During my daily travels around CL I found this 85 Mustang GT: http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/4245460502.html
The thing that isn't clear to me is if it has a 5.0 engine or not. It's obviously a V8 (duh) but it doesn't have the 5.0 badge on it. So is it a 5.0?
I also read that there was a Saleen body kit available- is this it? My Google-fu is proving indecisive....
All Foxes have the 5.0 if they have a V8.
A few SN95s had the 5.8
That appears to be a factory GT
Wow, that was fast!
Thanks for the clarification. I always thought the 5.0 was special, and hence identified by the 5.0 moniker.
Yep it's a 5.0.
And it's the last year for carburetion.
I think it was still called a 302 at that point. I don't think it went to the metric system until 1986...
No problem, if you want to check it out, my Challenger is in here as a build thread.
If you do buy it, the first thing you need to do is weld in frame rail connectors.
Check under the seats for cracking as this is where the lack of strength shows
Build thread
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/86-mustang-challenger-build/41304/page1/
Is that an ASC McLaren steering wheel?
Negative. That was the wheel that came with no cruise control. The AOD cars had less HP and CFI. Nice clean stock looking car!
Ahh, all I could find were wheels that looked like this:
That's a cool wheel on the car!
Aussiemg- thank you for the link!
I read the first three pages, and I'm starting to think a fox body is beyond my current skill set. That seems like a lot of work to make it corner properly! Maybe that's why I've always shy ed away from the American V8s.
I would love how to make it work, but all I have is some self taught skills and the interweb. A project like yours would take me ten years to finish properly!
aussiesmg wrote: Build thread http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/86-mustang-challenger-build/41304/page1/
paranoid_android74 wrote: Wow, that was fast! Thanks for the clarification. I always thought the 5.0 was special, and hence identified by the 5.0 moniker.
they started putting 5.0 badges on them in 84, i think. same year they started with the Holley 4 barrel carbs that they used until about halfway thru the 86 model year... the badge just means "hey, look, this car has a 302 cubic inch V8 under the hood"...
aussiesmg wrote: All Foxes have the 5.0 if they have a V8. A few SN95s had the 5.8 That appears to be a factory GT
Just to clarify, "All Foxes have the 5.0 if they have a V8" isn't exactly accurate. In 1980-82, a 255ci Windsor V8 with a thundering 115hp was offered in the Mustang and other Fox platform variants.
In reply to paranoid_android74: Not everything has to be done to that extent, keep it a driver and upgrade one piece at a time.
Aeromoto, I did not know that thanks
aussiesmg wrote: All Foxes have the 5.0 if they have a V8.
Except for the '79, which had a 302 (it's different enough), and '80-81, which had the 255 and you were supposed to buy the turbo 2.3 if you wanted a performance Mustang. That went over so well that it lasted two whole years!
I forget if it was the Mustang GT or the Camaro Z28 where you could order a four or six cylinder engine as a negative cost option. I bet that absolutely nobody actually did this.
(Yeah, they made Iron Duke powered F-bodies. I've seen one in person!)
In reply to Knurled:
To be fair, the 3rd gen F body had a very low CoD for the era and it got great mileage with the duke.
A stock or nearly stock Fox Mustang like this could be worth more then the $1200 asking price. Since it's the last year for a carb V8 and the first for the roller engine. As for upgrading it just try to use later Mustang parts on it and you won't lose money on it and may even be able to sell it for more then what you have in it when the time comes.
These cars are like Legos, you take it apart, add different pieces, then do it over again all with parts you can source from your local pick n pull.
aussiesmg wrote: In reply to paranoid_android74: Not everything has to be done to that extent, keep it a driver and upgrade one piece at a time.
If it's a relatively solid car, it's worth a bit of effort.
Yeah, for an "average skill-set" guy like a lot of us, Aussie's build involved some pretty involved fabrication. There are two reasons for this...
1). It's a Challenge car, so creative solutions for readily-available upgrades need to be found.
B). It's Aussie, and he doesn't do things half-assed... He's a whole-assed kinda guy.
Fox-bodies can be made to handle quite well, and it's all just a matter of ordering the right parts off of the menu.
Knurled wrote:aussiesmg wrote: All Foxes have the 5.0 if they have a V8.Except for the '79, which had a 302 (it's different enough), and '80-81, which had the 255 and you were supposed to buy the turbo 2.3 if you wanted a performance Mustang. That went over so well that it lasted two whole years! I forget if it was the Mustang GT or the Camaro Z28 where you could order a four or six cylinder engine as a negative cost option. I bet that absolutely nobody actually did this. (Yeah, they made Iron Duke powered F-bodies. I've seen one in person!)
no Z28 ever came with anything besides a V8 of some flavor..
no Mustang GT ever came with anything that wasn't a V8 of some flavor...
in the late 80's and early 90's you could get a Camaro RS with a V6- it was kinda sorta almost a Z28 with a small engine- and you could get a Mustang LX with either a 4 cylinder or V8...
I knew a guy with a 4-cyl 3rd-gen Camaro. I always wondered why anyone would want a car like that, but I was pretty young at the time and never asked.
In reply to paranoid_android74: The truth is the opposite. These are VERY basic cars and the aftermarket has been highly developed for many years. Try Maximum Motorsports. I had thousands of open track miles on mine and enjoyed every second. If that car was here in Atlanta it would already be gone. You'll love it!
Detroit a salt state?
Torque boxes. . .
Torque boxes. . .
Did I mention to check the torque boxes???
petegossett wrote: I knew a guy with a 4-cyl 3rd-gen Camaro. I always wondered why anyone would want a car like that, but I was pretty young at the time and never asked.
i've only ever seen one 4 cylinder Camaro in person... and it was in a junkyard..
Ford sold a lot of 4 cylinder Mustangs- my mom had an 86 with a 4 cylinder and a 4 speed that i got to thrash on when i first got my license- but Camaro buyers just aren't 4 cylinder people like the housewives and hairdressers that bought the majority of Mustangs in the 80's..
novaderrik wrote: no Mustang GT ever came with anything that wasn't a V8 of some flavor...
Not quite - I believe there were a couple years in the early '80s where they had a 2.3 Turbo variant of the Mustang GT, before the GT Turbo received a bunch of upgrades and became the SVO. They were about as quick as the V8.
The 20th Anniversary '84 GT, aka. GT350, replete with cease and desist letter from Caroll Shelby (resulting in it being only one year) was available with either the turbocharged inline 4 or the 5.0 liter H.O. Halfway thru the model year they came out with the SVO.
Ford went back to plain old GT for '85 with both engine options (Turbo I4 and H.O. V8) and keeping the SVO.
Ford dropped the regular turbo I4 GT option in '86, leaving only the now detuned (due to fuel octane requirements) SVO for a turbo option and costing $4000 more than the GT which led to the SVO's demise for '87.
The 1985 is sought after due to the fact it was the last year of carburation and first year of roller cam.
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