Ford 302 powered S13

[mkomar24]

Hey my name is Omar, I own Nocturnal Motorworks in St. Louis MO. We have been doing wild swaps for a long while now, Toyota 2JZ's into BMW's, CA18DET into Miata, SB Ford into Miata, 1JZGTE iinto S13, etc. but its time to post up about my favorite personal car. I bought this S13 as my first 240 ever (that would change later lol) but this was my first love. I started with a bone stock 80,000 mile hatch, no rust good frame etc. I swapped it SR20 blacktop, then went through many variations of cages, turbo upgrades, engine bay layouts etc. Finally decided to do something unique, I knew the small block Fords were much cheaper than the popular LS motors and had good potential to rev high due to the piston/ stroke found in these blocks. With a hydraulic roller cam block, aluminum heads, and some bolt ons, impressive power can be had for a few grand. I also knew that the borg warner t5 transmission is a smooth shifting, single shift rail, dirt cheap, and super light gearbox. That means that for the price of an SR swap I could have a hundred more ft/lb of torque, a unique sound, and a clean simple engine bay that makes maintenance a breeze. The ultimate goal here is not record setting power! The goal was to try a simple, clean, easy to maintain v8 with enormous aftermarket support, easy to find parts, with a nice sounding tone that responds quickly to throttle and revs easily. It worked better than I hoped

Start:



Oh by the way I build modified knuckles for people. That being said, I do all the R and D on my own car, needless to say, it has some angle on it!


With all that angle I was running into two obstacles, the frame rails, and the factory sheet metal. Tubs were in order but I did not like the way traditional tubs constricted access to the motor. One main goal was to simplify working on this beast so I came up with this;




I figured it was also about time to cut out the old cage and put in a better fitting cage. I make cages (among other things) for a living, so mine had to fit perfectly for me to feel satisfied. I notched the cage into the b-pillar, a pillar, and it is welded directly to the chassis along its entire span. I also opted to go with 1.75" DOM one size up from required 1.5" to help with rigidity and make sure I will be ok even if rules change down the road.




With all the interior work going on I decided to do something I have wanted too for a long time....custom gauge cluster! I dont need no stupid speedometer, just the basics. I overlaid the aluminum with some scrap carbon fiber sheet I had laying around cause I am a huge ricer at heart. I wired the back up to a spare nissan 16 pin connecter so that I can pop it in and out easily.



I also elected to continue my weight reduction to try and make up for all the iron I was going to add, I deloomed the entire car harness, eliminated about 45 pounds of excess wiring, same for the engine harness, wrapped it all back up in fresh loom and tucked it all. Then I removed every scrap of tar and sound deadner, excess bolts, radio, ac, brackets, all the sheetmetal webbing, upgraded to some fiberglass stuff, antenna delete, etc. All in all I removed close to 500 pounds. I know this because I kept it all in bins and weighed them all when I was done


With the tubs completed I began test fitting the motor. I ended up modding the steering shaft a bit, making my own headers, and making an 11 quart front sump oil pan with baffles and gates.

That finished, I had to tear it all out again, sand down the engine bay, clean it, tuck everything and lay down some fresh paint. White was chosen to allow me to spot any leak as soon as it happens.



Finally, with all that done its time for the last install! I replaced all the gaskets, torqued everything one last time, cleaned it up and dropped it in. Car fired right up in just two hours install time, sounds great through a 3" RSR catback






Basically here is the breakdown;

Ford 302
Seasoned iron block
forged pistons
1.7 roller rockers
John Kasse aluminum heads
B303 cam
MSD ignition
6 puck copper clutch
pulleys
BBK MAF
BBK throttle body
28 lb injectors
GT40 Intake manifold
BBK fuel pressure regulator
Custom front sump oil pan 11 qts with baffles and gates
Custom power steering lines and cooler
Custom motor mounts
modded steering shaft
one piece Driveshaft shop DS
304 stainless short style headers
3 inch full stainless exhaust with v-bands
Mishimoto KA radiator with e-fans wired as pushers.

Car weighs 2,606 without driver but with full cage, motor swap, and half tank of gas.

Weight split is 51/49 biased to front as weighed at SCCA scales.

This thing pulls like a raped ape down low and revs to 6000rpm.

[kaspar]

im gunna revive the shit out of a dead thread....and get flamed to fuck for it,or i could post a new question...and get flamed for it


got pics of the oil pan?

[Oakville]

first time ive seen a ford in a 240...weird. nice build!

[kosmo91se]

Yeah I'd like to second the motion to bring this back from the dead... I'm about to jump head first into this swap and this is the first thread I've found that has end results that aren't half assed, everything else just dies halfway through.

I've got questions for this guy

[Fries]

Hey man, looks bad ass. Can't believe I haven't seen this before. Rep the midwest!!

Wish I was getting stationed in KS so I could utilize you for some fab work!

[conrad_s13.5]

how the fuck havent I seen this thread either!??!

mikes the real deal!
Love this car

bumpbump!

[No 240.. No id]

i remember seen you working on it at dewy's shop. very nice car

[Extreme Dimensions]

Nice job on that swap!

[bc.]

This reminded me that it is your birthday today! happy birthday Mike! you got some updates for this thread though...

[future]

You said high revs in the beginning, then in the end you tell us 6k

[davirene]

Any video of this running?'

[mkomar24]

Originally Posted by future

You said high revs in the beginning, then in the end you tell us 6k

That IS high revs in a shitty old pushrod V8 lol But seriously, I am wanting to swap in some lighter pistons, balanced rotating assembly, stiffer valve springs, etc and get those revs up a few thousand more at least. I have a simple video I put together myself for fun;
Omars Gymkana 1 0 - YouTube

THIS VIDEO WAS NOT SHOT ON A PUBLIC STREET!!!!!! THIS WAS A PRIVATE LOT, DRIVE AND TRACK!!!!

That was just me messing around for fun in front of the shop and a bit at the local track on a Friday night. I need to get a better camera and learn to use the editing software but you get the idea. I will look for some pictures of the oil pan, I am very proud of it and yet I cant find one picture of it I hammer formed the lower pan from a single sheet of steel using the tuck and fold method and also a shot bag... took forever but I wanted to see if I could do an oil pan that way.

[codyace]

turn the volume down on the song and the let the 5.0 melody make some noise!

i dig it. nice little swap.

[PLAYERO_LOKO]

Originally Posted by codyace

turn the volume down on the song and the let the 5.0 melody make some noise!

i dig it. nice little swap.

what he said!!!

[BlackZenkiS14]

Engine is currently getting new bottom end, heads, cam and trans replaced.

I'll have Omar post up pics when he's done.

[bc.]

Thanks for the pre-update update Kyle, :P

[Nikku]

How did you end up modifying the steering shaft? Could you put up a picture of it?

[BlackZenkiS14]

lol this is now a full FD legal 1JZ car with rear mount radiator haha