When it comes to the 1987-1993 Mustang, a black coupe is one of the most sought-after body styles of the
Fox Body generation. While years ago you could find Fox Bodies at affordable prices, over the years,
the value of the Fox Body Mustang has increased quite significantly. This has made it harder and harder to find the exact car you are looking for at the right price, but luckily, with a little help from
LMR.com, you can transform even the worst condition Fox into the car of your dreams.
A perfect example is this 1988 Mustang, picked up by Scott Springer. While the odds were in his favor as it was an original 5.0 black coupe. With parts from LMR.com and countless hours of wrench time in the shop, Scott was able to transform this run-down Mustang into a Fox Body that turns heads everywhere he goes. We talked to Scott and he walked us through the history of the car and how it became the show-stopping Fox it is today.
History Of The Car
The Facebook Marketplace ad for this 88 Coupe was sent to me by Tyler Rodriquez in late 2016. The car was in rough shape, but it was cheap, so I picked it up. When I bought the car, I thought it might be just a quick flip, but one thing led to another, and it has stayed around and been restored. It suffered a very poor quality repaint and interior re-do under its previous ownership, as well as sub-par mechanical work.
The original smoke gray dash and interior panels had been poorly sprayed black. The seats, headliner, door panels and package tray were covered in black velour. The coffin-like appearance of the interior and the Weld Pro Star wheels led to the car’s nickname “Dragula”. The engine was sporting a few bolt-on mods, but turned out to be tired and already bored .040” over. The AOD transmission slipped, and nothing on the dash worked. The car’s only saving grace was that it was an original 5.0 black coupe.
AOD To T5 Swap
Early on in the build, I didn't have much of a goal for the car other than to make it drive. Functional necessity led to the first mod to swap the slipping AOD automatic trans out for a T5 5-speed manual. LMR saw this as a great opportunity to create a full
AOD to T5 swap video series to help others who may be interested in this popular swap.
On3 Turbo Kit/Engine Issues
We attempted to get some power out of the old 302 by installing an On3 Turbo kit. It made a couple of strong pulls, but was plagued with reliability issues from the old worn-out engine. Adding boost to the old 302 proved too much for it. I knew nothing about this engine before the turbo install. We threw the turbo kit on without any knowledge of the engine's existing mods or health. Once we put the turbo on, it quickly blew a head gasket, and was pumping a significant amount of blow-by, indicating poor ring seal. Disassembly of the engine revealed a worn-out short block, mismatched head bolts, and rocker arms shimmed with aluminum from an old soda can. Despite these issues, the car did make 443 horsepower and 414 lb-ft of torque.
What Are The Goals Of The Car?
In spite of the car’s nickname, it’s not a drag car. The car’s combination of modifications are intended to give the car a great sound, solid performance, good street manners, and reliability. The goal is to have a great-looking fox body coupe that has the well-rounded performance of a Coyote-powered S197 or S550 Mustang.
What Made You Want To Go With A 393CI Stroker?
I wanted to keep the car pushrod EFI Ford powered, and naturally aspirated. I love some of the newer engine swap options, but the Windsor-based motor gave me the look, sound and torque I was after. The swap to a 351w-based engine also is basically a bolt-in, so it easily allowed me to retain all the car's factory options like a/c, power steering, and cruise control.
What Kind Of Power Did It Make?
With the N/A 393 stroker engine, this Fox put down an impressive 386 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque. While this is less than the turbo setup, you can see by the graph below that the turbo setup took awhile for peak horsepower to kick in whereas the N/A setup was near instant.
We chased some intermittent problems for well over a year and finally buckled down to get them figured out. The car ended up with some popping and banging from the exhaust and a sporadic lean condition that needed to be sorted. Well, a new distributor easily fixed the popping and banging, but the lean conditions can be touchy subjects. Having already addressed the calibration multiple times, we turned our attention to the fuel tank, since that was the only component that wasn't replaced whenever all the other work was done. It just happened so that a piece of debris worked its way into the tube that supplied the sump with fuel. A new tank fixes the issue. Talk about crazy!
We ran the car on the dyno again for a "redemption run" and below are the results. The car ended up making 423 horsepower and 453 lb-ft of torque! As you can see, the second N/A run on this setup was much closer to the On3 turbo setup in horsepower and made even more torque!
What Are The Future Plans Of The Car?
Drive it. The car will occasionally see the drag strip, cruise nights, and maybe even the occasional auto-x or open track event. I’m considering a cam swap and the installation of a
50Resto Digital Gauge Cluster.
Full Mod List
Engine
Exhaust System
Fuel system
Drivetrain
Brakes
Wheels and Tires
Suspension and Steering
Exterior
Interior
