1966 Upgrade Project Planning (Please offer advice!)

Martyred said:

This weekend i plan to do a simple restore of my Inline Six engine, which was the first step of my project plan. So now i need to start planning out my next big projects.

Overall Goal:

To have my 1966 Mustang in great daily driver condition. To have a fun peice of history mixed with some modern flare and technology for a very exciting, fun to drive, but not too much money at the pump. I do not plan for this to be any track funny car, and i dont plan to race it, but i do want to feel the power of American muscle and be able to hold corners.

My first focus (as i have it planned out) is to upgrade the suspension and make sure i have good stability before droping in any v-8.

Next step is to get rid of those drum breaks and upgrade to disc.

Then once im able to handle the curves, and stop when i need to, i want to upgrade whats under the hood.

After that its intieror and sound.


So i need some advice on how to plan this out and if certain steps are even possible. So for starters here are some basic questions:

1. When dealing with an originaly six banger upgrading with to a eight, what are the normal things that have to be changed?
   
2. Are there things that i can put into my car now, like say for example if the rear end needs to be converted to suit the v8, will it work with the I6 untill i drop it in?
   
3. What are the usual engine choices for a good beefy engine, but not anything too excessive that would make it rediculous when i goto the pump.
   
4. Do alot of people put in 5.0 engines so they can use the 5 speed tranny?
   
5. Whats the best approach to saving money, but upgrading the breaks from drum to disc?
   
6. Whats some good deals on suspension kits?

Thanks in advance guys/gals!

Oh i hear threads are pointless here without pics:

Click to expand...

1. other than the engine and tranny, front and rear suspension should be upgraded. 6 banger had 4 lug suspension stock, which is a pain in the ass to find rims/wheels for it if you plan on upgrading to different rims. the leaf springs/shocks have a lot less 'umph' to them than the syspension for a 8 cyl

2. if you upgrade the rear end it should work with a 6, given that you use the same drive shaft

3. i'd shoot for either a 289 or a 302. if you want beef, go for upgraded carb, intake, heads, cams, etc.

4. yes and no. it really depends on what you want out of your car. daily driver versus a drag etc. gears are pretty important if you want a noticable difference in performance in terms of the 'seat of your pants'

5. best approach to saving money when converting to disc? well if you plan on upgrading your syspension, which you should, you're just going to have to buy a disc brake kit. don't buy a kit for your origional suspension - it won't fit on anything else but that stock I6 suspension.

6. good deals? a must have would be subframe connectors. for more specific stuff, use the search function, as there have been several threads on the same subject