Hi, I just joined yesterday, and I joined because I know basically everyone on here is a plethora of knowledge about everything Maverick and Comet, and I was wondering about upgrades that people would recommend for me. I've had this 77 Maverick for about a year, and its all stock, been rebuilt once, and it runs very well, and I was hoping to find a few suggestions on what to do to increase the HP a bit, not crazy, but just small things to do that will give it a small push. I'm going to be 18 in July so as you can expect I'm not able to do the large replacements that take thousands of dollars to do, but I'm just looking for a list of things to do for it from least expensive to most expensive. My friend who is into trucks suggested I find something similar to his FlowMaster so I can put a 4 barrel carb on, and I through about either replacing the original carb with a better 2 barrel since I know the stock "Variable Venturi" carb isn't the most loved Carb, and he also suggested replacing the Air Intake to make it run a bit better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to the site from northeast Ohio!!! First off, place your car in the Garage on this site with pictures and detail, we would like to see the vehicle to which we are making suggestions. Secondly, I would suggest the following items or their equivalent. Not a lot of money but big dividends. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-m08600vs/overview/ https://www.summitracing.com/parts/wnd-8020/overview/ Not sure what you mean by an original VV carb? Heaven forbid!!!
Something that would help make the motor feel like it has more get up and go is to change the rear gears to something like 3.50s, then you can hit up some swap meets and get your intake and carb and maybe a set of Hooker 6901 headers and go with some dual exhaust and then you would love the sound of the car
... might want to check and see what is in this 302...http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/1970-maverick-grabber.111718/ "a 302,2 barrel carb on a aluminum high rise intake,it would pull the front wheels off the ground,it had 540 rear gears."
Hi, thanks for the links! I'm not sure whether the VV was stock or not, if that's not normal than probably not, the guy put it on there probably to pass smog, and speaking of that, do you think that Carb would still pass smog? I just want to make sure I don't have to switch the 2 every few years. I'll post the pictures tomorrow in Garage when there's daylight. This is the part my friends told me to put on to help pass smog, what are your opinions? http://www.flowmastermufflers.com/s...ake=54&year1=1977&model=687&submodel=&engine=
Thanks for that, I looked up the headers you said, and maybe I could find them around. I also found the 3.50 gears, and I was going to ask how hard of a job that would be to replace them? I haven't done much car work other than on my brothers 66 Mustang and I've never done anything with a differential. Thanks for your opinion
I read through the post and that seems interesting, I wish I knew the exact carb it was, and I also wanted to know if anyone could tell me what the largest rear gears I could have are? I don't know the range of sizes so i was wondering how large and small they go. Thanks
You can just buy the center section with the gears already installed and would just have to pull the axles out and take the center section out and replace it with the new center section (not as easy as it sounds) but less technical than installing new gears and setting backlash and other adjustments. In this day of the internet plenty of info on how to do it with a little searching. As far as the gears that you probably have in the car now are 2.79, with going to 3.50 gears car will take off easier and quicker, down side is rpm will be a little higher at freeway speeds but within limits any gearing lower than that such as 3.80 (higher number is lower gearing) your rpms will be getting too high. Tire height also comes into play as a shorter tire will cause more rpm than a taller tire. The sky is the limit as far as gearing goes, you cant go much higher than the 2.79 but you can go way lower like 6. something which would be totally worthless except in racing the 1/8 mile. You want to stay between 3.25 and 3.80 IMO
Thanks in advance for placing your car in the Garage! I'm not familiar with your smog rules, however there are a number of owners of our cars in California. I don't believe they are having to modifying the original design of their vehicles to pass inspection i.e. catalytic convertors, VV carbs, etc. Hopefully a member on this site from California can offer some advice on how to proceed with your build. VV carbs were introduced by Ford after production of our cars ceased. They had an interesting design but were a pain to tune. Most people did not understand how they operated. As you indicated, they were an emissions and fuel mileage carburetor. How well does your car run with that carb?
Non A/C got 2.79 & A/C 3.00, no other choices... There was a Holley replacement for the VV that was smog certified(0-684 comes to mind), AFAIK it's long discontinued but pop up on ebay once in awhile... From what I hear the four bbl won't begin to pass visual, it'd fail even if was cleaner than factory specs... BTW welcome...
Okay, I posted it up on the garage, here's the link http://mmb.maverick.to/garage/1977-maverick.74/ And so far, I'm looking at all the links and it seems like this it what I'll be looking into getting One of these: https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/sum-m08600vs/overview/ One of these: https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/wnd-8020wnd\ Pair of these: https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hok-6901hkr/overview/ Might get this if I need it to pass smog: https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hok-6901hkr/overview/ And this if it's the correct one for my car: http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Ford-9-Inch-Third-Member-Assembly-Mini-Spool-31-Spline,60790.html If any of these are incorrect or if you have a better alternative please post it here. I may be pushing it with a 4 barrel carb for California, but if I can find a way to get past smog and keep these I'll be very happy, and if not, maybe I'll just switch my carb back to the VV for every 2 years for smog. Also to answer another question, my car runs very well, no problems anywhere no noises or anything, and for having the VV carb it's good, I have a good time with it and according to the guy I got it from (Who restored it) and my brother and friends (Who seemingly know everything about fords) it's in as good shape as it'll be with the current hardware. Also the 3.50 Gears aren't super expensive but since I know nothing of differentials I'll probably get the whole center piece like in the link above and put that in, even if it is a bit more. I'd rather spend a bit more and not mess up my car than spend less and not be able to drive for a while. So far I've already learned a bit thanks to everyone, and I hope to have even more advice and talk to all of you guys on here.
Unless you have a 9" that will not work for you. If it is a stock car then it is a 8". Also you can normally find a nice edelbrock 600cfm rebuilt for about $150. You can also find nice used intake manifolds for about $100. A lot of options for cheap power if you shop around.
I'm assuming you mean the 3.50 Gears? I don't know too much and I'm hoping to learn, and if that is the case would it be hard to get to 9" or is it a simple job?
