you can find the article about project Greymare in 5.0 mustang and super fords April edition 2006 on page 92. It is called street deceit.
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The Story Of Project Greymare.
The car started life as a 1992 LX 5.0 with Wild Strawberry and Black interior. When I got the car not much had changed. The car had egg holes,2.73 gears, no air silencer, and a set of flowmasters. Michael Carter looked the car over very well to see if had ever been wrecked. From the looks it had never even been painted on. I bought the car to be a driver. Yeah right that's how they all start out. Well that has been about 8 years now and everything has changed.
The first mod I did was change the gears to a 3.73. It was like a whole new car going from 2.73 to 3.73. I started racing it a little. Well the car had about 125K on the clock and the engine started smoking a little. I start on an new engine. It was a 95 Explorer 5.0 out of a burnt car with around 20K miles on it. I bought a set of heads from Power Heads out of CA. The are stock heads that were ported with better spring and retainers. (Yeah we'll see) I installed a E303 cam, Trick Flow intake, 65mm Edelbrock throttle body and space. I was ready to go. I pulled the engine and got the new one installed. I also installed a Ford Racing clutch along with a used Hurst shifter. The car ran great and had tons of power. I had put around 2400 miles on the engine. I had raced it a few times but tried not to beat on it to hard for the first 3K miles. Well I get in the car and head to work one morning. I made it about 1 mile from my house. As I pulled on to 231 North an was about to go into 3rd gear at around 3000 rpms it drop a valve. It busted a hole in one of the pistons and the block. The engine was trashed.
Well in my search for a new engine Kennemer had a great engine for sale. It ran fine but I guess you could say it was on the rag. (Inside joke) It was a Bennett Racing 306ci. Even today we don't know what cam is in it but it is some kind of Bennett Nitrous cam. I got the new engine installed and ready to roll. The car runs pretty good. Now I am on a mission to break an axel so I will have a good reason to buy some to five lug the car. Well let just say that stock axels don't like slicks at 6250 rpms. About the third pass they gave up. I then installed a set of Moser 5 lug axels and 5 lug rotors. I installed a set Weld Draglites. 15X4 fronts and 15X8 rears. The car looks great and is running low 8s and some high 7s in the 1/8th. In the want to go faster I installed a Compucar nitrous kit jetted at 125hp. The car went 7.4? on the Happy Gas. I swapped out the gear with a Nehi89. He wanted 3.73s and I wanted 4.10. We swapped the gear. I went back to the track to find now I have traction issues. So back to the wallet. I ordered a set of Wild Ride Battle boxes, Bennett Racing double adjustable upper control arms, and a set of Steeda lower control arms. While I am waiting to install all these part the transmission starts giving me problem. I got all of the uppers, lowers and battle boxes installed and couldn't even get it into second gear. Well I made the choice to gear a better transmission. I bought a Tremec TKO2. They told me it is rated at 900hp. Which I know I am never going to make. I got it installed with a new Hurst power tower. I took the car back to the track and was having all kinds of problems with the Nitrous but managed to run a 7.61 on all motor in the 1/8th. The bottle wasn't even in the car so yes that was all motor.
Time had clicked along and I was ready to make a street car that would be a force to reckon with. I started putting it all together on paper. I was going to buy a Dart 427ci that would hold up to 1000hp. I wanted 600hp on motor and was going to spray 400hp. Well I started ordering the nitrous kit. I contacted Nitro Dave's in Waco, TX. I wanted to use Nitrous Express to be different. Well I decided on a NXL nozzle system the would go as high as 800hp. Well they didn't make a kit so I work with Nitro Dave's and Nitrous Express to build the first hit. The kit started as a LS1 fogger kit. Then they basically swapped the fogger nozzles with the NXL nozzles. Then I sent them all of the measurements for the fuel and nitrous lines. The 18" metal ones wouldn't do the job. The sent me all the lines made out of air craft fuel line in the lengths I needed. I bought everything from remote bottle opener to bottle heaters and switches. I was going to do it right. After pricing what a short block was going to cost I got to thinking about my 427 and how drivable it would be. I still wanted to drive to Bowling Green, KY for the NMRA world finals every year without having to take out a loan for fuel. I had driven a few 2003 Cobras and fell in love. At this time I had a 96 GT and couldn't afford another car payment. So I installed a SVO supercharger and tried to kill the want for a 03 Cobra. Well long story short I gave in and bought a 2003 Cobra. It made 378 RWHP with nothing but a set of Flowmasters. I then installed a 6# lower pulley, K&N Filter, and a SCT tuner. The car made 460 RWHP. The car was getting 19mpg in town. This gave me the ideal of how Bad Ass a 92 coupe would be with a 03 Cobra engine in it.
I started by doing some research and found a few sites http://www.ModularFox.com had some information as well as http://www.ModularFords.com had a whole section for modular conversions. After doing a little research I started looking for a engine. In the time I was searching I found out the one of the guys I know had a Dark Shadow Grey 2003 Cobra that I had tried to buy when I went looking for one. He had wrecked it pretty bad. I called him up to see if it was totaled and to see what his plans were. He was planning on keeping it and putting it in another car. Well after talking to him for awhile he decided to sell it to me. I gave $8000 for the whole car minus interior. This was perfect I had just had Michael Carter paint the coupe Dark Shadow Grey to match my truck.
I got the Cobra to the shop and checked out the damage. The car was creamed. The only thing on the outside of the car worth having was the driver side quarter glass and the driver side wind sail. Everything else was destroyed. In all that the only damage to the front box and the engine bay was the battery box was broken. Me and Wa80 dollar started tearing it apart. In two day we had the cars complete interior, engine, transmission, and all wiring removed. The car was a shell. We then pulled Greymare into the bay and stripped the interior, engine, transmission, and all the wiring out. The car was on its way to being converted. The problem was there were a million unanswered question that I had. Like what gauges to use? What about the fuel lines and Fuel pumps? What about the exhaust? I didn't let it slow me any I started removing everything from under the hood that was part of the 5 liter setup. I ordered a AJE K-member for a modular swap. I then called Dugan Racing about the fiberglass apron covers. The answer I got by the time I got off the phone with them was 6 month lead time. That was too long and wasn't going to wait on them. I decided against everyone's advice I would weld up all the ugly holes in the aprons. Well one thing leads to another and by the time I was done all the holes that I know I wasn't going to need were gone from the firewall, aprons, and strut towers. I started installing everything. Even move the computer harness to the inner fender where it came through on the 03. I installed the 03 Cobra Hydro boost and pedals. There was very little work in doing this. The only problem is the 92 pedals have the steering wheel mount attached to them. The 03 didn't have any place for the steering wheel to mount because it uses the dash frame. Well I will worry about that later. I start installing brake lines from the 03. I used the ABS block front spindles and rotors. I installed a WilWood disk brake kit in the rear. I ran all of the wiring in the engine bay and inner fenders. I got everything that had to be mounted in the engine bay mounted in the same location as it was on the Cobra by drilling and using revnuts. I then pulled it all back out. Filled in all of the holes left over and welded up the old computer hole. We finished welding and started grinding. After all the welding and grinding was done Michael Carter wiped it all and painted under the hood. It turned out better than I ever would have thought.
With the engine bay all prepped it was time to move on to the million questions I had. I figured out a lot from Modular Ford site. Other things I just tried it. I ordered Kooks Long tubes and H-Pipe for a 03 Cobra. After talking with Kooks they told me the only K-member they would work with is the AJE K-member. The AJE member drops the engine 1" to let the long tubes clear. I also ordered a Flowmaster 3" cat back system with stainless tips. Now for the fuel. I dropped the tank on the 03 and got a good look at it. It is the same tank with the pumps in a different location. I then removed the 92 tank and slid the 03 tank into place. Never thought it would be that easy. Well I ran the fuel lines when I was maching everything up so I could cut the hole out where the fuel lines run through to the engine bay. Snap an connected them up. Now for AC and heat. Cause I am a fat boy and fat boy don't like to sweat. I set the 92 blower fan box next to the 03 blower fan box and notice they where almost the same. The only thing different was the orientation of the lines for the heater core and the ac. All I had to do was cut the section of medal between the two hole that where there. I did this before paint of course. I got that mounted up.
Now on to the two big questions. How to mount the 92 steering and what to do for gauges. Well I looked around for someone that does the gauges and I found a car that someone had put a SN95 dash in a Fox body car. They had keep the fox steering wheel though and it didn't look that great. Knowing now that I could make it work that is what I set out to do. The dash in the 03 was crushed so I talked Michael out of one he had in a wrecked 97 Mustang out behind the shop. Wade pulled the dash for me and I set them in the floor side by side to get some measurements. Well I spent about two hours trying to figure out how to go about it and finally gave up on the tape measure ideal. I decide to mount it in a wrecked car with no windshield out behind the shop. From the measuring I had done I saw the outside two bolts would bolt up but just barely. I took the dash around back and mounted it up. I also installed the blower fan box just to make sure that where it mounted on the firewall opposed to the Cobra didn't cause any problems. I now see around 6" of extra dash hanging over the middle of the cowl panel. I to the cut off wheel and went to work. I cut a big chunk off the front or the dash. This helped but there was much more to come. Me and Bread pulled the dash out and tried to mount it in the car. No such luck more cutting. We went back out to the car and mounted back in and cut some more. By the end of the day we had cut over 6" off the front of the dash and 1/2" of the sides. I also had to cut the tabs on the body and move them down 1/2" and weld them back in. I stuck the dash in and it looked great. I then went to the wrecked Cobra cut the pieces off the tunnel well that hold the dash up in the center. I then jacked the dash up to where it needed to be checked it with the center console and bolted and welded them back into place. The bottom hole on the left lined up and the one on the right I drilled a hole for the alignment pin and drilled and revnuted it. I spent 10 hours just cutting and filing on the dash so no it is not an easy task but it is worth every minute of the time it took. I then installed the steering wheel. It looked like it all belonged there. The bags were blown so I went to eBay and found a set of Cobra bags.
Now it is time to install the engine in the bay. Well it was nothing. I had decided to take off work one day and work on the car. I decided that it was time to put the engine and transmission in. I left them bolted together and hooked the chains up. I took one chain and ran it from one manifold to the other leaving enough slack fro the chain to clear the top of the engine. Then I took another chain and hooked it on the 2 bolts on the front of the heads. I took one more chain and ran it between the 2 chains that were front and rear. I hooked it to the engine hoist and jacked her up. I couldn't get a hold of anyone that day to come give me a hand. Most of the folks were still at work. I had to do this my self. I rolled the engine into place and started getting thing lined up letting the engine down into place. It keep wanting to he the pretty new paint on the firewall. Well I took a long strap and hooked it on the tail shaft of the transmission and ran it under the front box and under the engine hoist brace. Then I would pull on the strap and easy the engine on and down till I got it in place. I got the engine in place and some what on the mounts. Then I took a jack and set it under the tail shaft on the transmission and jacked it up. I then did a little shaking and shifting of the engine to get it to drop into place. Bolted up the mounts and removed the hoist. The all took about 1 1/2 hours. It is pretty easy to do.
I then had to work out a cross member. The 92 member is way off to far forward. I took and cut the spot welds and moved the mounts back where they needed to be. I then welded them back into place. You have to do a little bending and shaping to get it to fit flush on the floor pan. Then you can install the cross member. The mount for the T-5 will work but is too tall. I went back and found a mount at Auto Zone that would fit and lower the transmission down to help correct the driveshaft angle. I am not sure of the part number or the year it fits but I will find it and post it when I get a chance to look. Then on to the driveshaft. I keep hearing that I would have to get the drive shaft cut. Well I took the 03 driveshaft and stuck it under the car to see how far off it was. Well to my surprise it fit right into place. The only thing was the driveshaft wouldn't connect to the rear end the drive shaft was to big. So I installed a bastard joint. I should have removed the one from the 03 rear end instead of the bastard joint. It would have made things a little stronger.
The next thing was the headers. I removed the stock manifolds with a impact gun. There is tons of room there thanks to the K-member. Then I started installing the Kooks long tubes. They are in 5 pieces so it that makes life easy. I started on the passenger side. You will have to install the tubes in the order which will allow you to get to all the bolts. I had to jack the engine up and remove the motor mount heat shields to be able to get to some of the bolts. I would suggest this before you install the engine. I got the passenger side on and went to the driver side. Well there are a few more problems here. I will just give you the end result to save you from all of my attempts at the steering rod. I welded the U joint where the steering rod hooks up on the 03 under the dash. Make sure this is straight or you will have some real problems. Welding this up keeps the steering rod from flopping around. In the 03 on the fire wall the is a bushing plate. You will not be able to use it. I tried and I got everything lined up and connected up but when I tried to install the headers it landed right in the middle of where the headers go. This is when I removed it and welded that joint. I used the 92 rack and you will have to change the end of the steering rod that connects to the rack. I ended up using the bottom half of the 92 steering rod from the u joint to the steering rack. From the u joint back to the steering rod is all 03. This will get you where you need to be. Then I installed the drivers side header. It takes a little more time because you have to work around the steering rod. I took the car to Sand Mountain Muffler in Boaz, AL to have Johnny Childes do the rest.
Next step was the wiring. I connected all the wiring under the hood in just a few minutes. It is basically looking at a 03 Cobra under the hood and there is not a lot to it. Then on to the inside I ran all the wires to everything that it went to. It was the same as an 03 so nothing special there either. Now on to the back of the car. Well i had to cut the harness for the tail lights and connect it all to the correct blinkers and brakes. This is the hardest part of all of the wiring and its not that bad. I ran the wires to the fuel pumps just like in the 03 and connected it to the 03 tank. I then headed to the head lights. The head lights are easy the only thing you are going to need is the side marker light tied in to the inside parking light. All the plugs are the same. Special note here. The plugs on the 03 are the same as the plugs on the 92 for headlight bulbs. It is not wired the same. Use a 03 Bulb or you will have tons of problems. You will have to file on the bulb or on the headlight itself because it is keyed different. I did the headlight itself that way in the future if need new bulbs I can install them without having to file again. The only other things are the interior/dome light which I haven't messed with because I have some ground out wires on the 92 before and the wiper motor. I have the high and low for the wiper motor that is easy. The hard part is going to be figuring out the intermittent wipers.
The interior was next. I found out after I installed the dash that the FOX handles hit the dash and don't allow you to open the doors. I had one of the 03 door panels cut up and cut down to the point where it would fit. I found that there would be no space for the roll cage to come down beside the street. I then decided to have the 03 Handle grafted into the door. I used the 92 latch assembly and did some welding to make a bracket to hold the cable from the 03 door assembly. I then installed the cable and tested it. The doors open great. Then I took the door panels to Upholstery plus in Hartselle and told them what I wanted done. They fixed the door panel and graphed the 03 handles into them. I went with the Corbeau VX2000. The seats are made for a man with a waist up to 44". I also got the material to cover the back seat to match. Which the guys in Hartselle also did for me.
The only thing I think I missed was the charcoal canister that is in the drivers rear quarter panel behind the tire. I had to cut out the brace that was there but then installed the mount from the 03 which made it even stronger.
I installed a 6# Metco lower and an K&N filter and headed to the Dyno for a base line. It made 421RWHP and 417 Tq at 15# of boost. It should have been around 460 RWHP but it was 101degrees the day we did the test. I brought the car back to the shop and install the Modular Depot fuel system for the cobra a set of SVT Focus pumps, a set 60# injectors and a 2.4 Kenne Bell Twin Screw. I took the car back to the Dyno. By the end of the day the car made 540 RWHP on a street tune and 579 RWHP on a race tune.
I finished putting everything in the car on Sept 30, 2005 at 3:30 AM. On Sept 30, 2005 at 8:00 AM we loaded up and took off from Morgan City, AL headed to Bowling Green, KY for the NMRA World Finals. This was the goal all along. I drove it all the way there with no problems. I got swapped everywhere I went with the car. I entered it in the car show on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday came and the car won Best Stance, and Directors Choice. Which was the big award for the day. I entered it Sunday and it won 2 other awards and 2nd Place Best of show. I was very surprised with the amount of attention the car got. Also as soon as I got there Sunday morning Mike Johnson walked up and poked his head into my car and said "We would like to shoot your car" My heart raced. I said I would be honored to let them shoot my car. I just had gotten there so I told him I needed to clean it up a bit. So he started helping me by cleaning up my wheels. Well there is one thing for sure. I will never forget that week end. I am glad that all my friends that I love so much were there to enjoy it with me. Thanks to all of you guys for everything. This car is in 5.0 Mustang and Super Fords magazine on Page 92. Check it out.
Car year: 92
Car Color: Dark Shadow Grey It started off Wild Strawberry
Interior: Black/Grey with CORBEAU VX2000 front seats
Body type: Coupe
Engine: 03 Cobra 4.6 281ci
Cam: Stock 03 Cobra
Heads: Stock 03 Cobra
Intake: 2.4 Liter Kenne Bell
Throttle Body/Carb: Kenne Bell Big Oval
Mass air: SCT 90mm
Power Adder: 2.4 Kenne Bell Twin screw
Fuel System: CPR Fuel rails, Ultra-Flo fuel, and Dual SVT Focus pumps going back to stock Cobra pumps and Kenne
Bell Boost a Pump.
Cooling: Lightning Force Performance radiator and heat exchanger, Evans Cooling high flow pump, high flow water neck,
remote thermostat, and remote oil Cooler
Gauges: Auto meter Boost, water temp, Oil pressure, and Innovate Motorsports Air Fuel gauge
Ignition: Stock 03 Cobra
Exhaust: Kooks Long tubes and 3” X-pipe, 3” Flowmaster Cat back and 2-Chamber exhaust.
Transmission: 03 Cobra T-56 6 speed with 26 spline input shaft, Steeda TriAxe, Going to 4r70w with lock in lock out
convertor (3500 stall), manual valve body, and trans brake
Clutch/Convertor: McLeod Street twin good for 1400hp
Rear end: 92 8.8 with Moser 5 lug axles, and Ford racing 4.10 gears
Front Suspension: AJE Coil over system, Lakewood 90/10s, and UPR caster camber plates.
Rear Suspension: Stock springs, Bennett Racing double adjustable upper control arms, Steeda Lower control arms.
Brakes: Front Stock 03 Cobra, Rear Wilwood disk
Wheels: Ford Racing Chrome 18X9 FR-500(Street driving) Front Weld Racing 17” Aluma Stars, rear XPs (Racing)
Tires: Front BFG G-force T/A KDW 2 165/35/18 rear BFG G-force T/A Drag Radial
Other Mods: 03 Cobra Fuel tank, pedal assembly, Hydro boost, AJE K-member, 97 GT dash and console, and 03 Cobra
instrument cluster.
RWHP: 589 Street tune
RWTQ: 579 Street tune
60ft time: 1.50
1/8 mile ET: 7.13
1/8 mile MPH: 99
1/4 mile ET: NA
1/4 mile MPH: NA
