1993 Ford Probe GT "Panda Express" AKA Sweet 2005 mod list bro

BullE36 M3, RPF1’s look good on everything! 

The color I believe is Boysenberry Blue

My PGT has factory fogs but I'm upgrading I could probably make a deal if you want stockers.

In reply to slowbird :

Depends on where you look. Spots that still have clear coat look purple, and spots where the clear has peeled off look blue lol

Scott on the FB page has one I think

Neighbors had a Wild Orchid when I was growing up it was the car that got me into the Probe platform

255/40/ZR17 Firehawk Indy 500s are on. I have a 3mm spacer in the back to make everything even. It rides like a go kart now. I'm sure the tires rub above 100 but they wont rub the coilovers

A ton of stuff got done.



Power steering cooler



Oil cooler, filter relocation kit. It still has a couple leaks but I'll get those sorted out







3 gauge pillar pod, with mechanical oil pressure and oil temperature, turbocharger vac 0-30psi





It uses filters for an 86 Ford Bronco and now I am up to 8qt oil capacity now, and I haven't even put a turbo on it yet.

Wasted spark setup going on tomorrow, today I did something I never thought I would have to do. That "overnight parts from Norway" box had a full wasted spark setup in it, turns out after cross-referencing part numbers, the Bosch coil is for a Ferrari F50, among a few other cars. The connector on it, you guessed it, none of the American cars that use it have that connector, only the F50 does, and a bunch of cars over in Europe, because everything is Bosch over there.

So I had to call a few Ferrari dealers to see who has the connector and surprise, no one has it, so I will have to order it from overseas but in the meantime I fabbed one up from audio parts. I've also got the 36-1 trigger wheel and a nice set of Magnecor racing 8mm wires so the next few days should be interesting. The stock distributor isn't bad, but they are prone to failure in a racing application and the stock ignitors die from heat.

Annnnnnnnd it's locked up.



I thought the oil lines were backwards, turns out they weren't and I switched them anyway, the anti-drain back valves on the filters kicked on and the top end is welded together now. A redesign on parts of the oil cooler setup is also in the works, with different AN lines in some places and returning functionality to the stock oil pressure gauge and OPSU that the car came with. If I had added that redundancy in the initial design I would have seen zero return oil pressure and this would have been avoided.

The good news is, full 0-mile JDM KLZE swap is coming, with uprated Boundary billet oil pump and possibly 280 cams and Ferrea valvetrain, if I can get the cams done soon, they are regrinds. The wasted spark setup works and is fully functional that was a pretty nice achievement making that all work. It's triggered with a 99 Mazda 626 36-1 crank pulley made for Ford EDIS, it uses the Ferrari F50 coil and an ignitor (and the connector I was looking for to run the coil) from an Audi A4 1.8t and it's all run by Megasquirt, in December I will have more pics of the setup and the swap I'm back on the road now.

Small update on this project, Santa is on his way to Florida right now dressed like FedEx with a whole laundry list of parts.

The original plan was to KLZE swap it, at the last minute we opted to build a 0-mile JDM KLZE to my specifications with the following parts

NOS Ford KL longblock, 0 miles, still has the assembly lube on it
10:1 KLZE pistons, KL31 cams
Completely rebuilt KL31 heads with upgraded KLDE valve retainers and locks
KL31 manifold and throttle body
This car's ignition system I designed
This car's headers
12,000rpm-rated Boundary high flow oil pump
ACT Stage II HDSS clutch with a 9lb Fidanza flywheel
This car's oil cooling system
All new timing belt kit with metal rollers
Fel-pro gasket kit

There's a few other small things on the way too, switch panel to fit in the OEM tray on the center bezel and other odds and ends. It's all coming together in a couple weeks.

I'm home, and the engine swap has officially begun. We almost have the old motor out. Here we are pre-swap. That's the new one in the background

Here's the new engine. Full KL31, with the Boundary racing oil pump mounted. If everything goes well, we will hear it run tomorrow.

On this setup if I make 200whp I'll be happy, this is just a test setup for all the supporting mods, once the built motor and trans goes in I'm looking for 500whp

200whp lets me have fun on the track and gives me plenty of grunt, almost double what the car came with. Out of the box these did 133whp which is pathetic. 200whp would let me be competitive vs. the other FWD cars on the track and have fun while still being somewhat streetable. The old setup was probably 165whp with Megasquirt and bolt ons

When I dropped the motor oil on the old engine, plenty of metal came out and same as the probably factory trans oil. The plan is to start it tomorrow, let it heat cycle a few times, drive it 50 miles and change the oil, then drive 500 miles and change it again, then another 500 and change it and the break in process will be done. It will also need the clutch broken in, going to be a very nerve-racking next couple of days, I've never broke in an engine before.

Also forgot to mention, the week before vacation I did a full suspension overhaul on that red Vulcan Probe, new KYB Excel-G's, strut mounts, got it up to the mountains and did a complete ignition overhaul and did the Tail of the Dragon, Moonshiner 28 and Cherohala Skyway.

Was fun, but at only 140hp and basically stock suspension barely rated for 70mph it was interesting to say the least. On the Dragon it squealed the tires the whole time into all the hairpins. I felt like I was driving a Taurus Coupe, if they ever made one in the 1980s, it would have been this. It has so much dive under braking and pitch in the corners I thought I was going to roll. On the Gravity Cavity the back end came around and I made a quick correction and saved it, it handles like a typical 1980s FWD car until you lose traction then it drives like it's on McDonald's plastic trays.

The ride up and down was super comfy though, with cruise control and at 261k miles the AC will still freeze you. It's not Cadillac plush but it is the most comfortable grand tourer I have ever owned and excellent daily driver material.

So here is where we are with the swap. We planned on getting the whole thing out of the car tonight, and apparently we caught ourselves grinding 30 year old rusted hardware off before realizing it was almost 2am and our neighbors might not like the sound of high end power tools that late. We have it down to one flipping bolt that is rusted on one end and turning in the mount, then we turn the engine sideways and slide the axle out.

The good news is, we can completely wreck the old mount because I bought all new 95-series polyurethane AWR racing mounts all around.

Tomorrow, we yank the old junk out, swap the accessories over and slide the new hotness in. As for the old motor, it will get a second life, it's not completely junk, just needs a good rebuild after all the track day abuse I put it through, and it may end up as the actual built engine for the car in the future.

Here's some shiny new rebuilt JDM heads with 1mm oversize valves, US spec upgraded retainers, all new seals and JDM cams

The built motor will get the same head setup, ported and knife-edged, lapped valves, 280 duration cams, polished exhaust ports, full titanum Ferrea valvetrain, no expense spared. There's no such thing as "overkill" at Bonneville.

Day two, old junk is out. Transmission is off. You learn some really neat things about cars like these when you start taking them apart. At some point, this car had a new clutch put in, it has an aftermarket Daikin clutch rated for stock power that was already slipping in between gear changes at 8000rpm after all the work I did to the top end and exhaust. The trans slid off fairly easily but the same can't be said for the shock bolts on the right side which we also grinded off.

Going to take 10 and eat something, then swap the accessories over and do some TLC in the bay with the engine out. There's a PS leak on the back of the pump somewhere and with the engine out it will be super easy to tackle a lot of really small stuff that needs to get done with the engine out.

This is going to look fairly different in a couple hours.Also my carbon fiber switch panel and gauge mount for the center console should be here today.

Front of the motor is about 95% done.  Tomorrow I flip it over and put on the oil pan, go buy a passenger side axle, clean up the engine bay and we should get to hear this thing clear its throat and run for the first time. It wasn't all easy, I sheared a bolt and we had to weld a nut to it and pull it out. some of the rubber O-rings the Evergreen kit comes with are too big but I made them fit too. I timed everything myself and also we will be returning functionality to the stock oil pressure sending unit. I'm super nervous I've never built a motor before. I'm gonig to also touch up the white valve covers and make them look nice again.