Rebuild Advice

[jisham]

I have been working on my old high school mustang for what seems like forever. 12 years roughly. It doesn't help that it is parked in my parents drive way and I leave 6 hours away. So my question is. I am trying to actually get it done, or at least running nicely so I can do a bit of body work on it before April.

I just did a swap of my original '66 200ci engine and put in a '78 200ci 2bbl engine. I feel that I have maybe missed some important steps due to the fact that sometimes I have 6 months before I can do some work on it. So my question is this. I am trying to get it to at least be running so I can take it down to the mechanic to take a look at it and do any fixes on it so that I know it is driving good. What kind of costs am I looking at for a mechanic to do a full engine swap...and maybe do some cleaning on parts so that I know there is no dirt in the engine? I figure if I can at least get it to driving stage then I can get it down with me and wont have to worry about the 6 hour drive and 6 months between actually getting a chance to work on it.

Thoughts. The car is in the Bay Area in California and I am in Los Angeles.

 

[bubba22349]

Do you mean you want someone to take the engine back out or do the change over from the old 66 engine to the 78 and getting it running? If your talking about having someone do the work in the Bay area I would say it's likely to be much higher than here in LA maybe you should put it on a trailer and bring to LA.

 

[jisham]

I have the '78 engine in the car and want to have that as my primary engine. What I need to have done, whether it is by me or someone else is to make sure it is installed correctly and get it running. Bringing it down to LA was a thought that I had initially but at the time it was cheaper to take the engine I just put in it up to the Bay Area.

I am doing some research on at least getting the transmission installed correctly as that is the one giving me problems. I'm just afraid that some junk got into it when I was putting it in.

 

[65fback]

If you have a buddy with a tow vehicle u-haul rents auto transport trailers for cheap money. That's how I got mine up to NH from PA. 'Course I have my own tow vehicle. It's on my property now, and I can work on it as time allows.

If you want to drive the car the 6 hours, pay the extra money to have the mechanic give everything the once over - not just the engine. And you'll want to bypass the heater core if it isn't relatively new. That's a long way to drive only to get stuck in the middle thinking 'oh snap'.

 

[jisham]

So with some more consideration I am now tossing some additional options into the hat.

I was reading in the Transmission and Drive Train section of the forum about a step by step process and it has me thinking that maybe if I just get some of the extra tools and tow the car down to LA maybe that would be the best option. Mainly that would mean I could just close the garage door at the end of the day and if it would be cheaper to get it fixed down there then an added bonus.

So I guess the big thing is to check to see how much the tools would cost and which ones I would need and then any additional parts I might need as well. Am I missing anything that I missed that might catch me by surprise. The cost to two it down might be about $300.

Thanks for the input, I'm going back to researching.

 

[bubba22349]

So what is the trans do you want to use an Auto or Stick and also what was the car originally equipped with? Than it would help to know what the 78 engine had for a trans if you know. Other than that a few pictures of the back of your engine and the parts you want to install and I think someone can walk you through what needs to be done to get it on the road.

 

[JackFish]

I just want to add that I don't trust most mechanics with these engines.
Most mechanics these days are too young to know how to tune a vintage oddball engine like this one. You're better off learning how to test and tune yourself so that you know exactly what's up with your engine. You can probably do just about everything yourself with the help here on the forum, with the exception of machine shop type work. I'd rather spend $100 on a tool and a good book than on a couple hours worth of some mechanic's time who has never even seen one of these engines. Do you have an engine hoist?

 

[Invectivus]

I just want to add that I don't trust most mechanics with these engines.

X2

when I bought my 67 mustang, the engine was in the back yard sitting in the rain. I dropped a used engine and tranny into it and over a couple weeks spread over a couple years I got it going. If you have a problem, a mechanic will charge you an arm and a leg to find and fix it, and that's for only one problem. Finding multiple problems is more of an exponential than additive situation.

my best advice is to be verbose and share what you remember about the engine, desired tranny, and what you did (or tried to do) to get them in.

the engine tends to be the easiest part, with the only external connections needed to start it being fuel, power, cooling, and throttle. There's more to operating properly, but it gets you somewhere to hear it run.

the tranny can be a PITA. I personally found that for a c4 auto, it's easiest to attach it to the engine out of the car. It's heavy. I also found during my T5 install, that having my dual exhaust attached kept the back of my engine from drooping and that really limited my ability to line up the tranny. There are good stickies in the transmission section, read them and ask questions there to keep it topical.

for what it's worth, next time you're coming up, if you PM me with enough warning, I can see if I'm around and I'd be happy to look at it with you.

 

[jisham]

All this is rather good to hear and I am working on figuring out the best way to tow it to LA so I can work on it more frequently.

For engine stuff this is what I am working with.

The engine I am putting/put in is the 1978 200ci i6, bored to .30over and with an automatic C4 transmission. The original engine was the 1966 200ci i6 with the automatic C4 transmission.

Here are some pictures I took of where it is at. I do have an engine hoist but I think what I might consider getting is a transmission jack, a new car jack and sturdier/taller car jack stands. I probably need to replace most of the linkage for the transmission to at least get that working.

From under the car looking up at the transmission connection to the engine block.

From under the car looking towards the rear of the transmission.

From the front of the car looking to the back, That bag at the top is a cover for the oil filter for when I was painting the engine block. (obviously haven't gotten to the oil pan yet - didn't have an engine stand)

Here it is in the engine bay.

The engine from the other side. Haven't connected the exhaust yet obviously, or the Carburetor. Will be the exhaust and carb listed in my sig.

 

[bubba22349]

Looks like you have it installed, setting right and fairly close to finished, hooking up the rest should not take much more time.

 

[jdn21758]

hello sir,,,,good to see some people working on his mustang.
keep posting some photo:s,,i like it.
good luck,,,,,

greetz,,JD,

 

[jisham]

good to know I did it right. this is my first rebuild so I am learning by doing. thanks for all the great advice. My decision is to truck it to my home in LA so I can put some more consistent hours in on it.

Thanks again and I'll keep you posted. I think I am going to do a youtube series to document the process just for the fun of it.

 

[69.5Mav]

One thing I noticed is the Heater connections are on the opposite side of the engine from the heater.
Don't know if this is normal for that year mustang or for the donner vehical but that would seem to complicate the install some what.
However in LA you won't need a heater that much.

 

[jisham]

I'm getting ready to document the process and kinda went all out with it. I'll post my progress at http://www.smallblockmuscle.com and will be frequenting this site quite a bit to make sure I do it right.

I'll probably be towing the car to LA in about a month or so to start on it.