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S197 CaptKaos' 2011 S197 LS Swap Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

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@Dave_W that is what I found also. Still need to research the Ford pedal but hopefully the Terminator X can figure it out. Worse case I put the GM pedal in, just need to make a mount.
The last few days we have been trying to get my brothers Truck ready for LS Fest (starts tomorrow) and were having an issue with the Tune after the 4L80E swap we got that sorted out so hopefully this weekend there will more motivation

@ArizonaBOSS yea that did stink. Pulling the engine/trans and reinstalling is the easy part. Sorting out the wiring and all the other pieces that are unknown will be the hurdle.

Anyone have a JPCRacing trans crossmember for a PowerGlide or TH400 that can tell me if there is 3" longer or 3" shorter (relatively speaking) to work with the 4L60E? Trying to figure out if I need to make one or if one already made can be made to work.

@AZS197 THANKS!
 
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124
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35224
Sorry for the delayed posts. Weekend of September 9th: After 9 years of driving my 1987 Truck to LS Fest without issue I had two that had to be sorted out, and one that had to have a solution so I could get home. 1) The fan temp probe for the fans when out driving into the venue and the truck overheated.. Like 240 degrees. we hardwired it to get it home, 2) what I thought was a turbo scavenge pump problem (after replacing at midnight in Beech Bend entrace, it was found to be a shorted relay. I Spent all day trying to find a relay that would work so I could drive home. We made home no issue but had to waiting on the new fan kit.

Back to the Mustang
Weekend of September 16th: Scrounging around looking at the old K-member I found that the lower control arm bolts had a nut on them that would perfectly fit the 3rd bolt for the power steering mount. I had to open up the hole in the AJE crossmember and only the bottom is bolted but it now has a bolt in it now (nut not pictured but it is in there)

In addition to this I got the EPAS wiring harness from Casey at Racecar Services to solve the Electric power steering issues.

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124
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Exp. Level
20+ Years
35224
Week of September 26: The new 98-02 F-Body oil pan came in from Pace. It pretty much had everything pan, dipstick, tube, bolts windage tray, pickup tube, and the pan. This definitely will help with ground clearance issues. We got the engine in the air and dropped the truck pan and then installed the new F-body pan. I also cut down the AJE engine mounts where the ears are for mounting to a SBC. Not shown but I hit them with some rattle can black and bolted them back to the motor.

This is where things get interesting... The following night I planned to reinstall the valve train (rockers and pushrods) to check for pushrod length an when rotating the motor over, it would ONLY move 90 degrees. Since it was late I decided to call it a night and pull the pan the next day. The evening we pulled the pan to see if we left something out of place that would keep it from turning over. We ended up pulling everything oil pan related off. Still wouldn't turn. The next evening we pulled the timing cover, with no solution and since it wasn't on an engine stand was proved to be fruitless to determine what the problem was we called it an evening. Since I work in IT and my oncall rotation would tie me up with a project this was delayed for the next weekend.

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124
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35224
Friday September 30th: We have been on the hunt for new wheels/tires for this as the base wheels on this were only 7" wide. So I located a set of what I now know as PP1 Takeoff during the day that my daughter approved of so I headed out to pick them up. So now she has some 19" wheels

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124
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20+ Years
35224
Weekend of October 1st: Bound to determine the issue I played fruit basket turnover in my cramped 2 car garage to remove an engine from a stand and put this one on it so we could see what actually was going on.
We spent a good time discovering this as I wanted my daughter to understand the logic around what was going on. After some evaluation we concluded that the number 2 cylinder (front left looking into the engine bay) was the culprit as it wasn't making it past the same point.

So we pulled the passenger side head to see what the issue was. Keeping is mind this was a pullout motor, that I have had for 11 years that has always been stored inside a conditioned garage... When we got the head off this is what I discovered. Moisture in the cylinder caused some surface rust to appear and a stack of crud was piled above the piston. I sprayed some Liquid Wrench in and scuffed it with a Scotchbrite pad and much of it came off. (see second picture) We were able to turn the motor over but it still had rust in it.

So I filled it up to the edge in vinegar and let it soak for 12 hours. The last pictures shows the Vinegar in the hole.. The last picture is after I went down and checked on it 1 hour later.

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Sunday October 2nd: After we got back from Church we went to investigate the progress/status. Needless to say I was impressed. We rolled the motor up so the piston is level and I filled it to the top. Based on the current results I plan to let it sit and recheck. Optimistic of the outcome, I ordered a new head gasket, and bolts when should be here this week and I plan to recheck and possibly run a hone through it and reseal it back up.

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124
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20+ Years
35224
Monday October 3rd: I talked to Current Perfomance again about the pedals and apparently got the right person via email as they said they had someone local using the 2011 Pedal on the Terminator X running an LS so I asked if they could send the pinouts for the harness I bought and the Mustang. It appears all I need is swap pins 2 and 5 , along with pins 4 and 6. Which will make this process much easier.

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35224
Week of October 9th: Head gasket showed up so that weekend I ran a plate hone through the cylinder and reinstalled the head. We flipped it over and installed the 1998--02 GM F-body oil pan and pickup. After verifying the pushrod length was good we sealed it up ready for the install.

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124
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35224
October 23rd: Liz and I got the motor installed in the Mustang into the AJE cradle. I have to say it went in pretty smoothly. Then we attempted to install the 4L60E. I knew the 4L80e required some tunnel "massaging" and since the 4L60E was physically similar I figured I would need to make room for it but... As of right now it won't fit. I know several Mustang owners swapped over to 4L80E's but no idea what all it took to get it in there. Anyway we got stopped at the partial install as the next day I had a week of training that was going to pause progress for a week, so the trans was left just sitting on jack stands.

I started looking for a shorter Selector shaft since this one was way too long.
Anyone have a post on a 4L80E/4l60E install in a S197? Would love to cheat and see what was required.

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124
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Weekend on Nov 23rd: As stated above it was shorter, but the issues has nothing to do with clearance on the drivers side, it is pretty much the passenger side. So broke out the sledgehammer, ballpeen hammer and Air Hammer and went to town. It got late but we ended up just setting it down on a 2x6 scrap above the factory crossmember to repeat the hammering later.

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35224
Weekend on Dec 3rd: Round 2 with the hammer arsenal. Ended up painting the area to figure out where all everything is hitting. As shown with the 4L60E it is right at the transcrossmember brace. At this point it still needs to move over another 3/8" before I am happy. Note the drivers side which I can put my hand between the tunnel. The last picture shows how tight it is.

The Transmission is NOT straight centered at this point. I ordered a digital angle gauge so I can set the engine/trans as the same angle as the pinion, which should get me past that area and I plan to just pound some clearance in. At this point (on this day) I am able to removed and install the trans (with 4 bolts no converter bolts) in about 20 minutes, so I am confident if I can get it above that reinforcement plate I will be golden if/when I will need to remove it.

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124
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35224
Let me know if you run in to any issues on things I may have already come up with solutions.
We might as well crack open that can of worms @Trent TMM You are way ahead of me at this point.
What drivetrain are you running?
If automatic what shifter are you running
What manifolds/headers are you running?
what Radiator are you running,? It doesn't appear to be stock.
It looks like you fabricated heater lines?
What waterpump are you running?
Are you running AC?
Are you using the factory Trans cooler? If did you use adapters?
I haven't gotten to electrical yet but do I even need to ECM?

BTW while we were setting the engine/trans, I was checking to see if some Speed Engineering headers would fit the wrong way (towards the back). The didnt. BUT they do fix the right way forward facing so if she does well in this my spare turbos will have a perfect spot for both sides. :D

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5
8
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Vallejo Ca
We might as well crack open that can of worms @Trent TMM You are way ahead of me at this point.
What drivetrain are you running?
If automatic what shifter are you running
What manifolds/headers are you running?
what Radiator are you running,? It doesn't appear to be stock.
It looks like you fabricated heater lines?
What waterpump are you running?
Are you running AC?
Are you using the factory Trans cooler? If did you use adapters?
I haven't gotten to electrical yet but do I even need to ECM?

BTW while we were setting the engine/trans, I was checking to see if some Speed Engineering headers would fit the wrong way (towards the back). The didnt. BUT they do fix the right way forward facing so if she does well in this my spare turbos will have a perfect spot for both sides. :D

View attachment 81843
The setup is Ls3 with a t56 mag xl.
The headers are from vorshlag .
The front dress is all CTS-V with a straight t-stat neck.
No ac . The ac line's bolt to the firewall behind the intake . Which will nolonger go on because I removed and fabed in a new section the of the fire wall to move the motor back an extra 2 inches.
The heater lines are all aluminum hard line to get it to the front of the motor. Keep in mind ford and gm flip the line sizes on the in and out of the hearer core .so not as simple as hooking the 5/8 line to the 5/8 fitting on the water pump.the 5/8 out of the core will go in to the 3/4 on the LS pump. The radiator is the ford racing for the stock 4.6 that was in the car .
The lower factory hose needs to have the t removed and it hooks right up.
For the ecu this one is running a holley terminator x .
Getting the car wired is where I am at the moment. Almost done .
Things like the reverse lights are running through the factory ecu so with out it the car needs a standalone system.
And I'm finding thats how a bunch of things are going to be .
Even the radio talks to the factory ecu.
 
124
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35224
The front dress is all CTS-V with a straight t-stat neck.
The heater lines are all aluminum hard line to get it to the front of the motor. Keep in mind ford and gm flip the line sizes on the in and out of the hearer core .so not as simple as hooking the 5/8 line to the 5/8 fitting on the water pump.the 5/8 out of the core will go in to the 3/4 on the LS pump. The radiator is the ford racing for the stock 4.6 that was in the car .
The lower factory hose needs to have the t removed and it hooks right up.
Things like the reverse lights are running through the factory ecu so with out it the car needs a standalone system.
And I'm finding thats how a bunch of things are going to be .
Even the radio talks to the factory ecu.
Tried to convince my daughter to go manual, she says she isn't ready...
So heater core is technically reversed then? Did you make your own aluminum hardlines?
Is you Upper hose on the passenger top and the lower on the Drivers lower? Did you use any special hoses? I just ordered a LS1 Water pump and spacers and a straight Tstat housing.
I heard there were a few things the harness relies on via the ECM but I heard these can be sorted out.
 
124
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20+ Years
35224
Weekend on Dec 10th: Round 3 with the Trans mount didn't go as well as I had planned trying to squeeze 3/8" out. Whaling on it basically popped a number of spot welds, so I went with it and just drilled all of them out and removed them. Probably should have done this from the start but oh well. I had to get this done before my week of oncall started. Hopefully while I am off I can make some good progress, make some room and then cut/section the mount and spot weld it back in place.

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124
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20+ Years
35224
Tuesday, Dec 21st: Round 4 of the Trans tunnel occurred today since my oncall week ended. I put the trans back up in the tunnel without the Trans crossmember mount. Obviously it gave me more room but I need to make enough now to put the mount back in place. After a round or two of sheetmetal pounding I have it now where I can get my hand past the pan which should give me a pattern to hack/trim the mount panel in order to get it back in and still have room. I did put some feelers out to see if any of my local guys had an empty 4L80E case, while I am at this point since I might as well do it now as it is longer and it would be best before I get the mount welded back in.
I pulled the console out and removed the stock shifter as earlier I also order a new Hurst Quarter Stick Shifter for the 4 speed trans, along with a water pump, intake gaskets and a straight thermostat housing

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5
8
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Vallejo Ca
Tried to convince my daughter to go manual, she says she isn't ready...

So heater core is technically reversed then? Did you make your own aluminum hardlines?

Is you Upper hose on the passenger top and the lower on the Drivers lower? Did you use any special hoses? I just ordered a LS1 Water pump and spacers and a straight Tstat housing.

I heard there were a few things the harness relies on via the ECM but I heard these can be sorted out.
 

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