I just bought a 1966 coupe with an inline 6 in it. The top speed and acceleration are no where NEAR where i want it. does anyone have some ideas of what i can do to it without going broke in the process or dropping a v8 in it?

 

I owned a 68 coupe with the 200ci 3 speed and I also owned a 68 fast back with
a 289 auto, the 6cyl was 100 times more reliable......you could go out in the
dead of Winter and it would start right up.....
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JMO but I would go for show and not so much for go..
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I have the perfect fix for you!! Get a V8 [sm=gears.gif]

 

A six is just never going to give you all the power you want unless you sink a fortune into it.

 

T5 transmission in place of a 3 speed manual, or the torque converter out of a pinto for a C4 would be my first stop. The T5 can be used when you finally realize a Mustang without a V8 is like a day without sunshine.
Second big bang for the buck is an 8" or 9" with some 3.50 or higher gears. Which can also be used when you put in the V8.
Next bang for buck would be a flex fan. Takes less HP to run, and guess what?... it will work with a V8.

Notice I haven't picked anything to buy that won't work with a V8. There's a good reason for this... don't waste your money!

As for free-bees. Cut a 6" rectangular hole in the rear side of the aircleaner, then solder in a deflector plate (if you need, I can post a picture of this mod). This will get more air into the carb. Bump up your timing and run mid-grade. You'll get better mileage and more power. Before the gas prices went up to over $3.00/gallon it was even money (price of midgrade over regular, versus pickup in fuel mileage) for my car. Open up your plug gap to ~0.035", and adjust your points to the smaller end of the gap (longer dwell). don't forget to reset timing after this. Make sure none of your brakes rub the drums. Set your radial tire pressure to 32 psi front, and 30 rear. Stay away from Mustang club runs where a bunch of guys show up with blown & gassed V8's.

Stuff worth spending money on if you are keeping the 6 cylinder for a year or more:
Change all your fluids to synthetic (although the cost of constantly refilling for all the leakage, might even out, you'll still get a little better performance).
Make sure you have a good clean air filter (I'm a Wix guy over Fram). Make sure you have good points, plugs, condensor cap and rotor, Plug wires. Keep eingine oil in the middle between add and full. Too close to full and the lifters will start "ticking". Hack out the muffler, and put in a cheap turbo muffler. Leave the size of the tail and exhaust pipe alone. Bigger is a waste of money on this car. New belts properly tensioned, then retensioned after the first 50 miles. Coolant flush, and thermostat change (hoses based on age and britleness).

If you do a complete swap to synthetic lubricants, and all the rest of this stuff, you'll pick up somewhere between 10 and 15HP (more if your tuneup is bad). That equates to about or better than 10% increase in performance. Based on 120HP factory figure (more like 90 real horse power), You will definitely feel the difference.

For what you get (IMO), it's not worth the money to work over a 6 cylinder car, unless you decide to go forced induction, and even then it's dollar for dollar the cost of a V8.

 

wow Scott.... thats alot of info.... If i put in synthetic in my 289 i will see that kind of difference in power????? it already leaks like hell, so im not worrying about that.

 

Not with just engine oil. And unless your 289 is anemic, you wouldn't feel a 10HP increase in the seat of your pants anyways. You *might* see it in fuel mileage though. It's the cumulative effort of making your entire drive train more efficient, that when added all together can make a noticable difference. Say for instance you adjust the bands in your transmission, which reduces slipage and temperature, added to flushing the differential and running synthetic, added to repairing an imbalance in your drive shaft, or a bad U-joint, added to tweaking your tire pressures, etc, etc, ad naseum.

With a 6 cylinder this kind of stuff really stands out, as the car has such a miniscule amount of horse power to begin with. 10 HP increase is over 10%, where on your 289 10 HP would be about 6%. To get the same feeling of improvement, you'd have to increase your power by more than 20 horse power.
That said, anything you do to make your car run more efficient is benificial in one way or another.

Scott

 

You should have looked into that before your purchase.
Best suggestion I could give is drop a v8 in.
I don't no of anyone that sells performance parts for a I6.

 

I'd say drop a V-8 in that bad boy too. But do it carburated. sp?

 

There are perfomance parts for the ford 240 and 300 six's, but I don't know about the 200. They make 2 and 4bbl intakes, split headers, and things like that.