'69 6cyl Coupe to '69 5.0/T5 GT Clone

[69redcoupe 11]

Figured I would start a thread to keep all of my pics and info organized. I will add more to this later, but for now I put up the pics from this weekends progress. I had NO idea it was going to take this much elbow grease and time just to do quick (lol) engine bay clean up before the the engine goes in

=====Engine Build==========

Originally this was a 200ci 6cyl with 3 speed stick. As much as I wanted in my heart to keep it original, 115hp (per '69 standards) and 3 gears would not be much fun. I opted for a 5.0 out of a '98 Explorer. There were two major factors behind this, 1. It was free 2. It has the GT40P heads. Since this car is a "throw it together and go" project, the engine was not torn down.

 

GT40P Heads - These heads were used on the late nineties, early two thousands 5.0 Explorers. The good is that they have THE best flow of any ford iron heads for the 5.0, and provide better quench for a more efficient burn. These are not screamer heads, they are designed for great low end grunt, and good high end flow. The only downside is that due to the odd spark plug angle, your header options will be EXTREMELY limited. The heads can be identified by the 4 bars on the rear of the head, and the nearly 90 degree spark plug angle.

 

In stock form this engine makes 215hp. To accentuate this I added:

 

1. Edlebrock Performer RPM intake - According to Edlebrock, you cannot use a Performer 289 intake, as it will not match up properly to the larger ports on the GT40P heads

2. Edlebrock 3722 Rollin Thunder Performer Plus Cam - This cam should mate well with the intake and GT40P heads. With a 498 lift, it will be a little lumpy at idle (evil grin), but still have a stout bottom end, and pull strong up into the mid 5K rpm range

 

(more details later)

=====Engine Bay painting====

 

Even thought this was supposed to be a "slapped" together build, I couldn't bring myself to put an engine in without cleaning up the engine bay. Unfortunately I didn't do any before pics (it's a theme with me...), but here are some 3/4 done pics. I used a "fine" wire wheel on an air drill (one cup, one wheel actually), followed up with a lot wiping, then rustoleum "Painter's Touch" semi-gloss black. Made a HUGE difference, and it was WELL worth the time (About 8 hours to get 3/4 done, will be about 11 hours total)

 

I will add more pics later of other parts of the project, and tips I can offer from what I have done.

 

Stay Tuned

 

-Shane

Edited November 15, 2010 by 69redcoupe
forgot "img" tags

[stangme428 33]

nice... gonna be a fun build!!:tongue_smilie:

[69redcoupe 11]

It's been fun so far. It really was supposed to be a slap and go job, but I keep finding myself doing a lot more than that. Over $200 went into powder coating on the engine alone...

 

-Shane

[70mstang 11]

Yep ..it happens .. scope creep .. a few years ago I started on mine thinking I just wanted to slap it together and run it to death .. then the more I worked on it the more I loved it and am now almost done with a 4 year full resto