Mark's CenTex Budget-Plus Build

[ACDad]

Hello! I’m Mark, and I’m a bit late starting this thread. Longtime Lurker / First-Time Poster. I’ve had my kit for over a year now, delivered at the end of July 2023. I’ve been wanting to build this kit since before my wife and I were engaged (over 12 years ago!)

Now I’d like to take some time to post in a build thread.

My goal has been, from the start, a budget build, as that’s the only way I could get it approved :) . After a bunch of price comparisons and a few spreadsheets, I determined I would not save any money by going the donor route, nor the base-kit route. So after talking with Factory Five at length and going back-and-forth, I finally made the purchase 4/21/23.

I had watched the delivery times skyrocket during the pandemic, so I was confused/surprised when Factory Five called and said my kit would be completed on 7/22/23 and I needed to schedule transport!

Kelly @ Stewart Transport dropped it off 7/29/23, just over 3 months from order to my driveway. I was somewhat ready, as I had been preparing for this day for a while.

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I’m looking at the photo album I have of all the work I’ve done so far, and the delivery day photos are about halfway through.

Here’s some basic info about what I have in mind:
Full MK4 Roadster Kit
99’ Ford Explorer 302
T5 Transmission
Fox 8.8 Rear (3.55:1) with 3-Link
5-Lugs, 15" Wheels
Front (FFR) and Rear (North Racecars) Disc brakes
Carburetted
Koni Coilovers
Power Steering
No computers (I reserve the right to change my mind about this later, but this is a founding thought/goal haha)

I didn’t order wheels or seats as part of the kit. This kept cost down, but I also had not decided on wheels or seats.

This build thread will start off where I started off, with the engine. Not sure if it’s frowned on or not, let me know. I know there are plenty of threads on Mustang Corral on the venerable power plant, but this is the one going in my project, and maybe what I’ve done can help someone else.

[David Hodgkins]

Sounds like a solid build plan! These cars are so light there is still no doubt you will love the performance you end up with in a "basic" 302 build! I LOVE my 302-based build and I'm sure you'll love yours!

Congrats on pulling the trigger and getting started! We need progress pics!

:)

PS I assume you will go with something like a 600CFM Holley or similar? What do you have in mind?

[BUDFIVE]

Welcome ACDad to the Central Texas build crowd. Interesting that while I live in Horseshoe Bay I was in Austin today. I too started with an Explorer 5.0 (2000) so I could build a short deck roller cam 347. Anyway, enjoy!

[ACDad]

Thanks David and Budfive, I appreciate the warm welcome! I've had the Summit 500 CFM carb (M2008) on my list and in-and-out of my cart for the past few years. I almost bought it this weekend (I made a rough plan for the fuel system this weekend) when my neighbor handed me a Street Demon (625 CFM, #1900) that was holding down one of his shelves. The carb calcs say around 480 CFM would be good for what I'm doing, but I may end up trying this street demon first after I clean it up.

I'm aiming for a mild build, aiming to improve torque in the lower RPMs over stock.
To this end, I bought a TFS stage 1 cam and a Weiand stealth intake. New parts where it made sense, and spit-shine on the old ones.

I bought the engine from an auto dismantler southeast of Austin. I used car-part.com to find a suitable engine, and they pulled it and plopped it in my truck for me for about 450 bones.

This one came out of a 1999 Ford Explorer, Eddie Bauer edition, and had racked up 217,000 miles.

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I appreciate the part where I didn't have to dig this thing out of a vehicle. With the help of a few friends, we *slid* this onto an engine stand.

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[ACDad]

Hardest part of teardown was the water pump. I ended up cutting into the water pump first and trying to get pb-blaster into the threads, but that didn't work. Several cycles with the propane torch didn't do it either. I finally cut the timing chain cover around the bolts to free it, then worked on extracting the bolts.

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With that out of the way, the engine looked okay on the inside. I checked the crank journals, and the cylinder bores. No ridge to speak of, and the factory cross-hatch was still visible.

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Then I ran taps through all the threads before I sent the stuff off to the machine shop, where I asked them to hot tank everything (block, heads, crank, pistons, balancer) and magna-flux the block, heads, and crank.
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[bobl]

Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the forum. Looks like you've done your research. There are quite a few FFR owners in the Austin area, so reach out if there is anything you need.

Bob

[ACDad]

When I got the parts back from the shop, I got them ready for paint.

The block was wire brushed, then blasted with a pressure washer. I installed the new core plugs, slapped the old oil pan on, and applied 3 coats of ford blue.

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The heads got a bit different treatment. I soaked them in vinegar and applied judicious wire brush to them. Then taped and painted.

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[Sarcasticshrub]

I feel ya on the budget build. Sticking pretty close to it myself (who am I kidding...).

Depending on the speed of your build, keep in mind that the holidays are right around the corner. Black Friday, end of year, and other sales will be popping up. I picked up one vendor's EFI system at 30% off and a set of 17" rims from FFR last year during a Black Friday sale. Patience can be a budget's friend.

I'll be eagerly following your build. Keep us posted!

[StangRacer]

I just received my complete kit on 10/4 and am currently doing the same, building my engine first. I had always planned on a small block and was fortunate that I had enough parts laying around to build the majority of the engine. The best block I had needed to go +.030 so I dropped it off with my machinist on August 12. I was told it would be ready the next weekend. My plan was to have the engine ready to go when my kit arrived. Unfortunately, the CNC went down and my machinist had some difficulty getting the replacement part... long story short, I picked up the block last weekend. I have the short block together but am having some difficulty with the FEAD. My goal for the build is to replicate a 1967 AC 289 Sports. I am trying to replicate a 1967 289 hi po with a v-belt. As you are aware, the FFR needs a driver's side inlet water pump... Ford didn't start putting driver side inlet water pumps on passenger cars until around mid-1969. I think Ford had about 600 different combinations of water pumps, timing covers, and alternator brackets... trying to get it all to fit is making me have a fit!!! Thankfully, a buddy of mine with a 68 GT 350 came over tonight and we seem to have figured it out after looking at his set up. But the heads I have are missing the thermactor sleeves so there is no way to bolt everything together to make sure it will work. Unfortunately, the thermactor sleeves will not be delivered until between 10/28 and 10/31. So, that portion of the project is on hold until then... once the thermactor sleeves arrive I can get everything installed on the front of the engine then measure for the spacers I will need, then make the spacers on the lathe...

You're probably wondering why not work on other portions of the project, right? I know that is what I would be asking... the reason being is the AC 289 Sports all had undercar exhaust. Right now, I have an empty block and heads with the bellhousing and transmission bolted up along with the headers sitting in the chassis. My rear end housing is currently being narrowed and is due back in a couple of weeks. Until I get the rear end back so I can bolt it in there is no way to fabricate the exhaust system with knowing how it needs to be routed. I should have sent the rear end housing out to be narrowed first but one thing led to another I never go around to it...

Anyway, sorry for the novel as to being in the same boat as far as building the engine first...

Couple of quick things... don't use regular taps to clean up threads. Use a thread chaser. Regular taps cut where thread chasers will straighten out threads, remove rust, etc... without cutting metal away. Also, I believe the later Explorers came with P heads. Just something to be aware of when you are shopping for headers.

[ACDad]

Thanks Bob! I'm on the Austin facebook group, one of these days I'll come to a meetup.

Sarcasticshrub, I hear you! Thanks for the tip!

Now the fun begins. New parts! I bought and installed a Trick Flow stage 1 cam. I coated the lobes in Molykote, and the rest in assembly grease. I'll replace the timing gears later.

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Next up, the crankshaft goes in. New bearings, ARP hardware, and patience.

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I cleaned up all the pistons with more wire brush and a broken piston ring. New ARP hardware pressed in.

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Around this time is when I found and acquired a fox 8.8. A friendly fellow up north of Waco sold me this take off for 200. He said he had counted the turns on it to about 3.55:1. I had already planned on buying a gearset, so even if it wasn't true, I wouldn't be mad. The guy is a mustang enthusiast, and had a ranch of mustangs in various states of complete. Took us about 2-3 hours to get it in my truck (about 3 minutes + 2-3 hours of talking), these are the craigslist buys that I enjoy.

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[Blitzboy54]

Did you re hone the cylinders? Crazy that after 200k miles they are still clean.

[egchewy79]

As you are aware, the FFR needs a driver's side inlet water pump... Ford didn't start putting driver side inlet water pumps on passenger cars until around mid-1969. I think Ford had about 600 different combinations of water pumps, timing covers, and alternator brackets... trying to get it all to fit is making me have a fit!!!

I have a 66 289 HiPo in my MK4 w/ a PS water inlet. You can make it work, but I had to get a custom solid tube bent by a local machine shop. A few silicone elbows for connections.

[Mike.Bray]

Welcome to the fun! I'm just up the road from you near DFW airport.

I made spreadsheets for everything on my build. Actually, I have two sets. One set with the actual costs and another set with the costs I show my wife:)

[Jeff Kleiner]

Did you re hone the cylinders? Crazy that after 200k miles they are still clean.

The low tension rings will do that. They wear themselves but not the cylinder walls.

Jeff

[ACDad]

BlitzBoy54, yes the machine shop did hone the cylinders. I had bought a hone and a ridge reamer in prep for the job, but they tacked on a hone when I had the block in for clean/magnaflux.

Here's where I put in the pistons with my first set of rings. Stock moly rings. I had measured the ring gaps to be 0.024-0.026 ish, when they were supposed to be 0.016 ideally, but 0.010 - 0.020 (according to the book "how to rebuild your small-block ford" by Tom Monroe). At the time, I thought that'd it'd be fine, and I'll do a leakdown test later (I told myself). This will end up bugging me later on, and I'll go back and replace them with rings that are +0.030 sized and grind them down per-cylinder.

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More new parts. I was going to re-use the stock timing gears/chain, but then I read up on chain stretch, and a new set wasn't too much.

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New timing cover, as I had butchered the last one. I wish I hadn't now, as the ford part was quite expensive. I took a chance on an aftermarket cover, but I had to grind off a bunch of flashing. It gets ford blue as well. Note here, I did not paint this correctly. Only later would I learn about painting aluminum and needing etching primer, so this part may not look this nice in the future haha.

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Also, new garage floor!

[ACDad]

This is where I'm starting to regret my decision to stick with the Explorer front cover/water pump/damper setup. I had planned on sticking with this setup because 1) it is more compact, and 2) re-using parts is cheaper. I can re-use the damper, so it got ford blue and the timing marks hand-painted on, covered with clear.

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But here's where it falls apart. I could not for the life of me find a kit of water pump bolts for the explorer. The sets I kept getting were too long (for the mustang). So I ended up buying longer hardware and trimming it down. Bolts with the red tape in the picture are the ones that stretched and could not be re-used.


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So the only part I could re-use was the damper, I may have saved myself a headache by replacing with mustang parts.

I cleaned up the oil pump, but also got a new one. I was amazed at the weight difference, the factory one is aluminum. I went back and forth, but ended up going with the aluminum one, we'll see if it bites me later.

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I also printed a tool with the 3D printer. Easy enough to sketch a couple of circles (I later learned how to smooth circles so they don't look like this), but this took about 45 minutes to design and print.

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[ACDad]

I started cleaning up the heads and checking valve guide clearance. Using the wobble test described in the book, I found that ALL of my valve guides were around 0.025 - 0.030 , whereas max clearance is supposed to be 0.005. This scared me something good, and I started looking for a valve guide kit (Lisle 5900, no longer made). Many videos I watched on this process mentioned this tool set, that they found one on ebay, or borrowed it. I was not able to find one, and I did not trust the other various kits that I had found.

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Long story short, the machine shop I had been using finally got set up in a new shop, and I took the heads there for measurement of the guides, and hopefully to replace. After some back and forth, they said they didn't have the right tools to make the measurement. They said they tried a couple other things and that they looked good enough. I guess I'll find out one way or another. I've already spent enough time and money on these GT40P heads. If they end up costing me any more before I finish the exhaust setup, they'll get replaced with something new.

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[ACDad]

Kelly @ Stewart dropped my kit off, what a great experience. Kelly was fantastic. It looked like mine was the penultimate dropoff, and there was a 289 kit remaining in the front.

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Up until now, my girls weren't too interested in helping. They liked watching the pistons on the engine as I turned the crank, but not much else.

Now that the car was HERE, and they got to use the drill, they helped me assemble the body buck and chassis dolly.

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I used Chris' Chassis Dolly Plans (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?28226-Chris-s-Chassis-Dolly-Build-Plans), but added a length of 4x4 on each corner to raise it. I ran 2x 6" lag bolts through these to attach them, hidden under the top mitred 2x4 cap.
The casters are amazon specials, 5" rated to 2400lbs. I figure that reading isn't from this reality, but 4 of them together should hold until I get the actual car wheels on.

[gbranham]

Congrats! We're on a similar timeline. I ordered mine in early April 2023 and had it in early July 2023. Fun stuff!

Greg

[ACDad]

After inventory, I read up on how people were hanging their body buck. I attached some pulleys to the top of mine and hoisted with two ropes. I initially had it set up so one rope lifted the front, and one lifted the back, but this turned out to be too hard to pull, too much friction.

I turned the pulleys fore/aft and now I have one rope for drivers side, one for passenger. Much easier to pull.

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After this I spent some time putting blue tape on the panels, writing their part # on them, and taking pictures of how they were attached.

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I also cut the "feet" off the body buck, as I kept smacking my head on them.

[ACDad]

I tore down the exterior of the rear end and drained it. Sure enough, 3.55:1 Ford-stamped gearset. I'll just go ahead and leave that where it is. No chipped teeth, no sparkles in the fluid, bearing caps were tight enough. I removed the factory 4-lug axles and ordered a set of summit-branded axles (c-clip type). I didn't catch the hub size difference between stock and the disc upgrade, so later I'll have to get the hub rings from LMR.

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Here it's all stripped down, wire brushed, and cleaned in my mini parts cleaner. I'm using POR-15 straight from the can here, 1-inch chip brushes from harbor-freight and the tiny cans of POR-15 as I hear it's hygroscopic.

I had also put the pinion mating flange in a bowl of Evap-o-rust for a day to clear up the surface rust.

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I didn't feel like cleaning up the stock diff cover was worth it, so I got an unbranded summit cover for it.

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[ACDad]

New parts from Alex's Parts (he's great!). New exhaust valves, new viton seals, and beehive springs to support the Trick Flow Stage 1 cam I installed. Alex's packaging and customer service are on another level. I also got an installed height micrometer from him. I re-used the stock intake valves, as they cleaned up very nice and had no pitting on the sealing surface.

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[ACDad]

Installing the first parts on the frame, front lower control arms. The powder coating on the frame is so thick, the bolts don't fit through.
I initially thought the holes were misaligned, but a couple of generous taps with a sledge helped them in.

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[ACDad]

Since I had purchased the engine, I had been looking for a T5 on Craigslist and FB (ugh) to rebuild. Spent over a year contacting people, asking for tag numbers, getting ghosted or setting up meets in different cities only to have the thing sold by the time I was ready to hit the road. So many frustrating conversations. Asking questions on FB is like pulling teeth.

Then there were the prices. I could not find a decent take-off under $600. The few I found were gone before I could ask questions. The rest were high-priced take-offs that had no maintenance.

EricTheCarGuy has a fantastic rebuild video on the T5, and 5-speeds has a good rebuild kit that I was planning to use. The kit was (then) $500ish (over $700 now what the heck, still not in stock). I was hoping to get a takeoff and a rebuild kit and be done for under a grand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR8LetFQSoc

The kit never came back in stock, and I just could not nail down a used transmission.

I found out that lpgturbo from the mustang forums was right down the road and selling units on ebay. I kept an eye on his page and eventually a cobra t5 came up around $1300. This is cheaper and quicker than I could have done it, although I really wanted to do it myself. That, and the search was really wearing on me, I dreaded going on FB. If I valued my time and sanity, lpgturbo's unit would be cheaper in all aspects.

I got the cobra unit from him (1352-239), fantastic guy. After all the reading on the very tall 5th gear, I want to swap it out for a 0.72 gear, but that may be a Summer project somewhere down the line.

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There are a couple of great T5 websites out there, but here's the spreadsheet I made:



Tag Code
Model Years
Trims
Torque
1
2
3
4
5
R
Input L
Desireable because
Work Required


1352-199
1990-1991
5.0 V8
300
3.35
1.99
1.33
1.1
0.68
3.15
7.18
High torque rating, taller 5th gear
Rbld, 1st Gear


1352-208
1992-1993
5.0 V8
300
3.35
1.99
1.33
1.1
0.68
3.15
7.18
High torque rating, taller 5th gear
Rbld, 1st Gear


1352-218
1993
Cobra 5.0
310
3.35
1.99
1.33
1.1
0.68
3.15
7.18
High torque rating, taller 5th gear
Rbld, 1st Gear


1352-239
1993
Cobra 5.0
310
3.35
1.99
1.33
1.1
0.68
3.15
7.18
High torque rating, taller 5th gear
Rbld, 1st Gear


1352-242
1994-1995
Cobra 5.0
310
3.35
1.99
1.33
1.1
0.68
3.15
7.85
High torque rating, taller 5th gear
Rbld, 1st Gear


1352-246
1994-1995
5.0 V8
300
3.35
1.99
1.33
1.1
0.68
3.15
7.85
High torque rating, taller 5th gear
Rbld, 1st Gear


1352-260
1999-2004
V6
300
3.35
1.99
1.33
1
0.68
3.15
7.85

Rbld, 1st Gear

[ACDad]

I got a GT rear brake kit from NorthRaceCars. Richard answered my questions and made sure I got the right stuff. In hindsight I should have obtained my axles from him as well.

I took them apart to get them ready for paint.

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Don't. Do. This.

[ACDad]

I had been thinking about powder coating since before I got the kit. I had contacted a few places that (rightfully) wanted to see the parts before offering a price. I was thinking about the value of doing all of them (I've seen some prices from other build threads that were appealing) versus some of them, before/after drilling, etc.

There's a guy out west of Austin that got his kit I think a little after me, and I saw his post on the FB group showing progress and blacked out F-panels. I contacted him to see how he did them, and he replied that he used POR-15 on them. They looked excellent, and POR-15 was something I already have on-hand, and have used.

Here's where I learned more about painting aluminum/stainless. I read up on it, and went to NAPA to grab some self-etching primer for aluminum. I drilled the panels, then scuffed them up with some red 3M pads. Then I washed them to get my fingerprint oils off them and did a primer coat, then two coats of POR-15.

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Turned out good enough, I should have let them dry on a flat surface though. Since I did both sides at the same time, it was easier to hang them. You can see the imperfections, lines, and runs in the photo, but I'm happy with the finish. The goal is a blacked-out engine bay, and the car will have black trim instead of chrome.

[ACDad]

My girls helped me assemble and install the front Koni coil-overs and upper control arms.

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(I got these posts out of order, this goes before the F-Panels)

[ACDad]

I couldn't get a wrench or socket on the rear bolt for the front upper control arms. So I shoved a 1/4 washer between the nut and the frame, worked just fine even with the torque wrench. You can see in the photo part of the washer showing through the top hole.

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The front upper control arm geometry is puzzling. I can't get the front side that short. Do I need to cut the sleeves?

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Time for the front spindles to go on. (You'll notice in the photos that I put the steering arm on backwards. Don't worry, I notice this very much later.)

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Just so happens the hub nut is about 36mm, which the size socket I have for the Van's hub nut.

WolframAlpha says if my 190lb-butt hangs off a 1.5 ft breaker bar, that's 285ft-lbs of torque. Done.

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[Mike.Bray]

The front upper control arm geometry is puzzling. I can't get the front side that short. Do I need to cut the sleeves?

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That's because the manual is wrong. The rear sleeve needs to be shorter than the front sleeve. For power steering you want 7-8 degrees of caster. Cut or machine off the round bosses on the rear sleeve and trim the male threads the same amount.

Jeff Kleiner has a great picture with dimensions of where you need to be, hopefully he will post it for you.

[ACDad]

Thanks for that, Mike! I just started on your build thread, your engine sounds great! I also like what you did with the hydraulic lines for the pedals, I'll be following along!

[Jeff Kleiner]

My girls helped me assemble and install the front Koni coil-overs and upper control arms.

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Great helpers :) Did the girls check the rebound settings and adjust it if necessary? If not if not they/you will be able to get more practice taking them back apart to do so.


That's because the manual is wrong. The rear sleeve needs to be shorter than the front sleeve. For power steering you want 7-8 degrees of caster. Cut or machine off the round bosses on the rear sleeve and trim the male threads the same amount.

Jeff Kleiner has a great picture with dimensions of where you need to be, hopefully he will post it for you.

Here ya' go.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=189078&d=1666032431

Using the center of the grease zerks as a reference if you set them like this you’ll be real close to about .5 degree negative camber and 7-8 degrees positive caster which is where you want to be for power steering. As Mike said you'll need to trim the rear sleeves and also shorten the male threads a similar amount (otherwise they can bottom out internally).

Jeff

[ACDad]

Jeff,

Thanks so much for the diagram and the note about the Koni adjustment! They were installed about a year ago now, so perfect time for a refresher course.

Koni's site is acting up this morning, but I found I.E.427's video on the subject (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOCEEYdNYOI). I also found your other post (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?20313-how-do-you-adjust-Koni-s&p=229716&viewfull=1#post229716) on recommended settings.

This will give me plenty to (re)do while I wait for fuel line fittings.

[ACDad]

26x 3D-printed parts and 3ft of painters tape. The calipers are almost ready for paint.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206655


I used G2 Caliper Paint in white. In hindsight, painting was a mistake :) I should have sent them for powder coating.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206654


I could not for the life of me, and with the tools I had, get this circlip back in. After a week of trying things, I ended up ordering a pair of remans from RockAuto.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206653


When they came in, I was not impressed with the quality of the reman calipers. I went back to my painted calipers to try again. I went out and bought an 8" C-Clamp like the guy on the mustang forum had (see link at bottom of post). This allowed me to actually see down in the piston bore.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206652


After a couple three beers, I was able to reassemble them. I chipped the paint in a couple places, but oh well.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206651


For anyone searching, these are the Mustang GT rear calipers, disassembled, removed parking brake arm, reassembled reassembly, taken apart for paint powdercoat powdercoating. How to put back together circlip retaining clip
If you find this, please use this link to Ryan's (CarCrazyRDM) post on StangNet (which I hope still works for you) https://stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/complete-disassembly-reassembly-of-rear-calipers-w-integrated-parking-brake.835751/

[ACDad]

The front calipers turned out great. I didn't remove the zinc coating on the rears, so that's why they turned out all patchy (the paint reacted with the zinc and bubbled).


https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206656

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206657

[ACDad]

While mounting the rear calipers, I saw an example with a blacked-out rotor hat. I decided I liked the look, so I tried my hand with some high-temp ceramic paint.


https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206661 https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206660 https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206659


https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206658


It may burn off, but at least it'll look nice during assembly :)

[ACDad]

The rear axle is almost done. I got new hard lines from LMR and the braided lines from NorthRaceCars installed.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206668


Getting the bracket installed and the lower control arms mounted was straightforward enough, thoroughly punished and ruined a drill bit doing it though.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=206667