Fitting the 5.0

I brought the car back to the track so I could begin fabricating parts. I put a 2" block under the oil pan and the crossmember to simulate ground clearance at normal ride height then figured out how much of the firewall needed to be trimmed.

It's a little weird but with the bottom of the oil pan level with the ground, the transmission is tilted towards the driver a little, this means some mods will have to be made to the shifter and tranny mounts. The Sharpie line marks what has to be trimmed away to clear the bellhousing.

I didn't think the upper intake would fit under the cowl but it has just enough room, as long as I use bolts and not studs to fasten it down.

When it's all bolted in and running, I will hopefully get over the fact that the whole thing was designed for a V12.

Flywheel,clutch and tranny on the 5.0



I bolted the stock flywheel, Spec clutch disc and Ram pressure plate on

And the GT40 intake manifold was bolted on, too

I also attached the bellhousing and new (for me) transmission and started sliding the whole unit into the car. I could not do this with the V12 because the engine had to be in before the transmission was bolted on. I was disheartened to find that the Tilton hydraulic release bearing I bought will not work with this combo :(

There is quite a bit more room up front with this engine.

The oil filter is right where my V12 engine mount is so I may need to put a remote filter on the engine or cut the mount.

Yeh, it looks pretty good in there but I have a lot of fabrication work to do and for that I need to move the whole car to the kart track.

Rust removal

A number of nuts/bolts and parts from the 5.0 are coated in rust and the thought of going over each one with a wire brush did not appeal to me. I went to Home Depot and picked up some Zep Lime and Rust remover and soaked the parts overnight. Here is what the motor mounts look like before and after:

I put only half the motor mount in the Zep so you could see what it does. To stop the effects of the solution, I rinse the parts off with water then spray with paint or WD40.