Building a Daily Driver 1977 1978 V8 Auto

so i have been searching through forums and all and havent found any good resources on building a daily driver. I have a sweet 1977 Ghia V8 with the stock everything. I am looking to rebuild the engine into something for just getting around, i am not interested in racing. I am figuring my first buy is going to be an aluminum intake manifold to start taking off weight. Ideas? Anyone else done this?
 

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Hello,
the biggest question is: what are your needs for a daily driver?!
Is there something wrong with the intakte manifold on you car?!
If its about MPG and you are interested in engine modification than an alu intake will help... but mostly because you then need a 4v-carb. And with the selection of your 4v-carb you will affect MPG the most.

If you can tell what you want to do with the car or whats wrong/needs to be improved, than it's easier to give you some recommendations.

I'm in the middle of this build LINK. And I plan to drive the car daily and it should also be drivable for my wife, means it should not be to uncomftable. But i also want that it's a little bit sporty... :)

From what I know from my other classic car: for delightfull driving, reliabillity is the most import thing. From my experience the ingition system is the most critically part...

Greetings
 
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hmm i was hoping to take some weight off with going with an aluminum intake and thats something easy to do. Theres a ton of front end weight in this car, earlier this year between fire assignments, i took a 1978 mustang apart and damn it was heavy. I was thinking more to get around, but not lag to much either if that makes any sense. I am researching putting in a cruise control and EFI, i am not concerned about keeping it original.
 
OK. The car in sum is not that heavy, but as you say the weight distribution concentrates on the front.
From weight perspective also battery relocation to the trunk helps (but do it right and put a vent from the battery to the outside).
I changed my steering rack to the 88 t-bird one, which has a more direct steering ratio and the housing itself is also made from aluminium. I was surprised about the weight diffrence compared to the original steering rack. For the steering rack there are some modifications requiered.
Be aware with your intake manifold that a diffrent height can cause hood clearance problems...
About EFI: its great but expensive. In my experience the holley 4v carbs are also great, but the quality of the tune changes with weather conditions... so to make it perfect i would have to change carb setup from winter to summer... but thats because of the cold and wet winter here.
A holley 4180 (because of the annular boosters) or the summit racing M2008 carb are great carbs for the street and MPG.

I hope some of the ideas help.
 
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