My Budget 250 build

"...replacing the suspension ..."
as this is ur build thread I'd B interested in seein what U came up for
components & installation techn.
I know this is "small block" forum but enjoy what those ahead of me do.
I may B closer to 70 than 60 y/o but still have lots ta learn!

chad":2marw6w7 said:

"...replacing the suspension ..."
as this is ur build thread I'd B interested in seein what U came up for
components & installation techn.

Click to expand...

Installed a triangulated 4 link, Explorer 8.8 and air ride on the rear.



Still have the air bags to install and start replacing the floor where I cut it out (some rust) and the gas tank (might fit a 70 Mustang tank in there).

The front is near finished as well, needs the upper bag mounts installed as well as the air bags.



It is a Mustang 2 install I have cobbled together from various vendors.

Going to start mocking the 250 in there soon building motor and transmission (T5 from 96 Mustang) mounts and seeing how much I have to modify the oil pan, I think I can move the bottom of the pan up to 3.5" below the block surface and still clear all the rotating parts, it is going to be a tight fit for sure.

I actually have a build thread over on the Comet Central Forum and I can link to it if anyone wants to read it.

See Ya,
Mike

Thnx...
nice to C an ol Comet treated this way.
Surprised to C it called a 'budget build'
AND
"...it will be awesome."

Thanks Chad.

It is not lowest budget it could be but a lot of the stuff is from the junk yard, I probably have $500 or $600 in the M2 stuff and all of it is new, like I said it came from various places, the cross member is Welders Series parts.

The rear was probably half that and would even be cheaper if I was doing it again, I narrowed the rear myself and rebuilt the brake calipers, etc, the rear has a bit over 100,000 miles on it so I replaced the outer wheel bearings but not the inner ones, of course totally out of budget build was the aluminum Mustang rear cover :roll: the four link was a cheap kit off of eBay but I ended up only using some of the brackets so I would piece together if I was doing it again, I am using parts of it for other stuff however.

See Ya,
Mike

must B more junk yrds in the upper Salem Plateau than around here!
Everything 10 + yrs old goes to the crusher 8^(

chad":2n1srqe8 said:

Everything 10 + yrs old goes to the crusher

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I just bought the 250 out of the '77 Maverick last summer, that JY (actually a scrap yard) has cars from current all the way back to at least the late '40s or early '50s, I need to go back some time soon because I am getting a short list of things I want to find. When I bought the Ford 8.8 from there it was like $75 but I paid them $20 to remove it and then they charged me $10 to trade the long axle for a short one.

I am thinking about a radiator core support from a fox body Ford of some sort (maybe a Granada) to graft into the Comet so I can use wide thin radiator (single core) and maybe gain a little room, my core support needs some rust cut out of it anyway and I am also going to add AC (for the wife) so if I can squeeze it all in there by using the more modern Core support I will give it a try. I would also like to find a Ford Contour dual electric fan setup.

See Ya,
Mike

"... a Ford Contour dual electric fan setup."
some us use the Taurus (not sure Y...'thickness", could it B due to 1 wire alternator compatibility, IDK).

All of this is out 4 me but if I hear of modern (post 60s/70s) components I can then source frm rock auto or others. I just can't go to the yards, walk around, C what ford's done to improve'n drop in my vehicle. I put some discs in up frnt that way. Heard the el dorados would fit (need e-brake to run the roads here) my rears so grabbed them frm the prts place I worked @ the time. Now I'm goin for the canned ham PS pump.
8.8's a great rear end - right in the middle (weight/strength).
If U see any '73/9 F250 knuckles and out (plus axels/not housing or chunk), the bronk can use alla dat too. That way I can put on wuntuns.

While you all are waiting on my engine build info I thought maybe you would enjoy this picture (or not) the top is when I started on June 15th and the bottom is yesterday Sept 14th.



I am nearly all installed with the suspension and have the air bags installed (the bottom picture is fully aired out) I am pretty happy with it, going to try and get the engine/trans mocked in and my mounts built next along with brakes, hopefully the motor can get to the machine shop this next month. :roll:

See Ya,
Mike

I C a " 202 " on the frnt fender of some of them.
Can U tell me abt that?

chad":14fq0axg said:

I C a " 202 " on the frnt fender of some of them.
Can U tell me abt that?

Click to expand...

It is just a trim level, mine is a 202 which means it is a base model sedan, there was a step up sedan the 404 that had more body trim, both 202s and 404s were available as either 2 or 4 door models, then there were the 2 dr hardtop and convertible Calientes and then Cyclones, the Cyclones were sporty ones, I can't remember for sure but I don't think you could get a Cyclone conv., and of course there were wagons in various trim levels.

It never really designated engines/drivetrain because in the 60s you could pretty much put any drivetrain that was offered in any car, but most of the 202s were probably 170 I6 powered with 3 on the tree like mine.

Probably more than you wanted to know :roll:

See Ya,
Mike

"...Probably more than you wanted to know..."
not at all, I wouldn't have asked.
AND thank you for the info (inc the "404').

"...put any drivetrain that was offered in any car."
so different today. Just order it & the factory set 1 aside 4 U.

I'm loving the stance!!!

It's got that stealth look!

nice and low going to be a great looking Merc

At least I am to the point of mocking up the engine and transmission, getting closer day by day :roll:



Going to get the mounts all built and hopefully get it off the the machine shop.

See Ya,
Mike

It's looking good. You've got to love the straight forward nature of a straight six.

Got my motor mounts and transmission mount built and installed, everything sits in there good, pretty happy with it so far


Trying to figure out oil pan modifications now :roll:

Just an FYI I shifted the motor over in the front slightly to the right and raised the left side maybe a 1/4" so the motor sits about 3 degrees tilted left to right, I wanted to make more room for the oil pump to clear the steering rack.

See Ya,
Mike

I have been working on running my brake lines and doing the air ride, I know everyone is interested in what happens to the 250 (me too) but I try and set goals each month (my month runs from the 15th to the 15th) on the build, last month was supposed to be brake plumbing but seemed to involve a lot of things, like building the motor and transmission mounts, before I ship the motor off I want to get my oil pan modifications done (or started) as well. I finished the brakes except for running the line to back because there is floorboard work to do and did not want it in the way.

I will show you my air ride control box I am building, it is just half put together here, and just running shop air, but it works, the car goes up and down while sitting in the drivers seat


I am doing an all manual system, the picture shows the paddle valves, check valves and manifold. The two switches you can see the bottoms of on the upper right are a cutoff switch for the compressor and a momentary switch to work a tank drain I am planning.

On a different note, I also picked up a couple more Motorcraft 740s (5740) carbs, I may need help figuring out everything on them, I have not been finding a lot of info on the web, Xctasy seems to know more about them than most everything I have found so I may have questions :roll: I know I show the Autolite 1100 on there in the picture but decided they were too small so doing 3 of the 740's instead (I hope).

See Ya,
Mike

The guys over on my Comet Forum wanted too see my air ride system in action so I did a little video.

I have never done air ride before, I have never even seen a car on bags (in person) so don't be too critical of my work and ignore my messy shed please

[bbvideo=640,360]https://vimeo.com/297803199[/bbvideo]

Certainly it is still a work in progress and I have a ways to go.

See Ya,
Mike

NICE