My Fox Mustang project.

don
can't wait to see the build pics .
You going to the down town car show the 24 ?
Thanks Herb .

Oh, that's right, I forgot about that one since we have been concentrating on Billetproof. I probably will make that one though, thanks for reminding me.


Don

kool see you there .

Not sure how I kept missing this thread. [S

I’ve had this 92’ LX since new, both my kids learned to drive with it.

My son took his driver’s test with it, but due to how that went, we had my daughter use a different rig for her test.

The first picture is shortly after we got it, then one with it's biggest fan and the last one was last year.

I would like to restore it, but just haven't had the time and place.

Nice to see the pictures of those Mustangs you guys are posting. Gives me hope I might get mine done someday.

Today I have a trunk full of freshly machined 351 engine block, and my wallet is $ 1221.00 lighter. But for all the work they did that is pretty reasonable and they do such good work, compared to the other shops I have used in the past.

I had the block tumble cleaned in shot, then bored .060 over, line bored, decked, new pistons, rods resized and new ARP bolts and nuts, new ARP main bolts, cam bearings, brass freeze plugs, screw in galley plugs instead of pressed in ones (never will make THAT mistake again, after blowing out two of them in my 27 engine), and had the crank polished and crossdrilled. They even painted the motor Ford blue, but I may strip that off and epoxy paint it like we usually do, maybe a different color. But their paint looks pretty good, so I may leave it.

I told him to go ahead and get me the rings and bearings I will need and will pick those up tomorrow, so maybe this weekend I will start scrubbing up the block and assembling it into a short block. I am still on the fence about heads, might buy some Edelbrock Performer RPM's like I have on my 27, I really like those, or I may just have the E7 heads I have already redone. Not looking for lots of HP, just a dependable driver, so I'll have to see what I end up doing.

I already have the Edelbrock intake my Son Don got me for Christmas but will have to order a new roller cam (probably the same X303 I have in my 27.) I may run a Holley carb just because it fills the manifold up a little better, but I do like Edelbrocks for their streetability. Just don't know yet.

Here are some shots of my trunkload. The rear bumper is sitting a little low and tonight I'll get my Sons to help me get it all out of the trunk. I LOVE freshly machined engine parts, just like Christmas.[cl

Don

1200 bucks for all that....is reasonable...

I think you did alright for the money!! Can't wait to see how this thing runs...not a Ford fan per se but like a good build no matter what...

Yep, I think for the level of the work he does it isn't much more than we were paying a local machine shop that does just basic rebuild machine work. When this guy does them everything is done as if he was building one of his 2200 HP drag motors. Nice people there too.

Joe did work for lots of racers, like Jungle Jim and even has pictures on his wall of him, Jim, and Jungle Pam together. I bet he could tell some stories. He knows hemis really well and my Son Don has a 291 Desoto hemi that we will be dropping of to have it machined. Joe seemed excited about that and says he loves working on the older Mopars.

Don

Last night we got the engine parts out of my trunk and got the block up on an engine stand. We all stood around just admiring the nice work he did, and even his paint job is outstanding. Not sure how he masked off all the machined areas but only the block is painted, not the head mounting surface, or anywhere a gasket goes. I may just leave his paint on it and go.

Supposed to pickup the bearings and rings today from him, so maybe this weekend I will start prepping the block and actually get some parts bolted on. I am going to spend some time filing the rings because I don't want a repeat of what we had happen with Dan's first motor.

Don

[cl



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would love to have another 351w fox myself...

mine was a 79 model hatchback that eventually had enough power to put a little daylight under the left front tire when all was working right

Sounds like a screamer. You'd like the 84 Capri my Son Don is building. It will be mini tubbed, 8 point cage, and a 460 Ford motor. He has a D and D coil over front end under it and is going with an aluminum interior. It will be a combination street/mostly strip car. He is talking about an 871 blower for giggles.

Now my Son Dan is itching for something to build since his rpu is done so tonight the 3 of us are going to look at an 86 Camaro drag car. Dan wants to tub something and loves these Camaros. Just when the shop was getting some room too !


Don

Let us know what heads you end up with. You are not fooling anyone saying, you may run the E7s. I was going to warn you about straining back muscles making that extended lift out of the trunk, but looks like it got out OK. I may have missed it, what pistons are you using? Keep us updated.

No, the older I get the smarter I get. I used my cherry picker to lift the block out of trunk. My Son Don was washing his SUV and was mad that I didn't yell over to him to help, but the cherry picker made short work of it.

I am running TRW forged slightly dished pistons. I told the machine shop guy that I wanted to end up at about 9 to 1 compression with 62 CC heads and those are the ones he came up with. I am going to TRY to use mid grade in it because my daily driver now takes only premium and I just paid $4.19 yesterday. I figure with 3.73 gears in the Mustang it shouldn't lug enough to cause preignition, so mid grade might fly.

Don

donsrods said:

I am going to TRY to use mid grade in it because my daily driver now takes only premium and I just paid $4.19 yesterday. I figure with 3.73 gears in the Mustang it shouldn't lug enough to cause preignition, so mid grade might fly.

Don

Click to expand...

Mid grade is usually only a problem when you turn the motor off! [cl

Toad

We had a 93 'vert. 4 cyl AOD. It was a nice car, got good gas mileage. Even though I'm a Ford fan, I never cared for it much. Wife drove it mostly. I had a hard time getting in and out of it, it's easier for me to get in and out of my 86 Vette than it was the Mustang.

Heres a little some thing i played with a few years ago. 51 Mustang anyone?
5.0 auto with a burnout valve, fun to drive.

I spent yesterday in the local Pick and Pull getting some parts for my Mustang. When my Son Don and I were there last Saturday getting parts for his Capri, I saw a 95 Mustang with a coilover conversion under the front. It was like new, so I decided to pull it off and put it under mine.

When I got there they had rearranged the place so I had to walk around until I spotted it, but the front end was still under there. While I was at it I pulled off the spindles and hubs that people use to convert the 4 lug cars to 5 lug. I am not going to use them, but I figured they would make a good Ebay item as the 94-95 ones are getting harder to find.

I'm really torn because I want to keep hitting on my rpu project, but I also need to start building the 351 motor that I got back from the machine shop and get the Mustang done. Too many projects , not enough years left.

Don

what do you want for the spindles? did u get rotors & calipers, too?

my lil bro is doing a fox rt now n wanting to convert it to 5 lug...

send a pm if u would rather

I left the rotors and calipers because we would replace those with new ones anyway, plus the junkyard keeps tacking on money the more you take with a part.

This set cost me more than the ones we got Saturday for some reason. Don scored his for $ 50 but when I got to the desk with my stuff the guy said "That will be $ 170." !! I asked him how much the struts were and he said $ 35 each, so that made the spindles and caliper brackets $ 100. I told him we paid $ 50 just two days earlier, why the big difference. He showed me a big menu on the wall and they had $50 per side for this assembly. He said the guy Saturday screwed up and only charged for one side, but he couldn't do any better than $100 a pair.

Since I sweated my butt off getting the stuff removed I took it all, because I see these on Ebay going for about $150 a pair, so I would at least make some money for my trouble. I did make him throw in a cold bottle of water to sweeten the deal though.

Let me make sure nobody in the family needs them and I will let you know. For a RRR member I wouldn't want to make any more than I have in them, but shipping will be a bear as they weigh a bunch. I just want to make sure the ones Don got Saturday are ok and than Dan doesn't want them for the Mustang project he has been talking about.

Don

that's fine, man.... i wouldn't let them go if i had that many projects in the shop that could use them...

i thought i'd ask, but i never thought about the weight and shipping situation... thanks for the answer though

I'll let you know once we decide if we want to keep them or not, and the shipping via flat rate box might not be too horrible.

Don