Mustang Club 0f America - Project RestoMod

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Greetings from Chicagoland! I just stumbled across your web site and was really pleased at how well everything was laid and all the info that was available.

For those of you who might be Mustang Club of America members, we'll be introducing Project RestoMod - Part 1 in the coming months. This is a 1980 Fox body Mustang with an inline 200cid six. The car has 56,000 orginal miles and was purchased on eBay for $1,700. It was more than we wanted to spend, but we've always said that when you buy a project car, it's always better to spend the $$ up front to buy the best condition car you can find. Today, this car is a daily driver.

Right now, we're sorting out what we want to do. A repaint and interior resto are in order, even though they aren't high priority items right now. Better brakes will be a definite add-on. We looked really hard at going with a new K-member and V-8 install, but looking at this site as me thinking with more certainty that we'll just stick with the 200-cid. It will certainly be a different project for a Fox body Mustang anyway.

I hope we can use all of you as a resource. We will certainly be publicizing your web site. Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions on how we can make this a more intersting project will certainly be appreciated.

Rod Short
Tech Editor
Mustang Club of America
 
I would definitly keep the six in there. This is engine is still alive and needs much attention from automotive parts companies dearly. I plan to me a Mustang Club of America member one of these days... I want to see what you guys do to the engine. Good Luck!


Andrew
 
Hello Rod and Welcome :D

If you guys DON'T want to do the same old 302 into a Fox body swap. Then you might want to check out the AU crossflow conversion that Jack Collins is working on. It's still in the experimental stages but you can see it at: http://fordsix.com/200xflow.htm it has great potential.
There are two others that are just as interesting and a little easier, the AU 2V head and the Argentinian 221 SP head.

We have members that can get any of these, if you are interested.
That is IF you want to use your old short block. If not then you can always move up to the 300 six. With a little persuation it will fit.

WARNING: After driving a well built 300 you will never like a 302 ever again. :lol:

John......a little biased opinion
 
I would like to see you stick with the six. there are alot of 60 - 81 sixes out there. Most people under estimate the potential because they don't know where to get information. For many backyard mechinics a complete drivetrain swap is not possible, but a buildup is. I think you would be doing a far greater service to the hobby by building the 200. There are countless places to get info on building the 5.0, few places for the 200.

I would like to see:

8.8 5 lug disc brake setup
AOD or T5
GT rack & pinion
200 shortblock/Aussie or Argie head
Goal of 200 hp at the flywheel
87+ interior (seats, quarter trim, door panels)
87+ taillights, cobra wheels, rear hatch

A stumbling block for most inliners is EFI. Maybe you have access to the resources to adapt a GM 4.3 TBI to a Ford inline.

There are alot of possibilities other than the "Lets pull the six and drop in an eight" mentality.

Stand out and be noticed!
 
8)

EXCELLENT!!!

I also have a 1980 Mustang with a 200 I6 and C4.

I am excited by your info. I although I am starting off with a car in worse condition bodywise I am working on making a Hipo I6 car with a good suspension.

I am porting and polishing a Aussie 2v head for mine that has been modified to take a Holley 450cfm 4bbl but that might be getting replaced with a Aussie aluminum crossflow head and Holley 4bbl intake.

Wiht the Oz head you can hit 175-185hp, withe the Aluminum head you should be able to hit over 185+ hp with little problem. At bottom is the link on the Crossflow mod.

I also have a nice suspension ready for the car with '89 LX 11" front brakes, a '89 LX 8.8" Traction Lock rear, 3.55:1 gears for the 8.8" rear, 1.12" front swaybar, .79" rear swaybar, Ground Pounder upper and lower tubular control arms, and 15x8" American Eagle 100K wheels with P215/60HR-15's. I still need caster camber plates and coil over front struts available on Ebay.

On the Fox body Stangs a common mistake is to put the biggest bar on the front and rear(that being the GT bars). But according to the book "How To Make Your Mustang Handle" the majority of fast guys are running Koni struts, Eibach springs, and 1.12" front swaybar, .79" rear swaybar and the Steeda Auxilary rear control bar.

Currently my car is awaiting my finishing of modifying some of the engine parts(polishing rods, competiton prepped crank, trying to build my own windage tray, etc.)

What I would like to see on your car?

The Aluminum crossflow head mod with a 2bbl or 4 bbl Holley carb and intake, or a Aussie 250-2v head with a 350cfm 2bbl and tubular header.

If you go with the crossflow head you can get several fuel injection kits. The owner of this site Jack Collins has a 65 Mustang with a Oz 250 with SDS fuel injection. According to Jack it will break the rear tires loose at 30mph.

C4 with shift kilt and 3500rpm stall converter. IIRC TCI sells the converter. Also with EFI you might also get crazy and consider a crossflow head, turbo and intercooler like the Mustang SVO or Tbird turbo. Hardware setup would be very similar.

A cheap 5 lug conversion using the V8 11" front spindles, and a 5 lug drum conversion. Even a 5 lug disc conversion could be done easily with a Tbird turbo rear or a SN95 V6 rear (both are 7.5" rears though).

With the 5 lug it would be a cinch to use Cobra R 17" rims although those are a bit overdone. I think Bullit rims would be a better choice.

I am eager to here more about your hipo 6 Fox body Stang. There are several of us on here who drive Fox bodies and this news makes us very happy.

Here are some links you might consider looking over And Good Hunting!

http://fordsix.com/200xflow.htm

http://falconperformance.sundog.net/default.asp

http://home.cfl.rr.com/mustangsix/Engine/crossflow.htm

http://home.cfl.rr.com/mustangsix/

http://www.geocities.com/mustang_man_1966/
 
That sounds great. This will give you all the best publicity because the 302 has been done SO much that the 200 will give you the diversity of it all.
Plus, you can build your 200 to run with a 93 fox body GT (about 230HP).
The only thing you have to worry about is the fact that this sight alone has thousands of "Experts" and we will all be arguing on the best way to get there!

Good luck, and I hope it goes through.

-Levi
 
I will be watching your project with great intrest. As a non-200 owner, I am getting ready to embark on a project that involves an 81 Mustang body and a 73 200.
 
It sure would be nice to see someone (especially MCA) actually do something other then the "Swapped a V-8 in my 6 cylinder mustang". Honestly, if you wanted to do that...just subcribe to any mustang magazine for a year and you'll see at least one article able that. It is not anything new and I doubt that you would be able to do anything new and exciting compared to what has already been done.

If you want to draw attention to your mustang and build up, build up the six. You'd be surprised the attention a well built 6 gets and some shows. I had my stock six draw major attention at a local show and shine (despite sitting next to a beautiful Mach 1).

Imagine seeing something like this under your fox hood:

Cobra6-7.jpg


That will draw more attention then another V-8 fox mustang IMHO.

Good luck.

Slade
 
P.S. With or without the six, how about a quasi-Indy clone. I always liked those cars, just not enough of them around.
 
Cool!!

Another reason why I should join the Mustang Club of America! :D :D

I'm glad your considering building up a 200, instead of doing the usual "Dump the Six install the Eight" thats been done hundreds of times in dozens of magazines :wink:

Later,

Doug
 
For the replies. I'm definitely going to print this off and save these suggestions, Right now, it looks like we'll be working on the long tube header/dual exhaust idea. Unfortunately, it has to be done with cats since we have emission testing up here in Chicagoland, But, on the other hand, all Fox bodies had cats on them, so I guess that's the way it should be.

I'm really intrigued by the fact that the '80 model has alow 8.4:1 compression ratio. That's perfect for a turbo motor. I work at Precision Turbo as their Sales Manager in real life, sooooo . . . . (mind wandering off).

In the mean time, I think I'm just going to lurk, read and learn. Looking forward to getting to know all of you better.

RS
 
Rod,

You'd see a lot of interest in a Turbo build on a 200. There are a lot of people interested in that. I know a few here have done it. If someone made a turbe/super kit, there would be a lot of happy campers. As of now, you have to piece a system together.

Slade
 
Putting together the hardware wouldn't really be much of an issue. It would be easy to put together a street kit with a turbo that would give this car 300 to 400 whp along with a wastegate and an air-to-air intercooler. Fabricating/adapting an exhaust manifold would be kinda pricey. The biggest issue is tuning. Setting up a carb to work with a turbocharger has always been a compromise at best. A TBI conversion would have to be treated as a carb also. The best answer would be to go with a performance stand alonr EFI system such as the F.A.S.T. or the Accel/DFI Gen7, but that just doesn't make $$ sense. I've got a lot of things to do to this daily driver first, but will definitely be keeping my eyes open for the pieces needed to do such a project.

RS
 
i remember there was someone on here that was trying to put efi on a log headed 200 i think it was, i remember he had pictures with where he was going to put the injectors and everything, anyone have any word on where this project ended up going?
 
Jack had a head he had drilled and installed bungs for injectors in the log. The bottom half of a Temp CFI would work for a t-body. However, I'd look at the dual-butterfly GM t-body and open up the hole for more air flow.

The problem is the log isn't suited for proper airflow for optimum power curves with an EFI system. It would work, but who knows how well :roll:

Al
 
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