74Grabber

Ok, since I know 99% of the replys to this thread will be "Don't bother and just go buy a Mustang with a V8 already in it", I will try and tell the tail in the shortest amount of words possible. My cousin got her license about this time last year at the age of 16. My uncle (her dad), bought her a 1995 Mustang GT Convertible, black paint, black top, black interior with black 17 inch bullet style wheels. Very sharp looking, always garage kept car with 104,000 miles on it. Long story short, 2 months later, she was comeing home late one night in the rain. She took a corner way too fast and slid off the road, down a hill and hit a couple of trees. The car is totalled, folded the front wheel in and twisted the body so that the doors don't shut right.

Now they have this wrecked car sitting there. Only had liability on it, so they canceled the insurance and registration and there it sits, full of good parts. Well, my uncle just picked up a '96 V6 convertible for $600. It has a 3.8 V6 with the infamous blown head gasket, and automatic transmission. The interior is trashed, paint is scuffed up, convertible top is torn all to heck, but the body is intact and straight.

It will be my job to take the engine, trannsmission (excellent running 5.0/5 speed), interior, and everything else from the wrecked '95 GT and swap it to the '96 V6 body. What problems will I encounter? I am aware that '96 was the first year of the 4.6, so a 5.0 technically never came in this car. Despite that fact, are the body's themselves any diffrent between '95 and '96?

I assume the '96 V6 car will have a 7.5 rear axel. I also assume that the 8.8 from the wrecked '95 will be a simple bolt in? What suspension diffrences were there between V6 and V8 cars? I assume it had larger sway bar and everything? What about the wireing under the hood? Will I be able to swap just the engine harness, or will I have to swap all the wireing from one car to the other?

They are basically aiming to make the '96 V6 body an exact clone to the '95 GT in both apperance and performance. Any info would be greatly appreciated. I am not new to building cars or Mustangs, but don't have much experience with the SN95 body style. I will have a Chilton's for the car handy. This was not my decision to do this, and they are not my cars, I am simply the one getting paid to do the conversion. In other words, simply going and buying a ready to drive V8 Mustang is NOT an option.

Thanks.

89Ford

hey i think what you are doing is great, to me all mustangs (other than the svo turbo 4cyl) are actually waiting for a v8 swap. so anyone that says dont do it, can go suck the fat one, b/c there are so many good reason as to swapping a v8 in. Honestly tho i cant really help you, and I would suggest that you just go and look at what is different between the cars, start with the easy crap, like fixing the top and swaping on the fog lights. then look at the K-memeber if its different then swap it, must likely you will need to swap the whole harness up to the computer, since its a 5.0, in your chilton manual compare the wiring diagrams for both years, and the suspension. basically everything that is different in the book will need to be swapped

74Grabber

Yea, that's pretty much what I was planning to do. Just wondering ahead of time if I will run into any unforseen problems. I am hopeing that the K member and most of the front suspension is the same, because if not, I will have to hunt those parts down. The front end on the '95 GT is destroyed as far as the suspesion and stuff goes. A tree nailed the car HARD right in the drivers side wheel and screwed up all that stuff.

Here are a few pics of the '95 GT as it sits.