BLKMGK

Brian is right - the VSS on a MAF equipped car does more than control emissions. The stalling issue is one, weirdo stuff with the ignition curve is a possible "other". SOME but NOT all MAP to MAF conversion kits tell you to run a wire to the fuel pump relay under the driver's seat and to the VSS. Failure to do the VSS mod can lead to some pretty funky problems. IF you use the SVO harness instead of one of these wire it yourself type deals you won't have problems. I stupidly gave away my MAF conversion when I went to DFI, when I went back I went cheap and as a result had to do the weirdo wire runs to the VSS and fuel pump relay (grr). You using a conversion harness or a stock Ford harness? EECIV right? MAF? If it's MAP you shouldn't need the VSS as MAP equipped cars that didn't have cruise didn't have the VSS I'm nearly positive. I'd go MAF though

Okay, quick funny story Out testing the Mustang with the SO holding a laptop for the DFI I get pulled over. I had been first at a light and nailed it when it went green, I did NOT spin the tires. Went through 3 gears before I let off and saw the poor officer struggling through traffic to give chase. The look on his face when he peeked inside and saw the laptop and gauges was priceless! He said I flat out took off and was pretty amazed. No ticket - he couldn't pace me and had no radar. Since I didn't spin the wheels there was little he could do but politely ask me to tune elsewhere Whew!

Turbo.. The shaft should spin somewhat freely. It should move some in and out but not side to side. At least this is what I've been told to look for, I'm not a real whiz with turbos. I WOULD try to take a look at the turbo oil supply line. If it's clogged there could easily be bearing damage as that's a turbo's life blood! Can't help with the rest, sorry!

Okay, from memory - 85 was the first year for roller - cars were either carbed or CFI in the automatics. Pistons were forged. 87 and 88 had MAP sensed EFI except for the 88 Cali cars which were MAF. Pistons still forged and they had roller cams too. Converting MAP to MAF isn't hard - computer, sensor, a few wires. 89-95 all MAF sensed cars w/roller cams. 94-95 had screwed up computers with timing taken out to save warranty costs with the T5 - these cars were heavier. Mid to late 92 Ford switched to Hyper pistons. Somewhere between 88 and 93 they also switched cams and never told anyone, yes this is true. The magazines noticed in their dyno tests and replacement part #s changed too. It was done for NVH supposedly. The books will also say that 93 was the first year for hyper pistons, this is crap. A friend owns a shop specialing in Mustangs and he's SEEN hyper pistons in 92 cars (doh!). Interesting note - 93 cars have a 94 floorpan. If you lived closer I could help you get all the Ford parts you could ever want, my Ford mechanic does a booming business and is a pretty nice guy. He's gotten deep into modular motors now 93 Cobras have 24lb injectors, funky MAF meter, and a CRAPPY computer. They also have GT40 heads, a cast "Cobra" intake (ala GT40), and crappy cast "Crane" roller rockers. Many of these rockers failed - at a show once I spoke to a cluster of Cobra owners, 3 out of 5 had valvetrain issues with the rockers. So, if you've buying a complete car for this buy say a 91, I think it'll have trans upgrades in it too. Dump the pistons for new forged ones as the "low tension" oil rings will likely be shot or soon to be. The cam will be good but there are cheap upgrades available everywhere. Port a nice cast "Cobra" intake, put on some shorty headers, use some nice aftermarket aluminum heads, use a 65mm TB, and maybe get a slightly bigger MAF. Figure 300+HP is a cakewalk. You might need 24lb injectors, not 30s unless you run a blower. 30lb injectors aren't needed on a stockish 302. I used them on my turbo 302 and it was perfect - 450hp with room to spare. I didn't use a rising rate fuel regulator like Vortech and others use - that's crap. I've got 42s on my blown 351W now and I think I went too big (sigh). I've talked to guys running higher fuel pressure making over 500HP on 30s, I think I should've gone with 36s. Do NOT go too big - you will regret it. Also note that changing injectors in a Ford by going with a recalibrated MAF is a bad way to do it. It changes the load maps in the computer and screws up timing. A chip is the best way to go for this. ProM won't mention this little fact and most Ford guys don't realize it. The EECIV is an awesome computer....

Look through one of thenew Motorsport catalogs - Ford is selling a stroker "crate" over the counter If memory serves it's 396 cubes. Talk about simple!

Not good for anything? Oh man - with a blower they make gobs of power and they spin REAL high too. A high revving car is a blast to drive - my RX sees damn near 8K on a regular basis Make more than about 450hp on the 4 valve and expect to replace rods and pistons. My friend pulled his motor after bumping the boost up to have forged rods and pistons put in. Sure enough two pistons were toast and he'd bent a rod - motor ran fine! He's also got a 2valve GT running aorundf with a blower that flat out flies - surprises Cobras all the time! I also have a hard time believing that the motor weighs as much as a 460. The Cobra block is aluminum for kripes sakes! Big yes, heavy no. Given a choice between them I'd go for the 4 valve Cobra motor. If you want a great deal of power out of it you'll be wanting a blower though...

Bino, I think Glenn is right. 4 and 6cyl cars had the lower gears. Check the input shaft too - it might not be what you want for a V8. It can be copnverted I'll bet but you might be better off finding another. If you want to juggle ratios Bob Hanlon is th eguy I'd goto - he did my Tremec and was not only a really nice guy but he dissassembled that trans so fast it was scary! Diagnosed it right before my eyes. He sells all the stuff you'd need to make changes and the lowr gears DO indeed change the torque rating. The lower gears allow for more leverage on the interanal parts - hard to explain. This is the reaosn why some T56 are rated differently too, well part of the reason anyway.

Umm, it wasn't a "grease rag" - it was an old pair of cotton underwear used to mop up some coolant while the headgaskets were being changed - not that I know the guy or anything. The rag was pulled from the cylinder using a pair of forceps - lot's of LITTLE pieces (ahem). Yeah, he felt pretty stupid and catches crap about it from friends to this day. Live and learn! If you can find someone to build a stout motor for $4700 and like the deal - go for it. My motor had no distributor or carb but that price included shipping, a forged crank, Eagle rods, and forged pistons. Not a roller cam but the rockers are roller. IT was hand built by an engine builder who knows his stuff and builds motors every single day. Pete's run the numbers and I should hit about 425hp - a little less than I'd hoped. Oh yeah - that $4700 doesn't include the $250 special flywheel from Centerforce either. What I didn't know and what the engine builder found out the hard way was that the Eagle one piece cranks use the "normal" flywheels instead of the ones used on one-piece blocks OEM. So much for my saving money getting the stock flywheel with my trans. To the builders credit - they tracked down the Centerforce flywheel and sold it to me at their cost. They were very apologetic for not knowing about this beforehand but it was ME that specced the one piece deal so I feel I'm to blame. Builder was Keith Craft - they mostly build Ford stuff but a 350 SBC destined for their shop truck with my specs made 425 on their dyno. I asked for 450hp and I have no doubt they built it "right". If I were doing it over again I'd have used a 2piece block and seriously have considered a 406 Honestly, look hard at the ZZ4 and the "ZZ5" that comes with the hot heads etc. Yeah, it's not a 383 and it's got Hyperutectic pistons but it's got a roller cam, distributor, and water pump. It also makes more than 350hp! You might have to replace the dampner. You probably won't have to wait weeks for it either and it's got a warranty. That sucker is pretty much plug and play. I've heard some remarks about OEM crate motors to the effect that they're built on an assembly line yadda yadda (mostly by friends) as if this was a bad thing. Note that motors in all cars today are done this way and hit 100K pretty often. On the flip side - my friend's shop has seen brand new parts from Ford (motors), TFS (heads), and other name brand places show up put together wrong or just plain defective. I doubt that Chevy is any better. So, no matter what there's some risk. If I had to do it all over again I'd probably look closer at the ZZ4 but since my motor could very well end up with a blower I'm glad I didn't end up with the hyperutectic pistons

Ummm Cobra jet - woould that be a Cleveland motor? If so I'd shy away. Those motors do not have the large amounts of parts avaialble to them that the Windsor blocks do. Headers might be a pain and what trans will you run? An auto? Windsor Ford motors are damn near falling out of trees - 302s and 351s both! Grab a wrecked Ford Mustang 5.0 and just grab the motor and trans from it - EFI comes along for the ride too Just a thought...

Don't know what the amperage is but the JTR guys advise against it. Their only reason seemed to be the trouble you'd have to goto in order to build brackets and the potential cost if it went bad (shrug). If you can build strong secure brackets easily enough and don't want to spend cash on a new alternator go for it. Me, I'm going to buy something like a one-wire alternator and use stock type brackets. More expensive yes, but I won't have to fab or worry about it once it's done - I hope. To each his own!

Uses a rod linkage right? I think at least one of us has a 3speed truck trans in their car that might use a similiar linkage. I'd think that the linkage and tunnel interferance will be your biggest issue. I'd also check the length to make sure that it actually comes up someplace close to the stock shifter hole! If you're on a budget - I'd seriously look into a T5 instead. Aside from th eoverdrive you'll have no problems with shift linkage and not have to do funky stuff to get a clutch linkage in. There's hydraulic stuff available for the T5 and T56 which is what most of us are using. You CAN use a hydraulic TO bearing with the Muncie but I've got no idea how far that will drive costs upwards. Heck, lot's of people don't like T5s because they're thought of as fragile especially in cars heavier than ours - you might be able to work a trade with that Muncie...

Well, I'm afraid I have to agree. I had the DFI system and worked with it for well over a year - had a laptop in the car almost everyday. I'm not a rocket scientist but I'm not stupid either - I just could never get the car quite right. My biggest issue with the DFI was graphing all th edamned data and it's crappy samplig rate (grr). Excel is nice but try graphing things like a 6200RPM input along with a 0-1 volt A/F ratio - doh! TEC II appeals to me because some of it's features like MAF, knock sensor, and it's apparent ability to correct it's fuel maps after you've given it target A/F ratios. Wow, something that learns! The SpeedPro looks cool too - wide band O2, knock sensor (I think), and sequential as an option. The waste fire on the TEC might be nice too BTW. I dunno guys. I want EFI but I don't want to become an engineer. I'm having the SAME issue with my RX7 BTW (sigh). At least we can all support one another here, finding any sort of support for the DFI was hopeless 3 years ago.... Heh, at least this time I don't feel quite th epioneer! I'm not going to go EFI just yet so you all will be ahead of me. I look forward to hearing what comes of it I've been looking at EFI systems for about 4-5years now and not getting too far. It's nice to have some company at last! P.S. Over on the RX7 forums they're debating the Wolf in the ECU group pretty heavily. It might behoove us to check out some of their postings and what they've learned? http://www.rx7club.com/cgi-bin//Ultimate.cgi?action=intro&BypassCookie=true

For a 350cube motor or better I wouldn't run the T25s. They were actually marginal for my motor and should've been T28s to really work best (shrug). I won't argue that turbos are easier to turn up and down - that's true. Unfortunatly by the time you've bought and built your way into that setup I've already been driving my car and have cash leftover. For the HP ranges we're generally looking at with these street cars I just don't see the sense in spending that much cash. Really, what HP are we shooting for? I'm going to have around 400-450 or so on pump gas. With a blower I'd imagine an easy 600. Would I even be able to put that down? What about the rear axles? Car only weighs about 2500lbs or so right? To each his own but I'd like my critter to be simple, at least to start with. I'm trying not to bite off more than I can chew and finish this project so I can drive it. (shrug) A turbo introduces all sorts of fun things like heat, been there done that.

Mike - fuel level sender too? geez, wish I'd gone for that. Look forward to the pics - I might switch later on, especially if it can be filled through the license tag

Electromotive is just up the street from me Vastly more complicated and expensive but it IS darned capable! I don't know much about the SDS but if it's 9/10ths of what the Electromotive is power-wise and that much cheapersimpler I'd think it would be the smarter way to go. Heck, just look at the cost of SOFTWARE for the TECII!! It's darned awesome software though and the datalogging can really help you tune it (sigh). Got a copy here but I've not yet had time to load it up and check out all the features. Last I saw it years ago it was AWESOME and blew the DFI stuff into the weeds - just the graphing alone was enough for me to lust after it.

Heh, and wouldn't you just end up needing to strengthen the later chassis too anyway? I'm not too worried about saving weight myself, I'll build it stiff and strong, be under 3Klbs, and be able to handle most of the punks that pull up next to me just fine. Hope it handles well on a track too but 99% of th edriving will be on public roads (shrug).

Heh, yeah if the brakes are lockingup now then bigger brakes won't help. Sounds like only the rear locked up though - if that's true and the fronts just couldn't hang then an upgrade is great. FWIW - I've got the solid conversion on my front end. I didn't do it and I don't like it but it DOES stop fairly well. Not hard repeated stops mind you but a single panic stop would be just fine so long as I wasn't doing 100+ Mine will be coming off "soon" I hope so I'll be letting them go here cheap cheap. No spacers for the brakes near as I can tell...

Actually, if you've got deep pockets the 'Vette suspension is the way to go! Best of both worlds I'd think. If you're not into handling the live axle is fine but if you DO care about handling the IRS is noticeably better. I've driven both hard and it's more unnerving when the rear starts stepping out on a live axle (shiver). My .02

Take a look at the JTR books suggestions on manifolds. They angle mill the mounting flange in order to draw it in closer to the block - would that work perhaps? Trouble with long tube headers is ground clearance - you WILL be scraping them...

T5 could - for awhile. Tremec certainly could for a good long while. T56 forever T56 has a nice 6th gear for cruising with those short tires and short rear too... Yeah, I liek the T56 over the other two but budget is an issue as is weight and size. Either of th eother two would work but be careful with a T5 as it's the most fragile of the three.

Compression doesn't need to be dropped more than about to 9:1 unless you're trying to make 1000HP. face it folks - we can dreamwheel a ton of HP but look at the chassis we're using! Why do all that work and simply break things or never hook up? I DID run twin turbos, small T25s as a matter of fact and there IS a reason for having two of them, it can and will lag otherwise. It also makes exhaust plumbing easier to run duals. With two smallish turbos I had near instant boost and it made decent power for a stock bottom end. Really, for the kinds of power most of us are looking for a belt driven supercharger will work fine. Figure an easy 550 to 600HP without trying. Heck my mild 383 should make 425 on pump gas and I'd bet that a blower would get it to 600 pretty easy for alot less than turbos will cost. Been there, done that, loved it, but....

Welll..... I pushed 450hp through a bone stock 88 T5 in a Mustang for over a year. One day I really abused it, next day 3rd went. Bought a Tremec, shifts terrible even after a rebuild. I skipped straight to the T56 for this drivetrain. T5 shifts sweet. Switch to a Tremec and good luck powershifting 3rd - I could never do it. If you run a T5 just be aware that it can and will blow if abused too badly. Mine survived several trips to the track on good tires but I did take decent care of it. In a strong running car it wouldn't be my first choice but if it's what's in your budget by all means go for it - just realize it's limitations. Sometimes it's better to spend more and skip the downtime if you're going to abuse it enough to blow it...

To answer the question - do the Chevy it should still handle fine. If you do th eFord it may sit higher and you'll be having to custom make the mounts - plus you'll likely end up with the T5. If you do the SBC it's pretty well documented and can use the T56. Set it way back in the chassis and you should be fine for handling with nearly 50/50 weight distro. The LS1 swap isn't as well documented and this is one swap I woldn't want to engineer myself. Do an LT1 or older style block, it'll make power and be just fine - plus cheaper.

Hey now - it works for V8s too ya' know My hangup with it is that I'm used to "more sophisticated" stuff and want data logging. Okay Okay - without data logging there's nothing to hook my laptop to and tinker but still.... Heh, the SDS is supposed to be fine for most normal stuff. I'm just not very knowledgable about it and can't help but wonder how well it would work for me. don't want to be a pioneer just yet. Carb first, EFI later.

Hadn't thought of the added weight. Just go with the 11+inch rotors - the difference will be awesome I'm sure. I've got the Toyota stuff - the crappy solid rotor too - and I think it stops darned well. However I've also got one of Mike's kits just waiting for me to get started turning wrenches. Hope to get more room in the garage soon and get started before it gets too freaking cold out there. For the cost - go with the smaller rotors, it'll be all you need. I just wish I'd sprung for the pretty Outlaw stuff Guess maybe I'll paint the calipers or maybe polish them perhaps.