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

475 photos documented since 2007 19 years documented ♡ Follow this build

The story

Currently down while I finish up the converting to a single turbo from the twin turbos it had before.

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

475 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

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 made the sparkplug wire separator… 1981 Ford LTD - Passenger side header. I think I'm done fabricating the pipes and this is a final mock-up to double check everything. The pipes are all pai… 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 in so I later welded in some… 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 side fender. 1981 Ford LTD - Cold side piping, passenger side. They clear the battery nicely. I need to move it to the trunk, and add a shorter pipe to a second filter… 1981 Ford LTD - The AC compressor bracket held the tensioner for the smog pump. It didn't anything anymore but I wanted to keep it as stock as possible so… 1981 Ford LTD - Passenger side header and turbo unit showing the relationship between these parts on the car. You can't actually put it on like this but th…

2008

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 under the car efficiently channe… 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 thoroughly cleaned twice and the… 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 back. 1981 Ford LTD - Eight forged TRW slugs slung on stock shot peened rods with ARP bolts. Tightened by stretch if you must know.

2009

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 in a router. It worked for me… 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.

2010

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 the wider World Products 3" bol… 1981 Ford LTD - Gasket taped down with the center line of the ports aligned with the center line of the flat stock. Just have to trace the ports. 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 transfer punch in the center. 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" bit down the pilot hole and us… 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 the scored areas with a body… 1981 Ford LTD - Once all the holes were roughed out I ground the sides smooth, straight, and square with a tungsten carbide burr in my die grinder. I use a…

2014

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 thousandths out of alignment. Tremec's… 1981 Ford LTD - Flywheel, pilot bearing, clutch disc, and pressure plate all installed. That's a Spec pressure plate and Centerforce Dual-Friction disc. I… 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 it comes out in a good place. S… 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 same bolt pattern for the moun… 1981 Ford LTD - Trans bolted down with the spacer installed. The top of the trans just touched the floor pan. I later pulled the trans and hammered a coupl… 1981 Ford LTD - The stock driveshaft was a little too long for the TKO but it turns out that the later model police Crown Vics used an aluminum shaft that… 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 cable sheath. I started by cut…

2015

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-ring and I changed the port just… 1981 Ford LTD - Finished piece. Intake elbow side. You can see the 5/16"-18 tapped holes for the plenum studs. They are blind tapped so there's no cha… 1981 Ford LTD - A little work with sanding rolls really cleaned up the ports. Not too shabby. I also ran the router down the center divider to clean and st… 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 distributor and not enough hood clearan… 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 the throttle body elbow side.…

2016

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 here with no grommet so my ba… 1981 Ford LTD - Flexible conduit run. This is all behind the rear seat and behind various panels and whatnot. It's invisible once the interior is in. 1981 Ford LTD - Joining the flexible conduit to the battery box. I used a special bulkhead fitting. Should be nice and airtight once it's all said and done. 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; it took a lot of lube but it wo… 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 lot of OEM designs. It got riv… 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 welded here.

2017

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 wiring diagram I created (base… 1981 Ford LTD - Working on the intercooler piping. This is the pipe to the throttle body with the blow off valve flange welded on. I decided to go with a T… 1981 Ford LTD - Most of the fuel injection wiring harness installed. Took a long time but I tracked down factory connectors and terminals for every thing.… 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 harness. All the wires terminate i… 1981 Ford LTD - The harness fully wrapped in wire loom. Mostly high-temp split loom but there is some high-temp braided loom in there too. The high-temp st… 1981 Ford LTD - The tuning software running on the laptop talks to the ECM and the ECM talks to the sensors. I calibrated the TPS right after this but ever… 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 looks pretty close. 1981 Ford LTD - Laying out the rails to hold the injectors for welding. 3/4" extruded aluminum square tube.

2019

13 photos added — showing 8

1981 Ford LTD - 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 to add some fuel feed fittings… 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 acetylene torch. 1981 Ford LTD - Fittings tinned. The factory tank is tinned to prevent rust. I slathered some body butter on it and used the torch to get a nice even coati… 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 fill it in while keeping t… 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 welding without putting enough heat… 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.

2023

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. Easy. 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 hangers and no rattles. Full…

2024

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.

2025

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. 1981 Ford LTD - Version 2 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.

2026

2 photos added

1981 Ford LTD - A blue fuel filter clamp is attached to a hose with a hose clamp and bolts. 1981 Ford LTD - Custom turbo piping installed in an engine bay, Weiand valve covers.
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