ok guys we've all ran into this problem at one time or another. We got all these ideas we want to try on our cars. kind of like mine. I want to do the 5.0 transplant, the tranny swap, the exhaust conversion, the whole body kit and paint thing, rear axle swap, brake upgrade, the list goes on and on and on and on. I swear if I put my entire list here Id fill the first page myself. so to make a long story short, I want some of y'alls opinions on this. Where do I start?
If I do the engine mod there's engine parts made for with manual tranny or automatic tranny and so on.What do y'all think is the best place to start? I got income tax coming in and with the way it looks Im gonna have a good chunk to be able to use on the car. If I opt for painting it and making it look better and the engine dies then I got a nice looking piece of yard art. if I swap the engine then the looks of it will bother me before I get the cash to paint it. if I do the tranny swap same thing descent piece of yard art.It makes it kind of rough reading through sites and seeing all these things people are doing to their cars that look awesome and make the car run great.Im starting fresh with the bird I just aquired. so far the only thing Ive done to it is replace the tail lights that were busted. thank god for donor cars.my other tbird had the interior out of an 88 cougar in it it had the seats with the perforated material in it as well as the door panels and rear panels. the backseat was the nice one with the headrest parts at the top and the arm rest in the middle. the back seat is now in my new tbird. doesnt look bad in it and is way more comfortable then the base seat. not to mention I got an armrest for when Im in the back. Dont ask what Im doing in the backseat of my car, long story and no nothing perverted.:giggle: Im just stumped on where to start with all the options I have that I can do to the car.with only changing the tail lights and the rear seat theres a llllllloooooonnnnnngggggggg way to go yet. any opinions on where to start would deffinately be helpful. Oh and also its got to be something to where I can actually drive the car at most a day and a half after I start taking it apart.i work evenings and only have one day off at a time instead of two so it makes it pretty messed up on doing anything major.
Thats why ya need more than Bird or Cougar!:evilgrin:
yeah, I got a lot of stuff I wanna do to mine, but the only obstacle is money, I have all the time in world, seeing that my hip is going bad.
yeah thats my main obstacle as well but at the moment Im going to have some extra that I can throw in for upgrading stuff to make it how I want it. sucks about the hip going on ya.I keep telling the girlfriend ok we need to win the lottery so I can quit my job and order all the parts I want to put in the car and spend about a month doing it up.told her I want to supercharge it and add nitrous to it, figured Id get some kind of reaction when I told her the price of those things and she said ok you can do it as long as I can push the button.
yeah, I hear ya on the N2O!
I'd eventually like to have a injected, supercharged 351w and a 5 speed in my Tbird...maybe a bottle in the trunk, just takes time and patience and a little luck/cash.
BTW, whereaboouts in Kansas are ya, I'm over here next door in MO.
I'm about an hour and half from KC...
Just do the HO conversion for now, most bang for the buck. Then later you can build it up more, or build up another engine. The HO will be a great improvement by itself.:D
+ 1 on that..
Ho swap and 5 speed swap are the most sugnifigant mods for the money. then id get an 8.8 and rebuild that.
you realy should work over the brakes and suspension as to make sure the car is safe. work the bugs out of the car first. than move on too simpler upgrades. if your brakes are shot upgrade with turbo coupe or mustang brakes...that kind of stuff.
you might not have the money too go all the way with the best stuff out there but theres great stuff in between that are excellent for a daily driven car and are way better than what the car came with. the bottom line is, have fun with what you have...
i wouldhave to agree, the 5.0 swap can be done "fairly" quickly if you have the parts, friends and everything organized, the t-5, then brakes, suspension, then rear, then paint,
unless the body is giong out from under you, get that fixed or you will have a great driveline, but nothing to put it in (man i still miss that capri.... anyways), that is the order I would do it in, given what you want. and there are always half steps. like getting all the HO upper and exaust done, but not doing the cam/computer stuff, and then doing that later..
sounds good looks like the main view is go with the engine part first. and Im in Concordia Ford about half way across and a little north. good thing I got a 302 sitting at a buddies house already. seemed to run fine I just couldnt figure out why the check engine light was on. of course there wasnt any vaccuum lines hooked up to it which may have had something to do with that. it needed an exhaust manifold and motor mounts. other then that it ran fine.not only that while I have the motor out this time I can paint under the hood and make it look better.anything wrong with painting the motor compartment black if the car is going to be blue outside?I noticed just about all of the cars are the same color under the hood as the main body color. lighter colors it shows dirt extremely bad and considering under mine is light taupe basically light diarrhea brown its going to show dirt real easy. why cant we just paint it black?
I painted mine black.:D
in all honesty, when it comes to paint, dont worry whats right, or correct, or what other people thing, do what you like
Basically, im doing what they all say to do. Im going to drop an HO in my car, get the rest of the car how i want it for the most part, suspenions, brakes, chassis stiffening, etc, then worrying about power.
wow that dont look to bad painted black.ok Im sold next time the motors out Im getting some black paint too.
Personallly I'm going to paint mine body color.
yeah the black would make any chrome or powdercoated parts stick out more though. thus making it look more glamorous. after all why put all that stuff under the hood if it doesnt stick out as much?
See the way I'm doing it... EXTERIOR FIRST then move to engine. But everyone is different. Some want fast sleeper, some want looker, some want both.
Im fixing all visual. Cougar got repainted, all dings and dents fixed. Wheels, Chrome Valve Covers, Interior paint. Then I moved to exhaust, then headers hpipe, then HO parts, intake.
Now with my income return I was torn between heavy engine work or a GFX kit. Since I know that as time goes on the kits wont be available much longer for our cars. Engines/Performance will be around for a while (thanks to saconcepts (scott) & my dad for forcing me this). So Fix the exterior, worry about looks. Then move to the engine.
yeah I want both. something that people hear and say wow whats that coming? then when they see it its like oh wow or ewwwwwwwww perty, or just nothing at all and they only stare with that kid in a candy store grin looking at all the prettys. then when you hit the gas theyre like oh wow and think hmmm who was that masked bandit? hmmmmmmm that brings something to mind lol get one and paint it red and yellow with lightning bolts on the side and call it the flash. lol
Master xzavior- Beings I live in the same town. Have you happened across that Black 83-84 Cougar on 2nd street or the white T-bird on 12th by my house? The Cougar is nice, The T-bird is beat all to hell and left for years with the windows down
the one right off the main road through town? would be on the west side of the road
Yessir.
wow I often thought about stopping by there and seeing if whoever owned that wanted to sell it when I had my white one I guess I should have
1: Turbocoupe rear end conversion (if you can find one): get's you rear disks and 3:55 or 3:73 gears.
2: 11" front brake conversion.
3: As much of the HO conversion as you have money left for. Ie... I did a partial HO conversion to start out. For instance you could get an HO intake and throttle body cheap. then some stock HO headers and H-pipe. The custom cat back system could get expensive, so shop around. Just those parts will give you a nice seat of the pants improvement over stock. Then if you can swing it get the HO cam, an SD computer and 19lb injectors. If you can get em cheap this would be the time to do the E7 head swap too.
Ideally though, if you could find a complete 87-92 HO engine that would be the way to go. But it seems like the big mustang wrecking yards have been buying up all the wrecked Stangs nation wide. I haven't seen any in any of my local wrecking yards in a long time so good luck.
anyone know if the e7 heads were on a 90 f150? I might have a set. if not would the ones on it be better then the stock basic 302?
im pretty sure they are E7 heads
Any 302 made after 1987 very likely has the E7 heads...
E is the year code for the decade; ie. E7='87...
IIRC, the 351w were the same way, except for the enlarged headbolt holes.
ok so theyre more then likely them right now its still exactly as it was from the car it came out of.I believe it was an 86 or 87 LTD. it was a fox body car I do know for sure from around 88. from what I have read in the past it more then likely doesnt have them on it which means the truck heads would make more power correct? would it be even better porting them and putting bigger valves in or is that a little overkill?
"Any 302 made after 1987 very likely has the E7 heads..."
That is incorrect. The E7 was only used in trucks and HO engines. Any non-HO 302 will definetely have py E6 SO heads.
look for mark 7's and 91-93 cougars and birds. They have the heads as well. I think its 87 on for the marks though. There are alot of trucks that have them as well.
too clarify...mustangs after 87, lincoln mark vii after 87, trucks after 87 have the E7 heads...technically, they are the truck heads...E7T but they put them on the mustang and lincoln mark vii because they flow much better than the passenger car heads wich were carry overs from 86..hence E6 heads...
Glad you guys pointed this out, I'd say the book that I read that out of is wrong...:flame:
As far as E7's go, I have a set on the 5.0 out of my '92 F-150, had already planned on puttin' em on the 5.0 going in the 'Bird, before I put it in.
Also have a set of factory Stang headers waiting to go on.
Just need to find a dual exhaust system from the headers to the cats...