i am currently looking at buying a 1970 maverick, the only problem is that it has a 6 cylinder. how hard would it be to put in a v8? i've heard that you have to strenghen the front end. is this correct? how hard is it to do that if it is needed? thanks.
run a few searches on v8 swap. there's tons of posts about it. i wouldnt let it stop me from buying the car though if its in otherwise good condition or cheap enough. good luck
that sounds like a pretty good deal then. if the body is nice i wouldnt let its having a 6cyl under stop me from buying it. it might actually be a 69.5 model too
even though the 6 cylinder probably isn't a powerhorse can i still get it to sound decent with a new exhaust?
I agree... an engine is just an engine. Much easier to swap a V8 into an otherwise nice car, then to restore an entire rough car with V8 in it already. Do a search. You will find all the info you need.
you can put a dual out header on it and run dual exhaust and it would probably sound pretty good. they can make pretty good power regaurdless. your not gonna have any problem keeping up with traffic or anything if thats what you think. i swaped a bigger carb on to mine and its doing pretty well with it. i can roll up on ricers and crap and take em down with my 6
The 1970 Mavericks (with six cylinder) in show condition are worth over $10000! Since they didn't come with V8s the value of the car will drop on the collector market. I'm not a collector and will probably never own a car that will show as "pure stock" but I thought I should let you know in case it was important to you. Paul
There is nothing you need to "strengthen" in the front to put a V8 in a 70. I did my swap 34 years ago and I've never even had a belly bar on it. Because of the added weight it's a good idea to put the larger V8 brakes on it. I ran mine for a while with the 4-lug, 9" drum brakes all around and the 7 1/2" rear. The 3-speed manual trans is the same as the V8s came with. When I finally got an 8" rear I tried to break the 7 1/2" just for fun. Couldn't do it.
Hi, and welcome! I did the V-8/C-4 swap with my '70. It came with a 200 six and 3-on-the-tree. All I used was: 1.) frame-rail "belly-bar" (not an absolute necessity, but, the holes were already there and Ford included this on their other V-8 Mavericks, so, they must have thought it to be a good idea, too) 2.) motor mount-to-frame brackets (also, got re-manned rubber insulated motor mounts from the local auto parts store) 3.) double-hump transmission cross-member (also, not a necessity, but, this way, the exhaust pipe on the driver's side doesn't have to be kinked to maintain ground clearance) A few things to note: keep all the fasteners you pull off the donor-car b/c even though you may not want to use them, you can match up the new fasteners length/size. The '70 Maverick has a narrower tranny tunnel than later years, so, while the C-4 will fit, you might have clearance trouble with after-market shifter cables (I do). A more powerful engine needs a better radiator, so, you might want to snap up a V-8 radiator from a donor-car, too, and have it inspected for rust/leaks. Everything was a bolt-on procedure for me... no surprises. All the bolt-holes for everything were already there. Because of the added power and weight, for safety, I swapped in a set of '74 manual front discs. The '74 spindles bolted right up. Only a minor mod for the rubber flex line mounting bracket, new master cylinder, and new proportioning-valve were necessary. Good luck and happy wrenching! Eric P.S.- like the other guys noted, check the V-8 swap articles for the details
