By Tommy Parry
Unbeknownst to most of the crew at CWI Performance, Bob bought a Foxbody. The wife and the accountant had an inkling he’d added to his collection, but the purchase had been kept in secrecy until a few months before one of the biggest car shows in the US. At the start of June, Bob decided to unveil the car to his crew and propose a pretty nifty build plan they’d rush through to have it ready for SEMA.
The car had seen better days, but, thankfully, there was only a little corrosion in the engine bay and floorboards—nothing a sandblaster and a welder couldn’t fix. Underneath the faded paint and mismatched body panels, this ‘88 LX was in surprisingly good shape.
With the proposed paint scheme printed and hung on the office wall, they began planning out the task of squeezing an enormous 7.3-liter motor into this car’s engine bay. Additionally, they needed it to sit low enough for the show, yet retain the right suspension movement needed to handle the road course. Calling it a tall order would be a masterpiece of understatement.
They started by gutting the car, stuck it on the rotisserie, and sandblasting it. The factory sunroof was warped and leaked terribly, so they made plans to chop the roof and make it a true hardtop when the cage went in.
Around that time, the plan was established: install Detroit Speed suspension, fit a wide body kit, graft on some mini-tubs, slap on a set of Forgelines, and implant a 7.3L Godzilla motor with a T56 Magnum gearbox. If all went to plan, sticking in the powertrain wouldn’t be too challenging, but they realized the spatial constraints of this package and started shrinking it with some smaller accessories.
To diminuitize the massive engine, Indy Power Products provided a compact front cover, a smaller water pump from a ‘93-‘95 Thunderbird, an integrated oil pump, a larger pickup tube, a little baffling plate, and a shallow pan that’s nearly as flat as a dry sump.
But it wouldn’t be a proper swap without a few performance and cosmetic tweaks as well. On went a set of custom valve covers in addition to a dual-plane intake manifold; the latter helps move the peak power a little further to the right. Then came a blower cam, a Jesel belt drive, a ProCharger, titanium and inconel valves, as well as a custom exhaust. The predicted power output: 1,200 horsepower at the wheels.
Whether it would fit nicely hadn’t yet been proven. They started by chopping the area which holds the K-member in place in order to start tacking in the DSE front suspension. With the DSE kit, they had to blend in the front frame rails to make it work.
Then came the custom motor and transmission mounts, and they could all exhale a sigh of relief. Not only did the motor and gearbox settle in smoothly, they sat extremely low.
At the other end of the car, virtually nothing original was retained. The team quickly dropped their initial plans of running a four-link in favor of a custom three-link suspension that would allow them to lower the car to the ground.
There’s still plenty on the horizon, which, due to the SEMA deadline, is arriving faster than it does with most builds of this magnitude. The ProCharger’s on and the morale is high. To keep tabs on this monster’s development, visit its build thread and CWI’s YouTube page.
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