Hi, shiny new member reporting for duty! OK, I'm not really new and shiny, but I am here. We bought our car from my wife's brother in 1987 for $1,800 and are the third owners of it. He had bought it the year before for $3,600 but quickly got tired of it because of the weak 2.8L engine and the canyon between third and fourth gears in the RAD-4 tranny. The engine had been rebuilt at 100.000 miles shortly before he had bought it and he put about 3K on it before tiring of it.
Same here, the car was for me (my wife drove a '77 Celica) and in 3K miles I decided that the engine and trans had to go. One part of my trip to work had a long hill that I had to climb that was 45 MPH. I was constantly rowing between third and fourth going up that hill and it got old real fast. I scored a deal on a '75 Mercury Monarch (Granada) with a 351W/C4 setup for $100 and decided that I was going to stuff that in to the Mustang. The engine had been rebuilt but wasn't running very well. I noticed that the firing order was wrong, switched it up and drove it home. The guy I bought it from wasn't too happy about that! He needn't have worried that he lost out. I pulled the engine apart and found:
The Good:
- C9OE-G heads w/ 1.94 - 1.6 valves (nice!)
- Erson HiFlow II Cam (.504/.504 - 306/306 - 108 CL)
- D2AE block
- Factory crank at .010/.010
The Bad:
- D2AE block at .040 over but is a fresh bore
- Top ring in #8 cylinder was broken
The Ugly:
- Cylinder wall in #8 has heavy scratch, decided to sleeve
- Rod journal surface on #8 has a huge rod bolt-shaped gouge out of it, replaced crank
I put it back together with a high volume oil pump, double roller timing chain (degreed and set cam to 4 advanced), slapped an Edelbrock Performer with a Carter 600 AVS carb on it and called it good. The trans is a 157 tooth housing but I got it to fit by keeping the V6 frame mounts and using two passenger side motor mounts. That placed the engine about one inch forward but it worked. Since then I have changed to the Hedman engine plate and under-crossmember headers, centering the engine in the frame. I have since ported, polished and cc'd the heads, installed 7/16" screw in studs, guideplates, hardened push rods and Crane roller rockers. Here is a picture of the engine bay as it currently sits.
The car has been gutted and completely rewired with a custom electrical system I designed so there isn't a single factory wire in it. One of my former jobs was designing electrical systems for a boat manufacturer and they let me buy wire for the car at cost. Same with relays, circuit breakers, connectors and everything else, so I went whole hog on it. All marine grade stuff too! You will notice that the battery isn't under the hood, instead they (dual) are in the back. I also have dual ignition systems (MSD and dual point) and dual alternators. The headlights are on an adjustable delay timer when you shut them off and the interior lights have a 30 second delay when triggered. When the parking lights are on the sidemarker lights will flash when the turn signals flash (alternate off/on - on/off). Instrumentation is factory speedo, AutoMeter tach and vacuum gauge, and VDO everything else. As I said, I went whole hog.
It's a fun car and as time has passed, the thumbs up and impromptu 'car shows' at the store and other places I go have gone up. We have never shown the car (we are asked that all of the time) because I built this for us to have fun with. My wife calls it her chariot...lol!
Current plans are to install the '94 Mustang T5 that I'm rebuilding and planning that job for this fall. We need overdrive for road trips!
Same here, the car was for me (my wife drove a '77 Celica) and in 3K miles I decided that the engine and trans had to go. One part of my trip to work had a long hill that I had to climb that was 45 MPH. I was constantly rowing between third and fourth going up that hill and it got old real fast. I scored a deal on a '75 Mercury Monarch (Granada) with a 351W/C4 setup for $100 and decided that I was going to stuff that in to the Mustang. The engine had been rebuilt but wasn't running very well. I noticed that the firing order was wrong, switched it up and drove it home. The guy I bought it from wasn't too happy about that! He needn't have worried that he lost out. I pulled the engine apart and found:
The Good:
- C9OE-G heads w/ 1.94 - 1.6 valves (nice!)
- Erson HiFlow II Cam (.504/.504 - 306/306 - 108 CL)
- D2AE block
- Factory crank at .010/.010
The Bad:
- D2AE block at .040 over but is a fresh bore
- Top ring in #8 cylinder was broken
The Ugly:
- Cylinder wall in #8 has heavy scratch, decided to sleeve
- Rod journal surface on #8 has a huge rod bolt-shaped gouge out of it, replaced crank
I put it back together with a high volume oil pump, double roller timing chain (degreed and set cam to 4 advanced), slapped an Edelbrock Performer with a Carter 600 AVS carb on it and called it good. The trans is a 157 tooth housing but I got it to fit by keeping the V6 frame mounts and using two passenger side motor mounts. That placed the engine about one inch forward but it worked. Since then I have changed to the Hedman engine plate and under-crossmember headers, centering the engine in the frame. I have since ported, polished and cc'd the heads, installed 7/16" screw in studs, guideplates, hardened push rods and Crane roller rockers. Here is a picture of the engine bay as it currently sits.
The car has been gutted and completely rewired with a custom electrical system I designed so there isn't a single factory wire in it. One of my former jobs was designing electrical systems for a boat manufacturer and they let me buy wire for the car at cost. Same with relays, circuit breakers, connectors and everything else, so I went whole hog on it. All marine grade stuff too! You will notice that the battery isn't under the hood, instead they (dual) are in the back. I also have dual ignition systems (MSD and dual point) and dual alternators. The headlights are on an adjustable delay timer when you shut them off and the interior lights have a 30 second delay when triggered. When the parking lights are on the sidemarker lights will flash when the turn signals flash (alternate off/on - on/off). Instrumentation is factory speedo, AutoMeter tach and vacuum gauge, and VDO everything else. As I said, I went whole hog.
It's a fun car and as time has passed, the thumbs up and impromptu 'car shows' at the store and other places I go have gone up. We have never shown the car (we are asked that all of the time) because I built this for us to have fun with. My wife calls it her chariot...lol!
Current plans are to install the '94 Mustang T5 that I'm rebuilding and planning that job for this fall. We need overdrive for road trips!