94 Mustang GT not a GT?

[dem1974]

Hello everyone,
I recently purchased a 1994 Mustang GT, my first Ford purchase. I love the car to pieces! I was complaining that the car had a short redline, 4800 rpm on the tach, to a friend. He looked at me puzzled and said the redline should be 5800-6000 rpm. He did not believe me, so I showed him the tach.

long story short, I found out that my car was actually a base V6 and not originally a GT. Even though it has 17" SVT wheels, a 5.0 motor, cobra hood, dual exhaust...you get the picture.

I ran a carfax report and it came up listed as a 3.8L V6 car and also showed it was in a front end collision in 2004 with air bag deployment.

With that being said, someone obviously converted the car to a 5.0. It even has the 5.0 emblems on the fenders! They did a beautiful job, I have restored many cars over the years and it fooled me! Anyway, besides the rear end difference and maybe some spring rate change, are there any other differences in the cars?

I am hoping that the tranny was also changed out with the drivetrain. Does a 3.8 tranny bolt up to a 5.0? If I decide to swap the gauges out for GT gaues, are the readings going to be correct?

Thank you in advance for the help!

 

[Beasty306GT]

you will need a t5 tranny

 

[dem1974]

Are there any other differences between a base and a GT?

 

[alleymad95GT]

Insurance is probably cheaper...

As far as differences between the two, there are actually quite a few, some minor some significant...

Seats on a V6 are different...

GT has standard lighted passenger visor mirror while V6 does not...

Entire computer system is different...

 

[blksn955.o]

The cobra hood for 94-95's was the same hood as those on all gt/v6's. There are several other things as well. One being the v6 was OBDII and the 5.0 was OBDI. Another is there was no 5.0 badge on the 94-95's.

You would have to look up your state regs on what you can do with the gauge cluster. You might be better off just getting some overlay white face gauges.

If the thing runs it probably has the eec converted but I would go over it to see if it was a hack job or what kind of eec you have. Post a pic of your engine bay so we can look it over and see if anything is out of the norm.

 

[revhead347]

The biggest difference other than the engine is the axle. The V6 had a 7.5" diff gear, the GT had an 8.8"

Kurt

 

[dem1974]

Awesome info, thank you all for the help. I am concerned that the smaller rear end may not be enough. I am going to scour this week to try to find an 8.8 with better gearing. I do have the 5.0 badges on the fenders? I also have a lighted passenger mirror? And the speedo is a 120...blah.

Here is a link to the engine bay photos

94 mustang pictures by dem1974 - Photobucket

I am also concerned that the tranny is from the V6. It seems to shift and work fine....

 

[tomustang]

I hope you didn't pay for GT pricing

Also the SN-95 never had 5.0 fender badges, it should have an emblem of GT with mustang under it

Like this:

 

[tomustang]

Before you start tracking down and buying stuff, make sure you know what you got first, there's plenty of info all over the net on what's what. For starters here's a link to help you recognize the difference of a V6 (7.5) and 8.8 (GT) rear diff Mustang 7.5 & 8.8 Rear Axle info - LRS Blog - Read Here Shop Here

 

[dem1974]

I paid $2900 for the car. It is very clean and I think I did well. THank you for the link about the rear end difference. I am going to check to see what I have in a few days!

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

Yeah, check what you have first before you start swapping parts. You certainly don't know at this stage if your tranny is a V6 unit (rated to 265lbft) and if your rear axle is a 7.5". What you DO know is that the gauge cluster is from a V6 so you could swap in a GT cluster (5900rpm tach redline and 150mph speedo) if it's legal.

 

[revhead347]

Those 7.5" rear ends are the end of the world. On most street cars they do fine.

Kurt

 

[99FiveOh]

Here's my hypothesis: Someone had a GT and probably wrecked it. So they bought a V6 to convert using their wrecked car as a donor. I can almost bet 100% that the person who performed that swap had a donor car sitting right next to it, you can tell by how everything is done correctly, no shortcuts or bandaids from not having the "correct" part to use.

Having said that, the person probably pulled the entire engine/transmission assembly out as a unit and installed it right back into the V6 body. The swap is ultra easy and I actually have a few such swaps under my belt myself.

On the off chance that it is a V6 transmission, you'll be just fine. A couple years ago I bolted a an old fox 2.3 4 banger T5 behind a V8 and it was fine also. (and I beat the snot out of it too!)

As for the rearend, I read through the entire thread again and in case I'm missing something, I didn't see where you verified that the rear was indeed only a 7.5". If my hypothesis above holds true, then you have to assume the person spent another couple hours to get the rear swapped over as well (unless the rear was damaged in the hypothetical wreck). Can you get under it and take a pic of the rear end center section for us?

 

[ProKiller]

I'm with Mark on this one. From those engine shots, it looks like a completely stock setup. he had to have had a wrecker right next to him and was just putting it into the v6 body. i'd find it hard to believe that he would have left the 7.5 rear in there. i wouldn't worry about the tranny if it works.

 

[dem1974]

Thank you all for the help! Here is a link to the pics of the rear-end:
94 mustang pictures by dem1974 - Photobucket

Please give me your input. Based on the link that tommustang sent me yesterday, it appears to be a 7.5"

Also, The V6 gauges seem to work fine, the speedo seems correct and the tach is dead on too. If I swap it out with a GT set to get the 150 speedo, it should still read accuratley, right?

 

[dem1974]

I pulled the code from the rear diff

S262B
273754B08

definatley a 7.5" with 2.73 gears....yuck.

 

[1987LXragtop]

The 7.5 will hold up if you arent beating the s out of it. Had a 7.5 in my fox 5.0 conversion for 2 years and I beat it. Things really only break when they hook up and with one wheel peel out you wont grab. There are v6 guys running some serious power and still using the 7.5 and using a tlok in it. Get an 8.8 when you find a good deal. No rush. The trans will hold too again as long as youre civilized.