Purchasing 1st Fox, need advice

Are you dead set on this one? Cause for $17k that should open you up to a lot of other good clean foxes.

For me the EFI delete would be a deal breaker. There's just no good reason to do that IMO. But I'm not you. So...


If the carb conversion doesn't bother you, then I suggest focusing on how it was accomplished. I'd make a mental list of all the things effected by deleting the EFI and see how each was accomplished. The wiring is what would worry me the most. Future wiring gremlins can be horrible especially if you dont know how it was done or what wires are what.

A few examples...

I'd want to see some pictures of how he did the body wiring as the engine harness and the body harness merge together.

That's an air bag car. Is that deleted too? Does the air bag light come on and go off when the key is turned to run? Do the factory guages work? Or were they bypassed?

What does the fuel system consist of? How is it wired? The factory in tank pump is run by the EEC and gets a signal from the PIP sensor in the distributor so it knows when the engine is being cranked or is running to turn the fuel pump on and off. That doesn't have a TFI style distributor. From the pictures it looks like an in-tank pump (or electric of some sort) dialed back to carb presure. What is controlling the pump? It's details like that that indicate quality work vs hack job. If it's an electric pump it needs to have a cutoff switch of some type. Either an oil pressure cutoff switch or electronic means are necessary for safety. Where is the fuel pump relay? That used to be controlled by the EEC. Is it in the factory location? Was it bypassed? It's these details that are difficult to sort out if you're not the one that did it.


Then little things like open valve cover breathers (smelly). I'd much rather have a functioning PCV setup. Is there a charcoal canister for fuel tank vapors? That's a system that would need to be modified when switching to carb. What was done there? Just a few little things you might not think about until your garage and clothes smell like gas fumes.

The cruise control seems deleted.

You're not just buying a car, your buying the previous owners work. So I'd make sure it seem well sorted. If it seems all half a$$ed I look for something better.

In any event good luck with your search! I must have looked at a dozen before I bought mine. I'm not trying to all over the car. Just mentiong things that would be very real concerns for me if I was looking at it.

My advise is to buy the best car you can. It's always cheaper in the long run. For $17 you can find some pretty nice lower mile all original cars that are a totally blank un molested canvas for whatever you want to do.

I’m late to the party, but……. Offer him $13…… he’ll take $15…… if you really want it. Looks pretty good to me!

That engine bay does look nice and kind of brings back the nostalgia of the 60’s / 70’s muscle cars, which is pretty cool!

Your in Kansas so I'm guessing no a/c is o.k. , here in Nevada were its been 100 degrees this week and that's the tip of the melting ice burg, we don't do no a/c cars. If you can tune a carb and don't have to pass a smog test then that fox is just what you should buy.

If you can, see if you can get receipts/paperwork for every non-OEM part and verify they are installed on the car. That will give you a general idea of what is on the car and how long each part has been on the car. Also if you need to replace stuff in the future you'll again know what is standard vs non-standard so you aren't accidentally buying the wrong parts. I'm thinking specifically of stuff like that brake booster which may not be from a fox car.

Keep this in mind, 90% of people looking for a fox will probably pass because the carb swap. So if you want or have to sell it, you have shrunk your buyer pool significantly.
Would I buy a nice car with a swap? Maybe, but if it takes 2-3 grand to put the efi and ac back in, I'm hitting them for 6 grand off the price. Labor, even if it's mine isn't free.

It goes like this when you buy a used car like a Fox.

Buy it because you think it’s the right thing

You dig in, drive it a bit, and you find all the little things that need fixing that you didn’t see before and you have a little buyers remorse.

You start fixing things, improving things, making it your own, until you love it. Now it’s “yours”.

Then you get so attached and never want to sell it.

So your first post was a bit misleading... I too expected some half a$$ed car... If this isn't a lipsticked pig, its a stunning car based on the pics shown here..
As nicely done as this car is I would not even think of converting back to FI.......
Being relatively new to fox bodies, do the computers in these later model foxes do more than just engine management?? If so then how have these functions been made to work properly???
As already said check the frame rails and front towers for rust...
What are your plans for this car?? Driver, Cars n coffee car, Racing?? To me that would be a big contributor to getting the AC working again or not... or at least being in a hurry or not...

85GT4V said:

I’m with @gkomo , looks pretty good in the pics! A couple choices I wouldn’t have made (i.e. hood pins) but, it’s a good looking car that, if priced right, would be a great place to start from.

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Hood pins ... because Fiberglass Hood.
The hood pins are actually a good idea in this instance.

To me, hood pins signify that they purchased the wrong brand hood. The good ones for a street car still support the safety latch. I'm sure they cost a lot more, but i'd probably pay any dollar amount not to have hood pins.
At this point a factory EFI harness setup is probably too much effort so i think someone needs to plan for a terminator X. The computer isn't needed for anything other than the engine.

I do think it's a nice car and while surely no fox is perfect it needs expensive work just to get the basics back on the car.
Let's say there were different kinds of issues, like the rear didn't function correctly, you could get some discs, rebuild the rear and feel good about it.
Or maybe the trans grinded, you could do a new clutch and a TKX.
It's just not the same as putting things back on the car that should have never been removed in the first place.
The carb swap is a telltale sign someone that owned that car has no clue what they were doing.

Blown02svt said:

Soooo…I looked at it in more detail this morning. This car is NOT slightly modified…. It has a 347 stroker, aluminum heads, Siebert Performance carb, cammed, 9” rear end, battery has been relocated to the rear hatch, MSD ignition, drive shaft loop, subframe connectors, different fuel take with the pickup ports in the back at the bottom of the tank, new fuel lines up to a regulator under the hood, list goes on…obviously set up for racing. However, looking underneath, I wasn’t able to find any rust, everything looked pretty straight, shock towers were fine, doors were aligned and shut without effort, no signs of stress on the A-pillars, paint was in excellent conditions (probably 8 out of 10 if not better), interior was also in great shape (8/10 here too). I took it for a spin and it drove pretty well, tracked straight down the road, idled very well, very street able car for sure. Not all of the gauges worked, temp and oil pressure didn’t function but those two gauges were in the gauge pods on the dash. Temp stayed right under 200 and oil pressure was good. I didn’t hammer on it but it pulled pretty good just cycling through the gears. I know that there is a little room in the $17k…

And I should add…I’m not looking to put it completely back to stock, use it as a daily driver or race it. More looking for something that I can drive around town, go to a car show, occasionally drive it to work and most importantly have fun with my sons in it…

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It’s a beautiful car from the pictures you provided. I’m like some other commenters in that a carburetor conversion to an EFI car is a turn-off, but that’s only my take. What I would be very interested in looking at is how the person doing the conversion handled modifications/eliminations of the stock EFI wiring. I read so many stories about guys picking up a used and “modified” Foxbody and have many headaches because the guy doing the work just made a mess out of the wiring. In your case, that doesn’t look to be the case, but I’d still make sure I knew what was in store…

Bill

I would pass
Find one that is mostly ALL stock