to you! glad to here that it's done and your having fun with it, cause isnt that the reason people put crazy motors in little cars? any way you were saying highway driving wasnt to bad, am I right in reading about 2200rpm on the highway? sweet thats not to bad at all. good job on the swap and I have now been even more motivated to finish mine up.

 

Thanks man. About the engine speed when cruising, I don't have gages hooked up yet (mph, tach) so the above observation is based on my perception. For a V8, 2200 rpm is a bit fast for 60mph but the whole car feels like a fire breathing race machine, so useable power at 60 mph in 5th seems to be the natural objective of having the rpm there.

The car felt surprisingly tame and driveable (other than the lope at idle) when cruising around. In fact, I was going easy on it during the drive back to save gas because I didn't know how much was left in the tank!

There is a huge difference between putzing around under light throttle with 300 inches behind 2600lbs and unleashing the full wrath of the displacement's potential. The car is a blast.

 

Some late night pipe dreaming of future mods - check out this CARB legal 5.0 supercharger kit... 8-10 psi and +125 hp:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1986-...QQcmdZViewItem

All that top end boost and an E303 cam would make a great power band!
I can't believe what I've been missing. It's like gaining access to the best of the fox body Mustang, without having to use the fox body.

 

TFS intake is a bit taller than stock but still clears the hood:

 

That intake just looks so right in that engine bay.

 

Are you running megasquirt? I found this and thought it might be of interest to you incase you want to use the existing ford engine harness.

http://www.sparkandfuel.com/catalog/...roducts_id=104

 

Thanks man. I think I agree; the manifold looks like it was made for the FC engine bay and this mounting style for the 5.0. It clears the hood reinforcement by a few millimeters even when using a 3/8" phenolic spacer between the lower and upper manifolds. I can't wait to get it running again. It'll go back together with an E303 cam, 73mm MAF, 30lb injectors, 70mm TB / EGR spacer, and a 255 l/h pump. Should be good for a conservative 350 bhp using my hack job exhaust and a pair or restrictive stock cats.

I really miss driving the car when engineering schoolwork gets me depressed. It was like a shot of cocaine even with only 160 ft-lbs (estimated) torque across the power band ........ hypothetically speaking. Fun as hell to autocross too.


Holy crap that's cool! Too bad I have a megasquirt 1 though. I should just build a megasquirt 2 anyhow because of the built-in VR conditioner circuit that the 1 lacks. I made three attempts to build the daughter board for the MS1 in order to get this circuit, and fucked something up every time.

Thanks for the link.

 

Try to get some times for the car.
I been contemplating on getting a LS1, LT1, or a 5.0. I probably be getting a 5.0 though since my junkyard have about 3 of them, mostly from pre 93 crown vics. Hell I was even thinking about a chevy 5.7 from the G30 van hahaha, but putting out almost 200hp from a 5.7 at a 8.3 compression.......that thing needs lots of modification to even be fast.

 

Mild update, for the record......

Seeing as the date is January 1, 2007, it is fitting to post that the E303 cam, TFS intake, C/L 73mm MAF, PP 75mm TB / EGR spacer, FMS 30lb/hr injectors are installed, to compliment the AFR 185cc heads, BBK shorty headers, KB pistons, mustang depot rods, and full rebuild. I just got back from touching up the exhaust routing, and the engine appears to be in running condition. There appears to be either a vacuum leak or an issue with the MAF sensor because the motor runs pretty lean, but still pulls like a ****. It's pretty damn smooth for a boinger, hehe.

So yeah, one year later, she's basically done. What a long project! I thought it would be pretty easy doing the swap, and it was....... at least until I got to the part where I had to finish off all the details.

Pics and vids coming.......

 

Sweet, I'm looking forward to seeing a video!

 

I have been eagerly anticipating another update. Am I alone or are there others out there?

Your work is amazing by the way.

 

I've been thinking about this thread for a while. The story is that the car has been on the road for about a month and is a total blast. I didn't bump the thread because I haven't got a video yet and they're trying to kill me at school. (ME senior)

Fourth / fifth gear are amazing. The car is dangerously fast, but the handling is surprisingly balanced, even without the front sway bar. I know this because I inadvertently tested the limits of lateral traction at the end of a series of s curves on a back road.

Any ford fans will know how nice a howling 302 sounds at WOT, and I've pretty much forgotten the old pleasure of a large streetported rotary because of it.

There have been a few little issues but overall, the car is absolutely killer. It's a bit of a conversation piece at school around all the mechanical engineering students, and has nearly the same power to weight ratio of our formula sae car.

So yeah, I should have never wasted time messing with rotaries. Small block V8s are in another league.

 

Wow, thats totally what I wanted to hear. I'm actually in the process of building a small block 302 for my 88 rx7 and it has been really fun. One question though, what did you do for a clutch setup? Because from what I have expierenced first hand so far is that the pull style slaves don't pull far enough and the people that have tried the cable style say it's a waste of time unless you dont mine having your pedal face skywards.

 

Hi,

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, finals week was pure damage control and I've been trying to find a place up in Portland for internship #2. So anyways.....

I'm running a clutch cable. Hydraulic actuation would be better because the pedal forces would be a lot lower, but I basically took the Mustang cable and clutch pedal, and welded up a mini-frame to the existing FC pedal unit. I don't have a problem with the pedal being too high though. The range of motion seems about right for the amount of force it takes, and I'm running a king cobra clutch so it's no worse than stock.

Some data on the car:

5th gear @ 2000 rpm = 55-60mph. 4th gear at 6000 rpm = 120. The sweet spot for power is 3200-5500. Launch + wind up first takes a second or two, second gear another second and a half, third takes a few more, and fourth is like warp drive. The car is beyond quick. I'd cautiously venture to claim that it's fast, but only a 12 sec. timeslip will prove it.

I recently got a chance to drive OSU's formula SAE car and the acceleration difference wasn't that great, though in all fairness the sae car will hold its acceleration from 6k up to 14k rpm and is still traction limited on race slicks. An FC is no match for the open wheel car for cornering though, heh.

I can't believe how much better my FC is thanks to the V8 conversion. Time spent doing it to OEM specs was well worth it.

 

What did you do about your shifter location?

 

There was nothing wrong with it.

 

So by fabbing your own mounts you were able to get the T5 shifter to come out in the stock location?

 

just curious what kind of gas mileage your getting?

If your into the mid 300's for WHP you should hit mid 11's if you can hook up.

I like your car, but every time I read the thread title I picture a crown victoria plowing into an FC.

 

Yep. With the engine low and far back (where it belongs), the shifter arm went straight in the stock hole.

Not sure on the mileage because I always have my foot down and my gas gauge / speedo are not rigged up yet. I just fill it up every few days. It does seem a bit thirsty with a lot of WOT. The throttle response is irresistable, like a streetported rotary.

 

do you think you can take some pics of you cable clutch setup?
no one has been any help to me and I need your god-like guidance lol

 

Jumping on the clutch bandwagon... pics please.

I'm about to install a fresh 5.0 and T5 into my FB, wish me luck.

 

Yeah i'm totally stumped here and in a bad need for some advice.

 

http://www.v8rx7forum.com/v8-rx7-tec...-question.html

http://www.v8rx7forum.com/v8-rx7-tec...onversion.html

Wondering which way to go and which has better feel and reliability

 

Sorry guys, it's a busy life.

 

Thats great thats almost exctaly how I have mine set up but what exctally are you doing its hard to see from the pic.