Category Archives: Other Stuff
How to Do an Awesome Burn Out
Patience and tires are all that you need for a great burnout/brake stand. I wanted to get the most out of the original Goodyear tires on this SN95 Mustang. 8 of the 9 lives are now gone. Enjoy.
Fit and Finish of Cervini Cobra R Hood
I purchased the Cervini Cobra R hood out of necessity! I performed the 302 to Ford Racing 427 engine swap and mounted the Edelbrock Pro-Flo 2 sequential fuel injection system on top. I just got the car out of the paint shop. Mark over at Chameleon Color Systems in Louisville, KY did a spot-on color match:
94-98 Cervini Cobra R Hood
How about a bit of 427 badging to complete the picture:
Cervini Cobra R Hood
This could only be exceeded by old school white interior. Please note the retro-mod Hurst shifter and classic white shift ball mounted on top!
White Interior
When It Comes to Spark Plug Wires, All Are Not Created Equal
It came time to to find some spark plug wires for my retro mod SN95 Ford Racing X Head 427. The 427 was based off the Boss 351W block, so I needed wires that were compatible with the 5.8 liter engine.
Prior experience showed that the “pre-cut” wires led to misery. There was always enough wire; there was always too much wire. So my great looking engine was covered with spark plug wire spaghetti…no one made enough wire retainers to avoid the inevitable.
MSD Ignition 31323 Spark Plug Wires
The final selection was the MSD Ignition 8.5 mm Super Conductor Wires (31323) . The wires are a “universal” set, which means that you must cut-to-fit. The spark plug side boots are gray silicon rubber. More importantly, the spark plug ends are bendable, which keeps the silicon rubber away from the headers.
MSD Ignition Silicon “Bend-to-Fit” Spark Plug Wire Ends
The distributor ends are the “cut-to-fit” portion of the deal.
MSD Ignition Distributor Side 8.5 mm Wire Ends
Assembling the Plug Wires
You must buy two items to handle the cut-to-fit spark plug wires:
- An Accel Wire Crimping Tool (170036) – It will be the best investment that you ever made. Thank me later. This tool is a bit incredible in that it has crimp dies for both MSD spark plug crimps.
- MSD Spark Guard Dielectric Grease – The distributor-side boot will slide on very nicely once the grease is applied. If you do not use the grease, you will spend a frustrating afternoon fighting the wires.
MSD Ignition 8.5 mm Super Conductor Wires (31323) have great instructions for the cutting and crimping sequence. The Accel crimper will do a great job of attaching the distributor-side crimp terminals. The quality of the MSD wires are beyond reproach. MSD advertises 40 to 50 Ohms resistance per foot…they deliver.
I performed a comparison of the resistance between another set of cut-to-fit spark plug wires: Ford Racing Wire Set M-12259-M302. The Ford Racing wires have a simple crimp compared to the MSD wires. It was so simple, I really questioned whether the crimp would be effective. It was not. I compared the resistance of the MSD wires to the Ford Racing wires. The results are shown below:
| Plug |
MSD Plug Wires (Ohms) |
Ford Racing Wires (Ohms) |
| 1 |
80.8 |
2010 |
| 2 |
90.1 |
2059 |
| 3 |
90.0 |
860,000 |
| 4 |
109.2 |
1,230,000 |
| 5 |
82.8 |
1,500,000 |
| 6 |
84.8 |
1,030,000 |
| 7 |
90.8 |
2050 |
| 8 |
83.7 |
2109 |
As you can see, the ford Racing wire resistances were all over the place. The MSD results were dead consistent and in line with their 40 to 50 Ohms per foot claim. Case closed.
Welcome to 427 Mustang!
This site is dedicated the steps, challenges and victories in retrofitting a Ford Racing X-Head 427 engine into a 1994 SN95 Mustang GT.
In short:
- YES, the Ford Racing M-6007-X427FRT 450 HP/520 ft-lb engine does fit into a SN95 Mustang
- YES, both the engine and the Mustang require modifications…you will not have to use a cutting torch/welder to get the engine to fit
- Yes, if you modify one thing, you’ll find that you have to modify two other things that you never thought about
- YES, you will send Summit Racing and Jeg’s a lot of money…they will become your best friends
- YES, there are many ways to tackle this project…some ways require more money than others
- YES, part vendors advertise that their parts will fit the SN95…sometimes they don’t
- YES, some vendors will send you defective products…you will learn to check parts before installing them
- Yes, eventually this site will answer: How can I do a 351W engine swap in a SN95 Mustang GT in less than 1,721 steps
I hope to to give give all builders the benefit of my experience … hopefully you will save some $$$ and a whole lot of whiskey.