Mad Matt's Project '99 GT
As promised, starting a thread to show progress on my new-to-me project car. This will be valuable to me for receiving feedback from you guys, as I'm sure I'll have tons of questions and will be wanting opinions on all sorts of topics as I get deep into modifications. Please feel free to comment and offer advice, as I've been out of the loop for quite a while on Mustang performance upgrades and drag racing.
I purchased this 1999 Mustang GT from Fb Marketplace in July of 2025. I still feel pretty lucky for getting my hands on it, as it is exactly what I was looking for. Right place at the right time I guess.
I started out looking for another fox body as those are my all time favorite cars, but goddamn they sure are popular these days. I'm sure you are all aware of how crazy the prices and availability are of these cars have become. So anyways, I started looking at SN95 & New Edge cars as it seems nobody really wants them these days and they can still be found pretty cheap.
From the beginning, my goal was to swap a Coyote 5.0 into one and make it a fun and reliable street car to enjoy. This car was a perfect candidate for that goal, so I jumped on it.
I purchased it from a guy who lived nearby, he had purchased it, not long before, and not running, as a project for his son to work on. They were told it needed a fuel pump or some wiring issues fixed and it should run great. Turns out they kind of got screwed on it and found out it had a rod knock after replacing the fuel pump. They were in the process of moving to Florida and didnt want to mess with replacing the engine, so they were willing to unload it cheap so they were not burdened with moving it across the country. I was freaking stoked, not at all bothered with the fact that it needed a motor because I had big plans for a yote swap anyways.
The car had 62,000 miles on it when I picked it up and was impressively clean, inside and out. 100% completely stock, front to back, no modifications at all, and of course as a lifelong California car, zero, and I mean ZERO rust on this thing. I assume it is a Premium package GT, as it has ABS, traction control, the Mach sound system and all the options. Black exterior and dark charcoal leather interior.
I spent a lot of time last summer cleaning and detailing it. If I had to guess, a previous owner parked it when they realized it had a rod knock and the car sat outside for years covered in leaves and dirt. The last time it had been tagged was in 2017, so I think it probably just sat since then. It had a lot of UV damage to the exterior trim, so I started replacing all of that stuff and fixing small broken stuff on the interior and under the hood. It is to the point now where everything works and it looks fairly presentable.
I had been driving it around town with the motor knocking for a few months, as I didnt really care if the 4.6 let go since the goal was to engine swap it anyways.
Curiosity finally got the best of me and I yanked the 4.6 out late last summer to see what the damage was internally. I was pleasantly surprised to find only the #7 cylinder rod bearings wiped out, the rest of them looked decent. The rod journal on the crankshaft had a bit of bearing material built up on it, but wasnt scored at all. The rod didnt have any damage and didnt really have any hot spots either.
I spent about $50 total on a set of rod bearings and new rod bolts, replaced all of those and polished up the crank where the #7 rod rides. Slapped it all back together and replaced the clutch while I was in there with a cheap Summit Racing street performance clutch kit and a short throw shifter. The old 4.6 now runs like its brand new, so I've been able to have fun driving and beating on it while I save up for a Coyote transplant for it.
How is that for luck? $50 worth of parts and a couple weekends of my time to fix a fun little car that nobody else wanted to mess with.
Since I now have it running well and reliable, might as well throw some cheap mods at it to make it a little more fun while I still save up for a coyote.
I added an off-road H-pipe, and a set of 2.5" flowmaster mufflers, a JLT conical air filter kit, and a custom tune from Joe Goodnaugh at Goodnaugh Performance out of Florida and she runs pretty good now.
I went through the 8.8 rear axle, replaced all the bearings & seals, added a Ford Performance 3.73 ring & pinion gear, a set of Moser 31 spline c-clip style axles and a 31 spline Ford Performance limited slip differential.
Thats pretty much everything for now, I'll follow up with some pics when I get a Flikr account set up soon.
The car has been a blast to drive so far, really enjoying having a fun little street car again. Thanks for reading guys! :)
-Matt J
