95 Ford Thunderbird 5.0 V8 Lemons Car + Manual swap + all race spares (SF, CA) $6K

[gunn]

Birdcats folks: Here is the ad I posted on the 24hoursoflemons forum for my tbird. If a buyer pushes me on the price, I'll likely pull off some of the easier to sell/ship parts from the package and post them for sale here (ex: B&M short shifter, Teaves ABS tool, etc.) Until then though, my primary goal is to sell a complete package.

Well folks, I want to make space in my garage to make room for another project car. The reality is that I’m less likely to take this car to go Lemons racing again so I’m open to considering offers here. I made many, many contributions to the tbird enthusiast forum websites (first TCCOA.com and then birdcats.com) so my many DIY/writeups can be found on those websites.
IIRC, this car weighs 3150 ready to race. No tbird came with a 5.0 V8 and a manual from the factory but after starting off with a V6 N/A and an automatic, I learned a lot from this car as I learned to swap in a manual and then upgrade it to a 5.0 V8. The manual transmissions came from the 3.8L supercharged V6s and the 5.0 HO V8 with the same bellhousing pattern came from the 90-92 Thunderbird model (which shared a lot of the design characteristics with the V8 found in the 94-95 SN95 mustang).
Enhancements Made for Endurance Racing

• Ford Windsor 302 V8
  - Rebuilt bottom end. Bored 20 over (~304” now) w/ new KB311-020 flat top pistons and new crank. Last rebuild line bored mains and balanced crank w/ pistons. Went 20 over to allow for at least two more rebuilds if so desired (30 over or 35/40 over)
  - Rebuilt GT40 heads from 96 Explorer w/ Ferrea 5000 series stainless steel valves 1.55” exhaust / 1.85” intake and Trickflow TFS-2500100 Valve spring kit installed
  - New E303 Cam
  - EGR and smog pump deleted
  - Alternator replaced ($71)
  - GT40 lower and upper intake from 96 Explorer ($200), Trickflow elbow to allow for installation of MAF under stock tbird hoodline ($40).
  - Mechanical fan/waterpump replaced w/ 94-95 mustang version. Underdrive pulley installed
  - Accessory belt rerouted to account for removal of these accessories (84.5”)
  - Custom engine mounts using stock brackets (which are unique to 90-92 Ford Tbird 5.0s).
  - 3.8L to 5.0 swap documented here: https://forum.birdcats.com/threads/gunn … arned.137/
• M5R2 Manual transmission (from donor car I cut up - $300 value)
• 95 F150 flywheel, clutch, and starter (only vehicle to ship with M5R2 transmission and 5.0 engine)
• Rebuilt with CF synchros ($200)
• Custom hydraulic clutch line longer than stock and includes a compression fitting in the middle. This way should you need to swap engines/transmissions at the race track you don’t need to reach into the bellhousing to perform the swap.
• B&M short shifter (hard to find now – I think this was $200+)

Oil/Water Cooling

• Thermostat removed and replaced with restrictor ring (to prevent cavitation)
  2qt Accusump installed and plumbed in with a sandwich; IIRC, this helped with long right hand sweepers curves where oil gets pulled away from the pump ($205)
• Griffin Radiator (GRI-1-26242-X) w/ 1/8" bung welded in for temp sensor ($180 + $20 labor for aluminum welding)
  - Largest radiator I could fit under the hood with the inlet/outlets in the right position
  - If you use the stock temp sensor position at the top of the intake manifold and lose too much coolant, the sensor will start reading air and you’ll think the engine is cooler than reality). Reading at the bottom of the radiator gives you the most accurate, temp possible for what the engine is sucking in.
• Flex-A-Lite Heavy-Duty Fluid Coolers 45251 7” x 21” x 1.5” – largest oil cooler I could fit in front of the radiator
• Derale DER-15735 sandwich to enable plumbing ($47)
• Two SPAL fans installed instead of the mechanical finger cutter. One is a pusher (SPU-IX-30102048), one is a puller (SPU-IX-30101504) to maximize space (did the math to figure out what fans would maximize CFMs but minimize overlap)
• Plumbed the original ATF cooler along with a second one in series for the PS pump.
• Custom hoses from Royal Brass (hydraulic shop in San Jose) to plumb all of this in ($150)

Electrical/Gauges/Driver

• Engine harness wiring on the car is setup to easily unplug the stock engine and the various temp sensors and plug in the spare engine.
• Aftermarket voltage, coolant temp, coolant pressure, and oil pressure sensors/gauges installed. All worked when last raced.
• AEM WBO2 gauge (useful for tuning) and sensor installed
• DATAQ data acquisition module wired into a Second WBO2 sensor (Innovate LC-1) and according to my notes the knock sensor for datalogging. Its all plumbed into an old PS2 case (yeah, I’m a nerd)
• Wired in a knock gauge mounted in a pager case on the steering column (fun project, came from lithuania and wired to use a sensor I pulled t the junkyard from some VW car, IIRC)
• Wiring on the car is setup to easily unplug the stock engine and the various temp sensors and plug in the new engine.
• NRG Steering wheel with buttons wired in for horn and mister. Quick detach mechanism wired in.
• Mister uses the stock washer fluid pump to spray water on the front radiator. Saw 20F temp drops at speed on the racetrack back when we had an automatic. Not sure if still in place as haven’t used it in years
• Aftermarket Shift light set to 5250RPM (IIRC)
• Exterior mirrors replaced with inboard cage mount side mirrors to help with aero
  Broadway panoramic convex 360mm mirror installed for easy rear viewability; this was great for visibility but kept breaking the stock center rear mirror off its glass mount so I replaced it with a roof mount mirror from an S14 Nissan after a few races. No issues since.
• Windshield has no cracks (replaced)
• Push to start mechanism because that’s just cool.

ECU

• Runs on the ECU from the 92 Tbird 5.0 (GSALI strategy). That ECU didn’t control the transmission so doesn’t care about the manual swap
• Moates Quarterhorse (I’ve read these are getting hard to find now). Fresh battery backp installed in March 2025
• There’s also a datalogging module wired into the car to read the WBO2 + knock IIRC. Its in the PS2 case underneath the ECU.
• Full documentation of my ECU tune changes in my spreadsheet
• Binary Editor SW + USB license Dongle, paid strategy GSALI.cry, and training manual available.
• No driveability issues with the ECU; idea was not to tune for max power but to understand how ECU tuning worked by tweaking things slightly take advantage of the 96 Explorer GT40 injectors (professionally cleaned and rebuilt before installation)
  ECU Tuning details: https://forum.birdcats.com/threads/gunn … asics.138/

Brakes/Axles

• Front calipers/brakes to 13” rotors from Mustang Cobra redrilled for the tbird bolt pattern of 5 x 4.25”
• Pads Raybestos ST43. These cost ~$200/pair but work great for endurance racing and last multiple races before replacement.
• Rear: stock tbird rotors. Pads are Raybestos ST43 or Porterfield R4e pads we used before trying the ST43 (also good).
• Stainless steel brake lines from Classic Tube (replaced once over racing career after some got discolored)
• All wheels studs replaced with 3” ARP wheel studs in ½”-20 threading. New nuts included We did this after losing one wheel on track. Too many ugga-uggas by tire shops on 90s american metallurgy
• Fiberglassed in intake ducts from front bumper to direct air to brackets located next to front rotors
• We left the stock 95 Tbird ABS system in place ON PURPOSE. This has proven especially useful on rainy track days as we could out brake nearly every other vehicle given the upgraded brake system and ABS allowing us to extract it without locking up.
  Specialty ABS bleed tool available as part of the spares.

Suspension

• Front
  - Springs are from 95 Tbird supercoupe w/ 1 coil cut to bring to proper ride height. No issues since our first race.
  - Struts are custom Bilstein #34-050224 inserts (originally for Mitsubishi 3000GT – similar weight in the front as a tbird) adapted for the tbird (required custom retaining nut and thinning of the Bilstein insert exterior on a lathe to fit.)
  - Still able to disassemble/rebuild as needed but painted black to draw less attention.
  - Build thread available documenting the machining required to fit these.
  - I also went a little nuts and made my own monoball shock top mount using parts from Steinjager (I saw the monoball shock tops on a Porsche 996 GT2/GT3 and figured I could fab my own)
• Rear
  - Bilstein 34-050224 (original application 99-04 Mustang Cobra)
  - Rear springs Eibach 1.5” drop
• Front control arms replaced
• Rear control arms replaced or rebuilt with energy suspension bushings
• Front sway bar: kept 95 Tbird 3.8 NA stock w/ replacement Energy Suspension bushings
• Rear sway bar: upgraded to sway bar from 91 Tbird SC at 0.91” diameter
  - Previously tried the 93 Tbird 5.0 sway bar of 0.94” but found it to be too tail happy with the 5.0 (tail would want to come around, esp when damp, as you left the left handed carousel at Sears Point and hit the slight bump that demarcated the start of the drag strip)
  - After dialing back the sway bar we found the car to be very neutrally handling; its one of my favorite things about driving this car.
• Also built DIY subframe connectors bolting the front K-member to to the body and body. Probably unnecessary (cage makes it still enough to jack the car up from one point) but amusing side project
• shopping cart spoiler frame holding a snowboard and some ricer wing to the rear of the tbird;
  - Goofy looking but the snowboard held in laminar flow air (above the body) and DOES seem to help handling (feels looser without it)
• Lightened car dramatically: pulled ~600LBs out of this car including sound deadening, all unnecessary wiring down to the firewall connectors, skinned doors (no frame, just a strap and the external door handle), and replaced trunk lid with fiberglass sheet cast from stock trucklid.
• Added firewall between body and truck in case you ever want to install a 24 gallon fuel cell; the last upgrade I considered but never did. Stock 18gal tank good for ~1.25hours of flat out racing at a technical track like Sears Point. That was more than our drivers could handle and stay at peak performance.
• Cut and installed an access port for the fuel pump behind the passenger seat; makes any fuel pump changes possible without dropping the tank.

Safety Equipment

• Driver’s side seat is a FIA rated BIMARCO grip Halo seat compatible with Hans. I purchased this specifically for the added safety for lateral impacts and liked them so much we equipped our Baja UTV with them
• Passenger side seat is a Corbeau which was our first driver's seat
• One GForce camlock harness is installed on the passenger side. Can be re-webbed OR used for passenger track days after you purchase a new set for the passenger
• both seats are on sliders
• the drivers side has a seatback brace (unnecessary for the Bimarco but was required when the forza seat was in the driver's spot)

Exhaust/Misc

• Exhaust are stock 93 Tbird 5.0 headers with titanium heat wrap
• Rest of the exhaust is a custom made downpipe to 3” single exhaust from components purchased from Mandrel Exhaust Systems.
  - Designed to bolt together to make removal easy. Front components are 2.25” downpipes feeding into a Y and leading backwards in a single 3” pipe.
  - Exhaust then follows the stock routing through a cherry bomb muffler (added for to quiet things just a little bit) and Flowmaster Super 40 then exiting through the center of the trunk in an homage to a Pagani Zonda (because why not).
  - Sounds very throaty without any drone at hwy speeds. I optimized it to minimize weight (instead of a true dual exhaust) and maximal ground clearance while still having great flow and easy removability (super useful before I had a lift or needed to do a swap at the track)..
• Cage built by John Pagel of Evil Genius Racing (at the time, he was the head tech judge) which cost ~$1500. Never any issues for passing tech. Updated in 2014 to add a second door bar as per the rule changes.
• After our first race, in which we finished but we were the 150th (out of 164th) fastest car on the field, I put the car on a substantial diet. I scraped off every bit of sound deadening I could. I removed all glass, skinned the doors, the underside of the hood (which needed reinforcement), and even went through the wiring harness and cut back every single unnecessary wire/plug at the harness. This netted a weight savings of nearly 800LB (which again, I tracked on a spreadsheet).

Spares

• During my Lemons racing, I parted out 4 additional tbirds to collect everything you could need should you expect to break this car at the track OR need to repair it at home. Ideally, I want to sell this as a whole package. If this becomes an issue, I will part out these components as I know the tbird enthusiast community quite well and know the value of these items
• Key item: Stock Ford 302 engine + M5R2 transmission ready to race
  - Engine had 95K mi on it.
  - M5R2 was rebuilt with the new CF synchros. Includes half of the custom clutch hose so you can swap the engine+transmission trackside and driveshaft yoke “buttplug” so the transmission fluid doesn’t leak out
  - Bolted onto a subframe welded to a shopping cart. We would wheel it to the race and one time even swapped it on track within 3 hours (not bad for not having any professional mechanics on the team).
• Intake/Exhaust/Drivetrain
  - Spare stock Tbird 5.0 upper and lower intake
  - Spare airbox + MAF
  - Spare stock shifter (rebuilt)
  - Spare driveshaft
  - Spare Differential (stock 3.08 gear, IIRC)
  - Spare hood hinges
  - Spare engine lift bracket (bolts to the exhaust manifolds)
  - Spare driveshaft buttplug
  - Spare diff cover
  - Spare custom hoses for oil cooler plumbing (to/from accusump and oil cooler)
  - Misc coolant hoses, misc serpentine belt sizes
  - Spare replacement access hatch panel
  - Spare Griffin Radiator with temp gauge bung already welded on. IIRC sensor is also preinstalled
  - Bunch of gaskets for intake, heads, thermostat
  - Other coolant flow restrictors from moroso set (replaces thermostat)
  - Spare water pump
  - Spare master cylinder
  - Spare brake booster
  - Spare Clutch master cylinder
  - Spare IACV
  - Spare ignition ignitor
  - Misc spare bypass pulleys
  - Spare stock radiator
• Electrical
  - Spare Engine harness
  - Spare dash harness (to ECU, firewall plug, and gauge cluster)
  - Big bag of spare sparkplug wires + sparkplug wire set
  - Spare distributor cap
  - Spare distributor rotor
  - Spare spark plugs (new)
  - Spare ignitor
• Body
  - Spare Front fenders
  - Spare Front radiator support clip (in case you hit something head on)
  - Spare front lights
  - Spare side mirrors (replaced with inboard mirrors on the car)
  - Stock steering wheel
  - Stock steering column
  - Spare wiper (new)
• Exhaust
  - Flowmaster Super 40 #953045 (brand new in box)
  - Shorter 90” pagani exit tip (I made a second one to increase distance between car and exhaust in case you were stuck in stop and go traffic on the track. If not wanted, I can keep it as a memento b/c it still makes me laugh)
• Suspension
  - Front Suspension Techniques spring + shocks ready to install
  - Rear suspension techniques springs
  - Spare stock rear shocks (new)
  - Spare front LCAs (new)
  - Spare front UCAs (new)
  - Spare front spindles (refurb)
  - Spare front tie rod ends
  - Misc spare shock tops
  - Spare rear swaybar - 95 Tbird 5.0 (0.94”)
  - Spare front swaybar - 93 SC front (1.1”)
• Brakes
  - Spare front Cobra calipers & brackets (reman)
  - Spare front 13” cobra rotors
  - Spare stock rear rotors and stock brackets
  - Spare ABS module (the whole unit)
• Tires
  - 6x spare 17” wheels. All with used tires
• Tools
  - 93 Tbird workshop Manual - for the 5.0 engine
  - 95 Tbird electrical manual
  - 95 Tird workshop manual - for the chassis
  - Teves ABS bleed tool - unobtanium but you can bleed w/o it
  - Ford OBD1 reader

Race Bits

• 4x 5gal Scribner Fuel Jugs modified for easy refueling with hoses and breathers (open to keeping these for my desert racing)
• A few (at least 2 but maybe 4?!) Get out of Jail Free Passes. One mounted on the driver's door. I won them from the cooking contest but we never used them. Nothing there says that they are not non-transferrable

What’s Needed Before you can Race in Lemons Again

• Install an AFFF system (we have one in our baja UTV which cost <$400).
• Buy new seatbelts for the driver.
  - We like the Camlock ones from GForce Racing Harnesses but Latch and Lock setups are <$100 and rewebbing kits are <$80 and are good for 2-5 years (depending on the cert date and your locale). We only raced it once a year so I would buy a new set and then sell it off the old set for $50-75 after the race.
  - The passenger’s seat has a harness already in place
• Buy a fresh set of tires.
  - The existing tires can be used as race spares.
  - We would always do a race day and a track day and then sell off the old pair (rotating them out). If you race more often, or race where its dry, you can probably push the tires harder.
• Prior to storage I drained the car of gasoline, changed the oil and coolant with water+Prestone, and put the battery on a battery minder back in 2020. I moved the car into a different garage and started working on my current project car (EV conversion)
• Last week, I prepared the car for sale:
  - I added 2.5gal of fresh premium gas to the tank.
  - The car cranked over immediately but wasn’t catching.
  - The issue turned out to be that after sitting for so long, the battery backup on the Quarterhorse ECU module had died. I replaced the coin cell battery and had to reteach myself how to setup Binary Editor on my current laptop in order to reflash my last tune onto the QH module.
  - The car then fired right up - I gave it a little gas so you can hear the engine rev up and then let it fall back to its normal idle.
  - See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU_sabe … e=youtu.be
• Drain the coolant (has prestone + water for storage) and refill with distilled water. The sacrificial anode drain plug I installed didn’t have any wear and minimal crud so I expect the long-term storage was not detrimental despite having different metals (iron block, aluminum radiator).
• Add a quart of oil for the accusump and flip the lever cutting it off from the rest of the oil system loop.

Asking Price
- My spreadsheet says I have over $7K into this vehicle in its current form ($19K+ for the entire development and 1500+ hours) so I’d like $6K and you can have everything ($500 for car, $5500 for spares+safety). Clearly, I had a lot of fun building this car up but I haven’t used it even post-pandemic so it’s time to move on. I’ll also include the handful of get-out-of-jail passes I collected for winning a cooking contest using the tbird in 2018 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2rwYCE … qc9at3Fscs)
- If interested, message me and I can share my entire google sheet doc that documents this build and all the things I’ve done/tested since I started racing. I also have quite a few threads on TCCOA.COM (old tbird enthusiast website) and BIRDCATS.COM (current tbird enthusiast website) that documents all the stuff I put together for this car (ex: figuring out how to DIY the Bilstein front shock setup)
- The Lemons judges always thought we were harmless with a solid B class car. We basically built this car to be as reliable as possible and then started going silly with it (like winning the cooking contest.
- If you want me to work on the price with you, message me and we can chat on the phone. I’m open to taking some parts I know I can resell or re-use out of the deal (short shifter, Bimarco driver’s seat, Teaves ABS tool, spare diff, etc) while still leaving you with a Lemons car and plenty of spare parts to race. If you really want to squeeze me, maybe we can swap engines and I’ll keep my built one and you can have the spare. Or I keep the spare and you keep the currently installed engine. If you want to race Lemons, let’s talk.
- Car may be picked up from my home garage in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco about 5 min from the Glen Park BART station, if you want to look for something on google maps). I'll take cash, venmo, or paypal.
- I also have a title for the car and the forms for the car being on PNO.
- A friend also wanted me to point out that since I've owned the vehicle (purchased in 2010 from a friend who owned it since HS and was his commuter car into his early 30s), this car has always been stored in a garage. This is why the car interior is remarkably less filthy than your typical crapcan racer.


Regards,
Gunn

More pictures of the car and all the spares packed up and ready to take to the track are here: https://www.gunn.com/tbird/forsale/

 

[Zep5.0]

Is that a shopping cart mounted snowboard?

 

[gunn]

Yes, e

Is that a shopping cart mounted snowboard?

Obviously. It actually holds the snowboard in laminar flow air and you can feel the difference in stability on the track. With the addition of chicken wire, previous iterations can comfortably hold one chicken wearing one helmet cam (neither included anymore).