The BeanCrusher 96 Cobra -> Coyote swap

[BeanCrusher]

In October of '95 I took delivery of my first mustang, a '96 Cobra, along with my first wife, a '75 model with the performance and appearance package ...

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In 2006, as I reached for second gear, the #8 piston turned itself into tiny bits and windowed the block.

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I pushed it into the garage thinking that the next winter I would yank the motor and drop in a nice 4.6 with a turbo or two...I've always been a sucker for turbos...But...next winter never came, until 2 weeks ago when I finally could not stand seeing it in the garage anymore.

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The unknowns of the Coyote seemed less negative than dropping in a Terminator of unknown origin, so the orders went out, and a nice wooden crate full of engine, and other boxes of parts started showing up at my door.

So this will be a build thread of sorts...I won't claim to be offering any great insights or clever tips....Most of the heavy lifting has been done by those who have done the swap prior and shared their experiences here and elsewhere. To them I am indebted. I suspect that mostly, what I will be doing is displaying my ignorance of the obvious and demonstrating why others did it the way they did, instead of the way I did...

Hopefully, someone will find some value in what follows.

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Help is on the way (I hope)

 

[BeanCrusher]

Of course....Not being able to post pics is going to make it a bit more difficult....

 

[2DXTRM]

Wow! That car sure sat for a while.

 

[fastferndog]

That's awesome!! As for the pics, I personally use photobucket. Very simple, after you upload your images, all you have to do is click on the IMG tab and copy, then paste here. I hope that helps you. Good luck!!!!

 

[BeanCrusher]

Throttle Pedal

So I said I was going to put my ignorance on display...

The Control pack arrived, along with the pedal swap bracket from LMR, and since I had the dash out I figured I would go ahead and get the pedal in. This is, of course, so simple that no instructions are needed...except that it took 3 minutes for me to realize that you only use 2 of the mounting holes on the pedal, and cut off the third.

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Once that was realized, the install took about a minute and a half. 1 minute to trim and shape the pedal so it does not interfere with the carpet and floor mat, and 30 seconds to attach to the firewall.

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Now on to real things...Maybe with more consistent picture sizing...

 

[BeanCrusher]

Canton Oil Pan

Opted for the Canton 15730 oil pan to fit to the motor since it is known that you have to notch the Moroso pan in order for the BBK Coyote swap headers to clear the pan and I am lazy and did not want to have to fool with that. Still need to make some modifications though to get it to fit to the engine. First off I had to enlarge the cutout into the sump and then massage it a bit with a hammer in order for the stock oil pickup tube to clear the pan.

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Also had to dress up the corners of the notch at the rear of the pan to clear the windage tray. However the outer edges of the rear of the pan also were not allowing the pan to come up to the block, and after beveling the inner edges as much as I dared, I had to take the die grinder to the windage tray to remove just a bit at the outer corners.
Before:

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After:

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Installed the pan, and sure enough, the BBK headers do clear the pan with no modification...though you will need a feeler gauge to see by just how much on the passenger side.

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I was able to dress up the weld on that corner and ended up with about 3/32" clearance and called it good enough.

 

[BAB_SVT_Cobra]

Nice story, good luck on your build! How was the paint after sitting that long uncovered? Thats alot of dust! What was your mileage at when the piston broke?

 

[BeanCrusher]

I did not really want to screw with the K member at all. I have the stock K member and was hoping to drop the motor in and be done, which you can easily do without the headers installed... But I was having no success trying to install the headers after the motor was in the car regardless of what the BBK installation instructions said. It seemed also that the headers would have to be modified somewhat to be used with the stock K, so I figured that having it out on the ground and installing the motor on it would allow me to more easily see just where I had to massage the headers, so out the K member came. Of course, motor installation is a breeze with the K member out, and, as an added bonus, the headers fit with no modification what so ever. what luck.

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Truly, this proved a much simpler way to get the engine in the car than I imagined. Lowered the car back over the engine, squared up the K and voila, all is well...

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...Except....Now I see the starter laying on the floor....And there is NO WAY to get the stupid thing installed now...Can't go in from the side between the header tubes 'cause there is a big, solid K member there. Can't maneuver it in from the rear since it is too big to fit past the bell housing...:cuss:

So I guess I will do it all again tomorrow... Anyone out there with tubular Ks? Can you change the starter without dropping everything? The thought of having to drop the motor sometime in the future just because a starter gave out has me rethinking my desire for the stock K member...if that would not be an issue with a tubular one.

 

[BeanCrusher]

Nice story, good luck on your build! How was the paint after sitting that long uncovered? Thats alot of dust! What was your mileage at when the piston broke?

The paint seems to be in good shape, though I am waiting to wash it until after I am done, then we'll know for sure. Of course, I have a stupid cover...but since I was going to work on it soon, I did not bother... The interior was in much better shape than I feared... I would not have been surprised if it was a rat/mouse hotel, but thankfully that was not the case either.

73,000 miles when it died...

 

[BAB_SVT_Cobra]

The paint seems to be in good shape, though I am waiting to wash it until after I am done, then we'll know for sure.

The paint should be ok if its cleaned very cautiously with the right materials.

The interior was in much better shape than I feared... I would not have been surprised if it was a rat/mouse hotel, but thankfully that was not the case either.

73,000 miles when it died...

haha i hear that, glad to hear your interior made it out of the slumber. Were the leather seats/steering wheel drying out?

-73K in 10 years isnt bad at all. That comes out to a little over 7,000 miles a year. Would have thought it would of lasted longer. Did it sit for a little while in between those ten years?

 

[BeanCrusher]

Control pack ECU

Only the leather on the shifter boot was a bit dry...the rest is in great shape for having no care...

Whilst I wait on some epiphany on whether or not to replace my K member, I started on the wiring side of things. Pulled the wire harness off the old motor and cut out all the injector and EGR related bits out, leaving the sensor, A/C and alternator related parts intact, all while managing to not slice my hand open.

Also started running the FRPP wiring harness, etc. Decided to mount the ECU inside the right fender near the CCRM, in the spot where the smog pump formally resided. Utilized the smog pump bracket as the base for cobbling together an ECU bracket.

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It only looks stainless...its galvanized stuff I had laying around.
Side view:

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Installed:

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And all the wires reach and connect...though obviously not properly installed yet.

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Hope this is not the absolute wrong place to mount this....

 

[Stang Lover]

Subd. I love seeing these swaps in the older models.

 

[Tabres]

Anyone out there with tubular Ks? Can you change the starter without dropping everything? The thought of having to drop the motor sometime in the future just because a starter gave out has me rethinking my desire for the stock K member...if that would not be an issue with a tubular one.

The starter is a pain the butt for most people with a stock k-member and stock exhaust manifolds, let alone with longtubes. I don't have experience with a coyote with longtubes, but I have a Maximum Motorsports tubular k-member in my car and can have my starter replaced in maybe 20 minutes working around the turbo piping. If I were to total my car tomorrow and buy another one, a tubular k-member would be one of the first things I would do.

 

[BeanCrusher]

Swapping the K member is pretty much the conclusion I have arrived at...It's only money after all...

From your sig, your powerplant is pretty much what I figured I would end up with...I've been a sucker for turbos since my 87 T-bird turbo coupe...thanks for the feedback on the K member.

 

[BeanCrusher]

Well...dropped the fuel tank today to upgrade the fuel pump...Pulled out the old one and this:

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Lovely... The tank was half full of vintage gasoline that aged about how you would expect...The inside of the tank that was below the fuel level looks just like this pump. What was above the fuel looks much worse.. Looks like I can add "fuel tank" to my swap parts list.

 

[BeanCrusher]

Harness Install

Haven't had as much time as I would liked the last several days to work on the car. New fuel pump arrived...and of course...a pump for a "96 mustang" is not the same as a 96 mustang cobra...Not sure how I missed that... Hopefully I will not have a similar revelation Monday about fuel tanks.

Did get the FRPP harness routed successfully into the cabin from the PCM that I mounted where the smog pump was. Ran the main harness along the inside of the right fender to the oblong grommet that the stock PCM harness comes through; the MAF, alternator, intercooler pump leads up through the front at the opening where the headlights connect; and the HO2 sensor leads through the hole in the side at the rear of the engine bay where the fuel lines are. Will still have to use the HO2 harness extensions that came with the BBK headers though.

I disconnected the stock PCM harness and removed the PCM in order to be able to push the grommet out of the hole and give me some room to work. I planned on having to dismantle that God awful huge BEC connector to get in inside, but with the back of the connector removed and the stock harness pushed back and up to the top of the hole, I was able to get it inside without incident. And here it is from the inside:

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And, from the outside. You can see the H20 harness entering the engine bay.

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(all these pictures are the same size on my computer....WTF)

Since only about half of the wires in the stock harness are going to be used now, it would be simple to cut the FRPP harness and splice the newly unused wires in the stock harness to get everything but the CAN bus inside the cabin. Then you would only have to run 1 set of 20 gauge twisted pair through the grommet, which to me seems like a cleaner install than a second great big bundle of wires running into the cab. If I had had the time that is the way I would have done it.

 

[fastferndog]

You're making great progress!!! Just a note... If you do buy a Maximum K member, you WILL NEED, new lower control arms, and a coil over kit, and very possibly a bump steer kit. This is because the Maximum K member will not accept stock control arms. It's not cheap, but like Tabres said, that would be the first thing I would do if I where to buy another car. You don't have to drop the engine to swap it. Support it with a cherry picker and disconnect and drop just the K member. Keep it up!!

 

[BeanCrusher]

So you would think that I could just walk into the local Ford dealer and say: "I am working on the bulkhead connector at the upper left of the car on the harness that comes from the power distribution box, the number on the connector is F2TB-14489-D. It looks like this:

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And they could go to the Ford parts system and tell me what socket goes in that connector...but apparently that is not how the Ford parts system works....
Grrr...

 

[BeanCrusher]

Budget? Bah!

I have just assured myself that my starter will never fail for the life of the vehicle... Just placed my order with Maximum Motorsports for their K member and related bits... Had thought I might go with a UPR and keep the stock A arms and springs since I replaced the ball joints and bushings... but, in the end, (at the risk of igniting another K member holy war) while everyone likes whatever brand K member they have, it seemed that MM had the least amount of issues reported. It would certainly be awesome if it would arrive by this weekend...My schedule is getting ready to limit the amount of time I can devote to this.

What spring rates shall I choose with Koni adjustable shocks? I have *no* experience with setting up suspension...Will see what MM recommends.

 

[BeanCrusher]

Waiting on parts

Spent most of the week waiting on parts. Hopefully the last round of parts should arrive this week (K member, air intake pieces) and maybe...just maybe will get the engine fired up for the first time next weekend. I hope, because the spring farm work is about to begin in earnest and my time to work on the car will be scant. At least I have till October to get it done in time for its 20th birthday.

Had a chance to nearly finish with the harness install. It is somewhat humorous that the harness installation instructions suggest mounting the PDB inside the cabin, and give you a 12" lead that is supposed to go directly to the battery in order to get enough current to run the cooling fan. I will be running the fan through the CCRM that ran the fan for the 4.6 and letting it carry the load and only using the Coyote PDB to provide the signal to control the CCRM. That removes 40amps of demand from the PDB. The car is a coupe, but the wires to supply current to the convertible top motor are in the engine compartment fuse/relay box. In a vert there would be a circuit breaker in the empty slot near the bottom, just above the 60amp fan fuse.

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The circuit is hot at all times, and if you put a fuse in that slot you get power to the male side of the connector a couple of posts up. While my Ford guys acted like it would be a big deal to find the sockets to mate to that connector, I showed the picture to my local Federated Auto Parts counter guy, he said "Hmmm...I bet it takes this socket here, I'll have it in the morning." and 12 hours and 95 cents later:

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Now the formally empty socket is supplying power to the Coyote PDB without punching another hole in the firewall. Plus it is protected by a fuse, which appeals to me.

Along the same lines, pulled the newly unused wires from the 96 pcm connector. I will be using some for some sender wires for some new gauges, and have some for future expansion.

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