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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… 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 slo… 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
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