Does anyone have this combination: 289 or 302 with a Heidts Mustang II front suspension with power steering? If so, would you please tell me what you had to use for headers? Long tube vs short tube and name brand?
Thanks in advance for any info you can share.

Andy

 

Personally I like this setup http://www.fatmanfab.com/catalogpage.php?page=21 , they did their R&D for it off of the Heidt kit and other conversion kits in an effort to make it better and keep stress where it should be. I was putting it in my 66 but I had to move and sell my car, but I'm going to get it again this winter and put it in my 67. It does everything rack and pinion, coil over, and disc brakes. Also you can safely drop your car instead of doing the shelby drop, which shelby himself realized prematurely wore out suspension components. I have never heard a bad thing about it, I would at least read their description because it has alot of good info to consider.

No cutting or welding with this kit, everything can be put back to original.

 

Thanks. But the suspension was welded in nearly two years ago so I'm gonna have to keep my fingers crossed that it works out well. Good luck with your fatman suspension install this winter!

 

Oh you already have the kit in there. Well my advice with any Mustang II kit, weight is sitting where it shouldn't and stuff could flex and bend which it probably already has over two year, definitely go get some bracing like a monte carlo bar, full export brace with a firewall brace. You can get a monte bar for about $20, and brace for about $40, money well invested.

 

Do you personally know of, or have any references to, any cases where a properly installed MII kit has resulted in cracking or bending of the car's structure? I've seen this kind of thing posted quite a few times here and there, but no proof; only speculation. If you have some proof, I'd like to bookmark it for future reference.


SBS: email Heidt's and ask them about headers. It is my understanding that you can pretty much fit whatever you want, but I suggest you find out from the people who know before dropping some cash on the advice of some guy on the internet.

 

I had the same vendeta to find truth as you, it took me awhile to find a site that explained how the MII kit changed the weight distrubition. I did have a site bookmarked on my last laptop but that one died on me. I'll try to find the site for you and I'll post it soon as I find it again. Hopefully I can find it because it was about a year and a half ago when I was researching kits and bought the fatman kit.

 

theres 2 problems with a mustang 2 kit on anything but a mustang 2 ackerman your toe changes in hard cornering and your puting the whole front end weight on the frame rails.ford designed the front of the mustang the stock towers put the load on the firewall. a export brace wont work theres no shock towers. best bet to do is make a bar that goes from the front of the frame rail by the radiator support back and up to the top of the firewall and subframe conectors.been me if cut the mustang 2 out and buy a kit from http://www.griggsracing.com/index.php

 

No chance on taking the MII back out. After $4000 worth of labor and materials including tilt steering column, power brake kit, and other odds and ends I ordered from Heidts. I am considering doing some
other bracing as you've mentioned though. I'm building my car to use on my many road trips I take on business so I'm not building it for racing or hard corner situations. Thanks for the advice on the bracing, I've got a
a good metal fabricator that will be able to help me come up with something.

 

This is only if you do a drop greater than 1in. The 1in drop is fine for the street, and NO significant wear on the upper ball joint.
When road racing, doing a drop up to 1 3/4 in can help keep the tires flater during hard cornering. Then a camber plate is needed on the UCA, to prevent the upper ball joint from being shreaded.
The 1in Arning/Shelby drop DOES NOT significantly effect the the wear on the upper ball joint. Its actually one of the better "handling" mods you can do to street car.

 

I'm going to jump in on this thread. I know a shop here that is putting the Heidts front end on several mustangs with no problems. I read three different mustang forums, and all the naysayers have NO experience or proof of what they are saying. Just stuff they read. I've read stuff too, and it comes from the competition saying why their stuff is better.

My first Mustang, the orange one in my sig, had a cracked shock tower that I rewelded and braced with the lower weld in plates. It has the monty carlo brace, and cross brace. It's fine for a daily driver and no more cracks have resulted.

Here's what I know from the guy (at a Mustang restoration shop).

The Heidts raises your engine up one inch.
You'll need a rear sump oil pan for your engine.
Instead of the stress going OVER the engine (the reason Monte Carlo bars and cross braces exist) it goes UNDER the frame. The kit reinforces the frame where it attaches to the car.
The inner rocker panels are still there doing exactly what they did before, spreading stress to the firewall.

Now, you COULD weld in to loops from the firewall top to forward just in front of the point where the Heidts kit meets the frame. But, this would create a stress POINT on the firewall. Not a good idea. (Usually you see this on a car with a welded in roll cage and the bar meets the roll cage behind the firewall).

I agree that geometry is going to change, there are drawbacks to each type of suspension. Frankly, I'm lazy, I want to finish my project sooner, and a bolt in kit sounds wonderful. But as I posted before the grey car has a bad tower (I got one response to that post on THREE forums, I guess there's nothing new about fixing a bad tower vs replacing one), and this started some research into fixes, replacements and alternatives.

BTW, I know someone will be thinking "what the hell does this guy know?" so FYI, I spent my teenage years working in a body shop\mechanic shop, and 14 yrs in a machine shop in the aircraft industry.

And that folks, is my opinion, based on my research.

EDIT: Emailed you the phone number for the guy who's done the setups here