TwinTorino

[SVTforme]

Been a while since I have posted.. project is moving right along..

Managed to get the powertrain in it's actual position finally. Really starting to feel like a car now. Put the hood on to find that we actually have hood clearance which we were not really sure about it. Have around 15-20mm from the throttle body to the hood. Won't need to modify the hood thankfully. Still detaing on whether to run a shaker. Kinda leaning towards not using it and keeping the stock hood. The engine ended up 4" rearward of the front suspension in comparison to an SN95 Mustang.

Also got the 6-speed in. After struggling with getting it to work with the stock trans tunnel - it was clear that it was not going to fit. The plasma cutter made that go away quickly - A new custom tunnel will be made up. Otherwise, the shifter is in the perfect location and feels great going through the gears. The handle shown is just for mockup - I will likely modify a hurst shifter or something like that and then use a custom boot. Want to make it look somewhat period looking.

The headers are in and they fit surprising well. They are full length headers made by SLP Engineering and came with an engine we bought. The pass side clears everything, but the drivers side could get interesting with the steering shaft. Nothing major.. just will need some tweaking.

[SVTforme]

Also finished up close to a final rendering of the car. Just need to add a couple things like the hash marks etc and update the brakes. I like the stock looking C stripe the more I look at it.. glad I pryed myself away from the 2-tone. The background is in Arizona and was taken by a friend of mine.

[SVTforme]

Managed to find several more Mustang performance parts (used of course) from one person that almost completes the parts needed to finish the suspensions for both cars. This includes 4 sets of Hypercoil springs (2 1/2 ID front, 2 1/4 ID rear), Maximum Motorsports tubular lower control arms and caster camber plates, and rear Eibach IRS swaybar (29mm). Almost there - can't wait to take the first lap around the track! Springs rates are close to what we want based on wheel rate calculations. They will be tuned in once we get some track time.

[SVTforme]

Also have the fabrication nearly complete on the front IRS cradle suspension mounts. As you can see, they tie into the existing leaf spring mount. We cut a section of 2" OD steel and notched out the 2.5" main tube - worked perfect. Another days worth of work and they will be ready to weld in. Getting closer to getting the car down on the ground. We decided to rigid mount these instead of using rubber bushings like the factory ones.

[SVTforme]

Subframe connectors are now nearly completed. Very happy with how they fit. There is lots of weld area to tie these into the existing front and rear subframes. Should increase the stiffness of the chassis quite a bit. If all goes well.. they should look they are supposed to be there. Just need to get the rotisserie built so the underside can be completely welded

[SVTforme]

I have been trying to figure out what the heck to do with my ignition switch on the dash.. as the electrical portion of the projects is quickly approaching. Since the entire car revolves around a 2004 Mustang's electrical system, I needed to use something that would allow me to use a Mustang key in the dash. Only problem is new Mustangs have their keys on the column, which means the mechanisms are totally different as is the electrical. After looking all over the place.. I found several Lincolns have a key in the dash. I found this 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII lately which fits quite nicely. Once the original ring is in place, should look close to stock. It fits and looks quite nicely. The goal here is to make it look close to stock.

These pics show how the part fits without any mods whatsoever. Just need to modify the part slightly so the stock ring will fit.

[SVTforme]

Finally time to start working on the fun part of this project - the powertrain. We have 2 kits to completely rebuild and upgrade the 6-speed transmissions, and the engines will just get a refreshing/upgrade and make sure everything is OK inside. After all, they are only 5 years old.

One of the engines we bought came from a car that was a write-off and have some issues with the front cover being cracked as you can see. We took a risk on this (since we only have pics to go by) and hoped that there was no internal damage from the timing chain coming off. Sure enough when we pulled the head off, all was well inside. Gotta love the 4 valve heads .

[SVTforme]

We bought 2 Tremec T56 6-speeds knowing there was some internal damage, and saved a lot of money by doing so. Symptoms were hard to shift into 3/4 gears, and also the transmission was popping out of 3rd and 4th while driving. This is a classic symptom in these transmission of failed stamped steel keys in the trans. This is a faily easy job as long as you have gear pullers available and heavy duty snap ring pliers.

As you can see below - the fragments found in the trans of the stamped steel keys, what the stamped steel keys originally looked like, and the upgraded billet keys. Also the difference between the bronze shift fork pads and the plastic originals (the other ones were in pieces all through the trans). Transmissions will also receive carbon kevlar synchronizer rings and an upgraded steel shift fork (from aluminum). Otherwise all the gears in the trans were in great shape with no noticeable wear.

[WS6]

The rendering looks great. I wouldn't change a thing. Keep up the great work. I really like these cars and think they deserve more attention from the PT and hot rod crowd.

[justdrive]

amazing work so far, cant wait to see the twins.

[CruizinKev]

nice project man! keep it up

[hechtrod]

What they said! Cool renderings! Even cooler in real life. Keep it up! Love the concept of Ford parts, especially the 4 valve'r and irs.

[Code Red]

wow real nice work man

[zman1969]

looking great and your building two? (cant hardly afford my one) I like the torinos! keep up the good work and good pics you've included - nice!

[SVTforme]

I am building one and a friend is building the other. There is strength in numbers . I can barely afford one myself. I can't afford the labor rate.. but I can afford the time.

[PROTREE]

looking good keep us up to date with pics

[SVTforme]

Time for another update.. been a while.

Finished the rebuild of both T56 transmissions. Much easier than I had expected. They both had the same 3/4 stamped key issue, and one had a sheared up input shaft (Ford input shafts only use 10 spline instead of the GM 26 spline.. damn OEM cost reductions!).

Car was not going anywhere with this shaft. Ebay $13 replacement will do the trick. I will not be running enough power to replicate this failure (not yet at least).

Ebay used press coming in handy..

New sycro billet keys and blocker rings installed and ready to go:

Measuring shaft preloads (since they use tapered roller bearings) and added shims to get 0.000 end play.

All done, cleaned up and ready to install:


Trans #2..

We bought this one from a guy in Ohio for very cheap.. he was fed up with the way it shifted and had brought it into the dealer to take a look. The dealer pulled it apart and found the stamped keys destroyed and pieces were all over the magnets (just like the other one we have). The blocker rings (shown below) were warn out and then some. Thankfully they did not wear down more or my gears would have been chewed up. At this point - I am guessing the dealer found it would be cheaper to just replace it, so they did. They quickly pieced it back together (leaving several key pieces out) and that is how we bought it.

Here is a pic of everything disassembled and in the parts washer. Still amazed they can actually make these thing work.

[SVTforme]

Now back to the interior once again. The top portions of the subframe connectors are now completely welded in, so it is time to finish up the firewall and the floors. The firewall was trimmed to fit around the torque box and was adjusted to the final position both side to side and up and down. The floor needed to be slotted to clear the subframe connectors both front and back. We ended up lowering the floor 3/4" to get everything where we wanted it. Just need to add an inch or two to the front pan so it will mate up with the firewall. This works out great and will no longer require toe pans. I had to pull out the hammer and dolly set to get the profile of the front of the floor pan to match the firewall - worked out quite well in the end.
Just need to make up extensions for both sides of the firewall and make up a tranmission hump, then everything can be welded in for good. Finally starting to feel like we are getting somewhere.

[SVTforme]

Put the cutouts in the pass side floors to mate up with the subframe connectors, and added and inch and a half to the front of each panel to meet up with the Mustang firewall. That way I no longer need to use Torino toe pans (unfortunately I bought them already). With the way the subframe connectors are set up in the car, the floors are lowered approx 3/4 in the front to get a bit more room up front for the pedals etc. I quickly put in the seats and dash and it feels perfect for driving.. can't wait. Now onto the firewall and trans tunnel.

[WS6]

Looking good. I love what you're doing. Just finished watching Gran Torino the movie too. Great movie