I want to put a modern fuel injection engine in my '78. Was thinking a fuel efficient focus or something, but I don't know what would work. Somebody please help! Feel free to email me. [email protected]
Engine Modern Engine?
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jozsefsz
15 Year Member
Anything "can" work, but a front-wheel drive focus setup is going to be hard to match to an old-fashioned rear-wheel-drive transmission.
What's easiest also depends on what you have in there now. It's common to look for a 2.3 turbo engine to replace the 4-cyl. For the v6 2.8, a modern 4.0L is reasonably easy to drop in. For v8 engines, a modern H.O. will fit and work nicely. Working with a donor car is probably the easiest... otherwise make sure you get all the harnesses and computer, and you'll need to do something about the gauges as well.
Probably one of the biggest things you could do for fuel economy would be to upgrade the transmission. Both the automatic and manual of that era were made for 55mph speed limits. Adding overdrive can help a great deal.
Lots of options, a lot will depend on your skills, how much work you'd like to do, and / or how much you want to spend. Truth be told, if you want a focus, it's probably just better to get a focus, and leave the II a II.
What's easiest also depends on what you have in there now. It's common to look for a 2.3 turbo engine to replace the 4-cyl. For the v6 2.8, a modern 4.0L is reasonably easy to drop in. For v8 engines, a modern H.O. will fit and work nicely. Working with a donor car is probably the easiest... otherwise make sure you get all the harnesses and computer, and you'll need to do something about the gauges as well.
Probably one of the biggest things you could do for fuel economy would be to upgrade the transmission. Both the automatic and manual of that era were made for 55mph speed limits. Adding overdrive can help a great deal.
Lots of options, a lot will depend on your skills, how much work you'd like to do, and / or how much you want to spend. Truth be told, if you want a focus, it's probably just better to get a focus, and leave the II a II.
- Mar 7, 2002
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First things first, what engine do you have now? It doesn't limit replacement options, but replacing the whole engine might not even be necessary depending on what you have.
Next, what kind of budget are you on? If you're wanting to do this as cheaply as possible, it's a bit more challenging, but can still be very possible depending on what kind of engine you have now and what you're wanting from the car and wanting to do with the car.
Last, but not least, are you wanting to upgrade/replace the transmission while you're at it? This is every bit as important as the first two questions.
I've done an engine swap or two. I've put fuel injection into non-factory EFI cars (including my '75 Mustang II).
Right now I'm in the middle of a custom 5.0/T5 swap into a 1977 Ford Capri Mk2 from Germany that originally had the same 2.8L V6 that was an option in the Mustang II, as well as a European 4-spd gearbox.
I'm talking from this:
To this:
![IMAG0896[1].jpg](/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,quality=80,sharpen=1/https://stangnet.com/mustang-forums/attachments/imag0896-1-jpg.543811/ "IMAG0896[1].jpg")
As you can see, it's a work in progress, but it's in there. Still need to fine-tune the positioning, as it's off-center just a tad, but it could be running by the end of this week if I can get it's owner (my dad) motivated enough to do so, and driving by the end of the month (will have to send the driveshaft off to be shortened).
Anything's possible with a little willpower, elbow grease, and know-how.
