Terminator engine swap begins… and will take a while.

[01vert]

Some background. I bought an aluminum block, forged rotating assembly 4v over a couple years ago with the intent on swapping out my stock but procharged 01 cobra motor. Since then I sold off the 99/01 cobra KB 2.1 kit that came with that motor and, for now, will be going with a Steig ported Eaton with ported BBK throttle body and liquid cooled snout instead.
I wanted to document the swap / Eaton conversion as I am hoping this motivates me to keep working on it as I am way overdue on this project.

Parts so far include the Steig ported Eaton, a 6lb lower kit, a BA3000 MAF. JLT cold air intake, new gaskets, anll new
cooling hoses and misc fasteners. Motor is a 99 cobra motor that has aftermarket cams as well as forged, look to be 8.5 to 1 pistons, and forged rods.

Plan now begins with front bumper cover removal to start the process of removing the procharger kit

Currrent motor:

Parts and the new motor after removing th KB kit

To be continued

 

[01vert]

Removed the front bumper and all of the piping for the procharger and the intercooler. Car would still run like this as the MAF was a blow through and still in place.


Bumper coming off is relatively easy but the two studs on either side of the bumper are the worst part unless you have long skinny arms. The car being lowered certainly didn’t help and blower piping on the passenger side made that side more difficult.

Next was the foam and metal bumper support. When I installed the procharger a few years ago I cut away part of both to give the intercooler a better shot at fresh air.

You can see the cut on the metal support here. Strange part was when I originally cut it the support started to distort and you can see where I had to hammer it relatively flat again. This was covered by the styrofoam cover so I didn’t care about repainting it.

Pipes came off and here you can also see I had to cut the mounting pads for the blower piping to fit properly. Plan is now to use a tubular bumper support I already bought

Here is all the piping after removal.

Next up is to drain the coolant and start on removing the blower and the coolant crossover.

Not sure if I am going to be selling the procharger kit and / or the original motor which has 42k and only 12k on the short block. I may keep them and see what project they could go into. Won’t have to worry about that till spring is my guess as I have no way of removing the engine in my garage as it’s WAY to small to do any work inside it during the winter.

Thanks for looking.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

That bumper stuff is why mine now uses quick latches

 

[01vert]

Small update. Removed the procharger and bracket as well as some of the timing cover procharger specific parts.

VMP blow through MAF was removed as well as the adapter to run a slot MAF. Everything I removed is now in bins and I have bagged and labeled the small parts and bolts etc. Not a fan of the time needed for labeling all the electrical and vacuum lines but it’s really needed. Only issue is I will be looking for a blown fuse as when I disconnected the hot wire on the alternator it hit the case for a second, grounding it out.

Next weekend nothing will get done as I am going down to Imports vs Domestics in Maryland to watch some records get broken.

 

[01yellercobra]

You didn't disconnect the battery before disconnecting the alternator?

 

[01vert]

You didn't disconnect the battery before disconnecting the alternator?

Like a dummy, no. Battery was on a tender and I wasn’t expecting to remove the plug and hot wire. Zoned out while pulling stuff and kept going.

 

[01yellercobra]

We've all been there. The sparks wake us up.

 

[01vert]

Minor update today. Drained the coolant and removed the On3 coolant crossover delete and disconnected the lower hose which is a 2001 GT hose so it deletes the thermostat housing from the stock lower hose package but still connects properly. On3 crossover kit has the thermostat in the housing on top. Just like every other coolant crossover delete kit has. Originally I added a tee to the upper line and a cap so I could burp the system. You can see it here.

A better looking solution is to run the lines below the supercharger and to the far side of the motor, coming from below to hide them somewhat, like this pic from a different car:

Now back to the work. Drained about two gallons of coolant and then learned the lesson the same way I did when installing the procharger. If you use the drain in the factory radiator you will eventually have some dribble out the holes along the radiator support as it will get onto it and spread lengthwise along it. No big deal if you’re waiting for it with some rags.

I also test fitted a tubular bumper support bar I bought a while ago to check on what I will need for mounting the heat exchanger:

Bar needs a bit of tweaking as one mounting hole is slightly off. Looks like the bracket on one side is slightly tilted but flush with the actual bumper mount on the car.

Also wanted to mention I had removed the factory power steering cooler for the procharger intercooler and added a small cooler to the drivers side core support vertical. It gets fresh air from the hole in the bumper next to the fog light

After getting that all done I ended up with some stuff out of the way up top. Had to call it quits at this point. Next up is removing the power steering bracket and getting the reservoir out of the way.

Thanks for looking.

 

[52merc]

We're all still watching.

 

[01vert]

Nothing got done this past weekend as I was busy prepping for thanksgiving so I thought I would go over where the swap idea came from, some of the parts and goals as well as what I expect to encounter or have to do for the swap. I have owned my 01 since spring of 04 and it currently has a procharger P1SC HO kit, 60lb injectors and a DW300 pump making 451hp. Car has 43k on it. It’s tuned by Pete at Performance Dyno who is now retired from tuning unfortunately.

First, a few years ago I bought a motor with a KB blower on it, complete from a guy who was swapping out to a coyote. Motor started life as a 99 Cobra motor and then had forged pistons and rods installed as well as cams. The motor has under 1500 miles as it was in a fast back mustang show car and rarely driven.

I was told they were bullet supercharger cams iirc and I confirmed they are aftermarket cams by pulling the valve covers. Numbers are supposed to be under the cam gears and I am not pulling the chains and gears so the mystery will continue. A full metco idler kit came with the Eaton swap as well.

I then decided to drop the small KB kit that uses the 01 Cobra front cover and a single belt and convert the motor to a proper Eaton kit with a dedicated drive belt and the ability to upgrade to a bigger blower at some point. This, and project creep, delayed me quite a bit and I acquired a full Eaton swap and then purchased separately a Steg ported Eaton and a Fore hat with supercar pumps set into it in a returnless configuration. A 6lb metco lower was also bought to try and spin the blower without worrying about belt slip. I have a metco 2.8 pulley on the Eaton but plan on going to a 3.0 possibly or just run torco all the time. A BA300 MAF and a JLT cold air kit were also purchased. New gaskets for the front cover, valve covers, intake, coolant hoses, etc were also sourced as well as new ford exhaust gaskets, studs and nuts to go with my existing JLT full length headers. I have refurbed a bunch of parts by either sandblasting and powder coating or painting

I will be keeping my 3650 as I really don’t have the money for a T56 conversion. For now the stock 3650 along with my Spec 2+ light pedal fell clutch will be used with the plan to sort everything out and then start saving for upgrades in that area afterwards.
I knew at this point if I was going to pull and swap the motor myself as money has gotten tighter. Removing it from the bottom with the k member is the plan. A two ton engine crane will be used on the body and a couple dollys from Harbor Freight will be used for getting the K member and motor out from underneath. I will also be raising the rear once the k member is on the ground unattached.

This summer flew by as I took a new job and by the time fall rolled around I knew I ran out of time for a driveway swap over a weekend (seemed like a tall order as I will be doing a lot of this solo) seemed like a losing proposition so the plan is to get it fully prepped for the actual swap at the beginning of the spring. I started this thread to kinda guilt myself into moving forward every weekend as I am a huge procrastinator and without some motivation I would be looking a next fall with little done.

Other things to get done is to install a raptor shift light and to relocate my Aeroforce Interceptor gauges currently sitting in my middle vents.

Thanks for coming along.