Great suggestions, especially the crown vic swap. Interesting idea for setting up independant susension in the rear end, but I think I'll probably just stick with the simpler solid axle rear. As for all the hate about the LS, thats funny, because the windsor in it now is the most worthless scrap I've ever had to drive, and thats after a 4bbl carb and some resparatory work. I was going to put a HEMI in it from a wrecked magnum I have, but I just figured I'd get more fun out of working with the LS. Aside from that, anyone have suggestions for strong schoks that I won't blow out right away?
*I was originally going to stick to the true old school and get a 351c to stroke into a 408, but I figured I should get a more recent engine that would have enough sensors to help me monitor my ride as I beat on it. I tend to redline my cars a lot and with boost, I just like the idea of being able to monitor things better than just temp and oil pressure lol.*

 

where is the LIKE button?


https://www.autoblog.com/2018/10/24/...ck-hoonitruck/

 

Have to laugh at the juxtaposition of the words "in the '80s' and 'muscle cars'. In the '80s anything over 200 bhp was considered hot stuff, arguably the worst and lamest single decade in the history of automobiles.

 

OH HELL YES!!

 

Until you get away from the I-beams it's not going to have much grip or handle very well; there's no way to change the geometry into something that works well for grip. You can upgrade the springs, shocks, lower it, add sway bars, and stick better tires/wheels so it "feels" better but it's still not going to be anything you'd want to actually autocross or throw around on the street. Too many people throw a set of springs/shocks/sway bars at their car/truck and then brag about how much better it "handles" because they minimized body roll... a lot of times going too stiff on the springs/shocks/bars will make it handle/grip worse than it did before if you had decent geometry and spring/shock/bars to begin with. To give you an idea of how well a stock-suspension truck handles, we had an 80's Chevy C20 show up a the last local autocross... he placed 76th out of 76 entries.

If you're boosting a LS there's no need to build a stroker, or really do anything other than opening up the ring gap. Plenty of people are making an easy and reliable 600+ whp out of completely stock junkyard 5.3's with only a cam/springs swap and a turbo. More power than that will be unusable without major suspension upgrades. Check out the "Sloppy Mechanics" group on facebook, they have a ton of info on what works best. Despite the name it's full of extremely well documented and well done swaps. With that said... you want immediate and precise throttle response for autocross or throwing it around wherever. A turbo engine won't have the same throttle response of a N/A engine. Whatever engine you decide to use will need some sort of upgraded oil pan with efforts made to control oil sloshing so you don't lose oil pressure when cornering hard.

Even if you're not planning on autocrossing the truck regularly and trying to be competitive it's a good idea to run the truck at a few events to learn it limits and handling characteristics.

 

haha, that's fine, but with this latest development, I might just save up for a hellephant and build a driveline to fit. 😁

 

Do you have a build thread for this truck?

 

2.5 year old thread

 

Thanks for the quick and obvious observation. However, that does not mean that the person that I was replying to will not see that there is a comment to his portion of the thread.

 

Your best bet would be to PM the guy. He hasn’t posted for about 9 months so he most likely won’t see the comment. If you click on his profile you can see the threads he’s started, a few seem to be relevant to his build.

 

Speaking of quick and obvious, he hasn't posted in over a year and his profile shows no build thread so yeah 2.5 year old thread

 

These types of threads always bring out the naysayers, if its not their way its wrong. If you want some good info about building this truck go over to pro-touring.com, they have a truck section and some really helpful people that will help you without the negative crap. Good luck with the build, hope to see ya over there.

 

Thank you for the advice, I will send him a PM and see if he replies there.

You could have said that begin with. Thanks