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What Am I getting into?

1K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  1 Slowpoke 
#1 ·
I have a 2001 4-door SE with about 217,000 miles on it, and she's in bad shape after many, many long distance trips, but I've recently moved to Denver area, and coming from Chicago, she's running her last hundred thousand or so miles without needing some serious TLC. So I always toyed with the idea of dropping a v8 in just as a funny idea to spark convo, but I'm honeslty in love with sleepers. And I dont expect her to run much longer after I graduate college in a few years. And I'm starting to seriously think about saving up and once I have to money, just converting it to a just plain stupid V8 and manual setup that will blow any cocky mustangs out of the water. (there are a lot here) {I was actually suprise that I beat my friends 97 chickstang for the first 200-300 feet, but that was before she started to go downhill.} A focus of somekind has always been in my family for as long as I can remember so it's kind of a sentimental vehicle too.

SO
I would be very gracious if you fellers could help me figure out what I'm getting into cost wise, and suggestions for an engine. and other Things that are a must with engine swaps, and conversions. I've about 4 years metal/fab experience and I'm not afraid to get down and dirty. And with decent connections I'm assuming I'd be able to do a good bit of my own fab work, and pay a friend who's more experienced to help me with the mechanics.

and in advance, I apologize if this is a crappy place to post this, and thank you for any help you can give me, I'm some what a noob when it comes to anything past maintenance, but I have time to learn.
 
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#2 ·
Here's a complete one that's NICE:http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=461833 You can check out his build thread as well.

Here's another wild one:http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=394650

And Mike's got a near complete one he's parting out/selling as is 'cause he's moved on:http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6745081&postcount=5035

It's a big project, once avail as a kit (pricey). Members here with complete or running not finished versions did it themselves, probably more started than ever finished over the years.
 
#4 ·
One guy I met who had done it said he spent about $14,000 on the conversion doing most of the work himself.

There is a metric ton of custom fabrication involved. Even more if you intend to have air-conditioning, power steering, etc..


From the sounds of things, you probably dont have the experience, tools, shop, or money to handle that kind of modification.

It's a dream for alot of us, but its just not a viable option due to the cost and complexity.
 
#5 ·
It takes a lot of time, money, and knowledge to build a good V8 Focus. For everyone that is built, there is half a dozen that never made it. Someone would start building and then give up. Or they would just change their minds when they see the amount of work needed to get the job done.
 
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