78 Fairmont, 4.6 DOHC Cobra swap.

[montstr]

Hello, I just posted a "hello" in the new user section, so I figured I'd cruise on down here and throw a few pics up of what I've been up to the last couple of years. (to clarify, I built this car out at my parent's farm a few miles out of town, so to be fair, I could've done this in about 6 months had I worked on it at my shop in town)

I bought the Montstr in 2002, with some work done to it, but no engine or transmission, reupholstered interior, and a custom dash. It's a long story, but basically, the car got hail damage totaled in 1982, sold, stripped, stored, and then stored again since about 1985. So, it's in original paint, there's a tiny bit of surface rust on the wheel wells, but it's all in all very very solid and perfectly straight. I stuck a decent 351w in it right away, and was never very happy with it. Exhaust rubbed, aluminum driveshaft vibrated, just not very nice to drive. Also very nose heavy, and with manual steering it handled poorly. But it looked cool! haha
Anywho, I got tired of driving it like that, and bought a 70 Chevelle in the meantime, and stuck a hot 408ci big block in it and cruised that around for a while, because I had a plan up my sleeve...

My parents have a very rare 97 Roush Stage 2 Cobra convertible, 1 of 2. They needed a new rear valance for it, as when we got the car, it had been stripped and no one knew it was a Roush car. I got lucky and found another Roush Cobra in Florida, a Stage 1, and not as rare, but hit pretty hard in front...my parents needed the Roush parts to complete their Cobra, and I decided I had a new home for a 4.6 Cobra engine!

Before:


In the operating room


(PS we tried to save this car, but no matter what angle we tried, we couldn't legally get it titled again. )


Sorry Roush Cobra


On the cart, waiting to slide in underneath the Montstr!


THIS is how you do a swap!


351w out on furniture cart. This way was much easier than trying to shoehorn the 4.6 in from the top.


Ready for it's new heart!


Well, this post is getting a little long. I better start a new one! Maybe tomorrow

[montstr]

aww what the heck, I started, might as well finish! Here are some progress shots of some of the work I had to do to make this transformation correct. I don't like doing things halfway, and my goal was to make this car essentially a 98 Fairmont.

When I originally started this swap project, it was April, 2008, and I told my buddies I'd have it done in time for the Car Craft nationals in Minneapolis, as I'm only about 5 hours away. However, at that time, I only planned on engine and transmission, suspension and brakes, but as the project went on, it went something like this:
"you know self...this car has an AC compressor on it, it WOULD be nice to have AC in the summer!" ~ "yeah, that's true. I'll just put a Fairmont AC dash in it" ~ "you know, cruise control would be nice too, it's already got that ready to go too....but I'd need to use the steering column, which would maybe make this easier anyhow, since I need to keep the PATS radio transmitter key to run it" ~ " you know....it's going to be a pain to get that column to bolt up to the Fairmont dash and look decent, maybe I should just put the dash in too!"

2 years later, here we are!

Roush Cobra, pretty well gutted.


I took part of the tranny tunnel, parts of the firewall, and the top of the tunnel for the E brake mount from the 98 and welded them into the 78.


98 Pedal box, after dash was in


HVAC box, the heater core fittings were in the identical spots, but since I didn't have an AC Fairmont, so I didn't have the cut outs in the right spot, but the Cobra donated some!


This is after the firewall was cut and patched and quickly painted, I'll be ripping the car back apart next winter to make it pretty!


Hydroboost master cylinder, ABS valve, and all new brake lines. Check that, EVERYTHING but the actual chassis, the body, and the front lower control arms for from 1998!


Cruise control solenoid and some other junk I had to make fit too haha




Fuel vapor can, and fuel supply, return and vent lines, all off of the 98.


All 98 factory brackets and lines, but I had to make a few "artistic" bends in them to get them where I needed to go, but they're all safe, secure, and out of the way! I wanted to build this car "safely", no patched up junk holding a fuel line away from the exhaust or drivshaft.


ABS Solenoid and main control valve.


Trunk floor sectioned to allow 98 Fuel tank to sit a little higher. I would've liked to put the tank higher, but didn't for the following reasons: Lower center of gravity; 17" aluminum Cobra spare still fits flush with trunk floor; and I needed to keep everything in "relatively" the same location as the Cobra stuff for lenghts, etc.


98 Cobra fuel tank. YES my mounts are ugly, I tried to make the Cobra straps work, but no dice. I made these, in one night, and they're sturdy. And ugly. I'll be redoing them in stainless when I paint the car.


This is ugly too. Let's see YOU try to get a 98 tank to match up to a 78 Filler neck! lol


dirty trunk with lots of wires!


I'm tired again. Time for a new post!

[C7Z]

Interesting build. Keep it coming !

[montstr]

I guess I might as well show when I started test fitting the engine. In order to keep the post length down, I won't show pics of how many times the engine was in and out of the car, the water leaks I didn't know I had until I had the engine in the car....and fired up....and ready to take to a show....and found out it was peeing out of a steel line on the back of the block that got punctured in the accident....and couldn't come out without; disconnecting EVERYTHING and dropping the engine back out....again. Can't expect any different doing a job like this though, it wasn't exactly an oil change!

On with the show!

First test fit of the engine



Pretty snug!


TAA DAAH! First Fairmont with a 4.6 Cobra engine! (that I'm aware of, and I've searched!) *EDIT* I was just informed that I was beaten to the punch by 2 weeks by FuturaGuy. So maybe I'm second? lol


Yes, the 98 K member is red. I was in a hurry! haha plus it's getting changed to a Maximum Motorsports tubular K member eventually anyhow.


Getting closer to running!


I still haven't taken any better pics of the engine since it's been running, I haven't had much time to work on it the last couple of months, we remodeled my parents house, and I run a small electric motor repair shop, so I'm pretty busy!

[escogt]

Cool build indeed. Very interesting!! Keep the pics coming.

[montstr]

And....my favorite part of the car now....The dash! Although, on 2nd thought, the 13" Cobra brakes are a blast too...but I could do that in a weekend, the dash was considerably more work, so I'll still call that my favorite!

Peekaboo!


Installed! This was LOTS of work. I'd never done a dash swap before, and I was pretty timid about it....I didn't feel like screwing it up and sourcing a new dash, but it turned out really well! Lots of in and out, test fitting, measuring, etc. to make sure it would be in square and match up to the column, the vents, and the trans. tunnel mounts!


There might be other DOHC Fairmonts out there, but I don't think any of them have a Cobra dash!


I love it! Still need to find black Cobra airbags for it, when I can afford it!


New Carpeting from ACC. Took a little trimming to get it to work, but it looks good now!


Well that's all I have for pics of the interior at the moment....I should probably pick some wheels. The 8.8" with 11.65" rear discs was obviously wider than the 7.5" with drums I had before, so I had to do a LOT of research regarding wheels. Obviously they had to be 17"s, to clear the Cobra brakes. Also, since Fairmont's have narrower wheel wells than later Mustangs, I couldn't just slap something on and call it good...they had to be perfect!

I LOVE this picture....I think this is about as sexy as a Fairmont can look, and I dont' mean to brag!


However: that's clearly not going to work with the 8.8", although they looked wonderful with the 7.5" rearend!


97 Cobra wheels? Nope, too round for these cars. I like these wheels though!


I've always had a thing for mesh wheels.....BBS is magic to me, which is probably why I had mesh wheels on quite a few of my cars...and my work truck....but not just ANY mesh wheels, I had to do something special for this car!

Japanese only, Weds Kranze 3 piece race wheels!


can't do this with YOUR wheels! lol


How would they look on my Chevelle.....


First test fit on the Montstr


Success! Perfect! And I love the way they look, they give it even more of the European road race look I was after!


With 245-45-17"s BFG KDW's all around


I need to go do some digging around now, I think I'm out of pictures! As I type this, the car is sitting in my shop in town, I've been driving it for the last couple of months getting the bugs worked out. I don't have the interior done 100%, it wheel hops like mad, it's loud, and the windows rattle when you shut the doors, but I am SOOOOO Happy with the way this car turned out! It's like a Cobra Mustang, but people's reactions are priceless! It's not silly in that "I'm going to put a jet engine in a Geo" sort of way, it's a fast, practical, different car. To make my Chevelle get attention like this, I'd have to stick $40,000 in it, and people would still say "oh, there's a nice Chevelle" as they walked right by it. This thing gets crowds around it, It's great! Sorry if I sound big headed, I'm really not, I'm just very happy that it turned out well after all this work! I'm hoping to take it on it's first long road trip next weekend, so I'll keep you all posted on the work that gets done this week, as well as getting new pics up! Thanks a lot for looking, Justin

[Turbo-Box]

VERY cool man. I like it a lot!!!!

[SRM351]

Wow, very, very cool build thread. I'm digging this one big time! You have to post up more photos, especially with the new wheels. Video would be nice touch too!

[arj]

You're making the DOHC swap look too easy! Well done.

[montstr]

Thanks guys! I'm really glad you like it, I know I do!

I thought I'd post up the only 2 vids I have of the car, they're not going to win any awards but I'll put them up anyhow. The first was literally the first time In over a year and a half the engine saw electricity and fuel, so I didn't know if it was going to fire right up or not, I usually have pretty good luck getting my stuff going.

Long and boring! You don't have to watch it lol!


Don't ask me how a cat got stuck in the fuel pump, I've never heard a fuel pump sound like that! As soon as I got the air bled, it sounded normal, so it had something to do with the air in the system.


Try #2. Fuel rail was full of air, I pulled the schraeder valve out of the pressure fitting, hit the key, and heard air going out for a couple seconds, then fuel. Then I decided to try again!



I didn't rev it up near as high as it sounded like, It never went about 2,000 rpm, I wasn't about to go revving an engine that hadn't been run in 500 days! It did however get plenty of pre-oiling during the minute and a half of draining the battery down right before that though

[waggin]

Props to you for doing something different...REALLY different!

I think it's great that you got creative and followed through on your vision for the car without anyone else having done it before.

[Greywolf]

I like it a lot! It is similar to the swap I am doing on my Zephyr. I love the attention to detail.
I am staying with an inline six (modernized) but the goal is like yours, to make it look like a factory car with the best goodies from Ford's modern stable; and still keep some portion of the original character.
Color me jealous (at least until I get mine done...!)

[GT4U2NV]

Nice swap man!! I did a 03 cobra swap into my 88 stang coupe. Its definately fun to see peoples faces when you pop the hood. The car looks great!!!

[1 FAST 86 NOTCH]

VERY NICE WORK!!!

[rab]

i seen your car on cardomain before, were those crown vic mesh or lincoln lsc mesh you had on before?

also what springs are you running?

[DadBox]

Nice car. Of course I'm partial to blue. Your stripes are done in good taste too. Actually I have seen your car on CarDomain and always wanted more info on it. Glad to see you've joined the Four Eyed guys.

Those SoCal drifter wheels are all kinds of awesome.

[SHO-PNY]

getting ready to do same type swap . 98 cobra motor and with a prochagrer will have to get in touch with you on some details and stuff when get closer

[LTDScott]

Very cool! I do know of another Fairmont (same color, even) that got an '05+ 3V 4.6 swap. It was done by Late Model Restoration. http://www.mylrs.com/blogs/lrs/archi...est-drive.aspx

I gotta admit, I'm not a fan of the dash swap, although I do appreciate its uniqueness and the work involved in making it work.

You shoulda tried '05+ Mustang wheels before going across the Pacific. The increased offset works great on my LTD (I have the same problem with the low wheel openings). The 17x8 machined aluminum '05+ GT wheels are square looking and match our cars great.

Unfortunately I'm in a position where I want wider rear wheels, and to go 17x9 in the offset I need to fit in the fenderwells, I will probably also have to find a tuner/FWD oriented wheel, but it's hard to find styles that don't stand out too much.

[Mustang-junky]

Very nice car!

Jess

[montstr]

Thanks a ton everyone! I really appreciate the comments!

As far as the wheels, I looked at a ton of different options, Ford has a lot of 17" wheels on newer vehicles that would work, but in the end, I knew I wanted to keep mesh wheels on it, and I always wanted real 3 piece wheels just because. Even if someone else didn't know the difference, I do!
These wheels were actually from an Acura NSX, is what I was told by the company that sold them to me, and they're relatively rare, they're very tough to find online.
The front's are 17x8.25", with a 45mm offset (IIRC), and the rears are 17x8.5", +48mm. I had to switch the centers to get the offset just perfect, as when I got them, the higher offset center was in the narrower rim, the higher offset rotor hat was on the 8.5"s. Although the rear wheels will still clear the front calipers, it looks better this way. Plus taking the wheels apart is a great way to clean them!

LTDScott, I wasn't sure I wanted to put this dash in the car, but it was sort of an evolution, I still wanted to keep a nod to the car everything was sourced from, and also tie it all in to the car that the Mustangs came from! Plus the width was perfect, but I had to section about 3.5" out of the center depth, tapering down to about 1.5" on the outside edges, but I wanted to keep the defroster vents!

(that might tell you a little about me...I swapped a 20 year newer dash into a car that will hopefully never see snow again in it's life, and had to make sure I kept the defroster vents working! )

Rab, those were 99 Crown Vic handling package 16"x7"s, and I think they look superb on these cars....but the offset could've been a touch deeper, the rear tires were 225-60-16"s and they'd rub lightly if I played too hard.

SHO-PNY, good luck with your swap! It's really not that difficult, but I'd recommend a complete car to source from, there were LOTS of little things that were made much easier by having the cars 15 feet apart! Wire routing, etc. However, if you're just doing the drivetrain, that will make it much easier. I wanted ABS and Airbags though too!

Dadbox, I'm sorry about the cardomain, I lost my password, and it was just the other day I was able to take a SWAG and got it right! I tried to get passwords sent to my email, but it kept telling me "invalid email" so I was kind of stuck. I'll get updated pics on there soon!

Everyone else, thanks again! It's nice to hear the feedback! It's funny, I was going to take some pics of it out in the shop, but it's up on 4 jackstands with no wheels on it again, like it was for the last 2 years I've been driving it for the last couple months but have needed to get it buffed and waxed to a 32 year old shine again, but haven't had time. I'll snap a few pics and get them on later today though, I might even drive it again tonight!


Oh yeah, couple other things--the springs that WERE on the car until Saturday were stock 95GT conv. springs in the rear, but they seemed very soft, which seemed odd to me....I thought the conv. springs would be a little stiffer, plus my car weighs 400ish pounds less, so I was worried about it being overly stiff, but it was squishy.
The front's were cut 95 GT springs, the springs I had on it with the 351w were not firm enough, and the tires were tucking pretty bad. Probably driveable, but not wife driveable.
( I have this thing, that all of my vehicles need to be able to be "turnkey"--meaning if I can't throw the keys to my fiance, grandma, etc., without saying "don't turn too hard to the left while going up a driveway unless you open the glovebox and turn the radio to 97.7 or the back bumper will fall off!! then it's not right!)

I just bought FMS B springs, hoping that they'll be a bit better suited, but I'm not sure now.... I thought the front's were going to be a lot longer, but when I popped them out last night, they're maybe 1/2" taller....and the rear's are actually shorter! I sure hope the spring rate is higher, even though the wire is the exact same diameter!
Also, since I'm rambling on....the car is fast. I can't take it to the track until I get LCA's on it, and it will get even less traction on the strip than I do on the street, but it moves. Stock Cobra's are supposed to run high 13's, low 14's....I stuck more weight over the back end and knocked off 350 pounds or so....and I'm still bone stock, so it *should* be a "planets aligned 13 second car" but we'll see. What I DO know, is that I get 17mpg + in town, and the cruise control works! haha back to work, later guys! Justin

[montstr]

Oh yeah, the Latemodel Restoration car is cool! I talked to him on the phone, we're both stuck as far as weather stripping goes! I need to do some digging in the body forum to see what everyone has made work as far as that goes, I'm tired of rattling windows! He said his car was in MM&FF ( right?) and he said to me "if my car made it, your's certainly should with all the work you've done on it!" which I thought was awesome! So I'll keep my fingers crossed, and when I get it all done, maybe I'll see it on the glossy pages of a magazine someday!

[montstr]

More pics! Albeit crappy camera phone pics. Also, sorry for the quality of the other shots, I have a nice Canon digital, but most of those pics were taken with dirty hands, so I wasn't too worried about playing around with the settings! When I get the car *more* done, I'll take some nicer shots.

First time down on the floor


Last November, right after I got the car driveable.


See? Mesh wheels on my truck too :P



The half finished interior. I like the dash in there, I was really tired of my old, squeaky, cracked dash.


The wheels I'm glad everyone else likes as much as I do! (well, actually I don't really care if anyone else likes them! haha)


The gauges at night. They're white faced, but at night they're backlit blue. It doesn't show in this pic, but it's nearly the same color as the car!


On top of the parking garage one night this spring





AANnnnnddddd......you might hate this....I wasn't sure if I was going to or not, but I decided to anyhow, and now I'm glad I did.....because I thought, if anyone deserves to get to do this, I DO!



I asked a few buddies what they thought, if I should put the Cobra emblems on it....and they all agreed I should, so I went ahead and did it. I know, I could have had them facing to the back, like the older cars, but I decided to put them on facing the front because that's how the newer cars do it. Plus, I've had a few die hard Ford guys ask me "How many Cobra Fairmonts did they even make, I've never seen one" and "I've only seen a few other SVO Fairmonts" Oh well, it's a good conversation piece!

Well, I think that's it for now. Time to go finish pressing new rubber control arm bushings in the front, I'm tired of those squeaking harsh riding poly bushings that everyone is so keen on....I've had them in 3 cars, and liked them in none. In certain places, they're great. Sway bar bushings, etc. but I hate them in suspension arm pieces, unless you like your chiropractor. Also might get started on the power windows today, and I'd like to have the keyless entry working by the end of the week too! I'll keep you posted. Justin

[LTDScott]

8.25" wide wheel? That's weird. But yeah, trying to find high offset (+40mm) wheels in 8" or wider is a challenge, and I had found that most of my options will probably be Japanese or knock offs.

[tman1257]

Lookin good! My brother lives in Aberdeen. Next time im up there Ill have to look you up.

[GT4U2NV]

Any of you SD guys ever go to the 1/4 mile track in Marion?? I go their once in a while since we dont really have a local 1/4 mile track here in omaha.