1992 LX/2004 GT 4.6 Swap

[Xporter]

Getting ready to the a modular swap on my 92 coupe. I wanted to do a coyote swap but it's just not in the cards right now, maybe at a later date. Besides, some of the mods would be needed anyway if I decide to do the swap later on.

Back story on the coupe: Painted the outside, blew the push-rod motor, parted out the drive train and sold the car to a friend of mine. Ended up buying the car back after it sat in his shop for almost 2 years. Funny thing was the title was actually still in my name when I got it back.

The 92 when it was running:

Bringing it home after buying it back:

2004 GT, donor car shortly after buying it. Hard to tell it was hit but it got nailed on the back drivers side and shifted the quarter panel forward. It has 77k miles and looks like it was pretty well taken care of.

Right now I'm in the process of stripping the donor car and need to get the engine bay painted on the 92 before putting a motor back in it.

 

[Cobraboy03]

Any Updates?

 

[Xporter]

Almost done stripping the 04. I also picked up a few items over the holiday sales weekend:

Bassani X pipe
BBK Ceramic Shorties
Stifflers Trans Cross member

 

[Bill]

Very nice

 

[Xporter]

Finally had some time to get the engine and trans pulled, got a few more things to take off the donor car then I can get it out of the garage on start on the coupe.

 

[cdog02mustgt]

Any issues with the x pipe cats hitting the trans cross member?

 

[Xporter]

So there hasn't been much progress on this but getting back on it.

Got rid o f the 04 body after picking totally apart, literally

 

[Xporter]

Disassembled the interior so I can started mocking up for the hydroboost and brake pedal assembly. Will also run the body harness off the 04.

 

[Bill]

disassembling the donor is a lot of progress all by itself. Looks like a great start.

 

[Xporter]

Yes disassembly of the donor took awhile since I wanted to take everything off the vehicle before scrapping the body. My buddy dubbed the donor "chicken bone" after I was done stripping it.

Worked on the pedal assembly last night. There's much debate on the proper way to fit the hydroboost assembly to the fox pedals due to the orientation of the push rod that goes to the brake pedal. After lots of measuring I determined to use the 04 Brake pedal in the fox housing.

You can see the difference in the two pedals, the fox has a smaller shaft where the pedal mounts to the box. That's the inner sleeve on top of each one. You can also see 04 pedal arm has a light bend to it as opposed to the straight fox arm.

This is ultimately how I wanted to 04 pedal to sit in the fox housing so I cut off the upper left side of the o4 to match the width of the fox

 

[Xporter]

Mounted the 04 in the Fox housing, set the fox pedal on top of it for comparison. You can see the bottom right side of both pedals line up, the 04 is a bit wider. Note the top of the 04 pedal was slightly hitting the top of the housing, a little grinding took care of that.

 

[Xporter]

Next I measured the back/inside firewall side of the 04 housing to where the shaft of the 04 pedal is located. Right about 4 inches from firewall to center of shaft.

Did the same on the fox housing, came up a little short so I drilled off the backing plate and spacers from the 04 housing to put on the fox.

You can see here with the 04 backing plate up against the fox housing where I will need to clearance the firewall on the fox.

 

[Bill]

That is actually a really nice way to do it. Thanks for posting the pictures and the great explanation. I'm sure that will help a lot of new folks figure things out.

 

[Xporter]

Trying to keep the momentum going, tore the front suspension out so I can continue mocking up the front steering and suspension.

Made the necessary adjustments on the firewall holes to install the hydroboost assembly, and trimmed the top drivers side of the hydroboost assembly due to interference with the top flange of the firewall.

Installed the fox pedal assembly and fox steering column to check fitment. So far so good.

Bolted up the Team Z K member, MM Motorsport Hybrid Shaft and 04 Rack. This all fit together as well.

Going to check a couple more things then pull it all off to paint the engine bay.

 

[Xporter]

Mocked up the oem fox control arms and 94/95 Spindles that were originally on the car. I though I'd be able to run the oem sn95 arms but I'm happy with the way the wheel/tire combo I'm running fits with the fox arms. I did have to grind a bit on the upper front part of the arm to make it fit the Team Z K member. I may put the 04 spindles on to see if there is much difference. I also ordered new bushings and balljoints for the fox arms to refurbish while they're out.

 

[Xporter]

I'm trying to mock up as much as possible before final installation, I took the K Member out of the car to check fitment of the motor while I have it on the stand. It lined up great with the motor mounts and I have plenty of clearance between the rack and the oil pan.

 

[Harry Montgomery]

thank you so much for these pictures I'm in the middle of this swap in my 88 gt and I'm just getting started.....I also am using team z k member and control arms with upr coilovers for front and back

 

[Xporter]

Still chipping away at this, found time to pull the fenders and hood off to paint the engine bay:

Messed around with the 04 Heater box to see if I can make it work and it's looking hopeful:

Here you can see the biggest difference is where the heater box mates with the dash, the fox on the right is flat where as the new edge on the left has a slant. I'll try modifying new edge to make it work with the fox dash.

 

[Xporter]

Still at it, here'a a few more updates:

K member in and squared up getting started routing the harness into place.

Rebuilt my control arms with new poly bushings, steeda X2 balljoints and fresh paint, steeda sport lowering springs and Koni struts along with Maximum Motorsports Caster Camber Plates

 

[Bill]

Looks nice. You'll like the feel of the X2s. Are you planning to run the Steeda bump steer kit?