79 Foxbody Mustang FE 445

[MrRupp]

Well we finally got the mustang on the track this year. Two years ago we threw a old wore out 410 with cobra jet heads and comp 292 cam in it and went racing. Our best time was a 12.89 @ 105 mph, which isn't bad for Bandimere.  So naturally we needed to go faster so we got a hold of Brent and bought a stroker kit and stroke it to 445. Brent had a custom cam ground for us. We put C4AE-G heads ported with 2.125 intake and 1.71 exhaust valves. First time out she ran 11.87 @ 114 mph, but broke a rocker arm. So we up graded everything in the top end including the rocker geometry.We went with P.O.P everything including there roller rockers. So last weekend was All Ford fun Day and our best time was 11.58 @ 117 mph. Were still taking easy on things and only shifting at 6000, but soon as we get her broke in will turn it up to 6500. That's the rpm the engine is built to run "hopefully."

[cjshaker]

Sounds like a fun car. I'll admit I'm a little jealous of the room you have in the engine compartment of the Fox body. 

I'm curious what rocker arm you broke? Aftermarket, stock? It's unusual to hear of a broken rocker arm on a mild FE.

[MrRupp]

The rocker we was a stock ford adjustable. It broke right behind the adjuster. The cam is lifting .660 on the exhaust and .640 on the intake. I think the biggest problem was our geometry . We ran it 5 runs last weekend and it ran pretty good. I'm going get in the shop and pull the valve covers and see how things look.

[Rory428]

Sounds like a fun car. I'll admit I'm a little jealous of the room you have in the engine compartment of the Fox body. 

As many of you may know, I first swapped a FE engine into my 78 Fairmont over 30 years ago, and although there certainly is more room between the shock towers on a "FOX" platform, so getting a wrench on the spark plugs or headers is pretty easy, compared to a 67-70 Mustang/Cougar, or 66-69 Fairlane/Torino/Comet, things get really tight underneath. The FOX has large, angled lower control arms that really eat up the space for headers and oil pan. A modern aftermarket tubular K member would free up a lot of space, but they did not exist when my car was first put together.  Front coil overs and tube lower control arms would offer even more space, although personally I don`t like the idea of a nose heavy, wheelstanding FOX putting all that stress thru the very thin sheet metal strut towers , which were never designed to carry the cars weight there.

[Stangman]

Congrats Mr Rupp it’s always nice to get something together and have a little success. Keep up the good work. It’s funny I was just thinking a few days ago ( is nobody bringing there car to the track this year?).

[MrRupp]

We are pretty pleased of the way the car is performing for only having 10 runs on the new build. We are still working the bugs out of the new combination. Rory428 is right about not having room up there with the stock K member. We changed everything over to an AJE K-member and coil over struts. it has a Flaming River manual rack and adjustable lower A-arms. Lots of room for the headers, even though we have some tiny ones in there. Bandimere is a hard track to go fast on, considering we don't have a lot of air to work with. But hopefully will find a few more tenths. Clint

[Stangman]

Yeah Bandimere, the last time I was there was 1986 while I was going to Denver automotive and Diesel. Good times. My buddy had a 455 Rally 350.

[mbrunson427]

Do you have a picture of the car? We're at about 50% of the king street races.

[MrRupp]

Yes I do, I will post some pics ASAP. Hopefully will get her back on the track in a couple of weeks. It's a blast going down to the track with an FE powerd foxbody. Most people haven't got a clue what a Ford FE is,but they respect it once they see it run.

[667Litre]

Sounds like a fun work in progress!

[MrRupp]

I know it has been a while since I post something on the Foxbody, but here it goes. We were getting the mustang ready for the last race, last year and notice it was smoking pretty bad at Idle. So we decided to call it a season. Well we tore into the mustang last month and found our oil consumption problem. Compression is great, then we ran a cylinder leak down which was great. I've been an auto mechanic for 38 years and been the owner for 15, built my share of FEs and have never seen an intake manifold suck oil until now. We pulled off the Holley street dominator intake and threw on an old Cobra Jet intake and fixed the problem. We going to keep the CJ manifold for one outing just to see what it will do.
Then were going to buy a Trick flow track heat intake manifold and go racing. Now it all depends on when the track opens. Hopefully it opens before all Ford day which is the second Sunday in June. Hope everybody staying healthy.
Clint

[6667fan]

What is the car weight with driver?

So cool to have an FE in there.

JB

[MrRupp]

The car weighs 3100lb with a driver and 5 gallons of fuel.

[Rory428]

3100 pounds is right about what my Fairmont weighed with the iron headed FE in it, with a 300 pound(+) driver. Since I have lost over 100 pounds myself, and now have a tubular K member on the car, if I put the 427 back in with a pair of aluminum heads, I think it should get to close to 2900 pounds, with driver.

[MrRupp]

We have an AJE k member and Flaming River manual rack. We’re running C4AE-G heads. The 3100 is with me in it and I weigh around 325. There are 4 of us that run the car and 2 weigh 160 and 180.