06 Mustang build

BigBlockRanger wrote:Man, I had high hopes that those would be close to working.

I was too. If they will take these back I think I’m just going to wait out having a set built. But I believe I have talked myself into putting a tubular K member in so they have more room to work with. I’ve looked at the hooker BBc swap headers and I’m am pretty sure they are the same as the dynatech I have so I don’t think it’s worth trying them.

The big block gods may have smiled on me today. I should have a NOS set of hooker foxbody headers this weekend!

A set of 6224 Hooker foxbody headers. These should make things a lot easier once I get the new K member in.

Well finally got all the parts and had some time to start putting it back together.  I bought an AJE tubular K member, and their motor mounts. I swapped the rack onto it and started bolting it in and the spent a good 45 minutes trying to put the motor mount on the wrong side and wondering why the bolt holes weren't lining up.  After I got that straightened out and everything bolted down it ended up moving the motor forward 1" maybe a little more, then I started on the headers.  The drivers side is hitting the control arm mount and the passenger side is close but the collector is hitting the floor I have a 3.5' V band so I think I'm going to cut the 3 bolt flange off and weld the V band on. Next time I get a chance to go work on it I am going to try taking the motor mounts and dropping the engine down and back where it was and see how the headers fit.  If I can get the fit close I will build new mounts and go from there. I actually have a bolt in each side holding the header to the head so they are pretty close to fitting just going to have to do a little work.  

WE HAVE HEADERS!!!!!  I decided that the first thing I would do today was to remove the AJE motor mounts and move the engine back where I had it originally.  I took them off and pulled the engine back and hooked the trans crossmember back up and started working on putting the headers on.  I started on the passenger side and it was simple 15 minute as everything hooked up pretty easy, I may have to reroute my starter wires,  I'm not sure how much room they need since they are wrapped in heat shield but I can barley get my finger between them.  Then I moved to the drivers side, I removed the #6 & #8 tubes and the header went in easy, #6  went in and bolted up then I had to remove it to get the steering shaft back where it belongs and had to massage the tube to clear the steering shaft.  I pulled everything back out and went to the trouble tube #8.  I had 2 options either completely rework #8 and try rerouting it or notch the frame to clear the tube.  I had some pics that were sent to me where they had notched the frame then re worked it and decided to go that route.  I put the tube in and marked the frame and started cutting in & out 3 times to trim more out I got it to clear and pulled it out and started putting the puzzle back together, take the steering shaft loose and tubes out and piece it all back together in the car. Everything went in and cleared the steering shaft once hooked up! The shaft is pretty tight but I think it will be ok. if not I can clearance it a little more.  Now I have to build new motor mounts and get the frame boxed back in and that hurdle will be behind us.










I had previously worked on getting my pulleys on and lined ups while back and needed a 5/8" spacer for my crank pulley.  When your brother in law is a machinist you get a nice aluminum spacer built.  I got the balancer reinstalled and set the radiator in to make sure I had clearance.  I have right at 1/2" between the pulley and the fan motor.  

Mark Miller wrote:Isn't it nice when you make progress FYI not sure if you knew this but the 5.0 Mustang Crank Pulley bolts right onto a 460 harmonic balancer!!And my water pump pulley is also from a 5.0 Mustang with the water pump hole reamed out larger to fit 460 water pump!!

It will bolt to a factory balancer. This ATI uses 3 bolt instead of 4. And I needed to space it out 5/8 to line up with the water pump pulley.

The AJE mounts wouldn't work the way they came so I had to cut them apart and redo them. The drivers side basically had to slide forward 1" and the passenger side had to be slid forward and cut shorter. I got them all welded up and bolted back in place and set the engine down, I have between 1/4-3/8" clearance from the rack to oil pan so everything is good there.






Then I started on getting the headers done. I pulled the passenger side and added the O2 bung and cut the 3 bolt adapter off and went with a V band thinking it would give me a little more floor clearance. Gave everything a quick shot of stove paint and pulled the drivers side while it dried and put the O2 and v band on it. When I first put the passenger side on it was hitting where the trans mount bolts, I was hoping that the V band would clear but no such luck. So after I scratched all the paint back off putting them in and out so I could clearance the floorboard I got it where the v band would clear but I couldn't put my 3.5-3" adapter on without it hitting the trans cross member. I finally cut the front bolt boss off the cross member so everything would go in but there's still no way of getting more pipe on it. Looks like I will have to redo the trans crossmember and use steel so I can get it thinner in there. I really need a 3.5-3 or2.5 adapter that is offset to the bottom of the pipe then everything would clear I think. Once I got it bolted up I decided to quit. I actually will be able to work on it most of the day tomorrow so hopefully we have some good progress.

So today started with making sure the passenger side header was tight because I didn't think I got it tight enough last night, my shoulder torque was really low this morning it kept popping way before I needed to quit. After a couple times it straightened up and we got them all tight. Now to the drivers side, I had cut a notch in the frame to clear #8 so I had to get it patched up. I took a piece of 2.5" pipe and split it and made the hole fit it got it all welded back up I sprayed some paint over it after the pic when it cooled down. (I really wish I had learned how to make stuff look good. It'll work and I have no doubts in it but it could look better.)




I installed the drivers side header and got everything bolted up and was looking good, plenty of clearance steering shaft slid on (halfway) and we were ready to go. I then started putting the front control arms and struts off my factory k member to the AJE I just snugged everything because I'm replacing the hardware with grade 8 stuff tomorrow everything was going smooth until I tried to put the steering shaft the rest of the way on. Then the headers started laughing at me because I obviously had not taken them off enough times. the steering shaft would slide on till the bottom of the collar would get to where the bolt should be and stop. Hitting #6. I had this problem originally and had smashed the tube to get it to clear. Well somewhere along the line it decided to not clear any longer. I've had the headers off 2 more times trying to get them to clear with no such luck. I think I will pull the motor mounts again and see if it will clear then, if so I will be redoing them again.





It looks like there is going to be exhaust clearance issues on this side also. I'm going to get a couple pieces of pipe and see if I can make something that will clear.

Mark Miller wrote:Don't give up that Mustang of yours is altogether different than the Fox Body and SN95 Mustangs!!To bad no one made a 460 Swap header for that year Mustang then you would have been all set!!

I’m either too stubborn or too dumb to let it win.  I’ll get it figured out.