Freak's Build Project "Snake Eyes" 86 GT Vert

[Freakingstang]

This is my 47K mile Georgia car that I've owned for 6 years. It was set up with a carb'd motor and I bought it as a CLEAN roller when I found rot on my 89 notch.

Car features full M2300K cobra brake kit, Genuine R58 95 cobra wheels, 8 point cage and lots of wieght reduction. It has a custom cloth top that is the same material as the 03/04 cobras. It has full in dash AutoMeter Sport comp speedo,tach, gauges.

My goal for this car is 550-600 RWHP and to run consistent mid 10's on 17" Mickey Thompson Drag radials. It will have lots of good pushrod parts and a little blower..Forged stroker motor, TEA ported heads, Anderson Blower cam, 1 3/4 longtubes, Vortech V1 S-trim with an Si impeller (50 cfm less than a T trim), 3550 trans that has an upgraded 26 spline input and TKO500 gearset, 3.73 31 spline 8.8, and a few "other" parts...

Here goes....


Motor is an alternative Auto built 342 Forged Stroker with Ford Sportsman B50 block (2 bolt). I bought the motor with less than 800 miles on it, but it had been sitting on had some very slight surface rust in the intake galley. I tore it down and cleaned it up...

Gave her a coat of POR15 Ford Blue..

THis is how low of a milelage motor it was...still had the magic marker #'s on the pistons from when it was balanced.....

TEA CNC ported Twisted Wedges:

Here is a custom explorer intake I have worked on, on and off for about 4 years. Freak calls it the EXPLODER JR intake. I have a holley systemax that I will also try as a backup and see which one works better. I have a ton of time invested in the lower intake and my reasoning for it is of all the EFI 5 liter intakes, the GT40 series intake always had the highest torque numbers under the curve but ran out of steam about 5200 RPM and the #1 & #5 cylinders would run lean from lack of equal air/fuel distribution, hoping my EXPLODER JR will be the "best of both worlds". And maybe I have a personal reason because everyone says you can't make big power with a GT40 intake...

Stock, uncut GT-40 lower on top for comparison

Stock Cobra lower #5 runner for comparison:

This is the upper that I've cut 3" of runner length out of and opened up quite a bit
the throat opening pic is compared to an Edelbrock Performer RPM on top

I cut the upper and took 3" of runner length out of it and ported the upper pretty extensively:

Edelbrock Performer RPM on left for comparison:

Got the car out of storage the other day....backed it in the garage at my fathers. My goal is to have the car done for Mustang Week in July

I feel like Paul Walker from the Fast and The Furious with the red truck full of parts from storage...lol

I have a couple seat options for the car...I have a set of FloFits with mesh headrests in grey. I love the seats, but they are heavy as hell. I also have the lightweight Corbeau Forza seats in black. The "dove grey" carpet is hideous and will be getting changed to black. The door bars need cut out and I'm going to weld in new ones so I can bolt any seat back in, in the stock location. The bars are too low and too far towards the inside of the car not allowin the stock seat mounts to be used.

 

[Freakingstang]

Got the rear end tore down last night to have the tubes straightened and welded over at Big Dog Fabrication. After it's welded it will head over to Northeast coatings for a little powder coat.

Sn-95 8.8 with 3.73's 31 spline axles with C clip eliminators and I'll throw a girdle on it.

Taking the rubber housing bushings out so the new UPR spherical bushings can be installed after powdercoat

All tore down, cleaned up and ready to weld....

Got the rear end to a buddy of mine, Big Dog fabrication this week...I'm a certified mig welder, but I know I'm in over my head welding cast iron to regular steel.....

here is "Crazy Coop" setting up his jig...

Just like all 8.8's this one isn't square....

The driver side tube was damaged. If you are familiar with an 8.8 and have had the axles out, you'll notice that there should be a long lip that holds the bearing and seal inside the axle tube in this pic These "lips" have to be cut down in order for the C clip eliminators to work. The C clip eliminator uses an aluminum housing and the new axle bearing is pressed on so if axle failure occurs the remains of the axle, wheel and brake assy doesn't come out...

It appears this axle tube was either dropped, or in an accident because the small area that remains from the factory bearing lip has been smashed and is cracked on both sides of the tube. Coop didn't feel comfortable running this as it was because of the power level I am anticipating, I'll be right around the max power in his opinion with the C clip eliminators. I could have chose to do a big 9" bearing ends, but I didn't want to fab up new rear brakes (sticking with the M2300k cobra brakes). Through a couple good friends, I found a new housing and will get it dropped off at Coops hopefully tonight. Thanks to my buddies Lew and Dave for the fast response to the Freaks needs!

So I got the new housing and had to pull the bearings out. Rented a slide hammer and blind hole attachment from VatoZone.... First side came out great....

The other side became a problem when the race broke....

I've used this old timer trick quite a few times.... Weld the inside of the race. The trick it to weld it somewhat cool so you dont burn through the race and weld it to the axle tube.... Once it cools, (let it cool on its own, dont throw water on it) it will literally fall out...

once I got the bearings out, I got the new housing over to Coops again...

This one is a little straighter!!!!

While its over at Coops getting welded up, i'm going to work on cutting the dinky subframe connectors off and i'll fab up my own "freakin" connectors, weld the torque boxes up and adding a TQ box reinforincing kit. Pics of that will follow soon

 

[skratpiece]

Damn man. Nice 4 Eye. Nice build. That motor should wind up and ring out pretty nicely. My buddy has most of the same stuff except he's still on a windsor block, Vortech Trick Flow Twisted Wedge, Anderson Blower Cam, Anderson Power Pipe, Trick Flow Intake. 487 RWHP T TOP one of a kind. Good luck.

 

[phil'snotch]

bump

 

[Freakingstang]

Did some more work on the lower intake today while the boss was gone.... My intake is on the bottom and the Holley systemax that has been ported on top... I was pretty happy with what I saw... Pics are the "bad #1 & #5" runners. These are the downfall of any five liter based intake...

 

[Freakingstang]

Well I got the rearend back from Big Dog fabrication. Wanted to double check everything before powdercoat...

It seems I made an error... I had a serious brain fart and thought the spring mounted forward on the control arm....

So I started fabbing up some brackets to come off the diff. Started with a cardboard template....

That was a piece of 1/4" scrap.... Now because of the bends in the cast iron, I used my old junk housing as a forming tool for the diff brackets

 

[Freakingstang]

I sent the new Pics to Coop over at big dog fabrication... He said the parallel support bar would only work on compression and extension... Said it needed to be triangulated. So....

Made another mount that will get welded on the top of the axle tubeand side of the quad shock mount... Think we are finally good to go now. Lol.

 

[Terminator-Fox]

God I remember years back seeing the pics of that car with the R58 Cobra R's and it convinced me to go 5-lug and order those wheels for my Fox. Cool project, I like that vert a lot!

 

[stangin']

nice to see another fox vert doing it big.