Building a SHOscort

[musclestang_95]

So i race at a local dirt track in basically unlimited fwd 4-6cyl class. Last season i began with a turbo'd ******, but after losing the water pump belt halfway through winning the feature i needed a backup until repairs could be made.


Enter my 1989 SHO i had as a backup car.


It did great winnin 4 of the 9 races i ran it in. Two of those plagued by blown tires and two by a bad ign module ground. The car runs great but is a huge and a handful to drive on a dirt track. Thus leading to this years car, my original racecar, a 1987 ****** gt. Only this time it got a real motor.










5 long weeks after begining this adventure the car is mostly complete and i was able to make the first race with it this past friday. It's a rocket and is a load of fun to drive out there. I won my heat race but unfortunantly blew the right rear on the 3rd lap when someone shot into the side of my car. Heres hoping to a successful race this week.

In car video of the heat race [YOUTUBE]10AQ2SpwIoI[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Ishodu]

Super cool, great work. What trans did you use for this monster? What were the hardest parts of the swap for you?

 

[St Louis SHO]

Holy shit, thats cool.

 

[musclestang_95]

Dont telll anyone, but the SHO MTX is basically the same case as used in the early escorts. The ****** mounts fit directly and it bolts right in. Just had to lengthen the ****** shift linkage 1.5 in. Differential is welded for full time posi. SHO axles shortened to fit, even the splines on the SHO outers fit in the ****** hubs. I think the hardest part was making sure i clearenced the fram rail enough on the crank pully side, that and getting the lower radiator hose on after the engine was in, as i had kinda forgotten about it when i fabbbed the front engine mount.

 

[musclestang_95]

Thanks!!

 

[SuperHO]

i think i'm in ****! quick! someone build a street version of this!

 

[mosho93]

Holy shit, thats cool.

^What he said!

 

[93rev2sev]

I fixed your link and embedded the video. Press the quote button on my post to see how it's supposed to read, if you're interested.

[YOUTUBE]10AQ2SpwIoI[/YOUTUBE]

 

[93rev2sev]

Will your ****** trans bolt up to that engine? I bet it does. And it might have a taller ratio in second.

Edit: remove edit.

 

[musclestang_95]

i think i'm in ****! quick! someone build a street version of this!

Yeah im pretty sure thats gonna happen, i have two more 87 gt's and i dont think i can stop myself. I'm quite sure i wont be able to stop myself from turboing it either.

Thanks for the video fix guys.

As far as the ****** trans goes, it wont bolt up. The motor side of the transmission case has a different bolt pattern. The ****** internals are smaller and weaker also. Originally i had planned to use the ****** diff in the sho trans so i wouldnt have to modify axles but soon found everything inside the sho MTX to be beefed up a bit in comparison. If you bring this up due to the pleasant sound of mid straight away rev limiter, i burnt a chip this week to up the limiter a bit. We'll see how close to the corner that gets me.

 

[bigblock]

man this is a cool project! i have a local asphalt oval track, this makes me want to take my 89 strip it, and race it.

 

[TimboSHO]

Pure awesome! I always thought that would be a cool swap!

 

[Ishodu]

I wonder if you could get away with welding up the diff seeing as your only using the car on a loose surface and the wheels are spinning 90% of the time

 

[musclestang_95]

sounds like you might want to up the rev limiter so your not topping out as bad at the end of the track.

man this is a cool project! i have a local asphalt oval track, this makes me want to take my 89 strip it, and race it.

Yeah, chip went in it yesterday to take care of that. Should get me all the way into the corner now.

I wonder if you could get away with welding up the diff seeing as your only using the car on a loose surface and the wheels are spinning 90% of the time

It's welded. This engines useless on dirt with only one wheel going, not to mention the ticking bomb i'd have between the axles otherwise.

 

[SHOtime2511]

What swaybar combo are you running in that beast?

 

[lowc]

that thing is a beast! nice work man

oh and i love the black on black engine combo

 

[Jh8990]

so cool! I want a toy like that!

 

[SHOmethewayhome]

damn, i bet that ****** scoots now.

 

[musclestang_95]

What swaybar combo are you running in that beast?

No sway bar up front. Running a sway bar on the front causes weight to be taken off the front left while in the corner, something I fight hard to oppose. Running a 580# coilover on the RF, a 350# on the LF, a 410# on the RR and a 120# on the LR. Keeps the car pretty square in the corners and puts the weight where it should be. Just have the dinky ****** rear sway bar for now, until I make something for it.


Was going to do a black and red paint scheme on the engine but after doing the valve covers I really liked it and decided to just go the stealthy route and keep it all black.

Thanks for all the compliments!!

 

[Phoenix]

Thats a great build