Hey guys - I've been spending some time helping my son with a 5.0/5spd conversion on his 70 Mustang, so my Vette project has been taking a rest. He helps me a lot so I need to give back, even if it is on a mustang

We thought about doing the full EFI conversion, but at the end of the day decided to go old school. We'll start shopping for carbs and manifolds now, along with the other parts we need. Call me chicken, but I still like the old carb setups.

I bought a Donor car on Friday night for $400 - a 1989 Mustang LX convertible with a 5.0 HO motor and a 5spd (T5). We had a great day of wrenching together today. We pulled out the 5.0 motor and the trans. Everything looks real clean. The motor looks exceptional under the intake with no sludge or anything - as clean as it could be. The motor is now on a stand in the garage, the trans, bellhousing, etc is all separated and ready for cleaning.

I put the donor car on craigs list before we started this morning and by the time we finished dinner tonight I already had a guy wanting the rest of the donor car. He came out and bought it for $250 and towed it home already. We owned the donor for 48 hrs total, got the engine, trans, all accessories, etc.. and I kept the power buckets for my '38 Dodge biz coupe street rod project. At the and of the day it cost us only $150 and our time to pull the parts off the car. Not bad!!!

Here's some pics of our day:

 

Make sure you get a distributor drive gear from a carb car.
I don't remember exactly the deal because it has been a few years since I was messing with Stangs.
I don't remember if it is the drive gear or driven gear that don't match up when you go to a carb. You have to switch out the distributor because the EFI ones are computer controlled (I Think).

Search around on some of the Ford forums. I have CRS and don't remember all the specifics.

Good Luck!

 

Yes, you are right. And because the '89 has a roller cam the distributor has to have a steel gear. I have a guy (on another forum geared towards my son's car) that is selling me an '85 distributor and duraspark setup for $40.

We pulled off the valve covers about 10pm last night and it's clean as a whisle in there too. We have to swap to a front sump oil pan to in the '70 chassis. I think we really got lucky on this one. We'll see what the oil pan reveals, but I expect more of the same. I was also amazed that the flywheel teeth showed no wear at all, and there was still an original motorcraft starter on it. I'm guessing this motor may have been rebuilt or replaced by Ford recently. The donor car itself had 180K mi on it, but there wass no history on the car or the motor. And my wife is thrilled that the donor car only graced our side yard for 2 days