I removed the factory front sway bar mounts from the rails by drilling the factory spot welds and using a BFH for some “persuasion”. The Mustang is a “uni-body” type structure and the frame rails are made from a couple pieces of sheet metal that are bent and spot welded together to form the frame. And, considering I’m hoping to make north of 850 hp with the new engine and the car will weigh 3200 lbs. with driver, I figured a little re-enforcement was in order.

This is one of the frame reinforcement plates I made to help secure the load the new engine will be submitting to the chassis.

Much like the plates I made for connecting the front 4 link cross member to the rocker panels I made two “L” shaped brackets out of 1/8” thick 2”x4” rectangular tubing about 6 inches long. I then drilled a series of 3/8” holes in the plates to allow me to use some plug welds along with welding the edges of the plates. I made them in the shape of an “L” so that the load would be carried around and under the stock sheet metal frame as opposed to just being welded to the face of the frame. I lined up the center of the plates with the marks I had made with the Sharpie. Once welded I flush ground the plug welds and re-installed the motor plate onto the timing cover.

Following the same method as I used for the mid mount brackets I made the front plate mounts and drilled the holes in place and also made them with a bottom to support the weight instead of just the bolts.

In with the new! Here is the custom cross member, Pinto style rack, and new streamlined steering shaft.

One nice feature of doing this is the ease of removing and installing the engine. With a platform to sit on, the engine can be hoisted into position fairly close and then the hoist can be moved out of the way. A little pushing and shimmying of the engine and the bolt holes will line right up and I don’t have to work around the hoist.

Now that the engine was sitting in place and the cross member and steering were done it was time to build headers! Do you know anyone that mass produces headers for a Mustang with a D3 Yates head, 9 in. deck height, custom mounted small block Ford? Uh…no. My first idea was the possibility of modifying some used NASCAR style headers and after looking at some pictures I thought it might work.

But, after having a pair sent to me from the good people at Roush Yates Performance Parts it quickly became apparent I was on the road to nowhere with that plan. The headers they sent me were way cool, though! Made from stainless steel, tri-Y style collectors and primaries stepped from 1 ¾” to 1 7/8” to 2”. But I figured by the time I got done modifying them to fit I would be better off just starting from scratch. So back they went and I looked for the next option.