Tell me your thoughts.

[91grandmarquis]

nice, I picked it up today, My friend has a blasting cabinet so im going to paint her up, then wait to accrue the other parts for the HO swap. Oh yeah my friend was at a party last night, said hed come with me, threw up in my car. Not a fun 4 hr round trip especially when that happens an hour in. I knew all was going to well.

[hemihotrod402]

if you go here you can find a lot of stock stang parts for next to nothing. The heads go from about 50 to 75 bucks a pair, and you can get a cam for about 25. Computer you are going to have to hunt around yards, ask around here, or go through ebay. You can't run much cam on a stock engine, there is one that I know of, but cant think off the top of my head (i think it was 1987cp who had it). But if you want good power numbers, an explorer swap with FRPP headers, catless h-pipe, and low restriction mufflers will net you with about 300hp (correct me if im wrong)

[91grandmarquis]

I have a cam for it that the guy gave me when I bought it. Supposedly it will work with stock springs etc, but I have to check the specs. Thanks for the link.

[91grandmarquis]

Ok went to Nottingham today and got the intake and an egr spacer. Theres some pics in my readers ride page if anyone is interested.

[merc91]

i'm in the same boat ur in just finnishing up my first year of collage. For now I did a full highflowing exhuast... headers right back to the dumps, HO upper and TB (and bored EGR), cold air with K&N and the little odds and ends with the timing bumped up to 14*...and the thing flys pretty good.

with big tires and gears already my 0-60 went from 11.5 to 9.5 and sounds bitchin with those minor motor mods.

I would definently suggest that little batch of mods to you ta hold you over until some extra cash comes.

[91grandmarquis]

I may have the rear end thrown together this summer with the 3.55s I scored a ford racing trak lok for $100 with some 3.27s. So ill sell those gears and buy some new 3.55s

[1980c10]

Go lower, don't fear the gear. You will be disappinted with 3.55's but with stock lopo it might be a wise desicion hmmmmmm haha

[91grandmarquis]

Well, Even after the HO swap Im going to use the car for trips in the summer, so I dont want utter shit for gas mileage. What do you think the estimated fuel economy will be with 3.73s and 4.10s respectively? That is my only concern. I can live with shit mileage on the Lopo for the year it takes me to get the HO in the works.

Oh and its not a stock lopo either, it has an HO nameplate which is easily + 200hp

[1980c10]

20 on the highway should not be a problem use a gear calculator the rmp diff between 3.73 and 4.10 is only a couple hundred. You should only be about 2100 rpm at 60mph with the 4.10's fwiw.

[91grandmarquis]

Ok so basically Im not going to be drastically dumping on my gas mileage. I think Ill try out the 3.73s and go from there.

[91grandmarquis]

Alright guys...... Ive been putting some thought into things, and Im seriousley considering another option. Recently I was offered an HO 302 block pretty cheap from a member on here. This got me thinking. Instead of doing an HO swap why not just go all out and do a custom build of a 302. I don't really want to go turbo or supercharged (yet) but would like to keep either of those an option later down the line. Basically I want to start from ground up and build the engine out of performance parts. Im also considering taking the block .30 over or more if its allowed. However here is where I need your help. Ive decided my budget to be 5-7k for the motor itself? Do you think this is too low? Im also not afraid to go mass air or anything like that. Even if something happens with this deal I think I would like to find a way to do this anyway. I would assemble the engine outside the car and then drop it in. Painting everything that needs it ford blue and making things under the hood look pretty. If Im going to have to wait another year just to do the swap, I may as well slowley build up an engine over the course of 4. I guess what I am saying is that I might as well do things right. What I need from you guys is the stuff I don't know... Like what cam to run? what heads? what intake? specs of compression etc. I would like to keep the car running on regular octane. Is the neighborhood of 400RWHP obtainable? Im just throwing this out there. The reason I like my car so much is it keeps me busy, an engine build (however slow it may be) would be a good project to keep me sane through college. Any thoughts are welcome, even if you think I am an idiot. I would be selling all the HO conversion parts I have that I wouldn't be using anymore, and I got them cheap enough were I am confident I can break even on them, so Im not worried about that.

[87gtVIC]

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/Product/Search?q=crate%20engine

Choose one of the above engines...

Would definitely be my option if I had that large of a budget. Just purchase, plops an intake on get a maf computer and mass air meter put the correct accessories on it and go.

[91grandmarquis]

Those are sexy engines indeed, but where is the fun in just plopping on an intake. I want to say I built this engine from the ground up and there isn't another like it. Im in it for the journey more than the end result. Im not sure if that made sense. Believe me I would love to just save and drop a crate racing engine in, but then I just drop 10-14k on a motor and spend a couple days wiring it in (ok maybe a bit longer). Those would make my car get up and go. Also will the AOD handle a build of this nature or is there an alternative that is more suited, or just a rebuild/shiftkit that would make it hold up? My main problem is I know how engines work, and I can get pretty deep into one with no worries. I just don't know how things work with each other, so building something from scratch would be a challenge. I know basics like lift in the heads being able to handle the cam without sticking valves and clearance with duration, but not what will be the best combo of parts.

[Pesty351]

If you have that kind of money. Talk to your local car clubs and see if they recommend any of the local hot rod shops to build you a motor. If you keep it local with a good shop you'll have someone that will stand by there work if something goes wrong.

[91grandmarquis]

There is a shop in town that the guy I bought my car from likes. I want to do most of the work myself is the whole thing, I know this may be a terrible idea, but Ive got people around who have done serious motor work who can help. Obviously some things will need to be done at the shops. The budget I have is an over time budget. I don't just have it laying around, but could probably get it gathered up in about 4 yrs. If I did the engine work on my own to a point I could install things as I got them etc, just to keep me occupied.