Buying A 5.0 Swap Car?

The Shape

Founding Member
Jan 11, 2002
2,224
8
49
East ARKANSAS Delta
Have a friend selling a coupe that he swapped from 2.3 to 5.0. It also has a complete 5 lug swap. Can get it around 2k. He has owned many fox mustangs and I have confidence in his mechanical skill. The paint is faded and has a few dings. I have always been scared of swap cars, but coupes are so hard to find.
 
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If I were buying a swap car, I'd be looking at the suspension, brakes, rear axle, transmission, and gauge cluster, to ensure the V8 parts were installed versus the 4 cylinder parts, and I would want a factory SEFI set up, not a carb. Even little things like the EGR solenoids on the back side of the passenger strut tower should be there. If the swap is done right, you should be able to compare it to a V8 car, and not be able to tell the difference. A lot of people swap the engine, and short change the rest. If they did it all this stuff right, the swap aspect would not scare me off, and to some degree would be a plus. I personally swapped my car back in 99, using my wrecked 89 as the donor car.
 
$2K is not a bad price, but like other said...there's a million ways to do the swaps. Some guys do a great job, and other guys take short cuts to get the cars running.
 
The car I bought was a V8 swap car. I paid just over $2k for it and it has the V8 brakes, suspension, rear end, transmission, etc. From what I can tell the swap was very complete and I haven't had any issues with it...well, other than the standard issues you have with a 23 year old Ford.