Mustang GT question

[Cleveland Metal]

Quad shocks will help dampen wheel hop, that's what they're there for.

If it were me, the only thing I'd go with would be Maximum Motorsports HD adjustable lowers and either the MM or the basic cheap FRP uppers with poly bushings. Both of the latter are similar in design and with poly, are great. You have money to burn, get the adjustable uppers w/spherical aircraft style connectors, but most people don't.

Definitely box and weld the torque boxes. I've ripped enough open to agree. There are kits that have the all plates for each surface precut and are worth the 59 bucks BY FAR. Unless you are handy w/a plasma cutter and feel like making custom pieces.

Sway bars have their points... Dag guys lose them usually. Road race guys but huge ones or go with the Torque Arm/Panhard bar anyways. You can get crazy with suspension. I'm getting ready to go through my car myself when I get back to work.

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/

I have personal experience with this stuff and it's outstanding. My friend has a car that runs at MidOhio with the MM K-member and A-arms, the torque arm and panhard bar setup and it's like a magnet to the ground... It's absolutely unbelievable.

Griggs (if they're still around) is maybe better in "some" ways but more expensive. And MM are the greatest guys around for helping you.

[CharvelRocker]

Also, something to keep in mind before tuning the suspension,: have the car corner weighed to figure your weight distribution so you can also adjust your shocks to where the distribution is as close to 50/50 as you can get. This should help your traction problem, especially if your distribution is not all that good to begin with. I don't have a lot of experience, but from a few books on suspension tuning/theory I've read through anything more than 55/45 is likely a detriment to your cars handling.

Another thing to consider if you want to stiffen up the rear end is to see if you can install strut bar back there, which pulls your strut towers together as you turn. This means they are far less likely to move laterally at the top during a heavy turn, but I don't know if it would have a huge effect on the rear like it also can the front. I also find it more of a body roll control measure, but given they are not very expensive (you can probably buy a decent one for under $100).

[roodyrocker]

As everyone else said, re-inforce those torque boxes. I got the kit from Wild Rides to do that. On the aftermarket control arms, there are tons of them available for Mustangs. Depends what you want to do. Some are into road racing, I'm more into drag racing so I have Southside Machine lowers. If its a street car I'd stay away from control arms with spherical bearing (Heim ends) as those tend to break with hitting pot holes although they propably are the best from a performance standpoint. They also don't like dust and grit much. Urethane bushing are probably a great choice. Also don't overlook performace shocks. The ones on it are probably shot if they're old. I'd replace those and not worry much about the Quad Shocks. Most people ditch those as they interfere with bigger tires anyway.
Also, the serpentine belted water pump and stock clutch fan with shroud is a pretty good cooling setup on a street car. The electric fan will free up some power but don't be surprised of it runs a bit hotter when warm weather arrives. Also, when you swapped over to the older style water pump did you notice the openings in the timing cover for the coolant? some face at an oppositte angle so to speak when comparing Standard vs. Reverse Rotation water pumps. Don't know if I lost you with that last one but basically the timing covers have the coolant hole angles differently between the two styles.
And oh yeah, post some pix of that Stang when possible, we'd like to see what we talked you into

[Cleveland Metal]

I used to run Southsides... NOT great for the street IMHO, they offer no ability to sway/roll like rubber bushings or spherical and will seriously wear on torque boxes when you corner and one rear wheel hits something higher than the other rear wheel. . Straightline stuff..

Good call on the water pump...

Also, I ran a Lincoln Mk VIII electric fan on mine and removed it. Aside from fitment issues, the stock fan did better.

[metalchurch79]

I re used my '82 timing cover, and I didnt notice the cooling passages.
Should I have swapped out to the older t-cover also?
Is this a big problem? Can I mod my timing cover to match the pump?

It runs around 170 degrees in heavy stop light traffic right now, which isn't too bad, but as you said it's gonna get warmer out...
I'm looking for a bigger radiator right now to help out if I have more problems.

Poly bushings were definitely in the shopping cart, but I didnt know if I should get only lowers or both lower and upper.
Can I simply 'box' in my stock upper control arms, and get some good adjustable lowers and be done with it?

Someone told me that they mounted their Quads on the inside of the frame rail or something like that...

Not much in for burning corners or road racing, I just want it to hook up nice in a straight line.

Also thanks for the tip on boxing in the torq boxes, I didnt realize this was a problem area.

So, if I got rid of the sway bar, would that help or hinder my traction?

Thanks brothers, you guys rock!
( joined a Mustang Forum, but no one answers my questions, and if they do it is very vague.)

[metalchurch79]

Great price on the 8.8.... They're usually 450-550 here.

Sounds like a lot of fun doing that on block with no air, ugh... Hope you have some torches

Oh yeah check this out.
I didn't have an 18mm wrench or socket to use the air gun!
I had to use a Crescent Wrenh and a pair of Vice-grips to remove the rearend!
Talk about a pain in the ass!
Never again...

[Cleveland Metal]

If you did that with THOSE tools,YOU sir, are the man, hahaha...

You'd be welocome in the hills of my ancestry with open arms... And some moonshine...

[roodyrocker]

Sounds like we're all in the same boat, doing motorhead swaps in our driveways with common hand tools
Cleveland Metal is right about the Southside Machsine Lift Bars. Like I said, I'm more into straight line stuff and I drive the car on the street in nice weather for fun. Its not a daily driver. The torque box re-inforcements are pretty much a must as these are simply spot welded in from the factory. Get the Wild Rides kit for them. If your torque boxes are in good shape these will re-inforce them, if they're already damaged you can use these to help repair them. There are so many control arms on the market that its hard to recommend a specific brand.
As for the timing cover issue. I wouldn't worry about it if you're temp is 170, nothing wrong with that. If you used the 82 timing cover I don't recall what the direction of the coolant holes is on those. Is that from a serpentine belt setup or standard V belt? Wait and see what happens in warm weather instead of tearing things apart now. Its not like anything is going to be damaged unless you have cooling issues. If you're running cool I also wouldn't worry about a larger radiator as thats simply adding weight over the nose of the car. If it runs hot I'd go back to the stock fan/clutch/shroud first. If you plan on adding lots more power and hence prducing more heat then I'd consider a better radiator at that point.

[metalchurch79]

The motor had a Serpentine set-up, w/ reverse rotation water pump, but the timing cover has a mechanical fuel pump, so it's a transitional piece between the 70's and the 86-up timing cover.
I double checked and the coolant holes line up perfectly.

The only thing that I'm regretting is not getting the 10" drums for the rear.
I have the 10" backing plates, but I went the easy route and re-used my old 9" brakes from the 7.5, only because I needed my car for work on Monday morning.
That's a project for another day.

Yeah the crescent wrench and vice-grips fuckin sucked, let me tell you.
I drove an hour away to my dad's house to do the swap, because he has a garage and air tools, but he didnt have an 18mm and I forgot mine at my house. So at that point I had no other option but to continue with the swap.
...Now I know and I wont attempt that again.

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

[roodyrocker]

The holes in the water pump to timing cover will line up. What I was talking about however is the orientation of those holes. Its hard to describe, wish I had pix of the two side by side to show you. Anyway, as I said before, if its not running hot I would leave well enough alone
On a related Mustang note, its been cold here in Ohio as well. Once good weather is here I'll bring my 93 LX coupe out of hibernation. The article about its Weldon fuel system is in the current issue of Fastest Street Car Magazine btw. The car makes nearly 560 hp at the rear wheels At the end of the month I will also be heading to Bradenton, Fl for NMCA's opening race of the season. I shoot their photography at the races. Can't wait to get out of this crappy weather here!

[Cleveland Metal]

Roody, with that car man, you ARE the man, haha... Sick power... Mine is well, like... a pretty red color, hahaha...

[horns666]

Where do you guys find the motivation? I don't have the strength to pull my pud..I make my wife do it.

[roodyrocker]

Roody, with that car man, you ARE the man, haha... Sick power... Mine is well, like... a pretty red color, hahaha...

Mine is just plain black so I had to do something! I'm especially proud of this motor because I built it myself using a combination of some aftermarket parts and the best "factory" parts I had in the garage. The block is a Mexican 302 block, I pirated the steel crank and rods from a 70 Boss 302 motor, the pistons are .020" over factory forgings which I had machined to flat tops (makes up for the longer Boss 302 rod), and the heads are cast iron TFS Street Heats. There is no fancy port work done so there is much more potential for more power there. Its only a 304 CID engine yet makes 560 hp at the rear wheels which I'm guesstimating to be approaching 700 at the flywheel The dyno runs had to be aborted at 5700 rpm as the power graph was still climbing but suddenly drops off at that point due to pegging the mass air meter we think. Probably need to recalibrate it and then probably make even more power The best part is fires right up and idles fine in traffic. You and Bill aren't too far from me, we can stuff your pretty red car with more hp, it will be fun

[roodyrocker]

Where do you guys find the motivation? I don't have the strength to pull my pud..I make my wife do it.

No matter how bad the day goes I can always count on Bill to crack me up on here

[Cleveland Metal]

Mine rockin', not quite as hard as your's tho... Lotsa little things going on with this one. Balanced/Blueprinted, flowed heads and lower and port matched, Competition Cams custom nitrous grind for flow numbers. Lotsa misc... Never dyno'ed tho... Maybe this year...