Hi all. I've done some research now, and here are my early findings:
1) EFI - not a suitable donor car because the wiring harness sold by
Ford
Motorsport only works with a system from a 5.0 Mustang. A 5.0 anything
else won't work. Don't ask me why they would be different.
2) Transmission - the 5.0 cars only came with AOD trannies. To get the
5-speed (not a T-5, it's a Mazda unit), you need to get your hands on a
Super Coupe. The Mazda tranny is supposedly a very nice unit though (not
suprpising) and should live behind a moderate 351 with no problems,
especially if drag racing's not on the agenda (which it's not, in my case).
All that's necessary to make this swap work is the flywheel out of an '81
or newer 351-equipped Ford truck.
3) IRS - nothing definitive. The rear track of the T-bird is 60.2
inches,
vs 56.9 for the Brick. I don't have hub-to-hub measurements for either
car. I do have a friend with a T-bird though, I can probably talk him into
getting under his car and measuring it. Could someone whose car is handy
make a similar measurement? Maybe it's close enough that it could be
managed just by specifying the right offsets with a set of custom wheels.
4) Engine - I also asked about just using the whole Super Coupe
drivetrain
- that 3.8L supercharged V6 is a pretty groovy motor. I thought that maybe
some serious weight could be trimmed from the front by going with it
instead of the cast-iron 351. Doesn't look like it. The thing does have a
cast-iron block (I thought it was an all-aluminum engine), and the dressed
weight is over 500lbs. I'll just put aluminum heads & intake and some
headers on my 351 and call it even (well, close enough - certainly not
enough gain to be worth the incredible headache).
So, the T-bird doesn't look like the cure-all it once appeared to be, but
that IRS still has me interested. If it ends up being a bit too wide
(like, say, 2" overall), would it be feasible to just move the control arm
mount points inboard 1" on each side & get the half-shafts shortened? Is
there any reason to think that this would lead to a significant change in
the suspension geometry? Is it possible to shorten a half-shaft without
damaging it?
I'm guessing it would be OK, since the half-shafts aren't defining any of
the suspension geometry, and I'm not talking about changing the lengths of
the control arms. I don't see where real problems would arise, but that
doesn't mean that they wouldn't. Any thoughts, please?
Thanks,
--
Phil Martin pmartin@isgtec.com
"Art disappoints me when it is too little like life,
Life disappoints me when it is too much like art."
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