Cost Effective

This is a hard one to answer. Is your car special in any way. Did you have it in highschool or anything like that? Are you concerned at all with originality? If your car is rust free and has a nice interior then I would work with what you have. Another car might be a can or worms.

What do you want from the car? V8 sound and to cruise? Do you want to go really fast from stop light to stop light? Why are you messing with it.

If you are like me, you think the straight six/C4 combo is pretty weak and you want more get up and go just for the fun of it.

Here is what I would do. If your straight six is in good shape, put a T5 behind it. I like the mustangsteve.com kit. It works very well in my 68 cougar and there are more than a couple of people on that site that have put T5 behind their straight six and loved it. You might like it so much that you won't want to go through the trouble of an engine swap. I would put some 3.5:1 gears in the rear end at the same time.

have fun...

Austin

how much did you have to do to the cougar?

After 3 months, I almost have the one in my falcon done.

To the original poster:
It really depends on how fast you want to go with how much.

If you go to a v8 AND a stick, that 6 3/4 rear end will last a couple of days maybe.

If you are dead set on a v8, I would just buy a 351 (84 or later), leave it stock and upgrade it when you have the time/money.

The mustangsteve kit rocks. I got the pedal set, cable clutch combo kit and love it. One hole in the firewall and that is it. Uses the stock 87 to 93 mustang cable. Can't beat that. Easy parts replacement. I'm using the stock 90s mustang bell so everything just hooked up like stock. I swaped to power brakes using his kit at the same time. His power brakes kit uses a modern booster ( I can't remember from what, but I think it is a 4 cyl mustang but don't quote me...) for a great feel.

dablack said:

The mustangsteve kit rocks. I got the pedal set, cable clutch combo kit and love it. One hole in the firewall and that is it. Uses the stock 87 to 93 mustang cable. Can't beat that. Easy parts replacement. I'm using the stock 90s mustang bell so everything just hooked up like stock. I swaped to power brakes using his kit at the same time. His power brakes kit uses a modern booster ( I can't remember from what, but I think it is a 4 cyl mustang but don't quote me...) for a great feel.

Click to expand...

nice.

I had to cut my cowl out above the 4-bolt plate for the pedal assembly/master cylinder.

In the falcon the pinch weld is like 1.5" above the top bolt hole because everything is so squished up there. I had to remove the wiper assembly, basically a huge ordeal to run a t5 with a clutch cable.

I am going to post up some pictures one day . . . I only have a few little things to wrap up.

Nobody has mentioned the brakes/steering/suspension upgrades. 6 to 8 ain't just an engine and a tranny, there's a lot to it. If the car isn't special to you and you really want a v-8 car, I'd see about buying one that already has the v-8 in it.

I had a 67 coupe with a 200 in it for a couple years in high school, fun car. 3-speed manual, I put a header from clifford performance and dual exhaust on it, and it really did sound almost like a v-8. Didn't go quite like a v-8, but that's probably why I'm still alive.

Something to consider:

If you do swap to a V8, you can keep the C4. Although you might have to swap in a V8 bellhousings and torque converter.

BottleFed70 said:

Something to consider:

If you do swap to a V8, you can keep the C4. Although you might have to swap in a V8 bellhousings and torque converter.

Click to expand...

You WILL have to get the V8 version of the bell housing, and convertor. It bolts right in place of the I6 parts. However, V8 and I6 C4's were not created equal... don't expect it to last behind any power!