Jester241

Hey guys,I'm new here and looking for a place to ask a TON of questions. Here's the deal....I've got an '87 mustang GT with T-tops thats been sitting for about 7 years. It ran when it was parked,but was through alot. I wanna start restoring it back to good running condition. And I'm gonna have a million questions and need find some good experienced answers before I can even get started. So,is this the place I should be asking? I need to know stuff like...should I start by rebuilding the engine or start with the chassis? And being that its an '87 mustang do I need to do that mass air flow conversion stuff before I can do anything to the engine etc?

Like I said,it ran when I parked it. The body has seen its better days and will need some new pieces and some rust spots fixed. Not tons of rust on it,but most of the ground effects and stuff are broken and battered. The hatch is pretty rusted out though. The engine ran,but didnt idle real smooth and wasnt quite as powerful as original. I had the rear end gears changed. from stock(2.72 or 78's maybe) to 3.73's. I wanna change that back to stock too. 3.73's were too low for regular driving. I wouldnt mind getting alittle more horsepower out of the engine,but I dont want to get crazy or spend tons of money. So,is this the place to be to be asking this kind of stuff,or should I be somewhere else considering its been alot time since I've been a motorhead?

This was my first (and will be my last) car. It was there with me through all my younger days and deserves to be running again. Its got about 160-80 thousand hard miles on it,but I think its got alot of life in it yet. Just dont know where to start.

mjr46

get it running good then fix body work and paint it

redpony88

if it's never been rebuilt, i'd say get it rebuilt first off and make it a 306, and if you arent looking for alot of power for it and stay in a pretty reasonable limit, go with gt-40 stuff, it's not as expensive as some of the other stuff out there and it's been proven time and time again that they make decent power. if you go that route get it ported and polished and you'll get more power out of it all. also you may want a e cam it's a normal good choice for moderate power gains. do go ahead and do the MAF conversion, it helps out a moded engine, as well as makes the ugly 5.0 surge go away. if there is rust, check the floor pans immediately, they have a bad habit of dissappearing.......
and yea i think you got the right place to ask questions, we have alot of people on here with alot of experience

nacanitihs

ya def get a rebuild. if its been sitting for while it would be a good decision. and if you are looking for a little power gain but want to keep it stockish def go with the gt40 stuff like said above. you can get them off an explorer 96+ (intake and heads). there havebeen about 50000 posts about gt40 stuff just do a little research.

and try and find a wrecked 89-93 5.0 and grab the computer (A9L for 5spd and A9P for auto) and the MAF along with the plug attached to it. just cut the wires down as far as you can and just extend them to the computer. you will have to a little electrical work but its not too hard to do. here is a really good write up on how to do it. http://www.stangnet.com/tech/maf/massairconversion.html

maf conversion will allow your car to accept modifications better. you can also get a maf off of a 94-95 gt/v6 they are the same and are 70mm compared to the fox's 55mm. im not sure if you can use this computer with a fox.


but good luck with it. and LETS SEE SOME PICS!!