All is well with me. I wish I had that car back.

I'm building a '63 Mercury Comet with a Lexus 4.0 V8 and 5 speed manual swap. That's the reason for my handle now. And yes, I left due to the flames from a site moderator no less.

Chris! - Good to hear from you!

I still pull out your slalom race video once in awhile. That was just crazy cool.
Yeah, I would be looking for that car again also.

Your new project sounds like another Vetter original. Have you set up a website for it yet?
I would like to see it.

Just to let you know, some people paid very close attention to your words of wisdom when you posted. So it wasn't all for naught.
Appreciate all you did for us.

Get me that website.

Take care,

Troy Fitz.

302 Ford swap
 

I have an 88 vert that I have installed a 302 in. I have some questions and would like to talk with any one who has done this swap.
Please respond to: Sheldon Bates
sheldon.bates@nhmh.com
928-7080809 home
928-710-1917 cell
Thanks for any help.

Damn....5.0 or lsx......cant make up my mind....

that shouldnt even be a debate. 5.0 for budget, ls1 for doing it right.

also know that you cant run a front sway bar with 5.0, unless someones figured out some custom setup i havnt heard of. that could be a deciding factor for some.

Bullsh!t. A properly built 5.0 can run with any LS1... do it at just about the same engine weight and damn near the same external dimensions. Comes down to whether you want to run a Ford or Chevy. Both are fantastic engines. Parts for a 5.0 will likely be cheaper than the LS1.

5.0 doesnt allow a front sway bar, unless theres some kit i havnt heard about.
i dunno about wieght difference.. and the whole world known ls's get way better gas mileage.

If you are swapping a V8 (Ford or Chevy) into an RX7 and gas mileage is a real concern to you, you should just forget it and go buy a civic.

The LSx motors are the greatest thing since sliced bread to many people. While they are a superb engine, I'd still do a Ford 5.0 swap long before an LS.

The 5.0 is a decent motor, and parts are plentiful, but it's hard to argue with the performance increases you can get out of an LSx engine with basic bolt-ons.

Re: Sway bar
 

Please don't flame this, but here's an idea I've been looking at tonight for a swaybar solution.
It's off of a 3rd gen, IIRC, not my car, but it caught my attention when I logged in as I had thrown the issue at a few friends of mine and their ideas were pretty much describing what I saw when I stumbled up on this picture.

(No offense meant to the member who shot this, I like the solution to the problem.)

My 86 has a 5.0 sitting in her at the moment, working on wiring it up. First to fire it, then I'll work on the sway bar issue.
:)

The LSx is a great motor. I will give it its due. They are impressive. I've mad respect for them.

But when you can take a 100,000+ mile 302 and do a garage rebuild with heads, an intake, a carb and roller rockers and get over 400 hp at the crank with 380 ft-lbs....well...then you gotta step back for a second and ask yourself if the expense of a LSx is really worth it. Car Craft did just this. AND they used the OE camshaft by the way....

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...dup/index.html

Add a 331 or 347 stroker kit into it and it can get pretty crazy. A 347 can make over 525 hp with 10:1 and a mild cam. And I suspect still be cheaper than a LSx and still be in the ball park for total engine weight.

I think that's a pretty good argument.

The biggest problem with the 5.0 is the engine block its self. They have shown a tendency to split, literally, in half if not prepped and cared for properly once you exceed 550ish hp.

"5.0 doesnt allow a front sway bar, unless theres some kit i havnt heard about. "

You can take your stock sway bar to any decent exhaust shop and they can put a bend in it to clear the engine/pulleys or whatever the interference is. My fabricator friend did that for my 5.0 conversion and it took him about ten minutes.

We also put a rotary in a Porsche 968, and that required moving the sway bar to the back side of the crossmember and major rebending, plus we did major rebending of the rear sway bar.

If you can't figure out how to make the sway bar work, you probably should not be doing an engine swap.

I had Quickor custom make the swaybar for my Ford V8 FC, and posted the measurements before. Let me see if I can dig them up and post them again. My car used the Ford V8 with the Fox oil pan and a custom 1 1/8" swaybar and cornered well over 1 G.

http://home.comcast.net/~adesso/rex3.wmv

ahhh i miss my old drift car!!

http://i55.tinypic.com/xpmob7.jpg

^ i want to see more pics of that

I liked my old 302d 7....jto you still have it? Lol. Btw that car still had a front sway bar when I did the swap.

ya i still got it im actually getting ready to pull the running gear and put it in my shell so i can re do the cage and what not

I went with the 5.0L because when I was pricing it out the parts and mods was cheaper and easier to find. But I also bought a already swapped car for 1200$ so im basically making it so much better, plus my buddys doing an 240Lsx.. The only reason I see for going Lsx over 5.0L is if you were going to try to make 700hp without building motor.

This car doesn't look anything like that anymore. Whoever you sold it to spray bombed a lot of stuff in the bay black. The whole car is spray painted blue. I bought it about a year ago from a guy in charlotte though and trailered it back to Jacksonville Florida. Drifted one event and had major wiring issues and fuel issues. The car has a issue idling as well, not sure what it is, but it might go hand in hand with the driving issue I'm having. You can't drive this car at a constant speed or it will jump around really bad. You have to be on the gas at all times. Other then that I can't wait to get home and play with it. Ive got a few months left on this deployment and when i get home all the parts I purchased will be put into a new shell, new cage will go in and the car will look completely different. I want to rebuild the motor and figure out the issues its having with all the wiring. Heres a few photos of how it sat when I bought it and how it is now.

Attachment 651364Attachment 651365
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As soon as I got it home it was time to take a look inside

Attachment 651367Attachment 651368http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...psb144a896.jpg
Then it was time to start adding new parts...
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Rear end completely rebuilt
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how she currently sits while I'm deployed
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Ooo and the fun times lol
Attachment 651360Attachment 651361Attachment 651362[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b116/StolenSol93/null_zpsce8800ae.jpg[/IMG
]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ps261176a1.jpg
Attachment 651363

do you have an other fan on the otherside of the rad?

Cuzzynz to be honest I don't remember, I haven't seen the car for 3 months and it'll be another 5 before I see it again. I don't think there is though.

I had an N/A 84 Mustang GT that made over 500 with a 347 stroker and was very drivable. If you are swapping motors you probably don't care too much about gas mileage but I was getting almost 30 on the highway with an automatic. You go with aluminum heads and knock almost 60 pounds off the 5.0 immediately.

What was your setup if you don't mind me asking? I have been building 302 based engines for my own projects for over 12 years and never was able to get that sort of power without boost and never better than 22mpg. Be nice to get those sort of numbers with a side project of mine without hitting the boost wagon again...

11:1 Comp. Twisted Wedge heads 205s I think, fuel injected, big nasty cam, longtubes, o/r H pipe, and magnaflows. I don't remember everything because I got rid of that car 14 years ago.


for the guys saying LSx swap, the LS series is based off a Ford block, Ford heads and a Ford intake. It's the best motor Ford never put together, even most of the LS forums have at least one post mentioning it. and if you really want to make power, go with a 351w based 460 stroker, you can break 800 on the motor. or if you want some sick 363 power use the new Ford Boss motor, 600hp out of the crate.