Newbies Considering a V8 Swap, Looking for Advice

I will join the negative chorus.

For a novice....this is a big project.

16 year old: Just keep the car the way it is and learn all the lessons of owning/driving a 50 year old car in small doses.

 

When the 250 was introduced in 1969, Ford claimed to 50 mph it would accelerate evenly with a 302. Of course the 302 was stock 2bbl with asthmatic single exhaust. A properly tuned Explorer 5.0 with headers & clean exhaust will annihilate the stock Mav, Mustang, Torino, etc 302.

 

Chuth
Is the maverick on your profile page your sons? If so thats a really sweet maverick.
We've all started wrenching at one time or another and had our pitfalls. We're steering you in the right direction.

If your son is interested in wrenching on a car that is really great! A better project would be a mid 90's civic or similar. More suited for his era. He can learn brakes, suspension, tuning, etc.... Engine and tranny swap aint that bad either with plenty still in junkyard. If he really gets o
into it he can give bodywork a try. In 20 or so years and he still have his mav he'll say " sure glad my dad didnt let me hack my maverick up.

 

Yeah, the profile picture is my son's Maverick. He's having fun with it. We've been working on it as a father/son project. We've started with a front disc brake conversion, then rebuilt the carburetor, added a rear spoiler and grabber hood, tucked the rear bumper, new steering wheel and tachometer, made new door panels, installed new locks and ignition key. He wanted a FM radio, but didn't want to remove the original AM radio, so we built a console for the new radio and some additional gauges (still need to install the gauges). He's got a laundry list of other things he wants to do (front bumper tuck, black out the grille), but the V8 swap is at the top of the list. There's some rust issues we'll have to tackle at some point too.

 

Dang man!!!! Sooooo sweeeeeet!!!!
If you both did all that. You'll be able to pull off the swap. Your budget however!

Reminds me of a 68mustang coupe my father had with I6. That car was no speedfreak but simple and reliable.

Is your motor and car a match?

 

Have you considered gears? You probally have 2.79 or 3.00 in there already. Upgrade to 3.55 open would put a smile on your boys face.

 

Okay!!!!! What in your garage under the cover?

 

As far as I know the I6 is the original motor. We don't have a set budget yet. Just trying to get a handle on what it will take and then we'll decide if we want to move forward. I took a look at the cost of some crate engines and got sticker shock though. That's a lot to plunk down at one time.

 

I hadn't considered that. I like that idea. I honestly don't know what gears are in it now.

 

The car under the cover is a 62 Studebaker station wagon. It's got an I6 that I plan on keeping. The funny thing is that I've got a couple of spare rearends for the wagon with different gear ratios for just the swap you described above, don't know why I didn't think of it for the Maverick. I cobbled together a dual intake and dual exhaust for it several years ago from two stock manifolds (I had someone else weld it all together for me, I couldn't have done the welding), but haven't ever installed it yet.

 

"Newbies" :

For admitted novice mechanics', the existing inline 250 can really be woken up with available bolt-on parts and an opportunity to get familiar with basics.

Anvil strong 250's shouldn't be discounted as performance capable. From simple modern ignition and fuel upgrades to turbo's and wild cams , the small block six is a great platform for inexpensive performance upgrades.

Yawning past 350/350 and 302/C4' hotrods from foxbodies to lightweights', performance six cars get a lot of mechanics attention in my experience.

have fub

Maverick 250's:

. . .


some performance SIX parts:

https://www.vintageinlines.com/

 

I don't think this 16 y/o is trying to ..."get a lot of mechanics attention"...LOL

 

It looks to me that you guys have the internal drive to pull off the swap....just do a ton of research, make an exhaustive list of parts needed, check it twice, check it again. Collecting parts as you go, if much of it will be used parts, will enable you to shop for bargains. More money gets spent when you cant bargain hunt. Being patient is your friend, and is a good life lesson as well as building the car together. Kudos to you both.

 

That's a clean Maverick. If it were mine, I'd have to V8 swap it...

 

TeeEl,
What motor do you have in yours?