Chrome? Y Not! 
Alberta's Fastest Street Car, 1999!
Bad 460 Stang

 

Ever seen a 460 in a Mustang? Ever heard a big block in a Fox Mustang? Well here it is, my 1988 Mustang featuring 460 cubic inches of nitrous swallowing big block power!

This car was my first hot rod. I have owned it for over 10 years now, and will probably never sell it. It has had a lot of different combination in it, including a nitroused 5.0, then a supercharged 5.0, and finally a 460. I decided to build a big block after several losses to a friends 440 Challenger, and after having tuning problems with the supercharger (since I was running speed density) and was unwilling to shell out the almost $1000 for a mass air conversion kit back in the early 90's.

Some major updating is currently going on (September, 2001) I have installed a front k-member and coil overs, swapped to a turbo 400 trnasmission, added a custom grind FTI solid roller camshaft, and installed a 5000rpm 8" stall converter. I am hoping to have the car running by the 5th of September.
 

Alberta's Fastest Street Car 1999!
Some of my tophies I wasn't ready for the 2001 shootout. The guy that won only ran a 10.03, so I was not happy I didn;t manage to get finished. Oh well. In August of 1999, at Calgary's own Race City Motorsport Park, I was lucky enough to win the coveted street car shoot-out. There were two classes, a 'tubbed' and a 'non-tubbed', and the top 8 qualifying cars in each category got to square of against each other in some good old fashioned heads up racing. There were cars from all over Alberta, as well as a couple from Saskatchewan and British Columbia. I was running the nitrous when I needed it, and my last pass of the evening was a 10.15@136mph with the juice flowing all the way. I had major traction problems and was all over the track, but I stayed in it to take the win against a 10.5 second Chevy Nova.

Although I know 10.15 is not fast by magazine standards, I think it is excellent considering I run pump gas, and drive to and from the track (which is at 3500 feet). The trophy is to the right (in color). The other pic is of some other trophies I have won with this car (sorry no car shows!).
 
 

Thanks alot dad This is a shot of my rear tail light lens which my dad broke when he ran into the car with his mini van.

 
A shot of the necessary hood and hood scoop to clear the carburetor and 1" spacer. Hood is 2.5" lift off Harwood, and scoop is nostalgia 70's Ford. I may just get a 5" cowl next year. Waiting to inhale a Chevy

 
10sec. pass comin' up If you look close, you can see its my buddy Rick driving. The best thing about letting Rick race your car is that if it breaks, he's the best guy in town to fix it!

 
If a guy pulls up to you in a Stang this mean..... Mean Mr. Mustang
 

 

So How Do You Put a 460 in a Mustang?

I get a lot of email from people asking me about what is involved in doing the swap. I will give a quick run down here, but if you have specific questions, feel free to email me at tomak@www.com .

The swap itself is a fairly easy thing to do. The biggest issue is cooling as the motor sits tilted somewhat upward and high in the engine compartment making a good electric fan mandatory. I use to run a single core aluminum rad, and it wasn't enough so I bought the Griffin 2 aluminum rad ($170 from Summit). Guess what? It didn't help one little bit! Turns out, by removing my inner fenders (which are only like 2 pounds each anyway) and removing the 'flimsy' plastic air damn, I created a spot for the air to escape, so it wouldn't go through the rad (it would go around it due to lower pressure). Lesson learned....

Also, if you want to keep power brakes, you will either have to keep the stock late model vacuum assist, but you will have to use the stock 460 valve covers (they are quite short). Otherwise, you will need to switch to the Lincoln hydra boost system. This is because the tallvalve covers will hit the vacuum booster. I switched to manual brakes myself du to the limited street nature of the car. To be honest, it still stops fine, I just would not want my 120 pound girlfriend driving it on the street for long period of time!

As for the swap itself, it is very easy and requires no cutting. I went with the motor plate route so I did cut out the stock motor mount pads, but you can buy adapter mounts for the car (actually over the winter I will be adding a tubular k-member/a-arms and coil over conversion). The headers are available anywhere, mine are Hooker Super Comps, but a large number of places make these, just look through the magazine ads. The oil pan can be a specific Canton or Milodon piece or you can use a factory ford truck pan, part number E7TE-667588. I don't recommend the stock pan as it is too small and if you rev the motor past 6000 rpm, you may suck it dry.

Once you have all the swap parts, you will need to modify the dual hump cross member. All that needs to be done is breaking the welds so that you can slide the tranny mount to its most rearward position. Attach small extension hoses (bent down and slightly to the rear) to the transmission (for the tranny oil cooler lines). This makes life easier as once the tranny is in, getting at the lines is not easy. Also the driveshaft will have to be shortened. Mine ended up being 42.5" center to center.

It also helps if you cut all the little 'ears' that stick out of the tranny bellhousing (these will catch on everything when trying to put the motor and tranny in). I have had the motor in and out of the car about 20 times now and the easiest way I have found is to have the front of the car jacked up a foot or so. Get a buddy (or two) to hold the headers in place in the engine compartment while you lower the motor and tranny (together) into place. You will find that you will have to angle the motor down a lot to get the rear of the tranny into the tunnel (with my hoist, I have to push down on the tranny tail shaft, while somebody pushes the hoist inward). Anyway down and in, down and in and so on until she's in. Make sure your buddies are constantly wiggling the headers so they don't get pinched and squashed. Once its in its mounts, get under the car, jack up the rear of the tranny and put in the crossmember. If you need any more info, email me.
 
 

About the Motor

Girlfriend Cindy, and an aspiring drag racer
Rude Rick
Work progressing on the motor, and then finally installed in the car. The top right picture is of my buddy Rick who did a lot of the work on the car and the motor.  The upper left picture is of a great gal, Cindy, who is a stickler for detail and wouldn't let me take any short-cuts!

 

So what's my secret? I'll give you a quick run down, because I don't have any secrets, and really hate guys that lie about what is in their cars!

It's a .060" over 1976 truck block with Keith Black Hyper Eutectic pistons. The rods are polished and shot peened, with ARP rod bolts installed. The cam is a Lunati solid, featuring 247°/255° @ .050" and .567/.580" lift. Honestly I think this cam is a little small since the car runs the same ET/mph if I shift at 5700 or 6500. The heads are Motorsport CJ heads with just a clean up port, and have 2.25/1.75 valves with 1.73 roller rockers. The intake is a Victor, and the carb is a 800cfm Holley. The tranny is a rebuilt C6 with a 3000 TCS 10" converter. It has 4.10 gears on a spool with c-clip eliminators and Moser 31 spline axles.

The headers are 2" primary, and the exhaust is 3.5" with 3.5" Dynomax Race Magnum mufflers. That's It! And it runs 11.0@125mph on the motor (10.5@130 mph corrected for our tracks elevation). On a 150hp hit of nitrous, it went 10.18@133mph with a good hook, and with a 250hp shot it went 10.15@136mph spinning wildly, and I had to let off right in the top 'cause the motor was spinning at 7200rpm! I will be switching from my 4.10's to 3.73's over the winter as well to get the full top end charge.

Check the videos section for the 10.1 pass, and a couple others! The new combo will hopefully be running by early next week, and I will update with results.

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