redneckf150harley

Ok as some of you know I recently got a 1980 Mustang Ghia that all I had to do was pull the engine from to get the entire rolling chassis. Currently she is an ugly brown color, she is a 4 lug, she use to be a 6cyl 3.3L engine, and the interior needs some work. However most of that I didn't care about when I got it.

I have always been a 302 guy so it just made sense to put a 302 into this mustang.

The plan for the car is for it to be a daily driver for my sister (it will see backroads everyday) and a car I can have a little bit of fun with bringing to the strip just for the fun of it.

For a while this will mainly be questions I have on building it, how I plan to build it, and simple small work till I get done with my F150 which I am currently working on.

So the current plan is this:
I found a 5.0L HO in a 93 Cougar at the local junkyard for $400. It supposedly runs but it had an electrical fire. It must have been small as I didn't see any burn damage to anything. It has 104K miles. My plan would be get that slap an oil pump and water pump on it and call that part good.
That takes care of the engine side. Yes it probably will be MAF.

Currently in the car is a blown C4 auto transmission. It needs rebuilt and the C4 small block bell housing so I figure this is the best bet to go with. Costs me about $200-300 to build a nice C4 with all new parts where as the AOD costs like $500+ and the only benefit to AOD is the OD but frankly I don't care about overdrive (I have a C6 in my F150 and it does fine DDing).

Now it is 4 lug. Being this car is going from a tiny little 6 banger to a big 5.0 HO I am not going to stay 4 lug. The local scrap yard wants $100 for the spindles, calipers, rotors, and all the necessities to put 5 lug and bigger brakes up front. I would put new calipers on it just for safety reasons. They also have a rear end with 3.73 gears from the same 94-95 stang that has disk brakes on it that I plan to throw in their. For now I have some wheels on my 84 Bronco II that are 16" crown Victoria wheels stock steelies that I will run till I can afford a nice set of wheels and tires.

My plan for fuel system is a line that comes off the stock sending unit onto a suction and push fuel pump of enough fuel PSI (45-65Psi I believe for a 302 EFI) a line from the fuel pump to a fuel filter to a stock fuel rail and let the rest take over. Have the return line run to the stock sending unit again. I plan to keep all the stock gauges but install an aftermarket oil pressure gauge, temperature gauge, and trans temp gauge.
I may use all stock 87-89 Fseries parts to do this (fuel filter and on rail fuel pump) It will eliminate the guessing game out of this and work great since I have 3 88-89 Ford trucks currently and I would have extra parts if need be.

My plan for exhaust is some nice shorty hedman headers ceramic coated into true dual pipes with no cats (northern AZ has no emissions). Probably some Maganaflow round mufflers or play around with some other options. I will not be putting flowmaster on this car. I hate flowmaster the sound sucks (had a 86 F150 302 with flowmaster 44 series and it was not what I liked.) It will be loud but not to loud, have a nice tone (a real v8 sound), and look nice. It will be 2.5" stainless steel pipe and more then likely exit out the back with 2 chrome tips either slash tips or blunt like my F150 has currently.
I figure keep it simple stupid and call it good.

Interior we plan to keep the same however we do have a few things we need to fix. It needs carpet, headliner, sun roof (going to cut the piece of plexi glass somebody screwed to the roof in and make it a solid sun roof), dash pad, and cleaned up well.

Exterior I plan to just sand it down to bare metal and paint it. No idea on color but probably will be gloss black with red in some places. (my sister named it black widow so that's why I figure she wants that). (Personally I would have done Candy apple red but I am a little biased when it comes to cars. LOL trucks I like white and black.)


So first pics (yes it is still on my trailer I haven't taken it off as I need to bring it somewhere for them to see it is broken down):


Yes I do have that one dent to fix:


That is all the pics I have for right now being it still is on my trailer.


now questions that I have right now:
Was their ever a car that came with a C4 or C6 auto trans bolted to a 5.0L HO?
I have to figure out the computer part as the car I plan to get the engine from has an AOD. I am pretty sure the AOD computer will not work with the C4 transmission correct me if I am wrong.

Is all the suspension set up I planned going to work well?

Any comments, questions, or anything please go ahead.
Trav

65Raven65

Man, that thing is straight for it's age.

A C4 and and C6 isn't going to need a computer anyway, just a detent cable. So use a manual computer and you should be A-OK.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as the 4-lug, I've seen blower cars pulling the front wheels and running 10s with 4 lugs. It's less of an issue than some think it is.

Good luck, looks like a project!

redneckf150harley

Yes it may be able to push 4 lugs but 2 things:
one 5 lug has more options of wheels I really like plus it looks better.
two the axles I am getting have disk brakes all the way around instead of drum rear. I love disk brakes all the way around it is just so much better safety wise.


Ok so maybe I will do that. Either way I go (as I really want the 5.0HO but I may go with a 5.0L regular) I defiantly want a C4 auto trans those C4s and C6s are hard to kill.

Thanks for the comment and info.
Trav

88 orangepeel notch

Congrats, looks like you have a nice solid car to start with. I wished they looked like that up here. Good luck.

redneckf150harley

Thanks.

Well here is the deal. I am trying to do this as cheap (price wise) yet reliable as I can get out of this thing.

I have a 302 truck engine coming out of my F150 hopefully within the next couple months or so for the new engine.

The one coming out threw a rod threw the pan.
So if the block is all good on this engine and hopefully crank to I plan to rebuild the engine using some good parts that will make this thing have maybe a little more power. If I did it I would have to get a 5.0L intake off an explorer or mustang I know but the rest of the build not sure how I would do.

So new questions:
If I lean towards the regular 302 with a rebuild and a few goodies:
What cam would be decent for a DD yet still have a little power? It is a flat tappet cam but it is roller ready for an 88 truck engine.
Would porting the E7s be worth doing? I know I would probably rebuild them just to be sure they are good but to port them?
Should I just stick with a stock intake or upgrade to a 75MM throttle body?
If I went with the regular 302 engine I would probably get the computer for an 88 F150 302 with C6 so more then likely it would be Speed density instead of MAF.


This build would probably be in the mid 200HP range but have quite a bit of torque (one thing to know I love torque my 02 F250 V10 is getting close to 500ftlbs of torque so that shows you how much of a torque hoss I am. LOL)
Trav

mjr46

that's cool you like torque......but you're unlikely to break half that 500 with that build for torque with the parts you plan to use. also staying speed density and with the computer you choose, you'll need to make sure the cam you choose is in agreement with how the inj's are fired....for example on the sefi 5.0 h.o, they are fired sequentially in accordance with the firing order.......catch my drift??

redneckf150harley

Ya I know that part. I planned to use a 31-255-05 I believe it is Comp cam as that is what I want to use in one of my trucks build.

I don't want this one to get up to 500ftlbs as it is to much money and car for my little sister whom hasn't ever even put a car in drive so that is why I want a mild build.
Trav

redneckf150harley

Well I haven't started really working on it yet However I got it off the trailer and got a set of tires on the wheels so now I have it as a roller. We also pressure washed under the hood. Have a few other things going on right now that I haven't had time just yet to start working on the mustang.
Trav

88 orangepeel notch

What's more important than getting that notch back on the road ?

lol,

Let me know if you want to sell it, mine's about had it and solid Fox's are rare up here.

redneckf150harley

I would only sell it for the right price. LOL

Being I live on backroads I just picked up another F150 4x4 that needs a little engine work so I am working on that and my 88 F150 4x4 since winter is right around the corner.
Currently of my running 4x4 list is:
me and my dad's 02 F250 (which gets rarely driven in the winter)
my mom's 04 Gmc Envoy (not sure how it is gonna do with the tires it has)
My dad's 89 F250 flatbed
my 94 Explorer (which just needs a starter and wheel bearings)
and that is it. I need our:
90 F150 4x4 302 and my 88 F150 4x4 302 running hopefully this winter but not sure.
The 88 might just have the engine for this car still trying to decide.
Trav