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1992 LX The street to track to street again build.

173K views 1K replies 49 participants last post by  Peter92lx 
#1 ·
This is the story of my 1992 LX fox body and my plan to rebuild it. Fair warning it long so grab your favorite beverage and I hope you enjoy.

The Story

1995-1996

I bought my mustang back in 1995 it was used with just over 8k miles on it. It wasn’t very sought after on the dealer lot since it had an automatic installed in it. I didn’t really mind at the time since I had planned on drag racing it. I did some of the normal mods to it at first cat back exhaust, 3.55 gears, JBA headers and subframe connectors. I then lowered the car on suspension technics springs, front and rear sway bars and tokico illumina shocks. I really only added the suspension to it because I liked the looks of the lowered car wasn’t thinking about handling at the time. That changed when I went to a local car show and met a guy with a 1965 GT350 he was autocross racing. He told me all about it sounded like fun so I thought I would check it out. it looked like fun but I realized the automatic was really not going to be good for autocross racing.

1997-1998

After checking out the autocross I decided that is what I wanted to do with the car. The company I worked for got internet access and I found the corral I used to go under a screen name 92lx. I searched all over the net to find the parts I would need to swap the car over to manual. So I bought all the parts I needed to convert the car from automatic to manual. I picked up everything I needed from a salvage yard the only parts I bought that were new was the tranny, clutch quadrant, clutch and flywheel. Then I added JBA racing springs, global west camber plates and hotchkis upper and lower control arms and got the car aligned for autocross. I also added Baer Racing brakes so it would stop. I started autocross racing and loved it. I met a few other guys that raced fox body mustangs and they helped me out getting the car setup. I found out quick that the rear control arms mixed with the bigger rear sway bar can make the rear of the car bind up really bad. The car had really bad wheel hop all over the place. I left the lower arms in but pulled the uppers out and put the factory arms back in and took off the rear sway bar which helped. I added clutches to the diff to tighten it up and the car started to work pretty well but I wanted more.

1999-2000

I started to look around for what I wanted to do next suspension when one of the guys I raced with got a new front suspension that turned it into a SLA front suspension. The kit added a upper control arm to the front of the car and I hadn’t seen anything like it for a mustang. The company that made it also had a complete kmember kit for the front. The kit was made by a guy named Corey Shaw at IPS suspension. Now if you have been on this site long enough you probably recognize the name. The problem at the time was the cost it was way out of my league. But while searching the for sale forums some one was selling a almost complete front an rear IPS setup. I say almost complete since it was missing the front sway bar and the brackets that held it on the car. I didn’t care and bought it. I got the rest of the parts from IPS and installed the front suspension on the car. I didn’t get the rear installed for another 6 months after the front suspension. I had my issues with it but it really worked good on the car.

2001-2003

After I installed the suspension I ran into a problem the car wasn’t legal for most SCCA classes other the CP which the car had no chance in with full interior. This when I made the worst choice I could I turned the car into a track only car. I pulled out my 4 point autopiler roll bar and added a full cage to the car and took it off the street. I thought at the time it would be super cool to own a race car. I bought a full size truck and trailer then started building my race car. it never made it to CP I started to run a local class called SU aka Street Unlimited you could do anything you wanted to the car you just had to run on a DOT approved tire. The class worked great for me so I ran it for the next few years. During the next few years I ended up breaking the rear suspension at the upper mounts and the front spindle adapters. I added a maximum motorsports panhard bar to the car to fix the rear. The front parts were going to take some real fab work with the creator and the company gone I decided to look else where for the front suspension.

2004-2006

I decided to look at all the parts MM had to offer. They were getting ready to release there own kmember and control arm setup so as soon as they released it and started taking orders I bought it. I ended up getting everything they made for the front and rear suspension except the torque arm. I still had the parallel 4 link in the car and decided to stick with it. I raced the car in this configuration until the end of 2006 and the car was great.

2007-now

Then in 2007 I started to realize having a track only car was expensive with the cost of the full size truck and renting a place to store my trailer. I wanted to buy a house get out of CC debit so I decided to sell the truck and trailer and put the car on jack stands. I bought a 2007 Subaru STI so I could still autocross in stock class without doing anything to the car. The mustang remained on jack stands only leaving them when I had to move it to a new place. The years that followed I got out of debit met my wife bought a house and became a dad. I planned on selling the car a few times because I thought my wife was tired of me toting the car around. She told me not to sell it she said if you think I’m mad about you owning that car and it just sitting around your wrong I will be mad if you sell it and try to buy another one later on. I’m lucky to have a wife that likes to autocross race with me its how we met but more on that another time. Now I have the ability to do what I wanted for the past 10 years rebuild the car.

Here's some pictures of how the car sits now. I'm trying to find some old pictures of the car I have some from my second autocross event that I will post once I find them. I also have one from a few months after I bought the car.





 
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#2 · (Edited)
The Plan

I’m going to turn the car back into a street car. I know what your thinking that’s a dumb idea why would you do that just buy a new car that is already street legal and move the parts from your one car to a new one. I know what i’m doing isn’t really smart. I put the car on non op status back in 2000 where it has remained. I checked with the DMV and I won’t have any penalties because it was on non op all these years. They still have it on record so it won’t be a problem. If it was going to be a problem I would have done my plan b which was get another car and move the parts. This car holds allot of sentimental value to me I learned allot with this car and I hope one day I will get to teach my son how to work on it and autocross in it. I’m planning on having the car running around the beginning of next year so I can start testing it at the local autocross at least that is the plan right now.

Current configuration

Engine

Built by ESI Racing engines
Balanced and blueprinted 302
Crane custom cam
Crane Roller rockers and lifters
Canton Road Race pan
Ported 351 heads
Ford Cobra intake
30lb injectors
75mm mass air
65mm throttle body

I’ve always wanted to build a 331 stroker for it. Now I’m thinking about building a 347 instead. When I was first looking into 12 years ago the safest way to go was the 331 for something that was going to see road course and autocross duty due to oiling issues with the 347. After doing research it seems to me allot of the oiling issues people talked about are gone. The cost for the 331 and 347 is the same so i figure why not do a 347.

I’ve been looking at short blocks from CHP or AD performance or I might use my current block from my car and just get the rotating assembly. I’ve also been looking at the TFS street burner top end kit for the motor seems like a nice complete kit that would cover most of what I need. I’m not planning on doing the motor until around the end of the year so I have some time to do more research.

Suspension

Front
MM Kmember
MM Forward offset control arms
MM Bump Steer kit
MM Camber plates
MM Sway bar relocation brackets
MM Coil over kit
Koni DA struts

Rear
MM Panhard Bar
MM Adjustable rear sway bar
MM Road race lower control arms
Griggs coil overs
Koni SA shocks
Parallel 4 link with custom upper arms

I don’t really plan on changing much on the suspension. The front I’m going to go with the smaller MM front sway bar I always felt the stock front bar was a little big for the coil overs The rear of the car I’m going to remove the 4 link and add a torque arm to the car. I had planned on doing this before but money was tight and the 4 link worked ok so I didn’t bother to change it. I’m also looking at replacing the shocks in the car the koni’s need to be rebuilt so I thought about replacing them with JRi or the new MM DA shocks.

Drivetrain

World Class T5
Torsen T2R
Mosler axles

The only things I’m looking to do with the drivetrain is a new trans with a 347 I don’t think the T5 is going for to long. I think it should be pretty good since I won’t be doing hard launches but I’m think a TKO-600 is in the cars future. I’m also going to switch to a aluminum driveshaft at some point.

Engine Management

I have a EEC Tuner in the car right now that I used to setup the current engine. I'm planning on switch to a Moates Quarter horse system once I have the engine build. I would love to run something like the Pro-M system but since they eliminate the smog sensors its a no go. I looked at others but they all seem to get rid of the smog sensors which doesn't work on a CA car.
 
#3 ·
Sounds like a great plan and great story to go along with it! Can't wait to see how it turns out
 
#5 · (Edited)
Cage Removal

The first part of the build is getting the front part of the cage removed. I plan on leaving the main hoop installed since I see no need for rear seats plus its welded in really good.

I started by getting the dash out of the car.





Then started removing the passenger side door bars.



Then moved on to removing the section that connected the front part of the cage to the floor and the firewall.



Next is removing the driver side door bars and getting the roof bars out. I hope to have all this done in the next few weeks. Right now I only get 5 or 6 hours to work on it each week so it will be slowing going for the next few months until the house remodel is finished.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Yesterday I worked on getting the rest of the front part of the cage out of the car. It turned out to be easier then I had planned.

I already had the passenger side door bars so I worked on the driver side.



I was able to get the driver side door bars out and the upper part of the cage. So now the front part of the cage is removed. I still have a few parts to clean up but for the most part its out.



Here's all the pieces of the cage I removed sitting in my driveway.



Now to start working on getting the interior back in the car. I have a new black dash I got off ebay and a few other parts. I also got a new under dash harness since I had cut up my old one really bad. My current plan is get the dash harness in and the dash wired up and make sure the head lights, turn signals and windshield wipers work.
 
#8 ·
I did something very similar with a 70 fastback. It was a 10 second pro-street car with not a stitch of interior. Redid the car and made it something fun to drive around. Cool build!
Thanks man I'm looking forward to getting going after all these years of it sitting. Can't wait to be able to drive it on the street again.
 
#9 ·
The Engine



So lately I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do with the engine. I’ve always wanted to build a 331 for my car like I mentioned before at the time the 347 wasn’t the best due to oiling issues which seem to be corrected now. So I’m starting to shift to building a 347. The engine build won’t be wild I’m going to keep it pretty mellow. I need to it hold up under autocross and occasional track day. I’m looking at two different ways of building the engine.

The mild build

I’ve thought about just rebuilding the current engine the only thing I really need to make it street legal is a cam and heads. Its been sitting for a long time 8 years without running for anything more then 10 minutes so I would take it apart inspect it and have the block cleaned. I know its been bored 30 over already and it should be fine its a Mexican block which are supposed bigger main caps I still have to do more research on it.

Parts
New rod and main bearings
New piston rings
AFR 185 Heads
Cam
ARP Main studs
ARP Head studs
Push rods
Possibly new Rocker arms

I’m still looking into who will do the block work and what I should have done to make sure its still in good shape. I know with adding main studs I will need to have the mains line honed due to the different clamping loads of the studs. The cam I’m still trying to figure out at first I thought of just going with a Ford E303 but I have also looked at Crane Cam’s they have a few that are emissions legal.

The not to wild build

Really it’s pretty much the same as the mild build with a 347 stroker kit. I’ve looked at 347 stroker kits from fordstrokers.com I’ve read allot of good threads by strokeme and he really knows his stuff. I also like his sbfbuilding.com site I’m thinking about joining it when I start the build on the engine. I’m still planning on using the block I have unless I find a major problem with it. I’ve doing research and seems with a build like mine the block should fine if I keep it no more then 450hp and don’t spin it more then 6500 rpms. I figure with this build the most it would be able to put out is around 400hp. I’m also looking at doing one of his cast steel crank kits I figure forge steel crank is over kill for what I’m going to do with the car.

347 Stroker Kit
AFR 185 Heads
Cam
ARP Main studs
ARP Head studs
Push rods
Possibly new Rocker arms

If any of you guys have suggestions advice or know a good engine machine shop in San Diego let me know.
 
#11 ·
Haven't made must progress over the past couple weeks I didn't get to work on it last weekend. I got to work on it this weekend but only for a couple hours. I'm working on cleaning up some of the smaller parts of the cage leftover from removing it.

I started cleaning up the passenger side of the car this weekend.





Again didn't make much progress but I'm hoping to get more time to work on it this weekend.

Still trying to figure out the engine. I'm thinking about pulling the engine from the car in the next month to see what I have to work with so I can start making plans for it.
 
#12 ·
Still working on the cage got mostly everything out now just have a bit of clean up. I think I'm going to pick up a die grinder to clean up some of the smaller areas.



I did get some parts to add to the pile of parts I already have for the car. I picked up some scott rod fab doors.



I also have all the parts to setup the car up with manual windows. Once I get the cage part finished I'm going to start getting the doors together.
 
#15 ·
That was a big part of it for me. I would do all this work to the car but then have to wait weeks sometimes a month to drive it. Then some of the changes wouldn't work and I would have to wait again to try out the fix. It will be nice to just jump in the car and just drive it when I want.
 
#16 ·
Got some time to work on the car today. I got the passenger door assembled with the window and the manual regulator installed. Its weird to see the car with side windows installed.





Then I started working on adding the transmission tunnel hump for a 5 speed car. I had never changed the transmission tunnel after I installed the 5 speed in the car. The cover never sealed right but I never really cared since it was a track car and there wasn't any windows. I figured now that there will be windows I should work on sealing up the car.



The plan for next weekend is get the driver door together then start focusing on getting the dash installed and the carpet.
 
#21 ·
So I haven't had a chance to work on the car the past couple weekends. The last time I was able to work on the car I realized I really needed to clean up my garage. So today I spent most of my time cleaning up and getting a storage cabinet for my garage. I getting some work benches over the next couple weeks so I should have my garage together.

I did get to work on the car so I decided to get the window installed on the driver side of the car. The passenger side took me a while to get it installed. So I figured I wouldn't get the driver side done today. But I used what I leaned installing the passenger side and the driver side went fast.





Now I have the manual windows installed. I still have some adjustments I need to make to get them working smooth but they are working. I have to make sure I get them all working good I'm going to put the Scott rod Fab door panels on and there not something you can just pull off.

Then I finished up the transmission tunnel. The last time I worked on the car I sealed everything up knowing I wouldn't get to work on it for 2 weeks.





Then drilled out the holes and added the rivets.



Not the most exciting stuff going on with the car. I'm hoping once I'm back in my house when the remodel is done I will be able to make more progress on the car. The next part is getting the remaining roll cage cleaned up and painted red. I plan on doing most of the interior in black with the cage red.
 
#22 ·
Did some more work on the car decided start working no the wiring. I got a new head light harness for the car from Ron Francis its a nice harness happy with the quality. I got it all installed but I will have to do some work on the alternator end since I converted to a 95amp alternator a long time ago.



I also got the dash harness in so I can start wiring it up the head light and turn signal switches so I can start testing it all.



I started to get the metal frame that goes under the dash in so I can get it mounted and tie the harness to it.





I can already see the wiring is going to be a pain in the ass but I should get through it pretty quick. There's going to be allot of unused connectors under the dash since I don't plan on having a heater, air or stereo in the car so I might take out the ones I don't need.
 
#23 ·
Made a quick stop by the house today. I ordered some rims for the car there XXR 531 in flat black 18x11. I took them over to the house really quick to get a look on how they would fit. I know there not the top of the list wheel but I like them and they will do for now. Plus they were on a labor day sale so I could pass it up. They fit better then I thought they would it looks like I will have to run a 1/4 inch spacer all they was around but they should work really good.

Rear





Front





Here's also some shots of the front and rear suspension on the car.









I guess with how much the wheels stick out its good thing I have these.



I won't get to work on the car this weekend but I will be back at it next weekend.
 
#24 ·
I did get a chance to work on the car that much this weekend. I didn't have any work benches in my garage so I ordered some and used the short time I had this weekend working on getting my garage setup. I'm going to have more time next weekend so I wanted to get ready for that. I did get some parts for the interior last week that I can't wait to get installed. I got some Scott Rod Fab interior panels for the back half of the car. The SCCA CAM-T rules state I have to have finished looking interior. I decided to go with there metal panels in satin black.



I also picked up some manual side mirrors for the car.



I did get to have some fun on Sunday and take the mod car out for some runs at the autocross. It had been about a month since I ran it felt good to get behind the wheel again.

 
#25 · (Edited)
I finally got a chance to get out and work on the car this weekend. I wanted to start getting some of the wring worked out so I can put the dash in the car. I also for some reason wanted to paint the metal dash frame before I put it in the car. I'm not sure if parts of it are going to be exposed since I won't have a stereo, heater or air in the car. The dash frame doesn't look perfect but it will do



The wiring didn't go so well or at least not as planned. I should start out by saying the dash harness in my car is one I bought off ebay. The original one in the car was all cut up by me when eliminated allot of the connector and wires I didn't need in the car. I found it would be to much work to put it back together. I found one out of a 1992 mustang which was perfect. It has the same part number as my original and it all looks good. There are no spliced or cut wires in it and all the connectors still have there clips. I feel confident that the harness is fine and is in good working order. The head light switch is the one that came with the car I never took it out I just left it in disconnected. The multifunction switch is new I got that from LMR since I could find my original.

I started by getting the switches connected and testing the head lights and blinkers. Here's a couple of shots of the fun I was having this weekend.





I got everything connected and went to turn on the head lights and got nothing. Which really sucked until I realized I hadn't connected or grounded the headlight harness. Once I got it connected and grounded the head lights worked but the amber marked lights didn't work at all. If I turned on the turn signals the inside maker lights would blink but not the outside ones. If I used the hazard switch still only the inside marker lights would blink. I messed with the multifunction switch and found the high beams worked fine but the windshield wiper would only work in the high setting and nowhere else. So I stared to trace the wires around and everything seems to be fine but what I really need to do is find a wiring diagram for the dash harness and figure out a way to start testing it. I ordered a new headlight switch since I damaged mine beyond repair while trying to see if something was faulty in it. I was going to post something up in the wiring forum to see if anyone had ideas of what might be going on with the car. I want to find the best way to test the multifunction switch and check the wiring harness. The part that sucks is I'm not going to get a chance to work on the car next weekend. I guess that will give me time to look up wiring diagrams and figure out a test procedure. If any has ideas please let me know. The one thing I didn't put back in the car was the computer not sure if that matters I didn't think it would since I wasn't starting the engine.

On a side note I had to get some wheel spacers for the car so I order some 3/4 inch hub centric ones thay are really nice. I also picked up a new front sway bar for the car. Not that I really need one yet but I had planned on ordering it any at some point so I just did it now.

 
#27 ·
Glad to see some progress.
I know its been slow going which I knew it was going to be at first. I'm remodeling my house right now and not living there at this time. Where hoping to move back in the beginning of next month so I will be able to work on the car when ever I want. I really want to have it back on the road in the first few months of next year or at least that's my hope.

If you need wiring diagrams for the 92/93 I can help you out. Mines a 93 and I have the mitchell, ford, and other versions that float around from time to time.
Thanks I could definitely use the dash harness diagram if you have it handy. I've done wiring before so I'm good with reading the diagrams and board schematics and what I don't get my father in law can figure it out. I just need to figure out a way to test it all out so I know for sure the harness is fine. I really don't feel like unwrapping it yet but I will if I have to plus it is something I can take with me and test at my temporary home.
 
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