The 83GT

Back in 2010, I dropped a 545/C6 in this car and after a little learning curve, it was fantastic.  I had a ton of fun with it. I took it on Drag Week 2011, 2012 and 2014, with differing levels of success/failure.  After one such failure, I updated it to a 552 and it ran 10.teens @ 133 easy peasy.  

When my kids started getting older, I decided to let them build their first motor, a basic 302 and we swapped it back to a small block.  We went to the junkyard and grabbed T5 for it and in 2018 my oldest son and I took it on Rocky Mountain Race Week.  It was an n/a 302 and ran like one. It was the first passes Jake had ever made on a drag strip so even though we had a nitrous kit on it, we kept it simple and left the bottle at home.  We had a great week, car ran good and Jake got better and better at launching and rowing that T5.  Later that year we used the nitrous a little and it was a blast, but dang nitrous was expensive.  2020 was my youngest son's turn to go on RMRW and as it was approaching, we decided to change to a low buck turbo setup.  We bought an ebay hotside, a GT45 turbo, and converted the carb to a blow thru.  We had a great week with Judd trying to break everything from the throttle cable to the transmission. Haha.  We finished the week with a wounded T5 but with huge smiles on our faces.  We eventually converted it to efi and threw in a free AOD.  Best pass was an 11.70 @ 120.  No transbrake meant we had to leave off basically zero boost, which was ok.  It did what was expected of it and until a few weeks ago, we planned to use it on RMRW 2023.  

I started to grow concerned that the AOD was becoming unhappy (2-3 shift was not confidence inspiring under power) and I was kinda worried the stock bottom end might not like seeing 12 psi over and over during the week.  Jake commented that maybe we should throw the 552 in. (same bottom end and block as before but with a different cam and heads).  This is the same engine I was running in the yellow F250 with a single turbo.  I sold the truck but kept the engine/trans.  I still had 99% of the pieces to put it back in, so the decision was made.  

I pulled the 302/turbo setup out am in the process of getting the 552/C6 ready to go in.  It will be run by the same Megasquirt efi system that worked so well with the turbo 302.  I needed a carb spacer for throttle linkage clearance so I went ahead and slipped the nitrous plate in there.  I don't think we will spray it on Raceweek unless it is just a total turd.  Even so, I think a 100 shot will be all we would do.  

Anyway here are a few pics of the current progress.

More.

More.

Basic rundown of the 552:
4.5" cast RPM crank, RPM H-beams, Probe forged pistons. With these D3 heads (cleaned up intakes and smog bump deleted exhausts) it is right around 9.6:1. This intake is the same efi converted Victor I used in the truck. The throttle body will be the same 1000 cfm Mass-Flo (Pro-M) 4bb one the turbo 302 had on it. The cam is a Lunati Barebones hydraulic cam.
Cam specs: 0.536” / 0.567” 224/233 @ 0.50” 293/293 advertised 112 LSA ICL 107

I would love to swap the cam to something with a bit more duration, but I think I will leave it alone for RMRW. I can always do it later.

Converter is a Hayes 2400-2800 that worked well in the truck. It may be a little tight in this car, but that is probably a good thing for the mountain driving part of this trip. Particularly since we will be pulling the little trailer.

Cool to see it’s still alive

Been out of town for what seems like a month! We got back yesterday and I finally got to play in the shop again.

The 45 deg fittings and the trans cooler came in while we were gone.

The 45's keep the crossover hose in tight to the distributor and look nice.

I partially installed the biggest trans cooler I have ever run in this car. I figure with the trailer and the mountain drives, it probably needs a decent cooler.

Then again it is a C6. I could probably just loop the hoses and not run a cooler at all and it wouldn't care. Haha.

I am still dying to swap cams.....

Good evening in the shop. 

I tied up a lot of little things:

Plugged O2 bung that is too close to the trans pan
Cleaned up evac tubes that had boogered threads
Swapped to reverse shift pattern plate in the shifter
Cleaned the floor under the car
Finished mounting the trans cooler
Plugged the turbo return fitting on the oil pan
Test fit one of Jake's 15x10 wheels.  (Didn't work, too much backspace)
Removed steering shaft
Installed transmission mount
Put the plug wires on it
Installed the motor mounts on the engine
Cut off a couple of bolts that stick thru the firewall
Wrote a new startup tune for it that should be ok to get it running.

and I may or may not have ordered a different camshaft for it....

She's in!

Whaaaahooo! It put up a small fight, but in the end we prevailed! With no k-member spacers, it was a tight fit but we only squished one brake like getting it in.
Once it was in, everything fit pretty much like we were hoping. And best of all Jake and my Dad were there helping.

BigBlockRanger wrote:She's in

Whaaaahooo! It put up a small fight, but in the end we prevailed! With no k-member spacers, it was a tight fit but we only squished one brake like getting it in.
Once it was in, everything fit pretty much like we were hoping. And best of all Jake and my Dad were there helping.

I've never tried putting my 460 in my Fox Body Mustang with the headers on the engine!!Looks like you have Hooker Headers?I have the old MAC Headers that they quit making years ago!!
Did the Headers squish the one brake line?

I have done it that way several times. It's a little tight, but it's worth the effort.

Yes these are Hookers that I've had for many years and we mashed one of the brake lines on accident right at the master cylinder. I knew it was sticking out farther than I wanted and just wacked it.whe it was going in.

BigBlockRanger wrote:I have done it that way several times.  It's a little tight, but it's worth the effort.

Yes these are Hookers that I've had for many years and we mashed one of the brake lines on accident right at the master cylinder.  I knew it was sticking out farther than I wanted and just wacked it.whe it was going in.  

I might have to try putting my 466 in next time with the headers on and see how it goes!!Putting the Headers on after the engine is in is a PITA well at least the passenger side is drivers side is pretty easy IMO!!

Mark Miller wrote:

BigBlockRanger wrote:I have done it that way several times.  It's a little tight, but it's worth the effort.

Yes these are Hookers that I've had for many years and we mashed one of the brake lines on accident right at the master cylinder.  I knew it was sticking out farther than I wanted and just wacked it.whe it was going in.  

I might have to try putting my 466 in next time with the headers on and see how it goes!!Putting the Headers on after the engine is in is a PITA well at least the passenger side is drivers side is pretty easy IMO!!

I've always done mine this way too.

It helps to jack up the back of the car and it also helps if you have k-member spacers. With the 1.5" spacers, I could do it by myself fairly easily. Without them, you gotta do a little do-si-do to get the driver's header past the k-member perch. Some newer k-members have removable perches, which would make installation a cinch.

I don't have K-Member spacers and like i said i have MAC headers next time i have the engine back out and put it back in i'll try it that way and see if it works!!Are both of you guys using the Ford Racing 460 Swap[truck]oil pan it looks like it if so that's the pan i'm using?I bought a Canton Pan last year but it's still new sitting in the box!!

The picture that I posted is my old combo, and it is the old ford racing pan. At the time the stock k-member was in place and it has 2" k-member spacers. Since then, I have a Moroso pan and a Team Z k-member.

Mark Miller wrote:I don't have K-Member spacers and like i said i have MAC headers next time i have the engine back out and put it back in i'll try it that way and see if it works!!Are both of you guys using the Ford Racing 460 Swap[truck]oil pan it looks like it if so that's the pan i'm using?I bought a Canton Pan last year but it's still new sitting in the box!!

Yes, just a regular old Ford truck pan that I added a baffle to.

1982GT wrote:The picture that I posted is my old combo, and it is the old ford racing pan. At the time the stock k-member was in place and it has 2" k-member spacers. Since then, I have a Moroso pan and a Team Z k-member.

I still have the factory 4 cylinder K-Member in my car!!

Spacers and steering shaft installed. It is amazing how much better everything looks and fits with an additional 1.5".

Best of all, the hood will close now. Whoohoo.

Looking good is that a Victor 460 Intake and were you using fuel injection before when you ran 10 teens with this engine?

Yep this is just the Ford Racing version.

The engine that ran low 10's was this short block, but with different heads and camshaft. Back then it had a Herbert solid roller, TFS 325 heads, a 1050 Dominator, and a looser converter. This version is a bit milder with cleaned up D3 heads and a Lunati hydraulic flat tappet cam. I ran it for a short time in the F100 with a single turbo and the cam was chosen for that combo.

It will be interesting to see what the performance difference will be between the two versions of the same 552 bottom end.

Getting so close now! Shifter cable Transmission shield reinstalled Wideband Radiator Low alternator mount Radiator hoses Double lower pulley to single pulley Speedometer cable/drive Evac check valves

The to do list is quickly becoming a ta-done list!

The lower pulley was way too close to the fan, so I cut off the outside pulley. The water pump pulley looks close, but it has plenty of room.

Driveshaft installed, starter wired, longer throttle cable installed.

Working on a throttle cable mount now.

Made a throttle cable mount.  Looks ok for something I made I guess.  I'm very happy with how this thing is coming together. Only a few little things left until I can see if it catches fire. 

Starter rewired, transmission lines in, electric fan wired up.  

Throttle Cable Mount Looks Nice!!

Thanks!
Uploaded the new tune. Primed the fuel system and it leaked at the number 1 injector like it didn't have an oring at all. I think something was wonky with the oring because I seem to recall it being real easy to install. I put a new oring in it (not easy this time and seems to seat deeper in the rail) and started putting it back together. Ran out of time and had to leave. I'll get it sorted later.