Going to take ya way back. This was a build I did in 2006. This was a true budget build. I will keep you updated on spend as I go through this.
This was a four cylinder foxbody mustang coupe I found for $400
She was rough and most others had ye little faith… but I saw a diamond.
I got the car to run and drive on the 4 cylinder. Instantly posted the engine for sale, saying if you want it you can hear it run and I will pull the engine out of the car for you as you wait. Sold the engine and trans for $400. Total invested -$0
Updated the look by buffing the paint, painting the engine bay (rattle can), cleaning the interior and put a set of pony wheels on it.
My plans for this build was to make a sleeper. A car that looked like granny drove it but was as nasty as it could be on a budget. Which is why I named it Plane Jane. I knew I wanted to convert it to stick shift and put a single turbo on it. Turbo builds 20 years ago were a lot more rare compared to today. I found a guy that had just totaled his foxbody and needed to sell everything off it. So I bought the engine, trans, and rear end. It was a front end collision and it broke the timing cover, bell housing and messed up the trans input shaft. Got everything fix and in the car. Running gear I think was $2600 and the wheels were $400. Total invested -$3000
Found a lower intake off a truck 302 and built a custom sheet metal boxed upper for it.
A little paint and cleaning and things were looking pretty good.
Now it was time to start building the turbo setup. I bought some shorty header and turned them around backwards, a used 70mm turbo for $400 a few tubing sets, intercooler, ebay blow off, and wastegate. I think I had $900 in all of it.
On this build I wanted to have as much of the factory look and reliability as I could, so I stuck with a belt driven water pump and fan. It made things a little tight but I was able to make it work.
Really the downpipe was the hardest part.
I found some cheap 42# injectors out of a stock 03-04 cobra and because I was going with a standalone ecu I could wire in the ev6 injector plugs when building the harness. As for the standalone ecu I went with Mega Squirt. For you young guys, back in the day you could buy a “build your own” standalone ecu kit for a few hundred bucks but you had to actually build it your self. Wire, solder and program it your self! It was a learning curve but I got it figured out. Crazy thing is, that company has evolved over the years and is now AMP EFI which I still use there products to this day. Luckily I don’t have to build the ecu’s my self anymore.
The finish product turned out awesome, and she was nasty on the streets.
Look, stock hood and all. I think all in I had under $5000 in this build. This was my first turbo build, turbo car, standalone ecu…so I learned a ton on this one. Every build since has been a turbo setup 
She was nasty, nasty but sooo fun to drive. One of the ones I wish I still had.
I also had a drag racing trim setup I would switch her over to for the drag strip.
Hope you dig this blast from the past. To be honest, this car is one of the main reasons I am building the covid coupe…
