Bryan's 96 GT Vortech Build

OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
Are you hiding the coils under the intake? that's genius! The color is awesome btw
Thanks! And yes, coil packs, plug wires, and main engine harness are all ran under the intake.

I’m not a fan of blue but wow that color is killer! Love the build! Digging the shaved valve covers! Question? What fittings are those in the pcv ports, and did you just run them over from one another or do you have a catch can?
The valve covers I used are OEM valve covers off of a later model Crown Vic/Town car ('05 model I believe), so the PCV fittings were a little different than my '96. I pulled the PCV fittings out of the valve cover, drilled and tapped the holes for -10AN and used Earl's Performance AT985010ERL fittings in each hole. They're a o-ring style fitting and they worked great. I have both -10AN lines running to a Motion Raceworks vented catch can mounted to the intake behind the plenum

DQJgFbCQ.jpeg
 

d.garza18

Active Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2017
Messages
686
Reaction score
145
Location
TEXAS
Thanks! And yes, coil packs, plug wires, and main engine harness are all ran under the intake.


The valve covers I used are OEM valve covers off of a later model Crown Vic/Town car ('05 model I believe), so the PCV fittings were a little different than my '96. I pulled the PCV fittings out of the valve cover, drilled and tapped the holes for -10AN and used Earl's Performance AT985010ERL fittings in each hole. They're a o-ring style fitting and they worked great. I have both -10AN lines running to a Motion Raceworks vented catch can mounted to the intake behind the plenum

View attachment 14988
That is sick! Makes me want to do that to miine! I’m still using the 96 valve covers but their shaved
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
I’ve done a horrible job at updating this thread and this has been long overdue. Long story short, the car is running and driving perfectly. Had a kid in May so really haven’t messed with the car a lot since then, but was able to get it back together and remote tuned. Tune is super soft, but the car runs great. I’ll try to make some posts here updating on what all I did to get it to where it is now. The car still needs to be dyno tuned, and I still need to wetsand and buff the whole car to get the paint like I want it, and plenty of other little odds and ends
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
The car has a Vortech V2 E-Trim on it. I also installed a Treadstone TR1045 intercooler, all 3" Treadstone intercooler piping, and HPX-E MAF. I fitted up all of the piping how I wanted it, then took it to a local buddy to have it welded.

332636122_590652005953926_126875561363952876_n.jpg
328034856_519430690271201_6954488855082173758_n.jpg
332836175_1284307418785455_8309800958631207164_n.jpg
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
I got a base tuned emailed from the tuner, loaded it on the car, and it fired up almost instantly and ran great. Big shout out to Willie Lynch with Dirty Dirty Racing out of Bedford, Va. The base tune was spot on. We've done only a couple revisions with me watching the wide band and the car runs great. Still need to get it down to him for a proper dyno tune. Hope to do that within the next few months when I get the time. Anyway, at this point I just continued piecing the car back together.

327994619_747127640069516_7900076857643984967_n.jpg
328020826_422405066763698_9107020079862696123_n.jpg
333417974_1583621255488786_4697928591832608416_n.jpg
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
I installed new OEM Carlite glass ordered through the local dealer. Highly recommend this if you need a windshield. I wanted OEM and still came out cheaper going through the dealer and installing myself than if I had a local glass shop install some cheap Chinese glass.

Also gutted the interior, cleaned everything up and installed new carpet. Seats werent dirty but went ahead and shampoo'd those before they went back in the car.

333288065_5881941578590662_6107886592247098325_n.jpg
327896365_885214632696557_5843035651915331957_n.jpg
327924676_3343824412498574_8738163138311586347_n.jpg
333309742_6013597268676475_8063999753425205635_n.jpg
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
Finished everything up and here is how we sit today. Currently need to adjust the suspension some. How it sits is just me randomly picking a spot on the coilovers to set it without the fenders on so the stance needs to be adjusted. Still need to do little things here and there. Get the final tune dialed in, and still need to cut and buff the entire car. Probably only have 5-10 miles on the car since I've got it back together. Plan to beat on it a lot this year though!

333151564_715596946706202_3555293089736319335_n.jpg
327921368_975233320551174_3279341468089138160_n.jpg
327947685_590332649635173_4113192507245186309_n.jpg
327963356_596594215675839_767188939080371665_n.jpg
328012238_125640426895377_3375664433948129297_n.jpg
328013706_989136042472066_7464585712261833736_n.jpg
333278698_964423798275788_5317210798672302777_n.jpg
333397002_585318673231109_8950910568576225274_n.jpg
331943503_1603707066709423_872635755964277745_n.jpg
332732675_730725782030026_2323417319502783775_n.jpg
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
Also, if anyone has any questions on any part of the build, please ask. I had originally planned to show a lot more info on how I did everything but you quickly find that it’s extremely time consuming to put on here. But if you have a question, don’t hesitate to ask!
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
Little update since I haven't posted in a while. Back in March of '23, I took the car to get tuned. I was fighting ignition issues above 6300-6400 RPM which I later found out was most likely caused by a bad alternator. I still managed to make 508whp/401tq with power flat lining at 6300RPM. I installed a KMJ 200A alternator and upgraded all of my alternator wiring, and wiring back to the starter. It now pulls cleanly to 7200rpm so I suspect its picked up more power.

IMG_0095.jpeg
IMG_0106.jpeg
IMG_0120.jpeg



I then spent some time wet sanding and buffing the entire car



IMG_1018.jpeg
IMG_1091.jpeg
IMG_1092.jpeg
IMG_1094.jpeg





I got it pretty much to where I wanted it for the time being. For the rest of 2023, I pretty much just drove it, took it to some cruise-ins...etc.


IMG_2117.jpeg
0C727BA0-A0F1-4D68-9B15-115B7C96A66E.jpg
19187948-1E51-404B-A8D8-E57EE39AAFB1.jpeg
 

Musturd

Post Whore
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Messages
10,427
Reaction score
2,141
Nice to see you been out enjoying the car . Great numbers probably knocking on 600rwhp .
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
And here's where I am now. I sold the Vortech V2 E-trim. The car ran great and made good power, but the E-trim is a small blower and a little sluggish making boost. I was spinning the blower to 63k rpm with a 10% lower and 2.9 Griptec upper with no belt slip, and the car would only see around 13ish psi max. Only 9 or 10 psi at 6000rpm. It was fun for sure and pulled hard but my car is set up for a lot more boost. I have the bottom end, heads/cams, intake, intercooler, and fuel system to support it. I wanted to take advantage of that and make a little more power and put on a good street friendly blower. I found a used Vortech T-trim on Facebook marketplace and jumped on it. Once I got it, I immediately sent it to Vortech and had them rebuild it with H/D bearings, re-polish it, and upgrade it to Ti-trim. Surprisingly, they're now putting billet impellers in their H/D Ti blowers now. I think it should be a perfect match for the car. I'm going to keep the same 10%/2.9 pulley setup and overspin the Ti from the start. I'm thinking it may fall in the 18-20 psi range and hopefully 600whp+

IMG_3197.jpeg

IMG_3198.jpeg

IMG_3199.jpeg





I've also had a 6061 upper plenum on the shelf for a while now. I sent it off to be polished and figured I would throw it on the car while doing the blower swap. The 6061 plenum I have (Which used to be on Mike's car "97stanger"), has no provisions on the front of it. It has all of the bungs welded on the back of the plenum. Since I'm still factory ECU, I wanted to keep the factory IAC, so that meant doing an IAC relocation, and using one of the bungs on the back of the plenum. There are no companies that I could find that still make the IAC relocation adapters, so I made my own. I bought a chunk of aluminum off of McMaster.com and cut it to shape, and tapped it for fittings. I made a bracket, painted it black, and mounted to my catch can mount. It kind of disappears back there.



IMG_2821.jpeg

IMG_2822.jpeg

IMG_2823.jpeg

IMG_2911.jpeg

IMG_3241.jpeg

IMG_3209.jpeg

IMG_3208.jpeg
 
OP
OP
BMAC96GT

BMAC96GT

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
983
Reaction score
66
Location
Virginia
Thats where we are today. The car is still down and hasn't been started yet since the blower swap. While doing this work, I noticed the brake booster was leaking fluid. After an endless search, it seems that re-man 96-98 GT boosters are out of stock everywhere. Did a little digging online, and they seem fairly easy to repair. I bought a $39 seal replacement kit and I'm going to attempt to repair it myself. While its out, I'm going to go ahead and replace the master cylinder, and convert all of the power steering lines to AN lines and tuck them in the fender. All of the fittings I need should be here within a week so I will update the thread again once that stuff starts going back in the car!
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
77,439
Messages
1,502,159
Members
14,920
Latest member
marktuck99

Members online

Top