Whats up everyone Hopefully you guys can give me some ideas of where to go. Any and everyone can chime in. Looking to pick up an 73 comet. Looking to get into the 10's or low 11's the cheap route i got the hookup at the local junkyard and was wondering if you guys were going to try and run a car this fast on small tires what would you do. I got a set of 26x10.5 mt/et streets. I can get a hold of a 351 or a blown 306 but what would be needed to do ft end wise and rear wise. I've seen some guys still running the 8" rear. I know the ft end of a mav/comet is pretty weird and have no idea of what to do with them. I also have a t5 trans or can get a c4. Lmk what yall think. I could pull this motor and install it. Here it is in the car at the track
a 351w will fit with no mods but it'll be heck to change the plugs. i'd stick with the 302 and stroke it to 347. cam, heads, headers, should be in the 11's pretty easily. little more work in the 10's. my 308 has run 11.81 at bakersfield, with 40 pounds of added weight in the trunk. i prefer the M/T et drag radials, but the et streets are good. set of shocks on the front and skinny tires, some traction bars on the rear. 8" may be okay for a while. i prefer the 9". i have moser 33 spline axles and a full spool with 4:33 gears.
Pretty much what Don said. For the front, run some (or leave in) 6 cylinder springs and use a decent 90/10 shock. Remove the front sway bar to help with suspension travel. Skinnies always help with rolling resistance. You can notch the shock towers for some clearance, for plugs, if you decide to go with the windsor (do a search on "shock towers" for tech help). The 8 inch will handle 10's, with good internals. 10.5 is a wide tire for stock fender well and leaf springs. Do another search on "backspacing" to help your decision of that. Might have some clearance issues there. and the simplest speed secret.....weight! Get it as light as you can, which with these cars is fairly easy to get it around 2600 pounds (if its strictly drag car). Good luck!
I agree with everything above...one thing if you can do it is to put roller spring perches in the front and heim joint style strut rods. It really loosens up the front end. I did it with mine and a set of cut down springs and three way adjustable shocks. I can lift the front end a foot to a foot and a half with one hand now. Oh and I was pretty sure that the V8 and 6 cylinder springs were identical. I have two sets of I6 and one of V8 and cannot see a difference in number of coils, length or diameter. So unless it has something to do with the temper in the material, I can't find a difference...and yes I'm sure that the V8 springs are from a V8 as that is what my car was from the factory.
What's the width for a 9" to fit or the factory 8" width. What headers are you guys running with the 302's. Do you think my vortehc will fit under the factory hood. I've seen other fi setups and they look like it would work but i'm not sure.
Most guys run Hooker 6901 headers.'57-59 Ford Fairlane 9" rears are a real close match to the stock 8" dimentions.Can't say about the Vortech,but it should fit,looks like the battery would probably need to be moved though.
The factory rear end is 52 inches flange to flange. Find a chassis shop with a rear end jig and have them cut down a 9 inch.
what about using a 8.8 rear and using the bearing ends and brakes of your 8"?? this is how a friend did his in detroit
id go with the blown 302 that you have with a c4 trans. the 8.8 with the 8" ends as long as they are the biger ends that came on the v8 8" will work great. You can use the stock 8" axles in the 8.8 if the 8.8 is still 28spline. If have 31 spline then you can get 31 spline axles for 65 mustang that will work in that combination. on the rear suspension you can run caltracs bars and there leafsprings work really well. the sugestions on the front end are all what i would sugest also.
