We got Dads car from a friend of the family’s brother. He was always a Camaro guy but decided to get a Mustang instead this particular time around. Well, after only a few months of ownership, he couldn’t get the car out of the high 14’s and was frustrated & disappointed to say the least. He ended up getting another Camaro and sold the Mustang to Dad. This is what she looked like shortly after we got her…Stock as a rock! (I miss the phone dials)

It was in great shape with a recent paint job, clean interior and ran like a top. After a full detail, tune up and Hurst shifter we were off to the track for a baseline. Dad was able to rip off a string a low 14’s with the best of 14.0! We knew we had a good one, but I didn’t want to leave until we saw 13’s BONE STOCK!

After a few different launch techniques I was able to rip off a 13.7! Not sure why the PO was having issues with it but hey we weren’t complaining!

Of course dad was already bitten by the “mod” bug from years of 9 sec turbo motorcycles, K-code Mustangs & of course my car so he was off to the races! The usual suspects included, full 2.5″ exhaust with 1-5/8″ headers, pullies, K&N, 355 gears, & sticky tires.

At this point the car was running low 13’s (13.3 was the best) but dad wanted even more – so he ordered up a Compucar nitrous system – the same system that was in my car because we knew it worked awesome and was very reliable! I got that installed and wired up and after a few more supporting mods – 255 lph in-tank pump, adj. fuel pressure regulator, Crane Hi6Tr Ignition a 2 steps colder spark plugs – it was test and tune time…

We’ll cut to the chase – the best she went with a 125 shot was 12.0@112. No matter what we did we couldn’t get the car in the 11’s! A bump to the 150 jets didn’t help either…just made traction worse. He’s probably got over a dozen 12.0? time slips but no 11.99! Check the Vids gallery for a bunch of those 12.0’s and of course a ton of other vids of his car.

Engine wise the car was stock for years and very fun and reliable! The only visual changes to the car were the addition of Weld wheels. We later added a bunch of suspension mods including subframes, HD upper and lower control arms, & battle boxes but still couldn’t get into the 11’s! For whatever reason she just didn’t have it in her.

He had been thinking about doing the motor for years but always put it off…HOWEVER, after I did my second motor (347 stroker) he knew he had to have one too! Soooo, we pulled the motor and sent it to Lorenzo over at Lorenzo’s Fast Flow Cylinder Heads!

In addition to 10.75:1 compression, forged lower end and ARP hardware throughout Lorenzo ported a set of my old Edelbrock Aluminum heads & my old Cobra intake. After about a month we had the motor back and installed. We also installed a new clutch, pp and a few other misc. items to aid the stroker. Additionally, while the motor was out I got to wiring up the car for mass air along with cleaning the engine bay and tidying up a few things. See pics below for some during and after pics!

New Motor Progress Pics

After we got everything together and all the fluids in she started up on the first try. We set the timing and let her idle for a while until the coolant system burped. After about 15 minutes dad took her for a spin.

When he got back he promptly said “it’s slow”. I of course thought he was joking as we switched so I could take it out for a spin…he insisted it was slow but I just laughed and headed out.

Well, he was right…the car was a dog! I mean, 93 mustang GT convertible with an automatic, dog (no offense). The car was slower than before…something had to be wrong. I felt so bad because he just spent all this money on a new motor and it wasn’t right.

As I drove around thinking about what could be wrong it hit me just as I was pulling back to the garage…I set the timing w/o removing the SPOUT connector! DOH! I was excited once again and promptly barked orders to get me the timing light and tools so we could fix this thing. Sure enough the timing was WAY off – like 15 degrees retarded…I’m surprised it even idled…none-the-less we bumped it to 15 the correct way and I gave Dad the keys. With fingers crossed he was off. He didn’t even get off the street and punched it – the front end lifted like never before and he had a grin from ear to ear…it was now fixed and running awesome. I couldn’t wait ’til he got back so I could drive! It was worth the wait and I certainly wasn’t disappointed…the car was an animal!

After some motor and clutch break-in time we headed to the track to see what she could do.

Initial testing on drag radials got us some 12.5’s@113 and ET streets brought that down to 12.3’s@113! ON MOTOR!

With only the 90 shot he was now going mid 11’s consistently. We were thinking the 24# injectors we had in there were probably too small so he ordered a set of FRPP 30’s along with an 80mm Pro-M mass air meter. He also switched over to 4.10 gears which made the car almost un-drivable on the street – it was a torque monster. He was wanting to get rid of the Cobra intake so I suggested the short runner, high revving Edelbrock Victor EFI to help offset the 4.10’s. The new intake did the trick…the car was now insanely fun to drive again and very manageable on the street…and the new found power was awesome!

The car has since gone 11.9’s on motor and 11.1@125 with only a 90 shot so the intake mods certainly made a difference! Tens are right around the corner and I don’t think he’ll have as much trouble getting into the 10’s as he did when he was going 12.0’s trying to get into the 11’s!

Over the years we also added GT seats and door panel inserts, a-pillar gauges and various other mods to increase performance or enhance looks…

…the latest is Florida 5.0 gauge cluster complete with Autometer gauges – it’s a real nice setup and Dad loves it.