This swap is hot rodding at its finest. Same thing hot rodders have been doing since the beginning of vehicles. great idea in my book, huge power great weight savings. This car is going to MOVE! Much like the LS swap in a foxbody...... Lots of power, light, and a great suspension. The maverick has the same apeal...... ESP with this setup with a shock tower shave, tubular k member, huge power, caltrac rear suspension. Car in race trim my guess would be right around 28-2900 if still all steel. Don't get me wrong, I am a die hard ford guy, but you guys can not disagree the ls engine is more powerful and capable than the 302-5.0 block. Now if your talking the 351 block different story which I argue with LS friends all the time thats what it should be judged up against (but yet they still can laugh at the 351 in STOCK form from factory). LOL bring up the 305 to anyone who wants to bash the 5.0 vs LS fight. And normally I do agree keep ford with ford chevy with chevy, but there are situations where you come across a different breed for a lot less money and then in my book all bets are off. Guys the times are not far away where soon we will be seeing the NEW 5.0 swapped into anything that it will fit. They just need to be more readily available for the hotrodder without the price tag and that takes time.
I still think a wicked stroked out 351 to a 427, would be way cooler!!! Plus it would fit, with a lot less work.
I agree and and would be they way I would do it with that kind of checkbook, but with an AJE cross you can have whatever motor mounts you want. Trans member is pretty quick, theres really not much less work going the stroked 351 vs an ls1 in my book.
Eh, that says Patches... Frank, you put an LS1 in your Maverick? I'm pretty observant, I thought, but I missed that. That is pretty amazing. So the cat's out of the bag now, care to let us in on your secret project? What ya got there?
short story really... 10K...'05...5.3... ($700) carb. cam...carb intake...700R4 w/vett converter. took the car, motor w/trans attached to my friend Harolds shop. 4 hrs. later was on the way home... he made the frame stands for the stock 350 motor mounts, a crossmember for the 700R4, ran the exhaust and i bolted in the stock Maverick driveshaft w/700 yoke (no mod). I've had this same driveshaft behind an...AOD...C-4...T-5 and now 700... not bad for a half days work... I had good help... Mike,Earl and Jeff ...:Handshake ...Russ and his swap inspired it and all his help made it go smoothly...:Handshake ...Thanks Guys...Frank
The LS engines are considered by some to be High Tech Small block Fords. Nascar teams have slowly copied alot of the design aspects of the small block Ford such as Cylinder head layout,Block bore spaceing ect. and what Nascar teams develop often trickles down in to the production of factory stuff. I think the LS engine is a very well designed powerplant. We are going to see its popularity grow to the same level that the original small block Chevy did....and as a result ...we are going to see so many of them transplanted in to every type of vehicle you can imagine. And in my opinion it will become just as overdone and boring as the small block Chevy is. If a person wants an Ls Engine in a Ford I figure its their car their Money and their business. I can go just as fast as I will ever want to go ..reliably with Ford power that will bolt right in so I see no reason to switch. Small block FORD with LS heads....
Nice setup Frank. Sounds like that transplant went just as fast as putting another SBF in. Did u have to do any mods on the tunnel to get the 700R in? $700.00 was to gud a deal to pass on if ur in the market for a setup like that. Congratulations - hope to see it in Detriot.
Apparently you really can do anything you want with that Mustang II suspension... Good show, man. Not that it matters either way, but your choice of Chevy power doesn't bother me a bit. It looks to be quite well done, as every different personality Patches goes through has been. I just can't believe you went from planning this out to practically having it done without opening your mouth once on the forum. Man I can't even put a Ford engine in my car without a 26 page (and counting) thread about it, and I still haven't even heard it run.
no tunnel mods...had to notch and seetion the sump on the oilpan to get motor low enough for the...Grabber hood... to fit... ...Roundup reservations made...
as my "friend" Lance once said..."small block Fords are done to death." you will have to admit...there are a few Mav/comets with SBFs...
Hell I say go for it. It's different and cool. That sort of thing is what hot rodding was founded on. If I were to do it, I'd do the Mustang II front end conversion and get thos strut towers out of there.