Hypothetical Money

[streetstang67]

Ok, lets imagine a hypothetical situation:

You have an early coupe ('64-68) mustang with a 4bbl 289 including performer intake, holler carb, and long

tube headers, stock automatic tranny and 3.55 rears with traction lock. Interior is stock black buckets with a cd player. Now, consider that you found $2,000 under a rock. What would you do to your car?
















If your good enough, you've notice the setup described to by mine. I am on the verge of getting $2000 and I want to spend it on my car, but I don't know what to get. I was thinking about A/C but that still leaves some $. So then I started thinking about a supercharger, but I don't know how much it could do for this plain engine. I went ahead and stopped thinking before the thoughts got outta hand . Anyway, what would you suggest?

Thanks

 

[SadbutTrue]

intake, heads, and if you don't like your current wheels, them too

there ya go

 

[rbohm]

i would start with heads and maybe an od tranny swap.

 

[latamud]

heads and a T-5 swap. You can pice together a supercharger kit on ebay for around $1000, for head unit, brackets, and carb hat.

 

[2nd Mustang]

Seems you have a nice setup already, so if the money is burning a hole in your pockets, you can always donate it to "2nd Mustang relief from high cost of living and taxes foundation".

 

[streetstang67]

donate it to "2nd Mustang relief from high cost of living and taxes foundation"

Obviously heads would be a choice for most, and keep the drivetrain ideas rollin in, but what about non drivetrain items?

 

[streetstang67]

Hmmmm...I wonder if I could do A/C and a supercharger; but would a supercharger work well with current setup?

 

[ron67fb]

If it was my car, a 5 speed conversion would be next on my list. Or I'd get 17" HREs with some serious rubber, but since you don't want drivetrain... hmm.. Supercharger is nice. How about an EFI conversion? Take-off factory 5.0 EFI hardware can be found almost free if you look hard enough, and a real programmable ECU is around the $1000 mark (www.sdsefi.com for example).

Don't do something stupid (like I did many years ago) and upgrade your computer to something that'll be obsolete and worthless in 6 months.

 

[jadesville]

If it was my car, a 5 speed conversion would be next on my list. Or I'd get 17" HREs with some serious rubber, but since you don't want drivetrain... hmm.. Supercharger is nice. How about an EFI conversion? Take-off factory 5.0 EFI hardware can be found almost free if you look hard enough, and a real programmable ECU is around the $1000 mark (www.sdsefi.com for example).

Don't do something stupid (like I did many years ago) and upgrade your computer to something that'll be obsolete and worthless in 6 months.

Always gotta be upgrading and gotta have the bigger, badder, faster computer

If it was my car, I'd probably keep saving so I could build up a new drivetrain, or maybe do suspension/brakes and get it out of the way.

 

[iskwezm]

I got my Paxton kit for $2000 even,all polished and complete,real kick in the but,but the 5 speed was a good choice too.I kept the carb because everybody and their brother went EFI.

 

[streetstang67]

Well consider this: I will have this car for a long time, I'm tryin to do everything 'right'.

For suspension, I've replaced all bushings, lowered the upper control arm and replaced all shocks; added a bigger front sway bar and monte carlo bar, and rebuilt the steering box.

For the engine, I had it rebuilt by a local machine shop as a stock rebuild; added an edelbrock performer intake, holley 600 carb, hooker headers and electronic igntion; just recently, a very mild cam: Comp XE256H (256/268 477/484). The transmission was also rebuilt locally as a stock rebuild. I've replaced the rear end with a MAE Racing piece 8" with traction lock and 3.55s.

The interior has all been redone as well; I've added a small tach in place of the clock area. Also I put in a cd player with 4 hidden speakers. A humphugger console was also put in.

The car is nice, no doubt about it. And I could deem it 'Finished', but we all know it'll never be finished. I want this car to be reliable and fast (who doesn't?). Right now, Air conditioning is looking really good, but I also want something for performance. Would a T-5 or AOD help or hurt performance? I plan on dyno-tuning this car so that I can get the most out of what I've got.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys, this forum has been such a help for me and my project!

 

[streetstang67]

The main thing I'm going for here is efficency. I want all parts to work together in harmony and at max potential. I could get some aftermarket heads, but in order to get the full potential out of those, they would need some porting and polishing...driving the costs up higher. Also, if I got better heads like that, then my intake and cam would be holding me back. I'm trying to get the combination right, not just the parts. I want each peice of the engine to match, with no particular part holding another part from full potential. What should I do?

 

[snowball]

I know the suspension/steering has been done already, but have you considered rack & pinion?

 

[streetstang67]

I know it takes experience instead of just computers punching numbers to get HP, but according to desktop dyno, I have 250hp and 310tq. If I have the heads worked, install larger valves, and mill the deck for slightly higher compression, I will have 310hp and 330tq. What do you think?

 

[iskwezm]

Would a T-5 or AOD help or hurt performance?

I dont know if a T5 would "hurt" performance,but its alot more fun to drive,plus theres less parasitic loss through the drivetrain with a stick.

Also if you change heads,you dont need to port/polish,they already flow more then stock and will be a huge gain over what you have.AFR's 185's would be great on yours.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

I really think that 185s will be too big for that engine. I felt a drop in low rpm torque with my Edelbrocks and the AFRs have bigger ports and valves. Also, porting would be unnecessay with either and as long as the induction matches the heads, the cam isnt a big worry. I've heard of some with 5.0s running the stock cam with 165s and getting around 280rwhp/320lb-ft.

If you have a 3-speed auto right now, a T-5 will help performance AND economy. An AOD will just help economy unless you upgrade it a little. Dont get the T-5 if you think you'll ever make more than about 300hp, though.

My questions are: What does the car actually need? Do you want more power, economy, looks, or handling?

 

[streetstang67]

For one thing, I'll most likely be getting air conditioning. Other than that, I want something for performance and if possible, economy too.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

How about this: Get your Vintage Air or whatever and use the other $1000 on a T-5 conversion. Your 3.50s will work very well with the 5-spd, your car will probably feel faster, it will be more fun, and the A/C will make it nice in the summer. Just some ideas. For me personally, performance comes before economy comes before comfort.

 

[streetstang67]

Thats what I'm looking in to doing, but i'll also have my current stock heads re-worked. In the mean-time, as I gather parts and info for an OD swap, what could I do for gas mileage and interstate driving?

 

[65straightsick]

Well you can probably get A/C for around 850-1,000 these days and with the rest, I personally would go with Power R&P but I plan to build a daily driver type classic one day, A/C, P/S, P/B, suspension equal to that of todays sports cars, and a 347 or 351W stroked out a little. So it is up to you. If you want performance, go with cylinder heads.