I am about to start a V6 to Cobra conversion, want to double-check a few things

[Chythar]

A bit of back history for you; I just can't bear to let my lil' 94 V6 go, my Grandpa bought it for me in 1997 and I never got to pay him back before he passed away in '99. So I am keeping my 94 forever, if I have any say in it. I've also done a lot of work to the V6 (see my sig), so it would be a shame to dump it after all that work. I've been wanting to do a Cobra conversion on it for a while, and I got lucky to find a wrecked Cobra this summer. It has a lot of frame damage, but the drivetrain is all intact and working. I was sad that a Cobra is gone but it'll live on in my soon-to-be-former V6.

I already know how to swap the drivetrains, I pulled my GT's engine & tranny this spring and dropped in replacements (I'll be keeping the stock timing pointer on the Cobra this time, go-stang ). And since I have a donor car, I should have all the brackets and parts I need. This will also be a auto to manual swap, but since I'm taking the computer and all wiring that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm not that familiar with manuals at all, though I have some experience in using one (this will be fun to practice on). I am more familiar with AODE's. I was wondering:

1. I'm going to change the tranny fluid, just to make sure it's fresh. AODE's have a filter to replace and usually a new pan gasket, but I can't find any listed for a T5. Do they need either? Is there a base drain plug for the T5, like the engine oil?

2. I've heard that part of the transmission tunnel needs to be cut away when switching from auto to manual. Otherwise, the shifter won't fit. Is this true?

3. The T5 takes standard Dextron III fluid, same as the AODE's? From what I read here, I'll need about 3 quarts for a wet-fill.

I've got a lot planned out, and a lot of parts to replace while I have the Cobra driveline out (water pump, vacuum & coolant hoses, etc). I'd be happy to take suggestions for anything I should watch out for.

Now I'll have to find someone to take the Cobra's black interior and Mach 460....

I'll be taking as many photos as I can, and will post 'em here as I go along.

 

[reddy351]

I'll be taking as many photos as I can, and will post 'em here as I go along.

Start with pics, now. Let us see the "Before" pics of both cars.


1) No filter on a T5.

2) You need a hole for the shifter to go through. So, yes, you need to make that hole.

3) Dex III. Not sure about the fill amount. I put 2 qts in the last one I did. I think it's just a shade under that, actually.


Good luck! Have fun. The "Cobra" part of the Cobra will live on, in your "Lil Sixer".

 

[final5-0]

Just wanted to say that is a great story
and
You got what I think to be a great plan
so
You'll have the best of both worlds

Lots of work
but
Since I know how you feel about the car

Your gonna have a blast
and
The outcome is gonna be very special to you

You'll master driving the stick trans in no time
and
You'll Absolutely LOVE It :Word:

Good Luck with all your plans

Grady

 

[SN95StangMan]

Sounds good. I've seen your six around once or twice, looks nice. Gonna be alot cooler with the new drivetrain.

 

[HISSIN50]

As Mr Grady said, there's a lot of neat sentiment behind this one.

Not that you need it but Danny (Sorscode) had some good swap info on his site as I recall).

Good luck and we look forward to hearing about it.

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

Good decision on keeping the car your Grandpa bought you. I would have done the same because I have lost both of my Grandpas....the only thing I have from them are some pocket knives they gave me when I was a kid and a ton of good memories and life lessons.....I will never give those away.....sentimental things are to never be discarded.

 

[Chythar]

Here we go....Day 1

Today, my friend Steve and I started this project. First up was to yank the V6 out of the 'Stang. Here's a photo just before we started:

You may notice what seems like a smudge on the pic near the rear quarter panel. That's no smudge, that's this:

One of my neighbors backed into the Stang while it was PARKED on the street. At least they owned up to it, and gave me their insurance info. The bad part is, their insurance company (Mercury) wants to TOTAL the car for that amount of damage. They seem to think the car is worth less than $2000, and the repair is about $1800. Not when I had the car valued at over $4000 last year. Oh well, that's for another post. Suffice to say, this Mustang will be on the road for a long time to come.

This next photo is from the rear:

As you can see, I already have the cobra claw spoiler and trunk lid. I had the Ford logo shaved when I had the trunk lid painted. I'll have the Saleen tails painted when I get the whole car repainted next year.

I have to apologize to you all, I got so caught up in removing the engine that I forgot to take some in-progress pics. But I did snap a couple after the engine and tranny were removed:

Total time, from removing the hood to dropping the engine & tranny on the ground: 3 hours. Eh, we took our time to make sure we didn't miss anything. I'll have photos of the Cobra tomorrow night.

 

[Chythar]

Day 2 - Photos of the Cobra, and some cleaning

As requested, photos of the wrecked Cobra:

I cleaned up the engine bay quite a bit on the Six, though I wasn't quite done yet.

I was surprised how clean the steering rack got:

This was a slow day. The Cobra's radiator support was crushed around the engine, so we have to cut a chunk of it away to be able to pull the engine free. That's taking much longer than expected. However, the Cobra DOES RUN! I did trust he seller, but I wanted to make sure. So, we hooked up a battery to the leads and cranked her over. After a few cranks, she roared to life! Still sounds like she's in tune, too. Sorry, no vids - I don't have any way to get a video up here.

 

[Chythar]

Day 3 - The Cobra is free, but a bit of bad news.

I spent the afternoon cleaning the Six's engine bay, and my friend hacked away at the Cobra's radiator support some more. Finally, it was free:

My friend and I checked around the engine bay, to see if there was any damage to the accessories. I already knew the smog pump was busted, and its mounts were broken on the alternator bracket. However, we found something else. See if you can see the problem in this next photo. No cheating by reading ahead.

A bolt by the timing pointer is bent up, and cracked the timing cover. That's gonna be a PITA to deal with. Already got a new one off eBay, it'll get here in a few days. Might as well get a new harmonic balancer if I have to take this one off.

One last photo, to show you the damage to the Cobra's suspension:

As for my bit of work, I finished cleaning the Six's engine bay and sprayed the visible areas with a semi-gloss black. Looks pretty nice, I'll have to take a photo in daylight. I won't be working on the Six until the weekend, so nothing new until then.

 

[Chythar]

Day 3 continued

Some photos of the painting I did Sunday night. I painted some of the engine bay with a semi-gloss black. I hit the areas visible when the engine is in the bay, and a few spots that had some rust.

I'm going to be hiding some of these wires, we'll see what I can do.

 

[HISSIN50]

That's about par for this kind of project.

You're doing good!

 

[Chythar]

Thanks. Though I admit, it's easier to take stuff apart than put it back together!

 

[HISSIN50]

Thanks. Though I admit, it's easier to take stuff apart than put it back together!

So true.
And no matter how well I label stuff, I still have to play the 'which fastener fits what hole' game.

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

Man, that is a sweet project you have going on there. Good thing your suspension is good, because I see the LCA is bent and the tie rod is broke. You seem to be doing a good job, and you better keep the progress pics coming!!...Or else....hehe

 

[Chythar]

The wheel on that LCA is touching the back of the fender and for some reason doesn't like to roll.

 

[Chythar]

Not much new this weekend. I only got to do some work late today. I had to fight with the Cobra-specific hoses in order to try to get the water pump off, and didn't make much progress. I did get the Mega-Bite Jr control arms off the V6, I'm going to get them powdercoated. I have a second set for my GT, so I want to get them both done at the same time.

 

[final5-0]

Man thats a lot of work

but ...

I'm sure you are learning some good stuff and having a bit of fun as well

Its gonna be nice when you are through :Word:
and
You will have the satisfaction from knowing

You have done it ... YOURSELF

Grady

 

[Chythar]

Slow Progress...

My projects always take forever, because I just don't have much time to work on them. Only got some work done Sunday. Removed the water pump and timing cover, but didn't have a chance to install the new ones yet. As it turns out, it's a good thing I'm replacing the timing cover. First pic, front of the timing cover:

The rust is from the water pump, the impeller got driven back in the accident. It also looks like the former owner may have used tap water to refill the coolant, or perhaps not enough antifreeze. There's a lot of buildup around the water pump area. Once the engine's up and running, I need to flush the coolant system.

Next photo, of the back side:

See all the cracks? That's not normal. The water pump hit so hard, it cracked the back of the timing cover. I wonder how long it would have been before pieces of aluminum would have broken off and fell in the oil pan?

My friend and I also cut the other end of the bumper and radiator support off the Cobra. Now we have easy access to the entire engine. I'll try to get photos of that soon.

 

[Chythar]

Still working on the conversion, just not a lot to show. The Cobra's engine is just about ready to pull, and I've been working on hiding wires on the V6. I just made some good progress, so you get an update. First photo, I cut a hole just below the fuse box to run the wires through. I had to make it kinda big, there's a large connector that leads back to the driver's firewall inside the fender. I bought a small vacuum hose and split it on one side, and used that to line the edges of the hole. The specks under the hole are metal shavings, I haven't cleaned it up yet.

The line running off to the right is the fuse connector that hooks up to the engine, I had to pull it out of the wire loom in order to make sure it could reach the engine.

Next photo is inside the driver's fender well, showing the other side of the hole I made. The wire kinks a bit funny, but it should all fit under the splash guard. Since I had to split the wire loom to pull the fused wire out (from the first pic), I re-wrapped the loom with electrical tape.

This is an odd view, it's looking up into the fender right by the fog light. The white connector is the airbag crash sensor hookup. The main harness branches off at this point: the upper wire with the bend in it is for the corner light & fog light, the smaller wire is for the head light, the the third one is the main harness stretching across the radiator support. Since the wire loom for this last one was falling apart, I pulled it all off, replaced it and wrapped it with electrical tape. The replaced part is the darker black.

This last one is where the harness comes up near the head light and stretches across the radiator support. I hacked away part of the corner where the harness comes out (right in the middle of the pic). I had to 'cause the connectors at the end of the harness just wouldn't fit through. I'm also lining this part with the rubber vacuum hose, but I'm not done reshaping the metal yet. I pulled the wire loom tighter than it was before, it hides really well under the lip on the radiator support. I have to extend the ground wire from the last pic to reach up here to one of the two screws.

I'm not done with the harness yet, but I'm hoping to have more photos soon. Oh, I know some of you will ask - I did have to extend some of the wiring. Beyond the ground wire I already mentioned, the rest is on the other side of the engine bay. I'll photograph that when I finish it all up.

EDIT: This routing didn't work, I had to re-run the wiring. Fast forward to here to see how I re-routed the wires and SHOULD have routed the wires.

 

[HISSIN50]

It looks good! I need to do what you did in this last shot. I just have the loom sitting on top of my e-fan (non-stock radiator and fan).

Keep up the good work!