Henry Rifle Forums

I bought this 1985 Mustang LX 5.0 coupe new in June 1985 and it's always been my little project car.

Building engines as a hobby for over 30+ years for myself and a few others,I built up a 427 cube SBF based on the Dart block back in 2010.
This was my last final build and still running strong today. A mild build with 10.3 compression and hyd. roller cam I had it on a chassis dyno this past summer where it put down 490 HP and 505 Torque at the wheels at a modest 5800 RPM.

Intake is something I came up with featuring dual mechanical secondary 660 Holley carbs.

With a 5 spd trans and 2950 lb. weigh with me in it....it can be an exciting ride!

I bet that sounds superb when it's angry.

What Les said

RP

Smoke em!

Cool that you have had it that long. And done so many mods to it. Great story.

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Not a fan of that era of Mustang. Out of the factory they were Pinto wimpy. Very nice sweet job you did on correcting Ford's mistake!

fortyshooter wrote:I bought this 1985 Mustang LX 5.0 coupe new in June 1985 and it's always been my little project car.

Building engines as a hobby for over 30+ years for myself and a few others,I built up a 427 cube SBF based on the Dart block back in 2010.
This was my last final build and still running strong today. A mild build with 10.3 compression and hyd. roller cam I had it on a chassis dyno this past summer where it put down 490 HP and 505 Torque at the wheels at a modest 5800 RPM.

Intake is something I came up with featuring dual mechanical secondary 660 Holley carbs.

With a 5 spd trans and 2950 lb. weigh with me in it....it can be an exciting ride!

Well the 1985 era 302 wasn't too bad in those light Mustangs. In stock shape with it's 585 Holley carb it ran mid 14's at 96 MPH after a my carb tune and the "dealer installed" 3.73 gear which I had them do when car came in off the truck. This about equal to the 340 Dodge Dart GTS and 340 Dusters.
Later the Ford iron GT-40 cylinder heads which came out in the early 90's plus the famous B303 cam where added along with headers and 4.11 gear put it into the 12.60's at 108-109 MPH.
Then in 1995 a 351 Windsor with a built up C4 three speed auto where installed and resulted in a nice 11.50 @ 120 ride which lasted until the 427 went together and back to a 5 spd TKO-600 trans. Result was a nice easy 10.80 ride @ 131 mph with just a 3.50 gear.

Anyway here's a little rumble! https://youtu.be/PiikhPPEp6Q

nicely done .... nicely done indeed .... my rebuild project was a 1978 Jeep J10 with 360 V8 .... kept that truck as a daily driver for 24 years, rebuilt the motor twice .... my rebuild was nothing compared to yours .... really nice to see a carburetors again

Wow! You just took me for a hell of a trip down memory lane. I had a Jalapena Red '85 LX sedan back in the day...B303, ported e7s, Weiand Stealth with a 4776 Holley, 3.73s, etc. On street tires of the day, 2nd gear roll-ons were a hoot. I ran mid-low 13s with it at 106-107 on those tires. I wanted into the 12s so bad, but my 60' killed it every time...just needed some better rubber. That car was "the one that got away"...of all the cars I've had over the years, I miss that one the most. Good times.

Thanks for posting...I'm going to have to look for an old picture of mine and see if I can scan it into the computer.

Nice job on the pony car fortyshooter. Sounds like it really scoots! I'm a Ford guy for the most part. Used to have a '69 2+2 . Was one of my favorite cars. Have had trucks for most of my life though and can't afford a sports car/muscle car in addition. My solution is my '99 Lightning that I still own. A little of both. Bought it new and only have 29,000 miles on it.

Well due to my Tremec TKO 600 trans getting stuck in 2nd gear from trying to make a quick shift into Reverse,a traffic emergency, I
have to pull the trans out. To fix the issue the center top cover has to come off so you can pry the offending shifter rail back to Neutral.
Not much fun when you figure the little things that have to be removed to let the engine tilt back like removing rear carb,fan shroud, and possibly the strut tower brace which sits over the distributor.

Removing the exhaust was easy since I use stainless steel band clamps!

fortyshooter, just wondering what kind of tranny fluid you run, and what would you recommend for a T-5?

Henry88 wrote:fortyshooter, just wondering what kind of tranny fluid you run, and what would you recommend for a T-5?

Well Tremec recommends the GM Synchromesh for the TKO trans and I found out that Pennzoil made it for GM so I use the Pennzoil Synchromesh.
2.5-3.0 qts. I believe.
Depends on the year of your T-5 and what type synchronizer material used.