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1981 Ford LTD “TractionLTD”
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“TractionLTD”1981 Ford LTD

documented by police351 429 photos documented since 19 years documented ♡ Follow this build

The story

Dynoed the new turbo combo at 540 to the wheels. Next step is interior and paint.

I used to daily drive this car in high school so it has a ton of sentimental value to me. · police351

Day one vs. today

Drag to compare 2007 against 2026.

1981 Ford LTD in 2026
1981 Ford LTD in 2007
2007 2026

Photo history

429 photos across 13 years. Drag the dot to travel through this vehicle’s life. Captions are the owner’s; where there isn’t one, the AI caption fills in.

2007

30 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: The complete installation as it was when I first put it on the road 1981 Ford LTD: Drivers side header, almost done fabricating. You can see the oil supply for the turbos and I haven't yet mad… 1981 Ford LTD: Passenger side header. I think I'm done fabricating the pipes and this is a final mock-up to double check eve… 1981 Ford LTD: The box at the end of fabrication. It has fine thread 1/4" bolts here but it took forever to get them out and… 1981 Ford LTD: Cold side piping on the drivers side. The two pipes on the right head down to the filter box in the drivers s… 1981 Ford LTD: Cold side piping, passenger side. They clear the battery nicely. I need to move it to the trunk, and add a sh… 1981 Ford LTD: The AC compressor bracket held the tensioner for the smog pump. It didn't anything anymore but I wanted to ke… 1981 Ford LTD: Passenger side header and turbo unit showing the relationship between these parts on the car. You can't actua…

26 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: This is what a skillfully crafted home made X-pipe looks like leaning against a pile of junk. Why isn't it un… 1981 Ford LTD: Slightly more distant view. 1981 Ford LTD: The best view of the whole exhaust. You can see the Dynomax U-flows and the side exit exhaust layout. 1981 Ford LTD: My workspace with the block on the stand waiting, anticipating for some new parts to set her free. 1981 Ford LTD: Pistons in a box, on a cam, above a big hole where a 600hp motor resides. 1981 Ford LTD: The starting point. Not quite a bare block but the first picture I took. At this point the block has been tho… 1981 Ford LTD: Here you can see the bores have been freshly honed with a 220 stone. The valley is painted to help oil drain… 1981 Ford LTD: Eight forged TRW slugs slung on stock shot peened rods with ARP bolts. Tightened by stretch if you must know.

4 photos added

1981 Ford LTD: I whittled a new brake power booster spacer out of a chunk of 1/2" aluminum. The stock one was cheap plastic. 1981 Ford LTD: I roughed out the shape with saws, cut-off wheels, and drill bits. Then I trimmed it with a 1/4" carbide bit… 1981 Ford LTD: If it's carved out of one piece of metal, it's billet. My car has custom billet parts. 1981 Ford LTD: Just another view, it took awhile to make so I took a lot of pictures.

19 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: One piece of 1/2" x 2 1/2" flat stock long enough for two new header flanges. 1981 Ford LTD: Fel-Pro 1415 exhaust gasket on top of the stock. I'll be cutting the ports to match the gasket but drilling t… 1981 Ford LTD: Gasket taped down with the center line of the ports aligned with the center line of the flat stock. Just have… 1981 Ford LTD: Port outlines squared and scribed. 1981 Ford LTD: Taped the gasket back down to the port outlines and punched the corners. That's a piece of 1/2" tube with a t… 1981 Ford LTD: I drilled a 1/8" pilot hole first with a step bit. Then finished it with a 1/8" twist bit. Next I ran a 3/8"… 1981 Ford LTD: After all the holes were drilled I scored the lines with a cut-off wheel on my angle grinder. Then I finished… 1981 Ford LTD: Once all the holes were roughed out I ground the sides smooth, straight, and square with a tungsten carbide b…

46 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: Indexing the bellhousing. This is the second try; the first try with the stock dowels had it about 9 thousand… 1981 Ford LTD: Flywheel, pilot bearing, clutch disc, and pressure plate all installed. That's a Spec pressure plate and Cent… 1981 Ford LTD: Tremec TKO II, used but fresh of a rebuild from Liberty Gear. 1981 Ford LTD: Hole cut in the trans tunnel. It got cut out a little more after this and I need to find a shifter boot but i… 1981 Ford LTD: I put a level line on the engine before taking out the AOD shell I had bolted to the trans. The TKO uses the… 1981 Ford LTD: Trans bolted down with the spacer installed. The top of the trans just touched the floor pan. I later pulled… 1981 Ford LTD: The stock driveshaft was a little too long for the TKO but it turns out that the later model police Crown Vic… 1981 Ford LTD: I needed to space the clutch cable out from the firewall a bit and adjust the angle to eliminate wear on the…

16 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: Plenum bolted to adapter. Just a little step here and there. Won't hurt anything. 1981 Ford LTD: The way it'll look on the car. Not too shabby for a guy in a garage with a drill press and die grinder. 1981 Ford LTD: Studs installed. The upper plenum fits it perfectly. I need to cut a gasket for it because Ford used an o-rin… 1981 Ford LTD: Finished piece. Intake elbow side. You can see the 5/16"-18 tapped holes for the plenum studs. They are blind… 1981 Ford LTD: A little work with sanding rolls really cleaned up the ports. Not too shabby. I also ran the router down the… 1981 Ford LTD: This is the way I'd have liked to run the throttle body. Didn't work out that way. Too close to the distribut… 1981 Ford LTD: Would have looked nicer like this but it fits best facing the passenger side. Oh well. 1981 Ford LTD: There's a lot of layout work getting to this point but it all comes down to this. Lines on aluminum. This is…

73 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: The car has a convenient factory hole to run wires to the trunk. The factory trunk lighting wires run through… 1981 Ford LTD: Flexible conduit run. This is all behind the rear seat and behind various panels and whatnot. It's invisible… 1981 Ford LTD: Joining the flexible conduit to the battery box. I used a special bulkhead fitting. Should be nice and airtig… 1981 Ford LTD: Battery box vent. Hose plastic epoxied into the 90 degree bulkhead fitting and into the trunk sheet metal. 1981 Ford LTD: The former battery location is full of air filter. Running the two cables through the conduit was not easy; i… 1981 Ford LTD: Summit Racing sport seats sitting on modified stock seat brackets. I thought I took more pictures of this. 1981 Ford LTD: Front mount for the center console and the tower for the shifter boot. Made it flanged for rivets to match a… 1981 Ford LTD: Rust repair on the floor pans. Pics of the rust and cutting sheet metal won't load for some reason. Just spot…

12 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: Working on the wiring. I have the main relay and fuel pump relay half wired in this picture. You can see the… 1981 Ford LTD: Working on the intercooler piping. This is the pipe to the throttle body with the blow off valve flange welde… 1981 Ford LTD: Most of the fuel injection wiring harness installed. Took a long time but I tracked down factory connectors a… 1981 Ford LTD: Pulled the entire harness out of the car to wrap it up. The whole thing pretty much pops out as a single harn… 1981 Ford LTD: The harness fully wrapped in wire loom. Mostly high-temp split loom but there is some high-temp braided loom… 1981 Ford LTD: The tuning software running on the laptop talks to the ECM and the ECM talks to the sensors. I calibrated the… 1981 Ford LTD: Harness installed on the car. It hides pretty well. I was going for an OEM fit and finish and I think it look… 1981 Ford LTD: Laying out the rails to hold the injectors for welding. 3/4" extruded aluminum square tube.

13 photos added · showing 8

My gas tank had a bunch of rust in it so I bought a new tank. Since I had a new tank I took the opportunity t… 1981 Ford LTD: Fittings welded up. The MIG did a fine job. But I ended up with one small leak that I touched up with the ace… 1981 Ford LTD: Fittings tinned. The factory tank is tinned to prevent rust. I slathered some body butter on it and used the… 1981 Ford LTD: Fittings cleaned up with the wire cup brush on the angle grinder. 1981 Ford LTD: Now I needed to deal with the 1/2" hole in the sending unit I don't need any more. I used the MIG to slowly f… 1981 Ford LTD: The welds were ground down and it had a couple very small leaks. I was wary of getting a good seal with weldi… 1981 Ford LTD: Finished repair. Pretty good. No leaks. There's brake cleaner pooled on top to check for seeps. 1981 Ford LTD: Fittings installed. That's a -8 AN full flow fitting.

6 photos added

1981 Ford LTD: Laying out the new 3-inch system. Resonators, x pipe, Flowmasters, tail pipes 1981 Ford LTD: Tail pipes all tacked into place. Sorry no pics while cutting and tacking. Too much work. 1981 Ford LTD: Tail pipes TIGed together. Ready for the next step. 1981 Ford LTD: V band clamp welded to the resonators (bullet mufflers). Not exactly stacking dimes but not going to fall off. 1981 Ford LTD: Using a bottle jack to tuck the X up into the body better. Just cut a couple tacks on top to let it flex. Eas… 1981 Ford LTD: Final product. Not too bad. Driver's side swings out a bit to clear the fuel pump. Tips are pretty even. Four…

97 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: Custom headers from Stainless Steel Headers. Nothing about these were right. 1981 Ford LTD: Holding up bits of cut up header to see where things should go. 1981 Ford LTD: Header tacked together and checking the rest of the exhaust routing. 1981 Ford LTD: Slicing up the custom headers to maker them work. 1981 Ford LTD: Reworked headers tacked up and ready to weld. 1981 Ford LTD: Driver's side just prior to starting the single turbo install. 1981 Ford LTD: Passenger side turbo just prior to starting the single turbo install. 1981 Ford LTD: Figuring out the turbo positioning.

83 photos added · showing 8

1981 Ford LTD: Front fender splash shield mostly done. I need to redo the tire clearance. 1981 Ford LTD: Protection from tire splash and a little bit of a cold air scoop. 1981 Ford LTD: Version 2 inside view. 1981 Ford LTD: Version 2 view from under in front. Black metal automotive part with angled sections and mounting brackets 1981 Ford LTD: Version 2 view from the wheel. 1981 Ford LTD: Figuring out the turbo air intake pipe. 1981 Ford LTD: Cut the hole for the intake pipe on the passenger side.

4 photos added

Blue fuel filter clamp with hose clamp and bolts Engine bay with custom turbo piping and Weiand valve covers 1981 Ford LTD: Final dyno graph 1981 Ford LTD: Gray 1980s Ford sedan with hood up in a shop, chrome bumper and black front wheel
Browse all 429 photos

Albums · 23

How the owner organised this build. Open an album for every photo in it.

TractionLTD - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD 32 photos · 1 video TractionLTD fuel system - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / TractionLTD fuel system 3 photos March 08' and xpipe - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / March 08' and xpipe 5 photos engine build 08' - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / engine build 08' 13 photos The third pedal - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / The third pedal 29 photos Header flanges - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Header flanges 18 photos Fan switch manifold - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Fan switch manifold 9 photos Details - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Details 8 photos Remote power steering reservoir - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Remote power steering reservoir 9 photos Carb intake to throttle body elbow adapter - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Carb intake to throttle body elbow adapter 16 photos Floor pans and carpet - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Floor pans and carpet 8 photos Center console - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Center console 21 photos Megasquirt fuel injection - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Megasquirt fuel injection 32 photos Trunk mounted battery - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Trunk mounted battery 10 photos Fuel system 2016 - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Fuel system 2016 11 photos Intercooler - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Intercooler 3 photos Fuel tank modifications - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Fuel tank modifications 10 photos DIY wire connector - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / DIY wire connector 3 photos Exhaust 2023 - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Exhaust 2023 6 photos 2024 Big Turbo - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / 2024 Big Turbo 146 photos · 1 video 2024 Big Turbo 2 - 1981 Ford LTD 2024 Big Turbo / 2024 Big Turbo 2 35 photos · 1 video Fan harness - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Fan harness 1 photo Diff Cover - 1981 Ford LTD TractionLTD / Diff Cover 1 photo
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