'95 F-150 track ready street beast

[Sbeck09]

Not the most productive weekend I've had and it's totally my fault. I had some buddies come over to check the project out and then we rode our project scooters (yes that's a thing and you're missing out). And I just kinda worked slowly overall.

When I was at the engine builder last week he let me steal the actual oil pan for mockup which was sweet! I have to say that it's a MONSTER. Not the biggest I've seen, but I think this is about 7.5 qts. It's got all the trap doors around the sump too. True road race piece.



This brings me back to the epic failure of my headers again. You'll notice they are no longer bolted on. Because neither side fits with this oil pan. I'm really frustrated about it and should have made my own. That's what I get for trying to mix and match parts. So to attempt to get my money's worth I'll be cutting these and hopefully making lemonade out of these lemons. Ugh.

Finally had a reason to unbox the motor mounts I ordered 3 months ago. Cool pieces. Similar to the LS swap stuff everyone likes, me included. This is the only company I could find that offers such a thing for SBF. Perfect for this build too.







And of course once I got to sliding everything in things went out of control again. The person I am, never being content with "that will work," meant the motor is going to be offset only .5 inches to the passenger side (much more centered than the factory setup) and is about 98% behind the axle. Like, the timing cover and accessories will be the only things in front of the axle center line. But hey, because race truck.



The out of control part comes from the fire wall cutting this brought on. For the record, I hate sheet metal welding. But the driver's side cylinder head was bumping just slightly and I probably need to cut a bit more for the valve covers. I'd love to have one of those handy right now...



After using my neighbor's Lincoln 210 MP all weekend for this work I have this to say: not a big fan of the inverter welders they make now. I don't feel it's as smooth. The one positive is that you can turn it WAY down and it doesn't blow out thin sheet metal nearly as easy, but that's the only positive I have.

That's it for now. As always, more to come soon.