[TJ Rebuild]

About 6 months ago I came up with the wild idea to Titan swap a 96 Mustang. Let me explain myself before I get all of the comments about why I shouldn't or why I should just put a ford motor or an LS in the thing.

My daily driver is an 07 king cab titan 4x4 with around 150k. As I have been driving it I have noticed a noise occurring in the front of the truck that sounds like a bearing going. It is most noticeable when city driving at 45-55 mph when the truck shifts to OD without much load. I was having trouble determining if it was my front diff bearings going or my trans/torque converter going (Truck has always had a kick when shifting to second due to the previous owner's (my brother) lead foot that lead to many rapid downshifts so I'm surprised trans has lasted this long tbh). Both of these would be expensive, in-depth fixes that would require a ton of technical ability/tools. I found a truck being sold in an auto auction that had been crushed by a tree. The tree landed on the driver seat and only damage the cab, bed and the steering column. My plan was to pull the trans, front diff, tires and some other bits for my truck and scrap the mangled body.

At the same time I was gifted the 1996 mustang from my parents after quite a bit of pestering on my part. The car was also a v6 auto with northern rust so it wasn't worth much anyways. My mom bought this car to drive after her 98 explorer bit the dust with only 100k. I drove the car a bit in high school but it had sat for the past few years and didn't start anymore. Her explorer grenading before 100k and the price/scarcity of a 5.0 these days is the reason I didn't have an interest in putting a ford v8 in it. The early modular motors were dogs that weren't much more reliable.

This is where I came up with the idea to pull the Titan Engine (as mine runs fine currently 🤞) and put it in the mustang. Doing research I've discovered that the NATS system on T's is quite intensive so I figured I would completely gut the mustang and pull the entire engine/trans/engine harness/body harness and steering column from the wrecked T and put it all in. Can't have security problems if I swap over everything, right? Well, yes but no... Here is where it gets interesting. I mentioned the tree fell on the driver seat and smashed the steering column. For this reason I assume the insurance company didn't think getting the key from the owner was important so I never ended up getting the key for it. Rookie mistake. When I got the truck I was so excited to cut the truck up and scrap the body to make more space in my garage that I didn't have a key made before doing so. Hindsight is 2020 I guess. Luckily I got in touch with a locksmith that was willing to cut me a key and then come back later to program it to the harness/bcm after I finish the swap project. I figured others might be interested in the project so I have actually started a YouTube channel documenting the process thus far. My first videos are a bit lacking as its the first time I tried anything like this but they are getting rapidly better due to the addition of better equipment and know-how. You can search "TJ Rebuild Mustang" if you're interested. I have a video of me tearing the titan apart as well. Anyways, I digress.

My Titan:

Donor Titan (Damage to other side)

Mustang:

 

[TJ Rebuild]

And finally the reason for posting this... I have some questions that you guys may be able to help me with...

1.) Will not using the titan anti lock brake system cause me any issues for starting the vehicle? What about driving? The truck is an 08 crew cab XE without VDC (I believe). I know my truck has anti slip in the rear axle that applies the brakes to limited tire slip. I am using the mustang axle so I wont have this either. That is an obstacle for later I guess...

2.) Will using the mustang hvac controls instead of the titan controls cause any issues with starting or driving? I plan to keep the portion of the mustang harness that runs the ac/heat and splice it into the Titan fuse block with appropriate sized fuses.

3) The donor truck is from a 4x4 truck. I will need to convert to 2wd. I got a 2wd tail shaft housing from an 08 Armada for cheap at the local scrap yard. Will this work? Does anyone know if the main output shaft in the trans that rotates the driveshaft is different between the 4wd and 2wd transmissions? I was planning on mounting the transfer case switch out o f the way so the computer still thinks its hooked up to a t-case.

4.) Does the airbag system have to be hooked up for the truck to start or drive? I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the air bag situation but I'm not sure if my end goal is street car or race/drift car. Depends on how everything else shakes down. Obviously I'm trying to do this as cost effective as possible so something like a standalone ecu, etc. would be last resort.

At the current stage, I have the engine mounted in the car with some solid engine mounts. I plan to redo these later and making my own poly bushings. I picked up a hydroboost (96-04 v8 mustangs came factory with them due to the size of SOHC/DOHC V8 motors) and will most likely make a custom bracket to run a mustang power steering pump on the driver side of motor where a/c compressor was. Not planning on having A/C at this point and the factory mounting for P/S pump on titans is not doable in the mustang - too wide. I plan to cut some stock manifolds just before the first cat as the exhaust routing won't fit between the body of the car. If I can the angle of the routing inward by 15-20 degrees and reweld, It should work. My plan is to keep factory exhaust system (slightly modified) back to where Y-pipe bolts to for simplicity/cost. Once the bugs are worked out, I want to tune it, header swap, or even turbo it but that's WAY down the road. 🤯. I have mocked up the engine wiring harness and it seems to fit without much modification. might have to lengthen some wires on passenger side. The mustang shock tower is where the titan fuse box sits so i had to clock everything -20 degrees to fit. Battery cables will have to be extended to put battery on drivers side. I am modifying titan steering column shaft to accept mustang u joint that connects to the mustang steering rack shaft.

I appreciate any help from those of you that have a better understanding of these systems. Please let me know any questions you have.

Titan Disassembly:

Engine in Mustang:

 

[seymore4]

We can bypass NATS as part of an Uprev tune. Also it would be worth reaching out to Brennan at Driven Desire, he mainly does frontier and Xterra swaps but pretty much knows everything about VK swaps

 

[49RFootballNow]

I'll check your channel out. Westin Champlin recently dropped a Cummins Diesel into a newer model Mustang. Not sure there's a lot in there to help you but it's a fun watch.

 

[TJ Rebuild]

We can bypass NATS as part of an Uprev tune. Also it would be worth reaching out to Brennan at Driven Desire, he mainly does frontier and Xterra swaps but pretty much knows everything about VK swaps

I've seen a few threads that discuss this but are you able to go into any more detail on this? Are you just able to bypass the security or can you do other things like alter the srs system, override the transfer case controllers, etc? How far along would I have to be to be able to upload a tune? I'm guessing I'll have to have harnesses installed/connected to engine, steering columnn installed and connected, ecu and bcm connected, and of course battery hooked up?

I will definitely reach out to Brennan. Thanks for the heads up 👍

 

[seymore4]

Mainly just the security system, there are a few other things we can do that would be best if you emailed me. [email protected]

All you need to flash the ECU is to have it connected to the harness and power so you can reflash over the OBD2, nothing has to be operational, or if you were to send me the ECU I have equipment to flash it outside of the vehicle.

I would for sure hit up Brennan, he's probably done a hundred VK swaps

 

[TJ Rebuild]

I'll check your channel out. Westin Champlin recently dropped a Cummins Diesel into a newer model Mustang. Not sure there's a lot in there to help you but it's a fun watch.

I saw that! It's crazy that he managed to fit a 6BT in a car that small 🤣 How do you think that thing handles?

 

[49RFootballNow]

He's in Kansas. He's not worried about handling.

 

[TJ Rebuild]

Does anyone have an info on my 3rd item in my first post about the trans differences between 2wd/4wd and titan/armada?

 

[TJ Rebuild]

Did all titans come with the adjustable pedals? Does anyone have one that didn't have them?

 

[busemans]

Mine doesnt have adjustable pedals

 

[TJ Rebuild]

Mine doesnt have adjustable pedals

What year & trim do you have? Thanks!

 

[busemans]

17 sv