4.6L V8 Focus ........ (new vids Post #88 )

[sleeprfocus]

If you've been following the Socal forum, you know the story. If you haven't, this was a project that has been 2.5 years (yes, YEARS) in the making. Long story short, I went with a guy recommended by Kugel Komponents (makers of the V8 conversion kit) who ended up being a deadbeat, had to fire him after being patient for almost 2 years, then went with Muscle Motors to finish the job. After much labor pain (and dollars), the car is finally finished. If you just absolutely need to know the story, you can check here for all 22 pages of delays and nothing-happenings: http://forums.focaljet.com/team-foca...-progress.html

ENOUGH TALK, PICS FIRST!

Saturday morning, picking up the car at Muscle Motors.




Sunday night, taking pictures at my condo's garage.














Undercarriage shots when the car was on the lift a couple weeks ago, sans driveshaft.






LAST BUT NOT LEAST, MOVING IMAGES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ88J4ZxbfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eunv3uFIRdY

I'll have to find an unfortunate volunteer to take video of the car during an actual drive

[paulhaskew]

HOTTT!!! It's like pizza and *ex... mmm

Sadly no youtube at work...

[BUR_ZX3]

Gotsta remove that trigen sticker.

[Spatakula]

Nice to see it finally finished! It sound mean. The next project must be eliminating that wheel gap!

-spatakula

[Phacade]

Holy cow! I'll be it smokes.

[focusownerskid]

Yes.

Gotsta remove that trigen sticker.

Looks like it was already removed in the 'newer' photos.

- Drew

[RyanDunn]

Looks awesome...


now go scare a civic

[BOWERSdaAZIAN]

Awesome to finally see this thing completed!

The vid sounds nice, but i would love to see and hear some revving!

[HuTcH]

Sounds excellent and it looks so factory too. When are you expecting to boost? have you decided on the kit yet?

[sleeprfocus]

In terms of the engine performance, the car drives great. It's pretty damn loud for my taste, the video above doesn't do the noise justice, the car sounds MENACING in person. I guess Muscle Motors was so used to doing muscle Fords that they did the same treatment to my car. The motor is a 4.6L Cobra motor without the blower, and it growls every step of the way. The car is putting down about 270 whp and 290 lb-ft of torque. See below for the dyno. It's good power considering the Cobra motor has a lower compression than the Mach I GT motors. Fun part is driving by people with a loud V8 and they don't know where it's coming from



The car is using a T-56 transmission. Because of where the usual shifter mounts on the T-56, it does not line up with the Focus center console, so we had to fabricate an extension. Unfortunately, a by-product is that the shifter basically works like it's on an incline - gears 1-3-5 go upward, while 2-4-6 go down towards the center console. I thought it'd be misshifting a lot but surprisingly, I haven't had any misshifts, the only PITA is going into reverse which takes a bit of practice. I had my girlfriend drive it around the block and she had no issues with the shifter as well, so it's user-friendly even though it doesn't look like it I will add another 1" to 1.25" to the shifter length since I have to stretch down a tad to get down to gears 2-4-6. The clutch is stiff as hell, a result of the cable conversion with the Kugel kit.

In terms of handling, the car is surprisingly easy to drive. Yes I know the wheel gap in the rear is atrocious, and unfortunately, that is as low as the conversion kit will allow. I took a look underneath and it looks like if I lower the car any further, I risk having the exhaust pipes hit the rear axle. With all the weight in the front, this car should be oversteering like a bee-otch, but I took a couple street corners at good speed (~20-30 mph) and I didn't feel like I was going to lose control. I'm sure at spirited speed the car will oversteer like a mother but for street driving, it'll be fine. Because of the added weight in the front, the car tends to rebound hard after going over bumps, but the front end does not bottom out fortunately. I'm planning on raising the ride height in the front (which have KW Variant 1 coilovers) so the car will look more even front and rear, and adding spacers to push the rear wheels out a bit. The conversion kit also eliminates the ABS, but with the larger Wilwood brakes, I probably won't need the ABS as much for hard braking.

No idea on the weight guys, and I don't have a hookup for corner weights. I'm guessing that since the factory SVT Focus was about 3000 lbs, my car now should be no more than 3,200 lbs. I'd really like to know the weight distribution however.

I had Muscle Motors mate the Mustang ECU to the Focus instruments, so in the interior, all the factory gauges are still working as they should be, no need to replace all the gauges with aftermarket ones. Muscle Motors didn't connect the oil pressure and temp gauges on the side gauge pod however, so they're not working... very rice, I know I may just remove the pod later on and add it back on if I plan on adding forced induction. My ultimate goal is 450-500 whp.

Bad news is that after 2 project cars, my budget is toast for the next year or maybe even two, if this economy keeps sinking. So a suspension overhaul is not likely until 2010. I also have a set of RS fender flares and HRE wheels (18x8 front and 19x10 rear) on order with Ricardo, but I'm not sure when I'll have the budget to actually install them. With the larger wheels and tires though, the rear wheel gap won't look as bad, so I'm really looking forward to getting the widebody and wheels on.

[sleeprfocus]

Second video of the car backing up is up.

[sleeprfocus]

Gotsta remove that trigen sticker.

Removing those stickers was the first mod I did after driving off the lot

[Z63R]

Needs a drop and tint...























Good to see it out of the shop!

[R0B]

robert hit me up and ill video , incar and drive by

swing by to gc3

[BoomBoy]

Is it me or does it look like it can be converted to AWD easy?

That Focus looks menacing in V-8! Now, twin turbo it!

[slokoop]

really dumb question, but what happened to your emblem in the front? its fine in one pic, but falling off in another...is it part of your latching mechanism or something? looks sweet other wise, bet your glad its done!

[Spatakula]

^ That is an ST170 grill. The emblem flips to the side so that you can open the hood with a key.

-spatakula

[j20000]

really dumb question, but what happened to your emblem in the front? its fine in one pic, but falling off in another...is it part of your latching mechanism or something? looks sweet other wise, bet your glad its done!

It's a Euro grille, which has an option to have a hood lock behind it. the Ford emblem swivels out of the way to access the key hole.



Nice build Sleeper, I've been waiting for this to be done. I was hoping for a little higher #'s, but that's PLENTY of ponies in a little car like that.

I'm predicting this going to be one of the biggest RIGZ threads in [FJ] History!!!!

congrats on finishing it, I know it's been a long time coming.

[Pappy]

That is insane. Amazing quality work, well done!

By far the BEST V8 conversion I have ever seen. Amazing.

[PressBox]

That simply just isn't fair....haha....

Amazing machine you've got on your hands my friend