1966 Ford Mustang, Ford 3.7L v6 Cyclone Swap

I was on the fence until I found this thread. Now I am two legs on one side

@Wicked93gs The most informative post was your 1/12/21 reply to @bruinsfan27 on page 3 about engine mount, suspension and steering:

The entire swap would be far easier for someone using a Mustang-II type front suspension(or some other suspension that uses a front-steer rack and pinion and removes the shock towers), it would allow the engine to drop ..., allow the use of factory exhaust manifolds, ... issues with the strut tower braces not clearing the factory intake manifold ... you definitely do NOT want to leave the strut tower braces out ...

I have 2 questions for going with "removing the shock towers", assuming "shock tower" is "strut tower":

1. Wouldn't that also allow stock intake manifold to fit without cutting the hood?

2. With stock intake, what would you build as reinforcement to replace the strut tower braces?

Thanks

Shudda asked earlier- 

What transmission are you using? Looks like a MT, but out of a Mustang? Or pickup? Think a WC T5Z would screw to the engine?

Thinking about the same swap in a 76 Capri- originally came w/ Cologne V6, built a 4.0 OHV for it, but then started thinking about a 4..0 OHC, then the Duratech 3.7. What is the distance between shock towers on the Mustang- the Capri is Mac Strut, and the vertical walls of the engine bay are a similar distance from firewall to core support

Any advice for someone thinking about it?

mc7eln said:

I was on the fence until I found this thread. Now I am two legs on one side

@Wicked93gs The most informative post was your 1/12/21 reply to @bruinsfan27 on page 3 about engine mount, suspension and steering:

The entire swap would be far easier for someone using a Mustang-II type front suspension(or some other suspension that uses a front-steer rack and pinion and removes the shock towers), it would allow the engine to drop ..., allow the use of factory exhaust manifolds, ... issues with the strut tower braces not clearing the factory intake manifold ... you definitely do NOT want to leave the strut tower braces out ...

I have 2 questions for going with "removing the shock towers", assuming "shock tower" is "strut tower":

1. Wouldn't that also allow stock intake manifold to fit without cutting the hood?

2. With stock intake, what would you build as reinforcement to replace the strut tower braces?

Thanks

Sorry, been a bit since I logged in here. Its a shock tower, not a strut tower....since classic mustangs do not use struts...they use a shock inside a coil spring(strut setups generally do not have an upper control arm, only a lower control arm).

1. The problem with the stock intake manifold is not the height...its the fact that the way it "sags" over onto the passenger side of the engine prevents you from triangulating shock tower bracing from the center of the cowl to the shock towers. If you are working with a set up that does not use shock towers(IE a Mustang-II type suspension) then you may have enough leeway in the design of your bracing that the factory intake manifold will not interfere. I have since installed a MII front crossmember(though I did not remove the shock towers) as a hanger for the steering rack for my front-steer conversion using a modified MII rack....it does not provide enough room to drop the engine significantly lower than the original setup(maybe 1/2"?).

2. If I just had to use the stock intake manifold....what I would do is use some type of engine bay gusset instead...similar to what the Miata uses:

The funny thing is that the Miata v8 sway guys actually remove these gussets for their swaps:

Of course, designing a gusset that will connect where you need it to(from the cowl lip to the shock tower area) might be a bit tricky...but it could be done(think something like the Miata gussets but at the top of the engine bay).

twentyover said:

Shudda asked earlier- 

What transmission are you using? Looks like a MT, but out of a Mustang? Or pickup? Think a WC T5Z would screw to the engine?

Thinking about the same swap in a 76 Capri- originally came w/ Cologne V6, built a 4.0 OHV for it, but then started thinking about a 4..0 OHC, then the Duratech 3.7. What is the distance between shock towers on the Mustang- the Capri is Mac Strut, and the vertical walls of the engine bay are a similar distance from firewall to core support

Any advice for someone thinking about it?

I am using the manual MT82 6-speed. There is nothing wrong with the transmission once you address the poor OEM shifter assembly(I am using a Barton short shifter assembly that mounts the shifter to the trans rather than the unibody). That being said...6 speed transmissions are gimmicks for those of us who do not consistently drive 150MPH+...a T5 would be a good choice...or a T4 for that matter...but to get either of those to work you would have to make an adapter plate. I am sure it could be done fairly easily, but since the 6-speed bolts up from the factory, I didn't see any reason to do it myself.

You would not be the first to swap the 3.7L into a Capri, it will fit:

https://www.classic-ford.org/cfp/tm.aspx?m=47008&mpage=4

This guy used an early VCT(not Ti-VCT) version of the engine. I am not sure what he used for a transmission....but he could likely have gotten away running a Mustang oil pan...I don't think there was a RWD version of the engine in existence when he did this swap.

Random update here: I decided I hated the GT-style instrument cluster(its sticks out an inch from the dash and is made from plastic, it had to go) so I cut up some scrap steel and broke out the welder. The gauges will be recessed and mount from behind the panel(hence the gauge cup assembly). There is still a lot of work to go though. I estimate I will have 40-50 hours in the piece by the time I am finished. I based it off the 6-cylinder cluster which actually follows the curve of the dash(but is still made of plastic). I go to extreme lengths in this car to eliminate as many hard plastics as possible. There are a few left I don't have much choice but to deal with, but not many

In reply to Wicked93gs :

nice work on the instrument panel!

Making bezels from schedule 40 aluminum pipe. I used my wood mini-router to bevel the inside and outside and the little HF tabletop wood bandsaw to back-cut back-cut them to the face plate before some sanding. After I finish the last large one(or rather re-do the one large one and make another) the plan is to polish the bezels up to the end of the bevel inside(and all the outside) use panel bond or JB weld or something to attach them to the panel, sand and fill the inside of the well before painting it black right up to the end of the inside bevel. I actually plan to use vinyl on the face. I have some bedliner-like testured vinyl wrap...will either be that or real vinyl cloth:

I tried just bending the bexels to the face of the panel first...but it resulted it too much bezel distortion.

I like that.  Nice work.

Bezels all cut now. Time to move on to polishing and attaching them. What is the best way to attach them to the steel? I would go with JB weld for something like this...but its too much of a liquid and seems like it will leak out onto the concave panel face where it will be virtually impossible to clean up once it sets(dont care if it leaks into the wells since the wells will require more grinding and sanding and filling anyway)

Not sure if this would work for you, but it's incredible stuff:

Back when I was building scale R/C helicopters I was introduced to Aeropoxy:  BVM Aeropoxy

It's a two part epoxy designed for aircraft use and it doesn't run... stays where you put it.  It has a long cure time  (24+hours), but it's incredibly strong and durable.  I've used it to bond fiberglass to wood, fiberglass to aluminum, both to carbon fiber, aluminum to plastic... I've never tried it steel to steel, but I have no doubt it would work.

It's a standard Hysol product sold under their brand name, but it's not really cheaper anywhere else and their applicators work pretty good.  I've lost the info on the Hysol #, but that shouldn't be too hard to find.

It would have to be painted if visible, as it's kind of a tan color.  Here's a pic of where I used it to support the cracked dash in our track Miata by bonding aluminum tabs to the underside of the hard plastic dash.  6 years of track use later and it's still going strong.

I would use flexglue. It applies as a caulk consistency, and once dry is very strong.

Whatever I use has to be sandable and paintable, otherwise some silicone would work just fine. In the end though it will end up filling small gaps here and there inside the wells(inevitable when doing this by hand with all the angle changes involved)