2008 crown vic build thread

[Moto Assassin]

Alright guys and gals I will drag you along on my journey building this 2008 crown victoria. This will be the second one I have built but it has been a few years since I built the first one. I started building this car last year for a show and ran out of motivation to finish it so I will post pictures tomorrow and get everyone up to speed on where it sits as of now. Hopefully I some of you can learn something from my build and I can learn something new from your comments. I am pretty well done with old iron as it's to expensive to buy them and it will be nice to learn what to expect from these cars. I now have 32 crown vics (and buying more weekly) anything from 1990-2008 so I should be able to get them figires out in the next few years pretty well. Until I can get some pictures of the build here are a before and after of my previous vic.

[demoboy333]

Roughly what's your rules.

[Moto Assassin]

Apr 2, 2021 23:52:06 GMT -5 demoboy333 said:

Roughly what's your rules.

ALLOWED: Bumper swaps and loaded bumpers, 14" bumper shocks, aftermarket spindles and steering, 80s can leaf and have kickers, tilt in one spot, pull body pucks, run any 5 or 8 lug rear end, lower engine cradle, full weld in centers,, trans brace, shorten front frame to 1" in front of core support.

NOT ALLOWED: mid plates, dp protector, solid tires.

That's the basic rules in a nutshell.

[DerbyKing88s]

Well that’s a bit goofy

[Moto Assassin]

Apr 3, 2021 6:51:12 GMT -5 DerbyKing88s said:

Well that’s a bit goofy

Whats goofy?

[Moto Assassin]

Hey guys and gals I have had a heck of a time figuring out how to post quality pics but I am hoping that I finally have it figured out. This car will get ran Aug 7th at UTC derby in Spanish Fork, Utah and then hopefully Aug 14th at Juab County Derby in Nephi, Utah (probably the 2 hardest hitting and fast paced shows in Utah, they are no joke) progress may be a bit slow as I have to also build a car for Wasatch Wipeout in Heber, Utah that will be July 30 and 31st. They will be 2 very different builds and I hope to make a build thread for that car as well.

Here are some pictures of the front crossmember that I built last year, it is out of a 1990 grand marquis.

Spindles are aftermarket and I bought them used and the one hub is fairly loose so if anyone knows what kind they are so I can get a new hub ordered I would greatly appreciate it.

Ball joints are the large aftermarket weld in sleeve and screw in ball joints (moog 1002 and 1003 if I remember correctly)

Engine in pictures I decided is going in a different car and this will get a newly built engine that I have been working on for 3 years now and I decided it's time to finally finish it for this car.

Frame is tilted in front of the engine cross member, we are only allowed one tilt on the car. The last vic I built I tilted it at the trans crossmember. Trying it in a different spot this year just to figure out what works best as vics are the only car I will basically ever run again so it's time to learn everything I can about what works and what doesn't.

[Moto Assassin]

Here is the rear end I built, started life as a 14 bolt out of a gm truck. I am trying the Ballistic Fabrication shave kit to get 2 more inches of clearance on the bottom as the tracks in utah are typically fairly sandy. I also did their truss brace (not sure its derby worthy but with the 14 bolt rear being stong from the factory I am hoping it will stay straight.)

I tool some 1/2" thick steel to make the pads to bolt to the leaf packs.

I had a local shop build me a new main leaf after one of the main truck leafs broke as I was building the leaf packs. We have to have 2" of arch in the leafs (no flat sprung leafs) so that is what I went with.

I built the parts were the leafs most to the frame out of 3x4 tube I believe. To get the rear end to work and keep things straight I had do notch it out, I took the piece I cut and welded it in backwards to try and keep its strength.

[Moto Assassin]

Here is what I have done so far on the cab. Just your standard cage with really nothing to special about it. Cage has to be 8" off of floor which I don't love that rule but it is what it is. Halo will go in after cab is back on frame and doors are welded on.

[Moto Assassin]

Here is were my engine is as of now. It started life as a LA 360. Was wanting to do a 408 stroker to try and keep up with the utah drivers. Apparently the engine had some damage/rust in one of the cylinders and thr machine shop bored it 60 over (which worries me on being to thin between the cylinder walls and water passages) so it ended up now being a 416 stroker engine. From the research I have done I am thinking around 500 hp and 550 ft/lbs torque. This will be my very first built engine I have ever ran so I hope it does not disappoint.

Next on the car build to do list includes finishing engine and building a new cradle for it, building a driveline brake, possibly building some perches to remount stock trailing arms on rear end as we are allowed to run them and leafs, bumper shocks, bumpers, and steering.

I hope that you folks enjoy the build and don't be afraid to comment or PM me on things that you see that I could improve on.

Until my next picture post, have fun and get to building, thr season is coming up fast. 🤘🤘

[improse]

run a rev limiter.lol

[owen11x]

Utah is loyal to mopar engines like Minnesota 🤘 .060 is gonna run pretty hot on a small block mopar though and longevity is not gonna be its strong point especially getting hot a few times should have started with a 318 and even that is pretty thin being said I have a 318 .060 for my street car and she runs warm dont run a thermostat just a washer and if your running a fan run a shroud or electric fans and a shroud and with aluminum heads I'd look into running alcohol to keep it as cool as possible heads are prone to.warping or cracking when at or over 240 degrees and still turning 6k rpm. I know your heats are shorter than around me but clean looking build this far

[Moto Assassin]

Apr 12, 2021 0:24:04 GMT -5 improse said:

run a rev limiter.lol

I definitely will. I would love to go lots of rpms to make sure the crowd knows I am there but I will run a limiter. I think I can get away with 6500 but will probably only go 6000-6200 just to be safe.

[Moto Assassin]

Apr 12, 2021 6:30:13 GMT -5 owen11x said:

Utah is loyal to mopar engines like Minnesota 🤘 .060 is gonna run pretty hot on a small block mopar though and longevity is not gonna be its strong point especially getting hot a few times should have started with a 318 and even that is pretty thin being said I have a 318 .060 for my street car and she runs warm dont run a thermostat just a washer and if your running a fan run a shroud or electric fans and a shroud and with aluminum heads I'd look into running alcohol to keep it as cool as possible heads are prone to.warping or cracking when at or over 240 degrees and still turning 6k rpm. I know your heats are shorter than around me but clean looking build this far

Thank you a ton for that info. They machine shop did the 60 over without asking me. I would have found a different block to give them to stay at 30 over if I would have known. I will run an aluminum radiator with electric fan. I have been really debating on a thermostat or washer. I am thinking if I go with a washer I will probably use an electric water pump so after the heat I can have the car off yet still run the water pump and cooling fan to get it cooled down more between heats. The couole things that may help is we built it so it's only around 10:1 compression and I am going to run a fitech efi system on it so I can run it a bit rich to help keep temps down. Also most heats around here are about 8-10 minutes and mains hardly ever go over 20 but it's balls to the wall the whole time. Again thanks for the info and hope you like the thread.

[owen11x]

Also look into a intake that allows you to run coolant hoses from front to back of intake to even out the hot spots especially of going with electric water pump I like the build I'll follow along due to the mopar heartbeat

[cheezwhiz31]

Why you stop buying at 2008?