I am buying a 1999 mustang gt with just over 200k for 1500, bearings are gone in rear, so im thinking replace the entire rear( gears, bearings, 31 spline axles, new lsd, etc) but then what next, i want to put a new engine and tranny in, the t-45 is junk in my opinion. Should i keep the block and throw all forged internals in or start from scratch. What to do?

 

I say start from scratch. Throw a T-56 in it for the trans and a 03/04 cobra motor.

 

I like the t-56, but not so much the motor, way expensive, but probably better in the long run.....maybe just find a 4v motor non s/c.

 

wow you cant even usually find a roller for 1500 bucks... at that price, you have any options available...if its not gonna be a DD, i would throw a carb'd pushrod motor into it to play around with

if your budget isnt that small, you could also look into an lsx drivetrain

 

well i have intentions of making it a dd, yeah the car was a repo, dont ask how at 200k miles but it is. I just want to make a little street car out of it, but definitely staying with the 4.6 ford motors, you cannot and will never beat the sound of a stang. my budget is not huge, im bout to start college, but most of its paid for, and i have worked for bout 8 months and have just over 3k saved, so i know i can build a little somethin. It may not be smart, but i love to build these cars.

 

try to pick up a stock PI motor, or a mark viii motor, and a tr-3650 and just make it a stockish rebuild car

 

yea thats what i thought to do, and throw in forged pistions, rods, new cam, crank(8 bolt for the tr-3650 or maybe a t-56) I am good friends with Modular powerhouse, and i know one of the best mechanics around to help me out. I need to get some prices, but i need to fix the rear end first, imo that is the first priority in any mustang over 50k miles, the rear ends are very poor.

 

Well whats your price range at to spend on this thing??? Id say a viper spec T56 with a nice built 4v motor are in order if your budget allows. But id say that you would be fine stuffing your stock block with a nice rotating assembly and good heads and call it a day with the motor side of it. And then for the tranny, with just building your stock block, Id say a nice TKO500/600 tranny would work very nicely with that setup. A very nice upgrade from the stock pos. But if you like the option of having the 6th gear, a regular t56 shouldnt be too hard to come by. All in all, if you do the work yourself, you may have a total of 7-8k invested and have a pretty stout car. Promotion has good tranny stuff as Ox, while he was here, was running 665rwhp through a ProMotion built t3650 with no problems. But just do some searching on the usual vendors that are around, like Lethal Perf, Livernois, Trickflow(for their new heads), and others for good motor stuff. Best of luck to you man. Nice find btw. Id love to find something like that. And make sure you have in mind what you are gonna do with the car in the future before you build the motor. Blower=less than 9:1, Turbo=less than 9.5:1, N/A=10+:1. And make sure you take into consideration about what your plans are when you do your rear end as well.

 

Well as far as the tr-3650 i like just the five gears, but it does not hold much power until you just said that, thats a ton, but in the future i may throw on a vortech or a procharger, just something little like that not push anything over or atleast too much over 400hp, but the biggest question i have is that block ok to keep even with all those miles, even with the upgraged rotating assembly, thats a big thing i am really worried about

 

if you want to use your 2v block, get it out of the car, have it machined and bored out, throw a nice rotating assembly into it, and then do some nice cams...i would suggest new heads since you have the heads with 4 threads in them, but if you want to risk it, then you could have them ported and polished and reworked and put them back on the car...or you can buy those new trickflow heads and tell us how sweet they are

as for a rear end, with your power goals i would look into a cobra 31 spline diff, and get some moser axles and 3.73 or 4.10 depending which is more your style