Building up my 200

[blue beast]

Hi, first i'd like to say thanks for having me on the forum, sadly i cant contribute much as i dont know a whole lot about 6's but i would like to say i am starving for knowledge!!! lol. Ok, now on to my question. I will be posting this question up in the turbo/efi section too, but anyways....i have a 1980 Mustang with the straight six in it, and i was wondering what steps i need to take to build it up, while doing research i found that it has the bell so it will bolt up to a t-5 which is very good for me, for building time purposes it will have a SROD with the 7.5 rearend. Total finished plans would preferably include efi and turbo, but i dont know how complicated that will be or even how to go about it. What should i do to get started in this direction?

 

[blue beast]

no ideas?

 

[Zypher]

I'm for sure not the right guy to answer complicated questions on the six, though there are many guys capable of doing so, but if you search around on the forums for the specific things you want to do to her like turbo, I'm sure you will find lots of helpful things that many of the members have already done to their I6's. That's all this newb has, haha sorry for not being more of a help.

 

[BetsyBabe64]

what helped me was buying the ford falcon six cylinder performance handbook. although it says "ford falcon" on the cover, it goes over a lot of different six's, especially the 200.

I don't know anything about your car, but we'll give it a shot. Reading out of the book it suggests to first start with a carb rebuild, and electrical tune up. If you think you'll be moving up the carb ladder and going for a 2 - 4 barrel, then go and get that carb, and save money having someone rebuild your carb.

"a clean carb with a fresh accelerator pump and a distributor with fresh points, cap, rotor and plugs are essential"

if i were you i'd go with a new distributor made by classic inlines. a DUI. it eliminates the coil (built in)
in the book it tells you what directions to take, maybe you should go grab it, i think you'll enjoy the info.

 

[JackFish]

What should i do to get started in this direction?

How much money do you have to spend?

I'm still running my holley 1946 and if tuned properly is a reasonably functional carb. Mine is working well and replacing it with a 2bbl might be more trouble to get it tuned right than I care to deal with at the moment. I have a couple of 2bbls but haven't done the swap yet.

A spring mod to the dizzy is a good place to start. I replaced the secondary spring in mine with one from the Mr. Gasket kit so that the total advance comes in sooner. Makes the engine a bit more peppy.

Rebuild the head with a three-angle valve job, SI valves, and get a cam from classic inlines.

 

[blue beast]

i was thinking of basically sticking pretty close to the classic inline stuff, here's my main ideas

1) check the valve cover for grime & compression
-if either is bad buy a rebuild kit, and get the whole show, bearings, rings, valves, everything

2) Replacing the head and intake with ones from classic inlines...lowest compression possible for the turbo

3) A set of headers

4) Using my 350 CFM off of my 82, and/or the one from my 2.3 thats settup up for turbo already...

Only after getting that far would i extend to starting on the turbo, i want to have a good solid foundation first, so the new distributors help alot though?...hmf, i'll add that to the list...

 

[Anlushac11]

I am building a inline six turbo motor to go into a Fox body Mustang.

If you already have a cable operated manual trans then your ahead of the drivetrain on me. Several companies make kits and adapters to mount a T5 to the inline six but none support the cable operated clutch. I will have to go with a hydraulic clutch.

IMHO if your wanting to go turbo the I would rebuild short block, go forged pistons (Expensive but necessary with a turbo for any longevity), and switch to some forged rods. My motor came with cast iron rods and I did not think the cast iron would be resilient enough to handle the stress. I bought reconditioned 1970 forged rods on Ebay. Kind of hit or miss though as some of the rods have been balanced on other engines over the years and 1/2 of the rods dont have pads on the big end.

If you can afford the high cost the Aluminum head would be the easiest way to make power because the best ported and polished big valved log head is still a poor flowing lipsticked pig. The aluminum head also has the cast in injector bungs that can be machined to mount EFI injectors.

The log head ported and polished will allow you to rev to 6000rpm and IMHO I would not want to run the turbo any faster than that anyways. The inline six is known for making good low end torque and unless lots of money is spent they dont like spinning to 7000+rpm. You would be hard pressed to get a log intake to run that high.


A good turbo cam designed for the log head will help with the poor breathing, I have two log heads, one is getting the traditional port, polish, big valves, etc. The second head will undergo a more drastic and experimental route.

If you cant afford the EFI setup and aluminum head a effective way would be to mount a GM 2bbl TBI unit off a 305 or 350 V8 onto a modified log head . That at least gives you more control than a carb, and a MAP sensor would allow you to add more fuel as boost increases. The GM TBI has all the controls built on it that you need to run a Megaquirt EFI and the GM TBI is fully supported in the Megasquirt community.


The T3 off any Mustang/T-Bird 2.3L turbo is good for our motor as is unless you want high boost but then the problem is no one makes a set of aftermarket forged rods.

The Mustang SVO with a turbocharged 205hp 2.3L 4 cyl used a 7.5" rear. A 8.8" will be stronger but also weighs alot more. If your wanting the car to handle better the extra weight in the rear will help the handling but try to take some weight off the nose too, maybe a trunk mount battery kit.

 

[blue beast]

im gonna see if i can get ahold of one of the australian heads, still cast, but still a big improvement and cheaper than the new aluminum ones too, once i get the cars in yard i'll call some engine shops and see how much they charge...can i get the forged pistons on classicinlines?

 

[Anlushac11]

Yes.

I ordered my forged pistons in April but you need to plan for a lead time of 4-8 weeks for them to be custom made.

I had a ported and polished Oz head modified for a 4bbl carb that I had bought back around August of 2001 but had to sell it when i got laid off from work back in November of 2002.

The Oz head is not as good as the aluminum head but its a far sight better than the log head.

 

[blue beast]

yea but for my current budget the 500 i can save with the oz head could go towards the megasquirt system...

 

[Anlushac11]

Not knocking the Oz head, I would buy another one but have blown almost all my engine budget on the block, mostly because my dad is doing the porting and polishing on my log head for free.

I am not counting the log head casting out only because I am inspired by the guy who milled the log and side of head off. I want to build a Nissan RB26 log style intake plenum with throttle body on the end.

Will look like this but be more crudely put together: http://www.hypertune.net/images/90mmunder.jpg

 

[CZLN6]

Howdy Back Blue Beast and All:

There are at least five things that hold back 80s 200s from performing up to potential; low compression, epa encumbered Holley #1946 carb, advanced cam timing, high gearing and a restrictive exhaust manifold/cat converter.

The low compression will be an asset for a turbo application. The OEM 80s cam is designed to increase low rpm torque- to compliment a too high rear end gear. A turbo boost cam would really help. A header will be a great improvement, but that will be a part of the turbo system. What rear-end gearing do you have now? What will be your goal gearing? On the carb, IIwiys, I'd live with the OEM Holley until I figured out the EFI system and upgrade at that time.

Your stock Dura-Spark II igniton system is one of FoMoCos better ideas. No need to change that and I wouldn't increase the advance rate with a turbo, until you see what the engine needs.

Keep us updated on your choices and progress.

Adios, David

 

[blue beast]

i was thinking the same thing, how a turbo would fit pretty nicely with these engines...im not sure exactly what gearing it is but it has the 7.5 in there with a SROD 4 speed. I would like to get a head and intake on there at least, and run the carb off the 2.3 as it's already settup for turbo...how would you control a the fuel ration under boost with a carb?

 

[Anlushac11]

Typically a 4cyl/6cyl manual transmission car would come with a 3.45:1 gear ratio.

Assuming the car still has the original rear axle if you can look on the door tag and post the number or letter where it says axle I can look the code up for you.