Swapping from 302-V8 to 200 CID 6 cylinder

[Stormin' Norman]

Hi folks, I'm swapping from the original 302 to a 200 CI six. My car is a Fairmont Country Squire, made in Mexico and driven to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1999. We bought it in 1996 from the original owner, who was also our landlord in one of her 5 bedroom homes.

The car has been a gem, but gasoline is way too high, so I asked the owner of a big dealership here if he knew of anyone who might have another failrmont for parts. I called the guy and he told me it was hit in the back end by a drunk driver in a parking lot. The insurance company wrote it off and will sell it to me for salvage (not rebuildable). Its a 1978 four-door. The engine and tranny were rebuilt about 33,000 kms ago.

I just bought new tires and battery, and exhaust and brakes for mine in the last 4 months, but I screwed up and a small bolt dropped it when I went to grab a wrench and blew the left rear valves. It leaks antifreeze at the crack.

I was thinking I'd switch to a six eventually, so I could build a vapourizer to double my mileage, but my V* car has Air-Conditioning and no room to install it.

With the vapourizer, I can experiment with pure ethanol, made from newsprint or sawdust (an old Mother Earth News article from 1980 used a 1979 6-cylinder fairmont) and cut my emissions even more. The article even lists the carb, plug and advance adjustments. I made one vapourizer for a 1975 Chrysler Town and Country 440 CI v8 and went from 6 mpg to 42 mpg without any apparent power loss, but I'm sure I'll have to tweak this small six.

Anyway, I wondered if any one had ever done a swap-down like this: From a V8 to an Inline Six, and if they had any tips or insider recommendations.

This is my 72nd car, my second Fairmont, and my 3rd Ford. Most of my cars were big-block Dodge, before 426 Hemis. I ran 392 Hemis on the Strips with nitro. But now, the fun in driving is just getting there and back in one piece and saving $300 per month in fuel costs.

I'll have both cars side-by-side when I do the swap.

 

[Mustang Boy]

well since ur going for fuel mileage i would recommend a small 2brl carb with and adapter that usually bumps up the fuel mileage a few MPG's that along with a few other tricks others here have found and u should be in the range of about 25-30 MPG's if u have som self control with the pedal then on top of that the ethanol thing u described(i didnt really understand) u should be getting som hellacious fuel mileage

 

[Stormin' Norman]

Thanks for the carburetion tips. One of our Canadian broadcasters had a news item about a guy in Toronto that was distilling his own ethanol from his weekly newspapers and junk mail. I ran a search on the Internet and found more details. What caught my attention was that the guy wouldn't allow the channel to run the camera on himself or his home.

He showed how he used his trash, a few 20 gallon barrels, water and yeast to get the fermentation going and that he made his own fuel. He was scared the oil companies would harass him.

The article I found was published in MotherEarth news in 1980. Here's the link:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_lib ... h/me1.html

Hope that helps on the fuel bit.

What I'm hoping for are some suggestions about shoeing in the 200 ci, into the V8 slot. cables, k-member & mounts, etc.

 

[Anlushac11]

8)

The only thing you should have to change that I know of is the K-member.

Everything will work on the new K-member. Your brakes, A-arm, and steering rack will work. You may need a longer steering shaft extension since I6 K-member is suppsoed to be deeper.

For economy I think you should stick with the stock Holley 1946 carb and work on tuning like better coil, adjusting timing, keeping tires inflated correctly, etc. A proper alingment also works wonders.

Super tuning and everything working right I was able to squeeze 30mpg out o my 80 Mustang.

 

[Stormin' Norman]

Thanks! I'lltake a look at that K-Member issue. I'll check the carb too. With the two cars, I should be able to get the steering extension too I guess.

The only other issue is my air-conditioner. We get some pretty hot weather here sometimes, so it makes sense to keep it. But I'm skilled enough to switch the entire system to the other car's heating system (standard - no air). Its a pain, but few people ordered sixes up here with Air-conditioning, so brackets will be a major pain. Mine is a super system, stock for Mexican weather. It can freeze a brass monkey's cahones. I actually get frost on the vents in summertime up here. Never happened in Mexico.

 

[MustangSix]

While I really love the little six, a swap from a 302 to a 200 is probably not going to be cost effective.

First of all, even though the engine is smaller, gas mileage may not improve as much as you think. The car will still weigh roughly the same and still have the same aero and friction, so power required to accelerate and maintain speed are not going to change much. The 200 is smaller, but not terribly efficient so you might not get a big boost in mileage. It might be only a couple of mpg at best. On top of that, there is no easy way to add an automatic overdrive transmission to a 200.

If you spend even as little as, say, $1000 to do all the changes, at current gas prices it would take a LONG time to recover that.

I'd recommend that you instead look at improving the efficiency of the 302. First of all, the compression ratio is probably a dismal 8.0:1 or less. Bumping that to 9.0 will still allow you to burn regular fuel but will increase power and efficiency 4-5%. Retuning ignition would also boost mileage. The stock system was designed for reduced emissions, not maximum power and efficiency. A more aggressive timing curve and static timing will also boost mileage. Finally, if the car doesn't have it already, add an AOD transmission. The overdrive combined with the above will get you a big increase.

If it were me, i think the easiest route to more power AND more mileage would be to transplant an entire 87-93 Mustang GT drivetrain into the Fairmont. Those cars were easily capable of mid to high 20's mpg and could do even better with some simple tweaking.

 

[Stormin' Norman]

Thanks. I'm paying about $100 for the other car. It's mainly for City driving. Winnipeg's longest rush-hour times are about half-an-hour. Beyond our Province (more area than all of Mexico) we fly. Within the province 150 of our 201 towns and cities are within 3 hours of Winnipeg. And our highways aren't exactly speedways. I've been down your way, way back in the 70's when Disney World was about to open, and I know that back then it was in the glory days of beach buggies and streetrods. I remember some guys who oggled my dad's hemi-powered Imperial and passed us a 6-pack to help us deal with the heat! On the Daytona highway. I can assure you that doesn't happen here for eight months of the year. We're slip-sliding in snow and ice and -30 F weather or windchills down to -50 F. A hot toddy machine could be an option on the dashboard. Even the police would appreciate it!

We have the ki-ki bird up here! ki-ki-ki-riced its ccccc -cold, from the end of October to the end of May. Frost is finally out by mid-June, so the roads are Pothole paradise until mid July, when Pot-hole Pete (Its what the City really calls it) finishes patching!

City driving and bit of countryside driving. Outside of Winnipeg, its really hard to crank a car up over 140 mph, because the tractors and farm equipment trucks can use our only four-lane highway.

We aren't backwoods here, but the whole province has just over 1 million souls, and the City has 656,000 of them. We're the national freight transport hub, the agricultural hub (Grain Export), and warehousing sleepy hollow. Speed just doesn't cut it here, we don't even have a racetrack.