motor from flopping backwards.
Remove wiring and speedo cable from transmission.
Undo clutch cable from bellhousing. It is located under a cover on the drivers side of the car on a stock setup.
You can take the wiring off of the starter under here, but it is easier to remove it at the solenoid.
Inside car:
Remove shifter. You will have to disassemble the console a little bit and remove the shifter boot to get at it.
Engine bay:
Remove radiator, fan, and shroud. Watch for antifreeze spillage.
Remove airbox and hose from throttle body and skirt.
Unplug distributer and alternator wiring as well as the wiring located on the back of the plenum.
Disconnect throttle cable from underneath the throttle body.
Disconnect power steering pump lines. Watch for spillage.
Remove coil wire from distributor.
Disconnect fuel lines. I suggest disconnecting them from the connectors that are close to the oil pan as it can all come out together.
Disconnect engine ground on back of motor.
Disconnect heater core hoses from the firewall. Watch for spillage.
Disconnect vacuum lines.
Disconnect Battery cables.
CONNECT ENGINE HOIST TO ENGINE AND JACK IT UNTIL THE CHAIN IS JUST ABOUT TAUGHT. This is important or you may have an unfortunate accident.
Remove bolts from engine mounts.
Now, barring we haven't forgotten to disconnect anything, the motor and transmission should be floating. The best way to take these things out is motor and trans together. Thorugh careful planning and hoist work, it is done fairly easily and negates the need to remove the trans from the engine.
Hopefully you have remembered to bag and tag all of your bolts, nuts, and whatever else you may have.
You will see that I removed the front clip from the car. This is mostly for painting purposes. You may not have the same plans I do and this may not be necessary.
Next is removal of the interior. This is only if you are doing an interior swap. I can't comment on how you would wire this set up into a 5.0 harness because I am switching the entire Cobra harness into the car. If you are planning an interior swap, this is for you.
Everything is pretty basic when it comes to the panels in the car. Basically it is all screws and clips of various shapes and sizes. It is not until the dash hat things become a bit more involved.
I suggest removing the seats first and leaving the carpet in until last as to make things more comfortable for this job.
Everything in the interior is like lego. Often you will have to remove some pieces first in order to get to screws for others. This is especially true for the console and dash. If something is not coming up easily, do not force it. the plastic can be brittle and crack or break.
Some pieces will be attached to wiring. Make sure you remove those first before yanking anything out.
Depending on your model of car, Coupe, LX or GT, the back seats will remove differently. GT seats require unbolting as they are a split back, but coupe and LX seats basically pop out of place.
The dash needs to be removed in steps. The glove compartement, guage cluster and housing, main dash all need to be removed serperatley as they all hide screws that need to come out. Even when you think there is nothing holding onto the dash, if it is stuck in place, check.
Next I removed the heater box and core. This is attached inside and outside the car. There are 3 nuts in the engine bay that hold onto the heater core, and a few screws that hold it from the inside. Once it is ready to be pulled out, watch for coolant spillage. It is a good idea to pull the carpet back from the area if you are planning on reusing it.
Once that is out, the EEC and engine harness plug is easily accessable. Unplug and remove EEC now. Disconnect all grounds from inside the car and unplug any connecters holding on to the EEC harness. From here, you can pop the grommit off teh forewall and feed the harness from inside the car into the engine bay. There is still half of a harness to remove, but I will get to that once I get it out of the car.
Remove the carpet. Now is a good time to check the condition of your floor pans and whether or not you need to do some work there. My pans are in good shap so I will just be reconditioning and sealing them. I will cover that when I do that part of the car.
This picture is about 3/4 done of pulling the interior. It looks scary, but it isn't that bad.
Now I am plugging away at the under hood stuff like removing the coil, solenoid, wiring etc. This stuff is pretty basic and I don;t need to go into detail with it. Just remember to label and bag all screws, nuts and clips.
Because the car has been oil sprayed its whole life, I have to degrease everything. This is where I am at the moment. Here is a pic of the engine bay so far. I have a lot of the grease off, but there is still some of it clinging on. I am using a pressure washer and Gunk brand engine degreaser for the job.
That is it for today. I will update again in a couple of days or if something significant happens.
Time in so far:
2 People are working on this car.
6.5 hours each on Saturday Oct. 7 (13 man hours) 4 Hours each on Sunday Oct. 8 (8 man hours)
This brings me to an important point. If you send this type of job to a shop, Labour will KILL you. At $60 an hour, you can do the math. This is still early on into the work. Also keep in mind that I have ripped 4 of these cars down and know all of the problems that you may encounter during the project not to mention I know what steps to take to make the work go faster. I highly recommend you do the work yourself or with a buddy or family member in the know when it comes to this stuff. Take your time. Slower is faster in the end if you are not experienced.
Oct. 10/06
Just a small update for today. Basically all that has happened over the last day or so is further removal of wiring and odds and ends.
I removed and gutted the decklid, removed the wiring, took off the vacuum system and horns, removed the rear brakelight and pad etc. There are no pics today as nothing major really happened.
A note on wiring. The fox Mustang harness is 4 pieces. The engine bay harness disconnects from the ECM, then there is the headlight harness. The 3rd harness is what you find tucked under the dash and then the last harness encompasses the fuel pump and tail lights and whatever else is hooked up back there.
When you are removing wiring, do not be Mr. Hack and Slash. Nothing should be sliced as everything has a plug or ground screw that will free it up when removed. While I am going to try to use the entire Cobra harness, I may have to use some of the fox harness for lights and such. Itr would really suck if I had to resplice everything together again if I had just hacked stuff out.
Total: 18 hours in so far (2 people working) Oct. 11/06
Again not much to tell, but I promised myself to update everytime work has been done. The removal of piddly stuff is finished and the interior also has everything removed now.
I stripped the rear bumber cover, quarter windows, brake booster and master, as well as everything else in my way.
Remember when I said budget 20% more than you planned for? Well it has come in handy tonight. Even though the car is very solid, I am going to replace the driver's side floor pan on account that there is a small pinhole in it where your feet sit when driving. Really it could be patched, but I want this car to be as nice underneath and inside as it is going to be outside.
Tomorrow I begin the process of sandblasting surface rust out of the engine bay. After that I am going to weld the factory skirt holes up and smooth the whole thing out.
A couple of pics to tide you over. First one os of the totally gutted interior and the second is the gutted engine bay.
Hours:
18 hours so far + 4 hours today for a total of 22 hours in between 2 people.
That is all for now. See you in a couple days. Also, next update will start on a different page before this one gets out of hand.
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