cocco78

Ok, looking for a place to start on the 302. As it sits right now its an 83 Mustang GT from CA. Its got the 302 with a 2bbl motorcraft carb on it and a single exhaust. Runs real good but falls on its face if you try and get on it. The PO pretty much capped off and cut most of the vacuum lines and smog stuff but its a mess. I've been looking at diagrams and i'm even more confused. I'd like to know what exactly is needed for the motor to run good.

So I need some idea's where to start to get this to be a good driver, perfomance comes later. I'd like to do some gt40p heads later on when I have the money. But for now here is what I have sitting waiting to be put on. I have an Edelbrock Performer 289 non egr intake, and a Holley 600cfm 4160 with elec choke. I also have the dual exhaust crossmember.

I'd like to finish removing whats left of the smog items and get the vacuum lines down to just necessary items. The PO already replaced the cat with some straight pipe.... I'm thinking something like a good set of shorty headers and a mac off road x pipe....

Any advice?

sdmaker

only vacuum lines you need if you are removing the smog stuff, is one for the power brakes, and one for the pcv valve. ohh and one for the vacuum modulator on the trans if its an auto.

tokinGLX

get long tubes instead of shorties. get rid of the heads on there as soon as you can afford to. until you get better heads they will bottleneck you. next thing you might want to look into is a stronger rear end, get rid of that 7.5 for an 8.8 with some 3.55s(f/i) or 4.10s(n/a). subframe connectors will really help out the strengthening of the chassis. disc brakes, new suspension. and i think i speak for most of the peope here when i say that we need some pics.

83beast

ya pics are a deff need. im more into the power part of the motor. rip that damn smog pump off that thing. you can either buy a elim pulley, or just use a shorter belt. ill post some pics today of my vac lines. my 83 burned in 85 and the guy who put it back together just used absolutely necsesary vac lines. then you NEED dual exhaust. sweet sound and some nice power. if you want cheap power, you have the most expensive part already. the carb. then a k&n filter. carb spacer. some lowering springs for handling. a hurts shifter. change your rear gear fluid. thats all i can think of on the cheap. for all out power, you know what you want. heads, cam, headers, etc. subframe conns will make a huge diff as will a strut tower brace if you want handling. if you want a good base to go on, check out info on the SVO. my 84 handles like nothing ive ever driven. its crazy. good luck.

cocco78

Ok, good to see i'm going in the right direction. BTW, its a 4 speed man car... Like I've said, I've got the intake and carb. So hopefully with that and finishing up with the smog removal and cleaning up the vac lines it will be a good driver. What cam would be a good match for the performer 289 and 600 holley? Or should I wait on that until I can afford the heads? This isn't going to be a racer so I don't want anything crazy...

Oh and are these trx wheels worth anything, or should I just scrap them?

Ok, here are some crappy pics..

83beast

wow, nice car. those rims are worth some money. they just suck cause its a metric tire, not p-metric, but the diameter and width of the tire is metric. a bitch to find tires for it. keep em. ask some of the guys here, but im sure those are worth good money for someone whos restoring their car. you outta get a set of louvers too. they make it look so mean. check around. edelbrock lists intakes with cams on some sites. almost like a kit thats matched. summitracing.com or jegs.com has it. find your intake, then look for the cam. id wait till you get the heads for the cam. just for the fact of the trouble of installing it. might as well make one pain in the as$ than two. i just checked my car. as far as i can see, ive got 3 vac lines. one big one from the rear of the intake to the brake booster. a small one from the firewall to the big one on the back of the intake. and one to the distributer. on the top pic, the right side is the brk booster. the yellow lines outline the big vac line. in the second pic the yellow is still the big line, into the rear of the intake. the red is the line that goes from the big one to the firewall. the third pic is the small line to the firewall. the big circle is just the line coiled up. dont know why it is, but everything works, so i dont worry about it.

[IMG]local://upfiles/20027/2411BD6BFB3243B2B4F379DAD1D197A4.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/20027/2680DF9A0549421AB2A40729AEF26621.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/20027/51A9C06EB06A4022A8722C97AC98FC00.jpg[/IMG]

tokinGLX

when picking a cam you may want to look into a roller conversion. or just always keep an eye out for a cheap 85+ block that is already set up for a roller cam. i recently bought a custom cam from ed curits, serivce was good and i havent heard many bad reviews of his work.

Force4

another 83 brother haha. Only a 2br carb? go with the holley 600 cfm 4b like its suppose to be. GO Longtubes and get some true duels on that beast. And march underdrive pulleys for 60 bucks do ALOT to these motors. trust me i did it and noticed a big increase in top end.

HACKGT350

the first thing i would do is ditch that 2bbl carb and get an edlebrock rpm air gap manifold with no egr and a brand new holley 600cfm vacume secondary carb

cocco78

I just traded some stuff for an edelbrock Performer 289 intake and a ready to run Holley 600cfm 4160 with elec choke. So I have that stuff sitting around.

Thanks for the pics of the vacuum lines! This thing had a mess of lines all over the place. I think I got it narrowed down to what you have in the pics.

So maybe i can sell these trx tires and wheels to pay for some headers! So long tubes are the way to go? Not sure what I want for an exhaust yet, I love the way the 40 series mufflers sound but i think that would get old fast.