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SN95 3V Swapped New Edge Build Thread Profile - SN95 Mustangs

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106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
Alright, so I'll start this build thread with a few photos of the engine build.
The engine is a WAP aluminum 3v 4.6 from a 2005 Mustang.

- Forged Eagle rods
- +.020" Forged Mahle Pistons (11:1 CR)
- Ported Cylinder Heads
- Ferrea Stainless Valves
- GT500 Oil Pump, pickup, windage tray and oil pan.
- Comp Cams 127500
- 300#/in. Valve springs
I built a rod balancing jig. This little reload scale wasn't cutting it, so I ordered the lab scale.
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Also made my own rod bolt stretch gauge.
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After going round and round with the crank grinding shop, I ended up buying a new OE steel crank. I still have the old crank and will probably have it offset ground for a little stroker build one of these days.
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My boy helped.
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106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
Cylinder Heads- I actually did a YouTube video of the head porting. Part 1 is up now, you can watch it here.
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Something I rigged up real quick to check valve seat height referenced from the deck surface. Worked well and as you'll see all of my chambers were within .6cc of each other.
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For the intake side, I did a 4 angle job with a 45º seat. On the exhaust I did a 45º seat, did some angled bottom cuts and then blended them together by hand for a nice radius.
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I'll be sharing more as the build progresses. Thanks for watching!
 
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ChrisM

Mostly harmless.
1,180
1,419
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
South Carolina
Amazing build and pictures! You have some incredible talent.

Dumb questions regarding the GT500 oil components, are those from the 2007-2009 version? Does it have an increased capacity?
 
106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
Amazing build and pictures! You have some incredible talent.

Dumb questions regarding the GT500 oil components, are those from the 2007-2009 version? Does it have an increased capacity?
Thanks for the kind words, Chris!

The GT500 oiling system components are from a 13-14'. I bought it all new from Tasca. For ~$600 out the door it's a good investment. The windage tray/pan gasket is an excellent design and the pan holds 7qts.

Brad
 

ChrisM

Mostly harmless.
1,180
1,419
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
South Carolina
Thanks for the kind words, Chris!

The GT500 oiling system components are from a 13-14'. I bought it all new from Tasca. For ~$600 out the door it's a good investment. The windage tray/pan gasket is an excellent design and the pan holds 7qts.

Brad
I guess I should have read the entire description first! Thanks for the great info!
 
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106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
Very nice! I've wondered for many years why this isn't a more common swap. I believe you can even run the 3v on the 2v ECU if you lock out the cam phasers. Looking forward to more pics.
Thank you, man! I've been following you and admiring your LS3 Pony on Instagram for a while now. Big inspiration for me and this car. I'm @bradfords_garage on there.

But, yes, you're exactly right, it runs on the 2v ECU. It was one of the draws to this swap for me. You do have to retrofit an IAC and a Cobra TB because the S197 is drive-by-wire. And lock out the cam phasers, like you said. Pretty straight forward, though.

Logan Motorsports was making a kit to do this swap back in the day. They sold a couple hundred kits and then I think people started to fancy the new Coyote. Which I get. This swap requires some fabrication work and a bit of rewiring, so it's less plug and play than the coyote+control pack option. Especially given there are headers made for that swap and it fits under the SN95 hood. But, use of the 2v computer, headers I already had, and the fact that this engine is about 100# less than a Coyote pushed me in this direction over the Yote.

Brad
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
Thank you, man! I've been following you and admiring your LS3 Pony on Instagram for a while now. Big inspiration for me and this car. I'm @bradfords_garage on there.

But, yes, you're exactly right, it runs on the 2v ECU. It was one of the draws to this swap for me. You do have to retrofit an IAC and a Cobra TB because the S197 is drive-by-wire. And lock out the cam phasers, like you said. Pretty straight forward, though.

Logan Motorsports was making a kit to do this swap back in the day. They sold a couple hundred kits and then I think people started to fancy the new Coyote. Which I get. This swap requires some fabrication work and a bit of rewiring, so it's less plug and play than the coyote+control pack option. Especially given there are headers made for that swap and it fits under the SN95 hood. But, use of the 2v computer, headers I already had, and the fact that this engine is about 100# less than a Coyote pushed me in this direction over the Yote.

Brad
Oh! I was going to ask if you had an Instagram. I would have put it all together eventually, lol.
 
106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
As I mentioned before, nobody makes a swap header for a 3v in an SN95. I opted to cut the 2v flanges off my BBK headers and ordered up some 5/16" plain steel header flanges from Mikes Fab Shop. You can upgrade to stainless for another $100. If I ever make a nice custom set of headers for the car I'll probably do that.

This isn't something I've done before, but it was pretty simple. The flanges on the BBK's were maybe 1/4" thick, and I tried to stay as close to them as possible so the headers didn't wind up too narrow.
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Once the 2v flanges were cut off, I temporarily bolted the flanges to the engine, stuck the headers in them and laid the mid-pipe on the floor to get the spacing right.
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On the right side of the engine, the #1 primary was hitting a boss on the head. So I had to reroute that tube just a little. I think it's probably because with cutting the flanges off and tucking the tubes into the new flanges I've essentially narrowed the headers a small amount.
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I tacked the the tubes to the flanges in a few places and set it in the car to verify fitment and see how much room I had to reroute #1.
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Had a good amount if room around it. But I had to order a chunk of 1-5/8" tubing and patch in a small piece.
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With all the tubes tacked in place to the flanges and fitment verified I started welding.
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You can sort of see the piece that I patched in here on the #1 primary. I had to cut the tube back far enough to get a straight shot to the new tube location, and it landed right on a bend. I couldn't cut any further back because I wouldn't have been able to get in there to weld it. But, enough excuses...it came out a little ugly. But it works._J2_0089.jpg
The flange welds came out great, though.
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Once I had the outside of the flanges done, I welded the inside.
Before-
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Welded-
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I know we all like to look at and judge welds. These were tough! But I'm happy with how they came out.
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Lastly, I bolted them to a scrap head and checked for flatness with a .001" feeler gauge. No gaps.
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Thanks for looking! I'll update more as I can.
 
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8,188
Very good job on the headers, that's more work than people realize, and double welding the flanges is a good move .Don't forget you can heat up those tubes with a torch and move them around, I've done that, but sometimes it takes 2 people.
 
106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
Very good job on the headers, that's more work than people realize, and double welding the flanges is a good move .Don't forget you can heat up those tubes with a torch and move them around, I've done that, but sometimes it takes 2 people.
Thanks! That's a good point. I probably could have gotten it around that boss that way. Didn't think of it then! :ohdamn:

Brad
 
106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
A friend said he put a RAM 11" clutch in his car, running 385whp and beat the snot out of it at AutoX events and it held up really well, so that's what I went with. Also did the RAM aluminum flywheel for a 12# savings. More weight off the nose and less rotational mass.

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The T45 was shifting pretty nasty. And considering because of the headers the whole engine assembly has to come out to get it out of there, I decided to tear into that as well. I ordered a kit from Hanlon Motorsports and refreshed the T45 with some new bearings and carbon fiber blocker rings. Also used @blacksheep1's disassembly methods, which worked very well.

The countershaft had like .011" end play when I got it all back together. Because technically nothing should change as long as the same shaft and case is used, the kit doesn't come with shims for the countershaft. So, I called up Bob and he scoured the shop and sent me a new shim right away. Excellent people over there!
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And I was back in business. I know the T45 isn't the best transmission out there, and most people wouldn't have spent the $600 on the rebuild kit. But I didn't have the funds to put into a T56 or TKX, so I made the best of what I had.
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Late night in the barn, but I got it set in place. That was a great feeling!
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Theres a little bit of finagling that is required to make this setup work with the 2v ECU. Here's a brief overview of them:

My engine was from a 2005, so had the goofy thermostat mess in the lower/upper radiator hose. I looked for a crossover from a 2008 Mustang but had no luck, just new ones that were $200+. Explorer 4.6's also have the thermostat in the crossover, but the heater hose nipple is in a different spot. I found this one on eBay from an Explorer, and modified it to work for me.

I cut the heater hose nipple off, drilled it out and ran a 1/2" pipe tap in there. The temp sensor is a 3/8" NPT so a bushing was used.
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And to connect to the mustang heater pipes, I drilled and tapped the bottom of the crossover and used some brass pipe fittings. I also installed my Auto Meter temp probe in the bottom of the crossover tube.
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Another thing that needs adapting are a Cobra throttle body. The 3v/S197 is drive by wire, and the 2v ECU has no provisions for that. The Cobra TB is almost a perfect fit, though the holes are spaced inward just a touch and it has a port for the IAC on the backside where it mounts. So an adapter plate is used to block off the port, and I slotted the holes about 3mm on a 45º angle to get everything to bolt together.

Originally I was hoping to squeeze the routing for the IAC into the adapter plate, which is why it's so thick. I didn't end up having enough room around everything else in that area, and plumbed it in a different way. And I did end up thinning this adapter plate down a bit.
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You have to use the 2v fuel rail pressure sensor and it is slightly different than the 3v sensor. The diameter of the piece that presses into the rail is smaller and the bolt spacing is a little different. So, I made a bushing with an o-ring slot and drilled the 2v sensor mounting plate to fit the rail.
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I machined a mounting plate for the IAC valve. It pulls from the CAI tube and feeds into one of the vacuum ports on the plenum. Sorry I don't have a better photo of this, I can get a better shot later if anyone needs more detail.
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The fuel injectors in the 3v are EV6, but EV1 on the 2v. I could have used adapters, but since I had to cut into the harness to reroute a few connectors anyway, I decided to just splice in new pigtails.


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I ordered some silicone couplers and 4" aluminum pipe to fabricate a cold air intake. The coolant tank is sort of in the way and the 90º bend I ordered wouldn't it, so I cut some pie slices out of the straight pieces to fabricate a tighter bend.
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I thought it would be kind of cool if the tube transitioned from oval to fit the throttle body bar to round, so I squashed all the pie slices down. I hadn't really welded aluminum in probably 10 years, so this was a nice refresher project. I devised this little filler rod/spring contraption to hold the pieces together during welding. I had them fit up pretty well but as soon as I got a tack on they wanted to pull apart.
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Almost done. I think the polished aluminum must have been contaminated by the compound and I had a real hard time welding it at first. It welded a lot better once I wire wheeled it, but it really made it look ugly.
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All finished. I ended up scuffing the whole thing down with scotch brite to hide the wire wheel scratches and even out the finish. I'm not thrilled at how it came out, but it was a ton of work and I'm not ready to try again. It'll probably either get some paint or some heat wrap at some point.
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More later.
 
106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
Very nice work. I'm super jealous that you have access to a mill.

On a side note, you should move south. JK, but really...
Thanks! Yea, if I didn't have access to a mill a lot of the stuff I do would be a lot harder or not possible. I'd have to figure out a way to have one of my own if this one weren't available. The lathe and surface grinders, too. Very useful stuff for car builders. A small tabletop CNC for aluminum parts and a CNC plasma would be really nice to have. Maybe one day.

Man, we think about moving south all the time. We lived in Bluffton, just inland of Hilton Head, for a while and it was so nice.

Brad
 
106
166
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Michigan
Next up is my front lower control arms. I bought the Maximum Motorsports K-member, as mentioned before, but the control arms were backordered 90 days (at least). After some thought I decided it would be cool to make my own for a few reasons:
1. I could make them right away and get the car back on its own wheels.
2. Screw-in ball joint.
3. That screw in ball joint (Howe Racing) offers different length studs that would allow me to play with and fine tune roll center, camber gain, mechanical trail/displaced caster to a certain extent.
4. Rod ends.

Out with the old!
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I went with 1.25"x.120" wall DOM for the tubing. For the rod ends I chose 5/8" RideTech R-Joints. And the ball joint/weld-in collar is a unit from Howe Racing. I laid the k-member on the ground and used a plumb bob to find coordinates for all of the connection points and ball joint center. The MM stuff moves the wheels forward and I wanted to do the same to achieve the increased caster. So once I had the points marked I made some measurements and a quick sketch that so I could make a welding fixture. This was the first draft.
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There wasn't enough clearance on the rear leg of the arm for steering angle, so I made a revision. First test fit. Looked pretty good.
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You can see the compound angle of the ball joint pretty well in this photo. I aimed to have the ball joint as close to neutral as I could get it at ride height. Not having a frame table to work on for this work makes it much more difficult. Not exactly a driveway project, but I made it work.
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And then there were two...
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Here she was sitting on her own tires once again on the old black saleen 17x9 and 255/40r17 Direzza's.
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By this point the crankshaft and block were back to me, so I put the half finished arms in the car so I could set it back on the ground, and I went back to work building the engine. So by the time I went to finish the arms, they had a nice layer of surface rust and had to be sandblasted before I could add the sway bar tab and the webbing.

A 'spoon strap' to close off the end of the tubing and tie it in for some added strength.
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The collars aren't quite tall enough to get the dust/grease boot on with 1.25" tubing, so I machined some extension rings up and welded them on. No interference with he ball joint stud at all.
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My copy-cat sway bar relocation "brackets". They work fine, but this is something I'm brainstorming better designs for. Maybe something billet aluminum....or maybe fabricated sheet metal deal.
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Final install. You can see there isn't nearly enough adjustment on my bump steer kit for this new control arm location. I ordered a 'control arm spacer' kit from speedway, just need to drill the knuckle and figure out what length bolt to get.
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So far the arms are holding up well. I've inspected them multiple times already and I've put less than 300 miles on the car. We'll see how they do under track stress, but again, I'll inspect them often. I was reading about race car interiors and how some people like to paint them white because it makes it easier to spot any cracks in the roll cage welds. I didn't have any white paint on hand but did have gold and figured this would create the same effect.

[ I have no idea why these last two photos are showing up. I've deleted them 6 times and they keep coming back...]
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