Building a 66: Need Advice

[Mystang66]

I am doing a ground up restoration on a 1966 Mustang 6 cylinder to be a daily driver. I know body work, but much less about mechanical. I will have two helpers that are very mechanically inclined working with me.

I am trying to do this project on a reasonable budget. I am going to be using a donor 91 Mustang 5.0 to swap out the motor and transmission. I have a body that is rebuilt and ready to paint and a complete interior.

Now to my issues, I want to put a 8.8 rear end in the car and upgrade at least the front brakes to disc (possibly power brakes). I want to add A/C. I want to upgrade suspension and steering, possibly adding power steering or rack and pinion?? Again, I am making this a nice daily driver, not street machine or hot rod. I want a classic that is fun and comfortable to drive.

My questions are, with budget in mind, what are your suggestions for steering, A/C, suspension, brakes? What are some budget conscious options? What vehicles have parts that are interchangeable that I might be able to pull the brake conversion or steering upgrades out of rather than going with more expensive new upgrades??

Thanks for all that look at this and provide advice.

 

[JonK]

Welcome. First of all if you are talking budget I think you are better off replacing the original with similar or improved design than changing to something that will have to be modded to fit - 8.8, R&P, etc. all takes modding of the part and the car normally to fit and then you can run into issues of bumpsteer, etc.
Rear end - find an 8" the correct width for a '66, there are plenty of people who upgrade to 9" that you should be able to find a stock 8" for sale (CL, fleabay, JY, local mustang club). The 8" will be the correct length, have the leaf spring perches, offset correct, etc. and probably have brakes with it, basically a drop in and give you 5 lugs. 8.8 will not have the right width, the pinion will be offset, you'll have to weld on spring perches, etc.

Steering, simply replace the worn out 6cy. parts with MOOG or McQuay Norris new tie rods, idler, etc. I would order a few free catalogs from suppliers - mustangs unlimited, national parts depot (NPD), etc. and you can see what is available and compare costs.
Suspension, the stock suspension can be made to ride/drive much better than original, remember these cars came with bias ply tires and were aligned for that type of tire. One big cheap upgrade is the 1" Shelby/ Arning drop. Read this article first:
DazeCars, Suspension 101

Again, look for MOOG parts if you can, they still make the LCA, avoid chinese repop parts if at all possible. John at ORP makes some nice worthwhile mods to stock parts like his street UCA and roller spring perches which have a big effect on ride and road following:
Opentracker Racing Products

Brakes, depending on wheel size you choose your options may be limited, the stock KelseyHayes 4 pistons will bolt right onto disc or drum spindles from '65/'66, look at Chockostang and CSRP or the Granada swap that ORP sells.

AC, not many choices here and it'll cost you ~$1200 complete system running R134A, see:
1964, 1965, or 1966 Mustang Air Conditioning System | 64, 65, or 66 Ford Mustang AC
or
Vintage Air Conditioning for 1964-66 Mustang

Jon

 

[rbohm]

my suggestion in regards to the engine swap is to build the six instead. why? because it is different, and you dont need to change out the rear end. the six can be built to make good power, and turn in good fuel economy, and still surprise a lot of people on the street. you can install a T5 easy enough behind the six. check out www.classicinlines,com for more on the small six, including a line of performance parts, and check out Ford Six Performance Home/Index in the forums for guys that will help you build the six.

 

[2+2GT]

I agree. Power disc brakes, performance suspension, 5-speed transmission, can all be incorporated into your 200 car without the thousands of dollars a V8 conversion will run. And a 200 T5 drivetrain could easily give you 25-30 mpg in your daily driver. Any V8 will be 10 mpg less than that. With the money you save not converting to V8, you could drive the car to a Disney World vacation.

 

[Mystang66]

Keeping the 6 question?

Thanks for all of the advice so far. My issue with saving the inline 6 is reliability. I live in Missouri and we have harsh weather swings. I am afraid that the carburetor will provide issues in the cold particularly. The fuel injected 5.0 is more reliable. Any suggestions to improve the reliability of the 6?

 

[rbohm]

Thanks for all of the advice so far. My issue with saving the inline 6 is reliability. I live in Missouri and we have harsh weather swings. I am afraid that the carburetor will provide issues in the cold particularly. The fuel injected 5.0 is more reliable. Any suggestions to improve the reliability of the 6?

the small six is in fact MORE reliable than the ford V8. for instance my 64 falcon uses the 170 six, and with a change to electronic ignition i have no starting issues even in cold weather. my old 66 falcon also used the 170, and again when i swapped to electronic ignition all cold start issue went away.

there are plenty of mods that can be done to the small six for reliability, performance and fuel economy.

start with a weber two barrel conversion, a direct mount is best, but requires machining the log and an adapter to bolt the weber on. easy to do though.

next you want to install electronic ignition. the best one i have found so far that is inexpensive is a duraspark distributor from a later model six with that ignition. you can get the distributor from your local parts store fairly cheap, just ask for one from a 78-83 fairmont with the 3.3l engine. the best ignition box i have found to work with the duraspark dist is the chrysler ignition box. i bought the upgraded orange box. the wiring is simple, check out gofastforless.com on how to wire the box up, or shoot me an email and i will send you the wiring schematic. top this off with an msd blaster lll coil and the engine will light off in 30 degree weather first time every time.

use one of the small cams in the classicinlines inventory, they were designed by clay smith for the small six so they are not copies of V8 profiles, with a 112 degree lobe center.

mill the stock head at least .050", .075 is better, to bring the compression ratio up to around 9-9.5:1. you can also do some porting of the exhaust side of the head, and install larger valves as well. in fact send your head to classicinlines and they will modify the head for you at a reasonable price. you can even select what mods you want done. mike works with a machine shop that has plenty of experience with small six performance.

if you have them, stick with the adjustable rocker arms. if you dont have adjustable ones, try to find a set. look for an early 144 or 170 six from 63 and earlier falcons. classicinlines also has a set of adjustable roller rockers if you are willing to spend the money for them. if you cant find any adjustable rocker arm, dont despair as your stock ones will do just fine.

when you start to tune your six, set the ignition timing at around 12-14 degrees initial. one thing to keep in mind however, if you are not replacing your stock balancer, understand that the balance ring may have slipped over the years, and the timing marks may not be accurate. in that case advance the timing until you get detonation under load at load speeds, then back the timing off until the detonation stops.

classicinlines also has a selection of headers for the small six, as well as dress up parts. and if you really want to make you engine roar, check out their aluminum head. it is based on the 250 2v aussie head, but made from aluminum and much improved.

dont forget to check out the websites i linked to in my earlier post.

 

[KMatch]

If you stick to the 5.0, you need to swap the steering linkage to V8 rather than keep the 6. It's different and the 6cyl linkage will likely hit the oil pan plus it's totally different in design. The V8 is heavier and requires new pitman, idler, cross link, and so on. Don't forget the swaybar and v8 front coil springs.

I put an 8.8 from a 2000 Mountaneer/Exploder in mine and narrowed it the 2.x inches as is the norm which was within 1/4" in width of the original 7", but when it was all said and done, I'd prefer the wider stance even though the fenders would need to be rolled to make it work. If you DO narrow one using the extra axle approach, DON'T cut it according to measurements you see online. Cut it based on the measured difference between the original and replacement axle as there are slight differences. The donor car you have may work without cutting?

The only time I'd like power steering is the 1 time I pull out of a driveway each day. Otherwise the manual works fine and gives good feedback.

I used the 76 Granada spindle/disk brake approach as they were included in the deal and with a little tweaking, work fine.

For A/C I went with Vintage Air Gen IV which is electronic. Works pretty good.

My favorite part of making it comparable in comfort to a newer model was the peel-n-seal rolls of sticky/aluminum backed rolls of insulation from Lowe's. 5 rolls will do the interior and trunk for around $90 and that combined with new carpeting makes this thing feel and sound solid and quiet to drive.