Newbie: v8/manual swap?

289 - 351 cid Small Block Performance
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MarkW
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Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:33 pm

Newbie: v8/manual swap?

Post by MarkW »

Ok, so I'm BRAND NEW to the Comet world. I am considering the purchase of a 1963 Mercury Comet 2 door with the intention of building a 60s/70s stock car clone that will be used for a street driver/occasional auto cross/car show car... I would LIKE to find a path to a v6 or v8 swap with a manual transmission, suspension upgrades to handle the swap etc...

So my question is: is there a "known" plan for such a thing? ie: buy an 80s Mustang and swap over X Y and Z...?
I know this is asking a lot and I KNOW there are a million possible paths... I'm just trying to find out if this is a common thing to do with a common solution before I reinvent the wheel, so to speak.

Thanks all,
Mark

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Jims65cyclone
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Re: Newbie: v8/manual swap?

Post by Jims65cyclone »

Welcome aboard, Mark! I can't offer much advice on your question, but I'm sure there are some guys on here who can.
Jim
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lavron
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Re: Newbie: v8/manual swap?

Post by lavron »

Mark I don't know of a particular path either, I think it boils down to how much you want to spend. The advantage of the Comet is most mods done to early Mustangs will fit on the Comet, the main difference being the Mustang is wider between the front frame rails, there are things like the Mustang 2 front end conversion made for early Comets and probably would be a choice if you were wanting to put anything more than a small block in there and even that will be tight but the cars came with V8s so there are parts to swap it.

Really you can shove most any motor in there and there are a lot of different posts on this site showing what they did, most are pretty honest about the trials they encounter :lol: the Comet base, for the most part, remained unchanged up through 1965 when it switched to share the Fairlane platform in 1966, so any mods you see from 65 on back would likely be able to preform with little modifications.

Again your greatest resource is here and then any Mustang or Falcon sites, of course I can't answer if those other sites will be a friendly as here, really there are no dumb questions here, we will just make fun of you later when you start to figure it out :roll:

Good Luck,
Mike
Mike's build thread
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13058
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comethead
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Location: Palmdale, CA

Re: Newbie: v8/manual swap?

Post by comethead »

Check out Fred's (sassy) posts. He has a 90s Thunderbird SC V6 with a T5 5 speed stick in his nice 64.
He's a great resource for that swap.
If you wanted to go the stock Ford parts route for 63 you could use V8 motor mounts for 63-65 Falcon/Comet and 65 Mustang. Same thing. With those any 289/302 will bolt right in (stay away from the early "5 bolt" blocks because it will limit your trans choices)
I used 70s Maverick exhaust manifolds for a dual exhaust setup. Most use headers.

You can throw thousands $$ on suspension mods. Most 65-66 mustang parts will work.

Good luck

Joe
1965 Caliente HT- 289/4 speed
1964 Falcon HT- track car- 302/4 speed
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lavron
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Re: Newbie: v8/manual swap?

Post by lavron »

comethead wrote:You can throw thousands $$ on suspension mods. Most 65-66 mustang parts will work.
True that, the only thing you need to find to use Mustang stuff is the steering center link for the early Comet/Falcon I believe.

See Ya,
Mike
Mike's build thread
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13058
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MarkW
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Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:33 pm

Re: Newbie: v8/manual swap?

Post by MarkW »

Thanks for all of the input... but unfortunately the buy fell through.... I'll be back here if/when I can find another similar car...

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