V8 Swaps Mustang Ii

74stang2togo said:

74 is the worst year for a V8 swap, owing to the fact that Ford didn't put V8s in US-market Mustang IIs (though they did in the Mexico market).

That said, it'd doable.

You'll need:

V8 motor mounts and frame mounts (bstang71 on mustangii.net is your best bet. I sold him the three sets I'd hoarded over the years about a year ago when I decided to buy his motor mount rebuild kits for my car and quit swapping old, half-worn-out mounts in over and over again).

A radiator that can cool a V8. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-KKS-3-Row-Aluminum-Radiator-1975-1978-Ford-Mustang-II-1976-1977-/191908264849?fits=Model:Mustang+II&hash=item2cae9fbb91:g:8NcAAOSwRQlXchnk&vxp=mtr or http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...mit-racing-universal-radiator-in-a-ii.887468/ are good choices. You'll have to make modifications to the car for either to fit. A lot of '74 guys mount the radiator on the front of the radiator support instead of behind it, and run hood pins (because they have to do away with the latch to do so).

V8 driveshaft.

T-top braces. These are the braces that were installed on T-top cars and braced the subframe where it met the floor. The '74 cars have a weaker subframe than the '75+ cars and are prone to cracking under the torque of a V8. I'd also strongly recommend a set of Stumpy's subframe connectors: http://www.stumpysfabworks.com/mustang-ii-parts.html His work on these is very nice, and they help strengthen the car a lot.

8" diff from a Pinto/Bobcat or Mustang II (if your car has the 6.75" diff). Or a 9" from a Granada/Versailles (the latter of which could be had with disc brakes, but both of those cars are becoming next to impossible to find in a junkyard). Another option that's becoming very popular, and is on my "to-do" list is an 8.8 rear axle from an Explorer, which will require modification. http://mustangii.net/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14902 The 8" Pinto/Bobcat/MII rear is the bolt-in solution of the bunch. Being a 2.8 car, you may already have the 8" rear diff (even some 4-cylinder cars were lucky enough to get one, my '74 had one).

A transmission to use behind the V8. The bolt-in solutions would be a RAD-4 (manual) or a C4 (automatic) with the Mustang II specific bellhousings and associated parts. Those are hard to find and get more scarce daily, but they're out there. There are several other options that can be done with varying degrees of difficulty, including AOD (automatic overdrive) or T5 (manual with overdrive) swaps. There's threads here and on MustangII.net (when it's not down) about that, so I won't go into a great deal of detail here.

That's the big ticket items. There's also the little stuff, like the engine accessories (which can be simplified by pulling an engine with all the goodies already on it at a self-service yard), wiring, exhaust (MII V8 manifolds or headers are your best bet), and whether or not you want your tach to work with the V8 or just want to throw an aftermarket tach on the steering column like most of us do.

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