Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Well, its been a long road (literally and figuratively) putting my Bird back together after I scattered the 5.0 motor in 2005.  I was so pissed off at the whole deal I stuffed it into storage for about three years and then my dad's shop got finished and we brought it to his house.  I live about five hours away so I have to plan my trips there to work on it.  Some may wonder why the hell I would do this but its where I grew up and have all my car connections (paint, motor, machine work, and exhaust) so it makes better sense to leave it there.  The 351W has been built for awhile now and the TKO was in it with the 5.0.  The exhaust on the car with the 5.0 was MAC long tube 1-3/4" primaries with 3" collectors, a hand built 3" off road X-pipe, and a MAC 3" cat back system for a Fox LX Mustang with the rear portion of the tail pipes extended 8" with 3" pipe (lots of grinding, welding, and filing to get them to look right).

With the 351W I figured it was time to up the anti and go big.  I have a friend back home that builds race cars from the bottom up and he builds headers.  We talked about what I wanted from the car and the possibility of a stroker kit later on down the road so we went with 1-7/8" primaries and a 3-1/2" collector.  It took him several months to build them with all the work he has and he got pretty sick at one point but modern medicine fixed him up.  The headers are done and I am headed back home this weekend to build the 3-1/2" off road X-Pipe and modify the old 3" X-pipe to accept cats so I can pass inspection here (visual only).  Just thought I would share some pics of the headers in the car and I will update this thread as the exhaust comes along.  This could take a couple of months as its time consuming and not cheap.

Here are a couple of pictures of the driver side:





I will put some of the passenger side in the next post.

Darren

Here are the passenger pictures:





Darren

Hey Darren, those look great!  Very nicely done.  They're quite a step up from the Mac's.

I was also checking out the Tubular K-member & A-Arms, studded AFR heads, fuel pressure regulators, adjustable brake proportioning valve...

Thanks for the complement.  Its a sickness I tell you.  My dad bought the car new and I have driving it since I was sixteen so this has been a transformation over the years.  The booster and MC are from a 95 GT so take a guess as to the brake package...I have no common sense anymore.

Once I get the off road X-pipe done it and the headers will go to Performance Coating in Oklahoma City (http://performancecoatingsokc.com/) to get coated.  The X-pipe with the cats will get rattle can high temp black.

Darren

looks like remflex header gaskets?

I had to look those up to see what you were talking about and when I saw the picture on their website (http://catalog.remflex.com/FORD_Header_Exhaust_Manifold_Gasket_p/rf3043.htm) I understood why you thought that.  The AFR heads have a 9 and 3 o'clock bolting pattern and the exhaust ports shroud a 1-7/8" primary.  What appears to be a thick gasket between the 3/8" header  is actually an adapter plate so the 2 and 8 o'clock pattern can be utilized to take advantage of the larger primaries.  The adapters use high temp silicone to seal them to the heads (which is already on them) and I will use a standard gasket for the header to adapter plate once they come back from being coated.

Darren

Hmmm, looks pretty nice...in other words..more pics lol

 
X2...car has some nice hardware added already.  lol

Small update on the exhaust.  Finally got up to Oklahoma this weekend and my buddy was back from North Dakota on a two week break from work.  We got busy building the 3" center section with the X-Pipe and cats for the old visual for inspection stickers we have here in this part of Texas.  Mike took more pics of the 3" than the other but it was a bit more complicted with the cats.





Darren

More pics:





This X-pipe was painted with high temp black with the exception of the cats as it will not be on the car that much.  The other X-pipe and headers will be coated like the cat back with a ceramic coating that is polished.

Darren

Pic of the car on the rack with the exhaust in it:



And one of the car outside the shop for those that wanted to see a full body shot:



The car has not been washed in five years just rinsed off so its not blinging like it can.  Once it is running again it goes back to paint and body to replace the aftermarket passenger side fender (poor fit) and to install the TC front bumper cover, bumper support, and fog lights.

Darren

Here are a couple of shots of the 3-1/2" off road X-Pipe.  We got it welded up and the welds ground down with 80 grit paddle wheels for the 4" grinder.  I am going to hand file some of the hard to get to spots and then work them over with some plumbers sand paper.  At least that is what I call it as its about 1" wide and is used to rough up the connections on copper pipe that are going to be soldered.  Worked really good at getting exhaust metal ready to coat.

At the shop sanding down the welds:



On the floor at my dad's shop:



Darren

wow.. thats just convinced me to get rid of most of the mouldings on my 83, looks brilliant.

that exhaust looks like a nice bit of work too

You can see from the pictures that the headers have slip on collectors.  I originally thought this was going to be a good idea but Mike and I talked at the races last night and have decided to take the car back down to his shop and retro fit the headers and X-pipes with 3-1/2" s so the X-pipes are easier to remove for acces to the transmission and for ease of interchangeability.  I am tied up for the next couple of weekends and Mike is back in the Dakotas for three weeks so it will be the weekend before Memorial Day that we get back to this.  Once we get that done I can pull the headers and get them and the 3-1/2" off road pipe to the coaters.

Darren

Great job that should flow for what ever future plans you have for the motor. Nice shop to its worth the drive Ive been on my back for the last month :)

Mike's shop is rented and needless to say the rent is cheap and it gets the job done.  His family owned and operated an exhaust shop for over 30 years and the only way he and his brother could get his dad to retire (health reasons) was to close it.  They kept enough equipment to work on custom exhausts for the hot rodders and thats it, no more $39.99 ler replacements.  We talked over a 4" exhaust but there is just not enough room to clear it and keep any kind of ground clearance with the car sitting at its current height.  Mike always likes to see just how much he can stuff under a car for future "Hey man, hold my beer...I think we can do this" kind of moments.  Back in the day that usually ended up with a blue bottle in the trunk and broken T-5 parts.  Anyhow, I will post more pics when we change it from slip fit to s and then when I get it all back from the coaters.  Hoping to have it finished by the end of June.

Darren

Gorgeous bird man...I want those exact rims on my bird.

Bullitt replicas, 17X8 and 17X9.  Your car will tuck a lot more tire than mine will so you have more choices in width and tire size.

Darren

Finally got back up home last weekend and we ditched the slip on portion of the headers and X-pipes.  Its all d now so changing the X-pipes out or dropping one for transmission service (hopefully that won't be an issue) will be 100X easier.  Now I have to disassemble the headers and take them and the 3-1/2" X-pipe to OKC to get coated.  Work is keeping me busier than I would like but it will get done adventually.  I will post up pics of the headers and X-pipe when I get them back but it will be at least a month...the agony.

Darren

Love the car...and your exhaust setup will be very unique indeed.  Next time you are around the car, snap some more pics of it for us!  That is one nice looking '83.

Darren, that is a well thought out system! It's nice to see someone who knows the value of flow, instead of most people saying " you'll lose torque down low"..... LOL. You can easily upgrade to a 408,418 or 427  without having to do any more exhaust work.  VERY IMPRESSIVE.

  Mark

Well, I finally made it up to the shop this weekend and got the headers off the motor.  Took them and the catless X-pipe to OKC to get them coated and they should be ready by the 22nd.  Hopefully work will allow me to make it up there and pick them up and get the system fully installed.  Will not be much left after that to get the motor started and get it over to the body shop for the TC nose and some deperately needed TLC.  Car has never been buffed since it was painted in 99 so hopefully we can bring it back to looking like when you touch the car it will come back wet with paint.

After all this I doubt a bigger motor will be in the future.  I want to drive it for a few years...

Darren

Wow very nice!

And for those of you that were patient and wanted to see the end results here they are:

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0895.jpg)

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0899.jpg)

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0898.jpg)

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0910.jpg)

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0903.jpg)

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0908.jpg)

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0917.jpg)

(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy142/dbrune_83/IMG_0919.jpg)


Darren

I am still working on other things to get the car running so it will be awhile but wanted to update those that were watching the thread on the exhaust.

Darren

very nice setup! if it wasn't for the pics of you building the system, you could pass it off as a direct fit kit.. very nice work

Nice Pic/work 

 Did you build the headers also???

Well, I had the headers built by a friend who is a  fine tig welder.  They are 1-7/8" primaries to 3-1/2" collectors.  He ran two of the primaries between the block and the Griggs K-member and the other two go outside the K-memeber and back around it to the collector.  Was the only way to fit the large primaries and still make it where I can get them in and out with the slip on collectors.  Everything is HTC coated and bead polished.  It took a lot of effort to get it done so I wanted to make sure it would last for years.  Two good friends did all the exhaust work, one built the headers and the other built the X-Pipe and modified the Fox Mustang MAC 3" cat-back to work on the T-Brid chassis.  A lot of time and money but I am hoping it will sound kind of like my Coupe car but just a tinge different so it makes a person wonder just before they see the car.

Darren

You might have to pass on some of your contacts.  Awesome work on that car.

Tail pipes are MAC units for an 87-93 5.0 LX Mustang that were lengthened by my buddy with the exhaust shop.  The X-pipe is custom made by the same guy with mandrel bent fittings and pipe.  The headers were built by another good friend from a kit.  I took all of it to a coating shop in OKC in three stages.  All of this was not cheap, the headers alone were $450 for the kit, $800 in labor to build, and $275 to coat so for $1,525 you can have a set just like mine.  Most of you will say F that and I completely understand but its what I wanted and they fit like a glove.  Don't get me wrong as I am not bragging, I have to have something seriously wrong with me to pay that but I don't have other vises so this is where I spend my money.  Since the 302 kicked the bucket in 2005 I have had nothing but time to save money and plan this.  If anyone wants contact info for the headers or the exhaust work just PM me and I can pass that on.

Darren

Since you built the system, have you had any clearance issues with the long tubes and the X-pipe?  Looks like it was built to address the typical problem people have with sing the long tubes and I have to say that it looks awsome one more time.

The car has sat in the garage since the system was built.  I still do not have the motor fired.  Guess one of these days I will get a fire lit under my ass and get it running.  If it gets close to bottoming out I will either stiffen up the shocks and struts, just raise the car with the coil overs, or just avoid where it might bottom out like speed bumps and high angle driveways.

Darren