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I drove my newly acquired '67 Convertible to work today. The car has a 302 4V, TCI Streetfighter C4 transmission, and 9-inch rear end with 3.70 gears. At freeway speeds (65-70), I was turning just over 3000 RPM. I think I used nearly 1/4 tank on a 30 mile drive.
Since I mainly want to use this as a cruiser, I need better gas mileage than that.
One option would be to put something like 3.00 gears in the rear end.
Another would be to go to an AOD transmission.
I'd like to hear from members that know about upgrading to an AOD. Can I go to Pick-a-Part and pick up an AOD out of a certain year range of Ford cars? Where did you get yours? Do I have to replace / modify the bell housing? Torque converter? What else do I need to know?
Any comments would be appreciated.
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AOD is the way to go for what you are describing. Find one from a Fox bod 89-93 Stang. Check out this link to see what RPM you will run with the AOD. This calculator is very helpful.
3.70 gears are pretty steep for a cruiser. That is more drag race hotrod territory. I would start with putting in highway gears (3.00-3.50) and tuning your engine. I have 3.50 gears that turn 3300 at 70mph. With a 460hp motor w/750cfm carb and 383cid, I get 13mpg...something is wrong if you burned four gallons of fuel in 30 miles on the highway.
I am not a big fan of OD trannys in hotrods, but that is an option. EFI, which is more fuel efficient is also an option. Gears and a tune would be MUCH cheaper and easier though.
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"Yeah, were runnin a little bit hot tonight. I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off of it." Van Halen
That's another thing I'm going to look into first: this car came from Colorado and is now in Houston. I think I might need to look at the carb jetting. Its probably running rich.
Oh, it came from high altitude. If it was tuned correctly for up there, then yes it is probably way out of tune for Houston altitude and humidity. You have to run a larger carb (cfm) at altitude...what cfm carb is on it??? You do not need anything more than a 600cfm on a 302 in Houston. It may be over carbed and/or over jetted at this point. Let us know what you find out.
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"Yeah, were runnin a little bit hot tonight. I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off of it." Van Halen
I'm going to take it to Slater's Mustangs (http://www.slaters-mustangs.com/), probably next week, and let them dyno-tune it for me. That will be first.
Moving to fuel injection is not in the plans, although if I came across a complete setup straight out of a Pick-A-Part, I'd consider it.
For what I plan on doing with the car (evening / weekend cruising), I'm looking for drivability. I'd still like to end up with an AOD. Keeping the 3.70 is appealing, but end the end I might tone that down a little, depending on the cost.
I found these on craigslist. Are either a good fit?
1992 Ford AOD transmission taken from 1992 Ford Mustang 5.0 LX. Transmission with torque converter $150
Ford Mustang AOD transmission, professionally re-built, out of a 1990 Mustang. Under 5000 miles on it. $350.00 or obo
What else is involved in switching to an AOD?
bell housing?
torque converter?
transmission mount?
shift linkage?
drive shaft?
transmission lines?
other?
When you are looking for AODs, keep in mind that there are AODs and AODEs. The AODEs are electronic computer controlled and will not work for your application. I cannot tell you when Ford switched, but I know in '88 they still used AODs.
As for what you will need, I cannot help you much on that. You will need a linkage on the carb for your TV cable. I would guess you might need a custom tranny crossmember and shortened driveshaft, but maybe the experts can help you with those questions.
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"Yeah, were runnin a little bit hot tonight. I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off of it." Van Halen
go with a 4r70w from a 98-00 v6 mustang
the 01 and 02 will also work but the 98-00 is slightly better. I went with an 02 because it only had 7,000 miles on it. Still haven't had time to install it yet.
The 4r70w is far superior to the stock aod and you get a wide ratio gear set. The electronics for it are a little pricey, $450 but you won't need to get the transmission upgraded any. Ford had all the aod bugs worked out by the time they made the 4r70w. There are other donor cars for it, i can get you more information if you are interested.
You'll need a new crossmember made for your year mustang to fit the AOD in. The bellhousing is the same fit. the Tourque converter I dunno because I had the efi engine with the AOD. Depending on if the trans came out of a column shift or floor shift car you will need to flip the shift arm on the trans 180 degrees by removing it and placing it back in essentially upside-down, that's if it were out of a column shift; otherwise when you put it in P it'll actually be in 1st and vise-versa. If it's out of a floor shift then you won't have to do that. The driveshaft will most likely have to be shortened and you'll need and AOD yoke for it to hook up to the trans. I have a 72' and had to get it shortened but for your year I dunno exactly. You could just lift it up when the trans is in the car to see if you'll need it done. It's really not too expensive to have a driveshaft shortened and balanced. Because I'm using the EFI's computer I'm using the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) that goes on the trans end of the speed-cable and then plugs into the trans itself. But I think it's possible to bypass that if you are just using a carb, don't quote me on that. Shifting linkage itself i'm unsure about also because I'm just using all new linkage anyways. you may have to get a new shifter also if the one you have does not have enough gear selections to choose from for you to utilize all the gears in the trans. As long as you have P-R-N-D-2-1 then you'll be fine. But your gear selection will actually be P-R-N-(D)-D-1 instead of what your shifter indicator says.
This is a helpful link that I used and where i found out about having to flip the shifter arm for a column shift:
You'll need a new crossmember made for your year mustang to fit the AOD in. The bellhousing is the same fit. the Tourque converter I dunno because I had the efi engine with the AOD. Depending on if the trans came out of a column shift or floor shift car you will need to flip the shift arm on the trans 180 degrees by removing it and placing it back in essentially upside-down, that's if it were out of a column shift; otherwise when you put it in P it'll actually be in 1st and vise-versa. If it's out of a floor shift then you won't have to do that. The driveshaft will most likely have to be shortened and you'll need and AOD yoke for it to hook up to the trans. I have a 72' and had to get it shortened but for your year I dunno exactly. You could just lift it up when the trans is in the car to see if you'll need it done. It's really not too expensive to have a driveshaft shortened and balanced. Because I'm using the EFI's computer I'm using the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) that goes on the trans end of the speed-cable and then plugs into the trans itself. But I think it's possible to bypass that if you are just using a carb, don't quote me on that. Shifting linkage itself i'm unsure about also because I'm just using all new linkage anyways. you may have to get a new shifter also if the one you have does not have enough gear selections to choose from for you to utilize all the gears in the trans. As long as you have P-R-N-D-2-1 then you'll be fine. But your gear selection will actually be P-R-N-(D)-D-1 instead of what your shifter indicator says.
This is a helpful link that I used and where i found out about having to flip the shifter arm for a column shift:
They make a kit that works for your conversion. Believe I got mine from Mustangs plus, comes with the yoke, as you dont have to shorten driveline. Also came with cross member, tv cable, and the shifter assembly I used from my c4 works great, better then anything I have found yet! I would definetly go with the c-4 and keep the gears, then you still have fun in town!
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Is AOD the way to go?
